E-news

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Sudip Bhattacharyya, Astronomy, received a NASA Goddard Space Science Achievement Award.

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Antonio Busalacchi, AOSC and ESSIC, $150,000, Jet Propulsion Labs; "Application of Satellite Altimetry Measurements to Observational and Modeling Studies of the Low-Frequency Upper Ocean Mass and Heat Circulation in the Tropical Pacific"

Rama Chellappa, ECE and UMIACS, and Larry Davis, CS and UMIACS, $120,000, Alion Science and Technology; "Multi-Camera Pan-Tilt-Zoom Tracking"

Michael Fuhrer, Physics, $130,961, DOD; "High Speed Graphene Strip Transistors"

Eugenia Kalnay, AOSC and IPST, and Istvan Szunyogh, AOSC, $185,118, NASA; "Ensemble Kalman filter data assimilation for Martian weather analysis and forecasting"

Daniel Kirk-Davidoff, AOSC, $107,281, NSF; "Climate Implications of the Messinian Desiccation of the Mediterranean Basin: GCM Simulations and Process Model Studies"

Martin Vol Moody, Physics, $156,000, Gedex; "Superconducting Gravity Gradiometer Sensor Testing"

Konstantinos Papadopoulos, Astronomy, $972,198, DOD; "Fundamental Physical Issues on Radiation Belt Dynamics and Remediation"

Rachel Pinker, AOSC, and Jim Carton, AOSC, $172,163, NSF; "Atlantic Air-Sea fluxes from satellites, their variability and analysis of ocean models"

Sumant Nigam, AOSC and ESSIC, $151,814, NSF; "Structure and Mechanisms of Great Plains Hydroclimate Variability"

John Trasco, Astronomy, $124,890, NASA; "Cooperative Research in the Space Sciences"

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Russell Dickerson, AOSC, gave an invited lecture at an EU ACCENT meeting in Barnsdale, England on "The Impact of Global Change on Air Quality" linking life sciences and physical sciences together.

Michael Fisher, IPST and Physics, gave a plenary lecture at the Conference of Statistical Physics, High Energy, Condensed Matter, and Mathematical Physics held in honor of the 85th Birthday of C.N. Yang, the first Chinese
winner, with T.D. Lee, of the Nobel Prize in Physics. Fisher's lecture, presented in Singapore on 1 November 2007, was entitled "Atoms and Ions: Universality, Singularity and Particularity; Boltzmann's Vision a Century Later."

James Gates, Physics, attended and participated in the opening of the new Wallenberg Research Centre at the Stellenbosch Institute for Advanced Studies in Cape Town, South Africa. His lecture was titled "Excited Giant
Gravitons from Young Diagrams."

Ron Lipsman, Mathematics, authored a new book "Liberal Hearts and Conservative Brains: The Correlation between Age and Political Philosophy."

Roald Sagdeev, Physics and IPST, hosted an International Symposium called "50 Years of the Space Age, from Competition to Cooperation" in Washington DC on November 16. The event was co-sponsored by the Russian Embassy, AIAA, AAS, NIA, AAAS and the Eisenhower Institute.

Jan Sengers, IPST, gave an invited lecture at Complutense University in Madrid on November 8.

The Burgers Symposium on Fluid Dynamics was held on campus on November 15.

An international symposium in memory of Maryland physics professor Richard A. Ferrell was held at the Max Planck Institut for the Physics of Complex Systems in Dresden Germany, November 16-17, 2007. The symposium, "Strongly
Interacting Systems: Past, Present and Future" was attend by Michael Fisher, Physics, Richard Prange, Physics and Jan Sengers, IPST.

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Joelle Carter, STAND, was featured in the Gazette News on November 8 about her role in exciting more middle and high school women about math and science.

Alison Druin, UMIACS and CLIS, was a guest on NPR's Morning Edition on November 6. There she discussed a new report from the National Academy of Sciences based on the interaction of Sony's QRIO robot and pre-schoolers at
the Early Childhood Education Center at the University of California at San Diego.

Thomas Holtz, Geology, was interviewed by Livesciene.com on October 30, asking questions about his new book, "Dinosaurs, The Most Complete, Up-to-Date Encyclopedia for Dinosaur Lovers of All Ages."

Thomas Holtz, Geology, was featured in the December issue of National Geographic in the article "Extreme Dinosaurs."

Thomas Holtz, Geology, was quoted in the Washington Post on November 16 in an article about the newly unveiled Nigersaurus taqueti, a strange creature that is helping rewrite theories about what long-necked, plant-eating dinosaurs looked like and how they behaved.

David Jacobs, CS and UMIACS, was featured on the Auto Channel on November 15 speaking about the $50,000 in grants Honda has given to seven U.S. universities. Professor Jacobs is one of those recipients and will be working on enhanced facial recognition computer algorithms for humanoid robotics. The story was also run in the Washington Times on November 26.

Eugenia Kalnay, AOSC and IPST, was quoted in the Capital News service on November 26 commenting on NOAA reports that this winter will be the coldest and snowiest in three years.

Ron Lipsman, Mathematics, and his new books were a story on Yahoo! News on November 1.

Charles Misner, Physics, was interviewed by the Guardian Newspaper on November 26 about newly found tapes that record a conversation between Charles Misner and Hugh Everett discussing the physics to prove the existence of parallel universes.

William Phillips, Physics and IPST and Changhyun Ryu, Physics, were mentioned on brightsurf.com, on November 28 in an article about an experiment at the Joint Quantum Institute here on campus. Researches have demonstrated the first 'persistent' current in an ultracold atomic gas -- a frictionless flow of particles-using laser light to stir an ultracold gas of atoms. The story was also picked up by the EE Times on November 29.

Steven Salzberg, CS and UMIACS, was quoted in Nature News on November 1 commenting on the recent genome decoding of a cat and NIH's announcement to decode 26 other mammals.

Eun-Suk Seo, IPST, was featured in the Shorthorn on November 1. The article highlighted her work with the Cosmic Ray Energetics and Mass (CREAM) experiment on-going in Antarctica.

Peter Shawhan, Astronomy, was featured in the New Scientists on October 20 discussing his research on objects called "space-time sirens" which are gravitational waves from neutron stars that cause a ripple in the fabric of
space-time.

V.S. Subrahmanian, CS and UMIACS, wrote a piece for the New York Sun on November 14 about Hezbollah releasing a video game called 'Special Force.' This demonstrates how terrorist groups have taken advantage of technology in
order to propagate their worldview.

Uzi Vishkin, UMIACS and ECE, was mentioned on the WestportNow.com on November 30 after he chose the name Paraleap for his new supercomputer.

Elizabeth Warner, Astronomy, was quoted in the York Record on November 9 speaking about Comet 17P/Holmes, which was visible to naked eye from earth because of an explosion of gas resulting from ice that transformed directly
from a solid to a gas inside the core of the comet.

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Morgan Dixon, BS, CS, '08, received Honorable Mention in the Computing Research Association's Outstanding Undergraduate Award competition for 2008.

Steven Drucker, BS, CS, '91, and David Gallerizzo, BS, CS, '91, and their company Fig Leaf Software, were listed as the #4 Interactive Design Firm in the DC area by the Washington Business Journal.

Raj Khera, BS, EE, '86, MS, EE, '88, and Vic Khera, BS, CS, '88, and their company Khera Communications, were Named a Top Local Business and awarded the Montgomery County Economic Development Advancement Award.

Katrina Lacuts, BS, CS, '08, received Honorable Mention in the Computing Research Association's Outstanding Undergraduate Award competition for 2008.

Benjamin Roca, BS, CS, '90, is now Senior Counsel for Intellectual Property
at Northrop Grumman.

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WE GREATLY ENCOURAGE ALL OUR READERS TO KEEP US INFORMED OF THEIR NEWS AND
ACCOMPLISHMENTS

PLEASE SUBMIT ITEMS TO: Larry Liff (lliff@umd.edu)

COLLEGE OF COMPUTER, MATHEMATICAL AND PHYSICAL SCIENCES

Astronomy Department - Dr. Stuart Vogel, Chair
Atmospheric and Oceanic Science Department - Dr. James Carton, Chair
Computer Science Department - Dr. Larry Davis, Chair
Geology Department - Dr. Michael Brown, Chair
Mathematics Department - Dr. James Yorke, Chair
Physics Department - Dr. Drew Baden, Chair
CSCAMM - Dr. Eitan Tadmor, Director
ESSIC - Dr. Antonio Busalacchi, Director
IPST - Dr. Rajarshi Roy, Director
IREAP - Dr. Dan Lathrop, Director
UMIACS - Dr. V.S. Subrahmanian, Director

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