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Volume 6, Issue 8
Feb. 24, 2006
Circulation 20,096

Friday FYI

Newsletter from the Office of the Vice President for Research and Economic Development- U. T. Dallas

University News

Bridge From China to the World: Official Opening by Deputy PM

The University of Nottingham's pioneering new campus — the first western institution inside China — has been officially opened by the Deputy Prime Minister, the Rt Hon John Prescott MP.

The University of Nottingham Ningbo China enrolled students at the beginning of the current academic year, and is modelled on its counterpart in the United Kingdom — complete with lake, bell tower and a replica of the Trent Building in Nottingham's University Park. It was made possible by recent legislation, which allowed foreign institutions to establish campuses inside the People's Republic. Nottingham is the first university to be granted permission.

Prescott spent time on campus meeting staff and students, who are taught UK-accredited degree courses in the English language, quality-assured in Britain.

The Chancellor of The University of Nottingham, leading Chinese academic Professor Yang Fujia, said the opening was an historic event.

Amongst powerful Chinese figures who attended were the country's Education Minister Zhou Ji, and State Councilor Madam Chen Zhili, both of whom serve in the national cabinet.

Also on site were senior figures from regional economic development in the United Kingdom, including the Chairman of East Midlands Development Agency, Dr Bryan Jackson, and the Chief Executive of the City of Nottingham, Gordon Mitchell. National business and enterprise interests were represented by a delegation from the China-Britain Business Council and Chinese counterparts.

As well as the Official Opening of the new campus, the Deputy Prime Minister and Chinese VIPs exchanged gifts and marked the groundbreaking of a new Centre for Sustainable Energy Technology in Ningbo.

[ FYI Index ]

Summers to Step Down as Harvard President

Lawrence H. Summers announced this week that he will conclude his tenure as president of Harvard University at the end of the 2005-06 academic year.

Since his appointment five years ago, Summers has spurred attention to renewing the undergraduate experience, guided the launch of innovative interdisciplinary initiatives in the sciences and beyond, and strongly expanded Harvard's international agenda. Under his leadership, the University has reached out to many more undergraduates from low-income families and also strengthened financial aid for graduate and professional students pursuing careers in public service. During his presidency, Harvard has achieved dramatic faculty growth, undertaken major investments in an array of new facilities, and taken the first concrete steps toward building Harvard's extended campus in Allston.

Derek Bok, Harvard's president from 1971 to 1991, has agreed to the Corporation's request that he serve as interim president of the University from July 1 until the conclusion of the search for a new president, which the Fellows said would begin promptly.

Following an expected year-long sabbatical, Summers plans to return to the faculty to pursue his distinguished academic career in economics, public policy, and international affairs. The Fellows' letter said that the Corporation intends to appoint Summers as one of Harvard's select group of University Professors.

[ FYI Index ]

UT System, UT Permian Basin Sign Teaming Agreement

On Feb. 22, representatives of The University of Texas System and the University of Texas of the Permian Basin signed a teaming agreement with General Atomics (GA) of San Diego, to provide a pre-conceptual design for a next-generation High-Temperature Teaching and Test Reactor (HT3R) in Andrews County, Texas. The teaming agreement was signed by GA, the UT System, and UT Permian Basin at a ceremony at UT Permian Basin’s Center for Energy and Economic Diversification (CEED) in Odessa.

On February 9, the UT System Board of Regents authorized the teaming agreement to conduct the Pre-Conceptual Design (PCD). The project would include several components: a high-temperature helium-cooled teaching and test reactor; a Brayton Cycle Laboratory for development of new methods to produce electricity with increased efficiencies; and a high-temperature process and materials laboratory. The reactor would be capable of demonstrating high-temperature process heat suitable for use in future applications such as hydrogen production or coal liquefaction.

The PCD phase is estimated to cost approximately US$3 million and take about six months to complete. If approved, UT Permian Basin will use the PCD to seek investors for the potential project. GA, UT Permian Basin and the UT System are the major partners in the project; the cities of Andrews, Midland and Odessa are regional partners; and collaborators include Novastar Resources Ltd., which has recently entered into a merger agreement with Thorium Power, Inc., The University of Texas at Austin, University of Texas at Arlington, University of Texas at Dallas, and University of Texas at El Paso.

Created in 1969 as an upper-level university, UT Permian Basin began offering a full four-year undergraduate curriculum in 1991, and now provides 28 undergraduate and 17 graduate degree programs. The university's evolution from a purely commuter campus to a more traditional residential campus involves a growing number of traditional students that reflect the changing demographics of the region. UT Permian Basin was recently awarded grants to set up a center as a Hispanic-Serving Institution.

[ FYI Index ]

KAIST Won’t Publish Dean Evaluation

The Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (KAIST) Professors’ Council, led by professor Kang Seok-jung, discussed the matter of reappointing dean Robert Laughlin at a general meeting attended by about 100 professors February 22 at Turman Hall in the school’s Creative Learning Center.

The council had originally planned to publish the results of a survey on whether to re-appoint the dean or not, but decided not to do so. It is said that the majority opinion of the survey was against the re-appointment.

The council conducted a survey of 409 professors and asked questions about Laughlin’s leadership, his efforts to ensure financial support, his sense of duty, his work to promote the university’s image, and 11 other issues.

The Ministry of Science and Technology asked the KAIST Professors’ Council to establish a subcommittee to objectively evaluate Laughlin’s achievements and disposition.

Laughlin’s two-year term ends on July 14, and he will receive a letter 90 days before the final day of his term regarding his re-appointment.

KAIST will make its final decision regarding Laughlin’s re-appointment at a regular board meeting next month. If the board of directors does not oppose renewing the contract, the term will be automatically extended for two more years. It is believed that Laughlin hopes to be re-appointed.

[ FYI Index ]

Steve Wrigley to Direct Carl Vinson Institute of Government

Steve W. Wrigley, who has served as senior vice president for external affairs at the University of Georgia since 2002, will become director of the university’s Carl Vinson Institute of Government effective July 1, according to an announcement by Vice President for Public Service and Outreach Arthur N. Dunning.  Wrigley succeeds James G. Ledbetter, who will retire March 31 from the position he has held since 2001.

In addition, President Michael F. Adams announced that Wrigley will continue in the senior vice presidency through Dec. 31, and on Jan. 1 will resume his former role as UGA vice president for government relations in tandem with the Vinson Institute directorship.  In his dual role as director of the Carl Vinson Institute of Government and vice president for government relations, Wrigley will direct the academic and outreach programs of the institute and will provide leadership to the university’s government relations activities at the federal, state and local levels.  He has overseen the government relations programs throughout his service as senior vice president.  The appointments are subject to the approval of the Board of Regents of the University System of Georgia.

Dunning said the combination of the government relations vice presidency and the Vinson Institute directorship is "a natural," particularly given Wrigley’s experience in the area.

Wrigley joined the University of Georgia in July 1998 as the first director of the International Center for Democratic Governance within the Vinson Institute.  In that capacity, he helped establish training and outreach programs in several countries and was involved in overall management and policy formulation as a member of the institute’s senior management team.  He was named UGA’s vice president for government relations in 2000 and was named interim senior vice president for external affairs in March 2002, assuming that post permanently in November of the same year.

As senior vice president, in addition to his oversight of government relations, Wrigley has directed the university’s Archway to Excellence capital campaign, which to date has secured gifts and pledges of $390 million toward a goal of $500 million.  He has overall administrative responsibility for the university’s development, public affairs, alumni relations, and special events functions.  Before his original appointment to the Institute of Government, Wrigley served for thirteen years in state government in Georgia, including two years as senior policy advisor to Governor Zell Miller and five years as Miller’s chief of staff, during which time he was instrumental in implementing Georgia’s nationally noted pre-kindergarten and HOPE Scholarship programs.  He earned a bachelor’s degree in history from Georgia State University and master’s and Ph.D. degrees in history from Northwestern University.

The Carl Vinson Institute of Government offers a broad array of services under its mission to enhance the administration and policy making of Georgia governments at all levels.  The institute offers technical assistance and research services to state and local governments, as well as educational and training programs for government employees and elected officials, and policy analysis in areas as varied as the economy, the environment, and family and children services.  Founded in 1927 as UGA’s Institute of Public Affairs, it was named in 1983 for the late Carl Vinson, who represented Georgia in the U.S. House of Representatives for more than 50 years.  Its main offices are housed in the historic Lucy Cobb Institute and the J.W. Fanning Building.

[ FYI Index ]

National Academies Name Biology Teaching Fellows and Mentors

The National Academies have bestowed the title of Education Fellow in the Life Sciences to 42 educators around the country who successfully completed a summer institute aimed at fostering innovative approaches to teaching undergraduate biology.

The fellows are members of teams from 19 research-intensive colleges and universities who were selected to attend the summer institute based on the teams' ideas for enhancing undergraduate biology education and a commitment by their universities to support teaching innovations. Teams also were chosen based on their willingness to collaborate on the development of "teachable units" -- curriculum packages encompassing up to a week of classes and laboratory activities on a specific topic -- and their pledge to implement at least one of the units in the courses they teach this year. Admission to the summer institute was highly competitive.

The institute grew out of a recommendation in a 2003 report issued by the National Academies' National Research Council titled Bio2010: Transforming Undergraduate Education for Future Research Biologists, which called for changes in the way college students are taught biology. The report noted that undergraduate biology education was failing to keep pace with revolutionary advances in biomedical research that require those working in the field to have a good understanding of other scientific disciplines -- such as math and computer sciences -- and urged instructors to integrate other subjects into their biology classes. Bio2010 also called for faculty development opportunities to improve the interdisciplinary knowledge and teaching capabilities of biology professors.

The 2005 summer institute focused on how to improve large introductory biology courses. Besides developing the teachable units, participants at the institute discussed how to encourage colleagues and graduate teaching assistants to adopt new teaching practices, how to engage nonbiology majors and increase student participation in large lectures, and how to properly assess student learning. Participants will become part of a growing network of summer institute alumni, and some will be recruited as mentors for future institutes.

In addition to the fellows, the Academies also named 20 Education Mentors in the Life Sciences. The recipients of this title were speakers, facilitators, or organizers at the institute, and will continue to serve as mentors to participants for at least the next academic year.

The 2005 National Academies Summer Institute on Undergraduate Education in Biology was held at the University of Wisconsin, Madison. Major funding for the institute was provided by the Howard Hughes Medical Institute, along with support from the host university and the National Academies.

A roster of the fellows and mentors follows.

City College of the City University of New York

Cornell University

Dartmouth College

George Washington University

Georgia State University

Iowa State University

Louisiana State University

Mississippi State University

New York University

Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey

University of Alabama

University of Arizona

University of California, Davis

University of California, Los Angeles

University of Hawaii at Manoa

University of Kansas

University of Michigan

University of Wisconsin–Madison

University of Wyoming

 

National Academies Education Mentors in the Life Sciences 2005-2006

Facilitators, instructors, and organizers are named as mentors to recognize their role in mentoring Institute participants as well as their history of involvement in improving undergraduate education.

American Society for Microbiology

Case Western Reserve University

Clark Atlanta University

Louisiana State University

Michigan State University

Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute

Research Corporation

Texas Tech University

University of California , Berkeley

University of Colorado–Boulder

University of Massachusetts–Amherst

University of Michigan

University of Minnesota

University of Washington

University of Wisconsin–Madison

[ FYI Index ]

UTD Social Sciences Dean Named Fellow of American Institute of Certified Planners

Dr. Brian J. L. Berry, dean of the School of Social Sciences at The University of Texas at Dallas (UTD) and one of the world’s leading social scientists, has been selected a Fellow of the American Institute of Certified Planners (AICP), the professional arm of the American Planning Association (APA).

The 39,000-member APA is the nation’s leading city and regional planning organization.  AICP, with 15,000 members, provides leadership in the certification of professional planners, ethics, professional development, planning education and the standards of planning practice.

Berry , the Lloyd V. Berkner Regental Professor and professor of political economy in UTD’s School of Social Sciences, is widely acclaimed for his work with spatial analysis and urban theory.  He is credited with helping transform geography as a discipline, elevating it to a respected and competitive science.  Last Fall, Berry received the 2005 Vautrin Lud Prize, the highest award that can be bestowed on a geographer.  Modeled after the Nobel Prize, which does not have a category for geography, the award is presented each year to an intellectual leader in the field, as determined by an international jury.  Berry is a member of the National Academy of Sciences, the most prestigious scientific association in the United States.

[ FYI Index ]

NanoMedicine Center Strives to Develop Technologies for Regenerative Medicine

Columbia University is a major contributor to the NanoMedicine Center for Mechanical Biology, a multi-disciplinary initiative aimed at developing new technologies for regenerative medicine and treating human diseases that involve mechanical malfunction, such as cancer.

The ultimate goal of the NanoMedicine Center for Mechanical Biology is to create an understanding of cellular mechanical biology which, once grasped, could lead to a pioneering operations manual for cell mechanical function. Since many diseases such as cancer, cardiovascular disease, osteoporosis, and immune disorders can originate from cell mechanical malfunction, this could provide important new technologies for treatments, i.e. a Cellular Repair Manual.

Funding for the center stems from a National Institute of Health (NIH) Roadmap Initiative grant, consisting of US$1.4 million a year for five years. The goal of the grant is to encourage bio-medical researchers and engineers to build upon existing nanotechnologies (in this instance, at the Columbia Nanotechnology Center) and design a second generation of technologies to understand the interaction of complex biological systems in health and disease.

This is an international group that brings technologies from Switzerland, Israel and Germany to six labs at Columbia and to labs at Mt. Sinai Hospital and NYU Medical Center. At Columbia, the NanoMedicine Center for Mechanical Biology consists of six working groups (see below) and will avail itself of extant multi-disciplinary expertise and groundbreaking advances in many areas of science. The center will tap into the university's expertise in varied science realms, especially nanomedicine.*

Columbia Professor of Cell Biology, Michael Sheetz, a formative member of the center, says its creation places the university in a unique category of advanced nanotechnology based research.

The other NIH funded centers are: the University of California at San Francisco's Engineering Cellular Control: Synthetic Signaling and Motility Systems Center; The University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign's National Center for Design of Biomimetic Nanoconductors, and Baylor College of Medicine's Center for Protein Folding Machinery.

The rationale for the Columbia center is based in part on the idea that while science today understands many of the inner workings of cell biochemistry, far less is known about the crucial intricacies of the mechanical aspects of cells (a process that, for example, allows 40 micron cells to determine the shape of an organism many meters its size), or how tissue become malformed when attacked by cancers and other diseases. Understanding and deciphering the underlying mechanisms of cellular mechanics could produce profound and fundamental new insights into how the processes of cell migration, metastasis, immune function and other areas which are regulated by mechanical forces. The technologies developed in the center will enable new treatments of those disorders.

This is because cells respond to primary mechanical cues (of 'force' and 'geometry') through a complex procedure that begins at the molecular level. When intracellular systems sense these factors (i.e. 'force') they transduce (convert) cues into biochemical signals which are then processed to give mechanoresponses, which are then fed back to change the mechanical cues. The cumulative effect of these cycles determines whether a cell grows or dies, the shape of the organism, and the eventual effectiveness of many tissue functions.

Defects in areas such as mechanosensing and transduction underlie diseases including many cancers, immune disorders, genetic malformations and neuropathies.

For insight into these mechanisms and processes the NanoMedicine Center for Mechanical Biology is adopting a three-pronged study approach: developing detailed quantitative pictures of the cellular machinery at the single-molecule level, (how single molecules respond to force); on the nanoscale level, describing how supramolecular complexes regulate each other, and understanding how forces regulate signaling pathways and gene expression.

To bring these goals to fruition, and to create a fuller understanding of cellular processes especially on a systems bioengineering level, the center is tapping into a diverse array of expertise including scientists, engineers and applied mathematicians who will focus on mechano-transduction (the process by which cells convert mechanical stimuli into biochemical signals) at the cell and molecular level. On the nanoscale level the center is assembling expertise and will utilize cutting-edge technologies from biologists, chemists, engineers and computational scientists in novel and unique ways. Researchers from Mt. Sinai School of Medicine, the Weizmann Institute, the NYU Skirball Institute and ETH Polyteknium Zurich, are also involved.

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