February 2020
A Newsletter for Legislative and Business Communities
USM Board of Regents Appoints Darryll J. Pines as President of University of Maryland, College Park
The University System of Maryland Board of Regents has appointed Darryll J. Pines, PhD, as the 34th president of the University of Maryland, College Park. Pines has spent 25 years on the College Park campus and is dean of the university’s A. James Clark School of Engineering. His appointment is effective July 1.
University of Maryland and Prince George's County Public Schools Announce Partnership Focused on School Improvement
PGCPS and UMD announced the Improvement Science Collaborative, a new institutional partnership that focuses on K-12 school improvement issues through a range of initiatives, including excellent school teachers and leaders, supporting efforts for school improvement, advancing teacher preparation programs and a new approach to connecting research to practice.
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UMD Science Major Wins Prestigious Churchill Scholarship
Senior Tanay Wakhare from the University of Maryland’s College of Computer, Mathematical, and Natural Sciences has been awarded a 2020 Winston Churchill Scholarship, which offers him full funding to pursue a one-year master’s degree at the University of Cambridge in the United Kingdom.
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Highlights
Universities, National Labs and Corporations Create New Alliance to Accelerate Maryland's Leadership in Quantum Science: The Maryland Quantum Alliance—a regional consortium of quantum scientists and engineers from across academia, national laboratories and industry—launched with an event in the House of Delegates Office Building. Led by UMD, members of this alliance will drive quantum science discovery and innovation, develop pioneering quantum technologies and train the quantum workforce of tomorrow for the state of Maryland, the region and the nation.
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University of Maryland Named a Top Producer of Fulbright U.S. Students for 2019-20: UMD was ranked among 45 top-producing research institutions in the nation. For the 2019-2020 academic year, 14 UMD students were awarded Fulbright grants, giving them the opportunity to conduct research, exchange ideas and contribute to finding solutions to important international problems.
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University of Maryland Recognized as a Recipient of the 2020 Excellence in Academic Libraries Award by the Association of College and Research Libraries (ACRL): The University of Maryland has been announced as one of three recipients of the 2020 Excellence in Academic Libraries Award by the Association of College and Research Libraries (ACRL) - recognizing the staff of a college, community college, and university library for programs that deliver exemplary services and resources to further the educational mission of the institution.
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Director of UMD Quantum Materials Center Receives $1.55 M Grant from the Moore Foundation: UMD Physics Professor Johnpierre Paglione has been awarded more than $1.5 million by the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation to study the complex behavior of electrons in quantum materials. The new grant was awarded by the Moore Foundation’s Emergent Phenomena in Quantum Systems (EPiQS) initiative.
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UMD Launches New International Fire Safety Consortium to Address Urgent Global Challenges: Led by five leading universities in fire protection engineering: the University of Edinburgh, Lund University, the University of Maryland, the University of Melbourne, and the University of Queensland the consortium will engage in research, education, and collaboration with industry, government, and non-governmental organizations to help inform policy and practice, protect property, and save lives.
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Disabilities Studies Minor Launched: Taught by Professor Peter Leone in the College of Education, UMD’s new minor explores the cultural, educational and medical roots of what it means to be disabled in the 21st century and serves as the program’s foundation.
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Dining Services Adds Appliances to Protect Students at Risk of Reactions: Each of the three dining halls now has a station labeled “Purple Fridge,” a self-service freezer, microwave and toaster dedicated to storing and preparing meals suitable for students with specific food allergies. Purple is the color designated by the organization Food Allergy and Research Education for dining facilities to indicate efforts to prevent cross-contamination.
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Research Impact
Two UMD researchers may have found a new way to fight malaria: Last year, the World Health Organization declared that the world needs new ways to tackle malaria, a deadly, mosquito-borne disease. Two University of Maryland entomologists — Raymond St. Leger and Brian Lovett — might have found one.
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UMD-led Study Named Most Impactful Paper Published in the Journal Science in 2019: The American Association for the Advancement of Science awarded its 2019 Newcomb Cleveland Prize to University of Maryland entomologists Raymond St. Leger, Brian Lovett and seven West African collaborators for their study of the use of a transgenic fungus to rapidly kill malaria mosquitoes.
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UMD & NOAA Research suggests Earth is Losing a Key Buffer Against Climate Change: The ocean’s capacity to continue absorbing carbon dioxide (CO2) from the atmosphere is diminishing, decreasing its usefulness as a buffer against climate change, suggests a recent study led by researchers at the University of Maryland and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. Their study, published in the journal Nature Scientific Reports, is the first to link modern observed pH data with modeled projections of CO2 emissions.
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Alumni Spotlight
About Delegate Alonzo T. Washington: Delegate Alonzo Washington is an alumnus of the University of Maryland, College Park. He graduated in 2007 with a Bachelor of Arts in Criminal Justice. He was elected to the Maryland House of Delegates in 2014 and was just named Vice Chair of the House Ways and Means Committee before the start of the 2020 Legislative Session. Delegate Washington is a life-long resident of Prince George’s County and a proud graduate of its public schools. His legislative priorities include reducing poverty, promoting a vibrant local economy, and achieving greater accountability for public schools in order to close the achievement gap. Delegate Washington currently resides in Greenbelt with his adopted dog, Policy.
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