UTD Home

Friday FYI

Newsletter from the Office of the Vice President for Research and Graduate Education - U. T. Dallas

University News

25 MacArthur Fellows Announced by the MacArthur Foundation

The John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation named 25 new MacArthur Fellows for 2005. Each received a phone call from the Foundation this week informing them that they will be given $500,000 in “no strings attached” support over the next five years.

MacArthur Fellows are selected for their creativity, originality, and potential. By providing resources without stipulations or reporting requirements, the MacArthur Foundation offers the opportunity for Fellows to accelerate their current activities or take their work in new directions. The unusual level of independence afforded to the Fellows underscores the spirit of freedom intrinsic to creative endeavors. 

Recipients this year include:

The MacArthur Fellows Program was the first major grantmaking initiative of the Foundation. The inaugural class of MacArthur Fellows was named in 1981. Including this year’s Fellows, 707 people, ranging in age from 18 to 82, have been named MacArthur Fellows since the inception of the program.

The selection process begins with formal nominations. At any given time, approximately one hundred anonymous nominators assist the Foundation in identifying people who should be considered for a MacArthur Fellowship. Nominations are only accepted from invited nominators, a list that is constantly renewed throughout the year. They are chosen from many fields and challenged to identify people who demonstrate exceptional creativity and promise. A 12-member Selection Committee, whose members also serve anonymously, meets regularly to review files, narrow the list, and make final recommendations to the Foundation’s Board of Directors. The number of Fellows selected each year is not fixed; typically, it varies between 20 and 25.

[ FYI Index ]

FBI Appoints National Security Higher Education Advisory Board

FBI Director Robert S. Mueller III announced the creation of a National Security Higher Education Advisory Board. The board, which will consist of the presidents and chancellors of several prominent U.S. universities, is designed to foster outreach and to promote understanding between higher education and the Federal Bureau of Investigation.

The Board will provide advice on the culture of higher education, including the traditions of openness, academic freedom, and international collaboration. The Board will seek to establish lines of communication on national priorities pertaining to terrorism, counterintelligence, and homeland security. They will also assist in the development of research, degree programs, course work, internships, opportunities for graduates, and consulting opportunities for faculty relating to national security.

Graham Spanier, President of Pennsylvania State University, will chair the Board.

The Board will meet collectively at least three times a year in Washington, D.C., while individual presidents will often be invited to meetings of relevant working groups in the regions of their universities. The Board will begin meeting this fall.

Other members of the Board include:

William Brody, President, Johns Hopkins University
Albert Carnesale, Chancellor, University of California, Los Angeles
Jared Cohon, President, Carnegie Mellon University
Marye Ann Fox, Chancellor, University of California, San Diego
Robert Gates, President, Texas A&M University
Gregory Geoffroy, President, Iowa State University
Amy Gutmann, President, University of Pennsylvania
David C. Hardesty Jr., President, West Virginia University
Susan Hockfield, President, Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Martin Jischke, President, Purdue University
Bernard Machen, President, University of Florida
James Moeser, Chancellor, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill
C.D. Mote, President, University of Maryland, College Park
John Wiley, Chancellor, University of Wisconsin, Madison
Mark Emmert, President, University of Washington

[ FYI Index ]

Law School Receives Major Gift to Endow Chair, Fellowships, and Student Fund

Representatives of Yale Law School announced a gift from the estate of Oscar M. Ruebhausen, a 1937 graduate of Yale Law School, that is expected to provide more than US$30 million to the School. The gift to the Law School is one of the largest in the history of American legal education.

The gift will serve to support an Oscar M. Ruebhausen Professorship of Law awarded to Professor Roberta Romano, a leading expert in corporate law. The fund will also support Oscar M. Ruebhausen Visiting Fellows; the Zelia P. Ruebhausen Student Fund; and the Oscar M. Ruebhausen Fund.

Ruebhausen was a distinguished partner of the law firm of Debevoise & Plimpton LLP for almost fifty years, and served as its presiding partner between 1972 and 1981. He served as president of the Bar Association of the City of New York, a key adviser to Nelson Rockefeller, general counsel to the Office of Scientific Research and Development during World War II, and chairman of the boards of the Russell Sage and Greenwall Foundations. In 1978, he was awarded the Law School's Citation of Merit. He passed away in 2004, fourteen years after the death of his wife Zelia, a 1937 graduate of Vassar College who served on the boards of the League of Women Voters, the International House of New York City, and the African American Institute. From 1972 to 1977, she was a member of the twelve-member commission charged with revising the Charter of New York City.

Romano is a founder of the Yale Law School Center for the Study of Corporate Law and has written extensively on takeover regulation, state competition for corporate charters, shareholder litigation, institutional investor activism in corporate governance, and the regulation of financial instruments and securities markets. Her books include "The Genius of American Corporate Law" and "The Advantage of Competitive Federalism for Securities Regulation."

[ FYI Index ]

UTD and U. T. Arlington Presidents Inaugurate New Era of Cooperation, Collaboration

Presidents James Spaniolo of The University of Texas at Arlington and David Daniel of The University of Texas at Dallas announced new areas of collaboration between their two institutions of higher learning during a day when the two presidents swapped jobs in an unprecedented demonstration of unity and cooperation.

In a videoconference between the two universities, Spaniolo and Daniel gave several examples of ways the schools will be working together:

“We already collaborate in a number of important areas, including nanotechnology, brain imaging, robotics and computer science, and we are going to look at some other areas, such as technology transfer,” Daniel said. “This will extend our relationship to a higher level. President Spaniolo and I both understand that the best way for UTD and U. T. Arlington to achieve their full potential is by working together.”

Spaniolo and Daniel, both of whom are relatively new to their jobs, announced the one-day job swap two weeks ago to signal a new era of cooperation in higher education, research and service for the North Texas community. Spaniolo took over as president of U. T. Arlington in February 2004, and Daniel assumed the UTD presidency in June of this year.

“This is not a beginning and it’s not just the continuation of the status quo,” Spaniolo said. “This is a new era of heightened respect and cooperation for both schools and it is important for the future of both universities and an absolute necessity for the economic growth of the North Texas region and the entire state.”

Daniel said, “This region has not gotten its share of higher education appropriations. We are going to capitalize on each other’s strengths.”

The presidents said that will give the universities extra capabilities that will be hard to ignore.

“We believe we will be able to accomplish much more this way than we would by going it alone,” Spaniolo said.

[ FYI Index ]

U-M Launches Center for Stem Cell Biology

President Mary Sue Coleman announced a significant expansion of the University of Michigan’s efforts in stem cell science with the creation of a new interdisciplinary center for stem cell research, to be based at the Life Sciences Institute.

The center for stem cell biology will be established with US$10.5 million in funding provided by the U-M Medical School, the Life Sciences Institute and the Molecular and Behavioral Neuroscience Institute (MBNI). Under the leadership of noted stem cell scientist Sean Morrison, the center will recruit up to seven faculty whose laboratories will be located in the LSI, the Medical School or in MBNI. The U-M stem cell center will emphasize using stem cell science to answer the most pressing questions of fundamental human biology, such as how specific tissues in the body are formed and how cells communicate with one another.

U-M scientists have made notable advances in many areas of stem cell science, especially involving tissue-specific and cancer stem cells. The U-M Medical School is home to one of only three NIH-funded human embryonic stem cell research centers in the United States. The new center will expand current areas of research strength by using stem cells to pursue basic biological questions.

The center’s director, Sean Morrison, is associate professor of internal medicine in the Medical School and a Howard Hughes Medical Institute investigator. Morrison’s research focuses on blood-forming (or hematopoietic) stem cells that give rise to all blood and immune system cells and on neural crest stem cells that give rise to the peripheral nervous system. In looking at the fundamental biology of stem cells, the center will examine such phenomena as the remarkable ability of stem cells to replicate themselves indefinitely, which could provide insight into how cancer cells can do the same thing.

The Morrison laboratory has published several important advances in stem cell biology in recent years. They showed for the first time that stem cells persist throughout adult life in the peripheral nervous system, a discovery that could lead to new treatments for nervous system injuries. They discovered mechanisms that regulate the maintenance of adult stem cells throughout life, an insight that could have implications for regenerative medicine and cancer. Most recently, they discovered new markers that enhance the purification of blood-forming stem cells, an advance that could lead to safer and more effective bone marrow transplants. Morrison was honored with the Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers in 2003.

Morrison is moving his laboratory to the LSI and will lead recruiting for the new faculty who will hold joint appointments in many different U-M life science departments. The new center will also encompass key core facilities used in stem cell research. Close interactions are expected with the U-M Comprehensive Cancer Center.

Faculty recruiting to the new center will be underway this fall. Pending approval of U-M’s Board of Regents, Morrison will be appointed the Henry Sewall Professor in Medicine and will also hold the title of research associate professor in the Life Sciences Institute.

[ FYI Index ]

Nickols to Step Down as UGA Family and Consumer Sciences Dean Next July

Sharon Y. Nickols, dean of the University of Georgia College of Family and Consumer Sciences, announced that she will step down as dean July 1, 2006, ending nearly 15 years in the post.

Nickols also will relinquish positions as an associate director of the Georgia Agricultural Experiment Station and as an associate director of the Georgia Cooperative Extension Service. She plans to remain on the faculty of the College of Family and Consumer Sciences where she will teach and conduct research.

Nickols is the longest-serving of the deans of UGA’s 15 schools and colleges. She became dean in August, 1991, the fifth person to hold the title since the college was created in 1933 under the name School of Home Economics.

She says she decided to step down because the time is right for new leadership in the college, and she wants to have more time for academic pursuits.

Among highlights of her tenure, she says, are doubling of undergraduate enrollment in the college, recruitment of outstanding faculty and stronger relations with industry, especially in the areas of housing and textiles and apparel. Public service programs have been strengthened and the college now offers study abroad opportunities in five countries, up from one when she became dean.

Nickols came to UGA from the University of Illinois where she was director of the School of Human Resources and Family Studies. She also was assistant director of the Agricultural Experiment Station and professor of family economics.

Nickols’s previous research has included family time allocation and women’s economic roles in international development. The author of several book chapters and numerous articles in professional publications, she is co-editor of three books and has made more than 100 presentations at professional meetings.

A nationally recognized leader in her profession, she is past president of the American Association of Family and Consumer Sciences and past chair of the Board on Human Sciences for the National Association of State Universities and Land Grant Colleges. She was chair of the Family and Consumer Sciences Administrative Leadership Council, and mentored many emerging professionals in their academic administration careers.

She also has extensive international experience, including being a Fulbright Scholar and senior lecturer in home economics at the University of Malawi, and chairing a review team for a United Nations Development Programme in India. She has made presentations and consulted at institutions in Japan, Korea, Kenya, Swaziland, the West Indies and Pakistan.

Nickols has twice received the Commemorative Lecture Award from the American Association of Family and Consumer Sciences. She also has received the Outstanding Professional Award from the Georgia Association of Family and Consumer Sciences, and the Honorary Membership Award from the Georgia Association of Family, Career and Community Leaders of America.

[ FYI Index ]

Southern California’s First Fetal Surgery to Correct Life Threatening Condition in Twins Performed at UCSD Medical Center

The University of California at San Diego Medical Center has announced the successful launch of its new Fetal Surgery Program, with physicians successfully performing the first Southern California surgery on tiny unborn twin boys for an often fatal condition called Twin-to-Twin Transfusion Syndrome (TTTS).

Mike and Apisaloma ( Pisa ) Taulau were treated with laser surgery for TTTS while still developing inside their mother’s uterus. TTTS occurs in 10-15% of twin fetuses that share the same placenta and, when untreated, has a fatality rate of about 80% for one or both of the babies. The surgery was performed in the 20th week of mother Millie Taulau’s pregnancy. The boys were delivered by cesarean section on September 12, 2005 at 29 weeks gestation and are being cared for at the UCSD Medical Center Infant Special Care Center (ISCC) in Hillcrest.

In TTTS, abnormal connection of blood vessels in the shared placenta results in an imbalanced flow of blood from one twin to another, affecting circulation. Typically one of the fetuses becomes swollen with too much blood and the other becomes small and underfed because of not receiving enough blood.

When Taulau learned that her developing twins had TTTS, she and the twins’ father Tino Tinoisamoa chose to have the unborn babies treated in utero in an effort to give them both a chance at life.

UCSD physician David Schrimmer, M.D., director of the UCSD Fetal Surgery Program, performed the fetoscopic surgery to correct the condition. A very thin telescope called a fetoscope is inserted into the uterus to view the blood vessels, and the misconnected blood vessels are then closed using a laser light, restoring normal circulation. Without intervention, Mike and Pisa would not have survived the pregnancy.

Only six other medical institutions in the United States perform fetal surgery for TTTS. Results are encouraging: In 70% of the cases both twins survive; in an additional 10% of cases, one twin survives. There is a 5% risk of brain damage in babies successfully treated with surgery; which is lower than the rate associated with other TTTS treatments.

[ FYI Index ]

UTD Researcher Receives NSF Funding

An electrical engineering professor at The University of Texas at Dallas (UTD), in collaboration with and a researcher from Princeton University, has been awarded a National Science Foundation (NSF) grant to investigate the value of algebraic signal structures in the cross–layer design of multiple–antenna wireless communication systems.

Dr. Naofal Al–Dhahir, an associate professor in UTD’s Erik Jonsson School of Engineering and Computer Science will work with Dr. Robert Calderbank, who holds a joint appointment as a professor with Princeton’s departments of mathematics and electrical engineering, to demonstrate how algebraic signal structures make it possible to integrate different multiple–antenna system functions efficiently at an end–to–end complexity equal to that of the single–antenna systems used today.

More than 100 proposals were submitted to the NSF program solicitation — called Innovations at the Interface with the Sciences and Engineering — and only 10 percent were funded, including Al–Dhahir’s and Calderbank’s. The one–time award comes from the NSF’s Division of Mathematical Sciences and is worth more than $130,000.

“An important aspect of this project is to measure the value of engineering innovations at the physical layer using metrics important to the user, such as output, latency and cost,” Al–Dhahir said. “Our emphasis on expressing the value of algebraic structure to emerging broadband wireless standards creates a common language for discussions with industry partners. More importantly, familiarity with these standards will be an advantage to our graduate students as they apply for internships, and we expect they will be able to jump into cutting–edge projects and make immediate contributions to the high–tech community.”

Al-Dhahir joined UTD in the fall of 2003. He earned a Ph.D. in electrical engineering from Stanford University. Prior to joining UTD, he worked at General Electric Research and Development Center in New York and AT&T Labs-Research in New Jersey.

[ FYI Index ]

Number of Category 4 and 5 Hurricanes Has Doubled Over the Past 35 Years

The number of Category 4 and 5 hurricanes worldwide has nearly doubled over the past 35 years, according to a study by researchers at the Georgia Institute of Technology and the National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR). The change occurred as global sea-surface temperatures have increased over the same period.

Atmospheric scientist Peter Webster of Georgia Tech's School of Earth and Atmospheric Sciences, along with scientists Greg Holland of NCAR and Judith Curry and Hai-Ru Chang of Georgia Tech, studied the number, duration and intensity of hurricanes worldwide from 1970 to 2004.

Results of the research will appear in the Sept. 16 issue of the journal Science .

"Basic physical reasoning and climate model simulations and projections motivated this study," said Jay Fein, director of the National Science Foundaton's (NSF) climate and large-scale dynamics program, which funded the research. "The results will stimulate further research into the complex natural and human-caused processes influencing tropical hurricane trends and characteristics," he said.

"What we found was rather astonishing," said Georgia Tech's Webster. "In the 1970s, there was an average of about 10 Category 4 and 5 hurricanes per year globally. Since 1990, the number of Category 4 and 5 hurricanes has almost doubled, averaging 18 per year globally."

Category 4 hurricanes have sustained winds from 131 to 155 miles per hour (mph); Category 5 systems, such as Hurricane Katrina at its peak over the Gulf of Mexico, pack winds of 156 mph or more.

The largest increases in the number of intense hurricanes occurred in the North Pacific, Southwest Pacific and the North and South Indian Oceans, with slightly smaller increases in the North Atlantic Ocean.

This trend is happening, the scientists say, as sea-surface temperatures around the globe are rising--anywhere from 0.50 to 1.0 degree Fahrenheit, depending on the region--over hurricane seasons since the 1970s.

The North Atlantic averaged eight to nine hurricanes each year in the past decade, compared to the six to seven before. Category 4 and 5 hurricanes in the North Atlantic have increased at an even faster clip: from 16 between 1975 and 1989 to 25 between 1990 and 2004. That constitutes a 56 percent increase.

Research published in July in the journal Nature and also funded by NSF reached a similar conclusion. In that issue, scientist Kerry Emanuel of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology reported finding an increase in the duration and power of North Atlantic and North Pacific hurricanes.

Whether such increases are due to human-induced global warming is still uncertain, said Georgia Tech's Webster. "We need a longer data record of hurricane statistics, and we need to understand more about the role hurricanes play in regulating the heat balance and circulation in the atmosphere and oceans."

Webster is working to determine the role of hurricanes in regulating Earth's climate. "The thing they do more than anything is cool the oceans by evaporating the water and then redistributing the oceans' tropical heat to higher latitudes," he said. "But we don't know a lot about how evaporation from the oceans' surface works when the winds get up to around 100 miles per hour, as they do in hurricanes."

Webster adds that this understanding is crucial to connecting trends in hurricane intensity to overall climate change.

"If we can understand why the world sees about 85 named storms a year and not 25 or 200, for example, then we might be able to say it is consistent with a global warming scenario. Without that understanding, a forecast of the number and intensity of tropical storms in a future warmer world would be statistical extrapolation."

© 2005-2007 The University of Texas at Dallas
Contact Us FYI Archive Research UTD