University News
Ralph J. Roberts and Brian L. Roberts Help Establish Proton Therapy Center
University of Pennsylvania alumni Ralph J. Roberts and his son Brian L. Roberts have pledged $15 million to help create the first-of-its-kind proton therapy center for the treatment of cancer. The Roberts Proton Therapy Center will be unique in its ability to fully integrate conventional radiation treatment with proton radiation, which more accurately targets tumors and leaves surrounding healthy tissue unaffected. The Center will also be the first to be located on the campus of a world-class academic medical center, facilitating scientific research to measure and improve this innovative therapy. The gift will help finance the construction and equipment for the center, scheduled to open to patients in 2009.
Proton therapy is the most precise form of advanced radiation therapy available to treat certain cancers and other diseases. It works by targeting a focused beam of high-dose radiation to a specific tumor site – thereby dramatically decreasing damage to surrounding normal tissue. Proton therapy results in less side effects and clinical complications for patients; and it enhances the physician's ability to treat tumors close to critical organs and the spinal cord.
With conventional radiation treatment, 20 percent of cancers return because the dose is too low. Proton beam therapy permits a higher and safer dose of tumor-killing radiation to be delivered to a cancer site. Because it is less harmful to normal tissue, proton beam therapy is used to treat pediatric cancers as well as those in adults.
In addition, with the Robert's Proton Therapy Center, PENN will begin a new relationship with Walter Reed Medical Center, through which proton therapy technology will be available to United States military personnel.
Ralph J. Roberts graduated from the Wharton School in 1941 and served a four-year tour of duty in the US Navy. In 1963, with the purchase of a 1,200-subscriber cable television system in Tupelo, Mississippi, he began to build what would become the largest cable television company in the country – Comcast Corporation – employing 87,000 people and serving 24 million customers. Roberts, is founder and former Chairman of the Board of Comcast Corporation, and on the boards of the Council of Emeritus Directors of the Philadelphia Orchestra and the Brandywine Museum and Conservancy, the Advisory Board of the Philadelphia Urban Affairs Coalition. He has been a member of the PENN Medicine Board of Trustees since 2002.
Ralph Roberts has received awards from the National Cable and Telecommunications Association, the Walter Kaitz Foundation, the Anti-Defamation League of B'nai B'rith, the National Conference of Christians and Jews, the Urban League of Philadelphia, the Greater Philadelphia Chamber of Commerce, and the National Academy of Television Arts & Sciences. He has been awarded honorary degrees from Holy Family College and the University of Pennsylvania, and also received Penn's Joseph P. Wharton Award.
Brian L. Roberts graduated from Wharton School, majoring in finance, in 1981. He started his career at Comcast selling cable door-to-door, and rose to the presidency in 1990; he is now the company's Chairman and CEO. Under his leadership, Comcast has grown into a Fortune 100 company with $22.3 billion in revenue. The Company also has a majority ownership in Comcast-Spectacor, whose major holdings include the Philadelphia Flyers NHL hockey team, the Philadelphia 76ers NBA basketball team, and two large multipurpose arenas in Philadelphia. Mr. Roberts is serving his second consecutive term as Chairman of the board of Directors for the National Cable & Telecommunications Association (NCTA), until 2007.
Brian Roberts has been honored by Institutional Investor magazine as one of America's top CEO, by the National Association for Multi-ethnicity in Communications, by the Partnership for a Drug-Free American, and by The Police Athletic League of Philadelphia. He received the Simon Wiesenthal Center's Humanitarian Award in 2004 and, together with his father, the UJA Federation of New York's Steven J. Ross Humanitarian Award in 2003.
Both father and son are members of the Cable Television hall of Fame, and are well known for their leadership in industry, civic, and humanitarian endeavors.
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$10 Million to Establish NTU's Lien Chinese Enterprise Research Centre
The Nanyang Technological University (NTU) received SG$10 million (US$6.4 million), with government matching, from the Lien Foundation to launch the Lien Chinese Enterprise Research Centre.
The new center will spearhead research on Chinese enterprise and promote a better understanding of Chinese enterprise behavior and strategy.
Capitalizing on China's emergence as an important source of growth for the 21stcentury and a regional economic powerhouse, the center aims to establish Singapore, and specifically NTU, as a key center for Chinese enterprise research. It aims to help Singaporeans to succeed in the global marketplace by equipping them with the skills and knowledge to seize expanding business opportunities in China.
The Center will leverage NTU's expertise in Chinese-related research and education and tap into its links with the Chinese business community and government agencies that could facilitate further expansion of economic relations. It also provides support for Singaporean companies in China through the sharing of experiences, business ideas and the latest business trends. By creating such a knowledge network, the center aim to shorten the learning curve for doing business in China.
Lien CERC will generate a series of case studies through interviews with entrepreneurs and site visits to Singaporean and Chinese companies across industries. These case studies will provide a information for companies interested in a better understanding of the vast China market. NTU students from related subject majors will also benefit by participating in the compilation of case studies on a project basis. During the course of study, they will delve into the life stories of entrepreneurs and their achievements.
Lien CERC is officially launched by His Excellency Mr Zhang Yun, Chinese Ambassador to Singapore on Monday at Nanyang Executive Centre, NTU. Governors of Lien Foundation, senior executives from Singaporean and Chinese enterprises, as well as academia and researchers, were present at the ceremony.
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NIH Awards Additional $10.2 Million to UW Research Team
The National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute at the National Institutes of Health has awarded $10.2 million over five years to a bioengineering research partnership at the University of Washington devoted to heart muscle regeneration through tissue engineering and embryonic stem cell research.
The award is the second such five-year grant in this amount that the research team has received. The partnership is led by Dr. Buddy Ratner, director of UW Engineered Biomaterials, Department of Bioengineering, and Dr. Chuck Murry, professor of Pathology and co-director of the Institute for Stem Cell and Regenerative Medicine at the UW, and managed by Dr. Kip Hauch, scientific coordinator, Department of Bioengineering. Dr. Thomas Wight and Dr. Margaret Allen of the Hope Heart Research Program at Benaroya Research Institute at Virginia Mason (BRI) will also direct aspects of the research project.
Known as the BEAT (Bioengineered Allogeneic Tissue) partnership, the interdisciplinary UW team is composed of chemists, bioengineers, biochemists, cell biologists, pathologists, cardiologists and cardiac surgeons working together to develop a new approach to treat myocardial infarction, or heart attack. The new therapy is a comprehensive approach to heart muscle repair that will involve a combination of molecular medicine, cell therapy, and new concepts in tissue engineering.
The team will use tissue engineering methods to create miniature units of living heart muscle, which will be injected into the damaged heart wall to promote remuscularization, stimulate new blood vessel development, and minimize scar tissue formation. The researchers predict this approach will help restore contractile function in the heart. They also will develop methods to pre-treat the damaged heart muscle to improve survival of the implanted tissue and help the repair process. In addition, bioengineers will develop new medical devices to inject the engineered cardiac muscle and will test the success of their therapy in animal models.
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Donation Spurs Research and Teaching Excellence at HKUST
The Synergis-Geoffrey YEH Chair Professorship was inaugurated Tuesday at The Hong Kong University of Science and Technology (HKUST) with a HK$5 million (US$643,300) donation jointly from Dr M T Geoffrey Yeh, Chairman of Hsin Chong International Holdings Ltd, and Synergis Holdings Ltd (a Hsin Chong Group Company).
Speaking at the Inauguration Ceremony held today, HKUST Council Chairman Dr John C C Chan and President Paul C W Chu expressed gratitude to the donors for their generosity.
The Chair Professorship is established to attract or retain outstanding, internationally renowned scholars for the School of Business and Management at HKUST, and also represents a new chapter in academic and research development because the named Professors can use the funding provided by their chairs to enhance the quality and quantity of their research and teaching activities.
The first appointee to the Chair Professorship is Prof Gary C Biddle of the Department of Accounting.
The check was presented to Dr John Chan and President Chu by Dr Geoffrey Yeh and Chairman of Synergis Holdings Ltd Prof Chia-Wei Woo.
Prof Gary C Biddle is the Head of Department of Accounting and Associate Dean of Business and Management. He is a leading expert in financial and management accounting, having published more than two-dozen articles in premier research journals and the financial press on topics including management accounting, inventory management and cost allocations etc. Under his leadership, the School's Accounting faculty has been ranked among the top ten in the world in publications in the top-three academic journals in five of the past six years, a record exceeded by no other school and tied by only one, University of Chicago.
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MSU, U-M, Wayne State Create University Research Corridor
Michigan State University, the University of Michigan and Wayne State University announced the creation of the University Research Corridor, an ongoing alliance to work jointly to transform, strengthen and diversify Michigan's economy.
The University Research Corridor universities are a magnet for investment and jobs, and bring more than $1.3 billion in federal research grants into Michigan each year. By marshalling their resources, the presidents of the three universities are reaching out to businesses, policymakers, innovators, investors and the public to speed up technology transfer, make resources more accessible and help attract new jobs to the state.
Over the past five years, the universities—which together bring 95 percent of federal academic research dollars to Michigan—have announced an average of one invention every day. Collectively these discoveries have led to more than 500 license agreements for new technologies and systems.
The corridor partners work in collaboration on many projects, among themselves and with business communities on topics ranging from technology transfer and commercialization to entrepreneurship and urban policy. Michigan's resulting "brain gain" is a prime example of research as a magnet for economic development.
The goal of the URC is to enhance state and national competitiveness in an era of globalization, and to communicate the role and activities of the universities to improve their ability to engage in meaningful partnerships.
Research Corridor universities spark regional economic development via invention, innovation, technology transfer and by attracting smart and talented people to our state. The presidents stressed their commitment to the state's success and creating a Michigan that sustains a high quality of life.
Each year, the universities produce more than 26,000 graduates, including 3,800 new engineers, 1,300 PhDs, 1,400 MBAs, more than 1,000 new doctors and nurses and 54 percent of the science and engineering graduates. Together, they have more than 1 million living alumni, including more than 100 CEOs of major companies in metro Detroit.
The University Research Corridor partners will provide tools and university resources to improve their outreach and collaborative efforts. The presidents also announced the launch of a joint Web site, www.urcmich.org, to make their efforts and resources more easily accessible and understandable to the public, and to give stakeholders the means to more easily locate potential partners within the universities.
Detroit News columnist Dan Howes has argued that "all the right tools are here" for an economic comeback, calling the three universities "the closest thing Michigan has to Silicon Valley—an intellectual powerhouse."
The three are working to develop the state's most promising growth sectors, including alternative energy, medicine, life sciences, nanotechnology, homeland security and transportation.
The University Research Corridor builds on the foundation of the 1999 Life Sciences Corridor initiative where the three collaborated to help develop a new industry from the ground up. The three constitutionally autonomous universities are each involved with projects across the state, with impact reaching around the globe.
Last year, the U.S. Base Realignment and Closure Commission (BRAC) decided to retain 4,100 jobs at the Detroit Arsenal in Warren, home of TACOM and to bring an additional 1,000 jobs here because of the area's convergence of transportation experts from universities and private industry. Meanwhile, new Michigan employers like Toyota, Google and Hyundai said proximity to local research universities was one of the main reasons they moved here.
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President Hennessy Announces New Discretionary Funding for Humanities Faculty
A new five-year pilot program will ensure that every tenured and tenure-track faculty member in the humanities has a minimum of $5,000 in discretionary funding available to support research every year, President John Hennessy announced at the Nov. 30 Faculty Senate meeting.
Hennessy said he had met over the past year with humanities faculty looking for ways in which the university might provide additional assistance in support of humanities research and scholarship.
The funding program will affect the approximately 220 active, tenure-line faculty with an appointment in the humanities, but does not include visiting faculty, lecturers or emeriti faculty, said Maria Riasanovsky, academic program associate for the humanities. The Office of the Dean of Humanities and Sciences will be sending out a memo detailing eligibility and implementation, she said.
A letter will be sent to each eligible faculty member shortly, Hennessy said, noting that the new program funding will be in addition to the funding supplied through the presidential junior faculty research grants program.
The additional funding will allow humanists to work more effectively, said Stephen Hinton, senior associate dean for the humanities and professor of musicology in the Department of Music.
Humanities scholars "do a lot of our work on our own, writing articles and books, and we don't tend to work in teams. At the same time, we belong to communities of scholars." These activities will be supported by the new program, he said.
Most humanities faculty up to this point have received no more than $1,000 a year in research support from the university, Hinton said. For scholars who are traveling to archives or attending conferences, the funding didn't go very far, he said. "But five times the amount opens up some exciting possibilities."
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NIHR Awards Cambridge Biomedical Research Center
Cambridge University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust, in partnership with the University of Cambridge, has been designated as one of the government's new Comprehensive Biomedical Research Centres, and will receive substantial new Research and Development funding from the National Institute for Health Research (NIHR).
Cambridge University Hospitals (Addenbrooke's and the Rosie) with the University's School of Clinical Medicine are one of the very few places in the UK that provides a center of research excellence together with a complete clinical infrastructure.
The site, with the associated presence of the Medical Research Council, and now Cancer Research UK, is already considered a leading center for biomedical research.
In the hospital, clinical teams work alongside world-class scientists and it is this co-existence of experience and expertise that fosters translational research - turning basic science into new drugs and new therapies to improve patient care.
The Biomedical Research Centre will address major health priorities in cancer, cardiovascular disease, obesity diabetes and metabolic disorders, imaging, infection and immunity, genetics, musculoskeletal disorders, neurosciences, transplantation, women's health, and capacity development and training.
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UCLA Warns of Unauthorized Access to Restricted Database
UCLA is alerting approximately 800,000 people that their names and certain personal information are contained in a restricted database that was illegally and fraudulently accessed by a sophisticated computer hacker.
This database contains certain personal information about UCLA's current and some former students, faculty and staff, some student applicants and some parents of students or applicants who applied for financial aid. Approximately 3,200 of those being notified are current or former staff and faculty of the University of California, Merced, and current or former employees of the University of California Office of the President, for which UCLA does administrative processing.
In a letter being sent to affected individuals, Acting Chancellor Norman Abrams said that personal information about at least some of the individuals was obtained by the hacker but that there is no evidence that any data has been misused. The database includes names, Social Security numbers, dates of birth, home addresses and contact information. It does not include driver's license numbers or credit card or banking information.
UCLA blocked access to the Social Security numbers and the database when suspicious activity was detected on Nov. 21 and immediately activated its information technology security incident team. UCLA also notified the FBI, which is conducting an investigation.
Even though UCLA's ongoing investigation at this time indicates only that the hacker sought and obtained some of the Social Security numbers, out of an abundance of caution, the university decided to notify all 800,000 people whose names are listed in the restricted database.
UCLA began sending notification letters and e-mails on Dec. 12, as soon as possible after determining that personal data was potentially accessed and after retrieving individual contact information. The letters suggest that recipients contact credit reporting agencies and take steps to minimize the risk of potential identity theft.
To provide information and respond to queries, UCLA has established a Web site, http://www.identityalert.ucla.edu, and a toll-free call center, (877) 533-8082.
Access to the restricted database was gained by a computer trespasser utilizing a software program designed to exploit an undetected software flaw, thereby bypassing all security measures. A problem was detected Nov. 21 when computer security technicians noticed an exceptionally high volume of suspicious database queries. An emergency investigation indicated that access attempts had been made since October 2005 and that the hacker specifically sought Social Security numbers.
For the past decade, UCLA has been systematically upgrading computer security but had not yet identified the vulnerability maliciously exploited by the computer hacker. During this time, UCLA installed and strengthened firewalls and intrusion-detection systems, removed Social Security numbers from computer screens and written reports, and prohibited their storage on portable devices, among other steps.
The UCLA incident is the latest in a string of computer security breaches affecting financial institutions, universities and other large employers. State law requires notification when personal data is reasonably believed to have been acquired.
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UT Dallas Combats Network Intrusion
Approximately 6,000 students, faculty, and staff of The University of Texas at Dallas as well as other individuals have otentially had sensitive information exposed by a computer network intrusion.
The information that may have been exposed includes names, addresses, Social Security numbers, e-mail addresses and telephone numbers.
The individuals whose information is known to be involved at this time include:
- In the Erik Jonsson School of Engineering and Computer Science, students and faculty as well as applicants for admission dating back as far back as 1993.
- All staff and faculty of the University who were employed from September 1999 through August 2005.
The potential disclosure of data was discovered Sunday, Dec. 10, by University information resources staff.
Most but not all of the networked computing resources on campus have been assessed. Investigation is ongoing and updated information will be issued via email and the University homepage, www.utdallas.edu. The University has reported the intrusion to the appropriate law enforcement authorities who are working with the assistance of UT Dallas staff to ascertain the nature of the potential criminal offense involved and appropriate jurisdiction.
The University is in the process of contacting those individuals whose information could have been exposed. Individuals who are concerned that they might be affected by this intrusion are encouraged to go to https://www.utdallas.edu/datacompromise/form.html to submit contact information so that the University can respond, or call 972-883-4325 to leave contact information. Further information about protecting yourself (whether your information has been disclosed or not) is available at http://www.utdallas.edu/datacompromise/
Information resources staff will continue to assess and respond to the situation. As a part of that assessment, University computers are being automatically checked by a program that is continuously sweeping the network to search out attempted intrusions.