University News

L. Rafael Reif Named MIT Provost

President Susan Hockfield announced that she has appointed Professor L. Rafael Reif as provost of MIT, succeeding Robert A. Brown, who is leaving MIT to become president of Boston University. Reif's appointment will be effective Aug. 1.

Commenting on his appointment, Reif said, "It is a tremendous honor and responsibility to be the provost of this university. I am thrilled at the prospect of working with President Hockfield and the faculty to help create the MIT of the future, building on the remarkable history of this institution."

The provost is the senior academic officer of the Institute, with overall responsibility for MIT's educational and research programs, as well as for faculty development, including the recruitment, promotion and tenure processes. As provost, Reif will work closely with the academic deans to establish academic priorities on an ongoing basis. Working with the executive vice president and other senior officers, he will have responsibility for financial planning to meet those priorities. The provost is also responsible for the libraries and for a number of major interdisciplinary laboratories, centers and programs on campus, as well as Lincoln Laboratory in Lexington.

Reif, an internationally recognized researcher and educator in microelectronics, has been head of the Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science since September 2004, following more than five years as associate head for electrical engineering. Prior to that, from 1990 to 1999, he was director of MIT's Microsystems Technology Laboratories, an interdepartmental enterprise involving faculty, students and senior staff from throughout the Institute.

Reif received his undergraduate degree in electrical engineering from the Universidad de Carabobo, Valencia, Venezuela, in 1973, and his doctorate in electrical engineering from Stanford University in 1979. The following year, he joined the MIT faculty, and he currently holds the Maseeh Professorship in Emerging Technology. His current research is on three-dimensional integrated circuit technologies and on environmentally benign microelectronics fabrication.

Reif is a fellow of the Institute for Electrical and Electronic Engineers and is a member of Tau Beta Pi and the Electrochemical Society. In 2000, he received the Semiconductor Research Corp.'s Aristotle Award for outstanding teaching and student mentorship.

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Governor Signs 2005-06 State Budget with Funding for Key UC Priorities

The 2005-06 state budget signed by Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger July 11 ending four years of budget cuts with increases for student enrollment growth, faculty and staff compensation, the opening of UC Merced, and an initiative to expand the training of K-12 science and math teachers, among other things.

The budget as signed by the governor also preserves funding on a one-time basis for the University's student academic preparation programs, which work to improve academic achievement and college preparation for students in disadvantaged K-12 schools.

Over the last four years, UC has lost 15 percent of its state operating funds while seeing a 19 percent increase in student enrollments. The compact, an agreement reached last year by the governor and UC, offers the University new budget stability starting in 2005-06 by establishing funding and performance expectations over a multi-year period.

Consistent with the compact, the final state budget for 2005-06 provides a $134 million increase in state general funds for UC operations, or 5 percent, over the 2004-05 fiscal year. UC's state-funded operating budget for the fiscal year that began July 1 will total $2.843 billion.

The budget includes the following for the UC system:

• Enrollments: Funding for enrollment growth of 5,000 full-time-equivalent students in 2005-06, a 2.5 percent increase, consistent with the compact.
• UC Merced: Continuation of $10 million in ongoing operating funds plus $14 million in one-time money for the new campus opening in fall 2005, along with enrollment funding (part of the above 5,000-student allocation) to enroll its entering class in 2005-06.
• Science and math initiative: A $750,000 allocation for UC to begin the “California Teach: One Thousand Teachers, One Million Minds” program. In this program, UC will work with corporate partners and the CSU system to dramatically expand the training of high-quality science and mathematics teachers for California 's schools in order to bolster the state's long-term economic and technological competitiveness.
• Academic preparation: Continuation of $17.3 million in state funding for UC's academic preparation programs, which work to help improve academic achievement and college preparation among students in disadvantaged public schools in California . The governor's budget message indicated that this funding will be sustained “on a one-time basis, with the understanding that the University will work with the Administration to fully evaluate the cost-effectiveness of each program and eliminate those that cannot demonstrate an adequate return on investment.”
• Faculty and staff compensation: A 3 percent funding increase for salary increases, including merit-based increases, and additional funds to help contribute to employee health benefit costs and to address market-based and equity issues. (Specific compensation levels are subject to local programs and collective bargaining agreements where applicable.)
• Labor institute: The governor vetoed $3.8 million from the budget passed by the Legislature for the Institute for Labor and Employment. The governor's veto message said the funding “was provided on a one-time basis in the 2004 Budget Act, and these reductions are needed to help bring ongoing expenditures in line with existing resources.”
• Student fees and financial aid: The Board of Regents last November approved undergraduate and graduate student fees for 2005-06, consistent with the levels outlined in the compact and consistent with the final state budget outcome. The action included increases of 8 percent ($457) for resident undergraduates and 10 percent ($628) for resident graduate academic students. Details about 2005-06 student fees are available at www.universityofcalifornia.edu/news/budget/fee_fact_sheet05.pdf . UC financial aid, in conjunction with Cal Grants, will be sufficient to cover the fee increase and some other increases in costs of attendance for undergraduates eligible for UC grant aid. (The Regents are scheduled to consider additional proposed fee increases for professional school students at the board's July meeting.)
• Capital improvements: Funding of $352.5 million from a voter-approved general obligation bond measure to expand and upgrade academic facilities to support enrollment growth and to maintain progress on seismic and other life-safety improvements while also addressing essential infrastructure and building renewal needs.

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NUS and Leading Universities Form Global Partnership

Paving the way for intensive research and other collaborations of impact, National University of Singapore (NUS) and seven other leading universities have formed a new powerful global partnership.

Besides NUS, the other members are The Australian National University (ANU), ETH Zurich, Peking University (PKU), University of California, Berkeley, University of Copenhagen, The University of Tokyo and Yale University.

Membership will be limited to 10 for the first three years after which additional members may be added. Discussions are ongoing with the University of Oxford and one other leading university has also been approached.

The Chairman (pro tem) of the partnership is Professor Ian Chubb, Vice-Chancellor and President of ANU. Professor Chubb will hold office until early next year when the partnership will officially be launched.

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Flood Risk Consortium Meets in Nottingham

The use of aircraft and satellites to help manage flood risks was on the agenda at a meeting of experts in Nottingham this week.

This remote sensing technology, which is increasingly being used to predict flood events, keep track of flood waters and help to direct relief and recovery efforts, will be discussed at the latest Assembly of a team of expert researchers from seven UK universities.

The Flood Risk Management Research Consortium (FRMRC) was set up as part of a government action plan to combat the risk of flooding and is the first research body to focus on how to put cutting-edge findings immediately into practice in managing urban and rural floods.

The Consortium — which includes five University of Nottingham academics — has been granted nearly £6m for a four-year project to ensure that the latest research is quickly converted into practical, useful action by government departments and flood management agencies.

Its second Assembly took place this week at The University of Nottingham, July 12-13. Delegates will be discussing the FRMRC's first year of progress.

The urgent need for research has been underlined this year with extensive flooding in Cumbria, which claimed three lives in January and left thousands temporarily homeless. Flash floods hit north Yorkshire last month, when a month's rain fell in a few hours and caused widespread problems.

Delegates will hear about innovative research findings on new ways that light aircraft and satellites employing aerial photography, radar and laser-ranging technology can be used to help manage and reduce flood risk.

Speakers at the event will also address social and governmental aspects of flooding, and its local dimension in Nottinghamshire — which has a number of flood risk areas on the lower Trent such as sites at Gunthorpe, Hoveringham, Attenborough and Sawley.

More than two million homes are currently at risk from river, coastal or sewer flooding in the UK. This figure is set to rise in future because of global warming and socio-economic development.

Consortium research will include new ways of analyzing and predicting floods, designing buildings and minimizing the impact of new housing developments on flood risk.

The FRMRC, which was formed last year, is led by researchers from the Universities of Nottingham, Bristol, Heriot-Watt, Imperial College, Lancaster, Manchester and Sheffield.

It is jointly funded under an agreement between the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC), Defra, the Environment Agency, the Natural Environment Research Council (NERC), the Scottish Executive, the Rivers Agency ( Northern Ireland) and UK Water Industry Research.

Research is being carried out by the Universities, private consultants and research institutes, in collaboration with stakeholder organisations ranging from the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds to the water companies, and the Welsh Assembly to the US Army Corps of Engineers.

Its chairperson is Professor Ian Cluckie, of the University of Bristol. Professor Garry Pender, of Heriot-Watt University, is the principal investigator.

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Gerber Foundation Awards $1 Million for Research by Yale Surgeon

A Yale School of Medicine-based, multi-institutional study on necrotizing enterocolitis (NEC) is being supported by a $1 million grant from the Gerber Foundation.

NEC is an acute intestinal condition occurring in premature and low birth weight infants. It is the most common surgical emergency in babies and the most common gastrointestinal cause of death in babies.

The grant supports the Glaser Pediatric Research Network and funds the continuation of a surgical database to look at causes of progression in this disease. R. Lawrence Moss, M.D., section chief of pediatric surgery in the Department of Surgery at Yale, is surgical director of the foundation and principal investigator of the study. The Yale-led consortium includes medical schools at Stanford University, Baylor College of Medicine, University of California at San Francisco, University of California at Los Angeles and Children’s Hospital Boston.

NEC is an acute inflammatory condition that most frequently occurs in babies born prematurely. Death of intestinal tissue due to inadequate blood supply, and other abnormalities, may follow, leading to perforation of the gastrointestinal lining, peritonitis, respiratory failure and death.

The goal of the database is to determine risk factors for intestinal perforation requiring surgical intervention; determine the relationship between feeding practices and the progression of NEC; identify current practice patterns of antibiotic therapy and its impact on disease progression, and determine disease and patient specific factors that predict long term nutritional deficiency and gastroenterological disease.

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U.S. State Department MEPI Grant Builds on UGA-Tunisia Educational Partnership

University of Georgia engineering professor Takoi Hamrita has received a $600,000 U.S. State Department grant to advance higher education reform in Tunisia. The unique goals of the 16-month grant identify real opportunities based on extensive consultations with higher education leaders, administrators and faculty in Tunisia that pair national initiatives in the country with UGA leadership. Specifically the areas include public service and outreach, assessment and evaluation, and distance education – all crucial to the region’s long term modernization objectives.

The breadth of the project reflects attentive cultivation of support from key decision makers within the university community and the U.S. State Department and coordination with the leaders of a dynamic, developing country already deeply engaged in higher education reform efforts. By establishing several nexus points where the interests of these three stakeholders converged, Hamrita brought the partners together with strategic new connections that cross-benefit and amplify the efforts of the participants.

Funded by the Middle East Partnership Initiative (MEPI), a State Department initiative aimed largely at education reform efforts in the region, the grant focuses on three essential areas of work. First, the project will continue UGA efforts with the Virtual University of Tunis to support efforts in pedagogical training and online course development necessary to meet Tunisia’s goal of having 20 percent of the university curriculum in priority disciplines on the Web by 2006-07.

Second, the partnership will expand into working with Tunisian universities to establish effective self- and external evaluation mechanisms. UGA faculty will work closely with a national committee appointed by the Ministry of Higher Education to address this important issue.

The third area of work focuses on reinforcing the links between Tunisian universities and civil society via university public service and outreach. Through creative pilot projects, Tunisian faculty and administrators will begin to build mechanisms to establish the universities as brokers of knowledge and expertise to help their communities. This aspect of the collaboration with Tunisia allows UGA students and educators a unique opportunity to work closely with the communities and to gain a deeper understanding of Tunisian culture.

This new phase of the partnership was inaugurated on a recent visit to Tunisia by a high-level UGA delegation led by Arnett C. Mace Jr., UGA senior vice president for academic affairs and provost. Other delegation members included Steve Wrigley, senior vice president for external affairs; Bob Boehmer, associate provost for institutional effectiveness; and Hamrita, who serves as the director of the partnership.

The Tunisian government, a pioneer in the Arab world in recognizing the importance of decentralization in higher education, is in the process of implementing a nationwide reform of its university system. Likewise, the partnership with UGA has a national focus, with four major partnering universities bringing project participants from the entire country. The partnership will engage more than 12 UGA units including the Office of the Vice President for Public Service and Outreach, Office of Instructional Support and Development (OISD), Office of Institutional Effectiveness, Faculty of Engineering, College of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences, College of Education and the Board of Regents’ Advanced Learning Technologies.

The new project builds on a foundation established by a 2003 State Department grant, which has involved about 80 faculty members at UGA and in Tunisia for training through OISD and the Institute of Higher Education and exemplifies the growing spirit of collaboration between Tunisia and UGA.

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U. T. Dallas Names Bradford Director of Admissions

The University of Texas at Dallas (UTD), whose enrollment has grown by nearly 50 percent over the past seven years at a time when the university has strengthened its student quality to a position competitive with the nation’s premier public research institutions, has named Bryan J. Bradford, an admissions expert at The University of Alabama, director of admissions, effective Aug. 1.

Bradford, currently associate director of undergraduate admissions at Alabama, will report to the vice president for student affairs and will be responsible for all aspects of undergraduate recruitment, as well as both the undergraduate and graduate admissions processes.

Among his duties, Bradford will forecast potential enrollments and identify new markets for student procurement. He also will be charged with developing, implementing and monitoring a comprehensive plan to attract and enroll a qualified, talented and diverse undergraduate student body that supports the strategic goals and overall mission of the university.

Bradford will manage a department of about 50 professional, classified and student staff.

The average SAT score of entering freshmen at UTD last fall was 1239 – the highest of any public university in the state. UTD’s enrollment last fall was 14,092; by comparison, in the fall of 1998, enrollment was only 9,518. That represents an increase of about 48 percent. Despite the university’s rapid growth, however, the quality of its students has remained high and actually improved.

Bradford has a Master of Science degree in higher education (with a focus in student personnel) from The University of Mississippi and a Bachelor of Science in political science from Arkansas State University. He spent six years at The University of Alabama, where he served in several positions with the university’s office of undergraduate admissions.

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U. T. Dallas High Energy Physics Researchers Behind Discovery of Mysterious New Particle

Scientists from The University of Texas at Dallas (UTD) High Energy Physics (HEP) Group were instrumental in a discovery disclosed to the scientific community of a mysterious new subatomic particle – dubbed Y(4260). The researchers are part of the BaBar experiment, a United States Department of Energy (DOE) particle physics collaborative research program being conducted at the Stanford Linear Accelerator Center (SLAC).

The discovery could ultimately provide scientists with a deeper understanding of the makeup of the universe.

Details of the breakthrough are contained in a paper that was submitted to the journal Physical Review Letters. In addition, the discovery was reported last week at a research conference in Uppsalla, Sweden, and an announcement was made, by SLAC (http://www.slac.stanford.edu/gen/pubinfo/pr/20050701/).

Major contributors to the discovery include four researchers from UTD – HEP Group scientist Dr. Shuwei Ye, Professor and Physics Department head Dr. Xinchou Lou, Physics Professor Dr. Joseph Izen and Ph.D. student Glenn Williams. The group’s research is funded by the DOE.

The Y(4260) particle was discovered in the collisions of electrons and their anti-matter counterparts, positrons, at the SLAC facility.

The BaBar experiment is an international collaboration of some 600 physicists and engineers designed to investigate the fundamental nature of matter and the laws that govern it.