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Dr. Luke L.Y. Chang passed away on August 3, 2009 at the age of 75. Dr. Chang served as Professor and Chair of the Department of Geology from 1981-1989 and Professor of Geology from 1989 to 2004 when he retired as Professor Emeritus. In addition to his many peer-reviewed journal articles in the fields of materials science, ceramics, mineralogy, geochemistry and metallurgy, Luke wrote two books, "Rock-forming Minerals: Sulfates, Carbonates, Phosphates, Halides," published by Longman in 1996, and "Industrial Mineralogy: Materials, Processes, and Uses" published by Prentice Hall in 2002. In 1997, a new mineral discovered at Mont Saint-Hilaire, Quebec, was described and named after Luke for "his contributions to the study of carbonate group minerals;" the mineral is Lukechangite-(Ce), [ideally Na3Ce2(CO3)4F].

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Tony Busalacchi (AOSC and ESSIC) has been appointed Chair, Board on Atmospheric Sciences and Climate (BASC), the National Academies. The Board’s mission is to promote excellence in the atmospheric sciences, meteorology, and climate-related fields and to provide assistance to federal agencies, the science community, and the nation on these issues.
 
Sankar Das Sarma (Physics) has been ranked 18th out of 20 top scientists in a preprint entitled “Diffusion of Scientific Credits and the Ranking of Scientists” by Filippo Radicchio, Santo Fortunato, Benjamin Markines and Alessandro Vespignani which defines a ranking method based on a diffusion algorithm that mimics the spreading of scientific credits on the network.  
 
Undergraduate students Brittany Jenner (Geology) and Kaitlyn Tuley (Mathematics and Physics) were selected, in a national competition, to receive a National Consortium for Measurement and Signature Intelligence Research (NCMR) Scholarship. Administered through NSF, the NCMR Scholars Program supports human capital initiatives by DIA and the Office of the Director of National Intelligence (ODNI) and underwrites the training of future scientists and technologists to encourage them to consider the IC as a viable technical career path.
 
Rabindra Mohapatra (Physics) has been awarded an Honorary Doctorate of Science from the University of North Orissa, India in recognition of his outstanding contributions to Physics. The award was presented by the Governor of Orissa, Shri Murlidhar C. Bhandare.

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Tamara Bogdanovic (Astronomy), NSF, $148,426, “RECOVERY-MHD Instabilities and Radio-Mode Feedback in Intracluster Medium.”
 
Alessandra Buonanno (Physics), NSF, $980,000, “RECOVERY-Modeling the Dynamics and the Gravitational-Wave Emission of Co-Alescing Compact Binary Systems.”
 
Sandra Cerraiu (Mathematics), NSF, $255,000, “RECOVERY-Asymptotic problems for Stochastic Partial Differential Equations.”
 
Junye Chen (ESSIC), NASA-Goddard Space Flight Center, $100,331, “Minimizing the Impact of Changes in the Observing System on a New NASA Reanalysis to Advance the Understanding of Climate Change.”
 
Rance Cleaveland (Computer Science and UMIACS), NSF, $1,848,083, “RECOVERY-Collaborative Research: Next-Generation Model Checking and Abstract Interpretation with a Focus on Embedded Control and Systems Biology.”
 
Luis DeGoncalves (ESSIC), NASA-Goddard Space Flight Center, $161,608, “The Data-Model Intercomparison Project for the Large Scale Biosphere-Atmosphere Experiment of the Amazon.”
 
Michael Evans (Geology), NSF, $485,258, “P2C2: ENSO Paleoclimatology in Queensland, Australia.”
 
Michael Evans (Geology), NSF, $173,181, “Acquisition of a Continuous Flow Isotope Ratio Mass Analyzer for Tropical Paleoclimatology.”
 
Victor Galitskiy (Physics), DARPA, $186,000, “Stabilizing Coherent Quantum States via Many-body Quantum Control of Electronic Environments.”
 
Lise Getoor (Computer Science and UMIACS), Computing Research Association, $140,000, “Postdoctoral Research Grant for Lilyana Mihalkova.”  
 
Michael Hicks (Computer Science and UMIACS), NSF, $642,000, “SHF-Large-Collaborative Research-Ever Ready: Perpetually Available Software Systems.”
 
Michael Hicks (Computer Science and UMIACS), NSF, $300,000, “RECOVERY-TC: Medium-Collaborative Research: Techniques to Retrofit Legacy Code with Security.”
 
Wendell Hill (Physics), NSF, $220,000, “Towards Deciphering the Optimal Field – System Interaction in Femtosecond Adaptive Control.”
 
Kara Hoffman (Physics), NSF, $499,900, “RECOVERY-CAREER: Towards a GZK Neutrino Detector at the South Pole.”
 
Ted Jacobson (Physics), NSF, $212,130, “Gravitation Theory and Black Hole Thermodynamics.”
 
Carleton Kingsford (Computer Science), NSF, “RECOVERY-Better Network Modules: New Tools for Protein Network Analysis.”
 
Christopher Lobb (Physics), Army Research Office, $827,549, “Conventional and ALD Dielectric Film Studies for Improved Josephson Phase Qubits.”
 
Wolfgang Losert (Physics, IPST and IREAP), NSF, $345,000, “RECOVERY-Dynamic Contact Networks in Granular Systems: New Insights into Fracture and Segregation.”
 
Dionisios Margetis (Mathematics and IPST), NSF, $247,939, “CAREER: Thermodynamic and Kinetic Approaches for Epitaxial Material Systems.”
 
Stacy McGaugh (Astronomy), NSF, $163,995, “RECOVERY-Primordial Dark Matter Halos and the Present Mass Distribution of Galaxies.”
 
Atif Memon (Computer Science and UMIACS), NSF, $100,000, “Collaborative Research:  COMET-Community Event-based Testing.”
 
John Millson (Mathematics), NSF, $221,500, “RECOVERY-Lie Groups and their Discrete Subgroups.”
 
Jonathan Mittaz (ESSIC), NOAA, $238,232, “A Recalibration of the AVHRR Data Record to Provide an Accurate and Well Parameterized FCDR.”  
 
Christopher Monroe (Physics), NSF, $160,000, “Photonic Quantum Networking of Trapped Ions.”
 
Laurent Montesi (Geology), NSF, $299,970, “Collaborative Proposal-Influence of Plate Boundary Evolution and Global Mantle Flow on Ridge Geodynamics.”
 
Ho Jung Paik (Physics), NSF, $300,000, “RECOVERY-Null Test of Newton’s Law of Gravitation on a 100-Micrometer Scale.”
 
Neil Spring (Computer Science and UMIACS), NSF, $499,344, “RECOVERY-NeTS-Small:  Greed-Resistant Protocols.”
 
John Weeks (Physics and IPST), NSF, $112,714, “Local Molecular Field Simulations and Theory for Ions, Polyelectrolytes and Water.”

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CMPS hosted 28 students from Prince George’s and Montgomery County High Schools at its annual College Preparation Workshop Series August 3-7, 2009. The Series offers local high school students an opportunity to gain important information on applying to and planning for the college experience and explore research and careers in science and technology. Participants took part in college preparation workshops in the morning and team-based projects/lab tours in the afternoon.
 
Several faculty members participated at a symposium of the SPIE Optics+Photonics Conferences and Courses, San Diego, CA, August 2-6.
 
Steven Anlage (Physics) presented a keynote paper, “Progress in Superconducting Metamaterials,” and was Chair for the THz and Microwave Metamaterials session.  
 
Ian Appelbaum (Physics) presented his invited paper “Spin Injection, Transport, and Control in Silicon.”  
 
Radu Balan (Mathematics and CSCAMM) and John Benedetto (Mathematics) were program committee members for the Wavelets XIII conference. Balan was also Chair of the Frames: Theory and Applications session.
 
Alexander Cede (ESSIC) et al., presented on “NO2 Retrieval from UV-Vis Measurements of Phaethon Spectrograph Using the DOAS Method.”

Dennis Healy (Mathematics) presented on “Inverse Halftoning Using a Shearlet Representation.”
 
Kasso Okoudjou (Mathematics) presented on “A Family of GU Equiangular Tight Frames.”
 
Raghu Murtugudde (AOSC and ESSIC) presented on “A Regional Earth System Modeling Tool for Sustainable Resource Management.”
 
Oded Rabin (IREAP and Engineering) presented his invited paper “Directed Self-Assembly of Silver Nanocubes:  a Method for Regenerable Surface-Enhanced Raman Spectrscopy (SERS) Substrates” and was Chair of the Applications of Nanophotonic Materials session.  
 
Konstantin Vinnikov (AOSC) et al., presented on “A Three-Measurement Model Developed for Evaluating Satellite Land Surface Temperature Product.”
 
Ian Appelbaum (Physics) gave an invited seminar at CNRS Nancy, France, August 18 and was an invited speaker at the International School and Conference on the Physics of Semiconductors, Krynica-Zdroj, Poland, June 19-26 where he spoke on “Injection, Transport and Control of Spins in Silicon.”
 
A workshop entitled Matter and Electromagnetic Fields in Strong Gravity, supported by CSCAMM, Astronomy, Physics, CMPS and NASA-Goddard, and organized by Cole Miller (Astronomy), Christopher Reynolds (Astronomy) and Manuel Tiglio (Physics and CSCAMM) was held August 24-28 with the goal of bringing together selected experts in this field, and facilitate both formal and informal discussions that cuts across the traditional boundaries of X-ray astronomy, radio astronomy, accretion theory, gravity theory, numerical relativity and gravitational wave astrophysics. There were 38 participants from Germany, Japan, France and the USA.
 
Michael P. Cummings (UMIACS and Biology) was Director for the Workshop on Molecular Evolution, at the Marine Biological Laboratory, Woods Hole, MA, July 26-August 7. The program was designed for established investigators, postdoctoral fellows, and advanced graduate students with prior experience in molecular evolution and comparative genomics and included lectures and computer laboratories totaling about 90 hours of scheduled instruction. There were 56 participants from 24 countries. Cummings also organized a meeting in the Center for Bioinformatics and Computational Biology in late May to develop an open source library, and an application programming interface (API) for computational intensive likelihood calculations in phylogenetics and population genetics using general purpose processors (CPUs), graphics processing units (GPUs), and other advanced computing features.   
 
Lise Getoor (Computer Science and UMIACS) was an invited participant at the 18th Annual Aspen Institute Roundtable on Information Technology held August 4-7 in Aspen, Colorado. The Roundtable topic, “Extreme Inference: Implications of Data Intensive Advanced Correlation Techniques,” sought to understand the new techniques of inference from massive amounts of data that are being undertaken, and also explored the possibilities for these developments and the implications for public welfare and individual identity and privacy.

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Rance Cleaveland (Computer Science and UMIACS) was quoted in Pittsburgh Tribune-Review, August 19, in an article on the recent NSF grant awarded to develop computational techniques for analyzing models for such disparate applications as aircraft safety systems and pancreatic cancer. A follow-up story appeared in PhysOrg.
 
Doug Hamilton (Astronomy) was quoted extensively on his “News and Views” article in Nature, August 27, on a recent discovery by Coel Hellier et al., also published in Nature, of a hot-Jupiter planet, WASP-18b, which is orbiting the star, WASP-18, every 22.6 hours. Hamilton was quoted in the New York Times, ScienceNow, the Cleveland Leader, LA Times, MSNBC, Science Daily and The Christian Science Monitor.
 
Thomas Holtz (Geology) was quoted on MSNBC.com, August 7, in an article on recent research suggesting that large theropods preyed mainly on juvenile dinosaurs.
 
Ted Jacobson and Thomas Sotiriou (Physics) were quoted in New Scientist, August 8, in an article on their research simulating adding matter orbiting in the same direction to a black hole spinning just below its maximum rate.
 
Bill McDonough (Geology) was mentioned in the Star Bulletin, August 24, in an article on the development of a deep-ocean detector to study subatomic particles coming from nuclear reactors and radioactive decay in the earth.
 
Steven Olmschenk (Physics) was quoted in ScienceNews, August 6, in an article on beryllium ions bringing quantum computers a step closer to reality.
 
Frank Olver (IPST) was cited in American Scientist, September-October edition, on schemes for computing with astronomical, economical and mathematical numbers. Olver and Clenshaw proposed the level-index arithmetic in the 1980s.
 
Bob Park (Physics) was quoted in Wired Science, August 20, in an article on the future of human spaceflight and the upcoming Review of Human Space Flight Plans group, known as the Augustine committee, report to the White House.

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Christopher Danforth (2004 M.S. and 2006 Ph.D. Applied Mathematics, advisors James Yorke and Eugenia Kalnay), with co-author Peter Dodds, was mentioned in the Chronicle of Higher Education and Reuters, July 29 in articles on a recent paper they published in the Journal of Happiness Studies on incorporating direct human assessment of words, quantifying happiness levels on a continuous scale for a diverse set of large-scale texts: song titles and lyrics, weblogs, and State of the Union addresses. Follow-up articles appeared in Science Now and the New York Times.  Danforth is an Assistant Professor, Department of Mathematics and Statistics at the University of Vermont and is an adjunct faculty member in ESSIC.
 
William Gilmore (1978 Ph.D. Astronomy) is Vice President and Operations and Infrastructure Chair for Pacific Northwest Software Quality Conference (PNSQC). Prior to joining PNSQC, Gilmore had worked in software engineering for over 20 years in various development, management, process and consulting roles. Before moving to Oregon in 1993 to head the Software Process Improvement program at Tektronix, he worked at the Software Engineering Institute at Carnegie Mellon. Most recently he worked at Intel for 10 years with several product teams and business groups on software product quality, product life cycles and several areas of software engineering. He led CMM and product life cycle assessments and organized and led follow-on improvement programs. Gilmore has published papers in Software Engineering, Strategic Planning, and Astronomy, and has presented at several conferences.

Carey Lisse (1990 M.S. and 1992 Ph.D. Physics, advisor Michael A’Hearn) was quoted in The Washington Post, August 20, in an article on his recently published research in the Astrophysical Journal, on finding proof of a high-speed impact between two planets in a solar system similar to ours.
 
Madhu Siddalingaiah (1989 B.S. Physics) is Chief Technology Officer, Aquarius Solutions, Philadelphia, PA. For the past 20 years, Madhu has worked with large companies to develop their software technology skills. He has authored several books and technical articles about Java and XML including “Java How To: The Definitive Java Problem-Solver” and “Java Api for Dummies: Quick Reference,” and has been an invited speaker at conferences all over the world. Prior to joining Aquarius Solutions, Madhu was the principal consultant at SEA Corporation. Madhu is a rated helicopter pilot and enjoys working on motorcycles when his busy schedule permits.

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PLEASE SUBMIT ITEMS TO: Mary Kearney (mkearney@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. Tony Busalacchi, Director
IPST - Dr. Rajarshi Roy, Director
IREAP - Dr. Dan Lathrop, Director
UMIACS - Dr. V.S. Subrahmanian, Director

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