University News
$400 Million Donation to Support HKUST's Drive Towards World Class Excellence
The Lee Shau Kee Foundation Limited has generously pledged a donation of HK$400 million (US$51.18 million) to the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology (HKUST) to mark his support of the University's development as a global leader in education and research.
In recognition of Dr Lee's generous support, the University will name its new campus now being developed the "Lee Shau Kee Campus", name a building on the new campus that would house the HKUST Business School and other academic units the "Lee Shau Kee Business Building", and honor Dr Lee as a Founding Patron of the Institute for Advanced Study at HKUST.
The new campus of HKUST is located atop the main campus. It is scheduled for opening in 2012, to tie in with the conversion to the 4-year degree system.
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$50 Million Gift to UCSF for Cardiovascular Research and Treatment
UCSF has received a $50 million gift toward construction of a new building for cardiovascular research and clinical treatment at the University's Mission Bay campus. The grant, from The Atlantic Philanthropies, is the largest single commitment from a foundation in UCSF's history.
The new building will be a collaborative center that brings basic research scientists and clinicians together under the same roof, thus accelerating their efforts to understand cardiovascular diseases, such as heart attack and stroke. It will house the existing world-renowned UCSF Cardiovascular Research Institute, known as CVRI, and will be home to a new UCSF Center for Prevention of Cardiovascular Disease with an outpatient facility that will focus on advancing ways to predict and prevent these devastating illnesses.
This is the second major gift for the UCSF Mission Bay campus from The Atlantic Philanthropies, which was founded by New Jersey businessman and philanthropist Charles F. Feeney, co-founder of the Duty Free Shoppes chain of airport outlets. Atlantic also contributed $20 million to the Helen Diller Family Cancer Research Building, which is now under construction and will be adjacent to the proposed cardiovascular building.
UCSF has allocated $52 million from its own resources and an anonymous donor has contributed $30 million toward the building's cost, which is projected to be $241 million. The University is actively seeking major gifts from other individuals and foundations to garner the resources necessary for construction, and to meet the 1:1 match required by Atlantic. Construction of the building is expected to begin in 2008, with completion in 2011.
Cardiovascular diseases are the leading cause of death and disability in the United States, accounting for roughly 950,000 deaths each year, and are expected to increase as the population ages. Those diseases include heart attack, stroke and peripheral vascular disease, as well as asthma, cystic fibrosis and other pulmonary conditions.
The new building will enable UCSF to bring together scientists and clinicians who are now dispersed over several sites, while also integrating many levels of research aimed at understanding, preventing and treating these diseases.
By pooling physicians' knowledge of physiology and disease with basic scientists' understanding of genetics, chemistry, protein interactions, molecular and cell biology, and model systems, Coughlin said, UCSF hopes to attain a level of sophistication in thinking about disease mechanisms that would not otherwise be possible.
Facilitating that type of collaboration has been a guiding factor in planning the new facility, including its proximity to the cancer research building. Researchers in both buildings, for example, will be able to employ whole body imaging that allows them to follow cells non-invasively during normal activity and through disease processes. The cardiology clinic also will complement other UCSF Medical Center facilities planned for the Mission Bay campus, such as the proposed 289-bed, integrated hospital complex that will serve children, women and cancer patients.
UCSF has shown throughout its history that interaction of scientists with different skills and knowledge is the key to valuable discovery and quicker "translation" of research into patient care. CVRI Director Coughlin, a cardiologist and molecular biologist, knows first-hand the benefits of cross-discipline interactions. In 1990, the proximity of Coughlin's lab to that of cell biologist Vishwanath Lingappa, MD, PhD, helped Coughlin's laboratory to discover how the enzyme thrombin activates platelets to form blood clots. That discovery is now yielding a new class of anti-clotting drugs.
UCSF's commitment to translating lab research into clinical care was recognized by the National Institutes of Health in October 2006, when UCSF became one of seven universities to receive NIH funding for a Clinical and Translational Science Institute to support innovative approaches in the field.
The new 232,000 square-foot building focusing on cardiovascular disease will include "clusters" of about 20 faculty offices on each of its three floors, which are joined by a central staircase. Flexible laboratory space will accommodate nearly 500 graduate students, post-doctoral scientists and other researchers. The building will allow CVRI to increase its faculty investigators from the current 22 to 48. Up to an additional 12 faculty will be recruited jointly with clinical and basic science departments.
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$10 Million to Spur CORE's R&D at NUS
The National University of Singapore's Centre for Offshore Research and Engineering (CORE) has received a SG$10 million boost(US$6.56million) to realize its vision of becoming an offshore engineering center in research, development and application of technology for the advancement of the offshore and maritime industry.
The Agency for Science, Technology and Research (A*STAR) and the Maritime and Port Authority of Singapore (MPA) will each provide research grants of $5 million (US$3.29 million) over three years to CORE. The Economic Development Board (EDB) will support CORE through its Training and Attachment Programme. The Offshore Technology Research Program to be hosted at CORE was launched at the signing ceremony of the MOU witnessed by Mr Peter Ong, Permanent Secretary, Ministry of Trade and Industry.
Tay Lim Heng, Chief Executive of MPA said the program will allow for a coordinated approach to the research efforts of government agencies, tertiary institutions and private organizations in this sector. Prof Chong Tow Chong, Executive Director of A*STAR's Science and Engineering Research Council added that the collaboration will help "capture a holistic value chain of activities that draws on basic research and existing capabilities to leapfrog the outflow of technology to industry".
CORE is also collaborating with seven industry partners -- Keppel Offshore & Maritime Ltd, SemCorp Marine Ltd, Lloyd's Register Asia, American Bureau of Shipping, WorleyParsons Pte Ltd, J Ray McDermott Asia Pacific and Cameron International. They will work on joint research projects in offshore and marine engineering to boost the competitive edge of the industry.
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David B. Prior Named Executive Vice Chancellor for Academic Affairs
David B. Prior, executive vice president and provost at Texas A&M University in College Station, has been appointed executive vice chancellor for academic affairs of The University of Texas System, Chancellor Mark G. Yudof announced Wednesday.
Dr. Prior, a professor of geology and geophysics, has been executive vice president and provost at Texas A&M since 2003. He has been a faculty member at Texas A&M University since 1996 and has held several other administrative positions, including interim executive vice president and provost, dean and deputy dean of the College of Geosciences, and associate dean for research and associate dean for solid earth sciences.
Prior succeeds Teresa A. Sullivan, who left the UT System last June to become executive vice president and provost at The University of Michigan – Ann Arbor. Geri H. Malandra has served as interim executive vice chancellor for academic affairs since Sullivan's resignation and will continue in her current role as vice chancellor for strategic management. Prior's appointment is effective June 15.
Before joining the faculty at Texas A&M University, Prior was director of the Atlantic Geoscience Centre at the Bedford Institute of Oceanography in Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada, beginning in 1992. Previously, he held several faculty and administrative positions in the department of geology and the coastal studies institute at Louisiana State University. Prior has also held visiting faculty appointments at Clark University in Massachusetts and at the University of Manitoba.
A recognized expert in the study of underwater landslides, Prior's scholarly interests focus on sea floor geological hazards and constraints to coastal and offshore development, as well as research on river deltas and continental slopes.
Prior earned a bachelor's degree with honors and a doctoral degree in geomorphology from Queen's University of Belfast in Northern Ireland. He is a chartered geologist and fellow of the Geological Society of London.
The executive vice chancellor for academic affairs is responsible for the UT System undergraduate, graduate, and research programs conducted at the system's nine academic institutions. Through the presidents of the nine UT System academic institutions, the executive vice chancellor is responsible for academic planning and programs, budgets, facilities planning and construction, and personnel (both academic and non-academic) of those institutions.
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Stanford Engineer Awarded the 2007 Stockholm Water Prize
Perry L. McCarty, professor emeritus of civil and environmental engineering at Stanford University, has been awarded the 2007 Stockholm Water Prize for pioneering work in the design and operation of water and wastewater systems. The prize, which was announced March 22 at the Swedish embassy in Washington, D.C., includes a $150,000 award and a crystal sculpture, which will be presented by King Carl XVI Gustaf of Sweden on Aug. 16 in Stockholm.
The Stockholm Water Prize is presented annually by the Stockholm Water Institute for "outstanding water-related activities" in areas such as education, research and water management.
A member of the Stanford faculty since 1962, McCarty is widely recognized for developing relatively economical wastewater treatment processes, in particular anaerobic (oxygen-less) treatment systems that rely on complex chemical reactions carried out by naturally occurring, beneficial microbes.
He said that his work in anaerobic reactions also has led to wastewater treatment systems in which the main byproduct, methane, can be recaptured and used to power the treatment process, thus reducing the need for external power that would generate greater greenhouse emissions.
"Professor McCarty has made landmark contributions towards understanding the microbiology and chemistry of anaerobic wastewater treatment systems," according to the nominating committee's citation. "He has discovered the fundamental bases for the complex processes that now can be used in the design and operation of treatment systems. He has also tackled the important problem of organic compounds and pollutants in wastewater and underground aquifer systems. His pioneering research has allowed the development of more effective treatment practices."
The committee also noted that McCarty's recent work on microbial biofilms "has wide-ranging implications for the design of treatment systems. The landmark studies on biofilms provide useful tools for understanding the performance of microbial processes and scaling the results to large systems.
McCarty has published more than 300 papers in water science, environmental engineering and microbiology science journals, with 50 papers just in the last 10 years. His two textbooks on the chemistry, biology and design of treatment systems for municipal and industrial wastewater are still widely read.
In addition to serving on the Stanford faculty, McCarty directed the Environmental Protection Agency-sponsored Western Regional Hazardous Substances Research Center from 1989 to 2003. He is a member of the National Academy of Engineering and an honorary member of the American Water Works Association and the Water Environment Federation. He also is a fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and the American Academy of Microbiology.
After decades of research and teaching, McCarty said he is hopeful that despite climbing global populations, countries can ensure safe water supplies for their people. The issue is largely one of political will and lack of dedication to solving the problem, he added.
The Stockholm Water Foundation was established in 1990 to encourage research and development of the world's water environment by awarding the Stockholm Water Prize. The foundation's activities are administered by the Stockholm International Water Institute (SIWI)
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Shirley Ann Jackson to Receive the Vannevar Bush Award
Shirley Ann Jackson, who has led a national movement to respond to what she calls a "quiet crisis" in the science and engineering work force, will receive the Vannevar Bush Award for a lifetime of achievements in scientific research, education and senior statesman-like contributions to public policy.
Currently, Dr. Jackson is president of Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute (RPI) and the first African-American woman to receive the Bush award in its 27-year history.
Jackson also is being recognized for her advocacy on global energy security, and for innovations she implemented as chairwoman of the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (1995-1999), and for her role in leading an institutional transformation at the nation's oldest technology university.
The National Science Board (NSB) established the Vannevar Bush Award in 1980 to honor Bush's unique contributions to public service. The annual award recognizes an individual who, through public service activities in science and technology, has made an outstanding "contribution toward the welfare of mankind and the Nation."
NSB will honor Jackson May 14 in a ceremony at the State Department in Washington, D.C., where she was born and raised.
Jackson has been stating her concern about impending retirements in fields of science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) in both academe and industry for almost a decade, saying there are not enough students in the pipeline to replace the record number of retirements on the horizon in these fields. She notes the country's economic and national security depends upon its capacity for innovation--scientists, engineers and mathematicians whose numbers will dwindle over the next decade unless the trend is reversed.
She believes that waking up to the "quiet crisis" requires engaging everyone, including women and minorities who have traditionally been underrepresented in STEM fields. The crisis is "quiet," Jackson says, because it takes decades to educate future scientists and engineers, so "the impact unfolds gradually."
She says science is in crisis because "without innovation we fail--as a nation and as a world." And, she reasons that the ebbs and flows in science funding across disciplines have a "deleterious impact on the creation of a new generation of scientists and engineers"--and, therefore, our innovative capacity against a backdrop of increasing capabilities abroad.
Jackson has lectured on this topic extensively around the world. In 2002, she authored the major report, The Quiet Crisis, then took her campaign to Washington, D.C., in 2004 when she became president of the American Association for the Advancement of Science.
She was actively involved in the Council on Competitiveness' National Innovation Initiative, was among the authors of the National Academies' Rising Above the Gathering Storm report, and is on the National Governors Association Innovation America Task Force.
Jackson says it is now "time to turn rhetoric into reality," and says the solution must come from government, business and academe.
Jackson believes global energy security is the greatest challenge of our time, and has suggested energy research as a national focal point to address it much like President Kennedy's post-Sputnik call to action brought an influx of resources into science and engineering at that time. "Energy security is the space race of this millennium," she says.
Jackson's impact at Rensselaer has grown swiftly and assuredly. In 7 years, she has revitalized and transformed the 183-year-old university into a financially solid, broad-based academic institution with a much greater diversity in the sciences and technology and a much-enhanced concentration of multidisciplinary academic programs--a true renaissance for the oldest technology university in the nation.
The transformation of Rensselaer under Jackson's Rensselaer Plan has been spectacular. Her $1.4 billion campaign has already received more than $1.2 billion in gifts and gift commitments, including one anonymous, unrestricted gift of $360 million. The work has helped Jackson deepen research activities through a tripling of awards, attracting a much broader array of faculty and intellectual leaders, and stimulating entrepreneurial educational activities. Jackson's managerial plan linking programs, plans, and resource budgeting and allocation has helped Rensselaer become a national model for the transformation of higher education. Meanwhile, the 2007 Kaplan-Newsweek How to Get into College Guide cites the institution as one of 25 schools on an elite "new Ivies" list. As of the end of February, Rensselaer received more than 10,100 enrollment applications for the 2007-2008 school year, 46 percent more than the previous year, and 81 percent greater than the pool for 2005-2006. Over the past 2 years, applications from women increased 96 percent, and 147 percent from historically underrepresented students.
In addition to honoring her work at Rensselaer, the award recognizes Jackson for a lifetime of achievements in science and technology (S&T), such as success in pioneering exploration; leadership and creativity that inspires others into S&T careers; notable public service; and contributions to the nation and mankind.
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Two from UT Dallas to be Lauded at Speech-Language-Hearing Convention
Two educators at The University of Texas at Dallas will be recognized at the 51st annual Texas Speech-Language-Hearing Association (TSHA) convention later this month in Houston. Donise Pearson, director of clinical operations for UT Dallas' Callier Center for Communication Disorders and facility director of the university's Callier Richardson facility, has been named the recipient of the prestigious Jack L. Bangs Award. Jan Lougeay, director of clinical education in the university's School of Behavioral and Brain Sciences, will be inducted into the TSHA Hall of Fame.
Pearson's award is given to individual speech-language pathologists or audiologists who have contributed significantly to the TSHA and the American Speech-Language-Hearing Association (ASHA) and have demonstrated outstanding leadership and professional excellence in their field. Lougeay's award is presented to speech-language pathologists who have demonstrated exemplary commitment and contribution in serving those with communication disorders.
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Mailman School of Public Health's Sherry Glied, PhD, Named to U.S. Congressional Budget Office Panel of Health Advisors
The U.S. Congressional Budget Office (CBO) announced that Sherry Glied, PhD, department chair and professor of Health Policy and Management at Columbia University's Mailman School of Public Health, has been named to its panel of health advisers. Consisting of 14 of the nation's leading experts in healthcare, the panel examines frontier research in health policy and advises the agency on its analyses of healthcare issues. In addition, the panel of advisors helps to further the reliability, professional quality, and transparency of CBO's work. The Congressional Budget Office, established in 1974, is the blueprint for Congressional action on spending and revenue.
Dr. Glied's research on health policy has focused on the financing of healthcare services in the U.S. In 1992-1993, she served as a senior economist for healthcare and labor market policy to the President's Council of Economic Advisers, under both President Bush and President Clinton. In the latter part of her term, Glied was a participant in President Clinton's Health Care Task Force. In 1996-1997, she was a visiting assistant professor in the Department of Health Care Policy at Harvard Medical School.
Glied is an author of published articles and reports on managed care, women's health, child health, and health insurance expansions. Her book on healthcare reform, Chronic Condition, was published by Harvard University Press in January 1998. Her work in mental health policy has focused on the problems of women and children. She is a member of the MacArthur Foundation's Network on Mental Health Policy. She is co-author (with Richard Frank) of Better but Not Well: Mental Health Policy in the U.S. Since 1950, published by Johns Hopkins University Press in July 2006.
Glied is a member of the Institute of Medicine, a member of the board of AcademyHealth, a member of the National Academy of Social Insurance, and a research associate of the National Bureau of Economic Research.
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Niehaus Family to Endow Center for Globalization and Governance at Woodrow Wilson School
Investment executive Robert H. Niehaus, a member of Princeton's class of 1977, and his wife, Kate Southworth Niehaus, have made a substantial gift to endow a research and teaching center focusing on issues of globalization at Princeton University.
The newly named Niehaus Center for Globalization and Governance is part of the Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs. The center was launched in 2004, bringing together faculty members from the Woodrow Wilson School and the departments of politics, economics, history and sociology to provide an interdisciplinary forum for teaching, research and mentoring on the subjects of globalization and governance.
To engage the broader academic and policy communities, the Niehaus Center will host conferences and colloquia and participate in joint research projects with institutions such as Harvard University, the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace and the Brookings Institution, exploring topics ranging from international trade and multilateralism to security and nationalism.
The endowment will support the operations of the center and fund a new global policy task force initiative. Policy task forces are one of the hallmarks of the Woodrow Wilson School major. They bring together 8 to 10 juniors to examine and propose solutions to current domestic or international policy problems. Ten years ago the school held its first task forces abroad, limited almost entirely to Woodrow Wilson School majors. The Niehaus gift will fund the expansion of this program to Princeton students outside of the Woodrow Wilson School, and potentially to some students from host universities abroad. Participants will include Woodrow Wilson School undergraduates as well as students from other departments throughout the University and from the host institution, giving all the opportunity for a powerful cross-cultural experience.
The gift also will fund the creation of an interdepartmental postdoctoral fellowship program to study the political economies of the world's regions, ranging from Latin America to Southeast Asia, with a particular focus on the Middle East. The Niehaus Center will work with departments such as history, economics and Near Eastern studies, with the expectation of developing a generation of scholars able to analyze and make policy recommendations about issues of global importance.
The Niehaus Center will be directed by Helen Milner, the B.C. Forbes Professor of Public Affairs, professor of politics and international affairs and chair of the Department of Politics. "The generosity of the Niehaus family will enable the Woodrow Wilson School to strengthen its interdisciplinary exploration of the many challenges posed by globalization and, in partnership with other institutions and a stellar group of visiting fellows, advance the global dialogue on issues of critical importance to the international community," said Milner, a noted scholar on international trade, the connections between domestic politics and foreign policy, globalization and regionalism and the relationship between democracy and trade policy.
The Niehaus family's generosity to Princeton includes an endowed professorship in contemporary Muslim studies, especially relating to the Middle East. The current Robert H. Niehaus '77 Professor of Near Eastern Studies and Religion is Muhammad Qasim Zaman, who is widely recognized as a leading scholar on Islamic political thought and institutions, contemporary religious movements in the Muslim world and the history of Islamic law.
After graduating from Princeton with a degree from the Woodrow Wilson School, Bob Niehaus earned an MBA from Harvard Business School, from which he graduated with high distinction as a Baker Scholar. Niehaus is a managing director of Greenhill & Co., and is the founder, chairman and senior member of Greenhill Capital Partners, LLC, which manages several private equity funds that have raised $1.3 billion in capital, focusing upon the energy, financial services and telecommunications industries. Prior to joining Greenhill & Co. in 2000, he spent 17 years at Morgan Stanley & Co. Kate Niehaus graduated from Wesleyan University and also earned an MBA from Harvard Business School.
Bob Niehaus has been a Princeton volunteer, serving as a special gifts solicitor for annual giving and as a member of the Alumni Schools Committee. He also is active in a number of nonprofit organizations, including heading the boards of Good Shepherd Services and of Student Sponsor Partnership. The Niehaus family lives in Rye, N.Y.
