Taking Stock: State of the University, Overview of Accomplishments: 2003-2004, Office of the President, University of Maryland

I . Build A Culture Of Excellence Across The Entire University

Outstanding faculty bring increases in faculty awards and honors, research funding, and national rankings.

Faculty are the key to the reputation, impact, and visibility of this university. I predicted that if we made every effort to recruit and retain faculty of the highest caliber, all indicators of excellence would go up. After five years of applying the highest standards in our recruiting, retention, and promotion actions and funding faculty appropriately, the University has distinguished faculty in every discipline who have achieved national eminence and whose work has made a measurable impact.

The quantitative measures I set for faculty excellence are all on an upward trajectory. Measures of faculty excellence include number of named chairs and professorships; number of faculty who are members of national academies; amount of funded research; number and quality of graduate students admitted; and consequent national rankings.

Faculty recognition and awards

Number of named Chairs and Professorships: 72% increase
1999 46	2004 79

Number of faculty members in national academies: 50% increase
1999 24	2004 38

These data don't tell the whole story. Our pace of entry into the national academies is rising dramatically and in national competition for major awards, our faculty are competitive with those at all the top public universities. In 2003-2004,

* The National Academy of Engineering offered membership to three faculty (largest number from any university): Gerald Galloway (Civil and Environmental Engineering), Jeong Kim (Electrical and Computer Engineering and Mechanical Engineering), and Peter Stewart (Computer Science);

* The American Academy of Arts and Sciences named three faculty members as fellows: Dan Mote (President), William Galston (School of Public Policy), and Ira Berlin (History);

* NSF Early Career Awards went to ten faculty (6 in Engineering, 3 in CMPS, 1 in BMGT), a number that puts us among the top public universities;

* NEH Fellowships were awarded to six faculty members in the College of Arts and Humanities, more than any other institution in the nation; and * Sloan Fellowships were won by four faculty members, and one won a Guggenheim Fellowship.

We had our share of stars in all disciplines whose special merit won recognition in specific categories, accomplishments worth celebrating every year. Following is a list of some of those receiving special recognition in 2003-2004.

* Jennifer Becker, Assistant Professor in Biological Resources Engineering, was honored at the White House in May as one of just 20 recipients nationwide of the coveted NSF Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers.

* Poet Jose Emilio Pacheco, School of Languages, Literatures, and Cultures, received another prestigious international award, the Premio Pablo Neruda, awarded for the first time by the President of Chile.

* S. James Gates, Toll Professor and Director of the Center for String and Particle Theory (CMPS), was selected as one of the "20 Giants in the Classroom" in the 20th anniversary edition of Black Issues in Higher Education. Gates also won the University System of Maryland Board of Regents Faculty Award for outstanding faculty mentor of the year in the entire System.

* Dan Wagner, Chair of Theatre, won his 7th Helen Hayes award -- undoubtedly a record number for this prestigious award.

* Several members of the History department were recognized for outstanding work. Ira Berlin has been awarded the American Historical Association's 2003 Albert J. Beveridge Award for the best book in Western Hemisphere history, one of the most prestigious awards given by the Association, for his book, Generations of Captivity: A History of African-American Slaves and a 2004 Anisfield -Wolf Book Award for the same work. Donald Sutherland was awarded the Palmes Academiques, the highest honor a non-French-born scholar can receive from the French Government; and Keith Olson's first book on the G. I. Bill and veterans was voted by the Phi Delta Kappa Foundation as one of the 100 "most important and influential books about U.S. colleges and universities in the 20th century."

* In January Michael Olmert of English added the Gold World Medal in Writing presented by the New York Festivals for the script for "Walking with Cavemen" to his two Emmy's for earlier documentaries for the Discovery Channel.

* From Behavioral and Social Sciences, Government and Politics professor Linda Williams' book, Constraint of Race: Legacies of White Skin Privilege in America, has won two national awards: the National Conference of Black Political Scientists' W. E. B. DuBois Award for best book of the year and the Michael Harrington Best Book Award from the Caucus for a New Political Science. Criminology professor John Laub is the 2004 winner of the American Society of Criminology's Michael J. Hindelang Book Award for his book, Shared Beginnings, Divergent Lives: Delinquent Boys to Age 70.

* Rita Colwell, former Director of NSF and a Distinguished University Professor, is among the 2005 inductees to the National Women's Hall of Fame. She joins a group of ten outstanding American women, health advocate Betty Bumpers, Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton, and architect Maya Lin, along with six historic figures.

* Barbara Finkelstein, Department of Education Policy and Leadership, was awarded the Order of the Rising Sun, Golden Rays with Rosette, presented to her by Ambassador Ryozo Kato at a ceremony held at the Ambassadors' Residence in Washington, D.C. Finkelstein was honored for her activities that foster cultural exchange between Japan and the United States in work with hundreds of students and educators over the past twenty years in the classrooms of both nations.

* James M. Hagberg (Kinesiology) was given the 2004 Citation Award by the American College of Sports Medicine in recognition of his many contributions to the fields of exercise physiology, aging, cardiovascular disease risk factors and genetics.

* Bruce Gardner, Agricultural and Resource Economics, received the Elmhirst Medal of the International Agricultural Economics Association (the highest honor the Association bestows; one awarded every third year) at their conference in Durban, South Africa, August 2003.

* Elankumaran Subbiah, Veterinary Medicine, was awarded Diplomate status in the American College of Veterinary Microbiologists. Dr. Subbiah was the only candidate in the nation to achieve this status in 2003.

* Elisabeth Gantt (Cell Biology and Molecular Genetics) was awarded the Stephen Hales prize for noteworthy service to the science of plant biology from the American Society of Plant Biologists.

* Sandra Greer (Chemical Engineering) was awarded the Garvan-Olin Medal recognizing distinguished service by women chemists by the American Chemical Society.

* Economics Professor Plutarchos Sakellaris was named chair of Greece's Council of Economic Advisors, and Government and Politics Professor Shibley Telhami was appointed to the Congressional Advisory Group on Public Diplomacy in the Arab and Muslim World.

* In August President Bush appointed Professor Ali Mosleh from the Department of Mechanical Engineering to the U.S. Nuclear Waste Technical Review Board (NWTRB). The board consists of 11 members from a list of nominations submitted by the National Academy of Sciences and selected on the basis of an established record of distinguished service.

>>Build A Culture of Excellence Across the Entire University Continued

Office of the President, University of Maryland, College Park, MD 20742