President Barack Obama has nominated USM Regent Orlan Johnson to be the Chairman of the the Securities Investment Protection Corporation. Regent Johnson is a partner in the Business Department of the Law firm Saul Ewing LLP. His practice focuses on general corporate and securities matters, complex business transactions and federal and state regulatory issues in business and securities transactions including proxy solicitations, bankruptcy, equity and debt offerings. Prior to joining Saul Ewing, Mr. Johnson was Of Counsel at Milbank, Tweed, Hadley & McCloy, LLP where he served as co-head of its regulatory practice in the Washington, DC office. Previously, he served as a staff attorney and branch chief in the Division of Investment Management for the United States Securities and Exchange Commission. Orlan Johnson is an adjunct professor of law at Howard University School of Law where he has taught Securities Regulation classes. He received his B.A. from Andrews University and his J.D. from Howard University School of Law.

UMBC President Freeman A. Hrabowski III was included in Time's list, "The 10 Best College Presidents." Hrabowski was honored as "Nine Presidents to Watch" for his leadership in making UMBC a powerhouse in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) fields and for his efforts to channel minorities toward graduate school. UMBC is one of the nation's leading sources of African-American Ph.D.s in science and engineering, and almost half of its seniors go immediately to grad school.

The University of Maryland, Baltimore sponsored, in part, a three-day World Stem Cell Summit at the Baltimore Convention Center in late September. The event was attended by experts from 25 countries and included speakers such as the School of Medicine professor and summit co-chair, Curt Civin, MD; Karen Rothenberg, JD, the Marjorie Cook Professor of Law at the School of Law and chair of the Maryland Stem Cell Research Commission; and Maryland Governor and School of Law alumnus, Martin O'Malley, JD '88.

The Maryland Center at Bowie State will partner with the University of Maryland School of Medicine's new national Bioethics Research Center, to provide summer training programs for historically black colleges, universities and academic health centers across the country for the study of bioethics and clinical trial design issues as well as fellowships. The Bioethics Research Center was created with a grant for more than $2.4 million from the National Center on Minority Health and Health Disparities, a part of the National Institutes of Health.

UMES President Thelma B. Thompson received an honorary doctoral degree of literature and philosophy from Walter Sisulu University for Technology & Science in South Africa following her address to the graduating class in September. Named for Walter Max Utyate Sisulu, who worked alongside Nelson Mandela in reversing apartheid without bloodshed, the university is a major outcome of the restructuring of the South African higher education landscape in 2005.

The University of Maryland, Baltimore officially opened its $58 million student center on September 16. The Southern Management Corporation Campus Center includes dining areas, conference and study rooms, an indoor pool, basketball courts, an elevated track and a fitness room. President David Ramsay called the center "transformational" because it will provide a unifying point for students of UMB's various schools and will foster greater collaboration. Southern Management Corporation, a large Mid-Atlantic property management company, contributed $5 million toward the project.

Frostburg State University has received more than $850,000 in federal funds to equip its new Sustainable Energy Research Facility with equipment and computers. The residential-sized building will use renewable energy resources for heating, cooling and electricity. The Department of Energy grant will be combined with more than $450,000 from other sources for the final phase of the project's development.

The third annual Elizabethtowne Feaste and Frolic in Hagerstown, Md., raised more than $20,000 in scholarship funds for students enrolled in programs at the University System of Maryland at Hagerstown. The scholarships will be awarded to students who attend programs at USMH in the spring of 2010 for use in the 2010-2011 academic year.

Walter Boynton and Michael Kemp, veteran researchers with the University of Maryland Center for Environmental Science, were recently honored by their peers for their work in advancing understanding of water bodies like the Chesapeake Bay. The pair received the Odum Lifetime Achievement Award from the Coastal and Estuarine Research Federation at its annual meeting in Portland, OR. The award recognizes their individual as well as their collective research over the last 30 years.

Tags: December 2009

This entry was posted on Tuesday, December 8th, 2009 at 9:04 am