It’s tempting to think that with Thanksgiving almost here the fall semester is over, but campus still has some events to keep you warm and cozy throughout the rest of the year. As you work on your final projects, we’ve lined up the perfect list of comforting activities to keep your mind relaxed!

Fuel your studies

You may be full of knowledge but we know you still have room for a snack! Come by The Commons Mainstreet at noon on Wednesday, December 4, to check out the Student Events Board (seb)’s boba bar! Connect with some friends over treats before you dive back into your books. 

Fold your worries away

The Initiatives for Identity, Inclusion, and Belonging (i3b) have been hosting hands-on origami workshops, and you can catch the last session of the semester.

Take a break from the semester’s stresses to create some snowflakes or any seasonal design. Origami Art Night is a peaceful space for you to relax, focus, and leave with a sense of accomplishment (and maybe a few paper masterpieces!) Stop by the Center for Well-Being, room 122, from 4 to 6 p.m. on December 4. 

Monologues and moments

A chance to experience the complexities of love and heartbreak? You don’t wanna miss this! Step into the Black Box Theatre for an evening of raw talent and emotion. The UMBC Theatre Department is presenting Down With Love: An Actor Showcase, directed by Joseph W. Ritsch. To witness powerful monologues and heartfelt scenes, grab your tickets now for December 6-8 (make sure to find the two free performances for students)!

Distract yourself with dance

It’s a shame you can’t dance your troubles away, but you can watch others use their talents! Come and see the amazing work of students as they showcase their skills and talents! Prepare to be wowed by these delightful dancers on December 7 in the Proscenium Theater located in the Performing Arts and Humanities Building. 

All aboard the holiday express

The magic of the wintertime is now just a bus ride away! Join (seb) on December 8 for a trip to Baltimore’s Inner Harbor Christmas Village. From 12 to 7 p.m., enjoy live festive music and browse handcrafted gifts with the waterfront as your backdrop. Bundle up, bring some spending money, and get ready to be immersed into the holiday season.

It’s the most wonderful time of the year!

The winter semester may be ending soon but the fun doesn’t stop. Enjoy free hot chocolate, snacks, crafts, and create memories frozen in time. Join (seb) on the North Lawn of The Commons for a Winter Wonderland on December 10. Bundle up and bring your friends! 

There’s snow place like UMBC to enjoy the rest of the semester! Whether you’re crafting in Commons or adventuring into Baltimore, these events will make this chilly season feel a little warmer.

By Mashaal Awan ’25 and JJ Gee ’25, UCM interns

In the fall of 1977, Jimmy Carter was president. NASA launched the Voyager I fly-by mission past Jupiter and Saturn. “The Mary Tyler Moore” show earned an Emmy for outstanding comedy, and the Atari 2600 gaming system went on the market. The Emotions’ “The Best of My Love” hit number one on the pop charts.

It was also the year Baltimore native Teresa Kearney entered UMBC as a dance major. But her route to a dance degree has been circuitous. She anticipates graduating in 2025.

From the classroom to the dance floor

At Walbrook High School in West Baltimore, Kearney danced under the direction of Beverly Marshall Johnson, who she still keeps in touch with today. As a young dancer, she performed regularly on TV channel 45’s “Soul City” (later renamed “Moonman Connection”)—a teen-dance show akin to the beloved “Soul Train” and “American Bandstand.” Kearney was accepted to UMBC with scholarships but, after two years, she heeded the call of Hollywood and decided to take a chance on professional dance opportunities on the West Coast.  

 By 1979, Kearney and her dance partner were regulars on the competitive social dance circuit. “We were getting really popular, my dance partner and I,” she says. “We got a chance to go to Hollywood and be on ‘Dance Fever’ and compete from state to state, city to city. We made our living in dance for a long time.” 

Kearney held onto the goal of a UMBC degree for decades as life intervened. In between, she took on acting roles, was an instructor for LaBlast Fitness under Louis van Amstel of “Dancing with the Stars,” graduated from the Broadcasting Institute of Maryland for air talent for radio and TV, including an FCC license, sold insurance and real estate, and helped put her nephew through medical school, to name a few of her jobs and activities. “Then my mother, Lillie Kearney, passed away three years ago. She was also a dancer, and I thought this is the time for me to go back to college,” she says. “It was on my bucket list.”   

Keeping the standard

As a long-time professional dancer—who never actually retired—Kearney continues to challenge herself by learning new techniques and styles. And she’s worked hard to re-train her body after decades dancing in heels on Latin and social dance circuits. “I’m still learning,” she says. “There’s a contemporary African dance class required now for all dance majors. For a two-and-a-half-hour class, it’s very energetic. And even though I’m 65, we all have challenges in that class,” she notes of her younger classmates.

Ballet instructor Alison Crosby could see Kearney was working hard, and says, “Teresa made it easy for me to keep the standard of the course, because she asked for no changes, asked for nothing to be different.” Plus, by showing up on time, preparing her body with gentle stretches to warm up her muscles and feet, and finding her place at the barre, Kearney modeled the appropriate dancer’s discipline that is expected in professional classes and rehearsals. 

“Her experience in dance is wide and professional,” Crosby adds, “and she modeled the discipline and respect for coming to ballet class.” As an instructor, Crosby noticed how easily Kearney connected with her much younger classmates. “Teresa was involved with even the first-years. They all saw Teresa with great respect.”

In fact, Kearney shares that her classmates in the dance program often seek her out for advice or just a listening ear. She’s noticed that these students face far more self-doubt and pressures than she did when she was a student in the 1970s.

“Last semester, I was talking with a group of students,” Kearney recalls. “We were overwhelmed with classes and how hard it is. I said, ‘Wait a minute. We’re here getting a degree….We’re here to learn even when it’s hard.’” 

“Once in a while,” Crosby says, “I’ll ask a student to show something as a positive model for the rest of the class. I asked Teresa…she just was dancing and using her eyes and her head so beautifully—everything she’d learned through her dance life. It’s still in her—that artistry through all the years and her different careers—her artistry has just stayed with her.”

By Lisa Traiger

Color in Nature, co-authored byThomas W. Cronin, professor of biological sciences, covers the world of color from the first principles of physics to the use of color in art and design. An even mix of text and beautiful images, Color in Nature (Princeton University Press, November 2024)is written in an accessible style for any reader who harbors curiosity about color in our world, without sacrificing technical accuracy.

“The book is a comprehensive look at the roles of color in the biology of plants and animals, but also its role in human society and art,” Cronin says. The authors consider the roles of color in mating, hunting, fighting, deceiving, and hiding, and call upon disciplines such as physics, genetics, chemistry, physiology, and psychology. The book’s images support concepts in the text, but they “are also intended to be beautiful and to show off the diversity of colors and patterns in the natural world,” Cronin says.

Cronin contributed to the new book alongside six other authors from England, New Zealand, and the U.S. Contributors include experts in evolution, optical sciences, neuroscience, marine science, and the creative use of color. 

Cronin’s four-decade career at UMBC has been primarily spent studying the unique visual system of mantis shrimp—unusual, wildly colored crustaceans with astoundingly capable eyes and a nasty punch. Cronin’s research group has also studied the chromatophores—light-sensing and color-changing cells—on the skin of cephalopods like squid, octopuses and cuttlefish. 

According to the The Wall Street Journal, “Color in Nature provides an accessible scientific entrée into the colors of our world, with bold, glossy images and detailed diagrams.”

David Gascoigne, an expert birder and nature blogger at Travels with Birds, found Color in Nature to be “an eminently fascinating book covering an eminently fascinating topic which has relevance to every aspect of life on Earth. I will be referring to it often, and I will cherish its wisdom. I suspect you will, too.”

On the fourth floor of UMBC’s math/psychology building, Tasneem Khambaty, associate professor of clinical psychology and behavioral medicine, meets with doctoral students Ashley Splain and Sumaiya DeLane to plan the day’s work at the Cognition, Affect, and Cardiometabolic HEalth (CACHE) lab. The task at hand is analyzing novel data collected by continuous glucose monitoring (CGM) systems. Every detail matters. Splain and DeLane are study coordinators for one of the first research studies to use CGM technology to investigate the precise associations between low and high glucose levels, cognitive function, and key Alzheimer’s disease biomarkers in middle-age and older adults at risk for type 2 diabetes. 

Now in their sixth and fifth years of the clinical psychology and behavioral medicine doctoral program, Splain and DeLane came to UMBC with years of clinical experience working with older adults. As future clinical psychologists, they were looking for a doctoral program that offered strong mentorship enabling them to build their scientific research skills and obtain hands-on experience in a variety of settings to enrich their clinical practice. The CACHE lab allowed all those things to come together. “I was looking for someone who recognized I had a unique set of experiences and skills to bring and was willing to take a chance and be open to teaching me a lot of these basics,” says Splain. “That was something I appreciated about Dr. Khambaty. She recognized what I could bring to the lab.” 

Khambaty, the principal investigator in the CGM study funded by a National Institute of Aging grant, researches the psychosocial and neurocognitive factors that influence the diabetes process across the lifespan of middle-aged and older adults. “This research introduces a cost-effective, user-friendly CGM technology as a novel, sensitive, digital biomarker for the early detection of cognitive dysfunction and stratification of Alzheimer’s disease risk, ultimately, helping older adults preserve cognitive function into later life,” says Khambaty.

Preventing type 2 diabetes

People with Type 1 diabetes cannot produce insulin at all. Type 2 diabetes happens when the body cannot utilize insulin efficiently, and this is the most prevalent type of diabetes, notes Khambaty. “It is linked to cognitive dysfunction in episodic memory and executive functions, and an increased risk for Alzheimer’s disease. “Type 2 diabetes is curable,” she says. “If we focus on prevention, we won’t need a cure.”

A barrier to prevention is reliable, diagnostic, digital CGM tools for the early detection of cognitive dysfunction and Alzheimer’s disease for people at risk of type 2 diabetes. CGM, which gives a precise assessment of fluctuating blood sugar levels, has historically been limited to people who already have diabetes. “Further research is needed to determine the role of glucose fluctuations in the prediabetic stage,” says Khambaty. This requires collaborators. 

Splain and DeLane have been involved in the study from the start, gaining valuable experience alongside an interdisciplinary team of experts in behavioral medicine, endocrinology, geriatrics, and neuropsychology. This includes UMBC’s Shari Waldstein, a professor of psychology who focuses on cardiovascular behavioral medicine and medical neuropsychology, and various physicians and nurses, including Les Katzel a physician of geriatric medicine at the University of Maryland Claude D. Pepper Older Americans Independence Center (UM-OAIC)  and the Geriatric Research Education and Clinical Center (GRECC) within the Baltimore Veterans Affairs Medical Center (VAMC).

A key benefit of being part of an interdisciplinary team is gaining firsthand experience with the infrastructure and technology essential for this level of research. UM-OAIC and the Baltimore VAMC GRECC provide the infrastructure for the research—human subjects oversight, the study’s safety monitoring, study location, nursing support, blood management, and sample storage. The technology partner, Dexcom, develops, manufactures, produces, and distributes CGM systems for diabetes management. Doctoral students witness in real-time the relationships necessary for driving innovation in this field.

Doctoral research with a global impact

Before participants visit the study nurse at the Baltimore VAMC GRECC to have the Dexcom monitor inserted, they first meet with Splain and DeLane. The pair oversees the entire process, from initial contact to final payment for participation. This includes confirming eligibility, liaising with the nurse practitioners who conduct a physical exam and blood draw, explaining how to use the Dexcom glucose monitoring device and actigraphy band, and conducting neurocognitive assessments to evaluate the participants’ learning, memory, and attention. 

“A lot of our participants have been interested in the study because they have a family history of diabetes and have seen how devastating it can be if left untreated,” says Splain. Her interests in the intersection of cardiometabolic diseases—such as diabetes, heart disease, and hypertension—and the impact of psychological factors like depression and anxiety on their development made her an excellent fit for Khambaty’s lab. “Because of that history, they are willing to give their time so that we can advance how we treat this debilitating condition,” Splain continues.

Eight days later, when the monitor is removed, the study coordinators conduct a final review with participants asking about their social networks, mood, and symptoms of depression as well as their sleep and physical activity levels. Meanwhile, back at the UMBC lab, Khambaty, Splain, and DeLane lead undergraduate students in entering, processing, and analyzing the data. The doctoral students dive deeply into the data sets and participant feedback and plan the next phase of their research. 

“Clinic psychology programs require a lot of mental shifting because we’re doing not only research but we’re also doing the clinical piece,” says Splain. “Connecting with participants, hearing their stories, and knowing that our research can hopefully move the field forward keeps us going.”

Welcoming more student researchers

Khambaty is determined to inspire more students in this field. Currently, there are six undergraduates and three graduate students in the lab. Khambaty also shares her research with undergraduate students in her upper-level seminar, Health Promotion and Disease Prevention. “Students are excited to learn about how multidisciplinary perspectives from medicine, public health, epidemiology, and psychology are needed to understand the challenges and opportunities for chronic disease prevention in the U.S.,” says Khambaty.

Now working on her dissertation, DeLane reflects on the impact of the research she’s contributed to. The study is in its second year of funding.“I find it very exciting. I’ve been amazed at how when participants first join our study, they begin to connect the dots between their blood sugar levels and their brain health later in life. It empowers them with a sense of ‘I can do something. I can take control,’” she says. Currently, her research focuses on how psychophysiological factors, such as heart rate variability, can enhance our understanding of the link between anxiety symptoms and glucose regulation, particularly in relation to social support and resilience. Over the next year, she plans to apply for internships in pediatric neuropsychology where she can further investigate how early life experiences interact with these factors to shape cognitive health in children.    

The World Health Organization reports that there is a globally agreed target to halt the rise in diabetes and obesity by 2025. Its latest reports show that about 422 million people worldwide have diabetes, the majority living in low-middle-income countries, and 1.5 million deaths are directly attributed to diabetes each year. “The fact that we are looking at people with prediabetes rather than a confirmed diagnosis empowers people to make small changes in their lifestyle,” says DeLane. “To be able to share that, and from existing research I’m familiar with, to give them a little bit of advice, it makes me feel like I’m making a bit of a difference.” 

Learn more about UMBC’s psychology programs, including the behavioral medicine track.

Register for PSYC 475 – Health Promotion and Disease Prevention.

Meet Matthew J. Levy ’00, M.S. ’08, emergency and disaster health services (EDHS), who has dedicated his career to Maryland communities. His expertise, as a physician of emergency medicine and former paramedic, has made him indispensable in the most challenging national, state, and local emergencies. Matthew was part of an emergency response team that spent 10 days in New York City, assisting in the relief efforts following 9/11. In 2015, he received the Silver Medal of Valor from Howard County Fire and Rescue Services for his role as the second tactical medic to arrive on the scene at the Columbia Mall shooting in January 2014 then transitioned to being the on-scene medical director. In 2017, he was named Emergency Medical Services Physician of the Year by the Maryland Chapter of the American College of Emergency Physicians. Take it away, Matt!

Q: Briefly introduce yourself. What’s one essential thing you’d want another Retriever to know about you?

A: I began my studies at UMBC in 1996, enrolling in the Emergency and Disaster Health Services (EDHS) program. I earned my bachelor’s degree in 2000 and my master’s in 2008 while finishing my residency training as an emergency physician at Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine. I now serve as EDHS’s medical director for the paramedic program, the very department that helped me become the clinician and leader I am today. I am also an associate professor in the Department of Emergency Medicine at Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine. 

Q: What are some of the ways you have brought leading-edge practices to Howard County?

A: In 2016, I was part of the team that launched one of the nation’s first county-wide Stop the Bleed programs in Howard County. This is a national initiative designed to foster resilience and improve patient outcomes by empowering everyday people to recognize and treat life-threatening hemorrhages, which are the leading cause of preventable death in trauma patients. In 2023, I led the implementation of the Whole Blood Program in Howard County, which improves outcomes for critically ill and injured patients suffering from shock by implementing Maryland’s first ground-based EMS blood transfusion program. This program brings life-saving whole blood to the scene of the most critical patients to help give them precious time to get to the hospital for further stabilization.

Q: Tell us about someone in the community who has inspired or supported you, and how they did it.

A: I feel incredibly fortunate to have met so many people at UMBC who have shaped my life and career—from faculty and friends to colleagues and coworkers, specifically, I’d say Dwight Polk, Bill Hathaway, Dr. Rick Bissell, Dr. Jeff Mitchell, Dr. Bruce Walz (all from EDHS), and Dr. Joel Liebman (chemistry). However, the most impactful person has been Dr. J. Lee Jenkins, my wife, whom I met while we were both EDHS undergraduates. We dated through medical school and were married when I was in residency. She is also a physician and a faculty member in the Department of Emergency Medicine at Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine.

Q: What is the one thing you’d want a potential student to know about the support you can find at UMBC?

A: At UMBC, we take pride in striving for excellence in everything we do. Being part of the UMBC community means contributing to something greater than oneself. Through leadership, service, teaching, and research, UMBC is making a positive impact on the world. My UMBC education provided an exceptionally strong basis in the sciences, combined with amazing training in leadership, project management, research, and teaching skills. All of these have helped me to achieve success in my career.

Q: Tell us about what you love about your academic program.

A: That’s easy… it’s the people of the EDHS department. This department is one of UMBC’s best-kept secrets. It has produced EMS leaders, clinicians, educators, scientists, and practitioners who have played a pivotal role in pioneering, innovating, and redefining the delivery of prehospital care both locally and nationally.

Q: Why did you choose emergency medicine as a career path? What do you enjoy most about it that has kept you working in this field?

A: This passion has led me to many opportunities. In addition to my work at UMBC and Johns Hopkins, I am also the medical director of Howard County Fire and Rescue, the regional medical director for the Maryland Institute for Emergency Medical Services Systems, the tactical physician with the Maryland State Police and Howard County Police, and the founding commander of the Maryland-1 Disaster Medical Assistance Team. 

Q: What advice do you wish you had received as an undergraduate EDHS student, particularly given the rapid changes in healthcare over the past few years?

A: Healthcare isn’t an easy path, but it’s one of the most noble professions and promises a rewarding career. However the journey will be long, so always believe in yourself, and always be your biggest fan and supporter. Surround yourself with the people you aspire to be like and always strive to improve yourself. This is your life to live so be sure to take the time to enjoy the journey along the way. But, don’t enjoy it too much…hard work does pay off! You’ll look back one day, maybe, 10,15, or 20 years or more later, and realize how far you’ve come.

* * * * *

UMBC’s greatest strength is its people. When people meet Retrievers and hear about the passion they bring, the relationships they create, the ways they support each other, and the commitment they have to inclusive excellence, they truly get a sense of our community. That’s what “Meet a Retriever” is all about.

Learn more about how UMBC can help you achieve your goals.

Monday, November 18:

Peace Corps Information Table

10am-4pm – Commons Main Street

 Meet Maryland’s Director of International Affairs! 

4:30pm – 5:30pm – Virtual

Meet UMBC alumna Mary (Mendy) Nitsch who serves as Director for International Affairs in the Office of the Secretary of State for Maryland.  Ms. Nitsch will discuss how her graduate studies in Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages (TESOL) and teaching experiences in the US and abroad prepared her for state-level policy work.  In this virtual session, you’ll have the opportunity to learn from Ms. Nitsch’s experience and ask questions to get advice about a career in international public policy. Register for this session by completing the online form before 12:00 noon on 18 November.

Register Here!

Fulbright English Teaching Program & English Language Fellows Info Session

7:30pm – 9pm

Register Here!

Tuesday, November 19:

International Career Collective: Virtual Career Expo 

1pm – 4pm – Virtual (link to come)

University of Waikato Study Abroad Info Session

4:30pm – Virtual

Join here!

Fulbright U.S. Student Program Info Session

5pm – 6pm – Virtual

Register Here!

Fulbright-Hays Program for P-12 Teachers

5pm – 6pm – Virtual

Register Here!

Celebrate International Student Athletes: Men’s Basketball vs Hampton

7pm – Chesapeake Arena 

Wednesday, November 20:

University of Galway Study Abroad Info Session

11am – Virtual

Join here!

Celebrate International Student Athletes: Women’s Basketball vs American

6:30pm – Chesapeake Arena 

EPIK – Teaching English in Korea

7pm – 8pm – Virtual

Register Here!

Thursday, November 21:

Semester Exchange Opportunities at Universität Kassel

10am – Virtual 

Join here!

Celebrate diverse cultures at UMBC with Intercultural Living Exchange (ILE) 

7:30-9pm (Harbor Hall Multipurpose Room)

Friday, November 22:

Intercultural Engagement Prep Course Info Session

12pm-1pm – Virtual 

Register here! 

Meet David M. Williams, M.S. ’02, emergency health services (EHS) management, a scholar-practitioner of the “Science of Improvement,” and a co-author of Quality as an Organizational Strategy: Building a System of Improvement. With 25 years of experience in quality improvement, he has worked with leaders and teams worldwide to develop people’s abilities to make rigorous, results-driven improvements and adopt quality as an organizational strategy. Take it away, David!

Q: What’s one essential thing you’d want another Retriever to know about you?

A: I advise leaders worldwide to use the science of improvement to improve processes, products, and services. My experience in organizational systems began when I was a paramedic and got my master’s in EHS management at UMBC. My education led to me becoming an ambulance system expert and an internationally respected improvement advisor. I have a Ph.D. in organizational systems from Saybrook University. 

Q: What brought you to UMBC?

A: After I earned a B.S. in emergency medical services management from Springfield College, I was looking for a graduate program that would allow me to study from my home in Austin, Texas, while I worked full-time as a paramedic. I decided on UMBC because it had a unique virtual graduate program in EHS management that met all my criteria. 

Q: What do you love about your academic program?

A: As a student in the UMBC EHS program, I was introduced to literature and best practices that helped my professional development early in my career. The faculty comprised industry leaders, and their support and networks in the field helped me build my knowledge and skills. I credit my graduate work at UMBC as positioning me for career success.

Q: What’s the one thing you’d want someone to know about the support you find at UMBC?

A: I was a remote student in the early days of online degree programs. UMBC worked hard to create a robust academic learning experience. The faculty have served as lifelong mentors, and my peers made a community of learners nationwide and internationally.

Q: Who in the UMBC community has inspired you or supported you?

A: EHS adjunct faculty Mike Taigman has been a mentor and supporter since we first met in his class in the late ’90s. He was an expert paramedic and consultant. He encouraged me to publish my first paper and introduced me to the editor of an industry publication. He sponsored me to speak at my first national conference. He wrote a recommendation in support of my first leadership role as the chief quality officer of Austin EMS. He introduced me to healthcare improvement, which has been my career for more than 15 years. His mentorship and support have been a constant contribution to my career success. We still talk each week.

Images above: David Williams and Mike Taigman, UMBC EHS faculty, at the National Association of EMS Physicians (NAEMSP) Annual Meeting.

Q: Tell us about your current job. What do you like most about it?

A: I am a self-employed advisor, teacher, and author—an internationally respected scholar-practitioner of the Science of Improvement. With 25 years of experience in quality improvement, I have worked with leaders and teams worldwide to develop people’s abilities to make rigorous, results-driven improvements and adopt quality as an organizational strategy. I also recently co-authored Quality as an Organizational Strategy: Building a System of Improvement. The book describes an approach to leading organizations based on W. Edwards Deming’s charge that leaders need a new theory of leadership and a strategy built on quality. The book defines quality as a strategy and describes a framework of five activities for leaders that can lead to both immediate results and long-term performance. 

Image right: Quality as an Organizational Strategy: Building a System of Improvement

* * * * *

UMBC’s greatest strength is its people. When people meet Retrievers and hear about the passion they bring, the relationships they create, the ways they support each other, and the commitment they have to inclusive excellence, they truly get a sense of our community. That’s what “Meet a Retriever” is all about.

Learn more about how UMBC can help you achieve your goals.

Nearly a year ago, a group of engineers and scientists including UMBC physicists became one of 10 teams to successfully submit a proposal to NASA to develop the Advanced X-ray Imaging Satellite (AXIS). In October, the AXIS team learned that they were one of the final two instrument designs selected for further development. Over the next year, each of the two teams will receive $5 million to flesh out their plans as part of what NASA calls a “Phase A study.” Then NASA will review the proposals and select one of these two instruments for construction and testing, with plans to launch in the early 2030s. 

Adi Foord, assistant professor of physics, and Eileen Meyer, associate professor of physics, serve on the AXIS leadership team, and during the proposal development phase, Foord co-led the sub-team focused on supermassive black hole evolution. The AXIS team is led overall by Chris Reynolds at the University of Maryland, College Park and deputy lead Erin Kara at MIT. 

X-rays come from extremely hot processes such as exploding stars or the accretion of black holes, so tracing them back to their source can paint a picture of galactic formation. As scientists search for life beyond Earth, X-rays could even offer clues about potentially habitable planets.

“We’re extremely excited that AXIS has been chosen for Phase A study! AXIS represents a huge leap forward in high-resolution and high-sensitivity imaging that will allow us to study the early universe and trace the growth of the earliest supermassive black holes,” Foord says. “It’s a unique opportunity to answer some of the most fundamental questions in astrophysics. With AXIS, we’ll have the sensitivity and resolution to detect faint X-ray signals from galaxies in the early universe, offering unprecedented insight into how supermassive black holes formed and evolved over cosmic time.”

A new kind of explorer

AXIS and the other satellite design selected for further study, PRIMA—also led by scientists in College Park—are competing to be the first in the new Probe Explorer class of NASA missions, which fit neatly between its flagship missions and smaller missions.

“Both of the selected concepts could enable ground-breaking science responsive to the top astrophysics priorities of the decade, develop key technologies for future flagship missions, and offer opportunities for the entire community to use the new observatory, for the benefit of all,” said Nicola Fox, associate administrator, Science Mission Directorate at NASA Headquarters.  

“In observational astronomy we are now in the era of big and sensitive surveys of large portions of the sky,” Meyer adds. “AXIS is not only 10 times more sensitive than its predecessor, the Chandra X-ray Observatory, it also has the ability to make high-resolution images over a much larger sky area, or field of view. This is transformative for deep surveys, and AXIS will synergize with a lot of other missions and observatories operating in the 2030s.”

Ian Stockwell ’03, information systems and financial economics, M.A. ’06, economic policy analysis, and Ph.D. ’14, public policy, has spent his 20-plus-year career analyzing healthcare operations. One major inefficiency he sees in the U.S. healthcare system is an overreliance on clinical medicine when other interventions, such as support accessing healthy food and safe housing, are also needed. 

“We have a health system that under-invests on social needs,” Stockwell says. “It is failing a lot of people.”

Now an associate professor in information systems at UMBC, Stockwell recently launched a new project, supported by a five-year, $3.4 million grant from the National Institutes of Health, to address this shortcoming. He is partnering with a major Medicaid health plan to build a machine-learning-powered system to help identify patients with social needs—factors, such as food insecurity or financial stress—that impact an individual’s ability to maintain their health. The system will also help determine how best to connect these patients with social support systems on a long-term basis.

The system will use multiple individual- and community-level data sources to predict which members use the emergency department to fulfill social or non-urgent needs. It will also identify the hurdles that frequently prevent individuals from engaging with a community-based social needs organization.

The dream outcome, Stockwell says, is that the system provides robust support to healthcare providers for effectively engaging with people with social needs. “We could then take the infrastructure that we build and work to propagate it through the healthcare system. Ultimately, we want to use what we create to help people by shrinking disparities in health outcomes in this country.”

The study team brings together researchers from multiple departments and colleges at UMBC, including Tera Reynolds, James Foulds, and Osman Gani from the Department of Information Systems; Sameera Nayak from the Department of Sociology, Anthropology, and Public Health; Lucy Wilson from the Department of Emergency and Disaster Health Systems, and Joby Taylor, Ph.D. ’05, language, literacy, and culture, from the Shriver Center.

“As a career-long UMBCer, I’m excited that this project helps broaden the footprint of NIH funding at the university. It also pushes the boundaries of what an interdisciplinary collaboration can mean,” Stockwell says.

UMBC is leading a new initiative, in partnership with several Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs) and minority-serving institutions (MSIs) in the region, that’s aiming to expand the research compliance capacity of mid-size (universities with 15,000 or less students) and smaller universities to better adhere to emerging federal research security policies. 

To address the challenges associated with expanding research compliance capacity at institutions at these sizes, UMBC is partnering with the University of Maryland, Eastern Shore, Morgan State University, and Delaware State University to develop the Research Integrity, Security, and Compliance (RISC) program. RISC is supported through a five-year, $3.9 million grant from the National Science Foundation’s Growing Research Access for Nationally Transformative Equity and Diversity (GRANTED) program. The program’s goal is to address systemic barriers within the nation’s research enterprise by improving research support and service capacity.

Principal investigator (PI) Karl V. Steiner, vice president for research and creative achievement, and co-PI Christine Mallinson, assistant vice president for research and scholarly impact, will lead the multi-institutional RISC program. 

“Mid-size institutions, along with MSIs and HCBUs, are expected to keep pace as new policies and guidance emerge, but they may not have the same ability or capacity to do so, compared to larger and more highly resourced research institutions,” explains Mallinson. “RISC will help us develop and then implement these evolving compliance structures and processes for smaller universities.”

Research security, according to the nation’s federal guidelines on government-supported research, is defined as “safeguarding the research enterprise against the misappropriation of research and development to the detriment of national or economic security, related violations of research integrity, and foreign government interference.” As part of the RISC program, UMBC will create, test, and implement a model for how mid-sized and smaller research universities can adhere to new and emerging research security policies.

That process, Mallinson explains, includes developing training modules on research security and compliance for researchers and research administration staff. The model will be further developed and evaluated among the partnering RISC institutions. 

The program will also support expanding the team in UMBC’s Office of Research Protections and Compliance (ORPC) and an additional cybersecurity specialist role in the Division of Information Technology, as well as supporting an increase in compliance staffing at the partnering institutions. Mallinson shares the “RISC Roadmap” will be publicly available for other institutions to assist them in responding to research integrity, security, and compliance guidance and meeting institutional needs.

“UMBC is at the forefront of this conversation of what it looks like for mid-sized institutions and smaller, emerging research institutions to build their research infrastructure in this area,” says Mallinson.

“I am very pleased about our multi-institutional, regional partnership and the significant support by the NSF that will allow us to address these pressing issues of research compliance and to create a blueprint for other smaller and mid-size research institutions,” adds Karl Steiner. “We have already benefited from the input provided by our partners during the proposal process.”

In addition to the RISC program, Mallinson has also been working to educate undergraduate students on careers in research administration with the GRANTS MADE Research Administration Internship. The internship, also funded by NSF’s GRANTED program, was created to expand and diversify the research administration workforce. UMBC’s Alexis Johnson ’24 and current senior Andy Quach, both financial economics majors, were a part of the internship program’s inaugural cohort. This summer, Quach continued his potential career interests in research administration with an internship with the ORPC. Quach helped to review and audit active research protocols and drafted various compliance documents. 

Mallinson adds that prospective interns may also have the option to work with the ORPC team, allowing for a synergistic opportunity to train the next generation in this critical area of research security and compliance.