Economist Virginia McConnell’s teaching and research reflect her interest in the intersection of urban and environmental problems.

“An Eye on Air Quality”
  

As a environmental economist focusing on transportation issues, Virginia McConnell knows a lot about cars and trucks – more specifically, the impact of policies to reduce air pollution through vehicle emissions regulations, inspection and maintenance programs, fuel regulations, emission taxes and land use changes. She became interested in the intersection of urban and environmental problems as a graduate student, and has taught and pursued research in these areas ever since. Her recent work is on differential fuel taxes for introducing cleaner fuels, and land use policy changes and their impact on air quality. She enjoys working on these projects with students in the Economics department�s new M.A. in Economic Policy Analysis. 

An economics department faculty member at UMBC since 1982, McConnell also serves as a senior fellow in the Quality of the Environment Division of Resources for the Future, where she works with other environmental economists on air pollution policies. She recently served on a National Academy of Sciences panel examining vehicle emissions policies, and is currently a member of several Environmental Protection Agency advisory committees.

 
Clinical Associate Professor of Education John Lee works with teachers enrolled in Project SUPPORT, UMBC’s urban teacher-training program.

“Teaching That Makes a Difference”
  

UMBC is a leader in assisting Maryland�s most troubled public schools through Project SUPPORT (School-University Partnership to Prepare Outstanding Responsive Teachers), a remarkably successful federally funded program that will ultimately place 1,100 teachers in Baltimore City and hundreds more in Anne Arundel and Baltimore Counties.

�Our school-university partnerships will break a tradition of neglect by recruiting, preparing, mentoring and retaining the high-quality teachers necessary to improve student learning and achievement,� says UMBC Clinical Associate Professor of Education John Lee, who heads the project.

The program is a win-win for public school students, their schools and UMBC�s urban teachers-in-training. UMBC�s teacher trainees receive tuition support for their master�s level studies and undertake apprenticeships with veteran teachers in the school system. By year-end, UMBC will have 150 urban teacher graduates.

In turn, the program�s public school partners are promised that UMBC teacher candidates will sign on for five years. As a result, teacher attrition in many of these schools is down. Moreover, in schools where UMBC has provided academic services, student achievement has soared.

 
Sari Bennett, director of geographic education, works with educators to strengthen the teaching of geography.

“The Power of Geography”
  

For more than a decade, Sari Bennett has worked with educators in Maryland to strengthen the teaching of geography in grades K-12.  “All too often students think of geography only as maps or the memorization of place names. We�re working to show teachers and students the power of geography in understanding the world around us.”

As head of the Maryland Geographic Alliance, an initiative funded by the National Geographic Society (NGS) and the State of Maryland, Bennett has provided professional development programs for more than 8,000 teachers, including summer geography institutes at UMBC. Currently, she has a Grosvenor Grant from NGS to produce CD-ROMs with interactive activities for students to learn and apply important geographic concepts. These CD-ROMs and related activities will be disseminated to elementary teachers throughout Maryland.

A geography department faculty member since 1974, Bennett is the director of the Center for Geographic Education. She also served two years as “Geographer-in-Residence” at the National Geographic Society.

 
Michael Summers, professor of chemistry/biochemistry, works closely with undergraduates in his Howard Hughes Medical Institute laboratory.

“U.S. Presidential Award for UMBC”
  

The usually casually dressed Michael Summers put on a suit and tie for the occasion–he was, after all, going to the White House to receive an award from the president of the United States.

Summers, UMBC professor of chemistry/biochemistry and Howard Hughes Medical Institute Investigator, accepted the 2000 Presidential Award for Excellence in Science, Mathematics, and Engineering Mentoring from President Clinton. He was one of 10 national recipients of the award. Administered and funded by the National Science Foundation, the award honors leadership in encouraging minorities, women, and people with disabilities to pursue careers in scientific, engineering, and technical fields.

Summers brings UMBC undergraduates into his research lab to work on unraveling the protein structure of the HIV virus, affording them real scientific research, and even publication experience. His guidance and encouragement of UMBC’s minority students interested in pursuing the sciences have proven pivotal in launching their careers: Summer’s recent UMBC grads have gone on to medical school and M.D./Ph.D. programs at Harvard, Yale, and the University of Pennsylvania.

This marks the second time in four years that the award has been brought home to UMBC–the university was honored for its institutional mentoring efforts in 1997. Summers brought back from the White House a commemorative presidential certificate, and a $10,000 grant. Well worth wearing a tie.

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“Probing Our Impact on the Environment”
  

A member of the physics faculty since 1984 and a 1974 UMBC graduate, Larrabee Strow is one of the chief scientists behind NASA’s $30 billion international Earth Observing System project. He developed a new satellite instrument, the Atmospheric Infrared Sounder (AIRS), and complex algorithms that will be used to measure climate change. The data collected by AIRS will be used by scientists around the world to better understand weather and climate change and by the National Weather Service and others to improve the accuracy of weather and climate models.

Strow’s work on the NASA project over the past 10 years is one of the most significant examples of UMBC’s emergence as a major research center for environmental studies.

In 2000, the University entered into a $75 million cooperative agreement with NASA/Goddard — the largest research partnership in UMBC’s history — establishing UMBC as the headquarters for the Goddard Earth Science and Technology Center, which studies the Earth’s surface, atmosphere, and oceans. The University also received $2 million in funding from the Environmental Protection Agency to create the Center for Urban Environmental Research, Education, and Training.

J. Lynn Zimmerman has been named a UMBC Presidential Teaching Professor, is the recipient of the UMBC Student Activities Outstanding Advisor Award and a Regents� Faculty Award for Excellence in Mentoring

“A Mentor of Many”

An accomplished teacher and mentor for countless students at UMBC, J. Lynn Zimmerman credits her parents for her love of teaching and its importance to her. �My mother was a teacher in a one-room school house in rural Canada,� says Zimmerman, a professor of biological sciences who was recently named Presidential Teaching Professor, 2001-2004. �The value of education was always foremost in our home.�

But, it was her father and his love of plants that would inspire her most. He was a nurseryman for the city of Detroit. And, �Although he wasn�t educated beyond high school, he taught himself the Latin names of every plant he ever found,� recalls Zimmerman.

The little girl, who �always had the best leaf collection in school,� grew up to discover a �love of plant biology,� earning her master�s degree at Wayne State University and her Ph.D. from the University of California, Irvine. Zimmerman came to UMBC in 1983 and her current research involves the development and thermotolerance of plants.

Besides being named a Presidential Teaching Professor, Zimmerman is the recipient of the UMBC Student Activities Outstanding Advisor Award and a Regents� Faculty Award for Excellence in Mentoring.

�Being a science professor in a research university is oftentimes a delicate balancing act to maintain an active and productive research program while at the same time devoting yourself to your students as a first priority,� says Zimmerman, who worked diligently to establish UMBC�s five-year-old Golden Key International Honor Society, which has been an international award-winning chapter three years in a row. �But it can, and must be done.�

 
Bea Bufrahi is a student in UMBC’s Imaging and Digital Arts Graduate Program.

“The Art of Educational Outreach”
 

UMBC’s Fine Arts Gallery has drawn upon the experience and energy of one of its graduate assistants in the design and organization of its educational outreach initiative for the current exhibition, “Fred Wilson: Objects and Installations, 1979 – 2000.” Imaging and digital arts student Bea Bufrahi ’01, who also worked as an undergraduate intern in the gallery and recently completed another internship with Baltimore’s Contemporary Museum, brought together a rich and diverse offering of educational experiences focusing on museums and their recent collaborations with living artists.

Students from Middle River High School, City College, Catonsville High School and McDonogh School engaged in a dialogue with museum educators from the Walters Art Museum, the Contemporary Museum and the Maryland Historical Society, and explored how museums are rethinking their collections and how the public interprets them. Special attention was paid to the Fred Wilson’s historic 1993 collaboration with the Contemporary Museum and the Maryland Historical Society in creating the exhibition “Mining the Museum” presented at the Maryland Historical Society. Students had access to the current collaboration project between the Walters Art Museum and the Contemporary Museum which features the artist Dennis Adams, who is re-interpreting the Walters Art Museum’s permanent collection through the re-fabrication and re-installation of sculptural artifacts and site specific performance.

Multi-site visits to all three institutions, guided tours of the Fred Wilson exhibition at UMBC, as well as intensive workshops held at all four schools allowed students to engage in group critiques of their museum and gallery experiences and ultimately create their own artworks which actively address the issues of presentation and interpretation.

The gallery will host a student exhibition of works created from this initiative in the Department of Visual Art�s Hallway Gallery during the month of December.

 
David Dalrymple, 10, is one of a group of gifted young scholars at UMBC.

“Gifted Young Students Find a Home at UMBC”

Compared to their classmates, they’re a little short, and their voices a bit high-pitched, but otherwise, they’re very comfortable as UMBC students pursuing their undergraduate degrees. They are UMBC’s Young Scholars–some, like David Dalrymple, are only 10 years old, others in their early teens–but all are academically gifted and ready for college-level classes. And they are drawn to UMBC as a place that makes them feel welcome.

“UMBC is developing a reputation–quietly, and by our actions–as a good place for these academically talented kids to come,” explains John Martello, vice provost for community partnerships and executive director of the Shriver Center. These exceptional children have often been home-schooled and are referred to UMBC by guidance counselors or organizations like Johns Hopkins’ Center for Talented Youth. “They’re referred to us as an institution that has a high-quality, low-cost program, and is supportive and welcoming,” says Martello, who notes that UMBC has a solid track record thanks to years of experience by Associate Director of Scholarships Bobbie Shahpazian, who has helped UMBC’s “precocious youth” find their footing.

Young Scholars takes a purposefully informal approach–there are no dorms for the youngsters, as most still want to live at home–and no specially structured curriculum. “They don’t really need or want special academic support, but we help them navigate through the University,” says Martello.

One problem that often arises, but corrects itself: Professors who might be initially skeptical about the ability of a nine-year-old Young Scholar to keep up in a college math or physics class “become converts after the results of the first exam,” says Martello.

 
Tracy Tucker ’00 is a special assistant to Lieutenant Governor Kathleen Kennedy Townsend.

“A Political Insider”

History and political science major Tracy Tucker ’00 understands the value of the internships and connections that an honors university can provide. A Humanities Scholar, Tucker participated in UMBC’s Legislative Affairs Internship Program, interning with Maryland State Senator Thomas Middleton. “It was exciting to have such an insider’s view of how our state government works,” she says.

Tucker was also one of only 20 students throughout Maryland chosen to participate in the Governor’s Summer Internship Program, coordinated by UMBC’s Shriver Center. She interned with Lieutenant Governor Kathleen Kennedy Townsend’s office, an experience which led to her current position as a special assistant to the lieutenant governor.

 
Manil Suri, a professor of mathematics, has received national and international acclaim for his first novel, The Death of Vishnu.

“Death” Sparks a Writer’s Life
 

For UMBC mathematics professor Manil Suri, it was a publishing debut that brought him attention in a host of national newspapers and magazines, including The New Yorker, Time, the Wall Street Journal, and the front page of The New York Times Book Review. There was also a book tour that took him across the United States and back to his native India, where the audience included many members of his family. There are 19 editions of his book worldwide that have appeared or will appear in the United States, the United Kingdom, and in translation in a host of countries in Europe as well as in India, Israel, Turkey, and Japan.

All this hoopla was not about Suri’s work in the numerical analysis of partial differential equations–his area of research expertise. It was the publication of his first novel, The Death of Vishnu, that set the critics ablaze. In a plot that weaves the stories of the apartment dwellers who come upon Vishnu, the building’s handyman, dying on the stair landing, Suri constructs a microcosm of Indian society that is both rich and comic. To read more, visit www.manilsuri.com.