School of Engineering students are in the final stages of testing and driver training for the 2010 Formula SAE® Competition set for Wednesday-Saturday, June 16-19, in Fontana, Calif. For three semesters, the team has worked on designing, testing, and building a sleek, aerodynamic, high-performance race car that weighs 455 pounds, 50 pounds lighter than last year’s car. And now, the team is ready to put the pedal to the metal.
Photo: Students in the UNM FSAE program prepare for the 2010 Formula SAE® competition.
The Formula SAE® is a competition encompassing all aspects of the automotive industry including research, design, manufacturing, testing, developing, marketing, management and finances.
“FSAE offers real world engineering and hands-on experience,” says Chuan Banh, 2010 FSAE Team Project Manager. “Last year, Honda hired four students from New Mexico; three of them were from the UNM FSAE team.”
Nationally, UNM’s program is one of two offering specific FSAE participation for academic credit.
“Although we have gotten better every year, so does the competition,” said Mechanical Engineering Professor John Russell, instructor for the three-semester course. “Our prospects are very good this year. We have enhanced our reliability and drivability using a non-shifting continuously-variable-transmission.”
This year’s team used sophisticated 3D software in the industry to design a car with peak efficiency, improved fuel efficiency and better acceleration. “Using a computational flow dynamics program, the aero package was designed with two goals: generate as much down-force as possible and decrease the overall drag forces on the vehicle,” said Fernando Hernandez, head of the aerodynamics team.
“Designing the entire package around the undertray, we were able to achieve significant results at the speeds we operate, while keeping the overall weight relatively low with the use of carbon fiber composites. By doing so we were able to setup a foundation for future teams to build upon.”
Over the next two weeks, the team will make sure the car can handle the endurance test of the competition; 11 laps with one driver and another 11 laps with a different driver. “If you can pass endurance at the competition, you’re in the top 20-25 teams,” said Banh.
The UNM team depends on private and public sponsorship for funding to engineer and build the car as well as to participate in the competition. For more information about the UNM racecar or to donate to the program visit: UNM Formula SAE® Program.
Media Contact: Karen Wentworth, (505) 277-5627; e-mail: kwent2@unm.edu
The UNM Wellness Challenge is Employee Health Promotion Program’s (EHPP) newest wellness initiative aimed to assist participants in improving their overall wellness through fitness and nutrition.
The eight-week program includes biometric measurements, informative list-serv, nutrition information with optional weekly assignments, 30 minute Thursday Challenge Workouts (held morning, noon, and evening on main and north campus), Wednesday Low Impact Workouts, Recreational Services passes, support groups, EHPP Teams, prizes and more.
Registration and Pre-measurements
Wednesday, June 2 – Wednesday, June 9. Register at EHPP’s main office, Johnson Center, Room 162-B during regular business hours. Registration and measurements will also be taken at BMSB (north campus), Zimmerman Library, UNM Business Center, and UNM Hospital on select dates. See the website for complete details. We will also come to your location with a group of 15 or more (subject to availability).
Programming
Monday, June 14 – Friday, Aug. 6
Post-measurements
Monday-Friday, Aug. 9 – 13
Cost
UNM Faculty/Staff: $15 as an individual or $10 per person when you join as a team of 2 or more. UNM Hospital, UNM students, spouse/domestic partner, dependents age 18 and older: $20 as an individual or $15 per person when you join as a team of 2 or more.
For full details, registration information, and a calendar of events go to: UNM Wellness Challenge.
For more information or questions call, (505) 272-3989 or e-mail, ehpp@unm.edu.
Brenda Claiborne, dean, College of Arts & Sciences, announces the college’s Regents Lecturers. They are Osbjorn Pearson, anthropology; William Pockman, biology; and Dinesh Loomba, physics & astronomy.
The title Regents Lecturer is bestowed on junior tenured faculty members who, in the judgment of the dean and on the advice of a faculty selection committee, merit recognition of their exceptional accomplishments in the areas of teaching, scholarship and leadership in university affairs and with respect to national/international professional communities.
Professors Pearson, Pockman, and Loomba will serve as the College's Regents Lecturers for the Fall 2010-Spring 2013 term.
The office of Lt. Governor is traditionally not a particularly powerful seat in New Mexico government. So, why are so many folks interested in the job this time around? Ahead this week on “New Mexico in Focus”, answers to that question and more with all five of the democratic candidates for Lt. Governor, and two of the three republican candidates. Hear what they say about the office, and their priorities as the state’s number two administrator. “New Mexico in Focus” airs Fridays at 7 p.m. and Sundays at 6:30 a.m. It also airs KNME Digital Ch. 9.1 on Saturdays at 5 p.m.
Also this week “The Line” panelists weigh in with their thoughts and opinions on the primary races and which candidates might have the best chance this November.
Host/Commentator:
Gene Grant, Weekly Alibi Columnist
NMIF Correspondent:
Sarah Gustavus, KUNM Radio Host
Guests:
José Campos, Democratic Candidate for Lt. Gov.
Brian Colón, Democratic Candidate for Lt. Gov.
Kent Cravens, Republican Candidate for Lt. Gov.
Linda Lopez, Democratic Candidate for Lt. Gov.
Jerry Ortiz Y Pino, Democratic Candidate for Lt. Gov.
Lawrence Rael, Democratic Candidate for Lt. Gov.
John Sanchez, Republican Candidate for Lt. Gov.
Panelists:
Laura E. Sanchez, Former Executive Director, New Mexico Democratic Party
Jim Scarantino, Editor, New Mexico Watchdog
Guest Panelists:
Phil Marquez, Radio Host, AM 1550 KIVA
Antoinette Sedillo Lopez, Professor, UNM School of Law
Viewers can also watch New Mexico In Focus online at: KNME. Additionally, get updates, watch, and follow KNME on Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and more.
“New Mexico in Focus” is produced by Kevin McDonald and Kathy Wimmer and 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
A new issue of Dawn of Nations Today is now available online. The student-staffed news publication covers Native American affairs from the campus to the national level. Articles in the current edition cover the Navajo Nation presidential elections, Arizona Senate Bill 1070 relating to undocumented immigrants, homelessness in Albuquerque, independent musicians and more.
Through a course in UNM’s Department of Native American Studies, students working on Dawn of Nations Today learn the business of news, from writing and editing to production and distribution. Current student staff are Brent Bluehouse, Eldon Brown, Santana Chavez, Shaun Loretto Griswold, Akeemi Martinez, Akilah Martinez, Scott Riley, Alecka Seowtewa, Nikki Tulley and Brittany Wilson.
In addition to working with experienced journalist and UNM Lecturer Mary Bowannie, who teaches the course and acts as senior managing editor, students are mentored by alumni and professionals from the community and by student peer mentor Shawn Abeita.
On Saturday, May 22, during what is usually a routine lowering of the water level for cleaning the UNM Duck Pond, a larger than normal amount of sludge caused water levels to decline more rapidly than what was anticipated. As a result, the water level fell too low for some of the fish to survive.
Mary Vosevich, director, UNM Physical Plant, said, “At no time do we ever completely drain the pond so that we can preserve the fish. The lowering of the water level has always been a routine process to pump the sludge that accumulates and is necessary to provide a more sustainable environment for wildlife that is present.”
She added, “We regret this incident. It is never our intent to harm the wildlife at the duck pond. We apologize to those who were upset by this occurrence and pledge to improve our procedures going forward.”
Media Contact: Carolyn Gonzales, (505) 277-5920; e-mail: cgonzal@unm.edu
Graduate engineering student Jason Sanchez is headed to the Technical University of Catalonia in Barcelona, Spain on an international post-doctoral fellowship from the National Science Foundation to research computational failure mechanics with Professor Xavier Oliver. He is planning to defend his dissertation later this summer before he leaves for Spain.
Photo: Jason Sanchez
Sanchez presented his research at a conference in Venice, Italy in 2008. He stopped in Spain to meet with Oliver and to discuss the possibility of future research. Oliver told him about the possibility of funding from NSF and Sanchez applied successfully for the fellowship, which will support his research over the next two years.
His interest in the area was triggered by work he performed as a defense contractor for the U.S. Air Force for five years. Sanchez was working to simulate specific failure processes associated with weapons effectiveness, but encountered difficulties.
Sanchez says there is no one method that can be applied to a wide range of fracture problems including the failure of concrete structures, landslides, fragmentation due to impact or blast and failure of parts during specific manufacturing processes. At UNM the St. Pius high school graduate worked with associate professor of mechanical engineering Tariq Khraishi.
His goal during the fellowship is to conduct research to develop a new computational fracture method based on particle finite element method for fluids.
Media Contact: Karen Wentworth, (505) 277-5627; e-mail: kwent2@unm.edu
The Friends of D. H. Lawrence, the Taos Public Library, and the University of New Mexico are sponsoring a presentation on and tour of the D. H. Lawrence Ranch on Saturday, June 19.
The schedule is as follows:
• 10:15-11:15 a.m. - Presentation on the history of the ranch by Dr. Katherine Toy Miller at the Taos Public Library
• 11:30 a.m. - Carpool and depart from the Taos Public Library parking lot. Parking at the ranch is limited.
• 12-1:30 p.m. - Meet at D. H. Lawrence ranch for guided tour by Bill Haller, President, Friends of D. H. Lawrence, and other Friends' members
• 2 p.m. - Return to Taos Public Library parking lot
The 160-acre ranch is located 20 miles north of Taos off Highway 522 near San Cristobal, New Mexico, at 8,600 feet on an ancient Kiowa Indian trail between Taos Pueblo and the red clay pits of Questa.
Be prepared for high altitude, intense sun, and uneven terrain. Wear sturdy walking shoes and bring hat, sunscreen, and water. The plan is to be finished before the afternoon monsoon rains. The library talk will be given as scheduled, in any case.
The public is invited to learn about this important historical and cultural landmark at no charge. For further information contact Dr. Katherine Toy Miller at (575) 751-3680.
Media Contact: Mara Kerkez, (505) 277-1889; e-mail: marakez6@unm.edu
More than 13,000 years ago, millions of large mammals such as mammoths, mastodon, shrub-ox, bison, ground sloths and camels roamed the Americas and may have had profound influences on the environment according to research in a paper titled, “Methane Emissions from Extinct Megafauna” released in the publication Nature Geosciences Sunday.
The extinction of these large herbivores, which also include horses, llamas and stag moose in addition to the giant wooly mammoth, probably led to an abrupt decrease in methane emissions and atmospheric concentrations of the gas with potential implications for climate change says Dr. Felisa Smith, Associate Professor of Biology at the University of New Mexico.
The research also involved Dr. Scott Elliott from the Climate, Ocean, Sea Ice Modeling Team at the Los Alamos National Laboratory and Dr. Kathleen Lyons in the Department of Paleobiology at the National Museum of Natural History at the Smithsonian Institution.
Approximately 13,400 years ago, the Americas supported a mammal fauna that was richer than that of Africa today explained Smith. “Around 11,500 years ago and within 1,000 years of the arrival of humans in the New World, 80 percent of these large-bodied mammals were extinct,” said Smith in the paper.
“This is arguably the first detectable influence of humans on the environment going back 13,400 years to when humans first got to the continent,” said Smith. “I think that it’s intriguing because there are a lot of ramifications. Potentially, if the decrease in methane, which is synchronous with this ice spell, was actually the cause, then humans contributed to the Younger Dryas cold episode.”
Herbivores produce methane as a by-product of cellulolytic-microbial fermentation during the digestive process. Enteric emission occurs when methane (CH4) is produced in the rumen as microbial fermentation takes place; most of this is released as burps. Past studies have shown that domestic livestock are an important contributor to greenhouse gas concentrations and can represent ~20 percent of annual emissions. The study says that this influence may have been greater in the Pleistocene epoch when methane concentrations were considerably lower.
The researchers looked at 114 different herbivorous species that were extirpated from the Americas at the end of the Pleistocene epoch. Using ice cores to determine the amount of methane during the onset of the Younger Dryas cooling period, they found the extinction of megafauna closely coincides with an abrupt drop in atmospheric methane concentration.
“If you look at the ice cores, which record things like methane, you see this huge drop in methane that perfectly coincides with when humans arrived on the continent,” said Smith. “We looked at all the other drops in methane over the last million years and this one is quite different. It happens about 2-40 times more rapidly than the others.”
Armed with that information, the researchers then decided to try and determine how much methane was produced by these species. They came up with an estimate of the number of animals and then an estimate of how much methane those animals actually produced. Other animals such as elephant, giraffes and hippos have been studied by putting a gas mask type of apparatus on them to determine how much methane they produce in a day.
“We were able to come up with an estimate, which turns out to be about 10 teragrams. This is really pretty enormous,” said Smith. “When you bracket it, at the very minimum, the demise of all these animals explains 12 percent of the decrease in methane seen at this time. At the maximum, it explains the entire decrease. This suggests that the extinction of megafauna by humans caused a detectable impact on the environment long before the development of agriculture and the industrial age.”
Ice core records from Greenland suggest the methane concentration change associated with a 1 degree Celsius temperature shift ranges from 10 to 30 parts per billion by volume with a long term mean of about 20 ppbv. A drop of 185 to 245 ppbv methane drop observed at the Younger Dryas stadial is associated with a temperature shift of 9 to 12 degrees Celsius. The calculations suggest that decreased methane emissions caused by the extinction of New World megafauna could have played a role in the Younger Dryas cooling event.
Media Contact: Steve Carr, (505) 277-1821; e-mail: scarr@unm.edu
Dale Alverson, medical director for UNM Health Sciences Center’s Center for Telehealth and Cybermedicine Research (CfTH), was named president of the American Telemedicine Association at the Annual ATA Meeting & Exposition, in San Antonio, Texas. Alverson is a professor of Pediatrics and Regents’ Professor on faculty at UNM’s School of Medicine.
Photo: Dr. Dale Alverson
As director of CfTH, he has been involved in the planning, implementation, research and evaluation of Telemedicine systems for New Mexico. He has been appointed by the Governor as a Commissioner on the New Mexico Telehealth and Health Information Technology Commission and is on the Board of the New Mexico Telehealth Alliance. Alverson also is on the Board of LCF Research in New Mexico addressing the advancement and meaningful use of health information exchange, adoption of electronic health records, and integration with telemedicine.
Nationally, Alverson has been on the boards of the American Telemedicine Association (ATA), the Center for Telehealth and e-Health Law, and Advanced Initiatives in Medical Simulation. He also is involved in several international Telehealth projects, particularly with Latin America, as well as ongoing initiatives for the development of collaborations in Africa, India, Nepal, Iraq, Afghanistan and several other countries.
Finally, UNM is the lead agency, with Alverson as the principle investigator and project coordinator, for the FCC Rural Health Care Pilot Program in the region, the Southwest Telehealth Access Grid, forming a telehealth network of networks in the region.
The American Telemedicine Association is the leading resource and advocate promoting access to medical care for consumers and health professionals via telecommunications technology. ATA seeks to bring together diverse groups from traditional medicine, academic medical centers, technology and telecommunications companies, e-health, medical societies, government and others to overcome barriers to the advancement of telemedicine through the professional, ethical and equitable improvement in health care delivery.
Established in 1993 as a non-profit organization and headquartered in Washington, DC, membership in the Association is open to individuals, companies and organizations with an interest in promoting the deployment of telemedicine throughout the world.
For more information visit: Center for Telehealth and Cybermedicine Research or call (505) 272-8633.
As part of the 2010 lecture series, the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation will host Meredith Minkler as she presents, ”Community-Based Participatory Research: A Promising Strategy for Promoting Healthy Public Policy,” on Thursday, June 3 at 3 p.m. in the Domenici Center, Room 2212.
Minkler, professor and director of Health and Social Behavior at the University of California-Berkley, will share her more than 30 years of experience in community based-based participatory research and how the field effects political change.
Focusing on the use of community research to shape public policy and reduce health disparities, the presentation will bring to light individual cases where the potential of community – based participatory research was realized.
The lecture will also discuss the advantages and disadvantages in working for political change, key components for understanding policy change and the partners involved in helping to bring about change as part of community-based participatory research.
The lecture is free and open to the public.
For more information about the lecture, call (505) 277-0130 or visit: RWJF Lectures.
The Harwood Museum of Art of the University of New Mexico presents a special music and dance, “Strange Angels,” with Harwood Artist-in-Residence, composer and musician Paul Elwood on Thursday, June 24 at 8 p.m. Through sound and dance, the program explores paranormal phenomena related to the Southwest. Featuring 10 musicians, choreographers and dancers from the United States and France, the concert benefits the Harwood’s Art in the Schools Program.
Tickets are $15 for Harwood Alliance members, $20 nonmembers. Tickets will be available in the Museum Shop beginning Tuesday, June 1.
The idea for “Strange Angels” grew out of conversations between Elwood and French saxophonist Raphael Imbert, who is interested in the psychology of those who have paranormal experiences.
Elwood said, “The Southwest seems replete with stories of UFOs and other interesting paranormal phenomena. In my own imaginings I have conjured up songs about mysterious lights over Texas – long before I knew about the Marfa Lights – about UFOs over New Zealand, and about characters who sell their children to UFO aliens (inspired by a tabloid headline). I do believe in a common archetypal subconscious heritage that we all share. In modern times our dreams and memories seem to be of a more technological nature, i.e., UFOs. Ghosts of course have long inhabited our dark subconscious, whether real or imagined.”
The concert includes work by dancers/choreographers Monte and Christine Black, the world premiere of “The Fourth Dimension of Memory,” songs about driving across the desert in the wake of UFOs. Musicians include Ben Wright, Chipper Thompson, Mark Dudrow, Susan Mayo, Kelly Werts, Jessi Rosinski, Jon Gudmundson, Sara Heimbecker, Elwood and Imbert.
The Harwood’s Art in the Schools Program serves more than 300 school children monthly. As a special benefit, concert goers can register for free art childcare during the event – a movie and art making.
The Harwood Museum of Art of UNM, at 238 Ledoux Street, Taos, N.M., is open during the summer Monday-Saturday, 10 a.m.-5 p.m. and Sunday, noon-5 p.m. Admission is $8, or free on Sundays to Taos County residents. For more information visit: Harwood Museum.
Media Contact: Lucy Perera, (575) 758-9826, ext. 105; e-mail: lperera@aol.com
The Harwood Museum of Art of the University of New Mexico presents art programs for kids of all ages this summer. The kick-off event on Friday, May 28, 5-6 p m. at the Harwood’s Sidney and Gladys Smith Children’s Art Gallery features a reception for artwork created by children as part of the Museum Adventures in Art program led by artist and instructor Olga Torres Reid.
Curator of Education Lucy Perera said, “This new gallery space, which features work created by kids in the Harwood’s art programs, is very dynamic. We plan to install new exhibitions monthly so that our little artists as well as visitors to the Harwood can experience a museum-quality display of art created by our community’s youth.”
The Fern Hogue Mitchell Education Center will be open during the kick-off, and participants can take part in a project making hats out of recycled materials.
Art experiences continue with two free felt workshops, presented by local artist and instructor Merce Mitchell – felted portraits on Saturday, June 5 and felted creatures on Saturday, June 19, 10-11:30 a.m. The program is part of the Museum Adventures in Art Series, where professional artists share their expertise and enthusiasm with a younger audience. It is funded in part by N.M. Arts.
Summer Art Exploration Workshops kick off with a four-part program, Art/Music/Words, Tuesday, June 1-Friday, June 4, 10 -11:30 a.m. The workshop explores different types of artistic expression including music, writing and performance. A special guest concert features Nancy Laupheimer of the Taos Chamber Music Group and composer-in-residence Edie Hill on Friday, June 4.
Art Exploration Workshops continue with Create a Parade, June 29-July 4. Students will design and fabricate a fantastic, artistic entry for the Arroyo Seco Fourth of July Parade. During the final workshop of the series, the Art of the Sacred, July27-29, includes constructing a recycled art totem, planting an herb garden, retablo making and a labyrinth workshop.
Art Exploration Workshops are free to Harwood Museum Alliance Members at the $75 level and above or $55 for nonmembers, with sibling discounts available.
Saturday Arts for Families integrates a visit to the museum galleries and exhibitions with an art-making activity on July 10, 17, 24 and 31, 10-11:30 a.m. Art & Movement, a kids-size interactive yoga class in the Agnes Martin Gallery followed by an art activity, takes place every Saturday in August, 10-11:30 a.m. Both programs are free.
Family Play Date is a free drop-in art-making program held every Sunday, 1-4 p.m.
Beth Haidle offers Friday Teen Art weekly, 3:30-5 p.m. The free program explores creativity, drawing, printmaking, mixed media, clothing alteration, design and comics.
The Harwood also presents the Neighborhood Arts Program, a free outreach program bringing art directly to children, youth and families in three Taos communities – Camino de la Merced, St. James Episcopal Church and Ranchitos Road. The program is organized by art teacher and artist Siena Sanderson and funded in part by N.M. Arts and the Quail Roost Foundation.
The community is invited to a sleepover at the Harwood, Night at the Museum on Friday, June 11, 5 p.m.-Saturday, June 12, 9 a.m. The sleepover features art, cooking, a dinner party, movie, flashlight tour, s’mores, stories and yoga.
The Harwood Museum of Art of UNM, at 238 Ledoux Street, Taos, N.M., is open during the summer Monday-Saturday, 10 a.m.-5 p.m. and Sunday, noon-5 p.m. Admission is $8, or free on Sundays to Taos County residents. For more information visit: Harwood Museum.
Media Contact: Lucy Perera, (575) 758-9826, ext. 105; e-mail: lperera@aol.com
The University of New Mexico Foundation Board of Trustees has announced the appointment of Henry Nemcik as President and Chief Executive Officer for the UNM Foundation. He will begin his employment on Aug. 16, 2010. Since 2005, Nemcik, who holds a master’s in public administration, has served as the Vice President for Development and Alumni Relations, as well as the President of the Foundation, of the University of Tennessee System.
Photo: Henry Nemcik
The preceding 16 years he was the Associate Vice President for Development and the Campaign Director at Texas A&M.
During Nemcik's time with the Tennessee system, he has successfully completed a $1 billion campaign, established an aggressive and comprehensive planned giving program, implemented a team based incentive program, increased foundation assets by $200 million and personally solicited the three largest gifts in the history of the University of Tennessee. He also serves on the foundation’s consolidated investment endowment committee, which oversaw funds of $800 million. The UT System includes a health sciences center and five universities throughout the state.
As the Associate Vice President for Development and Campaign Director for the Texas A&M Foundation, Nemcik led a successful $1.52 billion campaign, personally solicited many lead gifts for the campaign and oversaw development operations, information services, research, and central and regional campaign staff.
“Through these positions, and through 30 years experience in higher education development, Henry has demonstrated the skills, accomplishments and leadership the Foundation needs to continue supporting UNM’s mission,” said Anne Yegge, chair of the UNM Foundation Board of Trustees. “His solid managerial experience coupled with his aptitude for fund raising gives us the utmost confidence in him at the helm of the foundation.”
John Stropp, who announced his intent to retire this summer, will remain as the Foundation's president and CEO until Nemcik's arrival in August. “This has been an exciting and rewarding opportunity and I look forward to following the continued success of the UNM Foundation,” Stropp said.
Media Contact: Jill Zack, (505) 277-9075; e-mail: jillzack@unm.edu
Cynthia Leitich Smith of the Muscogee Creek Nation, and author of several books and stories for young readers, will begin the Summer Sunset Lectures at the Student Union Building, Ballroom C, on Saturday, June 26, at 7 p.m. with a lecture and book signing. Smith is the award-winning author of “Jingle Dancer,” “Indian Shoes” and “Rain is Not My Indian Name.” The event is free and open to the public.
Her more recent titles are a picture book, “Santa Knows” and two young adult Gothic fantasy novels, “Tantalize”, “Eternal” and, most recently, “Blessed.”
She is a member of faculty at the Vermont College M.F.A. program in Writing for children and Young Adults.
Special “Meet the Author” sessions will be held Friday, June 25 or Saturday, June 26 in the Student Union Building, Ballroom C, at 1:30 p.m for her younger readers. Participation is limited to 50 students for each session. Registration must be completed by June 18.
For more information contact Mary Alice Tsosie at 277-8922 or mtsosie@unm.edu
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Other scheduled speakers are musicians, Matias Pizarro and Keith Sanchez. Their lecture titled, “Where Have all the Rock Stars Gone? The experience of an immigrant musician struggling to navigate the dangerous seas of the music industry in the midst of its current demise,” is set for July 31 at 6:30 p.m. in the George Pearl Hall auditorium.
Pizarro, a musician, artist, cultural promoter and underground activist, will speak on his upbringing in Chile, Brazil and El Salvador as a budding musician and on his later experience as an immigrant artist in the United States.
Sanchez is a singer-songwriter, and recording artists whose music has been distributed throughout the United States and Latin America. He toured and performed as lead singer and lyricist for the band Stoic Frame, an act that garnered a number one charting song on the national R&R charts and became an underground phenomenon.
Both events are sponsored by the Office of the Vice Provost for Academic Affairs and University Libraries.
This week on “New Mexico in Focus,” correspondent Gwyneth Doland sits down with Susana Martinez to discuss her qualifications and her top priorities for the state. Doland also talks one-on-one with the Democratic nominee, Lt. Governor Diane Denish. Find out what Denish things of her potential Republican challengers and how she plans to win in November’s general election. “New Mexico in Focus” airs Fridays at 7 p.m. and Sundays at 6:30 a.m. It also airs KNME Digital Ch. 9.1 on Saturdays at 5 p.m.
A new public opinion poll shows a tight race in the Republican gubernatorial primary. Martinez and Allen Weh are running neck and neck headed into the Republican primary.
Also on this week’s show, the panel on “The Line” weigh-in with their thought on the gubernatorial candidates as well as the controversial new immigration policy set by Albuquerque Mayor Richard Berry.
Host/Commentator:
Gene Grant, Weekly Alibi Columnist
NMIF Correspondent:
Gwyneth Doland, Editor, New Mexico Independent
Guests:
Diane Denish, Democratic Gubernatorial Candidate
Susana Martinez, Republican Gubernatorial Candidate
Panelists:
Sophie Martin, Managing Editor, DukeCityFix.com
Laura E. Sanchez, Former Executive Director, New Mexico Democratic Party
Jim Scarantino, Editor, New Mexico Watchdog
Guest Panelist:
Lonna Atkeson, UNM Political Science Professor
Viewers can also watch New Mexico In Focus online at: KNME. Additionally, get updates, watch, and follow KNME on Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and more.
“New Mexico in Focus” is produced by Kevin McDonald and Kathy Wimmer and 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
The National Science Foundation recently awarded a five-year, $485,000 Research Coordinating Network grant to UNM's Museum of Southwestern Biology; Museum of the North, University of Alaska; Museum of Vertebrate Zoology, University of California Berkeley; and the Museum of Comparative Zoology, Harvard University. The Principal Investigator is UNM's Joseph Cook, in the Biology Department.
Cook is joined by co-PI's Steffi Ickert-Bond, University of Alaska. Eileen Lacey, University of California-Berkeley and Scott Edwards, Harvard University.
The project titled, Advancing Integration of Museums into Undergraduate Programs (AIM-UP!), will explore and produce novel ways of incorporating specimen-based science and biodiversity informatics into undergraduate education under themes such as Biotic Associations Across Space & Time; Making Sense of Geographic Variation; Evolutionary Dynamics of Genomes; Biotic Response to Climate Change; and Pathogens, Hosts, & Emerging Diseases. Integration of expertise and experiences across four university museums will stimulate use of natural history collections in the emerging fields of climate change, evolutionary genomics, and molecular ecology.
Instructional tools for museum databases will be made freely available to instructors, scientists and the general public. Outreach efforts are targeted especially to underrepresented students with an emphasis on issues relevant to their communities (e.g., indigenous communities in New Mexico and Alaska).
The UNM Santa Fe Bachelor & Graduate Program has announced a group exhibit of artwork by Art and Art History students now on display in the Visual Arts Gallery located at Santa Fe Community College. The students have displayed artwork, both drawings and paintings, created for the exhibition in the BFA-Studio program offered through UNM on the SFCC campus. The show will be on display until Aug. 16.
Participants in this show include: Barbara Bloomberg, Martha Cooke, Beryl Markowitz, Bethany Stephens, Katherine Forrest, Karin Hall, Scott Shuker, David Warren, and Joanne Speicher.
For further information on the UNM Art and Art History program in Santa Fe, please contact Carmen Lujan at 505-428-1220 or via e-mail at clujan@unm.edu.
UNM Children's Hospital and UNM Scholarship Fund benefit from tournament
When all was said and done, the University of New Mexico volleyball team raised $5,000 at the fourth annual Grass Bash held recently at Johnson Field, doubling the amount raised in 2009. The money raised this year benefits two entities, UNM Children's Hospital and the Jeanne Fairchild Endowed Scholarship. More than 170 teams participated in the various divisions of the grass volleyball tournament.
Photo: Lobo volleyball seniors Lisa Meeter, Jade Michaelsen and Taylor Hadfield present UNM Children's Hospital representative Daniel Jaecks with a check for $4,000. Money was raised through the team's fourth annual Grass Bash.
Lobo seniors-to-be Taylor Hadfield, Lisa Meeter and Jade Michaelsen recently presented Daniel Jaecks, development specialist for UNM Hospitals, with a $4,000 check to go towards the efforts of UNMCH. The remaining $1,000 was presented to the Lobo Club for the Fairchild scholarship.
Media Contact: Judy Willson, (505) 925-5851; e-mail: jwillson@unm.edu
EMBA open house set for Thursday, May 27
The Anderson School of Management, the Vice President for Business and Finance, and the Vice President of Health Sciences are sponsoring scholarship opportunities for UNM staff employees and faculty interested in attending the Anderson School of Management's Executive MBA (EMBA) Program. An EMBA Open House designed especially for UNM faculty and staff will be held on Thursday, May 27, from 12 to 1 p.m. in GSM 302. Box lunches will be available.
The EMBA program is a 25-month, on-campus weekend program for those with at least five years of significant work experience. The program begins once each year in late June. Classes meet every other weekend on Friday afternoons and Saturday mornings. The next class will begin on June 25, 2010. For more information visit, EMBA Program.
To be considered for a scholarship, applicants must first meet the admissions criteria for the EMBA program. UNM staff are eligible to apply for one of two full scholarships which will pay 100 percent of the EMBA program costs (less tuition remission) for the length of the program. UNM faculty and staff are eligible to apply for a partial scholarship which will pay all but $2,000 per semester (after tuition remission) for the length of the EMBA program.
For detailed information about the scholarships, including the application process visit: Scholarship Information.
The UNM Staff Council has elected a new executive committee for 2010-11. New officers include: Merle Kennedy (Admissions Office) - president; Mary Clark (Office of Sustainability) – president-elect; Linda McCormick (Recycling) - speaker; Karen Mann (KNME) - treasurer; Elisha Allen (Extended University) and Robert Christner (Accessibility Resource Center) - Grade at Large representatives; Maria Daw (Economics) and Richard Goshorn (Extended University) - Precinct at Large representatives.
In other business, the Staff Council will celebrate 20 years of service this July. The seventh annual Staff Appreciation Week kicks off with the Staff Picnic at the Rio Grande Zoo July 24. Tickets go on sale July 1. Details and other events will be forthcoming.
Staff Appreciation Week is sponsored by the UNM Staff Council. All events except the Staff Picnic are free, while some events require Lobo ID. Door prizes will be awarded at each event.
Statement from President Dr. David J. Schmidly
“I returned to campus Monday morning following my absence last week while I underwent further testing relating to a small, slow growing abdominal tumor. My physicians at the UNM Health Sciences Center and UNM Cancer Center as you know referred me to one of the world's most experienced experts for this condition in order to complete my medical evaluation and to provide treatment recommendations.”
“I want to thank the medical staff here at UNM Health Sciences Center, the UNM Cancer Center and UNM Hospital for their excellent care. There is no doubt in my mind that their early discovery, expert care and professional advice are the primary reasons I can anticipate a full and complete recovery.”
“I am happy to share with you that the tests I underwent last week were productive. I have confirmed that I will undergo further procedures later this summer.”
Dr. Roth, Executive Vice President for Health Sciences said, “This is very positive news and I anticipate a full and rapid recovery for Dr. Schmidly.”
(Schmidly Statement continued) “I look forward to continuing my duties as President this summer and following my treatment as we work together to address the many challenges we face.”
“Janet and I along with my entire family want to say to all of you how deeply we appreciated your heartfelt prayers and well wishes while we were away.”
“Also, I want to again extend my sincere congratulations to all of our graduates and their families. Each of you will always be a member of the UNM family.”
Media Contact: Billy Sparks, (505) 272-2232; e-mail: wsparks@salud.unm.edu
Information Technologies (IT) has announced its summer hours. Effective June 1, IT Customer Support Services will be available during the following hours, Monday through Friday, 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. and Saturday, 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. Extended hours will resume August 2. For more information call IT at (505) 277-5757 or visit: Information Technologies.
IT Summer Hours ~ Effective June 1
Monday-Friday, 8 a.m. - 5 p.m.
Saturday, 10 a.m. - 2 p.m.
Extended hours will resume Aug. 2.
Media Contact: Vanessa Baca, (505) 277-0987; e-mail: vjbaca1@unm.edu
UNM’s LTER is one of 26 field stations in network
The Long Term Ecological Research (LTER) Network is the recipient of the 2010 Distinguished Scientist Award by the American Institute of Biological Sciences (AIBS). According to AIBS, the Distinguished Scientist Award (previously named the Distinguished Service Award) has been presented annually since 1972 to individuals or groups who have made significant scientific contributions to the biological sciences, integrative and organismal biology in particular.
The Award is a significant recognition of the contribution that the LTER program, which is celebrating its 30th anniversary this year, has made to the field of biological sciences since its creation in 1980 by the National Science Foundation.
“AIBS is pleased to recognize the contributions of the LTER Network in this, its 30th Anniversary year,” said Dr. Richard O'Grady, AIBS Executive Director. “A shining example of excellence in our nation's scientific enterprise, the LTER program focuses on large-scale, multi-disciplinary research and has truly transformed ecological and environmental science in the U.S. and world-wide. The program and the scientists and students that have conducted research at LTER sites or with LTER data have fundamentally advanced human understanding.”
G. Philip Robertson, chair of the LTER Executive Board and Science Council and professor of ecosystem science at Michigan State University, observed that the award is a high honor for LTER. “We are both grateful for and humbled by this recognition, which highlights the unique contributions of the Network for advancing ecological knowledge of important ecosystems undergoing unprecedented environmental change,” he said.
According to Robert B. Waide, the Executive Director of the LTER Network Office and biology professor at the University of New Mexico, “the award represents the cumulative efforts of more than 2000 LTER scientists, students, information managers, educators, and staff working on experiments and observational studies that will inform present and future understanding of ecological systems.”
The LTER Network comprises 26 sites funded by NSF to pursue basic research in ecology and environmental science. Since 1980, site scientists have conducted research to better understand long-term ecological phenomena in both natural and managed ecosystems. A broad variety of ecosystems are represented in the Network, including tundra, forest, grassland, desert, agricultural, urban, and marine sites, among others. For further information, including a list of current sites and principal investigators, see LTER.
The award ceremony took place Tuesday, May 18, in Washington, DC.
LTER Mission
The Mission of the LTER Network is to provide the scientific community, policy makers, and society with the knowledge and predictive understanding necessary to conserve, protect, and manage the nation’s ecosystems, their biodiversity, and the services they provide.
Media Contacts: LTER, McOwiti Thomas, (505) 277-2638; e-mail: tmcowiti@lternet.edu; UNM, Steve Carr, (505) 277-1821; e-mail: scarr@unm.edu
On July 1, Kim Kloeppel, Fiscal and Planning Officer for Student Affairs, will assume the responsibilities of the Dean of Students on an interim basis in addition to her current position in the office of Student Affairs. Kloeppel was named interim Dean of Students with the retirement of Randy Boeglin, who announced his plans to retire on June 30, 2010.
Dr. Eliseo “Cheo” Torres, Vice President for Student Affairs, and Walt Miller, Associate Vice President for Student Life, thanked Boeglin.
“Randy has been an integral part of the Division and the University for more than 30 years,” said Torres and Miller. “We would like to thank Randy for his many years of service, his dedication and positive influence to UNM and student life. We also want to welcome Kim to her new role as we look forward to continued success from the Dean of Students.”
Media Contact: Dorene DiNaro, (505) 277-5299; e-mail: ddinaro@unm.edu
The UNM Department of Parking and Transportation Services (PATS) announces ABQRide free bus pass stickers for the 2009-10 program will be re-issued to users during the Lobo Card Office’s university identification re-card initiative. Beginning June 1, the Lobo Card Office will re-card main campus with Lobo identification cards. These cards, in conjunction with the free bus pass sticker, allow students, staff and faculty to enjoy free transportation on the ABQRide transit system.
"We are working closely with the Lobo Card Office as well as the City of Albuquerque Transit Department to ensure free bus pass users can continue to take advantage of the free transportation program with minimal interruption,” said Clovis Acosta, PATS director.
Users will be able to continue to use their old UNM Lobo IDs with the current bus pass sticker through Aug. 31, 2010. Thereafter, the old bus pass sticker will expire and new bus pass stickers will only be issued to eligible students, staff and faculty with a new Lobo ID card.
“By the end of August, most if not all of the campus should be re-carded with the new Lobo ID card,” Acosta said.
The Lobo Re-Card initiative begins June 1. New and summer enrolled students will begin to receive their Lobo ID cards beginning June 1. Over the course of the summer, staff and faculty will be re-carded by department. The Lobo Card Office will contact departments when new staff and faculty Lobo ID cards are available. New Lobo ID cards for fall enrolled students will be available beginning Aug. 9.
For more details about the re-card initiative and a timeline of activities visit: Lobo Recard.
Free bus pass stickers will be available across from the Lobo Card Office entrance at the PATS Transportation Information Center (TIC). The PATS TIC will be open throughout the summer, Monday through Friday from 8:30 a.m. to 3 p.m. Free bus pass stickers can also be obtained at the UNM Bookstore, the UNM Medical Legal Bookstore, the UNM Student Union Building Welcome Desk and at PATS’ main office location at 1621 Central Ave. NE.
For more information contact Danielle Gilliam, PATS Program Coordinator, 277-0461 or e-mail, dgilliam@parking.unm.edu.
University of New Mexico Parking and Transportation Services (PATS) has announced the seasonal closure of the university’s South Lot parking area effective immediately through Aug. 23. All South Lot permits will be valid in G and Q Lot.
A special shuttle service between the Yale-Redondo shuttle stop and the Student Support Services Center near South Lot will be available. The service operates from 6:30 a.m. at the university’s Yale bus stop, and 6:40 a.m. at the Student Support Services Center and ends at 7 p.m. daily. Shuttles will run every ten minutes between the two destinations. The service will be in operation through Aug. 20.
For members of the UNM community using alternative transportation, contact Danielle Gilliam at 277-0461 for information on connecting to city bus routes and shuttles.
For more information on the South Lot closure visit: Parking & Transportation Services or contact Brian Kilburn at bkilburn@unm.edu.
UNM Planning Officer Mary Kenney has released the names and on-campus visit schedules of the four finalists for the position of part-time (.5 FTE) University Architect. Each candidate with conduct a one-hour formal interview with the selection committee, a 20-30 minute presentation on a project the candidate has completed, followed by an informal Q&A session of the presentation. Each presentation will be held at the UNM Planning and Campus Development Conference Room, located at 1841 Lomas NE.
"I am currently starting to interview several candidates for the University Architect position. This is a critical position for UNM because the University Architect provides leadership in the development of the campus built environment," Kenney said. "They are the steward of our unique campus identity and serve as an advocate for the efficient and sustainable management of its facilities, grounds and qualitative attributes. The University Architect is knowledgeable in their profession and talented in weaving together diverse and competing interests to create memorable places that promote student success."
Finalists Schedules
• Amy Coburn – Interview Monday, May 17, 1-3 p.m.
• Phillip Gallegos – Interview Wednesday, May 19 1-3 p.m.
• Michael Smith – Interview Thursday, June 3, 2-4 p.m.
• Robert Doran – Interview Tuesday, June 15, 9:30-11 a.m.
The Candidates...
Amy Coburn
Coburn is president of Amy K. Coburn Planning & Design, and a lecturer in the community and regional planning and architecture programs at the UNM School of Architecture and Planning. Coburn helped develop the recent student housing planning and information sessions with the Lobo Development Corporation, in her role as a private consultant to the organization. Prior, she worked at Forest City Enterprises as vice president for planning and design and director of regional development, where she was the creative lead for Mesa del Sol’s residential, mixed-use and commercial program development. Coburn has her master’s of architecture from Harvard University, and a bachelor’s of architecture from Syracuse University.
Phillip Gallegos
Gallegos is the director of community outreach for the UNM School of Architecture and Planning, as well as half-time associate professor of Architecture and Planning at the University of Colorado at Denver. He received the 2007 Distinguished Design-Build Leadership: Higher Education award from the Design-Build Institute of America for his work in establishing a design-build certificate program at the University of Colorado. Gallegos received his doctorate of architecture from the University of Hawaii at Manoa, a master’s of architecture from the University of Colorado at Denver, and his bachelor’s of architecture from the University of Notre Dame.
Michael Smith
Smith worked as director of design and construction at California State University, Fullerton. While there, Smith oversaw more than 20 major capital projects for the campus, totaling over $500 million in university improvements, including a new library, multiple parking structures, student recreation center, academic buildings and more. Smith has a master’s of architecture from the University of California, Berkeley; and a bachelor’s of environmental design from the University of California.
Robert Doran
Doran has worked at Burgess and Niple, Inc. in Cincinnati, Ohio, as director of design. He was the design architect and master planner for a $300 million Genentech Pharmaceutical campus in California and has been a guest design critic for the Harvard Graduate School of Design, the Boston Architectural College, Columbia University and other organizations. Doran has also worked on a variety of construction projects, including many large-scale projects with the U.S. Department of Defense. Doran received his master’s of architecture from Harvard University, and his A.S. in architectural technology from the University of Cincinnati.
Media Contact: Benson Hendrix, (505) 277-1816. E-Mail: bhendrix@unm.edu
The New Mexico Department of Health’s Immunization Program recently recognized several birthing hospitals that excelled in administering Hepatitis B vaccine to newborn infants. The Department of Health honors hospitals every two years and recognizes the efforts hospitals use to ensure newborns receive this important vaccine. This year, the Department acknowledged UNM Hospital as Best Hospital in Region 1, 3.
Infants who become infected with hepatitis B virus (HBV) around the time of birth have a 90 percent risk of chronic infection, and up to 25 percent will die of chronic liver disease as adults, said Diane Jay, the Department of Health’s Perinatal Hepatitis B Coordinator.
These hospital “best practices” include: Hepatitis B vaccine rates, comprehensive standing orders for the administration of hepatitis B vaccine and HBIG; a copy of the HBsAg lab result is placed in both maternal and infant medical records; and recording the birth dose of Hepatitis B in New Mexico’s immunization registry.
Media Contact: Luke Frank, (505) 272-3679; e-mail: lfrank@salud.unm.edu
Beginning June 1, Recreational Services at the University of New Mexico is hosting the first of five summer camp sessions for its popular Recreational Activities Day Camp or RAD Camp. RAD Camp provides a variety of opportunities to enhance the educational, recreational and cultural experiences of Albuquerque youth. Children ages 8-12 can enjoy basketball, baseball, dodgeball, soccer, volleyball, arts & crafts, field trips, initiative games, swimming, badminton, tennis, group projects and more.
The first session, which begins June 1, is a week-long. Sessions 2-5 are two week sessions. Camp hours are 8:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. daily. Registration is currently underway for all sessions with with early and late care available. Discounts are also available for multiple sessions.
For more information visit, RAD Camp or call, (505) 277-0178.
Camp dates for the 2010 the Summer Youth Sports Program at the University of New Mexico have been announced by the College of Education’s Department of Health, Exercise and Sports Sciences (HESS). The camp, which provides a free sports program for youngsters of the community, will be held June 4 through July 1. Physicals and registration will be conducted Wednesday-Thursday, June 2-3 and Monday, June 7, from 8:30 a.m. to 12 p.m. Bus schedules will be available at registration.
The UNM SYSP combines sports instruction with exciting educational programs for children ages 9-14. Participants must be 9 by Aug. 31 to participate. Additionally, all participants must have a physical to participate. However, SYSP will accept a current physical from a participant’s own doctor if it’s within the past 10 months. All applications must be brought to Johnson Center on registration/physical days.
The Summer Youth Sports Program combines sports instruction with exciting educational programs for youths ages 9-14. Sports activities include basketball, football (touch), volleyball, tennis, swimming, soccer and rugby. The education program includes alcohol and other drug - abuse prevention, nutrition and personal health, career and educational opportunities and job responsibilities, as well as higher education and community concerns.
For more information, including a physical form and program application, visit: Summer Youth Sports Program. No applications will be accepted by mail. All applications must be brought to Johnson Center on registration - physical days. Interested participants may also call (505) 277-5151.
Heinrich to join UNM Service Corps for project
U.S. Rep. Martin Heinrich will receive the first-ever New Mexico Distinguished AmeriCorps Alumni Award for his leadership. Rep. Heinrich is the only member of Congress to have graduated from the national AmeriCorps service program since it took its current form, and he is one of more than 6,300 New Mexico residents to have completed a year-long stint since 1994. The award will be presented Monday, May 17 at a ceremony along with representatives from the Commission for Community Volunteerism, Center for Philanthropic Partnership and other special guests.
He will also roll up his sleeves and return to his roots by working in a landscaping project at Amigos Y Amigas, a non-profit, grassroots, neighborhood-based organization that provides services to families-at-risk. Joining the Representative in the service project will be members of the Commission, The NM Forum for Youth in Community AmeriCorps*VISTA Cadre Project, UNM Service Corps and the Public Allies AmeriCorps programs.
"We're proud to have such a visible champion showing where voluntary service can lead," said Gregory Webb, executive director of the Commission for Community Volunteerism, which oversees the AmeriCorps program in New Mexico. "We're seeing a new generation that understands innovation and the leveraging of resources to improve communities."
New Mexicans have given nearly 6 million hours of service through volunteer programs, which nationally helped more than 4,000 nonprofit, faith-based, or community organizations last year. A recent Corporation for National Community Service report said New Mexicans as a whole give the equivalent of nearly $1 billion a year in volunteer hours.
New Mexico was also the first state to have a Blueprint for Community Engagement—a coordinated plan to increase volunteerism—a model which has been influential nationally in the service sector. There are currently 550,000 alumni of AmeriCorps National Service continuing to act as agents of change in their communities.
The Anderson School of Management is hosting two information sessions for UNM staff interested in the Master of Business Administration, Master of Accounting, or Executive Master of Business Administration programs. The first session will be held on Tuesday, June 1 at the Domenici Center for Health Sciences Education, Room 3010. A session for Main Campus and South Campus employees will be on Wednesday, June 2 at the Graduate School of Management, Room 126. The times for both sessions will be from 12 to 1 p.m.
Senior admissions staff and faculty will be in attendance to provide inside information about the admissions process, admissions tests, areas of academic specialization, tuition remission, and much more. Lunch will be provided.
To register visit: MBA Information Session by 5 p.m. on May 28.
Anderson’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 Executive MBA is a two-year accelerated program designed to provide high quality business education to New Mexico’s experienced working professionals.
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 Graduate Management Education.
Media Contact: John Benavidez, (505) 259-0777; e-mail: benavidez@mgt.unm.edu
John Oetzel, chair, University of New Mexico Department of Communication & Journalism reports that individuals and couples have been going door-to-door fraudulently requesting donations on behalf of C&J for student trips to London or Europe. Oetzel said that people in Albuquerque and Farmington have been approached using this scheme.
"The University does not solicit door-to-door. When we request community support, we do so through the development officer or chair of the department, both of whom can provide identification," Oetzel said.
If approached, do not give these solicitors any money and contact local authorities.
Media Contact: Carolyn Gonzales, (505) 277-5920; e-mail: cgonzal@unm.edu
A Federal Health Care Reform Workshop is set for Saturday, May 22, 8:30 a.m. - 3:35 p.m. at CHRISTUS St. Vincent Regional Medical Center, 455 Saint Michaels Drive in Santa Fe.
The University of New Mexico School of Public Administration, UNM Continuing Education and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Center for Health Policy at UNM partnered with CHRISTUS St. Vincent Hospital to bring the workshop together for professionals impacted by the new federal health care reform laws.
Workshop Speakers:
• Liz Stefanics, UNM School of Public Administration, RWJF Center for Health Policy at UNM
• Andrew Black, field representative to U.S. Senator Jeff Bingaman
• Lowell Gordon, medical director, Medical Assistance Division/NM Human Service Division
• Michael Spanier, secretary, NM Aging and Long-Term Services Department
• Mike Wallace, legislative chairman/president-elect, NM Association of Health Underwriters
• Alex Valdez, CEO, CHRISTUS St.Vincent Regional Medical Center
• Larry Martinez, director, North Central Region Presbyterian Medical Services
• Justina Trott, Women’s Health Services, RWJF Fellow
• Nancy Ridenour, dean and professor, UNM School of Nursing, RWJF Fellow
• Pat Bartels, president, NM Chapter of the American Physical Therapy Association
• Uday Desai, director, UNM School of Public Administration
To register, call UNM Continuing Education at 505-277-0077, M-F, 7:30 a.m. - 5:30 p.m., Conference #: C93110 RZ1. Cost: $69 includes lunch.
For more information, contact Donna Robbins at 505-277-6447, drobbins@unm.edu
Media Contact: Carolyn Gonzales, (505) 277-5920; e-mail: cgonzal@unm.edu
More than 70 educators from colleges and universities will be in attendance including more than 50 from New Mexico. The workshop is the first to address how institutions of higher learning can more effectively deal with business ethics education. The workshop will be held in Santa Fe on Monday, May 17 from 7:15 a.m. - 4:15 p.m. A reception and dinner will be held the evening before for speakers and conference attendees.
The Bill Daniels Teaching Business Ethics initiative is part of a five-year program supported by a $1.25 million grant for each UNM and NMSU. In addition, other schools who received the grant include the University of Utah, Colorado State University, University of Northern Colorado, and the University of Colorado at Colorado Springs. All six schools will work collaboratively with the University of Denver and the University of Wyoming to advance business ethics education in the four state region.
The conference will guide educators from community colleges and four year schools on how to advance their skills in teaching varied business ethics topics. The sessions will include: The Challenges of Teaching Business Ethics and How to Overcome Them, How to Infuse Business Ethics in Your Curriculum, Business Ethics Teaching Resources and Approaches and Teaching Business Ethics.
The Bill Daniels Professosr of Business Ethics, Linda and O.C. Ferrell, in collaboration with NMSU, developed the one day workshop that will feature Doug Brown, dean of the Anderson School of Management, and Garrey Carruthers, dean of New Mexico State University’s College of Business. The luncheon keynote speaker is Rich Brody an internationally recognized expert on fraud and accounting professor at UNM, and the conference keynote speaker is Eric Pillmore, former vice president of Corporate Governance at Tyco International.
Additional internationally recognized experts on business ethics speaking at the conference include Diane Swanson at Kansas State University, John Fraedrich from SIU-Carbondale, and Victoria Crittenden from Boston College. Organizers believe the conference will have an impact on how business ethics is taught in New Mexico.
“This workshop places New Mexico institutions of higher education at the forefront of addressing the importance of effectively teaching business ethics,” says O.C. Ferrell. “Perhaps at no other time in history, has business ethics been more important in developing trust and consumer confidence in business.” Linda Ferrell stated, “According to our national accrediting body, only 25 percent of schools are getting business ethics education ‘right’. This creates a tremendous opportunity for us to make a difference, with the support of the Daniels fund, in our student’s success in business.”
Doug Brown, Dean of the Anderson School says, “We will have learned nothing from the financial meltdown of 2008 if we do not re-commit ourselves to uncompromising ethical practices in business.”
The Daniels Fund has created a consortium of schools and expertise through the eight universities that will develop programs and teaching resources to instill a higher standard of ethics in business school students. The initial grant and ongoing support and leadership of the Daniels Fund will impact education not only in New Mexico, Colorado, Utah and Wyoming, but beyond. The Daniels Fund is a private foundation established by cable pioneered by Bill Daniels, who is widely recognized for his recognition of the importance of principles, ethics and integrity in business success.
Media Contact: Leslie Venzuela, (505) 277-7117; email: venzuela@unm.edu
Early voting for New Mexico’s June primaries has started. “New Mexico in Focus” continues its conversations with New Mexico’s gubernatorial candidates. This week, “New Mexico in Focus” correspondent Gwyneth Doland talks with Republican hopefuls Doug Turner and Allen Weh. Find out what they think about the economy, public safety, immigration reform, and their chances going up against Diane Denish in the general election. “New Mexico in Focus” airs Fridays at 7 p.m. and Sundays at 6:30 a.m. It also airs KNME Digital Ch. 9.1 on Saturdays at 5 p.m.
Also on this week’s show, how are New Mexico’s cities handling the ongoing economic crisis? Mayors and representatives from Albuquerque, Santa Fe and Rio Rancho talk about making tough financial decisions and how they are working together to create jobs.
Then this week’s panel on “The Line” weigh in on Elena Kagen, President Barack Obama’s nominee to the U.S. Supreme Court, and tackle a report of potential strife in the New Mexico Republican Party and a jet fuel leak located under Kirtland Air Force Base.
Host/Commentator
Gene Grant, Weekly Alibi Columnist
NMIF Correspondent
Gwyneth Doland, Editor, New Mexico Independent
Guests
Doug Turner, Republican Gubernatorial Candidate
Allen Weh, Republican Gubernatorial Candidate
Richard Berry, Albuquerque Mayor
Kate Noble, Santa Fe Economic Development Department
Tom Swisstack, Rio Rancho Mayor
Panelists
Sophie Martin, Managing Editor, DukeCityFix.com
Jim Scarantino, Editor, New Mexico Watchdog
Guest Panelists
Arthur Alpert, ABQJournalWatch.com
Richard Romero, Former Senate President Pro Tem, Albuquerque
Viewers can also watch New Mexico In Focus online at: KNME. Additionally, get updates, watch, and follow KNME on Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and more.
“New Mexico in Focus” is produced by Kevin McDonald and Kathy Wimmer and 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
At UNM, innovation frequently begins with a professor interested in finding a better way to do something. This story begins with Shuang Luan, an assistant professor of Computer Science who finds great satisfaction in finding ways to improve treatment for cancer patients. He is currently exploring ways to make gamma knife radiation treatments as precise as possible.
Photo: Shuang Luan
Last fall as he was working with physics graduate student Roy Keyes and Computer Science undergraduate Christian Romano and Dorian Arnold, a colleague and an assistant professor in Computer Science they came up with an inexpensive way to do the complex calculations needed to map radiation treatments by. They simply bought computer time from Amazon.com with Luan’s credit card.
Planning ways to deliver radiation to tumors in cancer patients takes time.
Extremely precise calculations that will target the tumor with as little damage to surrounding healthy tissue can take hundreds of hours to do the complex Monte Carlo calculations needed to determine where every proton and electron from the treatment beam is most likely to go. It just is not financially practical for clinics to spend that much time to map the target area of each tumor. So physicians are forced to take shortcuts.
The medical physicists who calculate how much radiation should be used and at what angle it should hit the tumor normally use a model that treats the human body as a vessel of water. But radiation travels through muscle and fat and bone differently and the time it would take to calculate for those differences is counted in the hundreds of hours.
Keyes says the problem comes in the enormous amount of time it takes to maximize the radiation beam so that it hits every part of an irregular target like a tumor, and minimize the radiation exposure to other parts of the body.
“Imagine you want to treat a tumor in the spinal column. It’s important to get the right dose into the tumor, but also very important to avoid the spinal cord as well as organs that might be nearby, such as the lungs or kidneys,” he says. “Because of the different composition of the organs you are concerned about and the potentially large total volume, the calculation could take many days of computer time. If it takes three days, that’s too long.”
No insurance plan can afford to pay for that kind of precision.
But what if clinics didn’t have to buy and maintain sophisticated computers to perform the calculations? What if medical physicists were able to put together treatment calculations that could run in minutes? What if clinics could buy the computer time from Amazon at .10 cents an hour with a credit card on an Amazon account? It is a whole new way to use cloud computing.
Keys made the treatment calculations. Romano figured out how to break the problems into pieces so they could use 200 computer nodes to run the calculations. They used Luan’s credit card and Amazon account.
“In the Computer Sciences lab upstairs they probably have fifty or sixty machines, and a lot of students using them. You cannot just say I’m going to use them all today. But in cloud computing, we just basically type in a credit card number and say give us 200 nodes. And they give it to you in maybe five minutes,” Luan says.
If it all works as they think it will, patients should have fewer side effects from radiation treatments. Physicians should be able to treat cancer more precisely. And insurance companies may find some savings.
Keys and Romano have submitted an invention disclosure to STC.UNM, and STC.UNM has filed a patent application on the invention. STC.UNM is the university’s wholly owned corporation that commercializes intellectual property for UNM research.
Media Contact: Karen Wentworth, (505) 277-5627; e-mail: kwent2@unm.edu
On June 25 at 6 p.m., UNM Libraries will present the final lecture in the Sacred Steps series in the Herzstein Latin American Reading Room in Zimmerman Library with a talk by artist and Santiago pilgrim, Kate Lopez, titled, "Painting the Pilgrim's Way." A reception will follow the lecture.
The Pilgrimage on the Camino de Santiago exhibit, which has been on display since April 30, celebrates the experience of modern pilgrims from the United States and Canada who set out to retrace the paths to Santiago de Compostela on its Camino francés from Roncesvalles on the French border, down the slopes of the western Pyrenees, and through the fertile vineyards of La Rioja.
The lecture is co-sponsored by the UNM Institute for Medieval Studies and the University Libraries. The exhibit will be in place through June 30. For more
information, contact Pauline Heffern at 277-0818.
Media Contact: Karen Wentworth, (505) 277-5627; e-mail: kwent2@unm.edu
Subscription includes Wicked
UNM benefits-eligible employees are invited to come and get free Saggio’s pizza and cake from ABC Cakes and become a subscriber during UNM Day at Popejoy on Monday, May 17 from 11 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. The half-price benefit applies only to Popejoy subscriptions, and is the most affordable way to see Wicked and all your other favorite Broadway and Ovation Series shows. Enter at the red Popejoy canopy that faces Cornell Mall.
For more information or questions call, (505) 277-8010 or e-mail, customerservice@popejoypresents.com
American Campus Communities to break ground in June
The University of New Mexico Board of Regents has unanimously approved terms of a ground lease that will allow American Campus Communities (ACC) to begin construction on an 864-bed student housing community west of the Pit. This approval culminates a process that started more than two years ago with a Request for Information advertised to developers, owners and managers of student housing to determine how and where to best add new housing to meet a growing student demand.
Terms of Ground Lease
Regents approved a lease term for ACC of 40 years with three additional options of 10 years each. In the first five years of the agreement, ACC’s rent paid to UNM will grow from $333,643 to $375,518. In subsequent years, the rent will be 5.7% of gross revenues but no less than $350,000.
ACC will develop and construct the estimated $40 million project at its own cost by August 2011. The ground lease may be terminated by UNM if ACC fails to commence construction by August 1, 2010.
UNM is free to provide any residence hall housing (unlimited), or other student housing that is not similar to nor will have an adverse economic impact on ACC’s south campus project. The university may also be able to build a directly competitive project if an independent study shows demand. The university can also renovate or replace existing dorms.
Additionally, should ACC decide to sell the property within the first 10years, UNM will have first right to purchase it. UNM can also exercise its right of purchase at any time after 10 years and upon a contemplated transfer by ACC.
Echoing the comments of several regents that the housing is needed, student regent Cate Wisdom said plans for recreation and study facilities within the ACC project will make for an active living and learning center for upperclassmen who currently seek off-campus apartment or house accommodations. “Students will be able to engage in the community they live in,” said Wisdom.
Need for More Housing
The need, importance and benefits of new housing at UNM have been established for several years. An undergraduate student housing report conducted in 2006 concluded improved and expanded student housing would greatly contribute to improved retention and graduation rates. A market analysis conducted by Brailsford & Dunleavy the following year identified demand for 1,900 new beds with the first priority to develop housing appropriate to address the needs of the undergraduate student population.
In 2008, the Student Life Master Plan echoed the need “to enhance and improve current facilities that are old and outdated and provide students of today the ability to enjoy fully integrated services, activities and facilities.” Additionally in 2009, the report from Moody’s Investors Services agreed with UNM that expanded and improved student housing was a critical competitive priority.
South Campus Housing Project Description
The new student housing community will be located in the area south of Avenida Cesar Chavez, west of the Pit and east of Interstate 25. Construction is expected to start June 1, 2010 and the community will be housing students starting in August 2011.
Students will be housed in furnished apartment units complete with high-speed Internet and private-bedroom, private-bathroom accommodations. Four individual rooms are joined by a central living and learning area, and these units will then join together to create larger living areas.
A community center for the complex will be located near Avenida Cesar Chavez. This center is designed to be the “heart and soul” of the new housing community. The center will be connected to UNM’s main campus via a shuttle loop and will include management and residence life paraprofessional functions for the community, a leasing center, study rooms, computer labs, recreation center and other places for students to socialize.
The housing center will be consistent with the university’s Pueblo Revival look and will include open spaces with xeriscaped landscaping. The development will be energy efficient as well, meeting the United States Green Building Council’s LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) certification standards.
The new student community will be approximately 18.5 acres in size, and will include $1.6 million in roadway infrastructure improvements to the area. The total expected project cost is approximately $40 million and no taxpayer or university money will be used.
"This is the first exciting step in dramatically modernizing the student residential experience at UNM," said Jason Wills, ACC senior vice president. "We are very excited about the opportunity to partner with the University of New Mexico and look forward to supporting the university in achieving its academic and student development objectives."
Media Contact: Susan McKinsey, (505) 277-1807; e-mail: mckinsey@unm.edu or Benson Hendrix, (505) 277-1816; e-mail: bhendrix@unm.edu
When budgets are tight and needs are many, companies must be strategic in spending money and energy. When it comes to the best return on investment, educating future leaders tops PNM’s list. The UNM Foundation connected PNM to programs aligned with the company’s philanthropic goals.
Photo: Electrical and Engineering student Steve Wood sits in a partially completed solar car.
A long-time supporter of the School of Law’s Wild Friends program, PNM supports introducing students to the legislative process to help them find their voices and provide a bridge between academic learning and real-world experiences.
Students in the School of Engineering’s Solar Car Project use PNM donations to design and race a solar-powered vehicle in national competition. With another donation from PNM, engineering faculty are inventing a residential-scale ice-storage system to reduce energy consumption by air conditioners during peak periods.
“Investing in these programs is a natural fit for PNM’s initiatives in renewable energy and as a future investment for New Mexico,” said Diane Ogawa, executive director, PNM Resources Foundation.
The 10-student solar car team races this summer against university teams from throughout the nation in the North American Solar Car Challenge.
“These students are learning to optimize solar-cell operations, applying it in real life,” said Olga Lavrova, research assistant professor and team leader. “By interfacing with state-of-the-art solar power techniques while using limited resources, they’re learning all the applications they’ll use as future engineers.”
Andrea Mammoli, associate and Halliburton professor, is lead researcher on the residential-scale ice-storage system. PNM’s gift will allow Mammoli to implement the prototype system and test it in an experimental solar house the School of Engineering is building in collaboration with the School of Architecture and an investor.
“The challenge will be to make it easy to integrate these units with standard refrigerant AC units or at least allow installation using existing construction techniques,” Mammoli said.
To give to any UNM program, call the UNM Foundation at (505) 277-4503 or 1-800-UNM-FUND (866-3863), or visit UNM Fund.
Story by By Christopher Elliott
With the rising cost of health care and the current state of the economy, cost containment is at the center of UNM’s budget. This summer, the Division of Human Resources will contract with an external company to perform a dependent eligibility audit as a cost containment strategy. All benefits-eligible employees enrolled in the UNM medical plan will be asked to take an active role.
A dependent eligibility audit asks employees to provide documents validating that the dependents they cover are actually eligible. Studies indicate that five to eight percent of dependents on employer plans no longer meet eligibility requirements. For UNM’s Medical Plan dependent eligibility guidelines, visit Human Resources and click “Benefits,” then “Eligibility and Enrollment.”
A dependent eligibility audit is a fiscally responsible plan for UNM as a public employer. Since UNM’s medical plan is self-insured, UNM pays for all claims. By requiring documentation for all enrolled dependents, the university is protecting the solvency of the medical plan and its employees from unnecessary increases in the cost of health care. A dependent eligibility audit is the best way to ensure that university funds are only supporting eligible employees and their dependents.
Before the audit begins, employees who have covered dependents currently enrolled in the UNM medical plan need to verify they are eligible. All ineligible dependents removed during open enrollment will not be part of the dependent eligibility audit, providing an amnesty period. If the audit reveals ineligible dependents still covered after July 1, UNM may seek reimbursement of claims paid on behalf of the ineligible dependents.
More information about the process and procedures to comply with the dependent eligibility audit will be available soon. Just as taking steps to live a healthier lifestyle will help contain health care costs, we need everyone’s support to complete a successful dependent eligibility audit.
Story by Helen Gonzales, vice president, Human Resources
The UNM Art Museum received a National Endowment for the Humanities grant for the national “We the People” initiative, designed to strengthen the teaching, study and understanding of American history and cultures. The grant supports “Picturing America: Picturing New Mexico,” a two-day conference at UNM in the fall.
Photo: Paul Strand, "La Iglesia de San Francisco de Assisi," c. 1930, gelatin silver print, Collection of the UNM Art Museum, Albuquerque.
Up to 40 New Mexico secondary school teachers of social studies, language arts and visual arts whose schools received the “Picturing America” portfolio will discover how to bring history to life and engage students through the scholarly examination of art. The project includes a follow-up one-day conference in spring 2011, when participating teachers will report on their curriculum and assess educational outcomes.
The conferences feature keynote speeches, discussions and demonstrations by distinguished academics in art history, art education and language arts. They will demonstrate how object-based teaching can motivate students to engage with the narratives of America’s history through visual art.
Sara Otto-Diniz, curator of academic initiatives, UNM Art Museum, and grant project director said, “Object-based teaching is such a valuable tool to help students make meaningful connections to their subject. At the fall conference, teachers will learn how to use primary visual resources, including paintings, photographs and sculpture, to better communicate their lessons in American history and culture. We are so grateful for this grant which supports an outstanding educational opportunity for the state.”
Conference participants will learn how to sharpen students’ skills of perception and interpretation by learning to read images for meaning and how to use historical and literary sources to deepen understanding, aiding students in forging connections to their own lives.
At the spring conference, teachers will share the successes of their teaching units, assess educational outcomes and visit a UNM Art Museum exhibition drawn from the permanent collections and designed to complement the images in “Picturing America.”
The UNM Art Museum, in the Center for the Arts, is open Tuesday-Friday, 10 a.m.-4 p.m. and Saturday-Sunday, 1-4 p.m. Visit UNM Art Museum.
Story by Sari Krosinsky
UNM-Taos student Lynn Marie Helvey recently received the New Century Scholar Award, given to the top New Mexico community college scholar in an All-USA competition. Helvey, who is studying linguistics and sign language, received a $2,000 scholarship and was recognized by the American Association of Community Colleges through the Phi Theta Kappa Honor Society.
Photo: Lynn Helvey
UNM-Taos Executive Director Kate O’Neill accompanied Helvey to the awards ceremony in Seattle. She said, “UNM-Taos is one of the smallest and newest of the branch campuses, and to have Ms. Helvey representing the state of New Mexico in this manner is an inspiration to us all.”
“The best thing I got out of going to Seattle was being able to meet the other scholars from all over the country,” Helvey said. “It was astounding to me how open they were about their failures as well as their successes. I learned from them that it is our failures that make us strong. We all have stories and we all have obstacles in our path, and by sharing our stories we help each other. The learning experience and education are accessible to everyone, and that’s a wonderful thing.”
Story by Bill Knief
For the fourth consecutive year, UNM-Valencia students received scholarships in the annual All-USA Community College Academic Team competition sponsored by Phi Theta Kappa and the Coca-Cola Scholars Foundation. Maria Rivet was named a Gold Coca-Cola Scholar and awarded a $1,500 scholarship. Her husband, Nate Wood, was honored with a Finalist Coca-Cola scholarship for $1,000.
Photo: Maria Rivet (l.) and husband Nate Wood (r.) are honored at the State Roundhouse by Alice Letteney, executive director, UNM-Valencia.
Both are recent UNM-Valencia graduates, where they were members of the Beta Zeta Zeta Chapter of the Phi Theta Kappa International Honor Society.
The two were also recently honored as members of the New Mexico All-State Academic Team during a ceremony at the state roundhouse in Santa Fe.
They now attend UNM’s Albuquerque campus, where Rivet majors in psychology and Wood in sociology.
In the All-USA Academic competition, UNM-Valencia scholars compete with thousands of entries from community colleges across the country. UNM-Valencia has had PTK members receive scholarships and team standings for four consecutive years.
Story by Chad Perry
Could something seemingly so individualistic as someone's personality be influenced by parasites? What about the broad differences in social norms seen between cultures? University of New Mexico Biologist Randy Thornhill recently documented the connections between microscopic pests and the character of those they infect.
Thornhill and his colleagues believe that parasitic diseases have been major factors shaping human psychology and behavior. They hold that people have a behavioral immune system, supplementing the physiological immune system, which helps people avoid and manage infections.
Characteristics such as obedience to authority are most closely related to parasites that are transmitted from person to person, rather than parasites that are mainly transmitted by other animals. The authors argue that democracy, women's rights, individual freedom, and political liberalism are facilitated by lower risks of human-transmitted parasitism. The results of their study support these predictions.
Also, women are less willing to engage in short-term sexual relations when human-transmitted parasites are more prevalent. People were more extraverted and open to new experiences when these parasites are less of a threat. Societies with high human borne parasite risk are less individualistic and more collectivistic as well as more family oriented.
The framework provides a guide to understanding why populations inhabiting different parts of the planet can be very different, as well as quite similar.
The study appears in the current issue of Evolutionary Psychology and is accessible at: http://www.epjournal.net/filestore/EP08151169.pdf
For more information contact, Randy Thornhill, rthorn@unm.edu or telephone, (505) 277-9516.
Media Contact: Steve Carr, (505) 277-1821; e-mail: scarr@unm.edu
The National Association of Collegiate Directors of Athletics (NACDA) has named its 12-member Hall of Fame class for 2010. The inductees, including former University of New Mexico Director of Athletics Rudy Davalos, will be recognized at the Learfield Sports Directors' Cup Awards Luncheon on Wednesday, June 23. The ceremony will be held during NACDA's 45th Annual Convention at the Marriott Hotel in Anaheim, Calif.
Photo: Rudy Davalos, UNM director of athletics, 1992-2006.
Inductee, Institution
Rick Bay, University of Oregon
Chuck Bell, Utah State University
Peter Dalis, UCLA
Rudy Davalos, University of New Mexico (click on link for bio)
Fern Gardner, University of Utah
Andy Geiger, The Ohio State University
Sam Jankovich, University of Miami
Dave Maggard, University of California Berkeley
Mike McGee, University of Southern California, University of South Carolina
Pete Pisciotta, Glendale Community College
Joe Singleton, University of California Davis
Larry Toledo, Pima Community College
Now in its 45th year, NACDA is the professional and educational association for more than 6,500 college athletics administrators at more than 1,600 institutions throughout the United States, Canada and Mexico. More than 2,300 athletics administrators annually attend the NACDA Convention. Additionally, NACDA administers 11 professional associations that come under the umbrella of the Athletics Director. For more information, visit NACDA.
In order to strengthen UNM’s IT infrastructure, IT will be performing a necessary upgrade to a central data storage service that is shared by many University systems. The upgrade will improve both performance and storage capacity, and will occur during a routine maintenance window on Sunday, May 23, from 6 a.m. to 12 p.m. This date was selected by constituent groups across campus because of its lower student impact during semester break.
Alerts posted at IT Alerts will be unavailable during this upgrade. For additional updates visit: UNM Today.
Many services provided by IT will still be available; however, the following systems will not be available during this short low-usage window:
• Email (except GroupWise)
• FastInfo
• Password resets
• Departmental websites hosted centrally in IT
• Departmental applications and printing on IT virtual servers
• IT Alerts and it.unm.edu
• lobocard.unm.edu
• lobocash.unm.edu
• FAMIS
• TMA
• Advance and IFAS
• Demographic Self-Service (DSS)
• Surveys and elections (Opinio)
• IT Pod services (Citrix, Matlab, Open office, ARC-GIS, SPSS, miniTAB and printing)
Media Contact: Steve Carr, (505) 277-0987; e-mail: scarr@unm.edu
Contemporary Art: Good for Your Heart! now on display
Curated by Dr. Abrams, the exhibition displays 40 works of modern art from Abrams' collection. The exhibition is currently on display in the hospital's ambulatory care center on the fifth floor through June 30, 2010. A reception will be held on Friday, June 18, from 4-6 p.m. in the gallery.
Artists such as Larry Bell, Richard Hogan, Forest Moses, Miguel Gandert, Wayne Thiebaud, Richard Serra, and many others are featured in the exhibition.
Gallery hours are 8 a.m. - 6 p.m., Monday through Friday. For more information, please call Chris Fenton at 272-09700, or by e-mail, cfenton@salud.unm.edu.
The current school year is quickly coming to a close and not many people are thinking about school supplies for next year — except for the UNM Alumni Association. With the current economic crisis, it is predicted there will be a much greater need next year for school supplies. To help meet the need, the UNM Alumni Association has once again partnered with APS for its annual APS/UNM School Supplies Drive. The drive is currently underway through Friday, May 28, 2010.
Next year, as many as 10,000 students will need supplies. APS Superintendent Winston Brooks said, “Ensuring that families have appropriate school supplies for their students will lift the burden of this expense in these tough economic times.”
At this time, the Alumni Association is asking for monetary donations because supplies can be purchased en masse through the APS warehouse at a significantly lower cost.
The School Supplies Drive will culminate in a distribution event held at University Stadium in July. Both UNM student athletes and alumni will be on hand to help distribute thousands of packs filled with school supplies, as well as meet and greet the students and their families.
Donations can be made by logging on to UNM Alumni and clicking on the APS/UNM School Supply Drive box. Checks can also be mailed to the Alumni Association at 1 University of New Mexico, Hodgin Hall, MSC01 1160, Albuquerque, NM 87131.
For more information contact Roberta Ricci, Alumni Relations Office (505) 277-9085 or abqricci@unm.edu.
Media Contact: Steve Carr, (505) 277-1821; e-mail: scarr@unm.edu
Students in Howard Kraye's class "Projects in the Supply Chain" at the Anderson School of Management have come up with a unique fundraising effort to help benefit All Fatih's Receiving Home. Students are selling women's Lobo underwear to help benefit the organization. Sizes available include S, M, L and the price is $13. Students will be at the main campus Bookstore all week from 12 to 3 p.m.
Interested individuals may order through Sarah Lopez by calling (505) 850-3128 or via e-mail at, pawsoffgear@gmail.com.
The UNM School of Engineering Annual Awards recognized 27 outstanding students, faculty and staff at a luncheon attended by more than 400 people on Friday, May 7. Each year, awards are given to outstanding sophomore, junior, senior, and graduate students from each department on the basis of grade point average, research and service to the school. An outstanding freshman and a sophomore from the pre-major program are chosen based on similar criteria.
Photo (l. to r.): Kshanti Greene, recipient of the Outstanding Graduate Student Award in Computer Science, is congratulated by CS Chair Stephanie Forrest and School of Engineering Interim Dean Arup Maji.
Staff awards are given for attitude, performance, contribution and initiative. Awards are given to faculty members for teaching and research at junior and senior levels.
“Our outstanding faculty and staff each have unique talents and passions representing the primary values of the School of Engineering: teaching, research and service,” said Interim Dean Arup Maji, who hosted the event. “Today it is our pleasure to honor the 2010 award recipients and their diverse achievements."
Two awards are funded by community members. Stanley E. Harrison, a Mechanical Engineering alum, endows the Harrison Faculty Recognition Award, honoring innovative community service on a societal, national or local level. QForma, an advanced analytics and predictive modeling company, funds an award to the most outstanding computational MS thesis or PhD dissertation within the current academic year, as well as an award for extraordinarily promising junior faculty researcher in Computer Science.
Following are the 2010 engineering awards and their recipients:
Faculty Awards
Junior Faculty Teaching Excellence Award
Civil Engineering Assistant Professor Andy Schuler
Junior Faculty Research Excellence Award
Civil Engineering Associate Professor Mahmoud Taha
Senior Faculty Teaching Excellence Award
Electrical & Computer Engineering Professor and ECE Associate Chair Greg Heileman
Senior Faculty Research Excellence Award
Distinguished Professor of Computer Science Deepak Kapur
Harrison Faculty Recognition Award
Mechanical Engineering Associate Professor Tariq Khraishi
QForma Awards
Outstanding Dissertation: Nicholas Pattengale, PhD, CS, 2010
Student Awards
Freshman Pre-Major: Roger O. Iveson
Sophomore Pre-Major: David G. Gutierrez
Chemical & Nuclear Engineering
- Outstanding Junior: Margaret Root
- Outstanding Senior: Kathleen Martinick
- Outstanding Graduate Student: Carlee Ashley
Civil Engineering
- Outstanding Junior: Joshuah Flint
- Outstanding Senior: Christopher Brickey
- Outstanding Graduate Student: Aaron Reinhardt
Computer Science
- Outstanding Junior: John Donahue
- Outstanding Senior: Christian Romano
- Outstanding Graduate Student: Kshanti Greene
Electrical & Computer Engineering
- Outstanding Junior: Gennifer Smith
- Outstanding Senior: Ryan Clark
- Outstanding Graduate Student: Woo-Yong Jang
Mechanical Engineering
- Outstanding Junior: Michael Stromberg
- Outstanding Senior: Casey Dyck
- Outstanding Graduate Student: Masoud Safdari
Outstanding Staff Awards
Mark Dalen from Mechanical Engineering
Mike Majedi from Electrical & Computer Engineering
Doug Williams from Engineering Student Services
United States Senator Tom Udall will deliver the keynote address at the UNM spring commencement on Saturday, May 15, at 9 a.m. in Tingley Coliseum at Expo New Mexico (State Fairgrounds). About 2,634 students are projected to receive degrees from UNM’s Albuquerque and Extended University campuses, as follows: 1,866 bachelor’s degrees, 441 master’s degrees, 67 doctorates, 91 juris doctorates, 74 medical doctorates, 78 pharmacy doctorates, 12 graduate certificates and five education specialists. An official degree count is determined following commencement.
American Indian health and education advocate Agnes Dill, California Justice Cruz Reynoso and 1963-87 UNM University Architect Van Dorn Hooker will receive honorary degrees.
At UNM-Gallup, 100 associate degrees and 23 certificates are projected to be awarded; at Los Alamos, 17 associate degrees and two certificates; at Taos, 17 associate degrees and 10 certificates; and at Valencia, 30 associate degrees and three certificates.
Golden Graduates, the class of 1960, are also honored at commencement for their lifelong connection to UNM.
Jason Hansen receives the Tom L. Popejoy Dissertation Prize for “The Economics of Urban Water Policy: Infrastructure, Scarcity, and Conservation.”
UNM Regents’ President Raymond Sanchez will greet graduates on behalf of the UNM board of regents. Sanchez and fellow regents, UNM administrators, deans and faculty are among the platform group. UNM Provost Suzanne Ortega is master of ceremonies, and University Secretary Vivian Valencia is chief marshal. Ortega will offer congratulatory remarks, confer degrees and recognize honors graduates.
Monika Roberts, president of the Associated Students of UNM, and Ruth Schifani, president of the Alumni Association, will greet students.
The University Band will play music for the ceremony’s prelude and processional. Tony Zancanella, graduating with a Bachelor of Music, will sing the national anthem and alma mater.
College, branch and departmental convocation ceremonies are scheduled May 12-15. For more information and the convocation schedule, visit 2010 Graduation.
Keynote Speaker
Tom Udall
Tom Udall is New Mexico’s 17th United States senator. He served for two decades as U.S. representative and New Mexico attorney general. He earned a Juris Doctor from UNM in 1977. In Congress, Udall has been a champion of renewable energy, job creation, reducing global warming emissions, expanding preventive health care, broadband deployment, consumer protection, Native American economic, health and education development, and government reform.
Honorary /Degree recipients
Agnes Dill
Agnes Dill, Isleta and Laguna Pueblos, has been a pioneer on issues in American Indian health care, culture, history, education and women’s rights for more than 70 years. Dill was a teacher with the Bureau of Indian Affairs in Oklahoma and New Mexico for 12 years. On the New Mexico Geriatric Education Center’s Council of Elders, Dill has been an advocate for access to quality, culturally-sensitive health care.
Cruz Reynoso
Justice Cruz Reynoso is the Boochever and Bird professor of law emeritus at the University of California, Davis School of Law, where he holds the chair for the Study and Teaching of Freedom and Equality. Reynoso has served the California Fair Employment Practice Commission, Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, California Rural Legal Assistance, UNM School of Law, California Court of Appeals and California Supreme Court.
Van Dorn Hooker
Van Dorn Hooker was university architect at UNM, 1963-87. He directed building and planning for the Albuquerque campuses and three branch campuses: Gallup, Los Alamos and Valencia County. During Hooker’s time at UNM, enrollment more than doubled and square footage of buildings quadrupled. The School of Medicine, Research Park, The Pit, Championship Golf Course and duck pond were established, and the School of Law moved to north campus.
Media Contact: Sari Krosinsky, (505) 277-1593; e-mail: michal@unm.edu
On Wednesday, May 12 at 1 p.m. in Zimmerman Library’s Herzstein Room, a video about the violence against the Oaxacan indigenous community of San Juan Copala will be screened.
On April 27, two international human rights observers were murdered in San Juan Copala, Oaxaca. Their international human rights caravan was travelling to the village of San Juan Copala in the Triqui indigenous region of Oaxaca. Local paramilitaries from a group called UBISORT, which is reportedly founded by Mexico's ruling Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI), had surrounded and cut off the village. The caravan of journalists, state activists and international human rights observers wanted to investigate the worsening situation in the village.
To read more about this attack which left two dead, and the history of violence against this autonomous indigenous community visit:
Mexico's State of Impunity.
Three former UNM graduates also receive Fellowships
Four current University of New Mexico students, including Brandi Cron, Monica Madrid, Angelica Sanchez and Alex Washburne, were recently awarded prestigious National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowships. The Fellowships include a $30,000 stipend and a $10,500 tuition allowance for up to three years. The Graduate Research Fellowships, awarded on a competitive basis by an extensive application process, provide three years of support for graduate study leading to research-based master’s or doctoral degrees.
Additionally, three former UNM graduates also received the Fellowships. They include (area of study and current institution): Jason M. Bourke (Life Sciences – Anatomy, Ohio University), Anne Elizabeth Hellebust (Bioengineering, William Marsh Rice University) and Katie Liberatore (Life Sciences and Plant Development and Evolution, Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory).
The Graduate Research Fellowship Program (GRFP) is designed to invest in graduate education for diverse individuals who have demonstrated their potential to successfully complete graduate degree programs in disciplines relevant to the mission of the National Science Foundation. It is intended for students who are in the early stages of their graduate study.
Cron graduated from Gallup HS, and received a BS in Biology from UNM in 2008. She is currently a second year master’s degree student at UNM in the Department of Earth and Planetary Sciences. She was awarded a Louis Stokes Alliance for Minority Participation Bridge to the Doctorate Fellowship (LSAMP BD) in Fall, 2008.
Cron’s research is highly interdisciplinary. Her thesis, “Comparing CO2-rich travertine mound springs of the Rio Grande Rift to extreme subsurface systems: the microbiology and geochemistry of the Tierra Amarilla anticline,” will be completed in Spring 2011. Her advisor is Professor Laura Crossey, Earth and Planetary Sciences.
Madrid conducts her research in collaboration with her faculty advisor, ECE Assistant Professor Jamesina Simpson. She is also a research assistant at UNM's Center for High Tech Materials. Working with Simpson and ECE Professor Majeed Hayat, she is helping to construct full Maxwell's equation models of the interaction of specific synthetic-aperture radar pulses with vibrating structures in a project titled, “Co-registered Vibrometry & Imaging: A Combined Synthetic-Aperture Radar & Fractional-Fournier Transform Approach.” The project began in 2008 and is funded by the Defense Intelligence Agency and the Department of Energy’s National Nuclear Security Administration.
Sanchez, a 2000 graduate of Rio Grande High School in Albuquerque, is currently pursuing a Ph.D. in Chemical Engineering/NanoMaterials/Microsystems under the mentorship of Distinguished Professor of Chemical Nuclear Engineering Abhaya Datye. She conducts research in the field of heterogeneous catalysis. Her project involves the study of the sintering behavior of gold nanoparticles, which could be an important step in finding a cause for the loss or deactivation of nucleation sites for the gold catalyst that occurs during the sintering process. Understanding atomic scale details of nucleation sites would lead to a fundamental understanding of catalyst stability and could be applied to gold as well as other catalysts. This work is funded by NSF’s PIRE program.
Through UNM AMP, she has also been awarded an LSAMP BD Fellowship supporting her first two years of graduate study at UNM, and was recruited through the efforts of UNM’s NS/MS IGERT program. She earned a BS in Chemical Engineering from UNM in 2009. Her career goal is the research and development of alternative and renewable energy resources.
Washburne is interested in gaining insights into biological processes through mathematical modeling. Currently, Washburne is working on a paper comparing two virus life cycles - lytic and lysogenic - in hopes of understanding their respective dynamical and evolutionary costs and benefits. He will be attending Princeton's quantitative and computational biology program, earning his Ph.D. studying virus models, epidemiology, and collective behavior, with an emphasis on optimizing efforts in conservation biology. Washburne’s mentors include Associate Professor Ursula Shepherd in Honors and Biology Assistant Professor Helen Wearing.
Media Contact: Steve Carr, (505) 277-1821; e-mail: scarr@unm.edu
Ambassadors getting on the phone for 'The Team Behind The Teams'
The Lobo Club Membership Drive celebrated its Annual Kickoff recently at the Rudy Davalos Center with inductions into several giving-level clubs. As a part of the membership drive, Lobo Club Ambassadors will be on the phone for the next two months signing up new Lobo Club members and renewing memberships for the 2010-11 season.
“The turnout for this year’s Kickoff was tremendous and the energy in the room was contagious,” said Carly Newlands, Lobo Club director of annual giving. “If you are currently a member of the Lobo Club and have not renewed your support, do not be surprised to receive a call from an Ambassador. We have over 140 Ambassadors striving to make this upcoming year’s Lobo Club better than ever.”
During the Kickoff, the Lobo Club inducted two new members of the Cornerstone Club ($10,000 raised for the first time), John Kennedy and Walt Miller; two new members of the Red Blazer Club ($20,000), Norman Burns and Bill Michael; and two new Leaders of the Pack ($40,000), Ron & Mary Lou Darr and Bill Michael. It is the first time in Lobo Club history that an Ambassador, Bill Michael, reached the $20,000 and $40,000 mark in the same year.
Kickoff attendees received an update on 2009-10 UNM athletic teams’ accomplishments from senior associate athletics director Tim Cass and a thank you from men’s basketball head coach Steve Alford on behalf of all UNM coaches. The head coaches also participated in a round of musical chairs. Football head coach Mike Locksley ended the game as the winner.
Lobo Club president Bruce Beebe took the opportunity to introduce the 2009-10 Lobo Club Student-Athletes of the Year, women’s skier Polina Ermoshina and men’s soccer player Simon Ejdemyr.
Earlier in the Membership Drive, Rookie Ambassador Joe Cordova earned Rookie of the Week honors by signing up five new members during Phone-A-Thon I on April 22. Rookies are first-year Lobo Club Ambassadors.
For more information about joining Lobo Club and becoming a Lobo Club Ambassador, visit the Lobo Club Membership Drive webpage at UNM Lobo Club.
Ways to renew support...
1. Online at UNM Lobo Club by clicking the “Join Now” link.
2. Mail to UNM Lobo Club, Colleen J. Maloof Administration Building, MSC04 2680, 1 University of New Mexico, Albuquerque, NM, 87131
3. Fax to (505) 925-5609
4. Call (505) 925-5014
Media Contacts: Judy Willson, (505) 925-5851 or Carly Newlands, (505) 925-5600
The 5th Annual Sarah Belle Brown award winners were announced by the Committee for Public Service and Community Engagement recently. The 2010 recipients included Adelamar Alcantara , Sr. Research Scientist from the Bureau of Business and Economic Research, Vanessa Apodaca, University and Community Liaison from the Vice President’s Office for Community Health and Regents’ Professor of Biology Maggie Werner-Washburne.
Photo (l. to r.): Anderson School of Management Dean Doug Brown, Sarah Belle Brown, Regents' Professor of Biology and Faculty Recipient Maggie Werner-Washburne and President David J. Schmidly.
Alcantara was recognized for her involvement in the Asian community. She has been president of both the Asian American Association and the Filipino American Association Boards. She was also the founder and current President of the Board of the New Mexico Asian Family Center for all Asians in New Mexico. The center specializes in Asian immigrantss, particularly victims of violence and crime, as a place to seek therapeutic, social and legal services. Alcantara was a previous recipient of the Governor’s Award for Outstanding New Mexico Women.
Apodaca is an alumni of AmeriCorps, a program that supports studetns who engage in community service. She has completed two 900 hour terms and continues to volunteer on a daily basis. Apodaca spent the past seven years working with the Santa Barbara/Martineztown Literacy Center and also several other community centers and schools around the state. Apodaca currently works in the Vice President’s Office for Community Health where she recruits students and community members to engage with eachother to provide solutions to hunger in New Mexico.
Werner-Washburne contributes regularly to the community through self-less sharing of expertise and passion for science, while helping to ignite that same passion in elementary and high school students. She has worked directly with Bandelier Elementary School, Menaul School and various other public schools.
As a valued member of the UNM community, Werner-Washburne is a dedicated educator who provides student advisement and as a mentor to students, parents and teachers providing them with a strong foundation to realize their educational dreams of the future. Werener-Washburne also donates her time to several scientific organizations.
The award, named for Sarah Belle Brown, the wife of Anderson School of Management Dean Doug Brown, who has dedicated countless hours to public service, recognizes a faculty, staff and student who serve as examples of social responsiveness and who have over an extended period of time, donated a considerable amount of personal time and effort advancing the University of New Mexico’s public service mission. The recipients were honored and recognized at a recent lunch at University House.
On Feb. 25, UNM Student Affairs organized a campus safety walk that made recommendations regarding safety concerns around campus, which included burned out or broken lights, landscape hazards and other security issues. As a result of the recent campus safety walk, several repairs have already been made on throughout campus and several more are planned.
The Safety and Risk Services Department in conjunction with the Physical Plant Department are working to ensure that the repairs to orders for approximately 300 light fixtures on campus are made, said Joel Straquadine, university safety officer from the Safety and Risk Services Department.
“The safety of all students, faculty, staff and visitors on the campus is our highest priority,” Straquadine said. “Teaming up with our students and staff during the recent campus night walk is just one example of how we are continually striving to be proactive in the resolution of safety concerns.”
To date, the Physical Plant Department has completed approximately 90 percent of these repairs and plans to fix the final 10 percent in the next 30 days. Yet, some of the repairs can’t be made until the required parts come in.
“Our top priority was making sure that lights that were burned out or broken were fixed first,” Straquadine said. “We are currently working on the second part of the plan which is to identify where lighting levels need to be increased.”
The university also has, as a campus, a draft Master Plan for Lighting and a committee that meets regularly to review the plan and work on issues that come up.
Additionally, Grandon Goertz, a safety specialist from Risk Management, conducts his own safety walk once a week looking for lighting, landscape and other possible safety issues and files his own report with the Safety and Risk Department.
Dr. Eliseo Torres, vice president for Student Affairs, is planning more safety walks in the future and is hopeful that the turn out will be as good as it was for the first one.
“These safety walks are a good way to keep lighting and other campus safety concerns at the top of our priority list,” he said. “They are also a good reminder to students, staff and visitors on campus to be aware of their surroundings while on campus.”
The Signature Program for Child Health Research will give a series of brief presentations and round table discussions led by successful UNM Health Science Center researchers. The event, titled ‘3x5x5’ (3 speakers, 5 slides, done by 5), will be held Wednesday, May 12 from 3:30 to 5 p.m. in rm. 2112 at the Domenici Center. Learn more about research at UNM, network with colleagues, establish collaboration, find a mentor/mentee or just enjoy some stimulating discussion at the event.
Speakers and Topics...
William Garver, Ph.D., assistant professor, Biochemistry Molecular Biology
* The Niemann-Pick C1 Gene is Associated with Weight Gain and the Metabolic Syndrome
Hannah Bloom, SPCHR Apprenticeship Awardee
Mentor: Janet Poole, Ph.D.
* Educational Needs of Children with Scleroderma and their Parents
Stuart Winter, MD, professor, Pediatrics Hematology Oncology
* Targeted Therapies Against Lymphocyte Signaling Pathways in Childhood Leukemia
* Another SPCHR apprentice will also be presenting.
For more information contact Leslie Trickey at 272-4462 or e-mail, letrickey@salud.unm.edu.
Geraldine Forbes Isais has been selected dean of the University of New Mexico School of Architecture and Planning. She assumes her new role effective July 1 and succeeds Roger Schluntz, who has served as dean for more than a decade.
Photo: Geraldine Forbes Isais says she wants the UNM School of Architecture and Planning to be a place that “resonates with the rest of the country.”
“I am honored to be selected by my professional and academic colleagues,” Forbes Isais said. “I intend to build on the great work Roger Schluntz and his predecessors have done in the school,” she said, adding, “We need to do what is necessary to advance the school nationally and internationally.”
Forbes Isais wants the UNM School of Architecture and Planning to be a place that “resonates with the rest of the country.” “I don’t want the school to be one that responds to what takes place elsewhere. We will set trends. They will see our unique and special attributes and know us for artful, ethical, cutting edge and exciting work,” she said.
Provost Suzanne Ortega said, “We are pleased that Professor Forbes Isais has been selected dean of the UNM School of Architecture and Planning. For the last five years she has served the architecture program well, working with faculty to design and implement changes that respond to industry and societal needs. Her knowledge of the school and the university will allow her to move quickly into her new role. I look forward to working with her as dean.”
Forbes Isais has served as director of the school’s architecture program since 2005. In that capacity she has worked with the program’s faculty to implement recent approved curricular changes. She is responsible for a $1.2 million budget, 280 graduate and undergraduate students and 15 full-time and 18 part-time faculty.
Prior to coming to UNM, Forbes Isais served as chair in the Department of Architecture at the University of Colorado, Boulder and Denver. She served as Dean of the architecture program at Woodbury University’s San Diego campus. There, she developed a public-private collaboration between Woodbury University and San Diego Mesa College to deliver a joint undergraduate professional degree program in architecture. She also served as assistant dean of Woodbury’s School of Architecture and Design in Burbank, Calif.
Forbes Isais is a founding partner of and served as principal in charge of design at Jubany Architecture in Los Angeles from 2001-05. Jubany is a 30 person design firm specializing in civic architecture.
Forbes Isais earned a master of architecture degree from California Polytechnic University, Pomona, in 1986; completed graduate studies in cultural anthropology and ethnomusicology at California State University, Fullerton, in 1978, where she earned her undergraduate degree in cultural anthropology in 1975.
Woodbury University honored Forbes Isais with its Faculty Hall of Fame Award for Outstanding Teaching and Contributions to the University in 2009. She received the Association of Collegiate Schools of Architecture Distinguished Professorship in 2007. She also served as ASCA’s president in 2003-04. She is the recipient of numerous design and teaching awards.
To read a related story visit: Forbes Isais Receives Faculty Hall of Fame Award from Woodbury University.
Media Contact: Carolyn Gonzales, (505) 277-5920; e-mail: cgonzal@unm.edu
School of Law Dean Kevin Washburn and New Mexico Governor Bill Richardson recently announced a new law school course designed to strengthen the state’s ambitious campaign to reduce DWI and domestic violence incidents. The course, DWI and Domestic Violence Prosecution in Practice, debuts in the fall 2010 semester and will provide targeted instruction and training in DWI and domestic violence prosecutions.
Photo: Gov. Bill Richardson, DWI Czar Rachel O’Connor and UNM School of Law Dean Kevin Washburn.
In the upper-level course taught by Visiting Professor Hope Eckert (`00), students will receive two hours of classroom instruction and 10 hours of hands-on experience prosecuting DWI and domestic violence cases.
“We’ve thrown the kitchen sink at DWI and now we’re going back to basics,” Richardson said at a recent press conference. “Students at UNM will now have the opportunity to delve deeper into the causes and treatment of domestic violence and DWI that will prepare them for their legal careers before they leave college.”
The course initially will be funded with a $150,000, 18-month grant. In addition to the semester-long course, a summer practicum in which ongoing cases will be prosecuted will be offered for students seeking more courtroom experience. The course will be limited to eight students.
“I am encouraged by this project and I am confident that more of our future attorneys will get the training they need and will be able to better prosecute DWI and domestic violence cases in New Mexico,” Richardson said.
Throughout the state, many DWI and domestic violence cases are handed off to new law-school graduates with little experience in that area of law, and the goal of the new course is to send them into those jobs better prepared for what they will encounter, said Rachel O’Connor, the governor’s DWI Czar.
“Education is at its best when it is engaging students in the most pressing complex issues of our day, and that kind of public engagement has long been a key strength of the UNM School of Law,” Washburn said. “Our faculty looks forward to restoring a prosecution practice component to its nationally recognized hands-on curriculum.”
For more information contact Nancy Harbert at, harbert@law.unm.edu.
Media Contact: Benson Hendrix, (505) 277-1816; e-mail: bhendrix@unm.edu
Jim Lehrer has been a fixture in public broadcasting for more than three decades, and is one of the most respected and beloved journalists of our time. This week on “New Mexico in Focus,” Lehrer sits down with host Gene Grant and talks about the changing face of broadcast news and Lehrer’s attempts to adapt to those changes. “New Mexico in Focus” airs Fridays at 7 p.m. and Sundays at 6:30 a.m. It also airs KNME Digital Ch. 9.1 on Saturdays at 5 p.m.
Lehrer was in Albuquerque recentlty promoting his latest book titled, “Super,” a murder-mystery novel set on the Super Chief train, a part of the Santa Fe Railroad that used to run through Albuquerque.
Also on this week’s episode, panelists on “The Line” look at the impact of Arizona’s new immigration law on Albuquerque’s status as a “sanctuary city, whether or not the Public Regulation Commission should have more authority, and the latest on New Mexico and the U.S. Census. This week’s “New Mexico in Focus” team includes:
Host/Commentator:
Gene Grant, Weekly Alibi Columnist
Guest:
Jim Lehrer, Executive Editor & Anchor, PBS NewsHour
Panelists:
Sophie Martin, Managing Editor, DukeCityFix.com
Laura Sanchez, Former Executive Director, New Mexico Democratic Party
Jim Scarantino, Editor, New Mexico Watchdog
Guest Panelist:
Martin Gutierrez, Political Consultant
Viewers can also watch New Mexico In Focus online at: KNME. Additionally, get updates, watch, and follow KNME on Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and more.
“New Mexico in Focus” is produced by Kevin McDonald and Kathy Wimmer and 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
Summer is rapidly approaching and parents are searching for activities to keep their kids occupied. The UNM Children’s Campus for Early Care and Education is offering a a variety of options with four, two week themed summer camps for children ages 6 -12. The camps begin June 7 and run through Aug. 6 and run Monday through Friday from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. Additionally, one four-day intersession will also be held following the July 4 holiday. It will run from July 6 -9.
UNMCC Lobo Kids Olympics
June 7-18
Campers will participate in opening and closing ceremonies; take part in an Albuquerque Isotopes Baseball game; try their hand at archery; scale a rock climbing wall; meet Lobo Louie and Lucy; participate in a variety of sports activities including soccer, basketball, dodge ball, and swimming; learn about bicycle safety; and participate in a community service project to benefit the New Mexico Special Olympics.
UNMCC Passport to Adventure
June 21 - July 2
Campers will go horseback riding; meet Indiana Bones; create secret codes; go on a scavenger hunt; visit the Zoo, Explora, and Natural History museum; work with the Recycle Man to make their own instruments out of recycled materials; take a hike in the Jemez mountains; explore the amazing world of bugs; and participate in a community service project to benefit the Make A Wish Foundation of New Mexico
Intersession ($175)
July 6 - 9
Campers will have an Independence Day barbecue, swim, play miniature golf, bowl and roller skate.
UNMCC Water World
July 12-23
Campers will go swimming, fishing and ice-skating; cool off at Cliff’s Water Monkey Adventure Park; visit the Aquarium, UNM Duck Pond, and Tingley Beach; learn about water conservation; construct a miniature water park; build with ice cubes; slip and slide the day away; try out Hinkle’s bumper boats; and participate in a community service project to benefit The Water Project.
UNMCC Imagination Station
July 26 - Aug. 6
Campers will be introduced to architectural design; learn about light and shadow, color, and other elements of the design process; create shadow puppets; create with clay; explore the art of woodworking; visit Habitat for Humanity’s Restore; and participate in a community service project to benefit Albuquerque Habitat for Humanity.
The cost of the two week camps is $395, while the intersession camp is $175. Camp prices include lunch and snacks, a free t-shirt, hat and water bottle. For an addtional price, before (7 to 9 a.m.) and after (4 to 5:30 p.m.) care will also be offered.
The UNM Children’s Campus is a State of New Mexico 5-Star program and is accredited by the National Association for the Education of Young Children.
For more information, registration forms and camp policies, visit: UNMCC Summer Camp 2010.
Two UNM Press authors were among the winners of the 2010 Arizona Book Awards announced by the Arizona Book Publishing Association at a gala banquet at the Phoenix Country Club recently. Rebecca Reider won the award for Adult General Nonfiction for her book Dreaming the Biosphere: The Theater of All Possibilities, the tangled tale of the creation, and eventual disintegration, of the experimental eco-utopia known as Biosphere 2.
The seeds of Biosphere 2 sprouted in the 1970s at Synergia, a desert ranch in New Mexico where John Allen and a handful of highly-motivated drop-outs united to create a self-reliant utopia centered on ecological work, study, and their traveling experimental theater troupe, “The Theater of All Possibilities.”
In 1984, they bought a piece of desert in southern Arizona to build Biosphere 2. Famous ecologists and engineers were consulted, plants arrived on ships and car trailers at a manic pace, and a miniature “ocean” traveled from the Pacific in a milk tanker. Discover magazine called Biosphere 2 “the most exciting venture to be undertaken in the U.S. since President Kennedy launched us toward the moon.”
Eco-enthusiasts clamored to become the eight “biospherians” who would lock themselves inside the giant greenhouse for two years to live in harmony with their wilderness, grow their own food, and recycle all the air, water and wastes. They hoped to do nothing less than chart the future of life, on Earth and in space. But even as hype for the space-age paradise grew, things just as rapidly began to fall apart. In Dreaming the Biosphere, the story of this great eco-utopian adventure (and misadventure) becomes a parable about the relationship between humans and nature in postmodern America.
Reider has worked and written on issues of human and ecological community around the world. Her projects have spanned from Biosphere 2 to indigenous communities in the Amazon, to New Zealand, where she currently works with organic farmers.
Warren Perkins won the award for Popular Fiction for his novel Putrefaction Live in which James Claw, a disaffected, cynical half-Navajo, leaves behind a job and the remnants of a nasty breakup in Flagstaff and returns to his family’s empty ranch house on the Navajo reservation to get his head together and pursue his lifelong dream of playing guitar in a heavy metal band.
After a brief stint of bootlegging and a subsequent arrest, James is forced to pursue legitimate employment giving tours at the historic Hubbell Trading Post where he regularly deviates from the standard tour, supplementing truth for the scripted material he is required to memorize. As he adjusts to life on the rez and struggles to turn his band, Putrefaction, into a cohesive ensemble, James falls in love with Angie, a Navajo woman with two children and a failing marriage. Their developing relationship propels James down a path to self-discovery and reflection as he observes the changing land and community that surrounds him.
Perkins has been a physician for over 25 years and he continues to practice in Flagstaff, Ariz.
The Arizona Book Awards, also known as the Glyph Awards, are given annually in recognition of quality work written in or about Arizona.
A Memo of Understanding will be held Thursday, May 13, with New Mexico’s 23 tribal leaders and the University of New Mexico. The MOU outlines shared interests in three primary areas including increased enrollment of American Indian students at UNM, an increase in the student success rate and enhanced and expanded visibility of UNM in tribal communities. The signing will be held in Lobo A&B at the Student Union Building at 4 p.m.
“When UNM President David J. Schmidly came in August 2007, he made a personal commitment to New Mexico Tribal Leaders to regard issues and opportunities specific to the American Indian Community a priority,” said Pamela Agoyo, director, American Indian Student Services. “President Schmidly continues to insure that the institution does all it can to support the success of Native American students as well as advancing program components that highlight the tremendous work of talented UNM American Indian faculty and staff.”
The University of New Mexico houses more than 75 American Indian efforts in academic programs, research initiatives, scholarship programs, and supports the operation of 14 chartered American Indian student organizations on the main campus.
The signing event will be followed by the 2010 American Indian Graduation Program and Reception at the Student Union Building Ballrooms, which will highlight and honor all Native students receiving UNM undergraduate, graduate and professional degrees for the 2009-10 academic year.
Residence hall students recently competed in the first “Green Residence Hall” competition, sponsored by the Office of Sustainability and the university’s “Eco Reps.” The competition started on “Earth Hour,” Saturday, March 27 at 8:30 p.m. and ended on “Earth Day,” Thursday, April 22. Winning dorms were Alvarado Hall for electricity, Laguna/DeVargas Hall for steam, and the Student Residence Center for chilled water.
Students competed to see which residence hall could save the most electricity, steam or heat, and chilled water for cooling. UNM’s “Eco Reps” are students elected through each residence hall association to work as sustainability advocates in their respective dorms.
Adam Hathaway from Lobo Energy Conservation Educators worked with the students to help them understand how energy saving changes they enacted helped a larger community.
“Students at UNM are very enthusiastic and supportive of the energy conservation program. When the students in a sustainability class first developed the concept of having ‘Eco-Reps’ in the residence halls, it was embraced with open arms,” Hathaway said. “This competition was a great opportunity for students living on campus to get further involved and make a real difference regarding energy conservation.”
Elyse Jalbert, founder of the UNM Residence Hall Eco Reps added, "I think that residents were excited about the Green Hall competition because it gave them a chance to come together on an issue that is important to a lot of them. Plus, it allowed them to create a better sense of community within their hall by bonding and participate in an issue that can only be successful if lots of individuals participate."
For more information about energy conservation visit:
UNM Sustainability or energy@unm.edu or contact Mary Clark, (505) 277-1142 or e-mail, mary@unm.edu.
Media Contact: Benson Hendrix, (505) 277-1816; e-mail: bhendrix@unm.edu
Update - Thursday, May 6 - 1:08 p.m.
Special Message Concerning the Biomedical Research Facility
The Health Sciences Center has determined that the Biomedical Research Facility damaged by fire Wednesday is ready to be occupied again as of 2 p.m. Thursday, May 6, EXCEPT for the laboratories that were damaged. Those people who work in the undamaged areas on the 2nd and 3rd floors can report to work at 2 p.m. The basement, ground floor and first floor were open for occupancy at 8 a.m. Thursday.
Update - Thursday, May 6 - 8:30 a.m.
The HSC Biomedical Research Facility building is open to people who work in the basement and on the ground floor and first floor only as of 8 a.m. today, Thursday, May 6. People who work on the top two floors should call the HSC Info Line, 272-INFO (272-4636) periodically throughout the day for information about when to return to work.
Update - Wednesday, May 5 - 3:38 p.m.
The university is starting the cleanup of the Basic Research Facility which experienced a fire this morning. Those people who work directly in the BRF should go home for the rest of today (Tuesday, May 5) and check back in the morning by calling the HSC INFO line for the latest information about when parts of the building can be occupied again. Call 272-INFO (272-4636) for that information. Do not leave a message on that phone line; it is for informational purposes only.
Update - Wednesday, May 5 - 11:22 a.m.
The HSC buildings evacuated this morning due to the fire are open again except for the Biomedical Research Facility.
Wednesday, May 5 - 10:43 a.m.
There has been a fire in the HSC Biomedical Research Building. The fire is out. Please avoid the area until you get an all clear message. Please check this website for further information.
Additionally, the HSC website at Health Sciences Center will be updated.
Photo courtesy HSC.
All Health Sciences Center shared computing services, such as Groupwise, Sharepoint and the Data Center are unavailable, due to a fire that occurred in the building that houses these services. All services will be offline until further notice. This site will be updated as more information becomes available.
Users can call 272-1694 for status updates. Additionally, the HSC website at Health Sciences Center will be updated.
The Project for New Mexico Graduates of Color (PNMGC) hosts its 4th annual Faculty of Color Awards on Thursday, May 13 from 6 to 9 p.m. in the Salón Ortega at the National Hispanic Cultural Center.
The student based organization will recognize faculty of color who continually inspire, and are mentors and supporters of the UNM community.
“This premier event honors faculty of color for their commitment to providing support, guidance and resources to historically underrepresented students in and out of the classroom,” said Eric Castillo, project assistant for PNMGC.
Fourteen awards will go out in recognition of mentoring, service, teaching and research as well as outstanding teaching assistants/associates and staff. They will also be presenting All-Around and Lifetime Achievement awards for a faculty member of color, Castillo said.
“The awards also recognize UNM community members who are dedicated to creating a truly inclusive and social justice-oriented campus environment,” he said. “Each award winner will be receiving a Nambé plaque with their name and award title.”
Twenty-five members of faculty and staff were nominated for this year’s awards, including the late Professor Hector Torres.
Several keynote speakers will attend the award ceremony host, including: James B. Lewis, New Mexico State Treasurer; Lt. Gov. Diane Denish; and Teresita Aguilar, dean of professional studies at Our Lady of the Lake University.
PNMGC is an organization that is working to build community among minority groups in graduate school. The nominees for the Faculty of Color Awards will be recognized not only for their contribution to the organization, but to minority graduate students.
For more information about the event or for those who wish RSVP, call 505-277-7397.
Schedules for campus visits set
UNM Communication & Journalism Professor Miguel Gandert, chair of the UNM Press director search committee, has announced four finalists will be on campus for interviews May 12, 13, 14 and 17.
An open forum is set for each candidate on his/her respective day from 3:45-5 p.m. in Scholes Hall Roberts Room.
The candidates are:
May 12 - John Byram, University of Press of Florida
May 13 - Joan Catapano, University of Illinois Press
May 14 - Clark Whitehorn, University of New Mexico Press
May 17 - Joann O'Hare, University of Nevada Press
Media Contact: Carolyn Gonzales, (505) 277-5920; e-mail: cgonzal@unm.edu
An innovative summer program offers beginning Arabic and Chinese to Albuquerque area high school students and incoming UNM freshmen. Participants can receive UNM/high school credit, and a small stipend for completing the Institute.
The program runs June 7 - July 2, Monday through Friday, from 9:20 a.m. - 12:30 p.m.
Deadline to apply is May 7.
Statement from UNM President Dr. David J. Schmidly
“In the course of a regular routine medical evaluation I discovered that I have a small, slow growing, abdominal tumor. My physicians at the UNM Health Sciences Center and UNM Cancer Center have referred me to an out-of-state specialty surgeon to complete the medical evaluation and provide initial treatment,” President Schmidly said.
“It is very likely that I will not be able to attend this year’s graduation. That day is the culmination of all our efforts. Let me congratulate all our students, their families and friends on this special day. I want to thank our faculty and staff for their tireless efforts in support of all our students. Janet and I will be standing beside each of the graduates in our hearts,” President Schmidly said.
Dr. Paul Roth, Executive Vice President for Health Sciences and Dean of the School of Medicine said, “We anticipate that Dr. Schmidly will make a full recovery.”
Schmidly will be away from campus from May 12 until May 15 for continued medical testing and treatment.
Additional information and updates will be coming from President Schmidly through the UNM Health Science Center public information office to our community and the local media regarding his health status and recovery as that information becomes known.
The entire UNM community wishes Dr. Schmidly, his wife Janet, and his family a speedy and full recovery.
Media Contact: Billy Sparks, (505) 272-2232; e-mail: wsparks@salud.unm.edu
Event to begin at 8 p.m.
The UNM Collegiate Chapter of the American Marketing Association presents UNM’s second annual Undie Rock ‘n’ Run on Thursday, May 6 at Johnson Field. The Undie Rock ‘n’ Run is an event where participants shed their clothes and run one mile through main campus in their underwear (or comfort clothes). The event was originally scheduled for April 29, but high winds and low temperatures forced organizers to postpone the event.
The purpose of the run is to promote school spirit and relieve stress before finals while collecting clothes for charity. The event is free and is open to all UNM students.
“Undie runs are fairly common at college campuses across the country,” says Amanda Solosky, one of the event organizers and a graduate student in marketing. “The UNM Undie Run stands out from all the rest in that it offers participants an opportunity to give back to the community.”
The festivities get underway at 8 p.m. at Johnson Field with live music from The Harlow Defense. The run starts at 9 p.m. at the south end of Johnson Field and will continue along a prearranged route that will take runners by campus landmarks such as the Student Union Building, Popejoy Hall, and Zimmerman Library. The event will conclude at Johnson Field with a community social.
Participants are asked to bring new or gently used shirts, pants, shoes, jackets, and blankets. Clothing shed by the runners will be donated to Joy Junction, a local shelter providing both emergency and longer-term food, shelter, clothing, transportation, and an array of other services for homeless women and families.
For safety reasons, all participants are required to wear running or cross training shoes. Parking is available in A Lot near Redondo Road (South). UNM Police will be out to enforce university policies, and state and local laws.
For more information, visit the official UNM Undie Rock ‘n’ Run page on Facebook.
Dean Brenda J. Claiborne recently announced this year's recipients of the College of Arts & Sciences Award for Teaching Excellence. Faculty awardees are Timothy Graham, professor of history; Derek Hamilton, assistant professor of psychology; and Michael Rocca, assistant professor, political science.
Graduate student awardees are Iliana Rucker, Communication and Journalism, and Leah Sneider, English.
Award Committee members judged their teaching contributions excellent in their breadth, quality of classroom performances, supervision of student research, and abilities in integrating research and scholarship into their teaching.
Media Contact: Carolyn Gonzales, (505) 277-5920; e-mail: cgonzal@unm.edu
UNM-Los Alamos and the Bernalillo Public Schools sign a Memorandum of Understanding regarding educational opportunities for students, on Tuesday May 4, from 3-5 p.m. in the Bernalillo High School Media center. The purpose of the MOU is to coordinate to create pathways for students from high school to the two-year college at UNM-Los Alamos/Bernalillo Education Center and on to UNM-Albuquerque and or UNM West in Rio Rancho.
UNM President David Schmidly will attend this event and will be talking with Bernalillo Public Schools’ neighboring Pueblo Governors to discuss effective partnerships that will benefit the Pueblo communities. Dr. Beth Miller from UNM West, Superintendent Barbara Vigil-Lowder, and Dr. Cedric Page from UNM-Los Alamos will attend and participate in the signing and the discussion.
“We are committed to providing all of our students with opportunities to achieve their educational goals and this includes a special emphasis on college preparation," said Vigil-Lowder. "Many of our students are the first in their families to attend a college or University and we recognize that additional coordination between Bernalillo Public Schools and UNM will greatly benefit Bernalillo High School students and their families for generations to come.”
The Bernalillo High School Media Center is located at 224 N. Camino Del Pueblo. For more information about the event contact the office of the Superintendent for Bernalillo Public Schools at 867-2317.
Join the Health Sciences Center Heart Walk Team for the American Heart Association’s Albuquerque START! Heart Walk Saturday, May 8, 9 a.m.-12:30 p.m. at Balloon Fiesta Park. The Heart Walk educates the Albuquerque area of the risk factors of cardiovascular diseases and stroke, and what we can do to prevent them. Funds raised support local medical research and educational programs of the American Heart Association.
For more information contact Maureen O’Leary at, (505) 353-5818 or visit Albuquerque Heart Walk.
The third and final installment in the Latin American and Iberian Institute series Mexico in Crisis: Global and Local Realities, is set for Tuesday May 4, noon - 2 p.m. in SUB Ballroom A. The featured speaker is Rolando Cordera Campos, presenting “From Crisis to Crisis: The End of a Regime or the Quest for a New One?”
Cordera is professor emeritus of the Department of Economics at the National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM). He is coordinator of the Seminar on the Social Question at UNAM. Cordera holds degrees in economics from UNAM and the London School of Economics. His two most recent books are El Papel de las ideas y de las políticas en el cambio estructural (2008, The role of ideas and policies in structural change) and Volver con la memoria (2009, conversations with intellectuals, artists and politicians). He writes a weekly op ed column for La Jornada, one of Mexico’s leading newspapers, and contributes regularly to Nexos, a monthly political journal.
The Mexico in Crisis series in presented in response to the pressing need for current information on economic and political issues in contemporary Mexico, the LAII invites you to join in a conversation with leading political figures in Mexico. Presentations allow ample time for questions.
Media Contact: Carolyn Gonzales, (505) 277-5920; e-mail: cgonzal@unm.edu
The Latin American and Iberian Institute presents Greenleaf Visiting Scholar Aaron Schneider delivering, “Brazilian Fiscal Federal Sociology: Historical Efforts to Manage Regional Politics and Navigate International Markets, Monday, May 10 at noon at the LAII, 801 Yale NE. The event is free, open to the public and will be followed by a reception.
Schneider addresses the way the taxes and spending of Brazilian local, regional and national governments have occurred over time. The study argues that successful insertion in international markets depends on accommodating regionally-specific adaptations of capitalism, especially in federal systems like Brazil's. To explore the success and failure of this task, the study looks closely at Brazilian public finance in the states at different moments in time. The project
argues that developmental success depends on adapting federal political institutions to local class conflicts provoked by changing international relationships.
Schneider is assistant professor in the Department of Political Science and the Stone Center for Latin American Studies at Tulane University. He was awarded the Richard E. Greenleaf Visiting Library Scholar grant to research the special Brazilian collections at University Libraries.
Media Contact: Carolyn Gonzales, (505) 277-5920; e-mail: cgonzal@unm.edu
Joseph V. Scaletti, one of the founders of the University of New Mexico School of Medicine, a pioneer who served as UNM's first Vice President for Research, created UNM's south campus Research Park, started the Allied Health Sciences program, and spent the last 23 years of his career working on projects to improve access to healthcare in the underserved rural communities of New Mexico - will be honored on Saturday May 8, at 5 p.m. in Domenici Center Auditorium located on north campus at the UNM Health Sciences Center.
Photo: Dr. Joseph Scaletti
The in a memorial service hosted by UNM Health Sciences Vice President and Dean of the School of Medicine, Paul Roth and Director of Development, Sherry E. Wilson.
For full details, including a map and driving directions, please see: Joseph Scaletti Memorial.
Scaletti had a reputation for integrity and a soft-spoken, down-to-earth manner that immediately put people at ease. In reviewing his career, three themes emerge:
* He drew inspiration and energy from creating new ways to educate and serve others
* He believed in accomplishing things through collaborative interdisciplinary partnerships
* He was highly idealistic and always took time to encourage and inspire others to follow their dreams and make their own contributions.
Born in New London Connecticut July 22 1926, he was the fifth child of Italian immigrants Ersilia and Angelo Scaletti. A bout with polio at age 5 left him temporarily paralyzed, and it was only his mother's persistent massaging of his leg muscles that made it possible for him to walk, run and play football in high school.
He volunteered in 1944 for the US Navy where he served on the USS Bostwick (DE-103) Destroyer Escort during World War II. After the war was over, he returned home to New London where he met his future wife Rita Giampietro visiting from New Haven. After five years of dating, they were married in 1951 and were rarely apart from each other until her death in 2005. For more visit: http://obits.abqjournal.com/obits/show/154127.
Thanks in part to the GI Bill, and supplemented by summer construction jobs, he was the first in his family to have an opportunity to attend college, and he graduated from the University of Connecticut with a BA and MS in Bacteriology.
He went on to earn his Ph.D. in Microbiology from Cornell University in 1957. Nobel prize winner JB Sumner, who served on his committee, asked only one question on his qualifying exam: "What is a possible connection between the African Honeyguide and Tuberculosis?" On the basis of Scaletti's answer to that question, Sumner and the other committee members waived any further questions and accepted his dissertation proposal. Scaletti credited his wife Rita, who the evening before had convinced him that he had studied enough and that he should relax and read the National Geographic magazine (which happened to feature an article on the African Honeyguide bird).
After graduating he worked at American Cyanamid in New Jersey for one year before joining the faculty of the University of Minnesota. The science of microbiology was closely associated with Agricultural Biochemistry and Animal Husbandry at the University of Minnesota, and Scaletti's research there focused on food production.
Scaletti, along with colleagues F. Smith, and Sam Kirkwood, had a dream that they could turn the seaweed in the Sargasso sea into a source of food for human beings by using beta-glucanase to break down the cellulose and release the sugar in a nutritious form.. He also worked on solving the problem of nitrogen dioxide gas poisoning in silos where it is a natural product of fermentation of corn or grass.
In 1964, at the invitation of Dr. Lee McLaren, Scaletti traded his tenured position in Microbiology on the faculty of the University of Minnesota for a make-shift lab in a converted 7-Up bottling plant on the site of the future UNM Health Sciences Center in order to help undertake the challenge of creating a new medical school at the University of New Mexico. Scaletti immediately fell in love with the people, the land, and the University of New Mexico and went on to devote the next 46 years to the University of New Mexico, the Health Sciences Center, and the people of New Mexico (with a special dedication to students in the health professions and those living in its medically-underserved rural communities).
As a microbiologist and in the interdisciplinary spirit of the newly formed School of Medicine, he pursued basic research and published papers with several colleagues including Leonard Napolitano, Lee McLaren, Frances LeBaron, Robert Anderson, David Vander Jagt, Carl Cords, and others on a range of topics ranging from the isolation of Enterovirus (Polio virus) Receptors, to the preservation of Myelin Lamellar structure in nerve fibers, to malarial parasites, to the effects of radiation on lymphocytes. His 1966 work with Dr. N. Davidson at Cal Tech on bacteriophage N1, a DNA with reversible circularity and cohesive ends, spawned a flurry of related research and continues to be cited to this day.
As a professor of microbiology, and, later, Chairman of the Department of Microbiology in the School of Medicine, Dr Scaletti trained several generations of medical students (among them New Mexico Secretary of Health Dr Alfredo Vigil), and he mentored graduate students who have gone on to make their own contributions to biomedical research and clinical medicine (among them, John A. Mayo, Ph.D. Professor Emeritus of Microbiology at LSU Health Sciences Center and Deborah C Newman, MD. Professor Emerita of Psychiatry at the Mayo Clinic).
At the encouragement of School of Medicine Dean Robert Stone, Scaletti applied for and was awarded a federal grant in 1972 to organize the Allied Health Sciences Program (now known as Diagnostic and Therapeutic Medicine) in response to what he saw as the urgent need for the School of Medicine to train all members of the healthcare team (including physical therapists, occupational therapists, speech pathologists, radiologic technologists, etc) in order to better serve the rural communities of New Mexico.
He served as program director for 14 years and secured funding from the state legislature for an Allied Health Sciences building (the Health Science Services Building) on the Health Sciences campus. In a year when the legislature turned down most other building requests, Scaletti's request was moved to the top of the list because it emphasized laboratory space and classrooms for students.
Under his guidance as the University of New Mexico's first Vice President for Research, outside funding for research quadrupled at UNM over the course of 8 years: 1978-1986. He established the Rio Grande Research Corridor, a collaborative partnership linking the major state universities and national laboratories. To recognize the researchers on campus, he implemented an innovative program of returning indirect costs to the departments responsible for generating the grants where the money could be used for supplies or maintaining equipment in support of the research. In cooperation with President Bud Davis, he turned the annual Research Lecture into a large well-attended event to celebrate outstanding creativity, research, and scholarly activities of UNM faculty members.
Returning to the Health Sciences Campus in 1987, he turned his full attention to working on improving the quality of health education and health care for the underserved populations of rural New Mexico. Through his Rural Health Interdisciplinary Program, funded through HRSA grants from 1990-2003, Scaletti and Dr. Clark Hansbarger established problem-based learning teams comprised of students from medicine, nursing, pharmacy, allied health and other health-related disciplines who spent two months each summer studying and working at clinics in rural communities throughout New Mexico.
He was appointed in 1996 to a five-year term on the Health & Human Services National Advisory Committee on Interdisciplinary Education and Community-based Linkages in Washington DC, where he was able to share some of his successful models and ideas on rural health initiatives with colleagues on a national level.
In 1994 Scaletti served as chairman of a task force charged with developing a model for the use of advanced technology to support and educate rural health care providers. The result was New Mexico House Joint Memorial 13, legislation that continues to provide recurring funding in support of telemedicine and distance education.
In 2004, Dr. Phil Eaton, Vice President for Health Sciences, asked Scaletti to work with Dr. Sanjeev Arora on securing federal grant funding for Project ECHO: a model for educating and consulting with primary care physicians in rural areas and correctional facilities in order to provide the long-term treatment required for Hepatitis C patients in New Mexico. Scaletti and Arora co-wrote a successful AHRQ grant proposal that resulted in the launch of Project ECHO.
In 2008, he worked closely with Arora on ECHO's winning entry in a Changemakers/Ashoka international competition for 'Disruptive Innovations in Health and Healthcare', an award that led directly to a grant from Robert Wood Johnson for $5,000,000 to expand the ECHO model to other disciplines and other states. Scaletti then successfully nominated and campaigned for Dr Arora to be named an Ashoka Fellow, an influential award that will open doors and assist Arora in advocating for the ECHO model as a solution for providing quality healthcare in medically underserved communities both in this country and internationally.
In the days leading up to the injury that caused his death, Scaletti had been working on a Hepatitis C awareness campaign: a partnership of the UNM Health Sciences Center, the State Department of Health, the Hep C Alliance, and the Rotary Club of Albuquerque (of which he was a member and a Paul Harris Fellow for his work on Polio Plus). He was also mentoring first-time grant seekers and brainstorming on innovative approaches to solving the health workforce shortages in New Mexico.
Scaletti was an idealist who always encouraged and inspired others to pursue their dreams and make their own contributions to the world.
To read more about his life, please visit http://www.josephscaletti.org and the book, Miracle on the Mesa: A History of the University of New Mexico, 1889-2003, by William E. Davis.
A memorial fund devoted to improving healthcare in the underserved rural communities of New Mexico through the education of healthcare professionals has been established in his name.
Anyone wishing to contribute may do so by mail:
Dr. Joseph V Scaletti Memorial Fund
ATTN: Sherry Wilson
MSC 08 4720 BMSB #187
1 University of New Mexico
Albuquerque NM 87131-0001.
By telephone: (505) 272-5112
Or by visiting: https://unm.securesites.net/give-online/fdn/ and entering 'Joseph V Scaletti Memorial Fund' where it asks for 'Enter any gift designation not in the list above.'
The UNM Student Union continues its “Late Night Breakfast” tradition on Sunday, May 9 from 9 to 11 p.m. This bi-annual free student event is held every semester before finals week providing breakfast, giveaways and live entertainment. UNM ID required. The first 200 students in line get a free T-shirt. Free parking for this event is available in the Cornell Parking Structure conveniently located near the Student Union Building.
For more information about the Student Union visit the SUB’s website at Late Night Breakfast.