Real People Profiles: Lee Boot

Wed, 16 Feb 2011 08:13:00 -0500
real-people-profiles

I’m asking some of the people you might encounter on the UMBC campus, including students, faculty, staff and alumni, to answer a few questions about themselves and their experiences. These are their responses.

Name: Lee Boot

Hometown: Baltimore, now, but grew up in Upstate NY

Q: How long have you been at UMBC?

A: Since the Fall of 2000.

Q: What is your current title (job or student organization position)?

A: Associate Research Faculty and Associate Director of the IRC.

Q: In 12 words or less, what role(s) do you play on campus?

A: I help bring research projects to the Imaging Research Center and work with other faculty, staff and students to carry them out.

Q: What aspect of your UMBC role(s) do you enjoy most?

A: That’s a tough one. I enjoy each part of the process for different reasons and in different ways. I enjoy the open-ended inquiry involved in asking how can we make this a better world because it gives me hope. I enjoy giving shape to proposal or plan because it makes an aspiration feel concrete. I love working with other people to see what they can bring to a project and I’m so often amazed at what those contributions are. Finally, I like making stuff. My education prepared me to be an artist and I don’t like to stray to far from that. Artists give form to ideas and are only satisfied when we feel we’ve done that well.

Q: What is the most important or memorable thing you learned in college/have learned at UMBC?

A: That’s a good question because it asks me to rate the value of the many things I’ve learned. I think that what I’ve learned is that institutionalizing innovation is a challenging and multi-faceted problem, and yet, progress can be made with an open heart, diligence and a strong focus.

Q: Complete this sentence: "I am a big fan of __________"

A: Fish. Catching them—eating them, watching them—all of the above. I likes me some fish.

Q: Do you have any UMBC stories, little-known facts about UMBC, favorite spots on campus, or anything else you’d like to share?

A: I like walking through the main corridor of campus, between those brick buildings with the trees in front of them. It is a kind of cloistered space that is quite beautiful. I like to imagine huge bronze relief pieces, celebrating what we care about most, on those brick walls. I can’t help it.