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Ted Jacobson, Physics, was selected as a University Distinguished Scholar Teacher.

Ben Shneiderman, CS and UMAICS, was honored by the International Journal of Human-Computer Interaction on his 60th birthday with a very special edition of the journal. The issue was published in January with guest editors
Catherine Plaisant, UMIACS, and Chris North, Ph.D.,'00, CS, advisor Ben Shneiderman.

The American Association of Physics Teachers awarded a very special AAPT Presidential Citation award to the University of Maryland on January 22 in recognition of exemplary efforts in teacher education research at the
College of Education, in physics and across the University. The award was presented by Harvey Leff, AAPT President.

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Michael A'Hearn, Astronomy, $274,445, NASA; "Operation of the Discipline Nodes of NASA's Planetary Data System"

Bill Dorland, Physics, and his proposal "Fluctuations Spectra and Anomalous Heating in Magnetized Plasma Turbulence" won a 2008 Department of Energy Innovative and Novel Computational Impact on Theory and Experiment (INCTIE) award for 4M hours of computer time on turbulence calculations.

Dennis Drew, Physics, $818,000, DOD; "Nano Physics and Devices"

David Hammer, Physics and C+I, $2,800,000, NSF; "Learning Progressions for Scientific Inquiry: A Model Implementation in the Context of Energy"

David Hammer, Physics and C+I, $1,500,000, NSF: "Disciplinary Experts in Science Education Research: A University of Maryland Program for Producing STEM Education Researchers"

Eugenia Kalnay, AOSC and IPST, $150,000, NASA; "Advanced Data Assimilation of AIRS Data for Weather and Climate"

Frank McDonald, IPST, $109,000, Jet Propulsion Labs; "Co-Investigation of the Cosmic Ray Subsystem"

Lucy McFadden, Astronomy, $133, 227, NASA; "Spectroscopy and Photometry of Asteroids"

Charles Mitter, UMIACS, $104,726, NSF; "Phylogeny of Lepidoptera"

Christopher Monroe, Physics, $2,122,944, DOD; "Optical Lattice Emulator"

Dana Nau, CS and UMIACS, $1,138,526, DOD; "Cognitive Architecture for Reasoning about Adversaries"

Doug Oard, CLIS and UMIACS, $199,031, IBM; "Global Autonomous Language Exploitation"

Luis Orozco, Physics, $160,000, NSF; "Quantum Optics with Cavity QED"

Luis Orozco, Physics, $124,001, NSF; "Anapole Moment Studies in Francium"

Edward Ott, IREAP, ECE and Physics, $802,626, DOD; "Exploiting Nonlinear Dynamics for Novel Sensor Networks"

Devarajan Thirumalai, IPST and Chemistry, $137,516, Boston University; "Probing the Principles Governing Pretein Aggregation"

John Trasco, Astronomy, $488,879, NASA; "Center for High Energy Astronomy"

Da-Lin Zhang, ASOC and ESSIC, $137,713, DOD; "Cloud-Resolving Simulations of Typhoon Nari"

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Ben Bederson, CS and UMIACS, was a co-author of a new book titled "Voting Technology: The Not-so-simple Act of Casting a Ballot." The book is an in-depth look at the usability of various voting machine technologies,
summarizing a three year NSF project.

Dieter Brill, Physics, was chosen as an "Outstanding Referee" for his contributions to the American Physical Society and his creative and energetic commitment to advance and diffuse the knowledge of physics.

Michael Brown, Geology, gave the Chief Guest speech during the opening ceremony of a four day conference in India held by the Geological Studies Unit of the Indian Statistical Institute in Kolkata. Brown's talk was on
Precambrian Terranes & Tectonics.

Rita Colwell, UMIACS, co-authored an article in Science on January 25 titled "Mobilizing Science-Based Enterprises for Energy, Water, and Medicines in Nigeria", which addressed the potential for a sustainable approach to supplying these basic services to Nigeria's poor by encouraging private companies to become involved.

O.W. Greenberg, Physics, gave an invited pre-reception talk, "The Discovery of Color," in Ft. Lauderdale on December 13, 2007.

AOSC and ESSIC faculty co-authored 8 or 18 articles in a new book "East Asian Study of Tropospheric Aerosols: An International Regional Experiment (EAST-AIRE)" published by the AGU and reprinted from the Journal of
Geophysical Research.

The Department of Atmospheric and Oceanic Sciences was ranked number 4 in the country by the Chronicle of Higher Education.

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Michael A'Hearn, Astronomy, was mentioned on WJZ-TV on December 31 in a story about Deep Impact. The Deep Impact probe used an Earth flyby to calibrate its instruments and help slingshot it toward comet Hartley 2, its next mission. A'Hearn was quoted in the UK Associated Press speaking about the flyby on January 1 and the story was also picked up by Science Daily and the Denver Post on January 2.

Michael A'Hearn, Astronomy, was quoted in the San Francisco Chronicle on January 25 in an article about Deep Impact and another NASA mission that returned samples of a comet to Earth in a spacecraft called Stardust.

Ben Bederson, CS and UMIACS, co-authored a new book titled "Voting Technology: The Not So Simple Act of Casting a Ballot." The book and Bederson were covered by Physorg.com on January 15 and in Technology Review on January 29.

Ben Bederson, CS and UMAICS, was the guest on an hour long public radio show in Seattle on KUOW on January 16. The topic was "The Future of the Cellphone." Bederson was also a guest on WAMU's Kojo Nnamdi's Tech Tuesday show on January 22 speaking on the same topic. Bederson was asked to do a monthly appearance on the show as well.

Richard Berg, Physics, was interviewed by the Baltimore Examiner on January 30 explaining why physics is so much fun.

James Drake, Physics and IREAP, was the co-author of a paper on magnetic reconnection as measured in the Earth's magnetosphere by the Cluster spacecraft. The European Space Agency released a press release on Drake and his research on January 22. The story was also picked up by Physorg.com on January 24.

Allison Druin, CLIS and UMIACS, was interviewed by the St. Augustine Record on January 20. Druin who heads the Human Computer Interaction Lab works one-on-one with children to find out which technology will help their
learning and where technology is headed. Druin says while mobile devices like cell phones are banned in many schools today, she expects them to become an integral part of education in the future.

Thomas Holtz, Geology, was mentioned in the Florida Times-Union on January 6 about his new book, "Dinosaurs."

Coleman Miller, Astronomy, was quoted in Science News on January 12 in the article "Heavy Find: Weighty Neutron Stars May Rule Out Exotic Core."

Robert Park, Physics, was interviewed by Newsweek on January 18. In the article Park discusses how scientists talk about UFO sightings and the history of how mankind has tried to explain the unexplainable.

Edward Redish, Physics, was mentioned in the New Scientist on January 8 in an article about new software designed to help physicists tackle complicated mathematics. The program, "Mathematica", crunches not only numbers but also symbols, enabling it to do algebra and calculus. By solving equations that might take days to solve with a pencil and paper, "Mathematica" frees up researchers to explore larger questions and to explore more problems. Redish fears that this new software can come at a cost to the students.

Derek Richardson, Astronomy, was quoted in the New Scientist on January 15 in an article about comet 8P/Tuttle which passed Earth on January 2. What makes 8P/Tuttle unique is the comet's nucleus resembles a peanut, suggesting it formed when two comets collided and stuck together. It is the first comet ever found that appears to be a so-called "contact binary."

Ben Shneiderman, CS and UMIACS, was interviewed by Government Computer News on January 22. In the interview Shneiderman says computers are making people more visual, which is a good thing.

Gerry Skinner, Astronomy, co-authored a report on particles called positrons, a cloud of antimatter at the heart of our Milky Way galaxy. Skinner's research reveals that positrons are being leaked into space from neutron stars and black holes. His paper was published in Nature on January 10 and this story was published in the New Scientist, United Press International, Asian News International and the Daily Telegraph on January 10.

V.S. Subrahmanian, CS and UMIACS, was quoted in the Manila Times on January 13 in an article about making better economic and social forecasts. Subrahmanian says that accurate forecasts depend critically upon the ability to build behavioral models of the people and groups involved. The traditional method has been to construct models based on surveys or face-to-face interviews or by immersing oneself in a community and then making hypotheses and testing correlations by means of various statistical methods. Subrahmanian thinks that computational social models may offer the best solution in cases where conventional data gathering is not possible or economic.

Ning Zeng, ASOC, was quoted in Conservation Magazine on January 4 in an article discussing his work that may offer a low-tech method to sequester atmospheric carbon. Literally cutting the dead wood out of forests, then
burying it has the potential to store away several gigatonnes of carbon each year, according to Zeng's analysis.

Eun-Suk Seo, Physics and IPST, heads the Cosmic Ray Energetics and Mass (CREAM) experiment, which received recognition on Spaceref.com, the Palestine Herald and NSF.gov on January 7 as the experiment reached a new milestone in conducting scientific observations from balloons by launching and operating three long-duration flights within a single Antarctic summer. Seo leads a team of scientists from Maryland's Institute for Physical
Science & Technology, NASA and the NSF. The investigation searches for characteristic changes in elemental composition and energy spectra of very high-energy cosmic rays that might be associated with a particle acceleration limit in supernovae.

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Dr. Robert Beauchamp, Ph.D, '88, Geology, advisor, Gault Siegrist (Geology) is the director of the Master of Science in Environmental Management program at the University of Maryland University College. It was recently
selected by the Council of the Graduate School to receive the designation of "Professional Science Masters" program.

Dave Levin, Ph.D. graduate student in CS, advisors Bobby Bhattacharjee, CS, and Aravind Srinivasan, CS, received one of four nationally awarded Microsoft Live Labs Fellowship.

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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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