 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
||||||||||||
|
|
|||||||||||||||||||
|
 |
 |
|
|||||||||||||||||
News in Brief
AROUND CAMPUSMason announces President's 2008 Awards for outreach, public engagement The annual award honors those who demonstrate exemplary outreach to the State of Iowa and the public in general. The $3,000 awards are given in four categories: faculty, staff, student and group/organization. The 2008 recipients are: Jerry Schnoor, Allen S. Henry Chair in the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering in the College of Engineering; Roger Tracy, assistant dean and director of the Office of Statewide Clinical Education Programs in the Carver College of Medicine; Vernita Morgan, a PhD student in educational measurement and statistics in the College of Education; and Beta Alpha Psi-Alpha Pi Chapter, the honorary organization for accounting majors in the Tippie College of Business. Read the full University News Services release at http://news-releases.uiowa.edu/2008/june/060208presidents_awards.html.
Mason appoints UI Sustainability Steering Group University of Iowa President Sally Mason has appointed a seven-member Sustainability Steering Group. The members are Barry Butler, dean of the College of Engineering; Jordan Cohen, interim vice president for research; Phillip Jones, vice president for student services; Lola Lopes, interim provost; Doug True, senior vice president and treasurer; Gordon Williams, interim CEO of UI Hospitals and Clinics; and Jonathan Carlson, senior associate to the president and professor of law and international studies. Mason earlier indicated that the Sustainability Steering Group's first task would be "to conduct a comprehensive review of the University's environmental policies to assure that they promote exemplary environmental behaviors by the University." In addition to the Steering Group, Mason hopes to create five new, tenured, interdisciplinary faculty positions dedicated to supporting the UI's sustainability efforts; create an Office of Sustainability within Facilities Management that will support and promote sustainability efforts on campus; and create a faculty-led task force that will investigate how to make sustainability an integral part of the University’s academic mission, exploring both curriculum and degree offerings as well as opportunities for research and innovation in the area of sustainability. Read the full University News Services release at http://news-releases.uiowa.edu/2008/june/061008sustainability_group.html.
South Central Iowa showcased in annual UI faculty tour The trip allowed faculty members to develop a clearer understanding of the cultural, historical, economic, and educational underpinnings of the state, and introduced faculty to the communities from which their students come and in which the state taxpayers live. "Often when our faculty and administrators visit Iowa communities, we are making presentations about an area of our expertise or sharing information about the University's mission, goals and achievements," said UI President Sally Mason. "This trip is different. It's a learning mission for our faculty—an opportunity to find out how we can contribute to these communities' efforts and to learn from what they are already doing so well." The group included 20 faculty members from departments across campus, as well as Wallace Loh, who will begin his job as UI executive vice president and provost Aug. 1, who made a special trip to Iowa to join the tour. "I am so gratified at the gracious and generous way the hosting communities have opened their doors to us," Loh said. "I truly believe the University faculty are the net beneficiaries of this important exchange of ideas."
State Fair booth needs volunteers Volunteers are needed for a variety of tasks—from answering general questions and distributing posters and other items to applying temporary Hawkeye tattoos to visitors. The UI booth is located in the air-conditioned Varied Industries Building at the fairgrounds. Shifts are four hours each: 9 a.m.–1 p.m.; 1–5 p.m.; and 5–9 p.m. Fair admission, parking passes, and a “Be Remarkable” T-shirt will be provided. For more information or to sign up for a shift, see the UI State Fair web site at www.uiowa.edu/statefair/volunteers or contact George McCrory at 319-38(4-0012) or george-mccrory@uiowa.edu.
Wellness, smoking cessation studies seek faculty/staff participants The University of Iowa Preventive Intervention Center is recruiting participants for an employee wellness study and a smoking cessation study. The employee wellness study has been funded by the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health to help find new approaches to work site wellness. Any UI merit staff employee whose job involves office work activities may qualify for this study.
See what Learning and Development courses are right for you UI Learning and Development, a unit of Organizational Effectiveness, provides professional development services to faculty and staff. There are many learning opportunities that will support your professional development and growth. Look for classroom instruction on leadership issues for managers, frontline supervisors, human resource professionals, and office professionals. Check out the following links:
DISCOVERIESUI psychologist investigates newlyweds' tribulations That's according to two studies led by Erika Lawrence, assistant professor of psychology in the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences. In one study, she found that while the birth of a child may be one of life's greatest delights, couples experience a notable drop in marital satisfaction in that first year of parenthood. The decline in satisfaction is much more severe in couples with a new baby than in newlyweds without kids, according to the study, published in the February issue of the Journal of Family Psychology. The study also showed that highly satisfied newlyweds are more likely to plan a pregnancy, but pregnancy planning does not protect couples from declines in marital satisfaction. And people who are happiest as newlyweds experience the greatest drop in marital satisfaction after the bundle of joy arrives. Read the full University News Services release at http://news-releases.uiowa.edu/2008/may/050608newlyweds.html.
Discovery has implications for heart disease The UI researchers and colleagues from Vanderbilt University in Nashville, Tenn., focused on calmodulin kinase II, or CaM kinase II, a well-studied enzyme critical to many fundamental processes including heartbeat and thought. Scientists know that CaM kinase's activity is sustained by adding a phosphate group—a process known as phosphorylation. The new study proves that oxidation—adding oxygen—also can sustain the enzyme's activity, and like phosphorylation, the mechanism can be reversed to inactivate the kinase. "Our results suggest that oxidation of CaM kinase is a dynamic and reversible process that may direct cell signaling in health and disease," said Mark Anderson, UI professor of internal medicine and molecular physiology and biophysics and senior study author. "Because CaM kinase activity is involved in arrhythmias, hypertrophy, and heart cell death, this work also provides new insights into a disease pathway in heart that may lead to development of new drugs to treat heart disease." Read the full University News Services release at http://news-releases.uiowa.edu/2008/may/050108heartdisease.html.
Study: owning a home doesn't necessarily benefit families Home ownership has virtually no impact on several measures of child welfare, including high school graduation rates, behavior, and math and reading test scores, the study shows, contradicting earlier studies that claim a correlation. "The federal government spends more than $100 billion a year on tax breaks and other subsidies encouraging home ownership, justifying the expense in part by referring to studies that show ownership has a beneficial effect on children," said David Barker, who teaches real estate and finance in the Tippie College of Business. The study, "Homeownership and Child Welfare," will be published in a forthcoming issue of Real Estate Economics. The article is co-authored by Barker, an adjunct professor in the Tippie College of Business, and Eric Miller, an economist with the Congressional Budget Office in Washington, D.C. Read the full University News Services release at http://news-releases.uiowa.edu/2008/may/052108realestate-study.html.
UI researchers report results of prostate cancer vaccine study A team of University of Iowa Health Care researchers is now conducting the next phase of a clinical trial that may eventually lead to new treatments for men diagnosed with prostate cancer. The researchers recently reported that they have successfully completed a Phase I study of an adenovirus/prostate-specific antigen (Ad/PSA) vaccine for prostate cancer. The results showed that the therapeutic agent can safely be given to patients. A total of 32 men with advanced prostate cancer received a single dose of the vaccine in the study's initial phase in order to assess its safety. The treatment is not designed to prevent prostate cancer like a traditional vaccine prevents a disease. Instead, it stimulates the body's immune system to fight existing cancer cells. Following that positive result, the Food and Drug Administration gave approval for the UI researchers to begin Phase II of the trial. Several patients have already received treatment under the new segment of the study. Read the full University News Services release at http://news-releases.uiowa.edu/2008/may/052308prostate_vaccine_study.html.
Preventive treatment may ward off post-stroke depression The findings appeared in the May 28 issue of the Journal of the American Medical Association. Previous studies on this type of prevention had not shown positive results; however, this new study, in contrast, was larger and double-blinded. The research was funded by the National Institute of Mental Health, part of the National Institutes of Health. "Prevention has been a goal of psychiatry for a long time," said the study's principal investigator Robert G. Robinson, professor and head of psychiatry at the UI Roy J. and Lucille A. Carver College of Medicine. "It is the first time a double-blinded randomized study has shown it is possible to prevent a psychiatric disorder in patients without previous illness." Read the full University News Services release at http://news-releases.uiowa.edu/2008/may/052808post_stroke_depression.html.
UI study identifies brain pathway that shuts down seizures The multidisciplinary team of scientists pieced together information from clinical observations made in the first half of the 20th century with knowledge from modern genetics and molecular biology to show that an acid-activated ion channel in the brain reacts to a drop in pH (increased acid) in a way that shuts down seizure activity. The link between low pH in the brain and seizure termination was first hinted at nearly 80 years ago when clinical experiments showed that breathing carbon dioxide, which makes brain tissue more acidic, helps stop epileptic seizures. Subsequent studies in the 1950s found that seizures themselves reduce brain pH. However, it was the modern discovery of an acid-activated ion channel (ASIC1a) in the brain that provided the key to the UI discovery, which was reported in Nature Neuroscience Advance Online Publication on June 8. Read the full University News Services release at http://news-releases.uiowa.edu/2008/june/060908seizures.html.
TRANSITIONSRothman named new dean of UI Carver College of Medicine An expert in rheumatology, he has provided clinical care for more than 20 years, trained medical students, fellows, and residents, and published extensively. He succeeds Jean Robillard, who is stepping down from the deanship to focus on serving as UI vice president for medical affairs. Read the full University News Services release at http://news-releases.uiowa.edu/2008/may/053008rothman_dean.html.
Deaths
|
 |
|
||||||||||||||||||
 |
|
|||||||||||||||||||
 |
 |
 |
|
|||||||||||||||||
 |
 |
|
||||||||||||||||||
