All posts by: Magazine Editor

Borel '02, INDS, to Compete in Her Third Olympics

Former UMBC track and field standout and NCAA champion Cleopatra Borel ’02, INDS, is competing in her third Olympic Games for her native Trinidad and Tobago, once again in the shot put. Borel placed 17th in 2008 in Beijing after finishing in 10th at the 2004 Games in Athens.

“We are very proud of Cleopatra and all that she has accomplished in her career,” said UMBC head track and field coach David Bobb ’02, health administration and policy. “We wish her the absolute best as she continues to represent Trinidad and Tobago and UMBC is the best possible way.”

The first ever NCAA champion in UMBC history, Borel, the lone Retriever in London this summer, holds the school record in both the indoor (17.50m, 57’5”) and outdoor (16.44m, 53’11.25”) shot put , the weight throw (18.03m (59’2”) and the hammer throw (51.28m (168’3”). Her indoor shot put school record distance was at the time her personal-best and won her the 2002 NCAA title. In addition to her championship, Borel was a three-time All-American during her time in Baltimore.

Borel qualified for her third Olympic Games back in June when she bested the field at the Trinidad and Tobago Olympic Trials with a toss of 17.98m (59’0”).

“A lot of the credit can go to former throws coach Brian King,” Bobb said. “He really worked hard with her and set her on this path.”

The 2012 Summer Olympics in London open on Fri., July 27 with the Opening Ceremony and continue through Sun., Aug. 12. The women’s shot put competition will take place on Wed., Aug. 6 and will be held at the Olympic Stadium.

This story originally appeared on UMBC Retrievers.Com.

President Obama Appoints UMBC President as Chair of National Education Commission

To UMBC’s alumni:

I am delighted to share the news that Freeman Hrabowski has been appointed by President Obama to chair the newly created President’s Advisory Commission on Educational Excellence for African Americans. The announcement was made by the White House Thursday afternoon.

The Commission will advise President Obama and Education Secretary Arne Duncan and will work closely with the newly formed White House Initiative on Educational Excellence for African Americans.  The Commission will also lead a national dialogue – engaging the business, philanthropic, nonprofit, and education communities – on African American achievement from early childhood through adulthood.

UMBC’s success in educating students of all backgrounds continues to place us at the forefront of one of the key issues of our day, and I am sure you join me in congratulating Freeman on this honor.  Thank you again for everything you do to be supportive of UMBC.

Susan Emfinger
Assistant Vice President
Alumni & Development

To learn more about the role of the President’s Advisory Commission on Educational Excellence for African Americans, please visit the White House website.

Panunto '12, M.S. GES, Wins Poster Competition

Alumnus Matthew Panunto ’12, M.S. geography and environmental systems (GES), has won the 2012 American Water Resources Association (AWRA) National Conference Student Poster Competition for his submission “Effects of valley segment sequencing on floodplain hydroperiods.”

According to the abstract, Panunto and co-authors Philippe Vidon, Pierre-André Jacinthe, and GES professor Matthew Baker’s piece used “numerical simulations of… hypothetical hydraulic constraints and empirical characterizations of valley segments and flood hydrographs in central Indiana’s White River valley” in order to understand more about the impact of “valley sequencing” on floodplain hydroperiods, or when a region is waterlogged. Along with a certificate and monetary award from AWRA, Panunto will be featured on the organization’s website, as well as in an upcoming issue of IMPACT magazine.

Panunto recently accepted a position at the USEPA in Athens, GA, where he is working on a term contract with the the Office of Research and Development’s National Exposure Research Laboratory Ecosystems Research Division. Panunto will help develop hydrologic and hydraulic watershed models and program applications for Geographic Information Systems for the EPA.

This article first appeared in UMBC Insights.

Bieberich Receives First Annual Haud Collumi Scholarship

Graduate student-athlete Joseph Bieberich ’12, environmental science, will receive the first annual Haud Collumi Scholarship, which is funded largely by alumni of the UMBC Rugby Football Club. Bieberich is captain of the men’s rugby team.

During Bieberich’s senior year at UMBC, he was voted captain & president of the UMBC men’s rugby team, and is currently entering his eighth semester with the team this fall. In the fall of 2011, the team made the playoffs for the fourth consecutive year, and in the spring of 2012, the team brought home first place trophies from both the Frostbite and Rocky Gorge Cup tournaments, with victories against many formidable east coast rugby teams.

In addition to his involvement with the men’s rugby team, he was also a member of the UMBC Honors College and the Sports Club Council. Beiberich also received the community service award and the officer of the month award at the Sports Club Council end of the year banquet in May.

This coming academic year, he plans to remain a captain on the men’s rugby team and an executive on the Sports Club Council. He is currently enrolled in an accelerated master’s program at UMBC.

This article was originally reported by UMBC Athletics and Recreation.

Portraits of Giving: Helen Phillips ’98, M.S. ’01, MechEng

We all give to UMBC for different reasons. In this “Portraits of Giving,” double alumna Helen Phillips ’98, M.S. ’01, mechanical engineering, shares the story behind why she created a scholarship in honor of her mother. As one of the first recipients of the Anthony Alvarez Award for Outstanding Students in Engineering, Phillips truly understands the importance of student scholarships — and the personal value of giving back.

VIDEO: Portraits of Giving

Portraits of Giving: Helen Phillips '98, M.S. '01, MechEng

We all give to UMBC for different reasons. In this “Portraits of Giving,” double alumna Helen Phillips ’98, M.S. ’01, mechanical engineering, shares the story behind why she created a scholarship in honor of her mother. As one of the first recipients of the Anthony Alvarez Award for Outstanding Students in Engineering, Phillips truly understands the importance of student scholarships — and the personal value of giving back.

VIDEO: Portraits of Giving

UMBC Beats Giving Goals for FY12

UMBC’s alumni showed themselves to be true “Retriever Believers” this fiscal year, helping UMBC to exceed its goals for alumni giving for Fiscal Year 2012, the Office of Development reports.

Final numbers for the fiscal year, which ran from July 1, 2011 through June 30, 2012, showed that:

  • 2,515 alumni donors contributed during FY12, a 17% increase over FY11
  • Alumni donors contributed $316,780, a 5.6% increase over our FY12 goal
  • 517 alumni gave for the first time this year; of that group, 63% are graduates of the last ten years
  • UMBC had an 84% pledge fulfillment rate (industry standard is 70%)

Annual Fund gifts have an immediate and direct impact on academic and other resources for UMBC students. Because State funds provide less than 25% of the University’s operating budget and tuition and fees alone do not cover the full cost of a UMBC education, these yearly gifts to the University help to keep a UMBC education within reach for our students and families and support the core elements of UMBC’s academic programs.

This year has been very successful for UMBC’s annual giving program,” said Dayna Carpenter, coordinator of Annual Giving. “For the first time in five years, we’ve had an across the board increase in all of our donor numbers including alumni, parents, and faculty and staff.”

UMBC’s Office of Development beefed up Annual Giving operations this year, most notably unveiling a new student Phonathon calling program. Students in the program enjoyed talking with alumni, sharing stories, comparing notes about classes – and even taking away valuable career advice.

“We are truly grateful to all of the donors who made gift to UMBC this year,” said Carpenter.  “They’ve helped to create and sustain scholarships and other important programming that enhances the lives of students at UMBC.”

Karmakar '12, Physics, Explains “Ghost Imaging” Research in Baltimore Sun

Recent UMBC Ph.D. alumnus Sanjit Karmakar ’12, physics, has been featured in a  Baltimore Sun story focusing on his work in “ghost imaging,” the process by which a picture can be taken without actually “seeing” the object which is being photographed.
The camera Karmakar designed, which Sun reporter Jonathan Pitts described as “look[ing] like a cross between an 1890s camera and a bulky steamer trunk,” utilizes the light of the sun as the source for images, which are generated on a computer using mathematics associated with quantum physics. This process can be used to generate images of objects on other continents and planets without the distortion of traditional photography, according to the piece.
Karmakar’s research has made a splash in physics research circles, the article said, and has implications in defense and other areas.
Speaking on the still-unknown aspects of the nature of light, Karmakar was quoted as saying that “[m]any people still don’t understand its true properties.”
Read the full story here.

Karmakar '12, Physics, Explains “Ghost Imaging” Research in Baltimore Sun

Recent UMBC Ph.D. alumnus Sanjit Karmakar ’12, physics, has been featured in a  Baltimore Sun story focusing on his work in “ghost imaging,” the process by which a picture can be taken without actually “seeing” the object which is being photographed.

The camera Karmakar designed, which Sun reporter Jonathan Pitts described as “look[ing] like a cross between an 1890s camera and a bulky steamer trunk,” utilizes the light of the sun as the source for images, which are generated on a computer using mathematics associated with quantum physics. This process can be used to generate images of objects on other continents and planets without the distortion of traditional photography, according to the piece.

Karmakar’s research has made a splash in physics research circles, the article said, and has implications in defense and other areas.

Speaking on the still-unknown aspects of the nature of light, Karmakar was quoted as saying that “[m]any people still don’t understand its true properties.”

Read the full story here.

Alumni To Play Chamber Concert at UMBC to Benefit Young Musicians

Five alumni will perform a chamber music concert at UMBC this month to benefit a Baltimore program that provides music lessons to inner-city youth.

The show, to be held in the UMBC Fine Arts Recital Hall on July 28 at 3:30 p.m., will feature the following alumni musicians as they take on works by Haydn, Schoenfield and Dvořák: music majors Rachele Sills ’07, Erin Terwilliger ’09, Ryan Bridgland ’06, Stefanie Watson ’05, and Winnie Nham ’09, political science.

“Music has played an important role for us throughout our lives, and we believe that every student should be afforded the opportunity to learn an instrument, regardless of socio-economic background,” said Nham.

“To us, this is truly a cause to perform for.”

A portion of ticket proceeds will go to the Bridges Program, which provides high-quality string education to youth in Baltimore City Public School at no cost to students.

Click here for more information about the concert.

Musgrove '97, History, Appears on NPR's “Tell Me More”

On July 13, alumnus George Derek Musgrove ’97, history, and new addition to UMBC’s history faculty, was a guest on the NPR radio show “Tell Me More,” where he spoke with guest host Maria Hinojosa about the history of government investigations into African-American politicians.
Listen to the interview here.
Musgrove is the author of Rumor, Repression, and Racial Politics, and spoke of his investigations into the increasing numbers of legal investigations of black elected officials from the 1960s and 1970s onward, or what he calls “harassment ideology.”
“When I sat down to a study of post-Civil Rights Era black politics when I first entered graduate school, I was interested in figuring out what happened when all the marching stopped, what happened when black folks shifted from protests to politics. And as I was going through a bunch of records, I just kept finding black elected officials claiming that the government and the news media was out to get them, that there was literally a conspiracy to undermine black leadership,” he said.
“And so I wanted to look into it. I wanted to understand if, in fact, this was going on. But more than figure out whether or not there was a conspiracy or there was a pattern, I just wanted to figure out what it meant that black folks believed this, even if it wasn’t true. And so the book is a product of trying to answer those two questions.”
This post originally appeared on UMBC Insights.

Musgrove '97, History, Appears on NPR's “Tell Me More”

On July 13, alumnus George Derek Musgrove ’97, history, and new addition to UMBC’s history faculty, was a guest on the NPR radio show “Tell Me More,” where he spoke with guest host Maria Hinojosa about the history of government investigations into African-American politicians.

Listen to the interview here.

Musgrove is the author of Rumor, Repression, and Racial Politics, and spoke of his investigations into the increasing numbers of legal investigations of black elected officials from the 1960s and 1970s onward, or what he calls “harassment ideology.”

“When I sat down to a study of post-Civil Rights Era black politics when I first entered graduate school, I was interested in figuring out what happened when all the marching stopped, what happened when black folks shifted from protests to politics. And as I was going through a bunch of records, I just kept finding black elected officials claiming that the government and the news media was out to get them, that there was literally a conspiracy to undermine black leadership,” he said.

“And so I wanted to look into it. I wanted to understand if, in fact, this was going on. But more than figure out whether or not there was a conspiracy or there was a pattern, I just wanted to figure out what it meant that black folks believed this, even if it wasn’t true. And so the book is a product of trying to answer those two questions.”

This post originally appeared on UMBC Insights.

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