Dream-pop Minnesotan Vansire gave the grooviest performance to the crowd at Songbyrd on Aug. 18. Vansire has been releasing music on Bandcamp since 2015 but have been making music together since high school, and their style has evolved into something truly special. It really is the contrast of Josh Augustin’s voice against the instrumentals that creates a dreamy atmospheric sound. Augustin’s rich and easy-going melodies shift ever so slightly as he lilts over the bouncing bassline and synth. 

Their most recent release “Metamodernity” utilizes Josh’s hooky synth sounds against Sam Winemiller’s guitar. At their performance, and on some of the tracks, Sam’s younger brother Isaac Winemiller plays bass. On stage he dances back and forth, making exaggerated faces at the members of the opening bands, Kainalu and Jeff Draco, who are standing in the wings of the venue, as well as the incredible drummer Joanna Quinn who is a friend of the band from Oberlin College. 

In addition to the band’s rich instrumentals, their lyrics examine everything from abandoning youth, to losing love, and to gorgeous descriptions of the landscapes that paint their Midwest hometown, Rochester, Minnesota. In “Angel Youth,” Josh sings “You could quit your day job / We’d call ourselves the Angel Youth / You’ll find us traveling and making tunes.” While in “Metamodernity,” Josh opts for a more descriptive narrative, singing, “It’s humid in the Midwest / From June to July / All beneath a pinkish sky / From the wildfires / Which mantle the horizon line.” 

The band has a kind of friendly feeling as they perform. Whether that can be attributed to the Midwestern stereotype or if it is more based off Vansire’s close-knit group, it is infectious and wonderful. Augustin leans into the microphone between each song, thanking everyone for coming out. After finishing “Set Piece,” he laughs, recalling their Philadelphia show, “When we played in Philly, like three songs later, this guy yelled out ‘Play Set Piece!’ and I was like, we just played that. Where have you been?” “Oh god, that’s going to become some kind of new weird meme now, isn’t it?”

Though Vansire played almost exclusively rhythmic and danceable songs that showcased Augustin’s voice, their discography also includes many songs that are mainly instrumental or have less vocal presence. These, I suggest, are best listened to in the fall, preferably with some crunchy leaves underfoot. 

Another highlight of the show was their choice of the encore. Vansire does sound like a bit like Beach Fossils’ distant cousin, with a similar dusky guitar hook line in songs like “Suits and Coats.” Both have an incredible grasp of repetition, so it only makes sense that Vansire chose to cover “What a Pleasure” by Beach Fossils. Hopping up and down on stage and nailing the recognizable hooks, Vansire had the whole venue shaking and screaming the lyrics. 

Winemiller and Augustin are both currently students at Oberlin Conservatory of Music and the University of Minnesota, respectively. Balancing music with school is not easy, but they are sure to keep making strides in the dream-pop genre with new releases. Hopefully soon.

Photo credit: Josh Augustin’s tonality makes Vansire’s music truly special. Photo by Anjali DasSarma.

The Institutional Review Board (IRB), the formally designated UMBC committee to approve, monitor, and review research involving humans is currently accepting applications from students to join.  Graduate and undergraduate students are considered full members of the board. Student members serve for a one (1) appointment and review research protocols, attend meetings, and vote on issues with the aim to protect the rights and welfare of the research subjects. Appointments begin in October 2019. The board typically meets 5 times during the academic year: October, December, February, April and June. Meetings are on Mondays from 10 am-12 pm.

This is a terrific opportunity to learn about ethical issues related to research. Also, being a member of the IRB looks good on a curriculum vitae or resume. Please contact Dr. Susan Sonnenschein, IRB Chair, (sonnensc@umbc.edu) no later than September 20, 2019 if you wish to apply. Your email should include a copy of your curriculum vitae or resume and a few sentences describing your research interests and experience. We are particularly interested in people who have had research experience with human participants.

The Office of Research Protections and Compliance (ORPC) offers training and guidance throughout the protocol review process. Please contact the ORPC at compliance@umbc.edu or click on the IRB's web page for additional information.

“New things will brew”

Each research floor in the ILSB is connected along its entire length and bounded by glass on all sides. Inside the labs, benches are configurable so that instrumentation can go in and out as needed. Neon-colored glass surfaces double as marker boards for quick sketches of lab protocols, equations, or encouraging doodles. Just outside the lab are spaces, overlooking an airy atrium, where graduate students can write and undergraduates can meet with mentors. 

It’s a research environment that looks toward the future. These shared, open spaces are designed to help anyone who enters sense that they have a role to play in addressing big challenges, discovering more about the world, and developing the next generation of scientists.

“The ILSB provides an unprecedented opportunity to have researchers who are intellectually next to each other also be physically next to each other,” shares Greg Szeto, assistant professor of chemical, biochemical, and environmental engineering (CBEE). “When you share a kitchenette with a biologist, a chemist, an engineer and somebody from public policy, it’s inevitable that new things will brew.”

Szeto is part of the new Translational Center for Age-Related Disease and Disparities (TCARD²), an initiative made possible by the ILSB. The initiative is led by Chuck Bieberich, professor of biological sciences, and also includes faculty from CBEE and psychology. Bieberich’s lab focuses on cancer biology, especially prostate cancer, while Szeto works on cancer therapies that leverage the immune system. “When we bring our two approaches together, hopefully it will lead to new research, new papers, new grants,” and new cancer treatments, Szeto says.

On top of the collaborative advantage, the ILSB offers all the equipment labs need in one place. Szeto’s students were already collaborating with biologists, but that used to mean carrying samples to instruments in other buildings. Not anymore. “Now everything is going to be in the ILSB,” Szeto says. “Being able to centralize the operation both intellectually and logistically is so critical.”

Bringing the outside in

Faculty in the new Interdisciplinary Consortium for Applied Research in Ecology and Evolution (ICARE²) are also taking up residence in the ILSB. Tamra Mendelson, professor of biological sciences, leads the initiative. It also includes faculty in CBEE, geography and environmental systems (GES), and marine biotechnology.

“The collaboration is designed to bring together evolutionary biologists, ecologists, conservationists, social scientists, and engineers,” says GES professor Chris Swan. “We want to build a powerful network of people to collaborate on training graduate students, solving environmental problems relevant to Baltimore, and building out UMBC’s focus on ecology.” The ILSB will offer ICARE² researchers the opportunity to work in a shared space for the first time.

A new, state-of-the-art environmental science lab in the ILSB will also open up the possibilities for these researchers. It’s a space “devoted to environmental work,” which often means, “It’s dirty!” Swan says. The lab will enable larger-scale controlled experiments that can be hard to manage in the field and that would be incompatible with a lab focused on molecular work, where the slightest bit of stray DNA could ruin an experiment.

“A total game-changer”

Chris Hawn, assistant professor of GES, is excited to move to the ILSB because of the doors it will open for their environmental research. Hawn runs chemical analyses on spiderwebs to measure local air quality. They are collaborating with an advocacy group for houseless people that will train them to collect webs in spaces where they are living to send to Hawn for analysis. The goal is that they can use the findings to advocate locally for their health and make the best possible choices about where to stay. 

Hawn also studies how pollutants in waterways are passed through the food chain from small aquatic insects, to spiders, to birds.

The ILSB “is a total game-changer for me,” Hawn says. With the instrumentation available at the ILSB, “There are protocols where I can get ‘level unlocked.’ It just opens things up for me and my students.”

Hawn is the first researcher assigned to their floor of the new building. They note, “I’m excited to make the space my own, but also excited that it will be a shared space very soon. It will be interesting to see how we can work together.”

Even if they aren’t working together directly, having other researchers nearby is a good thing, Hawn adds. “Working simultaneously and having people around you is important, especially for graduate students who are spending a lot of their time in the lab.”

Coming to life

Sarah Leupen, senior lecturer in biological sciences, has been looking forward to teaching in the ILSB—and not just because it’s a new space, but because it’s a new kind of space. Even the building’s largest learning spaces are designed to help students connect with each other and the material in an engaged, intimate, collaborative way. 

One of Leupen’s favorite rooms is filled with small round tables that seat six students. Screens and whiteboards appear all around the room and there is plenty of open space. “It’s this kind of flipped classroom that makes possible truly active learning, the kind of teaching that is most well-supported by research.”

Bill LaCourse, dean of the College of Natural and Mathematical Sciences, which administers the building, is thrilled to see it come to life. “For me, it’s been a decade of planning, design and construction to create this building that can serve the needs of our community in essential ways.” 

“The process really epitomized the ethos of UMBC, involving the input and collaboration of so many people across the university,” he shares. “To see it evolve from a germ of an idea to the magnificent building we see today is a tribute to UMBC’s strength in the life sciences and commitment to student and faculty success.” 

Banner image: Undergraduate researchers outside the TCARD² lab. All photos by Marlayna Demond ’11 for UMBC.  

Since its groundbreaking two years ago, the UMBC community has watched the new Interdisciplinary Life Sciences Building rise next to The Commons. Students and faculty wondered what it would look like on the inside, and what it would be like to study, take classes, do research, or just hang out in the new space. 

Well, the time has come! As the ILSB opens its doors for the fall semester, Retrievers are eagerly trying to figure out how the ILSB will fit into their routines. Grabbing a seat in the atrium for a quick break with friends before class? Conducting experiments in an open lab with floor-to-ceiling windows? Learning about any number of topics in classrooms designed from the ground up for active learning? Taking your lunch to a patio adjacent to the green roof? However you use the ILSB, here are nine features you shouldn’t miss:

1) Stunning staircases 

Science isn’t just what happens inside the ILSB, it’s built into the building itself. Two staircases in the building exemplify the designers’ dedication to detail: this bright orange spiral staircase has an uncanny resemblance to a DNA helix, don’t you think? And the stairs in the building’s atrium are cantilevered to appear to float in thin air—reminding us all that anything is possible.

2) Sundial 

As you ascend the stairs or peer over the building’s inner balconies, don’t be nervous about the spot of red light slowly migrating across the floor. It’s not a laser experiment gone rogue—it’s a sundial. On the solstice, it traces a special line on the floor. Old and new technologies come together in the ILSB, reminding us all that we’re standing on the shoulders of giants.

3) Green roof

There’s life bursting from every corner of this building, including UMBC’s fifth green roof. Green roofs provide insulation that reduces heating and cooling energy requirements, plus they help purify the air and water. Unfortunately, the roof is off limits to games of ultimate frisbee or other activities, but the adjacent patio is a great spot to enjoy lunch or just take a breather between classes.

4) Environmental systems lab

This lab allows researchers to get their hands dirty conducting environmental experiments in a way never before possible at UMBC. A controlled trial looking at how insects respond to different water chemistry? Sure. An experiment to determine how plants respond to different temperatures? Go for it. Risk of contaminating molecular experiments that could be ruined by a stray speck of dirt? Nada. Have fun, ecologists!

5) Innovative classrooms

UMBC is consistently ranked in the top 10 nationally for undergraduate teaching for many reasons. One of them is our commitment to teaching in an active-learning and flipped-classroom format. This is when students first encounter material traditionally presented in lectures at home via readings or short instructor-produced videos. That way, class time is saved for team-based problem solving. Implementing this practice has often meant completely revamping core classes such as introductory biology and chemistry. The ILSB adds to UMBC’s capacity to offer this kind of educational experience.

6) Art installation

It’s a bird! It’s a neuron! It’s…whatever you want it to be. Volkan Alkanoglu’s brightly-colored artwork INFLIGHT, which seemingly floats from three large walls in the ILSB’s atrium, is striking no matter how you look at it. But did you know the artist carefully incorporated elements from UMBC research into the design, from brain cells to flying orioles? Now that’s interdisciplinary. What do you see? 

7) Multi-user all-gender restrooms

Although UMBC is currently in the middle of remodeling many of the restrooms on campus for all-gender use, the ILSB is the first building at UMBC designed with all-gender multi-use in mind from the beginning. These restrooms pave the way for a more inclusive and convenient bathroom experience for our students, faculty, and staff of all gender identities. Learn more about the university’s plan for the addition of all-gender restrooms on campus. 

8) Etched windows

Look closely at the windows—what do you see? The pattern etched on the glass, created especially for UMBC, was designed to symbolize reeds and grasses on the shores of the Chesapeake Bay. The “fritting,” as it’s called, serves to deter bird strikes and reduces the energy required for heating and cooling. It’s a subtle way to honor our unique location and continue to protect it.

9) Brick pathway

As further homage to UMBC’s geography, the curving brick pathway around the ILSB imitates a stream that once flowed across campus (it now runs underground), and all the plants you see are native to the region. So take a stroll, or simply sit on a bench and take it all in, from buzzing pollinators to bright flowers.

*****

All photos, including header, by Marlayna Demond ’11.

UMBC’s Lee Blaney and research partners have published a landmark study on contaminants of emerging concern in the Chesapeake Bay. Their article in Science of the Total Environment is the first research study that quantifies concentrations of antibiotics, estrogenic hormones, and UV-filters in multiple locations of the Bay.

Blaney, an associate professor of chemical, biochemical, and environmental engineering, conducted the research with Ke He, Ph.D ‘17, chemical engineering, and Ethan Hain ‘21, chemical engineering. They also partnered with collaborators at the U.S. Forest Service and the Maryland Department of Natural Resources. 

Underway since 2016, their work highlights the importance of understanding how previously unexamined chemicals impact the environment. The project has been primarily funded by Maryland Sea Grant through a Program Development Fund to Blaney, and a Graduate Research Fellowship to Hain.

The researchers studied the prevalence of contaminants of emerging concern in water, sediment, and oyster tissue collected from the Eastern Shore of the Chesapeake Bay. Their study of how accumulated UV-filters negatively impact the environment is the first of its kind. UV-filters are one of the primary ingredients in personal care products, such as sunscreen and cosmetics. The accumulation of these UV-filters can impact organisms and animals.

Maintaining a healthy Chesapeake Bay 

While the Chesapeake Bay is one of the most well-studied ecosystems in the United States, Blaney says that little is known about the sources, occurrence, and impacts of contaminants of emerging concern in this important estuary. 

“As the health of the Chesapeake Bay continues to improve due to recent nutrient and sediment regulations, it is important to consider new threats from specialty chemicals like antibiotics, hormones, and UV-filters,” he explains. “The first step to ensuring the safety of the Chesapeake Bay is to measure the concentrations of these contaminants in water, sediment, and tissue.”

The discharge of antibiotics into the Chesapeake Bay may speed up the spread and development of antibiotic resistance, a global public health challenge, explains Blaney. He adds that estrogenic hormones and UV-filters are considered priority chemicals of concern due to reported toxicity and other effects on reproductive systems in aquatic and marine organisms. 

Over the past two years, Blaney and his team have continued to collect data throughout the Chesapeake Bay to better understand differences in contaminant levels. They have found relatively high levels of antibiotics in the Chesapeake Bay, and the reported concentrations are in the range that can select for antibiotic resistant bacteria. In addition, most samples have contained UV-filters, including two common in sunscreens that were recently banned from being sold in Hawaii due to concerns that they are toxic to corals. 

The researchers argue that their findings suggest a need to improve municipal wastewater treatment and agricultural waste management to remove contaminants of emerging concern and prevent their introduction to the environment. In this regard, Blaney and his collaborators are actively working on a number of technologies to improve the transformation of contaminants into benign molecules that do not have antibiotic or estrogenic properties or other toxicity concerns. 

Continuing to expand the research

In 2017, Blaney received a CAREER Award from the National Science Foundation to study contaminants of emerging concern and their effects on the urban environment. That research focused on the Gwynns Falls watershed in Baltimore, and the Chesapeake Bay research is an extension of that work. In addition to the public and ecological health concerns highlighted in the current article, Blaney also continues to examine issues like antimicrobial resistance and the impact of agricultural runoff.

Blaney was recently named associate director for sustainability engineering and liaison to the University System of Maryland (USM) vice chancellor for environmental sustainability. In this capacity, he will work closely with collaborators at the University of Maryland Center for Environmental Science and will lead additional sustainability-focused research projects within the USM. 

Banner image: Lee Blaney, left, working with a student in the lab. Photo by Marlayna Demond ’11 for UMBC.

The University of Maryland, Baltimore County (UMBC) Department of Physics, Atmospheric Physics Program (ATPH), invites applications for a tenure-track assistant professor position with a research focus in one or more of the following research areas: regional to global scale climate modeling with emphasis in boundary layer processes, numerical simulation of aerosol-cloud interactions, computational fluid dynamics, or other areas related to numerical weather/climate simulation to begin on or before August 2020. Exceptionally qualified candidates may also be considered at a higher level of appointment. Candidates are expected to contribute to the diversity and excellence of the department and group through research, teaching and service.  We seek candidates who have the capacity to establish a vigorous, externally funded research program that complements existing faculty research interests, and who are able to teach effectively both the undergraduate physics curricula and graduate atmospheric courses in the ATPH program.  A PhD in Physics or in a closely related field is required. 

UMBC is a dynamic public research university integrating teaching, research and service.  It is located in the Baltimore suburbs, 15 minutes from Baltimore’s Inner Harbor and 30 minutes from Washington D.C., in an area with a high concentration of federal and private research laboratories and research universities. The Department of Physics currently consists of 21 tenure-track and 16 research faculty, 46 PhD students and 160 undergraduate majors.  The department offers a BS and BA in Physics, and both MS and PhD degrees in Physics and in Atmospheric Physics.  Research expenditures currently exceed $6M per year. For more information, see http://physics.umbc.edu. The ATPH program has 5 tenured/tenure-track professors and about 15 graduate students and a vibrant and well-established long-term collaboration with various NASA research centers including at the Joint Center for Earth Systems Technology, (JCET; http://jcet.umbc.edu).

UMBC is an affirmative action/equal opportunity employer. Candidates from diverse backgrounds, including women and under-represented minorities, are particularly encouraged to apply. Interest and experience in working with a diverse student and faculty population is valued.  UMBC and the Department of Physics are dedicated to creating an inclusive, collegial environment where all faculty members can achieve excellence. Information on faculty diversity initiatives and faculty groups is available at http://facultydiversity.umbc.edu, and information on the resources provided to help balance work and personal priorities are available at http://hr.umbc.edu/work-life-balance/. 

Interested candidates should upload an application letter, a CV, detailed research and teaching plans, a statement of commitment to Inclusive Excellence in Higher Education, and the names and addresses of at least three references on the Interfolio website at apply.interfolio.com/65991. Applications will be received until a suitable candidate is identified. Applications received by November 1, 2019 will receive full consideration.