UNM Assistant Professor of Anthropology Sherry Nelson spends as much time peering at teeth as a dentist, but her time is in the laboratory looking at teeth of animals who roamed the earth in the Miocene era between 6.3 and 12 million years ago. Nelson’s fascination with this era is because that’s when the earth’s climate and ecology were changing into something close to the world we see now.
Photo: Sherry Nelson
Nelson uses the information from the teeth of primates - artiodactyls, perissodactyls and proboscideans - to understand what they ate. It’s an indirect way to determine what kind of vegetation grew in northern Pakistan where the fossils were collected. The Potwar Plateau, south of Islamabad is a special place where researchers can find a variety of fossils from the past 20 million years. They are easily accessible as erosion exposes them.
Nelson is part of a group of researchers investigating the way a changing climate impacted vegetation and the animals who fed on it. As the landscape changed from forest and woodlands to savannah, they found three things. Most forest browsers maintained dietary habits and disappeared. Some species adapted their diet to include different plants and persisted for another million years. And a few species kept altering their diet as climate changed and survived the transitions.
Their findings are detailed in a recent paper published by the National Academy of Sciences. It can be found at: Miocene Mammalian Record.
Nelson examines carbon and oxygen isotopes in the teeth. These isotopes vary in plants according to how much water and light stress they are under, as well as how plants photosynthesize. An animal incorporates these isotopes from its diet into tooth enamel as teeth form. Isotopes in teeth, then, reflect the foods and habitats an animal exploited, ranging from forest floor and canopy to grasslands.
Nelson combines isotopic information with findings from examining microscopic wear on tooth surfaces. She said, “I look at tiny little bits and scratches on the teeth, because they reflect the physical properties of food chewed. If you change your diet, the wear features will show those changes in a matter of days.” Her research interests are reconstructing the ecology of these past animals. She said she wants to know what they ate. What kind of habitat did they have? What was the climate like?
The research team includes Catherine Badgley, University of Michigan; John C. Barry and Michelle E. Morgan and David Pilbeam from Harvard University; Anna K. Behrensmeyer from the National Museum of Natural History at the Smithsonian Institution; and Thure E. Cerling from the University of Utah
Nelson says she is still very interested in working in Pakistan, but members of the research group haven’t been able to conduct field work there recently because of political instability and potential terrorist activity.
Media Contact: Karen Wentworth, (505) 277-5627; e-mail: kwent2@unm.edu
President and Mrs. David J. Schmidly cordially invite you to join them and the entire UNM Community for one of its oldest and most beloved campus traditions ~ Hanging of the Greens on Friday, Dec. 5, at University House. Carolers will gather in front of Poepjoy Hall at 6 p.m. to make the winding walk to University House.
Enjoy hot chocolate, biscochitos and a steaming cup of posole as we celebrate the holiday season together.
Attendees are asked to bring an unwrapped children's book to place under the University House tree. Books will be donated to UNM Children's Hospital.
Hanging of the Greens has been a tradition since the 1930's started by Lena C. Clauve, a former UNM student and UNM Dean of Women. The tradition started with students driving to the Sandia mountains, where they would gather greenery which they would use to decorate the Student Union Building.
Mortar Board began sponsoring Hanging of the Greens in the 1950s and added the luminarias as decoration. The buildings of the main campus at the University of New Mexico are outlined with luminaria for the event. The Mortar Board organizes the event each year as a part of its mission to promote service and community outreach.
For more information call (505) 277-2943.
Media Contact: Steve Carr, (505) 277-1821; e-mail: scarr@unm.edu
A new book, titled “A Field Guide to the Plants and Animals of the Middle Rio Grande Bosque,” released by UNM Press recently, is a first-of-its-kind book that provides an informative and in-depth guide to identifying plants and animals in the nature-rich ecosystem.
Photo: A Field Guide to the Plants and Animals of the Middle Rio Grande Bosque
Penned by biology researchers at the University of New Mexico including Jean-Luc E. Cartron, David C. Lightfoot, Jane E. Mygatt, Sandra L. Brantley, and Timothy K. Lowrey, several book-signings have been scheduled to help promote the handy guide.
The next event will be held Friday, Dec. 5 in conjunction with Faculty & Staff Appreciation Day at the UNM Bookstore. The book-signing at the UNM Bookstore, located at Central and Cornell N.E., will be held from 12 to 2 p.m.
Other signings include Bookworks and Bookworks on Wednesday, Dec. 10 at 7 p.m. Bookworks is located in the Flying Star Plaza at 4022 Rio Grande N.W. Also, on Saturday, Jan. 10, 2009, a book signing will be held at the Rio Grande Nature Center, located at 2901 Candelaria Rd., N.W.
Extending from the spillway below Cochiti Dam, about 50 miles north of Albuquerque, to the headwaters of Elephant Butte Reservoir, near Truth or Consequences in the southern portion of New Mexico, the Middle Rio Grande Bosque is more than a cottonwood woodland or forest. It is a complete riverside ecosystem, among the more important in the world's arid regions.
“A Field Guide to the Plants and Animals of the Middle Rio Grande Bosque” provides nearly 400 pages of information, features 800 color photographs and descriptions of more than 700 plants and animals in the Middle Rio Grande Bosque.
This authoritative guide reveals the important role of a unique riverside ecosystem. As the first of its kind for the Middle Rio Grande Bosque, the guide provides an invaluable resource for land managers, teachers, students, eco-buffs and nature enthusiasts.
For more information visit UNM Press at: http://unmpress.unm.edu/.
Media Contact: Steve Carr, (505) 277-1821; e-mail: scarr@unm.edu
“Patterns of Exchange: Weavers and Traders,” a book by UNM-Gallup anthropology professor Teresa Wilkins on the historical interactions between Navajo weavers and traders, has received the 2008 New Mexico Book Award for best non-fiction multicultural subject.
Photo: Patterns of Exchange: Weavers and Traders
The book was released by the University of Oklahoma Press in May. Wilkins has given talks and participated in book signings at a number of locations since the release of the book, including the Wheelwright Museum of Santa Fe, the Museum of Northern Arizona and the Coconino Center for the Arts in Flagstaff, the Santa Fe Indian Market and the Gallup Inter-Tribal Indian Ceremonial.
Her book is available at several locations, including Gallup’s Shush Yaz Trading Company and the UNM-Gallup bookstore; Barnes and Noble, Bookworks and Borders in Albuquerque; and the Wheelwright in Santa Fe.
Wilkins, who has a degree in art marketing and production from Appalachian State University, obtained her Master’s as well as her Ph.D. from the University of Colorado. She has been with UNM-Gallup since 1997. Her next project is set to be on Navajo weavers and traders and the Shiprock Fair in the early 1900s.
For more information on the awards, visit NM Book Award.
Media Contact: Carolyn Gonzales, (505) 277-5920; e-mail: cgonzal@unm.edu
It’s a trap. Bacteria approach tiny microscopic spheres on a sterilized surface of a medical device. They are drawn into the hollow spheres where light is turned on them, pulling the trigger on a chemical reaction. They start to die. UNM Research Professor in Chemical and Nuclear Engineering and the Center for Biomedical Engineering David Whitten and University of Florida Professor of Chemistry Kirk Schanze have spent the last decade working on electricity-conducting polymers.
These polymers have a unique trait when they are exposed to light. They produce singlet oxygen, a reactive form of oxygen that is highly toxic to bacteria, like bleach or other potent sterilizers.
The researchers theorized they could use coatings of the polymers to sterilize surfaces, so University of Florida doctoral student Jonathan Sommer developed a method to shape them into microscopic spheres, ranging in size from one to five microns. The width of a human hair is about 10 microns.
UNM chemistry doctoral student Thomas Corbitt worked with colleagues at UNM to test the spheres, using a safe laboratory strain of Pseudomonas aeruginosa, a common, persistent and lethal bacteria in hospitals. That bacterium is often introduced via contaminated medical devices and can sicken or kill patients suffering from burns, cancer, AIDS and other serious conditions. He tested the effectiveness of the light induced chemical reaction in killing the bacteria. Corbitt says, “It was very exciting to see the microspheres immobilizing and killing the bacteria so quickly.”
Whitten explained, “We expected that these hollow capsules might behave on the micro scale with bacteria much like the insect trapping Roach Motels™. We had done some work with Pseudomonas aeruginosa strain PAO1 with one of the two polymers used in constructing the capsules and found some activity against it.
"We also realized that it was difficult to kill Pseudomonas compared to other bacteria we were working with. Our finding that the ‘micro roach motels’ are far more efficient at both entrapping the bacteria and then killing them with light was a wonderful result, even taking into account that we specifically designed the capsules for this purpose.”
Microbiologist Linnea Ista, a research scientist at the Center for Biomedical Engineering, worked directly with Corbitt in the test phase. “There is something fascinating going on at the interfaces between these surfaces and bacteria,” she said. “In addition to the potential for being useful biocides, these are intriguing surfaces because they trap so many bacteria so quickly.”
Center research assistant Sireesha Chemburu noted, “The need for self sterilizing materials has gained immense importance due to its major contribution in decreasing hospital related infections. The driving force behind this research work is the direct contribution and the impact on the society. The ultimate success of this research work will be realized when we no longer have to think twice about touching a hospital door knob or whether a surgical instrument has been sterilized properly.”
A paper outlining the results will be published this week in the debut issue of American Chemical Society Journal “Applied Materials & Interfaces.” Collaborating on the paper are Thomas S. Corbitt, Sireesha Chemburu, Linnea K. Ista, Gabriel P. Lopez and David G. Whitten from UNM and Jonathan R. Sommer, Katsu Ogawa and Kirk S. Schranze from the University of Florida.
The paper is available at: Roach Motel™.
Schanze and Whitten say further tests are needed to nail down the potency of the spheres, but initial experiments indicate they wiped out more than 95 percent of nearby PAO1 bacteria after exposure to light for about an hour.
They point out the spheres are far from the only “biocide” on the market or under development, but they are unique in the materials used and the method of trapping the bacteria. That might be important as the bacteria evolve to become more and more resistant to standard disinfectants.
Funding for the research came from the Defense Threat Reduction Agency, and the spheres might be used in filters to trap bioterrorism agents. Schranze and Whitten say the materials used for the spheres are not exotic or expensive, and may have potential to be produced at industrial scale. UNM and UF filed a joint patent application for the spheres.
Media Contact: Karen Wentworth, (505) 277-5627; e-mail: kwent2@unm.edu
For the first time, the University of New Mexico and Albuquerque Public Schools will align spring break on March 15-19, 2010. The APS Board of Education approved the new schedule today.
UNM's Staff Council has advocated for the spring break alignment since 2004, to benefit UNM students, staff and faculty with children attending APS.
"It means so much to so many families to be able to spend the time together," said Laurie Mellas, executive director of the UNM Parent Association and UNM representative on APS's calendar committee.
Bob Woody, chair of the APS calendar committee, said that aligning the breaks was previously prevented by standardized tests administered at the same time as UNM's break in March. Those tests have now been moved to April, opening the opportunity for alignment.
Earlier this semester, UNM, APS and Central New Mexico Community College signed an agreement which, in addition to creating a seamless educational experience from kindergarten through graduate school, would explore
aligning the calendars of all three.
The calendars are scheduled on an annual basis. "We'll have to be at the table every year to ensure alignment continues," Mellas said.
Media Contact: Sari Krosinsky, (505) 277-1593; e-mail: michal@unm.edu
University of New Mexico Center for Development and Disability (CDD) Director Cate McClain, M.D., PT, was recognized by Mayor Martin J. Chavez with the prestigious A+ Award on Tuesday, Nov. 18 at the mayor’s State of the City Address.
McClain was given the award for her outstanding work as a community leader, making a difference in the lives of many New Mexican families living with autism.
The A+ Award originated five years ago and is awarded personally by Mayor Chavez to exemplary individuals who have impacted the city of Albuquerque as a leader, humanitarian, or community advocate.
The UNM CDD, a University Center of Excellence in Developmental Disabilities Education, Research and Service, is part of the UNM School of Medicine at the UNM Health Sciences Center.
The CDD offers various programs to help families in New Mexico living with a disability including autism.
The Autism Programs at the CDD is a collection of autism specific programs and projects that have a variety of objectives. Each program emphasizes the needs of people with autism spectrum disorders and their families.
With its staff of parents and professionals with unique knowledge of the special needs of people with autism, the CDD provides family support, technical assistance and a training network. For more information, visit http://cdd.unm.edu/.
Media Contact: Lauren Cruse, (505) 272-3690; e-mail: lcruse@salud.unm.edu
The University of New Mexico Parking and Transportation Services (PATS) recently rolled out a new and improved ride-matching service exclusive to the UNM community. The new service, operated by AlterNetRides, is a part of PATS alternative transportation programs accessible at Ride Matching.
“We wanted a closed system so that UNM commuters could take advantage of the shared destination point – UNM,” said Cynthia Martin, PATS program planning manager. “We also thought a UNM-specific system would enhance a sense of security and encourage more people to consider carpooling.”
With UNM as the regular destination for more than 30,000 students, faculty, and staff – not including commuters to UNM Hospital – UNM is the largest single destination point in the metropolitan area. In addition to meeting commuter needs, the UNM ride-matching service also seeks to reduce congestion and promote carbon emissions reductions.
Access to the ride-matching database is restricted to individuals with an email address ending with unm.edu.
To further promote carpooling, PATS also launched a program that allows regular carpoolers to share a parking permit. The permit share program is currently available only to staff and faculty, as student schedules change over the course of a year. To learn more about the permit-share program and to access an application, visit http://pats.unm.edu/carpooling.cfm.
For more information contact Brian Kilburn via e-mail at: bkilburn@parking.unm.edu.
Media Contact: Benson Hendrix, (505) 277-1816; e-mail: bhendrix@unm.edu
Funding to aid New Mexico’s higher education research institutions including UNM
Three grants, totaling more than $17.5 million, were recently awarded to New Mexico Experimental Program to Stimulate Competitive Research (NM EPSCoR) through the Department of Energy and the National Science Foundation.
The grants range from $150,000 to $750,000 per year for three years each, respectively, from the Department of Energy, to a $15 million five-year grant from the National Science Foundation for Research Infrastructure Improvement to establish New Mexico as a national laboratory for climate change research and a model for science-based education and public outreach.
“The $15 million award is significant because New Mexico was one of four states recommended for full funding,” said Dr. Bill Michener, director, New Mexico EPSCoR and University of New Mexico research professor of biology. “It is a very key area for addressing state needs with respect to understanding climate change and water resources in the state as well as the implications for society in general.”
The research team that has been assembled includes young scientists from New Mexico Tech, UNM, New Mexico State University, and New Mexico Highlands University, as well as Sandia and Los Alamos National Labs.
“It is truly a multifaceted award that not only benefits science but the whole spectrum of education in the state,” said Michener. “The project has broad impact by making the science relevant to the diverse population of New Mexico through an extensive outreach program involving seminars across the state, science cafes in rural communities, and a climate change exhibit that will be visited by 250,000 people annually at the New Mexico Museum of Natural History.
The Research Infrastructure Improvement award will support a five-year effort to improve research infrastructure, cyber infrastructure and human infrastructure in the state of New Mexico. These investments will stimulate transformative research on climate change and its impact on water resources, the economy and society. The RII grant also targets interrelated research and development opportunities of direct, immediate, and passionate concern to New Mexicans.
The project also aims to create the computational and informational infrastructure that will facilitate delivery of scientific data and information to researchers, policy makers and the community at large. New Mexico EPSCoR will also integrate an education and outreach component that creates education opportunities for K-12 students, undergraduate students and the public.
DOE EPSCoR funds will aid research in federal-state partnerships that will improve the capability of the designated jurisdiction to conduct sustainable and nationally competitive energy-related research. The implementation grant, $750,000 per year for three years with a maximum period of six years, is led by a multi-institutional team including Plamen Atanassov, professor of Chemical and Nuclear Engineering at UNM. The team includes researchers from UNM, NMSU, NMT, ENMU, Sandia National Lab and LANL.
“Dr. Atanassov’s award is a very significant achievement for New Mexico because it’s the first time our state has ever won a Department of Energy EPSCoR implementation award,” said Michener. “This one in particularly is exciting because it involves four state universities and both labs. It’s focused on alternative energy, which is one of the key components in the state’s science and technology plan.”
“One of the exciting things for New Mexico within this award is the fact that the faculty member from Eastern New Mexico University, Juchao Yan, was a post-doctorate for Dr. Atanassov at UNM. A bright and rising star, Dr. Wan is now a faculty member at ENMU. We were fortunate to keep him in the state of New Mexico.”
UNM Biology Professors Marcy Litvak ad Robert Sinsabaugh, in collaboration with Los Alamos National Labs and the United States Department of the Interior, received a three-year EPSCoR-State/National Laboratory Partnership Grant for $150,000 per year.
Titled, “Linking ecosystem scale vegetation change shifts in carbon and water cycling: the consequences of widespread piñon mortality in the Southwest,” Litvak’s research builds on research funded in a previous EPSCoR grant and complements her work on climate change, also in a previous NSF EPSCoR award.
“This award is significant because it’s tied in to the state science and technology plan, which is focused on our state’s needs. Climate change and its impact on forest, including Piñon mortality in New Mexico, is a concern in the state, regionally and also nationally. Additionally, that grant is exciting because Marcie Litvak is another rising start and a feather in the cap of our pool of emerging young scientists in the state.”
New Mexico has had only one previous award, Dr. Vakhtang Putkaradze, currently a faculty member at Colorado State with an appointment in the UNM Mechanical Engineering Department and Mechanical Engineering Associate Professor Peter Vorobieff. The award was in collaboration with Sandia National Lab.
The mission of New Mexico Experimental Program to Stimulate Competitive Research (NM EPSCoR) program is to gather resources and expertise from academic institutions, our national labs, private industry, and state and federal sources to benefit education, the environment, and the New Mexico economy.
Media Contact: Steve Carr, (505) 277-1821; e-mail: scarr@unm.edu
A recent report by the Statistical Research Center, a department in the American Institute of Physics, lists the University of New Mexico as one of the largest producers of physics degrees earned by minority students.
The Statistical Research Center, which collects, analyzes and publishes data on education and employment in physics and related fields, announced that UNM awarded a considerable number of physics degrees to Hispanic and African Americans over the last decade.
The number of bachelor’s, master’s and doctorate degrees earned by students at UNM surpassed Texas Tech, Baylor University, Tufts University, Clark University, Boston College, Emory University, University of Miami, Howard University and Georgetown University in the 2006-07 academic year.
The report was based on responses to UNM’s departmental survey of enrollments and degrees.
Established in 1931, the American Institute of Physics is a not-for-profit organization that promotes the advancement and distribution of the knowledge of physics and its application to human welfare.
For more information, contact Phillip Gonzales, senior associate dean, College of Arts & Sciences, at (505) 277-3161.
Story by Jazmen Bradford
Media Contact: Steve Carr, (505) 277-1821; e-mail: scarr@unm.edu
'Tis the time for shopping, even in these tough economic times. But, are consumers under attack from companies obsessed with branding and marketing their products? This week, “New Mexico in Focus” co-host Gene Grant sits down with Santa Fe author Lucas Conley to talk about his new book, “Obsessive Branding Disorder” “New Mexico in Focus” will air on KNME-TV, channel 5, on Friday, Nov. 28 at 7 p.m. There will be no repeat broadcast on Sunday morning.
Grant’s discussion with Conley was taped at the Nov. 20 meeting of the New Mexico chapter of the American Marketing Association, held at the Indian Pueblo Cultural Center in Albuquerque.
Then co-host David Alire Garcia talks with another local author, Chris Griscom, about her book, “The Evolution of God.” Griscom is recognized around the world as one of the foremost authorities on reincarnation, and her book looks at how man’s relationship with God is changing and how she thinks that relations needs to continue to change.
There will be no roundtable discussion on this week’s episode of “New Mexico in Focus.”
Producers of ‘New Mexico In Focus’ are Kevin McDonald and Kathy Wimmer. Closed captioning has been made possible by a gift from Mrs. Elspeth G. Bobbs.
Media Contact: Evy Todd, (505) 277-1812; e-mail: etodd@knme.org
Pamela Pyle, University of New Mexico associate professor of music, presents “Concerts in the Community,” an opportunity for music students to perform in venues outside the concert hall while benefiting UNM’s United Way campaign.
Photo: Pamela Pyle
UNM musicians perform Saturday, Nov. 22 from 5-6 p.m. in the lobby of the Center for the Arts, prior to the start of the New Mexico Symphony Orchestra concert in Popejoy Hall. Donations will be accepted during the students’ performance.
“Music is a solitary activity. The concerts are a way for the students to move outside themselves, both to draw attention to United Way needs, but also to communicate and touch people in a way that only music can,” Pyle said. Pyle, educated at Juillard, teaches and performs piano.
Pyle said that the more removed the venue is from the traditional concert hall, the easier the translation is for the musicians and the public to connect and communicate through music.
She said that students are also raising funds for United Way at a performance at Dillard’s at a fashion show Dec. 7. “Despite the fact that officially the United Way campaign ends at the end of November, many contributions come in and are accepted in December,” Pyle said.
Student performers include pianists Matthew Stewart, Juliana Jorge and Makiko Kimura. Vocalists are Ivan Miller and Andrea Kiesling. Violinist Roberta Arruda will be featured. Two sax quartets will perform.
The first group features Paul Gibson, Jonathan Robak, Chrissie Whitlock and Amy Oakes. The other group includes Marcos Colón, Jamie Schippers, Jennifer Macke and John Christiano.
Among music scheduled to be performed is Dream Variations, Daybreak in Alabama, Franck Sonata, Habanera, from Carmen; Quatuor, July, and Spanish dances and songs.
For more information, contact Pamela Pyle, pvpyle@unm.edu, or 277-5145.
Media Contact: Carolyn Gonzales (505) 277-5920; cgonzal@unm.edu
The unplugging of McColo Corporation, an online host that served machines responsible for 75 percent of daily spam, contributed to a significant reduction in spam e-mail across the country, including at UNM. The host was unplugged the first week of November, and according to UNM’s ITS Department, there was a 60 percent drop in spam both received and filtered at UNM.
The unm.edu e-mail system serves approximately 70,000 users campus-wide, though it is likely users noticed little if any change in actual e-mails received.
“The spam filtering technology we use on campus is pretty effective in blocking most unwanted email,” said Mike Carr, UNM’s Director of Information Assurance. “Given that, last year, nearly 95 percent of all Internet e-mail was spam, the removal of a major spammer will definitely reduce the amount of work our filters do. Unfortunately, some off-shore company will likely pick up where McColo left off and more spam may return soon.”
Spam is not only a nuisance, it also has the potential to carry viruses and malware and to direct users to websites designed to steal personal information. Follow the tips below to limit spam in your e-mail box.
· Use different e-mail addresses for different things. Limiting who has your e-mail address effectively limits who can e-mail you… and send you spam.
· Know who is e-mailing you. Often, spam is filtered by tools on your system network that search for key words or phrases that are common to most spammers. However, some spammers cleverly create messages that appear legitimate or from a specific person, hoping you will see it and open it.
· Keep your UNM e-mail address for UNM-related business only, and give it only to people you know and trust
Media Contact: Vanessa Baca, (505) 277-0987; e-mail: vjbaca1@unm.edu
The state of the New Mexico economy seems to be on everyone’s mind in recent weeks. On this episode of “New Mexico in Focus,” co-host David Alire Garcia sits down with various New Mexico city leaders to discuss their cities and the economy. “New Mexico in Focus” will air on KNME-TV, channel 5, on Friday, Nov. 21 at 7 p.m. and repeats on Sunday, Nov. 23 at 6:30 a.m.
“New Mexico in Focus” looks at social, political, economic, health, education and arts issues and gives them context beyond the "news of the moment." The one-hour show brings viewers important topics, opinions and insight, in an integrated and cohesive package.
This week Alire Garcia is joined at the table by Corrales mayor Philip Gasteyer, Rio Rancho mayor Tom Swisstack, Galen Buller, the city manager of Santa Fe, and Anna Lamberson, the Chief Financial Officer with the City of Albuquerque to talk about their individual cities and how the current economic crunch is impacting them. Then “New Mexico in Focus” takes a look at Santa Fe and its increased minimum wage.
Co-host Gene Grant and regular panelists Margaret Montoya, a professor with the University of New Mexico School of Law and School of Medicine, Jim Scarantino, an Albuquerque Journal columnist and moderator of NewMexicoLiberty.com, and political consultant Whitney Cheshire are joined by Laura Sanchez, the former executive director of the New Mexico Democratic Party. The group debates the potential of an equestrian center at Expo New Mexico, gaming and the Navajo Nation, the passing of New Mexico political icon Emilio Naranjo, and Senator Joe Lieberman retaining his committee chairmanship.
Producers of ‘New Mexico In Focus’ are Kevin McDonald and Kathy Wimmer. Closed captioning has been made possible by a gift from Mrs. Elspeth G. Bobbs.
Media Contact: Evy Todd, (505) 277-1218; e-mail: etodd@knme.org
It can be quite a challenge to get through the holidays without added stress. All the pressure can cause people to bite off more than they can chew, both literally and figuratively. Here are some tips from Human Resources’ Employee Health Promotion Program to keep healthy during the holiday season and throughout the rest of the year.
Be realistic.
This is not the time to start something new. Think about what can reasonably be accomplished during the holidays. It is difficult to enjoy activities when you have run yourself ragged.
Schedule time for yourself.
It is easy to forget about yourself in the rush to accomplish all the holiday tasks – shopping, baking, sending out greeting cards, etc. Pencil in some time to do something for you, such as sleeping in, reading a good book or going to see a movie.
Think small.
Short on time? Invite friends over for dessert, appetizers or breakfast instead of the more labor-intensive, traditional soup-to-nuts celebration.
Plan to maintain your weight; do not expect to lose.
Try to exercise a bit more to make up for the extra calories you will be consuming. Remember that exercise is also a great stress-buster.
Think before you drink.
Alcohol contains a lot of calories and stimulates the appetite. Some cream liqueurs contain up to 450 calories per serving.
Cut the fat.
Holiday celebrations usually have rich, calorie-laden foods. It is possible to modify recipes without sacrificing taste.
One size fits all.
Consider teaming up with family, friends or colleagues to make a donation to a charity instead of buying individual gifts.
EHPP has resources to help UNM employees stay healthy at any time of year. For more information, visit hr.unm.edu and click EHPP or call 272-4460.
By Mary Jo Quintana, senior program manager, Employee Health Promotion Program
Dr. and Mrs. Robert Long have given a generous six-figure gift to the UNM School of Engineering for two endowed Presidential Scholarships for undergraduate students. These scholarships, available to New Mexico’s best and brightest students, cover 90 to 100 percent of an undergraduate student’s costs. The gift is also being used to create the Long Chemical and Nuclear Engineering Chair endowment. The money will be used by the department chair for current needs.
Photo: Dr. and Mrs. Robert Long
Dr. Long said, “As a former chair of the department, I have great sensitivity to chairs’ financial needs. I hope these funds will loosen the binds that limit this highly influential position.”
“Bob and Ann Long have structured their gift to benefit both individual students and the department as a whole,” said Julia Fulghum, UNM interim vice president for research and economic development and former chair of the ChNE Department. “The ChNE faculty, students and I are all very appreciative not only of their very generous gift, but the time and energy they put into developing a gift the addresses pressing needs in ChNE.”
The Longs also gave an initial non-endowment cash gift until the endowment can grow. The funds were used to renovate the student computer pod, increase travel support for undergraduate student organizations affiliated with the department, and give those student organizations monies to bring in outside experts to speak to students.
“The Longs have done a great service to UNM,” says Pam Hurd-Knief, senior director of development for UNM’s School of Engineering. “The Longs chose to support UNM, a university Dr. Long taught at 30 years ago, where their gifts will help as many faculty and students as possible.”
Long’s successful 32-year career combines industry experience with teaching and service. He joined the faculty at UNM in 1965 and chaired the Department of Chemical and Nuclear Engineering from 1974 to 1978. In 1978 he left UNM to pursue a career with General Public Utilities Nuclear Corporation and retired from a successful career with GPU in 1997.
He now serves as chair of the UNM Reactor Safety Advisory Committee. Long is past president of the American Nuclear Society and is active in the Trinity Section of ANS. He has served on numerous industry advisory committees, including those in the Institute for Nuclear Power, the Electric Power Research Institute, the Nuclear Energy Institute and the Department of Energy.
The Longs hope their family name will encourage people Long has known and taught to contribute to the endowments they have established. “Bob and Ann Long made this gift with great hope that it would spur others – friends, former students and colleagues to join them in supporting tomorrow’s generation of engineers,” Hurd-Knief said.
For more information about how to join the Longs in supporting the UNM Chemical and Nuclear Engineering program, contact Pam Hurd-Knief at the School of Engineering Development Office at (505) 277-2030 or via e-mail at, frognm@unm.edu.
Media Contact: Karen Wentworth, (505) 277-5627; e-mail: kwent2@unm.edu
All users with a voice mailbox on the current voice mail system must initialize their mailbox on the new voice mail system scheduled to go live Nov. 29. Dial the temporary access number 277-3500 and enter password 123456 to set up your voice mailbox on the new system. The system will prompt you to change the default password and record a greeting and name.
The tutorial must be completed for your recordings to be saved. After your mailbox is set up, continue to use the current system at 277-9997. To access the user guide and online coach for the new voice mail system visit: User Guide and Online Coach.
Training classes are available through Learning Central for departments who wish to send a designated individual who can help train their staff. The class is titled “New Voice Mail System Train the Trainer” and can be found under “Telecommunications Training.”
For assistance contact Information Technology Services CNS Customer Care at 277-1111, option 3.
Media Contact: Vanessa Baca, (505) 277-0987; e-mail: vjbaca1@unm.edu
On Sunday, Nov. 23 at 11 a.m., KUNM 89.9 FM presents, “Perspectives on Mexican Migration.” This program deals with the economic realities and cultural and linguistic challenges of Mexican migration, including migrants who leave the rural countryside to find work in cities and those who continue in transit to the United States.
Produced by UNM Communication and Journalism Professor Richard Schaefer and Carolyn Gonzales, University Communication and Marketing, it offers insight on indigenous migrants from Chiapas and campesinos from Central Mexico. The documentary features reports from UNM Cross-Border Issues Group members, Christine Lovato, Jennifer Vieth and Maggie Ybarra.
Media Contact: Carolyn Gonzales (505) 277-5920;e-mail: cgonzal@unm.edu
A significant addition of centralized storage media has been scheduled for Sunday, Nov. 23, from 3 a.m. to 12 p.m. This additional data storage is required to continue the smooth operation of Banner, GroupWise, LIBROS, myUNM portal and WebCT, all of which will be unavailable to students, faculty, staff and other users during the upgrade process.
Users are encouraged to check the ITS home page at http://its.unm.edu to see if these applications become available before 12 p.m.
Essential campus-wide application storage has grown by the tens of terabytes annually since 2004, requiring vigilance in both funding and managing adequate capacity for UNM computing environments. ITS, Banner, GroupWise, LIBROS, myUNM portal and WebCT business process owners apologize for any inconvenience this upgrade may cause.
For questions or additional information contact the ITS Support Center at 277-4848.
The Rewards and Recognition Committee of the University of New Mexico’s Staff Council is accepting nominations for the 2008 Gerald W. May Outstanding Staff Award. Nominators have until noon on Friday, Nov. 21, to submit applications to UNM Staff Council at scouncil@unm.edu.
To be eligible, nominees must be current UNM employees on permanent appointment, either part time or full time, who do not have faculty status and have completed three years employment. Applicants must be nominated by current UNM staff, faculty or students.
Nominators should describe how the nominee exhibits:
· a positive and effective representation of UNM,
· initiative and innovation in the performance of job duties, and
· exceptional service, involvement, dedication, exemplary commitment and other additional contributions as a UNM staff member
The Rewards and Recognition Committee actively supports UNM staff by sponsoring programs and activities that strengthen staff commitment and by rewarding and recognizing exceptional UNM staff. The committee offers the Gerald May Award every year and encourages UNM faculty, students and staff to nominate a deserving staff member.
The award ceremony will take place in the Student Union Building, ballroom A on Monday, Dec. 8, 4-5 p.m. Awardees will receive a plaque and cash award. In addition, their names will be added to the Eternal Plaque in Scholes Hall.
Contact Karin Retskin at scouncil@unm.edu or 277-1532 for more information.
Story by Jazmen Bradford
One person in 10 is bullied at work in the United States in any given 6-month period, according to Pamela Lutgen-Sandvik, assistant professor in organizational communication in the University of New Mexico Department of Communication & Journalism. As a social worker in a women’s resource center in Alaska, she noticed that the center director received many complaints about boss bullying.
Photo: Pamela Lutgen-Sandvik
She saw the need within organizations to take bullying seriously, especially since nothing seemed to work to correct the bullies’ behavior. “Everything I learned in problem solving and mediation didn’t work. The only thing that did work was firing or demoting the bully,” she said.
She conducted a study to assess the prevalence of workplace bullying in a sample of US workers, using a standardized questionnaire and comparing the prevalence with other bullying and aggression studies. “Workplace bullying is defined as a persistent, enduring form of abuse at work. I contrast it with other negative workplace actions and interactions,” she said.
Lutgen-Sandvik said that extensive research on the topic has been done over the past three decades in Scandinavia, across the European Union and in the United Kingdom. “We’re just beginning to catch up here,” she said.
Bully Bosses
The majority of bullies, more than over 79 percent, are bosses. Bullying bosses can be categorized as the controlling, micro-managers; bosses with shifting goals that makes it impossible to ever get the job right; and those psychologically described as “high aggressives.”
“The ‘high aggressive’ bullying boss possesses an overblown sense of self, is easily threatened and so is on constant alert to potential threats. He or she puts down anything that is perceived as a threat, especially someone who speaks up. It is both dangerous and naïve to confront this kind of bully,” she said. High aggressives typically also have an underdeveloped sense of or non-existent capacity for empathy.
All bullies are not high-aggressive bosses, however. “As organizations become leaner and meaner, there is a corollary increase in bullying,” she cautions. “As organizations become more stressful, bosses more often take their frustrations out on people around them. Change, increased pressure, and job insecurity can lead to bullying, even for persons who aren’t typically aggressive. Bullying may include a pattern of on-going criticism, social ostracism, or verbal abuse,” Lutgen-Sandvik said.
She added that explaining bullying behavior to human resources professionals is difficult because it is a long-term pattern of many abusive, insulting and humiliating acts, rather than one horrendous interaction. “This boss employs every technique from slamming someone against the wall, which is rare, to much more subtle forms of power and control,” she said.
Lutgen-Sandvik said this boss may be perceived positively by superiors – their aggressiveness and forcefulness seen as assertive. Indeed, they are outstanding at “managing up” and presenting themselves positively to superiors. They may even be rewarded for their behavior by being promoted.
Strategies for the Bullied
Lutgen-Sandvik recommends strategies for bullied workers. “Individuals should take time off to think over the situation because it is difficult to do so while in the environment,” she said. She also said that some may consider whether or not they want to fight it or “pack up.”
“If choosing to fight, the individual needs to understand that circumventing a boss is risky. It is best, usually, to make a case about the economic impact on the organization,” she said. She added that the individual needs to be prepared to never know what happens “both because of privacy issues and protracted results.” It’s also good to collect corroborating witnesses among co-workers, especially if they aren’t targeted, she said. It’s also important to state one’s case as unemotionally as possible, she said.
“Targeted employees feel stigmatized, as if they brought it on themselves. They may also want to take care of themselves and solve the problem on their own – not to be perceived as a whiner, but witnesses who aren’t bullied have no stigma and can lend evidence to the situation,” Lutgen-Sandvik said.
She cautions that bullied employees need to be prepared for reporting abuse to have little effect , but “eventually it will catch up to them,” she said. In longitudinal work following 30 cases over a 12-month period, all but two bullies were fired or demoted, she discovered.
Some professions where there is a power differential are particularly rife with bullying. ”Physicians often bully nurses, who also take verbal abuse from both doctors and the public,” she said. High end kitchens with temperamental chefs are also common worksites of bullying.
Health Effects of Being Bullied
Bullying and negative work environments take a toll on workers’ health. “Those with perceived justice in the workplace have lower incidence of coronary heart disease,” Lutgen-Sandvik said. Being treated justly equates to lifelong health, she said, noting that bullied employees spend more time and money on health care, which is costly to an organization. Even those who aren’t bullied but witness it are physically and emotionally affected. She said, “It’s akin to witnessing a mugging on the job daily.”
Lutgen-Sandvik said that research in the area is problem focused. “We look for answers to fix the problem, and identify organizational strengths in good work climates, where it’s going well, and then look to replicate these practices,” she said.
Organizations can diminish bullying by not rewarding aggressive behavior, either directly or indirectly, but rather rewarding positive social behavior. “They must address harassment, abuse and humiliation. Systems can be problematic, but cannot be an excuse for bullying and degradation.”
Lutgen-Sandvik said that 80 percent of targets transfer or leave the organization. She said that in addition to 10 percent of the workforce experiencing bullying in any six months, 45 percent experience it at some point in their work history. Seventy-five percent, therefore have either experienced or witnessed it, leaving a meager 25 percent not being affected by it in some way.
“Some employees are damaged forever.” she said.
Who Bullies Whom
Lutgen-Sandvik said that men and women are equally targeted and abused. Men may be bullied because they fail to perform sterotypically. For example, if a man wants to spend more time at home with his children than at work, he may be targeted. Women, on the other hand, might be trying to break into a male dominated environment, setting up competition with other women, and then become other women’s worst enemies. Indeed, bullying at work appears to be a same-sex form of abuse. “Women tend to bully women; men bully men, predominantly,” she said.
What she learned is that careful hiring is the best strategy. “People friendly individuals make good bosses and co-workers,” she said.
“Rollin' on a River: Traversing the inland waterways of the Americas ” highlights the University of New Mexico’s collections on late-19th and early-20th century European and North American narratives of river travel in Latin America. The exhibit will be on view in the Herzstein Latin American Reading Room at Zimmerman Library from Nov. 18 through Jan. 30, 2009. A celebratory opening reception will be held from 4 to 6 p.m., Nov. 18, in the Herzstein Latin American Reading Room.
The exhibition features published narratives, images and maps from the general collection at University Libraries as well as postcards and photographs drawn from the “Peter H. Goldsmith’s Album Pages” and “Rubber Plantation Photographs” in the Center for Southwest Research.
The western European impetus to express culture during the late nineteenth century by confronting and cataloging Latin American nature helped pave the way for the extractive missions later. United States investors and diplomats in the early 1900s navigated the same courses plotted decades earlier by French, English and German naturalists. In both cases, high profile outsiders depended on the knowledge and guidance of unnamed natives, whose contributions they failed to recognize as valuable.
This exhibition reflects the collaborative efforts of Tarah Kesse, Master’s Candidate in Latin American studies, Wendy Pedersen, Ibero-American Resources Specialist at the University Libraries and Suzanne Schadl, Coordinator of Inter-American studies at the University Libraries.
“America’s Favorite Architecture,” by the American Institute of Architects’ Shape America Program, highlights the top 150 favorite buildings in the United States. The exhibit runs through Monday, Dec. 1 in the University of New Mexico’s George Pearl Hall Gallery.
This exhibit began as part of AIA’s 150th anniversary celebration in 2007. It initiated a national conversation about American architecture and allowed people to vote for their favorite buildings, bridges and monuments.
The countdown includes many widely recognized favorites such as the Washington Monument, the Gateway Arch in St. Louis, Mo., the Brooklyn Bridge and the World Trade Center.
The top 10 are:
10. Vietnam Veterans Memorial
9. Chrysler Building
8. Biltmore Estate
7. Lincoln Memorial
6. U.S. Capitol
5. Golden Gate Bridge
4. Thomas Jefferson Memorial
3. Washington National Cathedral
2. White House
1. Empire State Building
This year, AIA presents a supplement to the exhibit, a video series in which AIA architects share personal stories and opinions about the famous buildings. The videos, as well as a forum to rate each structure and submit comments, are available at: Favorite Architecture.
The exhibit is free and open to the public during normal business hours. George Pearl Hall is located on UNM’s main campus at 2401 Central Ave. NE. Call 277-2903 for more details.
Story by Jazmen Bradford
President David Schmidly recently addressed the campus on the potential impact of the economic downturn on the UNM community. In his call to action, each and every one of us has been asked to do our part to create an environment that allows us to continue to meet our priorities in the areas of student success, excellence in research, healthy communities and economic and community development.
By answering the call, we are addressing possible financial threats early with the realization that what we do today will determine our effectiveness both now and in the future. This requires all of us to align our efforts in the spirit of teamwork and effective planning. The framework in which we will accomplish this is coined a “strategic spending pause.”
The “pause” differs from a “freeze” in that we are not being asked to stop critical initiatives. Rather, we are being asked to exercise prudent judgment in
meeting today’s objectives with a thoughtful eye on tomorrow’s challenges.
While this is important to consider with any spending, it is especially significant when addressing position vacancies. With labor costs approaching 80 percent of the university’s budget, it is impossible to reduce spending, and thereby save for the future, without considering jobs. Every vacancy in our workforce provides an opportunity to “pause,” rethink how we do business and creatively address the needs of the organization.
As we begin these efforts, every employee is encouraged to look for ways to streamline processes, reorganize work towards key objectives and find opportunities for partnership to address common needs. Remember, with every vacancy that we are able to postpone filling, we are better positioning ourselves to weather the economic uncertainty ahead.
The university is committed to its employees and we are confident in the ability of our people to meet the challenges of the economy. Please check with a Human Resources consultant for assistance in preparing to meet the president’s call.
By Helen Gonzales, vice president, Human Resources
As the dust settles from the 2008 elections, pressing questions remain about the state of the world economy. “This is the major crisis that Western capitalism is facing since 1929,” said economist Loretta Napoleoni during a lecture sponsored by UNM’s International Studies Institute. Napoleoni’s talk on “The Global Financial Crisis” was the keynote of ISI’s lecture series, “Global Instability: Causes, Consequences and Cures.”
Photo: Loretta Napoleoni
She traced the current crisis to a shift from “a nation state to a market state” – that is, from a focus on the welfare of citizens to growth of business. “Now, what is happening today, the credit crunch, is actually linked to the fact that this state did not regulate finance for fifteen years.”
She also attributed some of the severity of the crisis to the war on terror. “The war on terror… turned out to be a total financial folly. And part of the problem of what we’re facing today – not that it created the credit crunch, absolutely not, but it weakened the defenses of the American economy to deal with a crisis like that.”
She said that financial regulations in the Patriot Act led international investors to get out of the dollar and invest in other currencies. “What’s happened after 9/11 is that the tough regulations imposed by the monetary authority, coupled with the suspicious attitude that the U.S. had toward Muslim investors, convinced many investors from oil countries to repatriate their funds.”
Napoleoni is the author of “Rogue Economics: Capitalism’s New Reality,” “Terror Incorporated” and “Insurgent Iraq.” She is an expert on financing of terrorism and advises several governments on counter-terrorism. She is senior partner of G Risk, a London-based risk agency.
Explaining the concept of rogue economics, Napoleoni said, “In times of great transformation, economics moves much faster than politics, and politics can’t keep pace with the economy. And it is in these particular circumstances that the economy becomes a rogue force.” She suggested that while these circumstances can lead to great destruction, as with the fall of the Roman Empire, they can also lead to great progress, as with the industrial revolution.
Napoleoni said there are some differences between the current crisis and the Great Depression that make her optimistic. One difference is the presence of relatively stable economic systems outside of Western capitalism.
Islamic finance is a system based in shariah law. Central principals include a prohibition against charging interest and a code of ethics for investments – for example, barring investments in prostitution. Napoleoni said these principals are actually quite similar to the principles of classical economics.
Though the concept was first raised in the 1950s, it didn’t take off until the 1970s, when the oil crisis brought the necessary capital to oil producing countries. “Islamic finance is the product of two major crises of Western capitalism, the 1973-74 oil crisis and 9/11. And it is almost ironic that this system could help us to get out of the current crisis.”
One thing Napoleoni said the West can learn from Islamic finance is to balance profit with social responsibility. “A bank should be a profit organization, but the moment in which the social role is forgotten and the profit role takes over, then a bank is actually working against the people who are putting their money into the bank, the clients. Now that, of course, in Islamic finance could not happen, because there is this partnership between the client and the banks. There is a social commitment within finance which we had before, but we lost it.”
Another lesson from the Islamic system is striking a balance between flexibility and oversight. All Islamic bonds must be approved by a committee of scholars and bankers. At the same time, the bonds can be used to finance anything within the limits of shariah law.
Napoleoni said developing a new model based on Islamic finance may be the solution to the current economic crisis. “It is a crisis of confidence, and the solution is to bring back the confidence. But how do you bring back the confidence to a system like this, which is based basically on a pyramid scheme? And this pyramid is collapsing.”
“I really think that we are at a junction, and this junction could be very positive for us,” she said. “We’ve got to be open-minded if we want to carry on going ahead. Otherwise we’ll get stuck, and otherwise we’ll really be in a serious crisis, and then something new will come only from the ashes of what we have constructed before.”
To view the complete lecture, visit The Global Financial Crisis.
The University of New Mexico’s Student Health & Counseling (SHAC), Employee Health Promotion Program (EHPP), and Campus Office of Substance Abuse Prevention (COSAP) have scheduled a Great American Smokeout (GASO) pre-event for Tuesday, Nov. 18. This pre-event will be in the UNM Student Union Building (SUB), Atrium Level at 10 a.m. through 2 p.m.
● Tobacco educational theme activities will be on hand for everyone.
● Cessation and second-hand smoke information will be available.
● Quit kits will be given to those who pledge to quit for 24 hours on Nov. 20.
The event is designed to encourage students, staff and employees who smoke to join smokers nationwide to quit for 24 hours during the “National Great American Smokeout” on Thursday, Nov. 20. in the hope they may quit for good.
For more information, call Jessica Spurrier at the UNM Student Health & Counseling at (505) 277-7947.
The last of three required seminars on Financial Projections for Startups will take place Friday, Nov. 21 for participants in this year’s UNM Technology Business Plan Competition. This seminar features a question-and-answer panel format, with content determined by students attending the seminar.
Panelists for the seminar include: Dr. Sul Kassicieh, Distinguished Professor, Management of Technology; Ward Hickey, visiting professor; Kevin Stevenson from Advanced Pulmonary Solutions (2008 Michael Gallegos prize winner); and Klaus Mueller from Surya Suncare Corporation (2008 TVC Lockheed Martin prize winner).
The soundness of financial projections and reasoning is a major judging criterion in the competition, and the Anderson School had created additional opportunities this year for students to hone their financial skills.
Financial Projections for Startups
Friday, Nov. 21, from 11:30 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. in GSM 117 (lunch provided), reservations are required.
Contact Jennifer Bayley at 277-6172 or via e-mail (bayley@mgt.unm.edu) by Wednesday, Nov. 19 to make reservations.
Last Friday, two guest speakers from REDW Business & Financial Resources, LLC-The Rogoff Firm informed students about taxation issues related to high-tech startup firms. Tim Kelly, REDW Senior Manager of Business Valuation Services, and Susan Willis, REDW Senior Tax Manager, presented information critical to sound startup financial planning and answered questions from more than 20 interested students.
The UNM Technology Business Plan Competition encourages UNM students from all UNM schools and colleges to collaborate on teams that commercialize technology products developed at UNM, Sandia National Labs, Los Alamos National Lab, or elsewhere in the state. These student-owned startup firms bring inventions from lab to market and can boost economic development in New Mexico.
Top prize for the competition is the $25,000 Michael Gallegos Prize for Entrepreneurship. TVC Lockheed Martin sponsors the $10,000 second place prize, and vSpring Capital offers the third place $5,000 prize.
For more information visit: Technology Business Plan.
The Center for Native American Health and Office of Research, University of New Mexico Health Sciences Center, presents Beverly Becenti-Pigman, chair of the Navajo Nation Institutional Review Board, Wednesday, Nov. 19, 9 - 10:30 a.m. in Domenici B116.
Becenti-Pigman presents, "Navajo Nation IRB 101," an invitation extended to those considering research with the Navajo Nation or those with questions and in need of more information.
For more information, call the Center for Native American Health at 272-4100.
Lorenda Belone is a HSC associate scientist 2 in the master’s of public health program, but that’s just a small part of her on-campus identity, and doesn’t even touch who she is when she leaves campus. Belone is from Mexican Springs, north of Gallup, on the Navajo Reservation. She left her extended family and community for a couple of years when she moved her family to Albuquerque while pursuing her master’s in public health.
Photo: Lorenda Belone
“We moved back home because the kids missed their school, their animals and their grandparents,” she said.
Work and study
Belone used tuition remission to complete her master’s with a concentration in epidemiology, finishing her master’s in 2004. She was accepted the following year into the doctoral program in health communication in the Department of Communication & Journalism.
In the third year of her doctorial training she was accepted as a Robert Wood Johnson Fellow. The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation pays her tuition now. “I was interested in a Ph.D. in public health, but would have had to go out of state to pursue it, and this was out of the question for my children” she said. Transitioning into health communication presented some challenges. “There are a handful of theories in public health at the masters level, but in C&J I am learning there are hundreds them,” she said.
Belone worked as a research assistant under then MPH Director Nina Wallerstein and has transitioned from student to staff expanding her roles on research projects with New Mexico tribal communities with direction from Wallerstein and C&J chair John Oetzel as well as a great native research team.
“My C&J training has expanded my knowledge of health communication strategies for translational research that involves the community as participants in a two way mutual learning situation to improve community health, particularly tribal communities,” she said. She notes that being a doctoral student in C&J has helped her to become a better writer. “When I had to write my first C&J papers, it would take me at least two hours to get a page written, it was difficult but I know that good writing skills are critical for working in health policy,” she said, adding, “so I accepted the challenge of improving my writing skills.”
Serving tribal communities
Her work in tribal communities includes fourth and fifth graders and their parents and grandparents and the use of interventions to avert or delay risky behaviors, including alcohol use. Her project is in its fourth year and is tailored to two tribal communities. She uses a community-based participation research approach.
“We involve the community from the beginning. They are partners in the intervention because each community has different strengths and challenges. It’s the only way to address the specifics,” Belone said. She declines to name the tribal communities for reasons of confidentiality.
This spring Belone submitted two applications to the National Institute of Health to conduct similar interventions with two other tribal communities. “I am the PI on the grant submission!” she exclaimed, of her arrival as a researcher.
She has ventured into the classroom as instructor, too. She teaches Intro to Public Health at UNM-Gallup. “I always saw myself as a researcher, not a teacher. I love it! I love the student interaction,” she said, she plans to continue to teach.
Prior to her graduate work Belone worked for the Navajo Nation for 10 years in environmental policy. “I feel that Robert Wood Johnson brought me full circle because again I’m working in policy and policy changes the world,” she said. She added that the RWJ fellow is a benefit because it allows her to do her work, which is also her academic research.
Family support makes it work
Belone said that her success is not hers alone. Her family has been supportive, especially her parents, Benjamin and Louise Musket, who helped her tremendously with her four children when she was making the two and a half hour commute from Mexican Springs to UNM. “Every semester was a different schedule and they always adjusted to help me out,” she said, adding that she made every effort to be home four and a half days a week to attend sporting events and other activities her children were involved in.
Her parents, who retired from government BIA school jobs, also encouraged her in her studies. Belone is the oldest of three children. Her brother Milford Musket earned a Ph.D. and teaches in Seattle. Her sister Melvina Musket, earned a degree in political science and works at the school her children attend. “She has been financially supportive of me and my children. In the Navajo tradition, a sister’s children are considered her own as well,” Belone said.
The family’s motivation toward higher education comes from her maternal grandparents, Harry and Lorraine Belone. “My grandfather stressed with all his children and grandchildren the importance of an education. Unfortunately, he died before I finished my undergraduate degree,” she said.
Her 86-year-old grandmother also stressed education despite being unable to read, or write, or speak in English. “She was raised as a sheepherder, a rug weaver and silversmith, skills she used to care for herself and her family. Although her parents did not let her go to school, she is a very smart woman who has many talents, which she still uses to this day,” Belone said.
Raising the bar
Belone is very proud of her children, Eric and Jessica, and their younger siblings high- schooler Jeanette and mid-schooler Megan. “Eric lives here in Albuquerque and Jessica is a Gates Scholar who completed three years of college in Michigan before sitting out this year. She needed a break from the Michigan winters. The door is open to all of them,” she said.
Belone feels fortunate to work at UNM. “In addition to the tuition, health and dental benefits are the benefits of working with interesting faculty, staff and students. All one has to do is walk through the doors that are open to them here,” she said, as she prepared to finish up for the day here at UNM and than drive the two and half hours home to be with her children.
Land-use and environmental impact throughout Latin America and the Caribbean have been shaped by transnational communities in recent years. Andrew Sluyter will address this topic Monday, Nov. 17 at 11 a.m. in room 105 of Bandelier Hall East, as the second lecture of the University of New Mexico Department of Geography’s Fall 2008 lecture series.
Sluyter, associate professor in the Geography and Anthropology Department at Louisiana State University, presents, “Transnational Communities and Communal Lands: the Case of Barbuda,” reporting on early results of research conducted on Barbuda, one of the Caribbean’s former British colonies.
Barbudans’ transnational community stretches from Barbuda to the Bronx, to Leicester in the United Kingdom, and other parts of the world. Historic use of land, like cattle herding, together with a political struggle for independence, resulted in a communal land-tenure system on Barbuda, and a lack of tourism development benefitting their neighbors, Antigua and St. Martin.
This research creates a stronger understanding of interactions between changes in the Barbudan land-tenure system, and an increasing desire of the Barbudan transnational community for development in the country.
This lecture is free and open to the public. For more information, please call 277-5041.
Media Contact: Benson Hendrix, (505) 277-1816; e-mail: bhendrix@unm.edu
Assistant Professor of Dance Mary Anne Santos Newhall will be honored as a recipient of the University Libraries Faculty Acknowledgment Award on Nov. 20 at 1 p.m. in the Willard Room in Zimmerman Library. She will present a lecture titled, “Unmasking the Witch: Performance and Research in Dance History.” The event is free and open to all.
Photo: Mary Anne Santos Newhall
Santos Newhall has taught at UNM since 1997. She holds a B.A. and M.A. in Dance from UNM, and currently she is completing her doctorate in History at UNM.
She has performed historic and contemporary dance works as guest soloist for the American Repertory Dance Theatre, Ausdruckstanz Dance Theater and other national companies. She has presented performances and research on the history of American and German modern dance and has been a guest lecturer and artist at institutions across the country. Her book “Mary Wigman” will be published by Routledge in December.
Each year University Libraries sponsors the Faculty Acknowledgment series in order to recognize the contributions of faculty to their college or school and the UNM community.
Media Contact: Karen Wentworth, (505) 277-5627; e-mail: kwent2@unm.edu
The Office of the University Secretary seeks volunteers to help at the fall commencement ceremony at the Pit on Friday, Dec. 19. Volunteers must be available 4:30-8:30 p.m. Those interested can sign up online at Commencement Volunteers.
President David J. Schmidly joined the governing board of the Hispanic Association of Colleges and Universities. He will serve a three year term. Schmidly was selected for his “longstanding commitment to Hispanic higher education,” according to a HACU press release.
Photo: President David J. Schmidly
Eliseo “Cheo” Torres, vice president for student affairs, said that UNM’s position as the only Carnegie Very High Research University designated Hispanic-serving was another important consideration in Schmidly’s selection. Torres said UNM was one of the first members of HACU in the 1980s.
As a member of the governing board, Schmidly will work with presidents of other Hispanic Serving Institutions to make recommendations on how HACU can better serve its more than 450 members and what role the organization should play in national policy. Advocacy by HACU led to the creation of the Title V program, which provides funding to HSIs.
Carrie Tingley Hospital, the sole provider of pediatric orthopedics and children’s rehabilitation in New Mexico, established the CTH Education & Research fund in May 2001. The fund is newly named the “Frederick C. Sherman, MD Education & Research.”
Sherman was CTH director from 2000 – 2007 and was responsible for establishing the fund, created to expand programs for both medical education and the care for pediatric orthopedic rehabilitative needs of children in the State of New Mexico. Donations can be made through United Way under UNM Foundation, CTH Frederick C. Sherman Education & Research account.
Carrie Tingley Hospital’s history dates back to autumn of 1937, when a ceremony was held to open the doors of New Mexico’s new children’s hospital. Named after Carrie Tingley, wife of then-Governor Clyde Tingley, who felt a hospital was needed for New Mexico children suffering from polio.
The Tingleys chose Hot Springs, later named Truth or Consequences, located in southern New Mexico. It was known for its healing mineral waters and resembled a similar site in Warm Springs, Georgia, where their friend Franklin Roosevelt was treated for polio.
As polio became less wide spread due to new vaccines, the hospital’s direction began to focus on other orthopedic conditions such as scoliosis, clubfoot, cerebral palsy and spina bifida.
In 1981, the hospital relocated to Albuquerque to align itself closely with local medical services and consultants. In 1987 the UNM Board of Regents was appointed as the CTH Board of Directors. Subsequent legislative action merged Carrie Tingley Hospital into the UNM Health Sciences Center with its own advisory board.
In the last 20 years Carrie Tingley has developed into the premier provider of orthopedic and pediatric services in New Mexico with special emphasis on children with disabilities.
Alpha Video’s Digital Display Group has won a prestigious 2008 DIGI Award for the state-of-the art video wall and conference system located in the Anderson School of Management’s Financial Center. The DIGI Awards recognize the most successful and innovative digital signage deployments that have taken place within the past year.
Alpha Video designed and installed the wall in close collaboration with the Anderson School IT staff. The video wall gives a trading floor look and displays real-time stock pricing information for various stocks monitored by Anderson students. The wall carries various satellite business new feeds and information that relates to Anderson.
For instructors and students, the wall serves as an education tool allowing for different functional modes for lectures and presentations with the help on an intuitive control unit.
Alpha Digital’s DDG took first place honors for the Anderson project in the category of Corporate Application, Excellence in Creativity at the fourth annual DIGI Awards held in New York on Oct. 15.
Since 1970, Alpha Video, a member of Professional Systems Network Inc. (PSNI) has been a leading digital video systems dealer, integrator and provider of visual communications solutions. Alpha specializes in products, systems and services for video and digital media content creation, management, and distribution.
For more information about Alpha Video’s Digital Display Group, please call (952) 896-9898 or visit Digital Display Group.
The West Side Coalition of Neighborhoods is leading an effort to change many’s perception of Albuquerque as a gang haven. This week, “New Mexico in Focus” co-host David Alire Garcia sits down with several people who are working hard on anti-gang efforts in the community and with the New Mexico Legislature. This episode of “New Mexico in Focus” will air on KNME-TV, channel 5, on Friday, Nov. 14 at 7 p.m. and repeats on Sunday, Nov. 16 at 6:30 a.m.
“New Mexico in Focus” looks at social, political, economic, health, education and arts issues and gives them context beyond the "news of the moment." The one-hour show brings viewers important topics, opinions and insight, in an integrated and cohesive package.
Joining Alire Garcia to discuss these ant-gang efforts are Dan Serrano, president, West Side Coalition of Neighborhood Associations, Lemuel Martinez, 13th Judicial District Attorney, and Albuquerque City Councilor Ken Sanchez.
Then co-host Gene Grant and the panel will take on educational issues, look at universal voter registration and ask if New Mexico would be better off without Bill Richardson. Grant will be joined by regular panelists Margaret Montoya, Professor with the University of New Mexico School of Law and School of Medicine, and Political Consultant Whitney Cheshire. The guest panelists this week include Marco Gonzales, an attorney with the Modrell Sperling law firm, and Sophie Martin, blogger at Duke City Fix.
“New Mexico in Focus” will also present a tribute in honor of Veterans Day with UNM veterans Darrin Kowitz, the founder & President, Student Veterans of UNM,
Andy Lilienthal, Iraq War Veteran and UNM student Hiltrud Ridenour, First Vice President of the Rio Grande Valley Chapter of Blue Star Mothers.
Producers of ‘New Mexico In Focus’ are Kevin McDonald and Kathy Wimmer. Closed captioning has been made possible by a gift from Mrs. Elspeth G. Bobbs.
Western environmental and cultural historian Dan Flores, University of Montana, presents the University of New Mexico Center for the Southwest’s 2008-2009 C. Ruth and Calvin P. Horn Lecture in Western History and Culture. Flores’s lecture, “Art and Regional Identity in the Northern Rocky Mountain West,” is set for Thursday, Nov. 20, at 5:30 p.m. in Lobo Rooms A&B of the UNM Student Union Building.
Photo: Dan Flores
Flores is a writer and professor who divides his time between the Bitterroot Valley of Montana and the Galisteo River Valley outside Santa Fe. He holds the A. B. Hammond Chair in Western History at the University of Montana. He is the author of eight books, most recently “Horizontal Yellow” (1999), “The Natural West” (2001), and “Southern Counterpart to Lewis & Clark” (2002). His next book, “Visions of the Big Sky: Painting and Photography in the Northern Rocky Mountain West,” is scheduled for release in 2009.
The lecture is sponsored by the Center for the Southwest and Center for Regional Studies, and is endowed by C. Ruth and Calvin P. Horn. The C. Ruth and Calvin P. Horn Endowment Fund supports the C. Ruth and Calvin P. Horn Lectures in Western History and Culture, a distinguished lecture series now in its 24th year. The Horns’ vision for the series was to provide the campus and the larger community access to inspiring speakers who brought history to life by providing perspectives on the West.
By understanding the past we gain new insight into the history of such matters as land use, conservation, access to water, our regional identity, the creative arts and the actions of historical figures.
Past lectures have highlighted well-known western historians such as Paul Hutton, Patricia Nelson Limerick, Marc Simmons, David Weber, Sherry L. Smith, Vicki Ruiz, Philip Deloria and Hal Rothman.
The late Calvin Horn was one of New Mexico’s most beloved civic leaders. Calvin and Ruth shared a passion for learning and became lead supporters of Manzano Day School and the University of New Mexico.
The event is free and open to the public. For information, call 277-7688, or e-mail: cgonzal@unm.edu
:cntrsw@unm.edu">cntrsw@unm.edu.
UNM United Way campaign is in full swing and off to a good start according to campaign organizers. The campus-wide goal for 2008 was set at $1 million. As part of that overall goal, UNM’s main campus has aligned its fundraising efforts with University Hospital, which hasn’t been done in the past.
Photo: Graduate Professional Students Association President Christopher Ramirez and Associated Students of UNM President Ashley Fate tape Lobo Paws to a wall in the Student Union Building.
Also as part of this year’s campaign, students and graduate students are getting involved for the first time. With help from Chartwells, Paws for United Way are on sale in the UNM Student Union Building for $1.
Students may use cash or LOBOcash on their UNM IDs to donate to United Way at all of the Chartwell venues in the SUB during through the month of November. All of the money collected will go to United Way's Community Fund, which supports various organizations in Albuquerque and surrounding areas.
Graduate Professional Students Association President Christopher Ramirez has led the effort with graduate students and student programs, while Associated Students of UNM President Ashley Fate and Director of ASUNM's Community Experience Jenny Shroba have led the undergraduate involvement by helping to create Paws for United Way.
Additionally, all employees should have received their packets with pledge form, return envelope and campaign information this week. Students can also pick up pledge forms at the information desk at the SUB.
For more information contact the UNM United Way Campaign at (505) 277-0649 or via e-mail at, unitdway@unm.edu.
Media Contact: Steve Carr, (505) 277-1821; e-mail: scarr@unm.edu
UNM-Taos General Education Diploma (GED) graduate Geneva Vigil recently won the New Mexico GED Student of the Year award by the New Mexico Adult Education Association. She received the award in Santa Fe at a banquet that honored her, her family, UNM-Taos staff, and more than 200 people in the Adult Basic Education field in New Mexico.
Photo: Geneva Vigil, left, was presented with the New Mexico GED Student of the Year award.
Judy Hofer, director, Adult Basic Education at UNM-Taos, said, “Geneva is currently enrolled at UNM-Taos; where, despite personal challenges, she persists in her education to serve as a role model to her three children. Geneva often speaks at UNM-Taos orientation sessions for new students to inspire them. And inspiring she is.”
Media Contact: Carolyn Gonzales, (505) 277-5920; e-mail: cgonzal@unm.edu
For the past 19 years, the Model Organization of American States (MOAS) has gathered in a general assembly each fall to give university students a crash course in international policy making. This year was the first time the University of New Mexico participated and the results were rewarding.
The UNM team was made up of seven students from the World Affairs Delegation and the Special Office for Latin American Initiatives, including: Mikal Davis, Phillip Kay, Julio Acosta, Jesica Andrews, Alyssa Rivera, Sofia Ledesma and Alexandra Pelayo attended the MOAS representing the delegation of Guatemala.
The group participated in five different committees pertaining to human rights, juridical and political affairs, hemispheric security, and migration issues and walked away with two awards. Davis was presented the Outstanding Delegate Award on Hemispheric Security and Kay won the Distinguished Delegate Award on Committee for Juridical and Political Affairs.
Led by head delegate Pelayo, the group began meeting over a month ago to prepare, research and perform simulations in order to gear up for the event, and even took advantage of a parliamentary workshop offered by Baylor University in Waco, Texas, to ensure they were ready.
MOAS events began with a plenary session of the general assembly, where the UNM group presented a Guatemala position paper, followed by committee sessions where each delegate presented with the intent of getting their resolutions passed to the general assembly for acceptance. The events capped off with keynote addresses from the President and Secretary General of the MOAS and the President of the World Affairs Council of San Antonio and the Ambassador and Ambassador-in-Residence of the University of Texas, Austin.
MOAS is working to change attitudes among citizens of North, Central, South America, and the Caribbean by providing a program in which cultural sensibility and curriculum enhancement are realized. By representing member states of the OAS, students in each delegation gain a broader and clearer understanding of the capabilities and constraints that shape the foreign policy of each member state.
This year, with the encouragement of President David J. Schmidly, Eliseo "Cheo" Torres, vice president for Student Affairs and Juan de Dios Pineda, director of the Special Office of Latin American Initiatives, the University of New Mexico participated in the MOAS for the first time.
For more information visit: MOAS.
Media Contact: Carolyn Gonzales, (505) 277-5920; e-mail: cgonzal@unm.edu
The University of New Mexico School of Architecture and Planning presents California architect Rob Quigley, presenting as part of the John Gaw Meem Lecture Series, on Friday, Nov. 14 at 5 p.m. in George Pearl Hall auditorium. Quigley is a nationally recognized architect whose work has garnered more than 60 design awards from the American Institute of Architects.
In 2005, the AIA California Council honored Rob with the Maybeck Award -- California’s equivalent of the Gold Medal -- for three decades of architectural design excellence.
A native of Southern California, Quigley earned a bachelor of architecture degree at the University of Utah in 1969. Upon graduation he entered the Peace Corps, where he developed skills designing and building affordable housing in underserved areas of Chile. After two years of service, he settled in San Diego and opened an architecture and planning firm. Shaped by his early experiences, he became a pioneer in the design of architecturally significant yet affordable housing for the working poor.
Quigley was an early leader in sustainable design, designing solar-powered homes in the 1970s -- long before “green” became an industry buzzword. His work is driven by a deep sense of responsibility to conserve natural resources.
A longtime student of the public realm, Quigley has focused his recent efforts on civic and academic buildings. Recent work in Southern California includes
The New Children’s Museum in downtown San Diego, the Student Services Center at UCSD, and the San Diego New Main Library. In Northern California recent projects include the Leslie Shao-ming Sun Field Station at Stanford University, the West Valley Branch Library in San José, and the Opportunity Center of the Midpeninsula in Palo Alto.
Media Contact: Carolyn Gonzales, (505) 277-5920; e-mail: cgonzal@unm.edu
One in four families is afflicted by a mental illness, leaving the afflicted and their families in need of help. Bipolar No More: A Memoir of Hope and Recovery by Albuquerque resident Michelle J. Holtby, shines a much-needed light on mental illness, taking the mystery out of bipolar disorder and answering common and less common questions. Holtby presents at the UNM Bookstore, corner of Central and Cornell NE, on Thursday, Nov. 20 from 3-5 p.m.
Holtby looks at mental illness from a different perspective—that recovery is possible, no matter where anyone is in their diagnosis. Filled with insight, hope, and humor, Bipolar No More shares mental wellness tools available to readers whether they have a diagnosis or not.
Recovery—the word is so broad and it means different things to people. For those dealing with brain disorders, recovery is a process. One does not “get over” a mental illness as if it were the flu. But “getting on” with life is essential. Holtby shares some of her experiences living with bipolar disorder to show ways to maintain wellness and recognize and seize opportunities to define or redefine the recovery process.
Holtby is living proof bipolar disorder is more than an illness—it’s an opportunity to grow. Holtby presents her optimistic view and ways to embrace hope and move toward recovery.
Holtby, a life-long resident of Albuquerque, regularly speaks about living with brain disorders to student and professional groups, faith-based organizations, and psychiatric inpatients and their families.
Media Contact: Carolyn Gonzales, (505) 277-5920; e-mail: cgonzal@unm.edu
First UNM building scheduled for December 2009 completion
The University of New Mexico Board of Regents on Tuesday approved UNM’s partnership with the Sandia Foundation to build the first building located at the new UNM West campus in Rio Rancho. UNM and the Sandia Foundation anticipate the building will be completed in time for classes to begin for the spring semester of 2010.
“The people in Rio Rancho have made it very clear they want to see UNM build in their community sooner rather than later,” said UNM President David J. Schmidly. “Thanks to the partnership with the Sandia Foundation and the continued support of the community of Rio Rancho, we will fulfill their expectations.”
Nearly three-quarters of the 40,000 square foot building will house classrooms and student support services. The UNM Medical Group will use approximately 10 percent of the space for administrative functions, with the rest being used for faculty/staff offices and building systems. The building will be designed as a student-oriented, architecturally distinctive, flexible-space learning facility.
Under the agreement, UNM will initially lease to Sandia Foundation approximately 8.5 acres of UNM-owned land at the Rio Rancho City Center site for the construction of the building and related site improvements. Sandia will in turn finance 100 percent of the cost of construction. UNM may then lease the entire space within the building for an initial term of up to five years, with a five-year option to extend. However, the University may also elect to purchase the building from Sandia at any time during the term of the lease.
Base rent for the building during the initial term of the lease would be approximately $900,000 per year, with funding from users of the facility and from other revenues associated with the UNM West Campus.
The new building will act as an “incubator” for both program and campus development, and may ultimately become multi-institutional in nature as UNM’s “2+2” partnership with Central New Mexico Community College is refined and a new partnership with New Mexico State University is developed for the delivery of select programs such as tourism and hospitality management that do not duplicate UNM offerings.
Total project costs are estimated to be $10.98 million.
Media Contact: Susan McKinsey, (505) 277-1807; e-mail: mckinsey@unm.edu
The UNM Student Lettermen's Association recently sponsored their 8th annual signature event, "Run for Relief,” during which they raised more than $4,100 with participants logging more 185 miles. More than 80 student athletes and supporters participated in the event.
For the sixth year in a row, the UNM Men’s Golf team raised the most money, with top individual fundraisers Brandon Putnam, Jacob Lestishen, Wright Zimmerly, Travis Ross and Jon Sauer of the Men’s Golf team; Ashley Bonner of the Women’s Tennis team and Amanda Wiley of the UNM Spirit Squad. The Swimming and Diving team ran 82 miles with Coaches Tracy Ljone and Leslie Shevlin leading the pack. The best team participation was from the Women’s Tennis team and the Swimming and Diving team.
UNM student athletes came from Men's Golf, Women’s Swimming and Diving team, Women’s Tennis, the UNM Spirit Squad, Track and Cross Country team, Ski team, and the UNM Student Athletic Trainers Association. The Student Athletic Trainers volunteered by staffing the two aid stations on campus.
Proceeds from the community fundraiser are used to support children with cancer. Past proceeds have benefited the UNM Health Sciences Pediatric Oncology department. This event is organized by the UNM Student Lettermen’s Association and sponsored by the Alumni Lettermen’s Association.
Media Contact: Carolyn Gonzales, (505) 277-5920; e-mail: cgonzal@unm.edu
The Anderson School of Management, on the University of New Mexico (UNM) campus, is hosting an MBA Open House on Nov. 18, from 5:30-7:30 p.m. at the Paul R. Jackson Student Center. The event is free and open to anyone considering the Master of Business Administration or Master of Accounting programs. Registration is not required.
According to Dean Amy Wohlert, “It’s not surprising that enrollments in MBA programs across the country increased during previous economic declines. Heading back to school now for a graduate degree is the right choice for anyone wanting to have the right skills when the job market and economy rebound.”
“Anderson provides many opportunities for students who are passionate about their education and need flexibility and convenience,” says Lucie Wang, a full-time MBA student studying Policy and Planning.
Attendees will meet with Anderson faculty, students, and alumni, tour the school’s state-of-the-art facilities, and learn about the six graduate programs and 10 areas of specialization. Limited free on-campus parking is available at Lot C located on Las Lomas Road in front of the Anderson School. Paid parking also is available at the Cornell Parking Garage located just across from the UNM Bookstore near the corner of Central Avenue and Stanford Drive.
UNM’s MBA program is designed for students from a wide variety of backgrounds including liberal arts, sciences, education, law, business and for entry- and middle-level managers who want to enhance their career skills. The Anderson School is well recognized for delivering first-rate graduate education at an affordable cost. The school has the distinction of being the only business school in the greater Albuquerque area to be accredited by the Association to Advance Collegiate Schools of Business.
For more information visit mba.unm.edu or call 277-3290.
The Anderson School of Management at the University of New Mexico and the Internal Revenue Service Criminal Investigation will participate in a joint mock fraud investigation titled, the Adrian Project, Jr., a national program, on Friday, Nov. 14 from 8:30 a.m. - 1 p.m. Approximately 11 graduate and undergraduate students of Rich Brody, Anderson Professor of Accounting, and eight special agents from the IRS are participating in the mock investigations.
This year's case scenario involves an anonymous informant who turns over information about an avid gambler who appears to be living beyond his means. With direction from the special agents, students will utilize various techniques, including "foot surveillance", to figure out the origins of the unexplained wealth and whether fraud is occurring. Students will also interact with each other to try and figure out what they should be doing to help crack the case.
Anderson Professor Rich Brody says The Adrian Project fits in perfectly with our National Security Agency and Department of Homeland Security designation as a National Center of Academic Excellence in Information Assurance Education.
"One of our goals is to partner with government entities, and this mock investigation is one way that we do this," said Brody. "The students have an opportunity to experience life as an IRS Special Agent and directly apply what they have learned in the classroom."
According to Brody, students participating in this project volunteer four to five hours of their time on a Friday morning and do not receive any class credit for their participation.
"The students high level of interest in this area and realization that this is a great and unique opportunity gets them out of bed and on campus early. They arrive eager and ready to get started," Brody said. "I feel very fortunate to have this partnership with the Albuquerque IRS special agents and I am sure the number of job applications for these special agent positions will increase as a result of this event."
Local CID agents around the country use this program to showcase the opportunities available in this career field to high school and college students.
Directed by Chief Eileen Mayer and Deputy Chief Victor Song, both of Criminal Investigation, the CID oversees a worldwide staff of approximately 4,400 employees, including approximately 2,800 special agents who investigate and assist in the prosecution of criminal tax, money laundering, structuring, and narcotics-related financial crime cases.
“Absent, sir!”
The short, staccato phrase hung in the air repeatedly as three University of New Mexico ROTC students answered when a list of names was read aloud on a brisk, clear New Mexico morning on Nov. 11, Veterans Day. The names were of those New Mexicans killed in the Afghanistan and Iraq military theaters since 2002.
Photo: Retired Marine Staff Sargent Gene Shanklin plays 'Taps" during the Physical Plant Department's Veterans Day ceremony at UNM.
Tuesday also marked the fourth year the UNM Physical Plant Department has conducted a memorial service to mark Veterans Day.
“It’s a special day for all veterans,” said Harvey Chace, associate director for Maintenance and Construction for the UNM Physical Plant, and a retired Air Force Colonel with 25 years of service. “It’s called Veterans Day to honor all of us, but it’s more about those who didn’t come back with us, and it’s a chance for all of us to remember them and honor them.”
Veterans Day honors the service of the men and women who served in the U.S. Armed Forces. Veterans Day originally celebrated the signing of the armistice ending hostilities between Germany and the Allied nations on Nov. 11, 1918.
This armistice marked the ending of World War I and was signed by Germany on the 11th hour of the 11th day of the 11th month of 1918. In 1938, Congress made Armistice Day a federal holiday, and on May 26, 1954, President Dwight Eisenhower, himself a former five-star General of the Army, signed a law changing the day’s name to “Veterans Day” to honor the service of all of America’s veterans.
For Parking Director Clovis Acosta, a Purple Heart recipient for his service in Vietnam, Veterans Day gives him time to reflect.
“It’s a sad moment,” he said. “It’s tough to see wars and the aftermath and the result of war. Young people get killed, and that’s the hard part to swallow.”
At Smith Plaza on UNM’s main campus, the Student Veterans of UNM spent the day hosting the “Mile of Coins” fundraiser, splitting the proceeds with the Veterans Integration Center to help homeless veterans.
While definitive numbers were still be calculated, the Student Veterans were quickly approaching their target fundraising goal (one mile of pennies equals roughly $844) by 3 p.m. For the full story visit: "Mile of Coins.”
Media Contact: Benson Hendrix, (505) 277-1816; e-mail: bhendrix@unm.edu
The 33rd annual Turkey Trot, sponsored by UNM’s Recreational Services, is set for Saturday, Nov. 22 at University Arena. A children’s half-mile event is scheduled for 10 a.m., while a three-mile adult run is set to begin at 10:45 a.m. Pre-registration continues through Friday, Nov. 21 for $14. Late-registration will be held on race day, but the fee will be $15.
Exclusively designed T-shirts will be awarded to the first 200 participants who register. Children’s age divisions are 6-7, 8-9 and 10-12, while adult divisions are 13-16, 17-23, 24-30, 31-37, 38-45 and 46-54. Prizes include turkeys, chickens and Cornish game hens in each age division.
The Pit is located on UNM’s South Campus at University Blvd. and Avenida de Cesar Chavez near The Pit. For detailed directions and a registration form visit: 33rd Annual Turkey Trot.
Additionally, a food drive will also be conducted as part of the event. Participants and spectators are encouraged to bring a non-perishable food item on race day for donation to a local food bank.
Registration may either be completed in person or by mail. Recreational Services is located on the UNM campus in Johnson Center, rm. 1102. Office hours are Monday through Friday 7 a.m. to 9:30 p.m. Completed registration forms and checks, payable to Recreational Services, may be sent to: UNM Recreational Services, Johnson Center, Rm. 1102, MSC04 2600, Albuquerque, N.M., 87131.
For more information or for a registration form call 277-0178.
Media Contact: Steve Carr, (505) 277-1821; e-mail: scarr@unm.edu
The University of New Mexico’s Office of Career Services along with the United States Office of Personnel Management (OPM) and the New Mexico Consortium of Career Educators and Employers announce the UNM Public Service Career Showcase Thursday, Nov. 20. The event will take place in the UNM Student Union Building Ballroom from 9 a.m. – 3 p.m.
The focus of this event is to help job seekers with employment in federal, state, and municipal governments. It is open to all students, alumni, and community members.
UNM has the distinguished honor of being one of only five campuses nationwide that OPM has committed funding for federal career days for 2008. Others include Johns Hopkins University, Massachusetts’s Institute of Technology (MIT), University of Pittsburgh, and Rutgers University.
With more than 60 recruiters registered, this is the perfect opportunity for job seekers to connect with multiple employers in just one day. Job seekers should come prepared, professionally dressed, and with plenty of copies of their resume.
For an up-to-date detailed list of registered recruiters and their openings visit the UNM Career Services web site at Career Services or call (505) 277-2531 for more information.
Media Contact: Jayson Capps, (505) 277-7796; e-mail: jcapps@unm.edu
UNM Recycling and the UNM Staff Environs Committee worked with Net Impact, an environmentally conscious student business group from Anderson School of Management, and Enchantment Recycling to hold the 2nd Annual UNM E-waste Collection event as part of the first UNM Parents Weekend activities.
The group collected 34,850 pounds of recyclable materials, which was almost exactly twice the weight collected at the first e-waste collection event in 2007.
“This was an exciting cooperative effort between staff and students and we’re thrilled it worked so well,” said Linda McCormick, co-chair of the Environs Committee and UNM resource conservation manager.
UNM works with Enchantment Recycling at 4121 Prospect Ave. NE, Suite B. Owner Joel Belding allows UNM Recycling to review their audit package of permits, insurance and downstream recycling processors.
“Enchantment uses one broker in California that takes circuit boards and metal parts," said Belding. "The broker ships copper bearing recyclable material to Xtrata in Canada for smelting. The broker also ships gold bearing recyclable materials to Unicore in Belgium and Boliden in Sweden for smelting. Intact monitors are sent to a company in Texas for refurbishing and/or resale for parts. If the monitors can’t be refurbished the leaded glass in the cathode ray tube is sent to a company in Missouri for smelting into leaded glass products.”
Media Contact: Karen Wentworth, (505) 277-5627; e-mail: kwent2@unm.edu
David Northrop, associate director of Platforms and Databases in the Information Technology Services Computing Services group, died suddenly on Tuesday, Nov. 4. ITS will host a memorial in Northrop's honor on Thursday, Nov. 20, from 10:30 a.m. to 12 p.m. at the Alumni Memorial Chapel.
Photo: David Northrop
If you have photos or stories about David you would like to share, please send to Moira Gerety, mcgerety@unm.edu or Esther Russell, erussell@salud.unm.edu, for inclusion in the memorial program.
A potluck will follow immediately at the Newman Center auditorium at 1717 Las Lomas (north of Dane Smith Hall). All are welcome to participate. If you would like contribute to the potluck contact Val Anzalone, vanza@unm.edu or Esther Russell.
Additionally, an internship will be set up in Northrop's name. Contact Theresa Chavez-Villarael, chavezt@unm.edu, for more information on the internship.
Northrop was known for his technical expertise and trademark sense of humor in his seven years at UNM. Born in Philadelphia in 1958, he graduated from the New Mexico Institute of Mining and Technology in 1988 and worked for both Hewlett Packard and Honeywell in the 1990's before bringing his skills and expertise to UNM in 2001. Northrop became associate director in April 2008.
He is survived by his wife Amy.
Media Contact: Vanessa Baca, (505) 277-0987; e-mail: vjbaca1@unm.edu
The UNM Bookstore celebrates natural science with a Children’s Book Fair, Saturday, Nov. 15 from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. Karen Taschek will read from her latest children’s science book, 'Hanging with Bats.' Additionally, Talking Talons presents a demonstration and talk with live bats and bat predators; and the New Mexico Museum of Natural History and Science brings their Fun with Fossils booth.
The UNM Bookstore, located at the corner of Central and Cornell N.E., is open Monday thru Friday, 8 a.m. to 6 p.m. and Saturdays 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. For more information contact Lisa Walden at (505) 277-7494.
The Science & Society Distinguished Public Talks series continues Thursday, Nov. 13, with a talk presented by Robert B. Gilbert, Brunswick-Abernathy Professor of Civil, Architectural, and Environmental Engineering at the University of Texas, in Austin. Gilbert’s talk titled, 'Hurricane Katrina and the New Orleans Levees: What Went Wrong and Why,' will be held at 5 p.m. in the Conference Center, rm. G at the UNM Continuing Education building located at 1634 University Blvd., N.E. The talk is free and open to the public. Refreshments will be served at 4:30 p.m.
On the morning of August 29, 2005, Hurricane Katrina struck New Orleans and triggered what would become one of the worst engineering disasters in the nation’s history. The levees and the floodwalls protecting the area failed and allowed water to pour into the city. More than 1,500 people lost their lives.
The educational and healthcare systems have been crippled and more than 400,000 residents who fled the city and have not returned. It will take decades for New Orleans to recover. A discussion is presented as to how the engineering and science professions can learn and improve in the wake of this disaster.
Gilbert’s technical focus is on risk analysis and management for civil engineering systems. Recent activities include analyzing the performance of offshore drilling platforms and pipelines in hurricanes; managing earthquake and flooding risks for the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta in California; and performing a forensic analysis of the New Orleans levee failures.
The Science & Society Distinguished Public Talks Co-sponsored by the Albuquerque Section of the Institute of Electrical & Electronic Engineers (IEEE), Sigma Xi (the Scientific Research Society), the Department of Physics & Astronomy, the College of Arts & Sciences, the School of Engineering, the University Honors Program and the Division of Continuing Education.
The Student Veterans of the University of New Mexico (SVUNM) are hosting a “Mile of Coins” fundraising campaign on Tuesday, Nov. 11, from 8 a.m.-8 p.m. at Smith Plaza. Members of the UNM community are encouraged to donate their spare change at the event. The money raised will be split between SVUNM and the New Mexico Veterans Integration Center in a campaign to help fight homelessness.
SVUNM are asking for pennies, nickels, dimes, and quarters as donations. The coins donated at the event will be placed side-by-side on Smith Plaza to equal one mile in length. While this may not appear like much money at first glance, one mile of pennies alone equals approximately $844.80.
For more information about the event, please contact Eric Ross at eross@unm.edu, or contact the Student Veterans of the University of New Mexico at, svunm@unm.edu.
The Utton Transboundary Resources Center at the University of New Mexico School of Law and the UNM Water Resources Program are sponsoring a public screening of the documentary film, “The American Southwest: Are We Running Dry?” in the auditorium of the Centennial Engineering Building on Tuesday, Nov. 11 at 5:30 p.m.
This movie, hosted and narrated by Jane Seymour, documents the limited supply of water in the Southwest and the ever-growing demand for that water. Filmed in New Mexico, Arizona and California, the film portrays the rapid population growth in Albuquerque and other Southwestern cities, the effects of recent droughts and climate change on the supply in the Rio Grande and Colorado basins, and the difficulties faced by the Navajo and Hopi, among others, in obtaining reliable supplies of water for domestic use.
The film includes interview segments with outgoing New Mexico Senator Pete Domenici and current New Mexico Senator Jeff Bingaman and other national and regional experts and civic leaders.
“The issues the film presents are of vital and continuing interest to all New Mexicans,” says Sanford Gaines, director of the Utton Transboundary Resources Center at the UNM School of Law. “The Utton Center serves the community with independent analysis of water issues and by bringing diverse interested parties together in the search for improved management of our water resources. We hope that this film screening and panel discussion will put the water challenges of the Southwest into the local context and promote community discussion of ways to secure our water supply for all users of water in the future.”
There will be a reception for the producer of the film, James Thebaut of the Chronicles Group in Los Angeles, at 5:30 p.m. The screening will begin at 6:15 p.m., followed by a panel discussion on the local significance of the issues raised in the film.
The panelists will include Prof. Paul Matthews, UNM Geography Department, Vince Tidwell, Principal Member of the Technical Staff, Sandia National Labs, and Tanya Trujillo, General Counsel, Interstate Stream Commission. More information on the film is available at: Running Dry.
Note: limited free parking available at the “B” lot on the northwest corner of University and Central, behind the UNM parking and transportation office. For more information about the event, please contact Sanford Gaines, Utton Center director, at 277-3253.
The New Mexico Health Historical Collection (NMHHC) at the UNM Health Sciences Library and Informatics Center received the “Best Poster to Promote 2008 Archives Month” award in the Society of American Archivists’ “Picture This!” Contest.
The contest is part of the national campaign Celebrating the American Record, which promotes awareness of the value of archives and archivists. American archives, like the NMHHC collect and preserve unique records and materials of enduring and historical significance making them available for generations to come.
The award-winning poster announces a recently mounted exhibit called “Art in Medicine: On the Fabric of the Human Body,” which is on display through May 29, 2009, in the Domenici Center for Health Sciences Education Auditorium Lobby. The poster was commended for its excellent design, which communicates a clear message about the exhibit and program. The library was also praised for the development of “a solid plan for distributing the poster to a well-conceived campus audience.”
The Society of American Archivists (SAA) was founded in 1936, and is North America's oldest and largest national archival professional association. SAA's mission is to serve the educational and informational needs of more than 5,000 individual and institutional members and to provide leadership to ensure the identification, preservation, and use of records of historical value.
Established in 1963, the Health Sciences Library and Informatics Center is the only comprehensive health sciences library in New Mexico. It supports the information needs of faculty, students, staff and programs of the HSC and provides health-related information services to community health professionals and the citizens of New Mexico.
For more information call, (505) 272-6518.
Media Contact: Luke Frank, (505) 272-3679; e-mail: lfrank@salud.unm.edu
Don’t forget to attend Preventive Health Week, Nov. 10 - 14, sponsored by the Division of Human Resources and Employee Health Promotion Program, in partnership with the Lovelace and Presbyterian health plans for faculty, staff and their adult dependents.
For more information visit: Preventive Health Week.
Additionally, EHPP’s second annual holiday weight management program, Maintain Don’t Gain, launches Nov. 10-14 with its “measurement week.” Be part of this eight-week support program designed to help you keep off holiday weight.
For more information on the program visit: Maintain Don't Gain. Interested participants may also e-mail, ehpp@unm.edu or call either 272-3989 or 272-4460.
The New Mexico Academy of Science presents, “Charles Darwin And The Voyage Of The Beagle” in a free stage performance by noted Darwin actor Brian “Fox” Ellis of Fox Tales International. The performance is Saturday, Nov. 15 at 2 p.m. in the Domenici Education Center Auditorium at the UNM Health Sciences Center.
Imagine an evening at London’s Royal Geological Society, with the affable, young Charles Darwin, among friends, telling the stories of his amazing adventure sailing around the world on HMS Beagle.
Darwin tells humorous tales of his training as a naturalist, his insights into South American geology, his discovery of strange creatures on the Galapagos Archipelago and most importantly, the scientific evidence that led to his revolutionary theory.
Storyteller and science teacher, Brian “Fox” Ellis steps into Darwin’s shoes to model the scientific process, and engage listeners in a discussion of the facts. Equal parts dramatic storytelling, stand-up comedy, and show and tell, the audience is immersed in the intellectual world of one of history’s greatest scientific minds. Ellis brings a wide array of fossils, insects, plants and study skins so the audience can experience the discoveries of Darwin with hands-on analysis.
Funding for this performance was provided by UNM Health Sciences Center and School of Medicine Office of Research. Free parking is available near the Center.
For more information, visit NMAS.
Media Contact: Luke Frank, (505) 272-3679; e-mail: lfrank@salud.unm.edu
Open forums will be held for two candidates for the position of director in admissions and recruitment services, Division of Enrollment Management.
On Tuesday, Nov. 11, an open forum for Karen Lucas will be held in the SUB Trailblazer/Spirit Room.
On Friday, Nov. 14, an open forum will be held for Shingirai Chanaiwa, in the SUB Luminaria Room. Both forums will be held from 2:30 to 3:30 p.m.
Both forums are open to faculty, staff and students and university community members.
Peabody Award-winning New Mexico filmmaker Tony Martinez has created a way for New Mexico soldiers from various American wars to tell their war stories in their own words. His program, “Letters of Honor” will be broadcast as part of a Veteran’s Day salute, airing on Sunday, Nov. 9, at 3 p.m. on KNME-TV, channel 5.
The program is based on recently discovered letters written by New Mexicans on the frontlines from conflicts throughout American history, including World Wars I and II, Korea, Vietnam and the current wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. The letters, read on camera by loved ones and family members of the soldiers, tell a powerfully moving dual tale of the soldwiers’ love and longing of family--and sense of duty to their country.
Media Contact: Bill Pinnell (505) 277.1240 E-Mail: bpinnell@knme.org
Graduate students in University of New Mexico Landscape Architecture Studio 3 present, SITE AND NON-SITE: Visioning the Pat Hurley Neighborhood: A Gallery Installation + Interpretation of a Landscape, Monday, Nov. 10 from 2 – 6 p.m. at 711 3rd St. SW. The course is taught by adjunct professor John Barney.
Student Kristina Guist, said, “Site/Non-Site is an art installation meant to convey the sense of a site within the Pat Hurley neighborhood and the key processes that have shaped it over time. The installations deal with larger issues of landscape architecture and contemporary art so that they become a mirror of the site as well as larger issues that we face as landscape architects and inhabitants of the landscape.”
The event features a gallery review and reception and is free and open to the public.
The UNM Consortium for Collaborative Public Policy will host a symposium titled, “Exploring Collaborative Governance in New Mexico,” on Friday, Nov. 14 from 8:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. in the UNM Student Union Building, Ballroom A. The event will feature keynote speaker Roger Moe, board member of the Policy Consensus Initiative and former Majority Leader of the Minnesota State Senate.
Additionally, panelists from university-based collaborative governance centers in Oregon and Colorado will participate.
Attendees can discover how UNM can emulate and build upon constructive roles that universities nationwide are already playing to develop informed public policy.
For more information visit: Symposium on Collaborative Governance.
Interested attendees may also contact Paul Biderman, director, Institute of Public Law, at biderman@unm.edu or call 277-8789. To RSVP, contact Megan McCarthy at the UNM Institute of Public Law at, mccarthy@law.unm.edu or call 277-5006.
The José C. Teran “Naret” Scholarship Fund was recently endowed with $15,000 to support students at the University of New Mexico interested in fine arts. The endowment was officially established at a recent signing at the University Art Museum.
Photo: Gustavo de Unánue, consulate of Mexico, and Yvett Vazquez-Elias, niece of José C. Teran, sign an agreement establishing the José C. Teran “Naret” Scholarship Fund at UNM.
The fund supports a full-time undergraduate or graduate student at UNM, preferably enrolled in the College of Fine Arts. Recipients must maintain a grade point average of 2.75 or higher, and preference is given to a Hispanic student or a student from Mexico or of Mexican descent.
“The guidelines are perfectly aligned with what we’re trying to do in our college,” including recruiting more Latin American students, said Christopher Mead, dean of the College of Fine Arts.
Teran was unable to attend the signing due to a family illness. His niece, Yvett Vazquez-Elias, signed on his behalf. Vazquez-Elias also signed on behalf of Maria Estela de Rios, president of the Mexican Education Foundation of New Mexico. Also signing were Gustavo de Unánue, consulate of Mexico, Christopher Mead, dean of the College of Fine Arts, Joyce Szabo, chair of the Department of Art and Art History, and John Stropp, president of the UNM Foundation.
Vazquez-Elias said Teran became interested in forming the scholarship fund while he was in Albuquerque for an exhibit at the University Art Museum.
Teran donated art to be sold at an auction to benefit the endowment. In addition to the paintings, cash donations were contributed by Vazquez-Elias and the Mexican Education Foundation of New Mexico. Funds were also provided by UNM’s Office of the Vice President for Student Affairs.
Teran, known as Naret (his surname spelled backwards), was born in the foothills of the Sierra Purica Mountains in the mining village of Nacozari, Sonora. He studied at the Art Center College of Design in Pasadena, California. In the late 1940s, he arrived in Mexico City and started his career as an art director in advertising. He was the founder of the TERAN\TBWA advertising agency, one of Mexico’s principal agencies.
In the 1980s he began to dedicate more time to painting. His work is inspired by the biodiversity of the Sonoran desert, rock and cave paintings, the floral beauty of Xochimilco and the Mayan Riviera, as well as recent work in abstract art. Vazquez-Elias said Teran’s work brought attention to Xochimilco art.
Donors may contribute to the fund through the UNM Foundation. Call (505) 277-4503 or visit UNM Foundation.
Student Affairs professionals from all over the state will come to the University of New Mexico for the 11th Annual New Mexico Student Affairs Symposium on Thursday and Friday, Nov. 13 and 14. Events will be held in the UNM Student Union Building ballroom. The theme of this year’s symposium is Connectivity: Preparing for the Future.
The symposium features an array of topics for attendees to explore, including: “Realizing the College Dream for Students with Asperger’s Syndrome or High Functioning Autism,” to “Skin to Skin, Mentoring Students of Color,” to “Parental Preparation for the College Experience,” among others.
Experts and information on matters of importance to Student Affair professionals, students, post-secondary parent associations, educational agencies, public/private universities and community colleges will also be available.
Space is still available and those interested in participating can visit NMASAP for registration information.
Media Contact: Carolyn Gonzales, (505) 277-5920; e-mail: cgonzal@unm.edu
At UNM the knowledge revolution is taking place in the Electrical and Computer Engineering Department classrooms, beginning with undergraduate courses such as Introduction to Digital Logic, and quickly moving to courses in microprocessing. Quick and imaginative students soon get an opportunity to design and test computer chips for specific tasks.
They are on the cutting edge of custom chip development, working on chips that can be reprogrammed to change tasks, even if they are out in space orbiting the earth. It is real world training for high paying, high tech jobs in the 21st century.
About the Chips
Most computer chips are designed to do one thing, like run a laptop, but the field programmable gate array (FPGA) chips have special properties. They are custom designed and tested; they can be reprogrammed; and they can be used for a wide variety of tasks. BMW uses the chips to monitor engine temperature and to automatically choose the correct gears in cars. The U.S. Air Force is looking at ways put the chips in weather satellites. And that is where a new center near UNM comes into the picture. The FPGAs can be programmed to do one thing then reprogrammed either remotely or in the lab to do another.
FPGA Mission Assurance Center
The FPGA Mission Assurance Center has a $1.6 million grant from Congress to train students and professors and recruit high school students to design the computer chips they need to move into the next generation of electronic technology. For students it’s a direct road to the best paying and most challenging technical jobs in the new century.
The center is directed by Steve Suddarth, a former United States Air Force Colonel and UNM Research Professor in Electrical and Computer Engineering. Deputy Director Craig Kief, an adjunct professor in ECE, masterminds the outreach program which already includes 10 colleges and universities throughout the southwest. Professors from the schools come to the center, learn the curriculum and go back to guide their students through beginning courses. Eventually the students are in advanced courses at UNM.
Advanced Students are recruited from NMSU, NM Tech, Louisiana State University, from the Air Force Institute of Technology and the Ibero- American Science and Technology Education Consortium. The Air Force Research Laboratory is a partner as are the Los Alamos National Laboratory, Sandia National Laboratory, SES Consultants and the Xilinx Corporation.
“It’s a complex concept that requires a great deal of collaboration,” Suddarth said. At UNM, ECE professors Christos Christodoulou and Marios Pattichis are advisory board members and ECE Professors Howard Pollard and Jim Plusquellic teach the Microprocessor Lab and advanced Hardware Descriptive Language Courses.
Planning for Advances in Space
Suddarth has his eyes on space. A big problem with space projects is the length of time it takes to build and qualify computer chips to be used in spacecraft. Ordinary electronics don’t work in space because they must be carefully shielded from radiation and because it is difficult to provide optimal temperatures for their functioning. Plus, the qualification process can take several years. Suddarth believes he can chop years from the process by qualifying FPGA chips for space work. Once the chips are cleared, they can be quickly programmed to do what is needed.
The chips are also much smaller than electronic components now used on spacecraft. Suddarth said, “We can follow the revolution that is happening right now in electronics, so instead of a spacecraft the size of this room, we have a spacecraft that can fit into my hands.” On spacecraft, size, weight and power are all critical components.
Space is Just the Beginning
Suddarth said what the industry needs now is people trained to think about how to design with these chips and put them into complex systems. Not enough trained programmers have the skill and imagination to meet the demand. Currently businesses will hire promising graduate students and train them for another four years or so until they have the right skills to make real contributions. He wants to show industry that students coming from this program are immediately able to handle the job.
The program is concentrating on students throughout the Southwest because they think the national laboratories, universities, community colleges and businesses can create the kind of combination that might drive an entire industry.
Suddarth said, “If New Mexico can become a design center for these chips it will bring and keep high paying jobs to the state. It’s a chance to build a specialized industry from the ground up in New Mexico.”
Media Contact: Karen Wentworth, (505) 277-5627; e-mail: kwent2@unm.edu
The Mind Research Network (MRN) has been selected by the National Institutes of Health for a five-year, $11.6-million Institutional Development Award (IDeA) grant to study the neural mechanisms of schizophrenia.
The IDeA grant will support the development of a Center for Biomedical Research Excellence - or COBRE center - through the NIH’s National Center for Research Resources (NCRR). COBRE Centers provide laboratory scientists and clinical researchers with the tools and training they need to understand, detect, treat, and prevent a wide range of diseases.
These NCRR grants also support thematic multidisciplinary centers that strengthen institutional biomedical research capacity, by expanding biomedical faculty research capability and enhancing research infrastructure, including the establishment of core facilities needed to carry out the objectives of a multidisciplinary, collaborative program.
Led by MRN Principal Investigator and UNM Department of Psychiatry Professor John Lauriello, M.D., the Mind’s COBRE center will use several neuroimaging techniques to examine underlying brain circuits and connections associated with schizophrenia, and integrate imaging data with psychiatric, neuropsychological and genetic testing to investigate the major cognitive domains of schizophrenia dysfunction.
"We’ll be looking at four distinct areas of brain dysfunction associated with schizophrenia: attention; memory; concept formation; and problem-solving abilities," explains Lauriello. "What a tremendous opportunity to incorporate some of neuroscience’s most powerful imaging tools to investigate specifically where in the human brain’s circuitry things might be going wrong for those suffering from schizophrenia," he continues.
The center will develop four independent research models to be integrated in order as data are collected:
1. Auditory Sensory Gating, which begins at the basic level if sensory processing, will be led by Dr. Andrew Mayer
2. Auditory and Visual, which builds on the first project adding multisensory integration, led by Dr. Julia Stephen
3. Traverse Patterning, which relies on working memory and relational memory integration, led by Dr. Faith Hanlon
4. Intelligence, which focuses on generalized higher cognitive functioning, led by Dr. Rex Jung.
"The Mind Research Network is the ideal facility for building this center," adds MRN CEO John Rasure. "More than 10 years ago, the Mind was conceived by U.S. Senator Pete Domenici specifically to seek ways to collect and integrate imaging, genetic and behavioral data in search of answers about schizophrenia. We are extremely pleased about this award and what it means to the Senator’s legacy."
"Over the years, I have worked to ensure greater resources for understanding and treatment of diseases that affect the brain," Domenici says. "I applaud the National Institutes of Health for providing this grant that will allow the Mind Research Network to carry out invaluable work to understand schizophrenia’s process and affects on the human brain. I expect to hear good things as MRN carries out its work."
The Mind Research Network is dedicated to advancing the diagnosis and treatment of mental illness and brain disorders. For information on the Mind Research Network or the 2008 COBRE Grant, please call 505/272-5028 or visitwww.mrn.org.
Media Contacts: UNM, Luke Frank, 505/272-3679; cell 505/907-9525; MRN, Dolores González, 505/925-4747; cell 505/259-9736
Tuesday, Nov. 4 was the culmination of almost two years of campaigning and fighting for the presidency of the United States. At the end of the night, history was made with the election of Barack Obama as the first African American President of the United States. This week, “New Mexico in Focus” looks at the Democratic sweep of the 2008 election and what created this “perfect storm.” “New Mexico in Focus” will air on KNME-TV, channel 5, on Friday, Nov. 7 at 7 p.m. and repeats on Sunday, Nov. 9 at 6:30 a.m.
“New Mexico in Focus” looks at social, political, economic, health, education and arts issues and gives them context beyond the "news of the moment." The one-hour show brings viewers important topics, opinions and insight, in an integrated and cohesive package.
Joining co-host David Alire Garcia, managing editor of the New Mexico Independent, to discuss the 2008 election are University of New Mexico political science faculty Gabriel Sanchez and Lonna Atkeson, and political blogger Heath Haussaman.
Then, co-host and Albuquerque Journal columnist Gene Grant, and regular panelists Margaret Montoya, professor with the UNM School of Law and School of Medicine, and Jim Scarantino, moderator of NewMexicoLiberty.com, are joined by guest panelists Marco Gonzales, attorney with the Modrell Sperling law firm and Peter St. Cyr, reporter with KKOB-AM to discuss some of the upcoming items on Barack Obama’s agenda, speculate on what the Republican Party will need to do to regroup, and take a look back at Senator John McCain’s legacy.
Producers of ‘New Mexico In Focus’ are Kevin McDonald and Kathy Wimmer. Closed captioning has been made possible by a gift from Mrs. Elspeth G. Bobbs.
The fall 2008 issue of UNM’s internationally-known “Journal of Anthropological Research” is dedicated to the memory of the late Robert Santley, a professor of Anthropology from 1978 – 2006. Colleagues say Santley was controversial, flamboyant and brilliant, an irascible iconoclast, as well as hard working and productive as a Mesoamerican prehistoric archeologist.
Santley was famed for his work in the Basin of Mexico (Teotihuacan) with his mentor Penn State professor William Sanders, and University of Michigan professor Jeffery Parsons, as well as for his own work on Matacupan and its hinterland in the Tuxla Mountains of southern Veracruz State. Santley was a master of large-scale archeological survey and high-powered lithic analysis, notably the study of the economics of the obsidian trade in ancient Mesoamerica.
This issue includes papers from Santley’s students and mentors, and a section “Debating with Robert: Papers on Mesoamerican Archeology in Memory of Robert S. Santley” is edited by his former colleages Christopher Pool, associate professor and chair of Anthropology at the University of Kentucky and Patricia McAnany, Kenan professor of Anthropology and chair at the University of North Carolina.
The” Journal of Anthropological Research” has been published quarterly by the University of New Mexico since 1945. The current editor is Distinguished Professor of Anthropology Lawrence G. Straus.
The University Libraries’ Indigenous Nations Library Program presents “The Religious Dimension of Federal Indian Law” as part of the Native Pathways Lecture Series on Wednesday, Nov. 12, at 3 p.m. in the Willard Reading Room in UNM’s Zimmerman Library.
The lecture will feature Steven T. Newcomb, co-founder and co-director of the Indigenous Law Institute. He will discuss his research on Christianity’s role in U.S. federal Indian law since colonization.
In his newest book, “Pagans in the Promised Land,” Newcomb challenges the assumption that American Indian nations were legitimately subject to the power of the United States during colonization. Further, he asserts that there is no separation of church and state in the United States, so long as Christian undertones are the basis of U.S. federal Indian law.
“The purpose of this lecture series is to make students and faculty aware of native people who are in academia and who are making a change,” said Savannah Gene, student lecture coordinator for the Indigenous Nations Library Program. Gene is a senior in the School of Architecture and Planning.
The day’s events include a brown bag lunch at 11 a.m.-noon in the Herzstein Room in Zimmerman Library, by the lecture at 3 p.m. in the Willard Reading Room. Both events are free and open to the public.
For more information, call Savannah Gene or the Indigenous Nations Library Program at 277-7433.
Story by Jazmyn Bradford
Skip–A-Meal Program benefits hungry
Flooded with memories of the smell of roasting chilies and freshly-made tamales, most people think of Albuquerque as a place where tradition and food are so intertwined that they unite current and former residents throughout the nation. However, as in most cities, many Albuquerque residents face a daily challenge in finding something to eat. Students and faculty at the University of New Mexico can take a stance against hunger in Albuquerque with the Skip-A-Meal Program, which runs through Friday, Nov. 7.
Part of the Meal Exchange Organization, a program founded by Canadian student Rahul Raj in 1993 at Wilfrid Laurier University, the program launched Monday to address hunger in the Albuquerque metro area.
Tullivan Begay, founder of the UNM chapter, first read about the program last semester in her sociology class and presented it at the Undergraduate Research and Creativity Symposium. The program was so well-received that Begay and her friend Geneva Thompson decided to bring it to the United States.
“There were two or three chapters that had the idea of starting [the Meal Exchange Program] in the U.S., but they weren’t proactive at actually carrying out any of the programs,” Begay said. “I thought, I am a residence hall student and I have a lot of meals left from my account, so I might as well do this.”
Collaborating with Chartwells Dining Services, the Meal Exchange Organization allows both off-campus and residential hall students to participate in the Skip-A-Meal Program. Off-campus students can participate by donating cash or Lobo Cash, while residential hall students can sign up to skip one meal at the designated locations in the Student Union Building and La Posada Dining Hall.
“The proceeds from that meal will go to two charitable organizations, the Storehouse and the Rio Grande Food Project,” said Begay. “All the students that sign up will be entered into a $200 drawing and Chartwells will donate that money to either the Storehouse or the Rio Grande Food Project.”
The Skip-A-Meal Program is not the only way students and faculty can relieve hunger. Last week through the Trick or Eat Program, volunteers trick-or-treated for non-perishable food items for local food banks and services agencies, while they spread awareness about hunger throughout the neighborhood.
In addition, as students clean out their dorms at the end of the semester, the Clear the Shelves Program provides students an opportunity to donate unused food, clothing and furniture to local charities, rather than hauling them home for the summer.
For more information, contact Bobby Childers, Housing & Dining Services, at (505) 934-5879 or childers@unm.edu.
Story by Jazmen Bradford
Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Center for Health Policy at UNM presents a lecture, “Where the Rubber Hits the Road: How science can be translated into policy for prevention of shaken baby syndrome,” on Thursday, Nov. 13 from 12:30 – 2 p.m. in rm. 353 in the College of Nursing / College of Pharmacy building at the UNM Health Sciences Center. Then, from 2:30 – 4 p.m., a workshop, “Community-wide, Culturally-sensitive Prevention Programs for Shaken Baby Syndrome: Principles and Challenges for Implementation,” is set in the same location. The events are part of the RWJF Fall Lecture Series.
Photo: Ron Barr, professor of Pediatrics, Faculty of Medicine, University of British Columbia
The lecture features Ronald Barr, Canada Research Chair in Community Child Health Research at the University of British Columbia. Barr is a professor of Pediatrics on the Faculty of Medicine at UBC, and director of the Centre for Community Child Health Research at the Child and Family Research Institute of the BC Children’s Hospital. He is also director of the “Experience-based Brain and Biological Development” Programme of the Canadian Institute for Advanced Research.
Barr will describe a primary, universal, community-based prevention program for Shaken Baby Syndrome.
This presentation will:
· Delineate four convergent lines of evidence for the program,
· describe the stages of its development,
· discuss the prerequisites for a primary prevention initiative,
· describe the development (including cross cultural focus groups), testing (randomized controlled trials of knowledge and behavior) and,
· discuss strategies and challenges for jurisdiction-wide implementation in North Carolina and British Columbia
Continuing Medical and Nursing Education is available.
The workshop features Marilyn Barr, founder and executive director of the National Center on Shaken Baby Syndrome in Canada, and Ronald Barr.
In this symposium workshop, the Barrs will describe their experience of effectively implementing the Period of PURPLE Crying prevention of shaken baby syndrome program. The Barrs will illustrate their discussion using specific examples from recent implementation projects in North Carolina and British Columbia.
Topics include:
· basic principles that need to be met to justify implementation jurisdiction-wide
· importance of timing and “doses” of intervention
· challenges and processes required for effective translations of the materials into eight languages
· importance of bringing about a cultural change in order to establish long-term
sustainability
· discussion of the 10 most “frequently asked questions” that implementation raises
For more information contact the RWJF Center at 277-0130 or rwjf@unm.edu.
Media Contact: Carolyn Gonzales, (505) 277-5920; e-mail: cgonzal@unm.edu
UNM Distinguished Professor of Biology Dr. James Brown second author on paper
Ever wonder where all that food your teenager devoured was going? As a matter of fact, not only does the food go into the teen’s daily activities – running, doing homework, breathing and playing video games, but food converted to energy also fuels growth of new tissues – bones, vessels, cartilage, muscle.
In poorer areas of the world part of the energy yielded by food might be necessarily deflected for the body’s defense system in fighting disease. Children and teens in such conditions will not grow as tall or big as their healthy counterparts who were able to allocate a lot more of their energy stores directly to growth.
In the October 31 issue of Science, National Science Foundation funded researchers report on a model that shows that the food baby mammals and birds use to grow always stay proportional to how fast they are growing. The paper, titled "Energy Uptake and Allocation During Ontogeny" says this relationship stays remarkably stable for all sizes and types of animals.
Dr. Chen Hou, Santa Fe Institute and lead investigator, compares the building of an animal to the building of a house
“When you build a house the materials alone are just part of the story. You might pay $1000 for the bricks, but you will spend much more for the workers and the rest of the overhead," said Hou. "Same with building a body – new muscle and bone are just part of the energy expenditure; laying that new tissue down costs much more.”
Previous energy budget models have typically been based on either rates of food consumption or metabolic energy expenditure.
Hou and his colleagues, including University of New Mexico Distinguished Professor of Biology Dr. James Brown, UNM Biology student Wenyun Zuo, who is advised by Brown as well as being second author, and other UNM researchers including Melanie Moses, associate professor, Computer Science and William H. Woodruff, Earth and Planetary Sciences, are the first to reconcile the two approaches and to highlight the fundamental principles that determine rates of food assimilation and the rate of energy allocation to maintenance of a body and to its growth, activity and storage. They confirmed their model with data from 14 different mammals and birds from the chicken to the fox.
In the future they will be interested to see how rate of food intake and rates of growth compare in reptiles and insects.
The current modeling work is not only important in agriculture and husbandry, but will lend key insight into children’s obesity, and the relationship of diet control to exercise and weight loss. This research can also shed light on inquiry into how food restriction can retard aging.
UNM Media Contact: Steve Carr, (505) 277-1821; e-mail: scarr@unm.edu
The University of New Mexico Occupational Therapy Graduate Program at the UNM School of Medicine recently had a faculty member rejoin the program after working on a research project abroad and another faculty member elected to an interdisciplinary board.
Patricia Burtner was recently elected to the Board of the American Academy of Cerebral Palsy and Developmental Medicine (AACPDM), an interdisciplinary professional association focusing on children and adults with cerebral palsy and other disabilities.
Burtner will serve a three-year term and make significant contributions to this interdisciplinary organization focused on fostering medical professional education, research, and interest in the understanding and the care of individuals with cerebral palsy and other developmental disabilities.
She has been a member of the AACPDM since 1992 and has served on the Family Advocacy Committee (1994 95) and the Publications Committee (1995 2002), Nominating Committee (2005), the Program Planning Committee (2005) and Membership Committee (2002-present) serving as Chair for this committee in 2006.
Additionally, Betsy VanLeit returns as a faculty member of the UNM Occupational Therapy Graduate Program after working on a year-long, community-based research project in Cambodia that involved causes of childhood disability and strategies to prevent or minimize development of disability in young children.
The voice mail replacement project is on schedule for Saturday, Nov. 29. All current voice mail users must initialize their mailbox on the new system prior to that date. Instructions on how to initialize your mailbox on the new system will be sent campus wide on Nov. 10. Users will dial a temporary access number to set up their mailbox, but will continue to use the current system until Nov. 29. Please note the prompts on the new system have changed.
Visit: Voice Mail User Guide to download a copy of the user guide for the new system.
There is also an online guide at: Interactive Coach.
Additionally, CNS is offering “Train the Trainer” classes for departments who wish to send a designated individual who can then train their staff.
The class is titled “New Voice Mail System Train the Trainer” and session registration is available through Learning Central. The class can be found under “Telecommunications Training.”
University Hospital Communications will be coordinating training classes for their users. After Nov. 29, the access number will remain 277-9997.
For more information or any questions, contact the CNS Voice Support Center at 277-1111.
The Indigenous Nations Library Program hosts Michael Sheyahshe for a brown bag discussion and lecture, (Not so) Funny Books: Native Americans in Comic Books, Wednesday, Nov. 5, from noon to 1 p.m. in the Herzstein Room. The lecture and discussion begins at 3 p.m. in the Willard Reading Room of Zimmerman Library.
Sheyahshe’s discussion and lecture looks at the level of stereotype used in comic books. He explores ways to evaluate whether a character is misrepresented. He and look at examples that conform and resist stereotype.
Sheyahshe (Caddo) has been a Gates Millennium Scholar and a Ronald E. McNair Scholar. He received undergraduate degrees in Native American Studies and Film from the University of Oklahoma. He currently has a studio “alterNative Media” specializing in traditional and digital art, 3d models and virtual simulation and video games. His new book, “Native Americans in Comics” is available from McFarland.
The discussion and lecture are free and open to the public.
Media Contact: Karen Wentworth, (505) 277-5627; e-mail: kwent2@unm.edu
The second of three required seminars on Financial Projections for Startups will take place on Friday, Nov. 14 for participants in this year’s UNM Technology Business Plan Competition. This seminar features two guest speakers from REDW Business & Financial Resources, LLC-The Rogoff Firm. Tim Kelly, REDW Senior Manager of Business Valuation Services, and Susan Willis, REDW Senior Tax Manager, will begin where Session 1 ended and cover more advanced concepts for startup financials.
Team members who attended the first seminar are eligible to attend the second session. At least one member from each team should attend all three seminars, and all team members are encouraged to attend. Soundness of financial projections and reasoning will be a major judging criterion in the competition.
Financial Projections for Startups (2nd of 3 Required Seminars)
Friday, Nov 14, from 11:30 a.m. to 1:30 p.m.
GSM 117 (Lunch is provided)
Reservations are required. Contact Jennifer Bayley via phone 277-6172 or e-mail (bayley@mgt.unm.edu) by Tuesday, Nov. 11.
More information: TechBizPlan.
The UNM Technology Business Plan Competition is designed to encourage UNM students from any UNM school or college to collaborate on teams that commercialize technology products developed at UNM, Sandia National Labs, Los Alamos National Lab, or elsewhere in the state. These student-owned startup firms bring inventions from lab to market and boost economic development in New Mexico.
Top prize for the competition is the $25,000 Michael Gallegos Prize for Entrepreneurship. TVC Lockheed Martin sponsors the $10,000 second place prize and vSpring Capital offers the third place $5,000 prize.
The Anderson School of Management is offering a speaker series on Monday nights examining how harnessing the power of the free market could solve the problems of poverty, hunger and inequality. The speaker series will be offered on Mondays from 5 to 7 p.m. through Dec. 8 in the Anderson Computer Lab located on the first floor of Anderson's west building. It will be simulcast from the University of California, Berkeley.
Sponsored by UNM Net Impact, there is no cost to attend the series. For more information e-mail, UNMmicrofinance@gmail.com
The Speaker Series...
November 10
Kendall Mau, CFO and COO, Prisma Microfinance
"Managing and Working at a Microfinance Institution"
Kendall Mau is a seasoned financial and human resources executive as well as an International Management Consultant having worked with for-profit and non-profit organizations in the United States, West & East Africa, Central & South America, and former Republics of the Soviet Union.
November 17
Monica Brand, Vice President, ACCION International
"Challenges in Microfinance"
In her role as vice president, Monica Brand manages initiatives in the areas of market intelligence, new product development and efficiency. She has designed market research projects, overseen the development and launch of new products, conducted training workshops, and analyzed the institutional capacity of microfinance institutions in Latin America, Africa, and the United States.
November 24
Chris Dunford, President, Freedom from Hunger
"Beyond Credit - Other Microfinance Products"
Chris Dunford joined Freedom from Hunger in 1984 and became its president in 1991. He has more than 30 years of experience in development planning and management in Africa, Asia, Latin America and the United States.
December 1
Anne Miles, Director of USA Office, Blue Orchard Finance USA and Steve Hardgrave, Partner, Gray Ghost Ventures
"Investing in Microfinance Institutions"
Before joining Blue Orchard in 2006, Ann Miles worked at Women's World Banking, New York, a non-profit global network of microfinance institutions (MFIs), where she managed the Financial Products and Services team which monitored the financial performance of the MFIs and helped them access commercial sources of funding.
Steve Hardgrave is a partner at Gray Ghost Ventures a company that aims to demonstrate the viability of microfinance as an alternative investment option.
December 8
Jessica Jackley Flannery, Founder, Kiva
"New Innovations in Microfinance"
The co-founder and spirit behind Kiva, Jessica Jackley Flannery completed her MBA at the Stanford Graduate School of Business. She has worked in rural Kenya, Tanzania, and Uganda with village Enterprise fund and project Baobab on impact evaluation and program development.