UMass SUMMER 2010 VOLUME 13 NUMBER 2 MAGAZINE A Campus on the Mo ve: UMass Lowell Vaults Into the Future The $70 million, 84,00 0- squar e- foot Emerging Technologies and Innovation Center will be the centerpiece of a sweeping transformation of the UMass Lowell campus. A Message From Chancellor Martin T. Meehan ’78 If people are surprised that UMass Lowell has broken ground on a $70 million advanced technology research center and is poised to break ground on a new academic building on South Campus, then they have not paid attention to the history of this institution. If people are astonished that our enrollment is the largest it has ever been, that student success – by all measures – has shot up and that research expenditures are breaking records for the school, then they have simply underestimated us. The drive and determination so visible at UMass Lowell today has its roots in the founding of its predecessor schools in the 1890s when farsighted community and business leaders saw the need for well educated engineers, managers and teachers. Equal resolve brought about the merger of Lowell Technological Institute and Lowell State College into the University of Lowell in 1975 to better accommodate the baby boom generation and to develop programs to meet new technological, economic and social needs. The school became part of the UMass system in 1991, further enlarging its vision, its programs and its accomplishments. Today, the momentum on this campus is more intense than ever. In addition to the growth in enrollment, we have established new academic programs; enhanced interdisciplinary partnerships; increased diversity; strengthened experiential learning and created academic and research partnerships around the globe. The new UMass Lowell Inn & Conference Center and the Tsongas Center at UMass Lowell — along with the new technology center under construction — provide not only a dramatically enlivened campus life, but new sources of revenue. A precipitous drop in the percentage of our budget that comes from public dollars has necessitated an entrepreneurial spirit. If you haven’t been on campus for a while, drop by and take a look at the changes. Talk to students. Visit our website at www.uml.edu. Our students need your support. Please consider giving to UMass Lowell. You can find out how at www.uml.edu/advancement/give. Marty Meehan Chancellor Ta bl eof Contents SUMMER 2010 VOLUME 13 NUMBER 2 Summer 2010 Volume 13, Number 2 The UMass Lowell Alumni Magazine is published by: Office of Public Affairs University of Massachusetts Lowell One University Avenue Lowell, MA 01854 Tel. (978) 934-3223 e-mail: [email protected] 19 22 Chancellor Martin T. Meehan 24 29 32 P Chief Public Affairs Officer Wilder Patti McCafferty Lot Vice Chancellor for Advancement Visitors Faculty / Staff Edward Chiu Students Director of Publications and Publisher Mary Lou Hubbell Director of Programs and Alumni Services Diane Earl Editor’s Note: Never before in its 116-year history has the University of Massachusetts Lowell Associate Director of Programs undergone such a top-to-bottom transformation. From new buildings to record enrollment, and Alumni Services from prestigious research grants to Presidential recognition – UMass Lowell is truly on the move. Heather Makrez This issue celebrates the achievements of the past several months and previews those ahead. None of the exciting changes could happen without the enthusiastic support of the best alumni Editor in the world (that’s you !). Thank you for your support! Sarah McAdams Staff Writers Campus On The Move Highlights Edwin Aguirre Karen Angelo The Good Life at UMass Lowell Students Enroll in Record Numbers Renae Lias Claffey 19 29 Geoffrey Douglas Bob Ellis Two More Jewels in the Crown Wayfinding: a Good Sign Sheila Eppolito 22 32 for UMass Lowell Christine Gillette Elizabeth James The UMass Lowell Building Plan Jack McDonough 24 Sandra Seitz LisaMarie Sinatra Features Sciences . .2 Fine Arts, Humanities & Social Sciences . .2 Education . .3 The University of Massachusetts Face of Philanthropy: 34 Barry Perry Engineering . .5 Lowell is an Equal Opportunity/ Outlook . .8 Affirmative Action, Title IX, H/V, Commencement Management . .12 ADA 1990 Employer. 36 Research . .14 Health . .15 Gary Mucica Teaches Outreach . .16 51 Business, Coaches Golf Scholarships . .40 Alumni Events . .42 Class Notes . .46 Athletics . .48 Alumni Profiles . .52 In Memoriam . .55 Lowell Textile School • Massachusetts State Normal School • State Teachers College at Lowell • Lowell Textile Institute Lowell Technological Institute • Massachusetts State College at Lowell • Lowell State College • University of Lowell UMASS LOWELL MAGAZINE SUMMER 2010 1 CampusNews COLLEGES - SCIENCES Wasserman Named Air Force Young Investigator Physics Asst. Prof. Daniel Wasserman has been chosen by the Air Force Office of Scientific Research (AFOSR) as one of 38 scientists and engineers from across the country whose research proposals will receive funding through the Garth Hall AFOSR’s Young Investigator Research Motor neurons, shown here, Program. The program is open to Hall, who has spent almost two are among the researchers who “have shown exception - decades studying Alzheimer’s on the cel - largest in the central nervous al ability and promise for conducting lular level using larval sea lampreys as system. basic research.” This year, the agency models, says that his team has discovered received more than 200 proposals. two different ways in which tau, a nor - Shea, director of the Center for Cellular mal human protein that becomes toxic “It’s a pretty Neurobiology and Neurodegeneration in Alzheimer’s disease, is secreted by prestigious and very Research. Sangmook Lee, senior post- neurons, or brain cells. He says this competitive award,” doctoral research fellow, is conducting might explain how tau-containing says Wasserman, the study with undergraduate student lesions seem to propagate between adja - who is assistant Jacob Kushkuley. director of the cent, interconnected parts of the brain A series of investigations in Shea’s University’s during the development of the disease. lab has led to ever more detailed under - Photonics Center. Until recently, it was universally assumed standing of nerve structure and function. “I think it speaks by scientists that tau is never secreted or “At the beginning, we didn’t even know volumes for the transferred between neurons at all, and Daniel Wasserman what proteins are involved (in nerve growing national that CSF-tau only appears after many maturation) and now we’re investigating recognition in the scientific community neurons have died and irreversible harm their electrical charge,” Shea says. of the quality of research going on at has been done to the brain. UMass Lowell.” “The fact that tau secretion can occur Using advanced techniques of molecu - lar biology, Lee cuts out elements of the Wasserman and his team will receive via two distinct mechanisms strongly neurofilaments to identify their function. $100,000 to $120,000 per year for three indicates that it is biologically ‘real’ and Under normal circumstances, the fila - years to fund their research in active is not just tau protein leaking out of dead ments link their arms. These arms carry surface plasmonics, the study of surface neurons,” says Hall. “The fact that it a small magnetic charge, mediated by the plasmons, “which are surface waves that occurs in a pattern that reproduces what level of phosphorylation, and changes in propagate along the interface between is seen in the CSF of Alzheimer’s phosphorylation can disrupt the process. a metal and a dielectric material,” patients holds out hope that patients in he explains. early stages of the disease might someday be cured.” COLLEGES - FINE ARTS, Unlocking the Secrets of HUMANITIES & SOCIAL SCIENCES Alzheimer’s Disease Oh, the Axon’s Connected to the… Former Teen Prostitutes A team of researchers led by biology Speak Out for Report Assoc. Prof. Garth Hall has found a new Motor neurons are among the largest Hidden in plain sight, they’re part of mechanism by which tau — a key pro - in the central nervous system. Starting every urban landscape. Teenagers who tein associated with Alzheimer’s disease from a small cell at the base of the spine, panhandle, sleep in doorways and stand — can spread within the human brain. for example, a nerve axon extends all the on shadowy corners, trading sex for cash, Their work has also provided a new way down the leg to move toe muscles. food and the “protection” of pimps. explanation of how tau can appear in the How these neurons mature and func - cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) of Alzheimer’s tion is the focus of a new study, funded Researchers at UMass Lowell took the patients, giving new hope that this dis - by a $65,405 grant from the National unusual and revealing approach of asking ease may someday be cured. Science Foundation. Leading the teens themselves about the pathways research team is biology Prof. Thomas that led them to being prostituted, how 2 UMASS LOWELL MAGAZINE SUMMER 2010 CampusNews they survived under these Justice and Delinquency Prevention circumstances and how they took funded the research. COLLEGES - EDUCATION steps toward recovery. The report, “The resiliency of these teens “Pathways into and out of commercial surprised me,” says Williams. “Inter - GSE Student Wins Fulbright sexual victimization of children: woven with their vulnerabilities, the Stephen Sanborn, a doctoral student in the Understanding and responding to damage and harms Graduate School of Education, was named a sexually exploited teens,” is based on they had suffered, Fulbright scholar in late March. Sanborn, who intensive interviews with teens at they showed also teaches biology and biotechnology at shelters and drop-in centers, or strengths and Andover High School, joins the ranks of such living on the streets, in metro intelligence. noted Fulbright Scholars as Henry Kissinger Boston and Washington, D.C. They provided and John Steinbeck.