From: Official Announcement Date: June 3, 2007 1:13:31 PM CDT To: OFFICIAL_FACULTY@LISTSERV.UIC.EDU Subject: [OFFICIAL] Message from the Provost Reply-To: bil@uic.edu A MESSAGE FROM THE PROVOST Dear Colleagues, I am pleased to inform you that Chancellor Manning and I will present to the Board of Trustees at their July meeting a motion to appoint Dr. Peter C. Nelson as Interim Dean of the College of Engineering, effective August 1. Dr. Nelson’s appointment will follow the departure of Dean Prith Banerjee, who is leaving UIC after three successful and innovative years to join HP as senior vice president for research and director of HP Labs. A national search for Dr. Banerjee’s successor will begin this summer. Peter Nelson joined UIC’s Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science in 1988 as an assistant professor and was later promoted to associate and full professor. In 2001, the Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science was split into the departments of Computer Science and Electrical and Computer Engineering, and Dr. Nelson has served as Head of the Department of Computer Science since that time. The department’s 28 faculty include seven NSF CAREER Award recipients and six ACM and IEEE fellows. Dr. Nelson founded the UIC Artificial Intelligence Laboratory in 1991. The UIC Artificial Intelligence (AI) Laboratory specializes in applied AI research and development and has undertaken a variety of applied intelligent systems projects in the areas of transportation, molecular biology, electronics manufacturing optimization and networking. Dr. Nelson received his B.A. in computer science and mathematics from North Park College, and his M.S. and Ph.D. in computer science from Northwestern University. His research focuses on developing efficient artificial intelligence search techniques, and he has been the recipient of over $15 million in research grants and contracts from a wide variety of government agencies and corporations including the National Science Foundation, National Institutes of Health, National Academy of Sciences, Federal Highway Administration, Illinois Department of Transportation, Manufacturing Research Center, Motorola, and Sun Microsystems. The College of Engineering is on an upward trajectory at the conclusion of Dean Banerjee’s deanship, and I am confident that Dr. Nelson will continue to build on that success as we recruit the next dean. I hope that you will join me in welcoming Dr. Nelson to his new role on campus. Sincerely, R. Michael Tanner Provost and Vice Chancellor for Academic Affairs From: Official Announcement Date: June 5, 2007 4:43:18 PM CDT To: OFFICIAL_FACULTY@LISTSERV.UIC.EDU Subject: [OFFICIAL] Consortium of university libraries to digitize collections Reply-To: marycase@uic.edu Today the Midwest's 12-university consortium, called the Committee on Institutional Cooperation, has announced an agreement with Google to digitize distinctive collections across all its libraries as part of the Google Book Search project. UIC is part of this important initiative, as is UIUC. Other member universities are the University of Chicago, Indiana University, University of Iowa, University of Michigan, Michigan State University, University of Minnesota, Northwestern University, Ohio State University, Pennsylvania State University, Purdue University and the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Over the next several years, Google will scan and make searchable up to 10 million volumes from CIC libraries. Public domain materials can be viewed, searched and downloaded in their entirety. For books under copyright protection, a search will result in basic information and a snippet of text surrounding the search term. Users seeking further information will be directed to avenues for purchase or library access. This initiative will vastly expand UIC students' and faculty's desktop access to exceptional library resources. Over time, the shared digital repository will enable our librarians to archive and organize content collectively for scholarly activity. Another advantage is the preservation of materials that go out of print, deteriorate with age, or are otherwise threatened. Digitization enables us to preserve our historical collections for all time. This partnership with Google will enable the CIC universities to digitize library content at a scale and scope not possible with the limited means available to individual institutions. And now, with the future promise of a shared digital repository, our universities will enter into an ambitious, groundbreaking collaboration to collectively archive digital public domain materials previously housed only within the bricks and mortar of individual libraries. Mary Case UIC University Librarian From: Official Announcement Date: June 6, 2007 5:10:58 PM CDT To: OFFICIAL_FACULTY@LISTSERV.UIC.EDU Subject: [OFFICIAL] Message from the Chancellor Reply-To: donnaj@uic.edu Dear Colleagues, Last Friday night, the largest gift ever to the UIC College of Medicine helped launch "Brilliant Futures," the university's new fundraising campaign. Approximately 1,200 alumni and other friends and supporters of the university came to Navy Pier for the public launch of the campaign, the largest in the university's history. Our goal is to raise $2.25 billion system-wide by the end of 2011, with UIC's share at $650 million. Secretly, I hope we’ll surpass the goal. UIC’s proportion of the attendance on Friday night was the largest ever for a University-wide Foundation event, and I believe that shows both how far we’ve come in Development and how far we can go. The $22 million estate gift commitment from Dr. James A. and Marion C. Grant of Austin, Texas will support an array of academic activities in Medicine related to the mechanisms, treatment and prevention of emerging diseases arising from the immune system. It will establish the Dr. James A. and Marion C. Grant Program in Basic and Applied Immunity and two Dr. James A. and Marion C. Grant Endowed Chairs to help the college recruit and retain world-class faculty in the field of immunology. On behalf of the entire campus, I extend my thanks to the Grants for their investment in excellence at UIC. Also Friday -- but some 4,000 miles from Navy Pier in Barcelona, Spain -- UIC was honored by the International Real Estate Federation (FIABCI) for the 50-year plan to build our “east” campus on Chicago's near west side. UIC was the winner in the public sector/specialized category and was the first university ever and the only U.S. institution this year to win a prize (others came from Malaysia, Norway, and Taiwan). FIABCI is a federation of 100 national real estate associations representing 1.5 million professionals and serves as a special consultant to the UN's Economic and Social Council. FIABCI said the UIC campus strengthened Chicago's economic engine, stabilized the community, attracted new development and was a "catalyst for social change." Our faculty and students ended the academic year with a flurry of impressive achievements. Here are a few highlights: --Three doctoral candidates in anthropology were awarded $28,000 fellowships by the Henry R. Luce Foundation to conduct projects in East Asian archaeology and early history during the 2007-08 academic year. Debra Green, Lisa Niziolek and Nam Kim were among only eight Luce pre-doctoral dissertation fellowships awardees for the coming year. --Nicola Sharratt, another anthropology doctoral student, received the Women in Science Graduate Fellowship for the coming academic year from the Women's Board of the Field Museum in Chicago. The one-year award is $25,000 and she will receive a tuition waiver. --Bette Bottoms, professor of psychology, was named the 2007 recipient of the Robert S. Daniel Award for outstanding teaching of psychology from the Society for the Teaching of Psychology. --William Schubert, professor and coordinator of the Ph.D. program in curriculum, received the 2007 Mary Anne Raywid Award from the Society of Professors of Education for outstanding contributions to the study of education. --Claudia Morrissey, assistant dean in the College of Medicine and clinical associate professor in the School of Public Health, was voted President-Elect of the American Medical Woman's Association, the oldest and largest multi-specialty organization for women physicians in the U.S. --The College of Medicine received a $7 million 5-year renewal grant from the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development to conduct innovative basic and clinical research in the reproductive sciences. The grant is part of the NICHD's Specialized Cooperative Centers Program in Reproduction and Infertility Research, a national network of research centers "aimed at improving human reproductive health through accelerated transfer of basic science findings into clinical practice." UIC is one of only 14 national sites. The principal investigators include UIC's Asgi Fazleabas, professor of physiology and Richard Leach, professor and director, division of reproductive endocrinology and infertility, plus faculty from Northwestern University and Urbana-Champaign. --Medical Center surgeons performed a groundbreaking robotic pancreatectomy in a 39-year-old man to relieve him of debilitating pain. They also performed an autologous islet cell transplant to prevent him from developing surgical diabetes. The man thus became the first patient in the world to undergo a pancreatectomy, or removal of the pancreas, using robotic surgery, combined with an autologous islet cell transplant. The surgical team included Pier Cristoforo Giulianotti, Lloyd M. Nyhus Professor of Surgery and chief of the division of minimally invasive, general and robotic surgery; Jose Oberholzer, associate professor of surgery and bioengineering and director of cell and pancreas transplantation; Enrico Benedetti, chief of transplantation and interim head of surgery; and Carlos Galvani, assistant professor of surgery. UIC is a leader in robotic-assisted minimally invasive surgery. --The College of Pharmacy received a $1.7 million five-year federal grant to develop a new approach to treat brain tumors. The lead researcher is Richard Gemeinhart, assistant professor of biopharmaceutical sciences and bioengineering. --For the second consecutive year, a team of students from the Liautaud Graduate School of Business won the $10,000 first place at the Graduate Student Business Plan Competition sponsored by the Licensing Foundation, Inc., an educational arm of the Licensing Executives Society, U.S.A. and Canada Inc. A UIC team also took second place honors in the annual contest, making this both the first time that a university has won first and second place and the first time a university has won first place two years in a row. MBA candidates Kristin Ware and Jay Vijayan and graduate Kelly Liebl of the Optimal Vision Corporation team won with a proposal based on three patents donated to the university by Edward Yavitz, a practicing ophthalmologist in Rockford. MBA candidates Karen Tovey and Santhosh Anand earned the $1,000 second-place prize for their plan for Flow Diagnostics, Inc., based on technology developed by Thomas Royston, professor of mechanical and industrial engineering. --Ananda Chakrabarty, distinguished university professor of microbiology and immunology, is a recipient of India's 2007 Padma Shri award, one of the government's most prestigious honors. The awards are given annually, generally to Indian citizens, to recognize their contributions in the arts, education, industry, literature, science, sports, social service and public life. --With its successes in many sports, UIC tied with Butler for the Horizon League's McCafferty All Sports Championship title for 2006-2007. I wish you an enjoyable summer and look forward to reporting to you again early in the fall semester with more news of the notable achievements of our faculty, students and staff. Sincerely, Sylvia Manning From: Official Announcement Date: June 6, 2007 10:17:54 AM CDT To: OFFICIAL_FACULTY@LISTSERV.UIC.EDU Subject: [OFFICIAL] Message from the Provost Reply-To: gerolynh@uic.edu Dear Campus Colleagues, In order to promote the success and first year experience of our new students at the University of Illinois at Chicago, the second annual Freshman Convocation will be held to kick-off the 2007-2008 academic year. The Freshman Convocation will be a ceremony to welcome new freshmen and it will mark the official beginning of a new student’s entry into the UIC academic community. I ask that you save this date on your calendar as well as inform appropriate college and unit staff so that we can come together as a campus to welcome these new students. Sunday, August 26, 2007 3:00 p.m. UIC Pavilion All freshmen students, their parents as well as university faculty and staff are being invited to attend this special event. Freshman Convocation will be followed immediately by the Chancellor's New Student Welcome Block Party during which freshmen students and their parents will join us for food, games, prizes, entertainment, and an opportunity to reconnect with their summer orientation leader and academic college staff. Last year, the convocation was attended by 1236 new students and over 900 parents and participants left with a Flame t-shirt and a strong sense for what being a student at UIC portends. Please expect a formal summer invitation in your mailbox. Sincerely, R. Michael Tanner Provost and Vice Chancellor for Academic Affairs From: Official Announcement Date: June 6, 2007 1:40:15 PM CDT To: OFFICIAL_FACULTY@LISTSERV.UIC.EDU Subject: [OFFICIAL] Message from the Chancellor Reply-To: davscott@uic.edu Dear Colleagues, Last Friday night, the University of Illinois publicly announced the largest fundraising campaign in the university's history. At a gala celebration on Navy Pier, University President Joe White and Foundation President Sid Micek unveiled a goal of $2.25 billion in private support to be raised over the next few years, more than a billion dollars of which has already been committed. The goal for UIC is $650 million. During the months of the "silent" phase of the campaign, this goal was built unit by unit across the campus, following upon the strategic plans we have developed over the past two years. It has five focus areas: Accelerating the discovery of new knowledge ($300 million) Providing real access to students ($75 million) Enriching the student experience ($75 million) Contributing to the health of society ($150 million) Engaging with great cities at home and abroad ($50 million) Each of these five areas contributes directly to the achievement of UIC's vision: to be, and to be recognized as, this nation's premier urban public research university. Two highlights from Friday night's celebration: • Among the three major gifts announced was a commitment of $22 million from Dr. James and Mrs. Marion Grant to UIC's College of Medicine. This is the largest gift UIC has ever received from individuals, and its impact will be felt for decades to come. • Nearly 40% of the 1,100 donors and friends present that evening were from UIC's community of alumni and friends. Such tangible evidence of our growing strength in philanthropic fund-raising gives me confidence that we are launching this campaign from a position to succeed. While all of this will be news to some of you, scores of others across the campus have already been involved in planning for the campaign and bringing it to life. Many of you are donors yourselves. I thank all of you and invite you to join me in the hard and rewarding work that lies ahead. Together we are creating brilliant futures for UIC. Sincerely, Sylvia Manning Chancellor From: Official Announcement Date: June 19, 2007 5:54:10 PM CDT To: OFFICIAL_FACULTY@LISTSERV.UIC.EDU Subject: [OFFICIAL] Message from the Provost Reply-To: bil@uic.edu Dear Colleagues, I write to inform you of the impending departure of Dean Robin Hambleton from the College of Urban Planning and Public Affairs. After five years of distinguished service to UIC, Dr. Hambleton will leave as of August 31 to accept a position as professor of city leadership in the Faculty of Environment and Technology at the University of the West of England in Bristol, UK. This summer I will appoint an interim dean and begin a national search for Dr. Hambleton’s successor. While many of us are disappointed to learn of Dr. Hambelton’s departure, I wish him well and I remain enthusiastic about the exciting work of the college. The college made substantial progress under Dr. Hambleton's leadership over the past five years despite consecutive cuts in state funding for higher education throughout that period. Much of the college's progress was outlined in a six-year plan prepared in 2004 by Dr. Hambleton and CUPPA faculty and staff. Dr. Hambleton also has been an active contributor to the development of the strategic plan for UIC. This fall CUPPA will introduce a fully enrolled undergraduate program leading to a bachelor of arts in urban and public affairs, a key objective of the six-year plan. The college has developed a global presence by hosting national and international conferences and forming active, long-term partnerships with urban universities in Europe, Asia and South America. Recent rankings have named CUPPA's Public Administration Program third in the country and first among public universities in terms of the faculty's research funding, publications and honors. The Urban Planning and Policy Program, the largest graduate planning program in the US, ranks in the top five for scholarship and reputation. CUPPA’s seven research centers and institutes continue to be leading contributors to UIC’s research reputation. Dr. Hambleton has expressed his wish to continue his contributions to CUPPA's engaged research, student learning, and alumni partnerships during the coming months, for which I am very grateful. I hope that you will join me in thanking him for his dedicated and energetic service to UIC and CUPPA’s faculty and students, and wishing him well in his new endeavors at the University of the West of England. Sincerely, R. Michael Tanner Provost and Vice Chancellor for Academic Affairs