UMBC senior track and field student-athlete Anjayooluwa “Jayo” Adegboyo, biochemistry and molecular biology, was named the 2025 Arthur Ashe Jr. Male Sports Scholar of the Year by Diverse: Issues in Higher Education magazine. The publication sponsors the Arthur Ashe Jr. Sports Scholar Awards to honor students of color who have excelled in the classroom and on the athletic field and demonstrate a commitment to community service and student leadership. Adegboyo was chosen from among 700 nominated student-athletes in the country for best exemplifying the standards of scholarship, athleticism, and humanitarianism.

Adegboyo is a sprinter in track and field. He is a member of the bronze-winning 4x400m team that set a new school record during the 2023-2024 season. He also posted the second fastest time in school history in the 400 meters at the America East Conference Championships.

Off track, he volunteers at the University of Maryland Medical Center’s Trauma Resuscitation Unit and the Howard County Food Bank. He also serves as a mentor to younger peers in the chemistry, biology, and physics departments and conducts research to investigate how metabolic nutrients arrange inside cells to discover markers for cancer cells versus normal cells.

“Since his arrival to UMBC, Jayo has brought his dynamic approach to his athletic and academic experiences,” said UMBC head track and field coach David Bobb ’02. “Jayo’s fun-loving personality disguises his relentless pursuit of excellence, and that combination makes him an obvious asset.”

As you may have already received an email or have otherwise heard, the U.S. National Science Foundation (NSF) issued a Dear Colleague Letter that stated Principal Investigators and co-PIs named on an NSF award made after 5/20/24 must certify on an annual basis in research.gov that they are not part of a Malign Foreign Talent Recruitment Program (MFTRP).  Individuals who are party to an MFTRP are not eligible to serve as senior/key personnel on an NSF proposal.  Furthermore, all federal grant funding agencies have similar provisions that prohibit key personnel from participation in an MFTRP.    As of the date of this notification (6/6/2025), UMBC has not received nor had an opportunity to review the actual question that is being asked by NSF in this disclosure requirement.

This new directive from NSF should have very little impact on the UMBC research community as UMBC implemented a question regarding MFTRPs into the Kuali COI disclosure process over a year ago.  This new NSF directive doesn't replace UMBC's policy on MFTRPs and yes, unfortunately it does create duplicative reporting requirements.  As the UMBC research community receives grants from multiple federal grant funding agencies, and each agency has slight variations on MFTRP prohibitions, we cannot rely exclusively on one federal agency to handle this responsibility on our behalf.  Therefore, the MFTRP attestation statement will remain a part of your annual COI disclosure requirements.  

MFTRPs, also sometimes referred to Foreign Talent Recruitment Programs (FTRPs), are not uniformly defined by various federal agencies and are considered unmanageable conflicts of interest.   MFTRPs are in essence clandestine research programs sponsored by foreign governments, oftentimes who are adversarial to the U.S. government, that fall outside of the scope of normal international collaborations and accepted practices.  These programs typically direct participants to not disclose their participation or to even take measures to actively conceal their involvement in the MFTRP from their institution as well as federal grant funding agencies, do not allow for open research publications and may ask participants to engage in activities that would be considered unethical by their institution or even illegal, such as violating U.S. export laws.  Should you ever have questions about an international collaboration that you are concerned about, please contact ORPC at researchintegrity@umbc.edu   or you can visit Domestic and International Affiliations and Collaborations – Division of Research & Creative Achievement – UMBC for more information.  

The 2025-2026 Undergraduate Catalog has been published and is available

at https://catalog.umbc.edu. The Undergraduate Catalog provides current and

prospective students, faculty, and staff with useful information about program and

degree offerings, academic policy and requirements, and programs and services. Users

can favorite courses and programs or share them on social media. Archived catalogs

from 1994-2024 can be accessed via the website.

Sincere thanks to department catalog editors for their collaboration and for their careful

and timely review and update of important content.

As a friendly reminder: the June 12th session is still being held next Thursday- there is still time to sign up!

You can meet in-person with a TIAA rep to discuss your retirement outlook and any questions you may have. It’s at no additional cost and included as a part of your retirement benefits. 

You can discuss these questions and more:

• Am I invested in the right mix of investments to help meet my goals?
• Am I saving enough to create the retirement income I need?
• How do I take income from my retirement account after I stop working?