in this issue ACCOLADES PG. 2 / SPECIAL DEDICATION PG. 2 /

HEALED EARS PG. 3 / BOOKSHELF PG. 3 /

POWER FOOD PG. 6 / BURST BACTERIA PG. 7 /

ARTFUL ARRANGEMENT PG. 8

Between the Columns a newsletter for faculty & staff of the University of Maryland

November 2015

Terp Experts Weigh in on Making Your Workspace Work for You

OFFICE MAXEDOFFICE MAXED

We all know the clich about cops at a doughnut shop. But what about on top of one?

For the fourth year, Sgt. Paige Miller of the UMD Police Department organized the local version of Cops on Rooftops, a 30-hour campout on the Dunkin Donuts in College Park.

Starting at 6 a.m. Oct. 24, Miller and her fellow officers perched on the roof and greeted customers through bullhorns, sold raffle tickets and competed in a doughnut-eating contest to raise $8,472 for Special Olympics, exceeding their $7,000 goal.

What drew Miller to law enforcement nearly 17 years ago was her desire to help people. But this goes well beyond her normal police duties. She has devoted countless hours off the clockfrom brainstorming new fundraising ideas to rallying fellow officersin support of the Special Olympians who have become like family to her. In June, the Police Chiefs Association of Prince Georges County named her the Community Services Officer of the Year.

Inspired by her high school softball coachs efforts, she discovered a local

chapter of the organization. It wasnt until after she became a police officer at UMD that she began heading its fundraisers. Now, after 12 years of bonding with athletes and supporting the program, its second nature. Miller is constantly preparing for the next big eventwhether its Januarys Polar Bear Plunge, where officers raise money by racing into the icy Chesapeake Bay, or a springtime bocce ball tournament at Maryland Day with athletes from the Prince Georges County chapter of Special Olympics.

I really love getting the athletes perspectives on things, Miller says.

Every organization appreciates monetary donations, so the money we raise gets put to good use, but working with them ourselves is just invaluable to everyone.

Through her longstanding relationship with the program, Millers name has become almost synonymous with Special Olympics, says Capt. Laura Dyer.

After all these years, many of the officers even know the athletes by name, Dyer says. I think it makes a much bigger impact on them and the officers than she realizes.

Special DedicationUMPD Officer a Force Behind Fundraising for Olympians

ACCOLADES

Amy Burk, an associate professor in the Department of Animal and Avian Sciences, was selected to serve on the Equine Science Society board and the Maryland Horse Industry Board.

Ana Patricia Rodrguez, an associate professor in the School of Languages,

Literatures, and Cultures, won the Maryland-DC Campus

Compacts Alan G. Penczek Service-Learning Faculty Award.

East Asian linguistics Professor Robert Ramsey won the Korean Language Societys highest professional honor, the Ilsuk Korean Linguistics Award.

Michelle Mazurek, assistant professor of computer science, and Jeff Foster, professor of

computer science, received a Google Research Award to improve the privacy of apps on the Android platform.

Bioengineering Assistant Professor Silvina Matysiak won a National Science Foundation Faculty Early Career Development award.

Engineering Professor Gerry Galloway was a 2015 recipient of the U.S. Army Engineer Regiment Gold Order of the de Fleury medal.

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BY NATALIE KOLTUN 16

ADDRE S SI NG A PROBLE M

UMD recently assigned a street address to each building on campus to help emergency responders. To learn your new address and get more information, visit maps.umd.edu/addressing.

Photo by Josh Loock

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Hearing as Healing Program Aims to Help Holocaust SurvivorsBY LIAM FARRELL

NELI MELMAN HAS LOST many things that cannot be replaced: a childhood stolen and a homeland ravaged by war; loved ones murdered along with nearly 34,000 other Jews by German death squads at the Babi Yar ravine in 1941; and her medical career squashed by systemic anti-Semitism in the Soviet Union.

Something can be done, however, about her hearing loss.Melman was the first patient to get new hearing aids and

training in how to use them as part of a partnership between the University of Maryland and the Holocaust Survivor Program at Rockvilles Jewish Social Service Agency (JSSA).

Lisa Rickard, clinical assistant professor in the Department of Hearing and Speech Sciences, says research has shown that hearing loss in the elderly can contribute to cognitive, psycho-social, and physical decline if not treated.

Communication is a human right, Rickard says. Its just an incredible opportunity to interact with this courageous, yet frail, community.

Siemens Government Technologies Inc. and Sivantos Inc. donated 40 pairs of hearing aids to JSSA, which then reached out to UMD faculty and students for help in issuing them to patients. With support from the Conference on Jewish Material

In The Long Emancipation, history Professor Ira Berlin explores how slavery ended not in an instant, but over nearly a century as the concept of

universal liberty gradually took hold.

Using a World War II-era spy manual as a jumping-

off point, Simple Sabotage, co-authored by Rob Galford of the Smith Schools Executive Education program, discusses how to fix what is undermining

everyday workplace effectiveness.

B O O K S H E L F

Rickard assists Neli Melman with her new hearing aids.

Its just an incredible opportunity to interact with this courageous, yet frail, community.

Lisa Rickard, clinical assistant professor

Claims Against Germany and local donors, JSSA assists more than 400 Holocaust survivors who are in financial need in Maryland, Washington, D.C., and northern Virginia.

Like Melman, most of the survivors that JSSA helps are from Central and Eastern Europe and the former Soviet Union, says Ellen Blalock, the agencys Holocaust Survivor Program coordinator. When the Nazis invaded the Soviet Union in 1941, the survivors fled eastward to escape certain death. The refugees who returned to the Soviet Union after the war suffered decades of oppression and were only able to emigrate to the United States when they were older and out of the workforce.

For the 70 years since the end of the war, Blalock says, survivors have remained haunted by the hatred, violence and loss they experienced during the Holocaust.

Our survivors matter to us and they have value, she says. We cant go back and fix the past, but we can change the future.

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Are you feeling overwhelmed by ever-rising stacks of documents? Do blah-beige walls and drab furniture get you down? Does your back tighten up whenever you just think about the office chair?

Dont feel defeatedwe talked to a professional organizer, an interior designer and an ergonomic adviser to figure out the best ways to improve your workspace, whether youre ensconced in the corner office or drowning in a sea of cubicles.

OFFICE MAXED Terp Experts Weigh in on Making Your Workspace Work for You

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PICK UP THOSE PILES

If youre going to start an organizing job, the first step is always to purge, says Natalie Schrier 98, owner of Cut the Clutter in New York City, where for seven years shes helped Manhattanites and more configure their cramped square footage into usable space. Organizing is like a domino effect. You cant put things away unless theres room for them. Start with low-hanging fruit, she says, like outdated magazines that can easily be recycled. Then, after the big clean, keep tidying and purging regularlyideally, 15 minutes a day, but at least once a semester.

FORM A FILING SYSTEM

While you might think that means running out to the Container Store and going wild with a label maker, Schrier cautions against that. First, figure out the environment you thrive in: Do you prefer a pristine surface for inspiration or do you need to see everything youre working on? That determines your filing system, which might involve tucking everything away in drawers, or keeping items in a tiered organizer on your desk. Remember to keep like items togetherYou cant have student papers in seven different cabinets. And something as simple as always putting things back after using them can keep clutter at bay.

BRIGHTEN YOUR SPACE

Color makes a big difference, says Zoe Kyriacos, whos worked for two decades in Facilities Management at umd, designing renovated and new spaces across campus, from arranging walls and furniture to picking paint colors and fabrics. For example, yellow is supposed to inspire creativity and red can be stimulating, even aggressive, perhaps good for someone in sales, she says. It doesnt just have to be paintin fact, she doesnt like accent walls in small offices. The pop of color might come from a pillow on a chair, removable wall stickerslike the poppies from Ikea she has on her own beige wallsor framed artwork. In addition, try not to depend solely on the fluorescent ceiling lights. A second, gentler lighting source on your desk can soften the space.

REARRANGE YOUR FURNITURE

Face outward as much as possible, says Kyriacos, so youre aware when people are coming by. Being

able to look beyond your screen across the office or out a window, even if for just 10 seconds at a time, can help your eyes as well. For managers, its important to avoid defaulting to having chairs across your desk. Consider creating a separate, more egalitarian seating area to make you more approachable and the environment more relaxed.

PERSONALIZEWITH LIMITS

If a picture of your spouse smiling at you keeps you going throughout the day, thats great, says Schrier. But make sure theres not a huge volume of it covering your desk, leaving you nowhere to do your work. Kyriacos agrees on photos and knick-knacksbut not on plants. Schrier says theyre good because they provide oxygen, while Kyriacos has seen too many dried-up and yellowed leaves to fully support them in the office. You dont want to see a living thing suffering like that.

EMBRACE ERGONOMICS

Did you know we have an expert on campus who can come to your office to do a free evaluation? Now you do and have no excuse to dangle your feet, have your elbows at a bad angle and tilt your neck down at a screen. Be proactive, says Saul Grosser of Occupational Safety. If you work in a workspace thats not adjusted properly, youll get musculoskeletal disorders, like issues with wrists, backs, necks and shoulders. Hes created a series of videos and checklists to get you started (https://des.umd.edu/os/erg/index.html). If you want a more in-depth adjustment, contact him at sgrosser@umd.edu to set up an appointment.

STAND UP

Three years ago, staff members at the Clarice Smith Performing Arts Center had to cobble together pieces from Ikea to create standing desks, but today, Maryland Correctional Enterprises, the universitys official furniture supplier, has started manufacturing them. That means theyre now available to everyone across campus, says Kyriacos. Benefits include burning calories, better oxygen flow and alleviation of back pain, says Grosser. The best set-up is an adjustable sit/stand workstation.

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By Kumea Shorter-Gooden, chief diversity officer and associate vice president

Aeschylus once said: Everyones quick to blame the alien. We often attribute difficulty in a community to the person who's different or unfamiliarthe only black person, someone with a visible disability, an immigrant, an lgbt-identified person. We need to fight the human tendency to pathologize people who are different and see them as the problem. Different shouldnt automatically mean less than or wrong; instead, different can mean an alternative style or approach that's equally (or more) valuable.

Look for more Diversity Tips in future issues of Between the Columns.

DIVERSITY Tip{ }

YOUR PANDA EXPRESS LEFTOVERS and kale stems from the umd Farmers Market could one day heat your office or power your computer.

Thats the long-term goal of environmental science and technology Assistant Professor Stephanie Lansing, microbiology Professor Steve Hutcheson and Environmental Science and Technology (ENST) students, who have launched a pilot anaerobic digester system at Terp Farm in Upper Marlboro. It uses microorganisms to break down biodegradable material without oxygen.

This is essentially the same thing as a cow, says Hutcheson. But a cow can produce methane in two days, while the average anaerobic digester takes 30 days. Why are they different?

Thats one of the questions they hope to answer as they work to develop the most efficient system for the microorgan-isms to do their job.

They collect food waste across campus, from the farmers market to restaurants in Stamp Student Union to the dining halls. Then, they shred and load about five kilograms of it, along with 10 liters of water, into a container thats connected to the first of two 750-liter tanks. The material

flows into the first one, where microorganisms break it down into organic acid, then into the second one, which contains different microorganisms that convert the acid into liquid fertilizer (for the farm) and methane gas.

Students in an ENST capstone class last fall designed the digester, whose con-struction was supported by $20,000 from the umd Sustainability Fund. The first tank was installed in March.

Now the challenge is to maintain consistent heat and pH levels in the tanks, which need to be at about human body temperature to keep the microorganisms happy and hungry. Attempts to heat them over the summer resulted in the plastic tanks melting slightly, causing leaks.

Ultimately, Lansing hopes to use meth-ane gas in place of natural gas for heating or in fuel cells for producing electricity, which could help the university reach its goal of reducing its carbon footprint by 50 percent by 2020.

Digester Could Chomp Down on umds Carbon FootprintBY KAREN SHIH 09

UMD President Wallace Loh greets Convocation honorees Sarah J. Lopez (left) and Jeanette M. Payne (right) before the Oct. 13 ceremony. Loh delivered his State of the Campus address earlier this month, and it can be viewed here: youtube.com/watch?v=hTn_R1V9SKw.

Illustration by Jeanette Nelson

Sights Set on BacteriaResearchers Enzybiotics a New Weapon Against Drug-Resistant SuperbugsBY CHRIS CARROLL

Death from a minor cut or sore throat doesnt figure highly among modern anxieties, but times may be changing: According to the World Health Organization, antibiotic-resistant bacteria are flourishing worldwide amid overuse of the former wonder drugs.

Yet there might be a way to fight bacteria without antibiotics by literally exploding the pests with a high-tech version of a process that evolved in nature.

Daniel Nelson, an associate professor in the Department of Veterinary Medicine and at the Institute for Bioscience and Biotechnology Research in Rockville, extracts enzymes called lysins from viruses that infect bacteriabacteriophagesand engineers bacteria-fighting drugs hes dubbed enzybiotics.

Lysins work by breaking chemical ties in bacterial cell walls, like cutting the steel girders in a building, he says.

Previous lysins from his lab have killed animal and human pathogens like staph and pneumonia, but a new one hes identified destroys one of the scariest superbugsMRSA, which haunts hospitals and kills thousands of Americans yearly. Unlike older

enzymes, the MRSA-killer cleaves the cell wall in two dimensions, like cutting both vertical and horizontal girders in a building.

That means it has to chew up even less of the cell wall to have this explosion, he says.

Enzybiotics are only now entering human testing, and they may eventually be used in combination with antibiotics.

In the lab, we can dump enough antibiotic on something to kill it, but at a level thats toxic, he says. By using enzybiotics to break up the cell wall, you could use a far lower antibiotic dose and have it be effective.

One advantage of enzybiotics over antibiotics, researchers say, is that they can target specific harmful bacteria and avoid killing the good microbes in our bodies.

And perhaps best of all, Nelson says that researchers have been searching for enzybiotic resistance in bacteriaand have yet to find it.

GET YOUR FLU SHOT

Dont let the colder weather wear you down. Protect yourself by getting a flu shot at the University Health Center. Appointments can be made by calling 301.314.8184.

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Between the ColumnsUniversity Marketing and Communications2101 Turner Hall, 7736 Baltimore Ave. College Park, MD 20742

Between the Columns is published twice per semester by University Marketing and Communications. Story ideas are welcome and should be sent to Liam Farrell, managing editor, at lfarrel1@umd.edu or by calling 301.405.4629. The mailing list is generated through University Human Resources. Any changes to names and addresses should be made through ares.umd.edu.

A new partnership between the university and one of the nations most renowned museums will substantially expand opportunities for scholarly work and research, as well as open UMD employees access to masterworks of impressionist, modern and contemporary art.

The Phillips Collection in Washington, D.C., and UMD announced an agreement to develop new courses and programming, create internship and fellowship opportuni-ties, co-host events and launch educational and artistic collaborations.

UMD faculty, staff, students and Alumni Association members will get free admission to the museum and have special access to its 4,000-artwork collection, facilities and staff.

This is a unique opportunity for the entire campus, says UMD President Wallace Loh. It will enhance education and scholarship in art, art history and humanities, as well as in interdisciplinary study. It will provide a new platform for UMDs presence in the nations capital.

The two institutions will work together to build a gallery and educational and storage facility in Prince Georges County that will encourage experimentation and innovation, to be named

PHILLIPS PARTNERSHIP TO PUMP UP ARTS COLLABORATIONSBY LAUREN BROWN

The Phillips Collection at the University of Maryland.Other highlights of the six-year, renewable agreement include:

enriching UMDs arts curriculum through new courses and joint teaching;

co-publishing scholarly work; co-presenting the Sunday Concert series with UMDs School of Music;

engaging UMD in the Phillips International Forum, which convenes leading artists, collectors, philanthropists and public leaders;

digitizing the museums archives and library; renaming and expanding the museums Center for the Study of Modern Art as the UMD Center for Art and Knowledge at The Phillips Collection for interdisciplinary collaborations;

supporting joint arts outreach to communities in D.C. and Prince Georges County.

Loh credited many university units for helping to make the partnership possible, including the Office of the Provost, College of Arts and Humanities, Clarice Smith Performing Arts Center and UMD Foundation Board of Trustees.