Terp Fall 2018

IN 40TH SEASON, A JOHNNY H O L L I DAY TO C E L E B R AT E 14

“ S U P E R P O S I T I O N E D ” FO R A Q UA N T U M R E VO LU T I O N 30

H OW C O L L EG E PA R K I S LO O K I N G G R E AT E R

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Still Standing THREE TERPS WERE AMONG THOSE KILLED IN THE ANNAPOLIS NEWSROOM SHOOTINGS. AMID THE HEARTBR EAK, JOURNALISTS FOUND R E S O LV E .

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ALUMNI

FROM THE ARCHIVES

WHIRLYBIRD'S-EYE VIEW

University photographer John T. Consoli toured the campus via helicopter in June to get some fresh aerial shots. He wore a harness but had to lean out of the doorless chopper, one foot braced on the landing skid, to get this photo of the odk Fountain. He described it 2

as “precarious” but said, T E R P. U M D . E D U

“As long as I’m busy, I just don’t think about it.”

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I L L U S T R AT I O N / P H O T O C R E D I T

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ALUMNI

NEWS

06 07 07 08 08 09

Reforms Promised for Athletics Into the Pool A New Chapter for the M Book Forming a New Circle Freshening the Air—and the View Virtually Onstage

CAMPUS LIFE

10 12 13 13 14 15

A Model Campus Step in a New Direction Digging Deeper A New Testudo A Holliday Season to Celebrate Sports Briefs

EXPLORATIONS

16 18 19 20 21 22 23

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Learning to Listen Pole Positions Marketing vs. Mom’s Cooking Backyard Battle Give It a Shot Even Flow The Big Question

42 44 45 46

Alumni Association Rock (’n’ Roll) of Ages From the Mixed-in Files of Mr. Ice Cream From the Archives

FEATURES

ONLINE

A Golden Opportunity The family of a late Nobel Prize laureate and professor auctioned his 18-karat gold medal in order to continue his commitment to empathy.

From Trash to Treasure Move-out at Maryland doesn’t mean throw out: The Department of Resident Life helped students keep 16 tons of no-longer-wanted belongings out of landfills.

A “Capitol Step” Ahead 24

Still Standing The fatal shootings of three Terps and two others in an Annapolis newsroom in June prompted heartbreak and questions about the role of journalism today. But they also inspired a recommitment to its mission, even from one Merrill College alumna who survived the tragedy.

BY LIAM FARRELL AND CHRIS CARROLL

30 Superpositioned Several global tech titans, various governments and a few startups have entered the race to build the first practical quantum computer—and the University of Maryland has a hand in two of the most intriguing approaches.

BY CHRIS CARROLL

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A Greater Perspective Your college town isn’t what you remember. Through a $2 billion investment, Greater College Park is home to new stores, startups and green spaces—and a different vibe. Take a walk around with us.

BY TERP STAFF

Elaina Newport ’79, founding member of the political comedy troupe the Capitol Steps, discovered how making fun of your boss could be a great career move.

Find new stories every week at TERP.UMD.EDU.

D I S COV E R N E W KNOWLEDGE

Fearless Ideas Every issue of Terp features our students’ and faculty’s discovery of new knowledge. In this issue, we further highlight those efforts with a “ .” We’ll do the same in future issues on our efforts to inspire Maryland pride, transform the student experience and turn imagination into innovation.

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FROM THE EDITOR

twenty years ago in july, my now-husband and I hitched a U-Haul to his Geo Storm and beelined from Rochester, N.Y., to Annapolis to start a new life and new jobs at The Capital newspaper.

We didn’t know then that we were also joining a family. The other recent hires were also young, broke and overworked and didn’t have local roots. So we spent our off-hours together. We line danced (it was the ’90s), drank, kvetched and laughed.

We got married (sometimes to each other), and most of us moved on to other papers or careers.

But not everyone did. In my eight years as an editor at The Capital, I worked with so many characters who outlasted me: people like Gerald Fischman ’79, the cardigan-wearing, stooped and cerebral editorial writer, and John McNamara ’83, the sportswriter with a swoosh of bangs, a booming baritone and more knowledge about Terps basketball than anyone, possibly ever. He’d occasionally visit me here at umd, and we and another Cap alum would catch up over pizza at Ledo.

John, Gerald and editor Rob Hiaasen, who’d started teaching on campus in the spring, were among five Capital Gazette employees who were gunned down in their newsroom one afternoon in June.

I attended three funerals in four days, alongside many members of my Capital family. My grief, though, is nothing compared to what the victims’ families and survivors are suffering. So I marvel at the strength of Rachael Pacella ’13, a reporter who was in the newsroom when a madman opened fire.

Weeks later, her hands still shake, yet she gets out of bed every morning because her colleagues who were killed would have wanted her to. Rachael writes in her journal and on her new blog. She plans to return to journalism, soon.

The resilience of journalism—the necessity of informing the public and inspiring critical thinking and debate, and the honor in contributing to our democracy in challenging times—is what Lucy Dalglish, dean of the Philip Merrill College of Journalism, is taking away from this horror too.

Read our feature on pages 30–35 about how Rachael is trying to recover and how the college—named for the late publisher of Capital-Gazette Newspapers—seeks to honor the Terp victims.

Tonight, I’m having dinner (crabs and blueberry cake) with my last boss at The Capital, as we do every summer. In the aftermath of unimaginable heartbreak, it’s a small sign that family, kindness and truth still live.

Lauren Brown University Editor

Publisher JACKIE LEWIS Vice President, University Relations

Advisers JOEL R. SELIGMAN Associate Vice President, Strategic Communications AMY EICHHORST Executive Director, Alumni Association MARGARET HALL Executive Editor, Creative Strategies

Magazine Staff LAUREN BROWN University Editor JOHN T. CONSOLI Creative Director CHRIS CARROLL ANNIE DANKELSON LIAM FARRELL SALA LEVIN ’10 Writers TOM KERTSCHER Contributor JASON A. KEISLING MATT LAUMANN Designers STEPHANIE S. CORDLE Photographer GAIL RUPERT M.L.S. ’10 Photography Assistant JAGU CORNISH Production Manager LINDSEY COLLINS ’20 Intern Production and design by B Creative Group.

EMAIL terpfeedback@umd.edu ONLINE terp.umd.edu NEWS umdrightnow.umd.edu FACEBOOK.COM/ UnivofMaryland TWITTER.COM/UofMaryland VIMEO.COM/umd YOUTUBE.COM/UMD2101

The University of Maryland, College Park is an equal opportunity institution with respect to both education and employment. University policies, programs and activities are in conformance with pertinent federal and state laws and regulations on non-discrimination regarding race, color, religion, age, national origin, political affiliation, gender, sexual orientation or disability.

COVER by John T. Consoli

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INTERPLAY Locked Up, Not Thrown Away

I am thoroughly enjoying the Spring 2018 issue of Terp. I was impressed with the article about Professor Peter Leone and his work with incarcerated youth; now that you have piqued my interest, I plan on purchasing one of his books. The article about the second chance organization should serve as an example of how to combat America’s obsession of purchasing brand new products.

And anyone would be thoroughly impressed with just some of the great acts that performed in Cole Field House. Kudos on your quality work, and now I’ll get back to my reading.

FRANK SCHAPITL, TOMS RIVER, N.J. (PARENT OF ASHLEY ’08 AND LEXIE ’17)

A YA Book of His Own

Although I enjoyed the Jason Reynolds profile, there was much left out for your readers to get to know this author who writes for all ages. In fact, Amazon rates his Newbery Award-winning book “Long Way Down” (age level: 12) a 99!

The fact that you only mentioned a few of his great works for middle grade and young adult readers is disappointing. I realize you had a word count to fill and a deadline. After this profile was completed, Jason Reynolds won another award for “Long Way Down,” the Edgar Award for best young adult mystery of 2017, from the Mystery Writers of America.

As a retired school librarian and a blogger of book reviews, I am familiar with Jason’s body of literature, but he deserves more recognition for his many accolades from peers and readers.

BETH SCHMELZER M.L.S. ’92, ANNAPOLIS, MD.

The Big Question

First I must say the new Terp magazine format is amazing.

The Big Question (“What is the most unifying force in American life?”) really got my attention. The answers were: pursuit of happiness, food, sports and diversity. All of

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these shocked me, particularly “diversity.”

It makes me realize the enormous changes that have occurred in American culture since I was a student in the Glenn L. Martin School of Engineering.

Apparently everyone has forgotten about “assimilation” as the most unifying force in American culture. In my youthful days, we were English, French, German, Italian, Irish, Spanish, Swedish, and on and on. We frequently laughed at the ethnic jokes about our heritage. I am Irish and German and certainly was familiar with the Irish jokes.

No one was offended, as it was just part of our “diversity” and we had fun with it.

What brought us together was assimilation because we were all Americans at heart!

The focus on diversity these days is actually a dividing force because political correctness in campus life requires that we respect diversity rather than have fun with it. Far too much control over social behavior is damaging and dividing our youth. They are becoming fearful of just being themselves.

any artist I have ever seen. He was 45 minutes late opening the show. He must have apologized five times.

STEPHEN C. MALAN ’74, M.S. ’78, UPPERCO, MD., VIA TERP ONLINE

Class Notes

Great mag. I appreciated getting an update on alum Frank Reich ’84, in Class Notes (Spring 2018), but you didn’t include that, besides orchestrating the greatest nfl comeback, Frank also orchestrated the greatest ncaa comeback, the 1984 Terp 42–40 comeback against Miami.

FRANK CIRILLO ’66, RESTON, VA.

Editor’s Note: You were right—Reich did hold that record, until the 41-38 victory by Michigan State over Northwestern in 2006.

G. THOMAS BEHM ’57, LA MESA, CALIF.

Spring 2018 issue

I often read my husband’s Terp magazine, but I especially enjoyed the Spring 2018 articles about the 3D printing of parts of “The Triumph of Isabella” (right), “super” wood and alumni who are doing well and doing good in the world. “Locked Up, Not Thrown Away” opened my eyes about education in juvenile detention. Could you please write a longer article about Olympian Thomas Hong? There has to be more to that story! Thank your for your consideration and keep up the good work.

RITA NOLAN, ALEXANDRIA, VA.

A-listers

We created an unofficial list of the 30 best campus concerts, and asked readers what we missed: Steve Martin, 1978 at Cole Field House: Greatest opening applause and cheers for

WRITE TO US We love to hear from readers. Send your feedback, insights, compliments—and, yes, complaints—to terpfeedback@umd.edu or Terp magazine Office of Strategic Communications 7736 Baltimore Ave. College Park, MD 20742

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NEWS

Reforms Promised for Athletics Student-Athlete’s Death Prompts Reviews of Training and Coaching niversity president Wallace D. Loh took “legal and moral responsibility” for the mistakes that led to the death of a football player and pledged to implement reforms recommended by two external investigations to protect Terp student-athletes.

Teammates of Jordan McNair, 19, who was hospitalized and died 15 days after suffering heatstroke during a May 29 training session, have also vowed to honor the player they called a “gentle giant” this season and beyond.

“We plan to have his legacy live on forever,” said offensive lineman Ellis McKennie.

“Every play we make, every snap we take will be in Jordan’s honor.”

McNair, a 6-foot-4, 325-pound Randallstown, Md., native, was a four-star recruit out of the McDonogh School. He appeared in one game as a Terrapin, making his collegiate debut against Towson last season.

Immediately after McNair’s death on June 13, umd hired a sports medicine consulting firm to review relevant student-athlete policies and protocols within 90 days. After preliminary findings indicated that athletic training staff had failed to recognize the severity of his symptoms or to use standard treatments for heatstroke, Loh and Athletic Director Damon Evans visited McNair’s parents to apologize.

“I made a commitment … that no Maryland student-athlete will be in a situation where his or her life and safety will be at risk, especially when that risk is foreseen,” Loh said at an Aug. 14 news conference.

Following media reports alleging verbal abuse and intimidation of players by coaching staff, Loh also committed to a broad review of the football program.

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Strength and conditioning coach Rick Court resigned, and as of press time on Aug. 27, the university had placed head football coach D.J. Durkin and members of the athletics training staff on administrative leave.

Offensive coordinator Matt Canada was named interim head coach. The University of Maryland System Board of Regents is now overseeing the two investigations.

“We have already taken immediate steps to put additional safeguards in place for all our athletic practices and training—not just football. We have changed how we practice, and also how we train our staff,” Evans said.

“Make no mistake: We will not tolerate any behavior from any employee within Maryland Athletics that is detrimental to the mental or physical well-being of our student-athletes.”

In August, McNair’s teammates (below) announced that moments of silence would be

held before the Sept. 1 game versus Texas at FedEx Field in Landover, and before the Sept.

15 game versus Temple at Maryland Stadium.

Other plans include: » Wearing helmet stickers with McNair’s number, 79. » Endowing a scholarship with McNair’s name for a Maryland student-athlete. » Honoring McNair on his scheduled senior day in 2020, and allowing a new player to wear 79 only after he would have graduated. » Naming the new Cole Field House offensive line room for McNair. » Enclosing McNair’s locker in a glass case and moving it to Cole when it is complete.

Offensive lineman Johnny Jordan called him “one of the best friends, teammates and roommates anyone could ever ask for” and thanked fans for their words of support.

“It is now more than ever that we need your support,” he said. “We are all in this together.”—lf

M C N A I R P H O T O C O U R T E S Y O F M A R Y L A N D A T H L E T I C S / P H O T O B Y J O H N T. C O N S O L I

A New Chapter for the M Book THE M BOOK IS BACK.

The sometimes-stiff guide to the student experience at Maryland for generations of Terps was revived this fall for the Class of 2022—with fewer rules and a modern focus.

From 1916 to 2001, freshmen turned to the M Book to figure out how to register for classes, learn the code of conduct and generally get a handle on the University of Maryland. It died after all this information moved online.

In the new version, commissioned by the Alumni Association, with support from the Division

Into the Pool

of Student Affairs and University Archives, new students instead find

umd to Digitize, Archive Press Pool Reports on White House

Maryland’s past, present and future, with fun explanations of university traditions, can’t-miss events,

the university of maryland and the White House Correspondents’ Association are teaming up to provide a deep dive into the daily life of the U.S. president with a new digital archive of pool reports.

Pool reports are summaries of contact with the president written by a journalist when fellow members of the White House press corps can’t be present, be it at a photo op or on Air Force One, and made available to their peers. Under the partnership between umd’s Philip Merrill College of Journalism, University Libraries and College of Information Studies, and the wcha and Newseum Institute, these reports will be kept at

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the university and in a searchable online database.

The archive, expected to be accessible in the next two years, will also be the basis of new educational programs at umd on presidential access and news coverage. The project will start with digital copies distributed in the Obama and Bush administrations before working to locate print copies for earlier presidencies.

“The University of Maryland is honored to have the opportunity to steward this valuable archive and research tool, a unique record of the U.S. presidency,” says Lucy Dalglish, dean of the Merrill College.

“We’re proud to make it available to the public and to scholars around the world.”—lf

landmarks and real-life advice from recent grads.

(Timeless and essential example: Never pass up a free T-shirt.) —LB

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NEWS

Forming a New Circle Landmark to Shift Location on Campus Drive for Purple Line

THE WATERED-DOWN FACTS SIZE

PLANT VARIETIES

21' L x 8' H

8

GALLONS OF WATER USED PER DAY

HOURS OF LED LIGHT PER DAY

20-30

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NO. OF PLANTS

PEAK NO. OF PATRONS WHO PASS BY DAILY

ONE OF THE MOST ICONIC

landmarks on UMD’s campus is getting a new home in preparation for the arrival of Metro’s Purple Line.

Now situated on Campus Drive, the M Circle will be moved across the street in front of the Mitchell Building as construction gets under way on the 16.2-mile, light-rail train line linking New Carrollton to

ABOUT 1,000

8,000+

Bethesda; five stops will be on or near campus.

UMD will never be M-less, however; the new M will be completed before the old one is removed. That way, students and visitors alike will always have a spot for photos and, once the

SPECIES SURREPTITIOUSLY PLANTED BY LIBRARY USER

1

(a spring onion)

new flower-filled M is finished, a safer place to create memories than a busy traffic circle.

For more information about the Purple Line project on campus, visit umd.edu/ purpleline. —LF

Freshening the Air—and the View Libraries Install Living Wall at McKeldin you might do a double take if you haven’t been in McKeldin Library for a while, but don’t worry—rogue plants aren’t taking over.

The vertical expanse of green to the right near Footnotes Cafe is a “biowall,” funded primarily by a recent donation from Patricia Steele, former libraries dean, and her husband, Charles, and

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from the student-financed Sustainability Fund.

Gary White, the libraries’ associate dean for public services, says it’s intended to create a better atmosphere for guests—both visually and in air quality—during the renovation of McKeldin’s ground floor, and will continue spreading green good vibes once the work is done.—cc

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Virtually Onstage umd Artists, Researchers Open New Views of Opera

or decades, audiences have watched from their seats as a group of nuns are marched to the guillotine at the climax of Francis Poulenc’s 1956 opera “Dialogues of the Carmelites.”

Now, thanks to a collaboration between the Maryland Opera Studio and the Maryland Blended Reality Center, they can be on stage with the performers through virtual reality (VR) technology.

It can get almost uncomfortably intimate, as when a doomed young novice sings a hymn, seemingly staring into the eyes of the viewer only two feet away. The viewer is wearing a VR headset, but too immersed in the performance to even notice.

“You can look at the micro-expressions of the performers, you can see the gleam in their eye, and really establish empathy with them,” says Amitabh Varshney, a professor of computer science, dean of the College of Computer, Mathematical, and Natural Sciences and one of the project’s leaders.

Allowing viewers to teleport through 360degree views of the stage and even the orchestra pit with VR can enhance the experience for opera newbies and seasoned viewers alike, says Craig Kier, director of the Maryland Opera Studio, who’s also leading the research.

“We see this not only as an access point for someone who’s not familiar with opera, to demystify it, but for someone who is familiar— to really put them in the driver’s seat right in the middle of it all,” Kier says. “The complexity of this entire art form invites a more immersive experience.”

But, Kier says, he and Varshney are ever-mindful of the need not to degrade the traditional opera experience. So before incorporating VR imaging in public performances, they need to find ways, for example, to hide cameras still visible onstage in the Poulenc

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opera filming—maybe in scenery, maybe someday in tiny flying drones unnoticeable to the audience.

Although grounded in art, the project is an offshoot of broader research in medical uses of virtual and augmented reality between the University of Maryland and the University of Maryland, Baltimore through the MPowering the State initiative that combines the strengths of both institutions. In this case, they’re exploring whether VR representations of artistic performances can lessen hospital patients’ need for drugs to control pain and anxiety.

“We feel like we are in the early stages of a new genre of visual communication,” says Varshney. “You can use it for experiencing art in a new way, or perhaps a patient who has to be isolated can use it to be with their loved ones virtually— there are so many possible uses for it.”—cc

CLARI

CE

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CAMPUS LIFE

Men’s and women’s campuses: The area around Washington Quad was designated for men’s residences and Annapolis Hall as their gym; women’s residences were proposed near what’s now Anne Arundel Hall; Preinkert Hall would have been their gym.

Library (Shoemaker Hall)

Calvert Hall

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A MODEL CAMPUS Rejected 3D Plan from 1930s Rehabilitated

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t was the equivalent of finding treasure in your grandparents’ attic: Construction workers who were transforming Holzapfel Hall into part of the Edward St. John Learning and Teaching Center found a forgotten 1930s model of a University of Maryland campus that never was.

The model, measuring 5 by 3 ½ feet, was one of several created by an architectural firm

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The Mall: This model shows the “nascent stages” of what would become the university’s signature space: McKeldin Mall, a grand green area befitting a university then aspiring to be a player on the national stage, Kelly says.

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Academic buildings: This plan envisioned buildings that eventually became Francis Scott Key and Holzapfel Halls.

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Pond: Where McKeldin Library now sits, a pond supported irrigation of campus crops and served as an ice-skating spot in the winter.

Proposed Chapel Site (never built)

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commissioned by the university to envision its first major expansion since the Great Fire of 1912. Three finalists were selected: The winner (campus as we know it today, more or less) is housed in the Architecture Building under the auspices of the architecture preservation program; one model has been lost; and the third was moldering away in the attic of Holzapfel.

“I got a call that they’d discovered a model and they didn’t know what to do with it. They

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weren’t even sure what it was,” says Brian Kelly, professor of architecture. “I went over and took a look and said, ‘I know exactly what that is.’”

Made of wood and cardboard, with buildings no taller than an inch or so, the model was damaged by water and covered in grime, mold, and bird and bat droppings. Joe Largess, who runs the fabrication lab in the School of Architecture, Planning and Preservation, has spent two years restoring it.

After cleaning it, gluing and reconstructing buildings in disrepair, painting and more, Largess and student assistants have made the model “as good as we can get it,” he says.

He’s now building a Plexiglass-enclosed table that will permanently display the model in the Architecture Library.

Soon, everyone will be able to see an alternate version of Maryland.—sl

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NUMBER OF BAND MEMBERS

265 NUMBER OF PRACTICE HOURS IN EARLY WEEK

60 AVERAGE HIGH TEMPERATURE DURING BAND CAMP

87 NUMBER OF PIECES OF MUSIC PER SEASON

50ish

(including for pregame and halftime shows and in the stands)

MOST FAMOUS FORMATION

BLOCK & MESS ESTIMATED STEPS PER MUSICIAN PER SHOW

Step in a New Direction THE SCHOOL OF MUSIC has passed the

1,200 Brown says she’ll be doing a lot of listening and

baton to a new associate director of

learning in her first year with the marching band, which

bands and director of athletic bands.

began preparing for football season with intensive Early

Andrea E. Brown, the first woman to hold that job in the university’s history, comes here after five years at a fellow Big Ten Conference institution, the University of Michigan.

Week practices in August. There, she took her place in the cherry picker with the megaphone, overlooking the band scattered across the Chapel Fields.

She’s had a lot to listen to.—LB

She hopes to amplify the success of the Mighty Sound of Maryland Marching Band within the Big Ten and beyond.

“There’s an incredible tradition and pride in the ensemble at Maryland,” she says.

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See a photo gallery from Early Week at terp.umd.edu.

NUMBER OF SOUSAPHONES

15 WEIGHT OF A SOUSAPHONE

28 lbs.

P H O T O O F B A N D B Y S T E P H A N I E S . C O R D L E / P H O T O O F A N D R E AI LBLRUOS W TR NABTYI OJNO/ H PN H OT. T OC O CN RS EO D ILTI

Digging Deeper umd Receives $3M to Establish Investigative Journalism Center

Merrill Students Follow the Leads INVESTIGATIVE JOURNALISM is al-

ready in Merrill College’s bloodstream.

a $3 million award from the Scripps Howard Foundation will establish a new investigative journalism center on campus, reinforcing the Philip Merrill College of Journalism’s focus on training watchdog reporters. umd is one of two universities selected to host the new Howard Center for Investigative Journalism, announced by the Scripps Howard Foundation; a second center will be established at Arizona State University.

They will be multidisciplinary, graduate-level programs that emphasize investigative journalism projects delving into subjects vital to the public interest, conducted with journalism organizations from around the country.

The Howard Centers are expected to begin

A New Testudo

programming for students in 2019.

“The centers are envisioned as innovative educational programs,” says Battinto Batts, director of the journalism fund for the Scripps Howard Foundation. “Both Arizona State University and the University of Maryland are well-positioned to challenge their students to become ethical, entrepreneurial and courageous investigative journalists.” umd and asu were selected also because each has a rigorous curriculum and focuses on hands-on journalist training, the foundation announced.

Merrill College will use the award to recruit diverse classes of standout students and train them in ethical research and reporting methods and compelling multimedia storytelling, college officials say.

“Investigative journalists shine a light on our society’s problems and protect democracy by holding the powerful accountable,” says Lucy Dalglish, Merrill College dean. “The Howard Center at Merrill College will provide an unmatched opportunity for our students to learn to tell important stories in innovative ways, preparing them to become outstanding professional journalists.”

anonymous donor, who provided additional This Testudo, the first on the south

was secured to its marble base to be the first

got a little bigger. A new bronze likeness of

McKeldin Library, the Stamp Student Union,

the Maryland mascot was installed in late

Xfinity Center, Maryland Stadium, the Gossett

April on the courtyard of Van Munching Hall.

Football Team House and the Samuel Riggs IV

The 300-pound statue was a gift from an

P H O T O S B Y J O H N T. C O N S O L I

Alumni Center.

» “Home Sick,” which won the 2018 Robert F. Kennedy Journalism Award, exposed how poor living conditions in disadvantaged neighborhoods can contribute to asthma and other illnesses. » “Trading Away Justice,” a project from the new investigative bureau of the college’s Capital News Service reported on wrongly arrested people who pleaded guilty rather than face trial and potentially long prison sentences. Students showed how opposite choices made by two brothers wrongfully convicted of murder made a big impact on their lives. » Students of Dana Priest, John S. and James L. Knight Chair in Public Affairs Journalism, reported on popular opinions and government actions related to Confederate monuments in front of county courthouses in five Southern states. » “Strength and Shame,” an awardwinning documentary, delved into the deadly abuse of heroin, prescription painkillers and

It didn’t take long for him to be noticed: Students waited in line as the Testudo statue

side of campus, joins six others located at

the following investigative projects:

other opioids.

funds for the statue’s permanent upkeep.

The family of Testudo statues on campus just

In the past year alone, Terps tackled

to rub his nose for good luck. —LB

Watch the new statue’s installation at go.umd.edu/newtestudo.

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A Holliday Season to Celebrate Voice of Terps Enters 40th Year

Broadcast Co-host Also Marks a Milestone MARYLAND BASKET-

even after broadcasting around 1,500 University of Maryland games, he still claims he’s no expert. But for many fans, it wouldn’t be Terps football or basketball without Johnny Holliday.

“It’s like listening to a friend describe a game,” says former umd basketball coach Gary Williams ’68.

This season marks Holliday’s 40th as umd’s playby-play announcer. He’s been here through 14 bowl games, 10 Sweet 16s and two Final Fours. Many Terp fans remember him exclaiming, “The kids have done it!” after the men’s basketball team’s 2002 national championship, a slight crack in his voice as he couldn’t contain his excitement.

“He’s not just a lifer,” says Chris Knoche, umd’s basketball color analyst. “He’s a Hall of Fame lifer.”

Always a fan of sports, Holliday aspired to coach and

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teach while growing up in Miami. But he didn’t have enough money to go to college, so he got his first radio job at 17 in Perry, Ga. He kept moving up from there, becoming an esteemed disc jockey in Cleveland, New York and San Francisco before moving to D.C. wmal in Washington hired Holliday to eventually broadcast the morning show, expecting the guys in that role to move on. In the meantime, he took over umd games.

“But they never retired,” Holliday chuckles. “So that’s where it all started.”

Each game since then has required hours of preparation, with charts and stats and notes. Holliday might get 50 pages on the football team, maybe 40 on the basketball team. And that’s before the opposing team sends its own info. But once he gets in the booth, there’s no set script, no uniform sign-on. Holliday goes with the flow of the game.

“I don’t fly the flag for two hours,” he says, but “(fans) can probably tell by the tone of my voice if we’re winning or losing.”

More than calling highlight plays and exciting victories, though, what Holliday values most from his time with the Terps are the relationships he’s formed.

He routinely gets something from football great Boomer Esiason ’84 to auction off at his golf tournament. He remembers having basketball star Greivis Vasquez do a promo in Spanish on his show, so the player’s family in Venezuela could listen. He recalls his postgame shows with Williams, how they’d sometimes “fly by the seat of our pants” to fill 30 minutes. He keeps in touch with former basketball coach Lefty Driesell.

Holliday makes sure to give credit to everyone behind the scenes, too, like spotter Steve Rear, statistician Brett Bessell and engineer Tom Marchitto.

And he plans to stay as long as they’ll have him.

“He’s one of those renaissance guys who just keeps going,” Williams says. “He doesn’t stop.” —ad

BALL was a staple for

a young Chris Knoche, “back when there were basically four channels,” he says.

Now, Johnny Holliday’s co-host is entering his 20th season as umd’s

color

analyst.

“The opportunity to work Maryland games was sort of a dream come true for me,” Knoche says.

He played basketball at American University under Gary Williams ’68 from 1979–81, and he later coached there from 1990–97. Friends told Knoche that if he ever left, he should try broadcasting.

The chance arose to reunite with Williams, who had become umd’s coach, in 1999.

“At the end of the day,” Knoche says, “it’s a lot more fun to have a team that you’re rooting for.” —AD

P H O T O O F J O H N N Y H O L L I D A Y B Y J O H N T. C O N S O L I / K N O C H E P H O T O C O U R T E S Y O F M A R Y L A N D A T H L E T I C S

Six Favorite Games NOV. 10, 1984 A COMEBACK FOR THE AGES

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The Terps were down 31-0 at halftime, and Holliday’s Miami buddies were letting him have it. But Frank Reich took over at quarterback in the second half and led the greatest comeback in college football history at the time, a 42–40 victory for the Terps. “It was special for me because that’s my home,” Holliday says. Fun fact: Reich later led Buffalo to the greatest comeback in nfl history vs. Houston.

MARCH 1, 1995 SMITH STEPS UP

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Coach Gary Williams was sick, but sophomore Joe Smith stepped up against archrival Duke, scoring 40 points and tipping in the game-winning shot at the buzzer for a thrilling 94–92 win. “Any time we upset Duke was a great win in my mind,” Holliday says.

FEB. 27, 2001 NO FOND FAREWELL FOR BATTIER

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The Terps spoiled the last game at Cameron Indoor Stadium for the Blue Devils’ star, a Co-acc Player of the Year, defeating Duke 91–80. “Probably one of the most impressive wins,” Holliday says. “It was on their senior night, and Shane Battier was a senior, and we upset them down there.”

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APRIL 1, 2002

TERPS WIN IT ALL

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Top-seeded Maryland defeated fifth-seeded Indiana for the Terps’ first ncaa title, 64–52. “Nothing can top that,” Holliday says, proudly sporting his championship ring on his left hand.

“Those guys with Juan Dixon and Steve Blake—that’s one of my favorite teams of all time, right there.”

SPORTS BRIEFS

Terps Head to the NBA THE ATLANTA HAWKS selected Kevin Huerter

19th overall in the 2018 nba draft, becoming Maryland’s 19th first-round pick in program history. He averaged 12 points, five rebounds and three assists per game in his two seasons at umd

and was named to the All-Big Ten Honorable

Mention Team last season. Justin Jackson, who played two years with the Terps, was selected by the Denver Nuggets in the second round (No. 43 overall) and dealt to the Orlando Magic, while Bruno Fernando decided to return to Maryland for his sophomore season.

Lacrosse Teams Fall Short in Semis THE TOP-SEEDED men’s and women’s lacrosse

teams, which both won the ncaa Division 1 championship in 2017, ended their seasons this year in the semifinals. The men, in their fifth consecutive ncaa semifinals appearance, fell to Duke 13–8. The women’s team, in its 10th straight Final Four, lost 15–13 to Boston College. The men’s national title went to Yale, and the women’s to James Madison.

DEC. 31, 2002 JAN. 1, 2004

Cummings Returns to McDonogh

GREAT SCOTT!

FORMER TERPS LACROSSE STAR Taylor

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Quarterback Scott McBrien led the Terps to their first bowl game win since 1985 in the Peach Bowl (30–3) and to a Gator Bowl victory a season later (41–7). “Any bowl game you go to has got to be terrific,” Holliday says, “but the ones that impressed me the most were the ones with Scott McBrien. Back-toback seasons, he was the Most Valuable Player.”

Cummings ’16 was named the head girls’ lacrosse coach at the McDonogh School in Owings Mills, Md., her high school alma mater. The three-time Tewaaraton Award winner, which goes to the top collegiate lacrosse player, spent last season there as an assistant coach. Cummings won four state championships with McDonogh and led umd to two national championships. She plays professionally for Team usa and the New York Fight.—AD

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Learning to Listen umd Hosts New Cochlear Implant Intensive Program for Kids

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summer symphony floats from a classroom in LeFrak Hall.

Children shake maracas, ding triangles and ring bells.

To the side is a less typical scene: Graduate students fiddle with the youngsters’ cochlear implants and hearing aids, making sure they’re working before xylophone chimes beckon everyone to the carpet for circle time.

In July, the Maryland Cochlear Implant Center of Excellence in the Department of Hearing and Speech Sciences introduced a two-week program for kids ages 3-6 who have significant hearing loss and use hearing aids or cochlear implants. The center, an MPowering the State initiative, unites educational, clinical and research strengths from the University of Maryland, College Park with medical expertise and research from the University of Maryland School of Medicine in Baltimore.

Its new Summer Cochlear Implant Intensive Program provides therapy and fun activities to build auditory and speech-language skills.

The children mesh easily in their play, even though they can’t communicate fluently through speech.

“They really don’t make judgments about other people,” Director Nicole Nguyen says of this age group. “So it’s really great to see them kind of interacting when they don’t even really use the same language right now.”

A

Approximately 58,000 cochlear implants had been given to adults and 38,000 to children in the United States as of December 2012, the most recent number available from the National Institute on Deafness and Other Communication Disorders.

While hearing aids increase sound volume through the natural hearing system, a cochlear implant actually replaces damaged, crucial sensory receptors called hair cells in the inner ear, sending electrical impulses to the auditory nerve. But going from thousands of hair cells to 20 or so electrodes results in imperfect sound resolution, so children have to get the hang of using the implants. That’s where this summer program comes in.

On the carpet, six kids watch as Jackie Berges (facing page), a graduate student in speech-language pathology leading the class, introduces the book “Bear Snores On.” Hearing ability varies from child to child: Fiona came to the United States from Vietnam and uses two cochlear implants. Duro, the youngest of the bunch at 2 1/2, wears hearing aids. Aaron, a typically hearing boy, serves as a model for the others, gabbing about how he’s read this book at his grandparents’ house.

Speaking through a microphone worn like a necklace, Berges reads descriptions of animal characters, keeping the book facing her so the

P H OTOS BY ST E P H A N I E S. CO R D L E

children can’t see. She then turns the book around. “Can you find the gopher?” she asks each camper. The wren? The hare?

“It looks a little awkward sometimes,” Nguyen says of initially hiding the book’s illustrations, “but it’s very purposeful.”

It’s an example of the auditory-verbal approach the program uses. The audio-first method focuses on hearing and reacting to sound to strengthen kids’ skills in those areas.

“We present the auditory information first, so they learn to listen for the sound. We present the visuals later, so they can connect these two sensory experiences to understand the meaning,” Berges says. “They learn a lot just by playing with each other, through osmosis.”

Some parents’ goals for their children are simple: Duro’s mother, Opeyemi Soewu, hopes she gets more comfortable in a classroom setting. Some are loftier: Fiona primarily uses sign language, but her father, Giang Nguyen, would like her to try speaking first. With individual therapy sessions twice a day, the kids can progress more quickly than during school, when they might have therapy once a week.

“The teacher will tell her to say, ‘More,’” Soewu says of Duro. “If she asks for more, they give her more bubbles. If she doesn’t ask for more, they don’t give her any bubbles. She can master it. She can be familiar with these words.”

Following an outdoor water-table activity

and lunch, the children circle around Berges again as she shows a video of dancing animals, holding a microphone up to the tablet to amplify the sound. The kids then mimic the moves, each declaring which animal they should imitate.

“Hop like a bunny,” Fiona says slowly into the microphone.

It’s a small victory, the kind that the camp’s leaders hope continues as they look to eventually extend the program year-round, opening the world of hearing and speech to even more children. —ad See a video on the cochlear implant program at terp.umd.edu.

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Pole Positions

Researcher Takes Strong Stances on Commonalities Between Ballet, Hip-hop and Exotic Dancing TERP CAN’T SAY FOR SURE that Judith Lynne

Hanna, a research professor in anthropology, is the only University of Maryland faculty member to dance the head-banging lead role in a punk band’s music video this year. But we are certain she was the only one in her 80s to do so. It wasn’t an extreme stretch for Hanna, who has researched dance as a means of communication since the 1960s and has been a dancer herself for more than 70 years, and still attends dance class almost daily. From ritual communal dances to ballet to exotic dance (Hanna is a vocal defender of strippers), she considers all of it a language layered with cultural meaning and aesthetic values. She recently sat down to

Is there a difference between “serious” forms of dance that include nudity, and ones designed to stimulate the male libido?

my sons, they’d ask, “What do you do in jazz

You spoke up for Stormy Daniels in the media earlier this year when she danced at a strip club in Baltimore. Why?

It’s all in the eyes of the beholder. Women now

their sons dancing. There has been this idea

also go to strip clubs. Nudity is not just eroti-

that males who dance must be “sissies” or gay.

I defend exotic dancers because they are under

cism—it’s the natural body, God’s gift to humanity.

Also, reality-TV dance competitions have created

the umbrella of the First Amendment. Since

It’s an art in motion, a challenge to the pretense

wider interest in dance.

1995, I’ve worked as an expert witness on 134

of clothing, and freedom from arbitrary social

cases involving exotic dance with 64 different

conventions. One of the things that I do when

lawyers from coast to coast. There’s something

I talk about nudity in adult entertainment is to

What came first: your love of dancing, or an interest in it as a scholarly subject?

about a woman going out of her home in the

point out how nudity is used in opera, theater

My love of dance came first. I had flat feet and

public arena, showing her body and making

and concert dance.

when I was 8, the pediatrician in St. Louis told

discuss her decades studying dance as human behavior—in all its forms.—CC

money that threatens some people. But since

class?” But I could never get them to even observe. Now, fathers are more receptive to

my mother it would make my feet strong. I

the 1960s, we’ve had [modern dance icon] Bill T.

What’s the current state of dance in America?

started with ballet. Then we moved to California

Jones with 50 nude people on stage at the Ken-

The rise of macho hip-hop has made it more

where I discovered modern dance, and I went to

nedy Center, and no one thinks that’s a big deal.

acceptable for boys to dance. When I was raising

UC-Berkeley and explored Afro-Caribbean dance.

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T E R P. U M D . E D U

P H O T O I L L U S T R A T I O N B Y J O H N T. C O N S O L I A N D S T E P H A N I E S . C O R D L E

FA C U LT Y Q & A J U D I T H LY N N E H A N N A

I just kept trying different forms. Dance didn’t

Marketing vs.

Mom’s Cooking

help my feet, but I was hooked.

What has your research centered on?

My original research as an anthropologist started in Nigeria among the Igbo people. I learned that dance was a very powerful medium of communication, politics and education. My first book, published in 1979, was criticized because I was saying that dance is a language and is comparable to verbal language. In the past 15 years new technology has allowed neuroscientists to study dancers’ brains while they move, and it turns out my theory has had some empirical validation. I am now exploring dance and the brain—cognition, emotion and movement in learning.

Any wellness tips for the rest of us who might be interested in being able to cut a rug into our 80s?

You find something physical that you like to do, and try it, and if you haven’t been active, be careful and don’t overdo it—but do it. Dance is wonderful when you are older; we once thought older people simply lost brain cells as they aged, but neuroscience has found that dance as

what children find finger lickin’ good might just depend on the ads they see.

Those in lower- and middle-income countries who can ID international fast food and soft drink logos are more likely to turn up their noses at healthier, home-cooked fare, according to University of Maryland research.

Lead study author Dina Borzekowski, a research professor of behavioral and community health, investigated the links between marketing, media exposure and food preferences in Brazil, China, India, Nigeria, Pakistan and Russia. Previous research in richer countries shows similar links between junk food marketing and unhealthy eating.

The findings published in the Journal of Children and Media show the pervasive, insidious influence of marketing on children’s health, Borzekowski says.

“Why would a 5-year-old say that they want a Coca-Cola over a lassi?” she says. “Kentucky Fried Chicken over a stir-fried chicken and vegetable dish made by Mom?”—cc

exercise helps create new cells and connections.

“Nudity is not just eroticism—it’s the natural body, God’s gift to humanity. It’s an art in motion, a challenge to the pretense of clothing, and freedom from arbitrary social conventions.”

JUIDTH LYNNE HANNA

I L L U S T R AT I O N BY M AT T L A U M A N N

And there’s also the aspect of dance as communication, which is important for not being lonely—if you go to a dance studio or a salsa dancing class, you can’t avoid being with others.

So how did you end up in that music video?

It’s a first for me. The producer [working with female-fronted punk band Egg Drop Soup] learned about me through my 13-year-old grandson, Merrick Hanna. He’s a professional hip-hop dancer who was on “America’s Got Talent” and in other venues. Being in a music video sounded fun, so I flew to California to dance in it.

Watch a video of Hanna dancing with her grandson at youtube.com/watch?v=MLhEJLFzxlA.

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ON THE MALL

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Backyard Battle

Wildlife Researchers Aim to Take Back Territory From Lyme-bearing Ticks

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T E R P. U M D . E D U

elcome to tick heaven.

It’s humid and shady, and the ground is thick with foot-high Japanese stiltgrass, a particular favorite for the little bloodsuckers to crawl up and wait for a passing meal—like you, maybe.

They’re also happy to latch onto abundant mice scurrying through the underbrush and the deer foraging nearby.

Here on the forested edge of a county park in Columbia, Md., a group of researchers and students from the University of Maryland

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and the U.S. Department of Agriculture has set up an ad hoc worksite to test methods to fight a surge in Lyme disease in the United States, transmitted to people primarily by black-legged ticks’ bites.

About 75 yards from where they huddle, a line of houses visible through the trees is ground zero for this bacterial infection that can lead to long-term ailments if not caught early.

Rates of tick- and insect-borne infections nearly quadrupled from 2004 to 2016, with Lyme the biggest culprit, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control reported in May. “We know that people frequently get tick bites in their backyards, particularly suburban backyards adjacent to natural areas,” says Jennifer Murrow, a wildlife ecologist and assistant professor in the Department of Environmental Science and Technology. “If we can find a way to manage this transition zone to reduce the ticks living there, we could reduce the likelihood of people getting ticks, which translates to less Lyme disease.”

The project Murrow is running—part of a larger usda Agricultural Research Service areawide tick control project—asks whether freeing suburban wildlife from ticks is the key to helping people as well.

She and her assistants have placed feeding stations that lure deer and mice with food, and are treating them with similar insecticides found in flea and tick collars for family pets.

(The broader project also includes tests of another treatment: usda personnel spraying areas with a tick-targeted biological insecticide.)

Because deer are so large, only their

P H OTOS BY ST E P H A N I E S. CO R D L E

At a Howard County, Md., park, Assistant Professor Jennifer Murrow (standing, left) and a team of students and usda researchers look for ticks on captured mice.

A umd student gently removes one of the tiny parasites and releases the mouse back into the wild.

heads get treated, but that’s where ticks tend to latch on, Murrow says. Mice get a fullbody treatment.

“It’s really a spa for mice,” she says. “They go in, they eat, get rid of their ticks and go on with their lives.”

To find out how animals are using the feeders and how far they range, Murrow and the team track some of them electronically.

On a muggy morning in June, with boots taped to coveralls to fend off ticks, students and usda staff worked with about two dozen mice trapped the previous night, carefully weighing them, placing eartags, removing ticks and—if the mice are big enough—fitting them with tiny radio collars.

In addition to finding out what works against ticks, the umd researchers are dramatically expanding knowledge about how mice move around, says Andrew Li, a research entomologist for usda’s Agriculture Research Service and head of the areawide project.

“Do the foraging mice go into people’s backyards, and how far and how deep are they going into the wooded area?” he says. “We have a limited understanding of these things, but we’re learning a lot now.”

The five-year project, currently in its second year, should yield effective recommendations for shrinking tick populations in the places they do the most harm, Li says.

“Some of these streets where we work, more than 50 percent of the houses have had someone with Lyme,” Murrow says. “It’s pretty overwhelming. When people find out what we’re doing, they’re like, ‘Oh, help.’”—cc

I L L U S T R AT I O N BY J A S O N K E I S L I N G

Give It a Shot Researchers Seek to Encourage hpv Vaccination Among African-Americans a new five-year study at umd looks to find ways for health professionals to effectively encourage African-American parents to get their children vaccinated against human papillomavirus (hpv), which causes a high rate of cervical cancer among black women.

Xiaoli Nan, professor of communication science, Cheryl Holt and Min Qi Wang, professors of behavioral and community health, and researchers from the University of Maryland School of Medicine received a $2.2 million grant from the National Institutes of Health to examine how different messages can influence parents’ decision-making.

“The key thing we want to look at is the framing aspect of the message—whether it focuses on the benefits of vaccination, or the costs of not vaccinating children,” Nan says.

Partnering with clinics in Baltimore, principal investigator Nan and her team will create an iPad presentation in which parents view messages about the hpv vaccine, then take a survey about their intentions to vaccinate. Nan and the team will follow up at three months, six months and a year to see whether the children have been vaccinated. hpv is the nation’s most common sexually transmitted infection, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Often, it goes away by itself without complications, but it can cause a variety of cancers. A 2017 cdc report found that African-American adults had higher rates of hpv than people of European or Hispanic descent.

African-Americans are also less likely to get vaccines for adult illnesses such as the flu and pneumonia. Some studies have suggested that this might be partly due to historic medical abuses of black people.

Add the fact that hpv is transmitted sexually for an extra dose of hesitancy. “Parents fear that once they get vaccinated, they might become more sexually active,” says Nan. The interdisciplinary team hopes that effectively communicating about the hpv vaccine will lead to better health outcomes. “Increasing hpv vaccination rates is a priority in public health,” says Holt. “We don’t get a lot of opportunities to prevent cancer.”—sl

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Even Flow

umd App Aims to Tame Traffic for All

hile millions of commuters face rush hour battles armed with Google Maps or Waze, a new travel planning app from umd helps you find your best route while offering a new weapon: free swag.

With incenTrip, available in the Apple and Android app stores, users earn rewards for taking public transit or driving during less congested hours, reducing traffic throughout the region for everyone.

Sure, it offers driving directions, but its real talent is finding alternate travel modes: mass transit, car- and vanpools and even bikeshare programs. The possibilities it uncovers can surprise you, says app co-developer Chenfeng Xiong, an assistant research professor in the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering.

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“I learned from the app there’s a Shuttle-UM (route) I didn’t know about that goes from near my house to campus that I now use,” he says.

Using predictive modeling algorithms developed by the university’s National Transportation Center (ntc), it also supplies a range of departure-time options that illustrate how leaving a little earlier or later might cut your time going from A to B. As the name suggests, incenTrip users earn incentives—five points for a car ride at the height of rush hour, for instance, but maybe 160 for taking a bus—redeemable for gift cards to retailers like Amazon and the Apple Store.

Eventually, they should be redeemable for cash and transit tickets as well, says Professor Lei Zhang, Herbert Rabin Distinguished Professor and ntc director.

Zhang’s goal for the app, developed with funding from the U.S. Department of Energy, is to reduce traffic delays, energy use and congestion by 10 percent over the next few years.

About 160,000 app users could make that a reality, according to NTC estimates.

That might not seem like many out of nearly 4 million commuters, but ntc research shows that when an incenTrip user saves just one hour in traffic, it has an exponential effect, saving five to 18 hours systemwide, he says.

The Metropolitan Washington Council of Governments Commuter Connections program plans to add incenTrip to the accounts of tens of thousands of members later this year.

Zhang hopes positive word of mouth—and the swag—will bring in even more.

“This is a very different way to look at resolving these problems,” Zhang says. “A 10 percent reduction in congestion is not something we’ve accomplished with billions of dollars in investment in capacity. We need to look at how to better manage travel demand.” —cc

To learn more, visit incenTrip.org.

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I L L U S T R AT I O N S BY B C R E AT I V E G R O U P

THE BIG QUESTION

What’s the one thing that everyone should read?

JENNIFER TURNER ASSOCIATE PROFESSOR, DEPARTMENT OF TEACHING AND LEARNING, POLICY AND LEADERSHIP

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Octavia Butler’s “Kindred” offers a unique perspective on slavery. Dana, the 26-yearold African-American protagonist, travels back in time to her ancestors’ plantation in antebellum Maryland, and readers learn how complicated choice is for the enslaved African-Americans. Although published in the 1970s, “Kindred” centers on timeless themes such as race, identity, family, legacy, power, resistance and resilience.

KATY NEWTON LAWLEY M.L.S. ’01, PH.D. ’11 LECTURER AND DOCTORAL PROGRAM ASSOCIATE DIRECTOR, COLLEGE OF INFORMATION STUDIES

—

“Metaphors We Live By” by George Lakoff and Mark Johnson awakened me to the understanding that our ability to think abstractly is grounded in our ability to use metaphors.

Our concrete experiences come in through our five senses, and we extrapolate our

sensory knowledge to enable us to manipulate ideas that have no physical embodiment.

This book gave me more insight into thinking than anything else I’ve ever read.

ANDREW FELLOWS M.A. ’97 COMMUNITY AND OUTREACH PROGRAM MANAGER, COLLEGE OF INFORMATION STUDIES AND THE NATIONAL CENTER FOR SMART GROWTH, AND FORMER MAYOR, COLLEGE PARK

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The United States Constitution. An aspirational document that includes the Bill of Rights, written as a set of legal defenses against tyranny, this living document is the supreme law of the United States and a timely reminder of the need to fight for human rights.

engagement and responsibility. Everyone should read as much and as widely as possible, and “Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, an American Slave” would be a good place to start.

MAY RIHANI DIRECTOR, GEORGE AND LISA ZAKHEM KAHLIL GIBRAN CHAIR FOR VALUES AND PEACE

—

“The Tipping Point” by Malcolm Gladwell. “​Ideas and products and messages and behaviors,​” Gladwell writes, ​“​spread just as viruses do.​” He ​explains how the idea of the tipping point ​can be used to describe natural ​as well as social phenomena, insisting that we can discover the scientific principles that govern both.

VICTORIA CHANSE ASSOCIATE PROFESSOR, DEPARTMENT OF PLANT SCIENCE AND LANDSCAPE ARCHITECTURE

—

In our digital, big-data age, “Outside Lies Magic: Regaining History and Awareness in Everyday Places” by John R. Stilgoe reminds and inspires us to get outside, to look around and to wonder about what we see. The author examines the history of his own explorations of abandoned railways and other places, and the origins of different patterns and forms in the American landscape.

CHRISTINA WALTER ASSOCIATE PROFESSOR, DEPARTMENT OF ENGLISH

—

Frederick Douglass, the writer and abolitionist, declared, “once you learn to read, you will be forever free.” Reading is a pathway to changing your circumstances—to charting new networks of belonging and pursuing civic

Share your answer at terp.umd.edu/BigQ3 Suggest a future question at terpfeedback.umd.edu

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T E R P. U M D . E D U

N E W S PA P E R P H OTO BY M A R K W I L S O N /G E T T Y I M AG E S

Despite trauma from the shootings, Rachael Pacella ’13 plans to return to The Capital.

“If anything,” she says, “it motivates you to move forward in a better way.”

In the aftermath of the Capital Gazette shootings, journalists face hard questions— and rededicate to their mission by liam farrell and chris carroll

O

nce the shooting had finally stopped and she was bloodied but safe in a hospital, all Rachael Pacella ’13 wanted was a pen and paper. She was confused and in pain, but she was still a journalist—she had to write all of this down.

The Capital reporter’s day on June 28 had started in typical overscheduled fashion: She covered Induction Day ceremonies for new midshipmen arriving at the U.S. Naval Academy, then rushed to a press conference outside of Annapolis for a story about recent deaths on local waterways.

By 2:30 p.m., Pacella was back at her desk writing and

R AC H A E L PAC E L L A P H OTO BY ST E P H A N I E S . CO R D L E

about to email photos from the press conference when a shotgun blast shattered the office’s glass front door.

The gunman—allegedly a reader with a grudge against the newspaper and two journalists who hadn’t worked there in years—then stepped inside and killed five Capital Gazette employees: John McNamara ’83, a longtime Terps sports reporter; Gerald Fischman ’79, the editorial writer; Rob Hiaasen, an editor and adjunct professor at umd; Wendi Winters, a features writer; and Rebecca Smith, a sales assistant. Pacella was one of six employees in the newsroom that afternoon who survived.

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The Capital Gazette murders—possibly the single deadliest incident for journalists in American history—have prompted difficult questions about the value of local news, squeezed for years by financial problems, and a national narrative that has often cast journalists as villains.

“On the next day, we probably had eight different journalists come through to interview me and other people here … and they told me how they used to feel safe going on stories, doing a standup on the street corner,” says Lucy Dalglish, dean of the umd Philip Merrill College of Journalism. “But now, on just ordinary, run-of-the-mill stories, citizens are yelling at them, throwing things at them,

breaking up their live shots, and in other ways basically disparaging them, and it’s very scary.”

Yet there has also been strength in just continuing the mission. Capital reporter Chase Cook quickly tweeted after the shooting that “We are putting out a damn paper tomorrow”—and they did.

Meanwhile, Pacella, who was treated for a concussion and cuts she’d suffered trying to flee the gunfire, eventually got a pen and paper and scribbled down everything she remembered and saw in front of her: the name of her doctor, the shape of the blood drying on her arm, how the newsroom had smelled like gunpowder, the make and model of the camera used to photograph her injuries.

On John McNamara ’83: “He stayed through ownership changes, layoffs and all that, and not only did he persevere, he took on more work. He just wouldn’t give up, no matter what the industry threw at him.”

—former capital gazette publisher tom marquardt

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And Pacella kept on writing, in notebooks and on a new blog documenting her recovery.

Her trade became a comfort and motivation in the weeks after her life was changed forever, through vigils and funerals, quiet trips to museums and hikes in the woods.

“I want to capture and remember every piece of it,” she says. “I don’t think it will affect the kind of stories I write. If anything, it motivates you to move forward in a better way.”

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t a vigil near the Capital Gazette office the day after the shooting, one of the paper’s most senior reporters, E.B. “Pat” Furgurson III, implored the crowd to recognize the humanity behind the bylines.

“We are not the enemy,” he said.

“We are you.”

In the immediate outpouring of grief and support from around the country—including a network of former Capital employees volunteering their help, back-ordered “Press On Annapolis” T-shirts and a memorial fund raising more than a half-million dollars—it appeared that people agreed with Furgurson.

But for a long time, the media and American public have drifted farther and farther apart. People jeer “lock them up” at penned reporters covering political rallies and President Donald Trump disparages journalists as “enemies of the people” almost daily with charges of peddling “fake news.” Just a day before the Annapolis mass shooting, rightwing provocateur Milo Yiannopoulos said that he looked forward to vigilantes “gunning down journalists.” He later said he was joking.

The disdain cuts through U.S. society: According to a 2017 Knight FoundationGallup study, Americans believe 39 percent of the news reported by newspapers, TV and radio is “misinformation”—intentional fabrications, or stories that can’t be verified but are reported as fact.

Adding to the gloom are the internet-driven declines in circulation and advertising revenue

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that have led to the gutting of newsrooms nationwide, along with continuing consolidations and closures. Across the country, from 2005–17, the number of reporters and correspondents plunged 42 percent.

This dynamic has been particularly destructive at smaller newspapers like The Capital, as its shrinking staff tries to meet the demands of filling pages and the 24-hour news cycle online. Owned by Philip Merrill, namesake of umd’s journalism school, from 1968 until 2007, it’s since changed owners several times, switched from afternoon to morning delivery, and sold its printing press.

The building where the attack took place is a shared office complex two miles from the newspaper’s former sprawling home.

Gavin Buckley, the mayor of Annapolis, said in the wake of the shooting that The Capital is the sort of publication where you go to find “reports on our kids’ sports games.”

“This paper is not a left-wing paper, it’s not a right-wing paper, it’s just a great local paper that we all love,” he said. “To be that offended is just unfathomable.”

Local newspapers help to hold communities together, says Dalglish, a national voice on media issues. They are where people learn why taxes are going up and who is getting an award at their child’s school.

“If we lose this,” she says, “I think communities are going to come unglued.”

Safety, however, has now risen to the top of the list of problems. Merrill College plans to undertake a new effort to teach journalists around the country how to handle disgruntled readers and viewers.

“How do you recognize the difference between someone who’s angry and rational,” Dalglish says, “versus angry and dangerous?”

The accused shooter—Jarrod W. Ramos, a Laurel, Md., resident who had unsuccessfully sued the newspaper for defamation—was clearly the second.

After he started firing at her co-workers, Pacella initially hid under her desk, then ran toward the back door. She tripped and slammed her face into the door frame before

On Gerald Fischman ’79: “He had a great understanding of current events and was the kind of person who could see both sides of an issue.”

—professor emerita maurine beasley

discovering that it wouldn’t open; the shooter had barricaded it from the outside. Bleeding profusely, she crouched between two nearby filing cabinets. She was convinced she was going to die, until she didn’t.

In those endless seconds, Pacella says, her mind spun around the question of why someone would target The Capital and kept landing on the answer that the country’s anti-journalist sentiment had finally boiled over.

“Any reasonable person will at least ask the question,” she says. “I don’t think we have an answer.”

Fewer than 24 hours after Pacella said that, Trump tweeted about his summit in Helsinki

with Russian President Vladimir Putin, calling it “a great success, except with the real enemy of the people, the Fake News Media.”

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fter staggering through the initial period of shock and mourning, Merrill College and the university are considering how to honor and permanently memorialize the lost Terps: McNamara, Fischman and Hiaasen.

McNamara, whose funeral was held at Memorial Chapel, met his wife, Andrea Chamblee ’83, while they were students at

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umd and had covered Terps football and basketball since his days as a Diamondback staffer. The respect he commanded far outweighed the modest circulation of the newspaper he wrote for.

“The first thing I noticed about John was how much he loved the game of basketball,” says former basketball coach Gary Williams ’68. “He was one of those people you could feel close to and still have a business relationship with.”

His encyclopedic mastery of Terps basketball culminated in his 2001 book “Cole Classics! Maryland Basketball’s Leading Men and Moments,” written with Dave Elfin. He followed up in 2009 with “The University of Maryland Football Vault: The History of the Terrapins.”

Staff cuts and reorganizations at Capital Gazette Newspapers eventually had McNamara shift to covering two local communities. Local news wasn’t his first love, but he approached it as seriously as he did sports, often reporting late into the night at government meetings and cultivating relationships with his best sources. In his free time, he was finishing a new book about the history of basketball in D.C.-area high schools.

Longtime friend Doug Dull ’81, a former associate athletic director at umd, remembers how McNamara came calling on him in intensive care in early 2017, when he was fighting a sepsis infection and slipping in and out of consciousness.

“My sister-in-law told me the story that John nonchalantly walked in and said he needed to bring me up to date on what’s going on in the sports world,” Dull says. “He talked about the Terps, talked about the Capitals, talked about a few other teams. What struck her was how normally he treated it.”

Fischman ’79, who also worked for The Diamondback, was an award-winning editorial writer who began working at The Capital in 1992. Known for his cardigans, late hours and introverted personality, he would leave pointed, clear-eyed drafts on reporters’ desks each morning, accompanied by Post-It notes

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On Rob Hiaasen: “He loved coming in here. He had a gift for helping people … and bringing them up to the next level.”

—senior lecturer chris harvey ’80

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politely asking to check them for accuracy.

Professor Emerita Maurine H. Beasley, who taught Fischman, says he made a strong impression on her as mature and well read. She wasn’t surprised he became an editorial writer.

“He had a great understanding of current events and was the kind of person who could see both sides of an issue,” she says.

Hiaasen, who taught news writing and reporting last spring at Merrill College and was scheduled to do so again this fall, started working at The Capital in 2010 after 15 years as a feature writer at The Baltimore Sun. Friends and co-workers recalled his gentle, supportive style as an editor, epitomized by encouraging notes and voicemails he’d leave them praising a nicely written piece, or gently inquiring about the status of an article.

“I don’t think I ever saw him without a smile on his face,” says Abell Professor Sandy Banisky, who worked with Hiaasen at The Sun, where she previously was deputy managing editor.

Senior Lecturer Chris Harvey ’80 spoke with Hiaasen frequently as he navigated his first semester as an adjunct lecturer. She says he was a natural, brimming with enthusiasm.

“He loved coming in here,” she says. “He had a gift for helping people … and bringing them up to the next level.”

Eager to help in any small way, faculty have been filling in as editors at The Capital’s temporary Annapolis newsroom. Officials will name a classroom in Knight Hall, home of the journalism school, in honor of the five Capital Gazette employees who were killed.

Maryland Athletics intends to install permanent seat placards bearing McNamara’s name on press row at Xfinity Center and Maryland Stadium, along with memorial plaques in the media rooms.

A new community-funded scholarship for Merrill students had raised $133,000 at press time, and Hiaasen’s family established another journalism scholarship at Maryland.

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eeks after the shootings, four crosses and a Star of David still stood in front of the building with The Capital’s abandoned newsroom.

American flags and fresh bouquets of flowers had been placed around them.

A police car was stationed in front.

At a coffee shop in historic downtown Annapolis, the city had fallen back into a more regular rhythm. People ate breakfast wraps, sipped coffee and pecked at laptops.

A lobbyist held court at one table, discussing some grand strategy. A family of tourists wandered in.

Pacella, whose fingers fight and pick at each other as she talks and pauses to think, interned at The Capital in 2013 and spent the next four years angling for a full-time job there. She got her chance in spring 2017 after a few years at The Daily Times in Salisbury and community newspapers in Baltimore County and, after spending her childhood near Ocean City, is glad to be close to the water again.

She compares the decision to become—and stay—a reporter to buying a boat: It’s not the best financial decision, and guarantees hardships along the way, but you don’t have much choice if you can’t live any other way.

“It just gives you a license to have this weird curiosity. I would miss all of that in my life,” she says. “I can’t be happy without it, so I’m going to stick with it.”

In the immediate aftermath of the shooting, she salved her trauma by playing card and board games with friends and watching the talk show parody “Comedy Bang! Bang!”

But there was also what she termed “terror roulette,” where a car horn might not bother her at all, but the sound of a trunk slamming or something being dropped in a neighboring apartment could send her into paroxysms of fear, collapsing to the ground into a clump of tears and screams.

“Those issues aren’t gone,” she says, but adds: “They’ve gotten better.”

As of mid-July, Pacella had no specific timeline for going back to work. Once she does, she’s hoping to expand into photography and videography, and maybe get back to covering environmental issues.

“I’m looking forward to finding more cool people to write about,” she says. “Don’t know who, but there will always be somebody.” terp LIAM FARRELL WAS THE STATE GOVERNMENT REPORTER AT THE CAPITAL FROM 2007–11.

P H OTO BY ST E P H A N I E S. CO R D L E

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SUPER POSIT1ON COULD COLLEGE PARK BE GROUND ZERO FOR A QUANTUM COMPUTING RE VOLUTION?

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BY CHRIS CARROLL

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ED I L L U S T R AT I O N BY B C R E AT I V E G R O U P

o most of us, the key concepts of quantum computing might sound psychedelic. For instance, when atoms or other particles that store information realize (?!) they are being observed, they stop working and cause an error. But as long as no one peeks, the basic units of information in quantum computers can be in two states at once—both 0 and 1—a concept known as superposition. (In normal computers, binary bits of information must be one or the other.)

Then there’s this: Some respected physicists suspect quantum computers achieve uncanny power by tapping into computing resources that exist in … wait for it … parallel universes.

Here’s a secret: Scientists are still working to fully understand these concepts too. But that hasn’t stopped them from trying to lasso the weirdest parts of quantum mechanics—a branch of physics focused on nature at the atomic scale— to create technology with the potential to shake the world to its foundation.

A practical quantum computer, crunching some kinds of data exponentially faster than anything now available, could reinvent chemistry, allowing us to cure diseases with drugs now too complex to design. It might crack ironclad modern cryptography in hours, instead of the billions of years a standard computer would need to sort through every combination. It could begin to push artificial intelligence to disorienting heights.

Several global tech titans, various governments and a few smaller contenders have entered the race to build this superpowerful machine—and the University of Maryland has a hand in two of the most intriguing approaches, each with its own hurdles to overcome.

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At one extreme, Microsoft is following a mindbendingly complicated, still-theoretical path known as “topological quantum computing,” with the help of Sankar Das Sarma, Richard E. Prange Chair in Physics. Then there’s the already operational “trapped ion” method driven primarily by Chris Monroe, Bice Zorn Professor of Physics, and relying heavily on exotic components like lasers and vacuum tubes.

“If there’s going to be a quantum computing revolution—and that is an ‘if,’” Monroe says, “it’s going to happen in College Park.”

PHILOSOPHY PROFESSOR HAS A COMIC TAKE ON QUANTUM CONFUSION DISTINGUISHED UNIVERSITY PROFESSOR Jeffrey Bub started

out on course to write a book explaining quantum physics to non-physicists, but 2016’s “Bananaworld” only got halfway there before sinking beneath too many equations.

“I really wrote the book for my son, who at that point was a postdoc in physiology,” the physicist turned philosopher says.

“But the math kind of got away from me and when I finished writing, it was pretty technical.”

It’s understandable, given the subject. Quantum theory, the foundation of many modern technologies, makes sense in mathematical terms. In everyday speech, it can sound deranged: effects without causes, or causes that follow effects; things that simultaneously exist in multiple states—one and two, red and blue, alive and

QUANTUM CENTRAL

dead—until you observe them and they settle into a single state. (But how does

Monroe is entitled to make bold predictions.

A pioneer in the field of quantum computing and a Distinguished University Professor, he’s the guy who made international headlines for “teleporting” quantum information from one atom to another via the strange but well-tested phenomenon of entanglement, spawning confusion (and perhaps travel plans) among those who took “Star Trek”related terminology too literally.

Now he’s chief scientist and co-founder, along with Duke University engineering Professor Jungsang Kim, of IonQ, a startup just east of campus that has a few dozen employees, crucial technology developed by Monroe and licensed from umd, and $20 million in venture capital to build a general purpose quantum computer.

It’s dwarfed by the big companies in the race, including ibm, Intel and Google, but the disparity isn’t quite as dramatic as it seems, thanks to IonQ’s connection to one of the premier quantum physics research enterprises.

More than a decade of partnership between umd and the National Institute of Standards and Technology (nist) has led to fundamental advances in quantum physics and information science. Today, scores of physicists and a growing contingent of computer scientists and engineers work in a trio of research centers at umd, run in collaboration with nist: the Joint Quantum Institute, where Monroe is a fellow; the Joint Center for Quantum Information and

an atom know you looked at it?)

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In a new book-length comic with a rigorous no-equations approach, “Totally Random: Why Nobody Understands Quantum Mechanics,” Bub takes another run at explaining quantum mysteries to his son—this time with the help of his daughter, Tanya Bub, his co-author and illustrator.

The Bubs don’t attempt to explain why the phenomena actually work (because no one knows), but do explore how they work in practice, using a simple metaphor of coin tosses and a liberal sprinkling of humor to examine the probabilistic nature of quantum reality, a concept that disturbed Einstein and prompted his famous declaration that “God does not play dice with the universe.”

Quantum physicists have mostly adhered to the maxim “shut up and calculate,” using quantum theory in their research but generally skirting the deep foundational questions that occupy Bub. “Physicists often say, ‘You know, these are the kinds of questions you can discuss over a beer after you’ve finished your real work,’” he says.

So bring on the beer and hold the equations.—CC

Computer Science; and the recently announced Quantum Technology Center, where Monroe was recently named director.

Quantum computing is more than a business priority—it’s a national necessity, says Laurie Locascio, vice president for research at Maryland and a former nist researcher who rose to the agency’s top levels.

“Both institutions have supported this effort because we saw it as a technological

leading edge, and may be an example of a leapfrog technology for the United States that we can’t afford to be left behind on,” she says.

Private industry has always played a dominant role in computing, which is why umd has been revisiting its policies on technology commercialization and licensing, as well as working to make Greater College Park an attractive setting for business, she says.

Monroe confirms that IonQ likely wouldn’t

exist without umd’s keen interest in fostering tech firms connected to the university.

“At Stanford or mit, we’d probably still be waiting in line,” he says.

B U I LT B Y N A T U R E

Besides the nist partnership, Monroe may have another advantage over the heavy hitters in the way the guts of his quantum computers work. They get their processing power from “trapped” atoms lined up by electrodes and suspended within a vacuum chamber. By zapping them individually with a laser, they can be manipulated to store information.

In a classical computer, the smallest units of information, or bits, are stored as 0 or 1.

But thanks to superposition, quantum bits, or qubits, can be 0 and 1 simultaneously. With entanglement also in play, computer processing power increases exponentially.

Trapped ions—built by nature—are more stable than competitors’ manufactured qubits, and can avoid slumping into either a 0 or a 1, or “decohering,” for far longer. Delaying decoherence for seconds, as opposed to millionths of a second, keeps errors at bay.

“As memory elements, they’re perfect,” Monroe says of trapped ions. “Better than we really need.”

Last spring, Maryland researchers pitted his architecture against ibm’s, which relies on fabricated superconducting circuits to form qubits; each had five qubits. The ibm computer proved faster, but the Maryland entrant was more reliable and had more interconnected qubits. There was no clear-cut winner.

Since then, working in his labs in the Physical Sciences Complex basement, he and his research team have continued packing more ions into the vacuum tubes.

They successfully used 53 ions—a record—in a quantum simulator (a specialty quantum computer designed for physics research) reported last fall in the journal Nature.

A new project—contained in black polycarbonate panels rather than spread out in a chaotic array of lasers and mirrors on a lab table—is the Monroe group’s first attempt at

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designing and building an integrated system.

About a mile away at IonQ, a twin is being built as the company’s first prototype.

When fully operational, it will have 32 qubits in action. All would be under full control via laser, another new record.

How many qubits will a fully reliable quantum computer need—one with the power to accomplish things no classical computer can?

Maybe a hundred thousand, Monroe says.

THE ERROR PROBLEM

Futuristic potential aside, compared to a $200 Costco special, today’s experimental quantum computers kind of stink, with

“IF THERE’S GOING TO BE A QUANTUM COMPUTING REVOLUTION— AND THAT IS AN ‘IF’—IT’S GO1NG TO HAPPEN IN COLLEGE PARK.” ­— C H R I S M O N R O E BICE ZORN PROFESSOR OF PHYSICS

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“PEOPLE SAY WE’LL HAVE A REAL QUANTUM COMPUTER IN 10 YEARS— AND THEY’VE BEEN SAY1NG IT FOR 20 YEARS.” —SANKAR DAS SARMA RICHARD E. PRANGE CHAIR IN PHYSICS

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comparatively astronomical rates of errors that result in lost information.

To get around this, scientists have developed systems for quantum error correction, in which secondary qubits back up and correct the main qubit when it goes awry. In classical computing, the same information can be stored in several copies, and if one bit goes bad, the majority with correct information will prevail. But because of those weird rules of physics, copying information on a quantum computer is the same as destroying it. Complicated workarounds are required.

The upshot: A single perfect “logical qubit” might require 1,000 imperfect qubits working together. A reliable, early-stage quantum computer able to outclass current machines might need 100,000 or more qubits, and even billions for ultra-powerful, world-altering computers.

But making error-free computing the priority this early in the game could be a mistake, Monroe says.

“Am I supposed to build a million qubits to get 10 perfect qubits? Anything I could do with 10 perfect qubits, I can already do on my laptop,” he says. “I’d rather have 100 imperfect qubits and look for something interesting I can do with them.

“It’s a subtle point, but if we don’t do that, we’re never going to get to a million qubits anyway.”

QUANTUM DOUGHNUTS

But what if it were possible to start with qubits impervious to errors?

That’s the idea theoretical physicist and Distinguished University Professor Sankar Das Sarma and Microsoft are exploring through topological quantum computing, which he and two colleagues proposed in 2005. It’s named after the branch of math known as topology, which postulates that two objects as different as a doughnut and a coffee cup are essentially the same. Both have a single hole.

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To simplify, if a qubit can be defined by its topology, or essential shape, minor errors shouldn’t hurt, Das Sarma says.

“Take a little bite out of a doughnut—that’s an error—it doesn’t change the doughnut topologically, and likewise, small errors don’t change the qubit fundamentally,” he says.

There’s much more to these “quantum doughnuts,” says Das Sarma: qubits composed of braided quasiparticles known as Majorana, recently discovered two-dimensional “emergent phenomena” that happen to be their own antiparticles, and … yeah, never mind. The point is, Majorana—whatever they are—might be able to form a completely stable qubit that doesn’t require a vast number of backups.

Whether the theory can become reality is

an open question, though Das Sarma thinks it’s more likely to succeed than stashing millions of trapped ion qubits in vacuum chambers, or forcing perhaps an even-larger number of superconducting qubits to work together reliably.

“People who are big believers in the topological qubit believe that if a real quantum computer is built someday, it can only be a topological one,” Das Sarma says. “I probably belong to that category.”

There’s less circumspection from the company that has long helped bankroll Das Sarma’s theoretical journeys in the quantum world.

“We will have a commercially relevant computer—one that’s solving real problems— within five years,” Julie Love, Microsoft’s

NEW CENTER FACTORS ENGINEERING INTO THE QUANTUM EQUATION FOR DECADES, physicists have essentially owned the quantum world and

its intriguing properties, but that’s now changing.

Recent advances in researchers’ ability to manipulate weird quantum effects like superposition and entanglement are expected to propel revolutionary technologies in computing, sensors and networking.

The university’s new Quantum Technology Center (qtc), which is expected to open this fall, is bringing in new partners to capitalize on this progress.

“We’re moving beyond straight science and verging into engineering,” says Steve Rolston, professor and chair of the Department of Physics.

“We’re at the point there would be a benefit in taking a more systems engineering approach.”

In the center, the A. James Clark School of Engineering and the College of Computer, Mathematical, and Natural Sciences will collaborate with the Joint Quantum Institute—a quantum science-focused research center—and the Joint Center for Quantum Information and Computer Science.

All three centers are part of a wider quantum research partnership between umd and the National Institute for Standards and Technology. The qtc

will also pursue collaborations with outside research partners in industry,

government and academia. In addition to research, the qtc will include an education curriculum in quantum technology at all levels.

director of quantum computing business development, told the BBC earlier this year.

WORKING WITH IMPERFECTION

Engineering solutions to these issues, particularly quantum error correction, will take years of hard work, says Carl Williams, a physicist, quantum computing expert and acting director of nist’s Physical Measurement Laboratory.

“To have a machine that’s big enough to do useful economic things—solving a problem in drug design or doing a major optimization of a key problem in aircraft routing—I really expect that is more than a decade off,” says Williams.

“Some will say I’m too optimistic, some will say too pessimistic, but I believe we’re on a 10- to 20-year timeline.”

Until then, the world is going to have to live with quantum computers that may be the equivalent of the Wright brothers’ Flyer, if not Leonardo da Vinci’s fanciful flying machines.

John Preskill, a theoretical physicist at the California Institute of Technology (and a member of IonQ’s board of advisors), has coined an acronym to describe them: nisqs, or noisy intermediate-scale quantum computers.

The devices just over the horizon won’t be perfect, and they’ll still leak quantum information like crazy, but they’re a necessary step. “nisq devices will be useful tools for exploring many-body quantum physics, and may have other useful applications, but the 100-bit quantum computer will not change the world right away. We should regard it as a significant step toward the more powerful quantum technologies of the future,” he writes.

IonQ aims to begin offering cloud quantum computing services soon, allowing users to log in and participate in what could be the dawn of a new technological age.

“We’re not the ones who are going to find out what this can do,” Monroe says. “We’re going to put this technology in the hands of people with problems they want to solve, and see what they can do with it. We’re going to learn from them.” terp

“All of this really puts the University of Maryland at the forefront of this new field of quantum engineering,” says Edo Waks, professor of electrical and computer engineering, who’ll serve as qtc associate director (both he and Rolston are also jqi fellows). “It’s going to give us better integration with industry, and we’re going to be producing students who will go to work developing the new technology.” —CC

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A GREATER PERSPECTIVE revitalization has college park booming and blooming PHOTOGRAPHY BY STEPHANIE S. CORDLE

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ips for your next visit to College Park: Stop by MilkBoy ArtHouse for a hiphop album release party, or to try your hand at watercolor painting. Grab a latte at Vigilante Coffee, then explore the neighboring vintage store. Stay the night, wrapped in the plushiest Turkish robe, in the Hotel at the University of Maryland.

Doesn’t sound like the college town you remember, right? It shouldn’t. This is Greater College Park, a massive $2 billion private and public investment to reimagine the Baltimore Avenue corridor, along the tracks of the coming Purple light-rail line and around the College Park Metro Station.

Today, it’s bustling with new tech ventures, eclectic businesses, ultramodern housing and a vibe you haven’t felt here before.

You can find all the details at greatercollegepark.umd.edu.

But first, take a close-up look here.—lb

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PRIME PEOPLE-WATCHING SPOT: ONE OF THE SEATING AREAS IN THE GRAND LOBBY OF THE HOTEL AT THE UNIVERSITY OF MARYLAND.

H O T E L L O B B Y P H O T O B Y J O H N T. C O N S O L I

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FUNKY SCULPTURES GREET VISITORS AT RIVERDALE PARK STATION, HOME TO WHOLE FOODS MARKET, APARTMENTS AND TOWNHOUSES, BURTON’S GRILL, DISTRICT TACO, DENIZENS BREWING CO, AND MORE.

TRY THE KENNEBECSALTED TRUFFLE FRIES AT THE GREEN TIDINGS FOOD TRUCK.

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A 15-FOOT-TALL MURAL BY SOUTH AFRICAN ARTIST KILMANY-JO LIVERSAGE OUTSIDE OF NANDO’S PERI-PERI RAISES THE COOL FACTOR ON KNOX ROAD.

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INSTANT ALFRESCO DINING: MILKBOY ARTHOUSE’S GARAGE-STYLE DOORS LIFT IN GOOD WEATHER.

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greatercollegeparkprojects 1 Riverdale Park Station Whole Foods Market anchors this development that also includes townhouses, restaurants and retail.

2 Bridge A new pedestrian, bicycle and vehicular bridge connects housing at Riverdale Park Station to the Discovery District.

3 College Park Academy This public charter middle and high school launched in collaboration with the university.

4 COPT Building Corporate Office Properties Trust partnered with UMD on a 75,000-square-foot building for the Division of Information Technology and others.

7 ArtWalk Colorful sculptures, green space and food trucks await visitors in a park-like area.

8 Southern Gateway The former Quality Inn turns into a community featuring restaurants, retail and residences.

9 Terrapin Row Student housing, with a pool, park, exercise station and other perks, including Dunkin Donuts and an Amazon pickup location, replaces the Knox Boxes.

10 Cava The fast-expanding Mediterranean eatery led

by Brett Schulman ’95 will open in the College Park Shopping Center.

5 Two R&D Buildings Flex and research and development space stretches across two buildings.

11 MilkBoy ArtHouse The Clarice and Philadelphia restaurant and entertainment company MilkBoy team up in this restaurant, bar and performance venue.

6 Gilbane Development A mixed-use community with 431 units will be designed to be pedestrianand bike-friendly.

12 Target Express Landmark College Park’s first Target stands under 267 student apartments.

13 We Work University of Maryland The global co-working brand will open its first location in the state.

14 The Hall CP War Horse Cities, founded

by Scott Plank ’88, will create a food, arts and collaborative office environment.

15 The Hotel at the University of Maryland A luxury hotel and conference center also features an Elizabeth Arden Red Door Salon & Spa, restaurants, a lobby bar and meeting space.

16 Diamondback Garage This space will feature the Capital One Tech Center, Adobe, data-management platform Immuta and university entrepreneurship and innovation programs.

18 Paint Branch Bridge A pedestrian bridge has new colorful and artistic lighting and a vibrant community mural on its underpass.

19 Vigilante Coffee Co. The local specialty roaster is ranked the No. 1 coffee in Maryland by Food & Wine Magazine.

20 Cambria Hotel and Suites A 150-room hotel also has a new restaurant, College Park Grill, and Orange Theory Fitness.

21 Alloy by Alta A 270-unit apartment building will also have an in-ground pool, fitness center and tech lounge workspace.

22 Lidl A grocery store by the growing German company will replace a Clarion Inn.

17 Iribe Center A striking building will be a tech hub focusing on virtual and augmented reality, artificial intelligence, robotics and computer vision.

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ALUMNI

A S S O C I AT I O N

STAY ACTIVE

Letter From the Executive Director There’s never been a better time to be a Terp! Fearless

“We Brought Him Back Home” Terps Return to Father’s Homeland Through Alumni Association Trip

alumni are starting new businesses, launching initiatives to Do Good and leading their communities. The Terp network is nearly 369,000 strong, stretching from San Francisco to Boston to China.

Now, you can take advantage of this vast network through our powerful new Alumni Directory (alumni.umd.edu/directory). Just search for alumni from your class year, major or specific industry. Plus, you can use your Alumni Directory profile to let us know what field you’re interested in so we can tailor our communications to best fit your needs. Want to meet like-minded Terps near you? We can invite you to professional development events in your industry, in your neighborhood or even at your company.

The budding Terp Attorney Network and the Terp Entrepreneur Network are just two new ways to interact with fellow alumni. Keep an eye out for Terp Business Connect, our upcoming program to bring alumni business owners together and help Terps in their communities find them.

I’m also excited to introduce Aubrey McLaughlin MBA '16, director of professional networks. Check out our interview with her to the right to learn more about the many opportunities for professional development for alumni.

No matter your stage of life or career, remember that your Alumni Association is here to help you stay connected and develop professionally. I invite you to reach out to your fellow alumni—you never know what connections you may form.

leslie lancaster ’01 grew up helping her parents in their Silver Spring, Md., grocery store, Casa Veiga. Lancaster says she inherited a lot of things from her father: a passion for community service, a love for her Cuban heritage and an appreciation for family. She watched her father give her mother a bouquet of red roses on her birthday every year, a tradition for 46 years of marriage.

This year was to be the family’s first without the tradition. Lancaster’s father, Jose Antonio Veiga, died in July 2017. Though he accomplished much, he never got the chance to return to his birthplace.

So she and her family did it for him this past spring, through a trip hosted by the University of Maryland Alumni Association.

“I thought what better way to honor his memory around the timeframe of his one-year anniversary of passing away, than to go to Cuba?” she says. “My mom’s 79th birthday is also in May, and it would be her first birthday without him.”

In Havana, the family walked the streets of her father’s neighborhood and saw his own family’s grocery store. “Thinking about how he helped his grandfather, just like how I helped him growing up, we were all overwhelmed with emotion,” Lancaster says.

Her brother, Mauricio Veiga ’01, says their father also instilled in them the motivation to pursue education. The family took advantage of educational sessions offered on the trip and met locals to find out about the country’s rich history.

“We had a little sadness we were never able to do this with my dad, but we all felt him with us the entire trip,” Veiga says. “He would have been so happy we were all together and we brought him back home, even if it was only through memory.”

While the trip brought a range of emotions for Lancaster and Veiga, they wanted to make sure it was especially meaningful for their mother. The Alumni Association and Go Next travel team ensured that on her birthday, Myriam Veiga received a dozen red roses for the 47th year.

To learn more about “I can only thank them all for making this a traveling with the Alumni Association and much more memorable experience for all of us,” see upcoming trips, visit Lancaster says. alumni.umd.edu/ —Daryl Lee Hale, Alumni Association staff

travel.

Go Terps!

Amy Eichhorst

Executive Director University of Maryland Alumni Association

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The Veiga family in Cuba, including Mauricio Veiga ’01 (far left), Leslie Lancaster ’01 (holding daughter Francesca) and Myriam Veiga (far right).

STAY CONNECTED

The Professional on Professional Networks Aubrey McLaughlin MBA ’16, the director of alumni professional networks, answers questions about upcoming Alumni Association initiatives:

WHAT PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT SERVICES DOES THE ALUMNI ASSOCIATION OFFER?

WHAT PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT EVENTS CAN ALUMNI ATTEND?

We have a few exciting new initiatives to help Terps

Virtually, our biweekly Webinar Wednesday series

enrich themselves and their careers. Our industry-

and our book clubs offer something for everyone.

focused networks are communities of Terps who

We’ve hosted webinars on topics ranging from agile

work in the same field and come together. The

storytelling and branding to extreme couponing. In

Terp Entrepreneur Network is launching this fall,

person, our Terrapin Professional Network events

followed by Terp Alumni Attorneys. Stay tuned for

foster quality business networking nationwide. We

future networks!

also recently launched Mornings with Maryland to

HOW CAN TERPS HELP CURRENT STUDENTS AND FELLOW ALUMNI SEEKING PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT?

Terrapins Connect, our virtual networking and mentorship platform, is a great resource for Terps to provide guidance to students and alumni maneuvering their careers or educational growth. Alumni can search by location, industry, company or even industry groups. Plus, alumni can volunteer from anywhere in the world—their couch, hotel room or office—on their own time.

We’ve also partnered with the university’s Career Center to provide opportunities for alumni to host

ENTERPRENEURS IN THE CITY Chris Boone and Inga Beermann ’12 explored alumni and student startups in D.C. on April 17.

allow Terps to mingle at their company.

HOW CAN ALUMNI NETWORK WITH OTHERS IN THEIR CITY OR INDUSTRY?

In addition to Terrapins Connect, our new Alumni Directory helps you find fellow alums where you live or work by setting your industry preferences and signing up for networking events. Our LinkedIn group of more than 30,000 Terps features daily discussions, tips and news. The Careers4Terps program also hosts career resources and networking opportunities. Terps love supporting each other, so I highly suggest reaching out.

current students as an Intern for a Day, share their expertise at career panels and more.

TERPS IN THE HARBOR Hao Li ’17, Kelly Liu ’09, John Chickering ’85 and Angela Sorensen ’15 networked with fellow alumni on May 17 in Boston.

To learn more about professional development opportunities, visit alumni.umd.edu/prof-dev.

The Plot Thickens Virtual Book Clubs Starting

THE ALUMNI ASSOCIATION is turning a new page, with the formation

of virtual book clubs for University of Maryland alumni.

In these online communities, alumni can connect with each other and enjoy books related to lifelong learning, professional development, fiction or education. Alumni can join multiple groups, and

Sign up to start your first book at alumni.umd.edu/ bookclub.

MARYLAND IN MANHATTAN The University of Maryland honored some of its excellent alumni at the annual evening of celebration at the Edison Ballroom on April 25.

Attendees included Giannina Brancato ’17, Vinny Patel ’97, Leanne Hug ’13, Paige Pennington ’14 and Katherine Pepe ’14.

there is no cost to participate—just get a copy of the book to enjoy.

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PROFILES

JENNIE THOMAS M.L.S. ’00

Rock (’n’ Roll) of Ages Museum’s Archivist Preserves More Than Music jennie thomas m.l.s. ’00 hasn’t met every rock idol, but she’s come to know many of them through their personal belongings and writings.

Thomas is director of archives at the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame in Cleveland, which broke ground 25 years ago in September and is the home of rock music’s most treasured artifacts. The collection of more than 30,000 objects ranges from Jimi Hendrix’s Fender Stratocaster guitars to Michael Jackson’s sequined white glove—and Thomas has played a central role in its curation and preservation.

“When you get to describe the collection that has Tom Waits’ handwritten lyrics for ‘Blue Valentine,’ that’s a pretty exciting thing,” says Thomas, a devoted Waits fan.

A classically trained singer, Thomas earned her bachelor’s at St. Mary’s College, then worked in a bookstore and music store before pursuing her master’s degree in library science at Maryland. Here, she worked at its National Public Broadcasting Archives, which she called crucial training.

She spent nine years working with United Methodist Church archives at Albion College in Michigan before landing a job in 2009 as an archivist at the Hall of Fame,

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which attracted more than a half-million visitors last year.

Now she holds the No. 2 role at the hall’s library, located two miles from the museum and open to the public by appointment. There, Thomas supervises the preservation of one-of-a-kind documents, photographs, videos, master tapes, bootleg recordings—anything that isn’t sold commercially and that isn’t clothing or musical instruments.

She also manages digitization projects, preserving rock history in yet another way.

“You have to have a real sense for detail and context and the history of the materials that you’re dealing with,” Thomas says. “When you’re delving into an archival collection, you never know what you’re going to find, so it becomes a little bit of a treasure hunt.”

Thomas made one of her most memorable discoveries while organizing a collection of items from 1950s singer Eddie Cochran, who died at 21 in a car crash. She was struck by the poignancy of two telegrams sent to his family about the accident.

“I was just crying by the time I got through these, because it was just such an unexpected find,” she says.—tk

P H OTO BY JA N E T M ACOS K A

ST E V E H E R R E L L ’ 67

From the Mixed-in Files of Mr. Ice Cream How an Alum Became a Frozen Dessert Visionary

CLASS NOTES

RYAN RICHMAN ’11, M.ED. ’13 was promoted to

assistant coach of the Washington Wizards. He spent the past four seasons as assistant video coordinator and play-

THE NEXT TIME you have ice cream stuffed with candy bars, brownies or cookies, take

er development coordinator. He served as a

a minute from your dairy decadence to thank Steve Herrell ’67, who claims the title of

graduate assistant under Terps basketball

creator of the ice cream mix-in.

coach Mark Turgeon.

Raised making ice cream in his Washington, D.C., backyard every summer, Herrell dreamed of a similar commercial version, with less air than most. So after finishing his

Pro soccer player RODNEY

sociology degree at UMD, he rejiggered an ice cream maker to mix more slowly, almost

WALLACE, who played on

as if by hand. The result? “Dense, ultra-rich, ultra-creamy ice cream that is sticky,

the Terps’ 2008 NCAA cham-

stretchy and chewy, almost like taffy,” according to food writer J. Kenji Lopez-Alt of the

pionship team, competed

ice cream at Steve’s Ice Cream, which Herrell opened in Somerville, Mass., in 1973.

“A customer could choose up to three goodies to have mixed in to any flavor of ice

with Costa Rica in the FIFA World Cup.

cream,” Herrell says. “People just went bonkers over that.” He offered “smoosh-ins,” as he calls them, of brownies, nuts, Heath bars or—most famously—Oreo cookies.

Multiple accounts say two fans of the shop who observed Herrell’s ways for a while

TRACY CLEMONS M. JOUR. ’08 joined Fox 8 in Greensboro,

began their own ice cream operation in neighboring Vermont—Ben and Jerry’s. Mean-

N.C., in July as a morning

while, Herrell sold Steve’s and opened Herrell’s Ice Cream in Northampton, Mass., which

anchor. He’s worked in Shreve-

now also has a location on Long Island.

Herrell is now retired, but he still loves

port, La.; St. Louis; Houston; and Charlottesville, Va.

to taste-test handmade ice cream.

“If I go to an ice cream parlor I haven’t been to I’ll always

Retired Army Capt. FLORENT GROBERG ’06 will serve as

start with their vanilla

grand marshal of the New

and see if it’s good

York City Veterans Day Parade

enough to move on to some of their other

on Nov. 11. He received the Medal of Honor in 2015 for tackling

flavors and spend

a suicide bomber who was part of an attack

the calories.”—SL

that killed four service members.

SUSAN TURNBULL ’75 is

running for lieutenant governor of Maryland under Democratic candidate Ben Jealous. She is former chair of the Maryland Democratic Party. The election is Nov. 6.

Submit your class notes and read many more at terp.umd.edu.

I L L U S T R AT I O N BY J A S O N K E I S L I N G

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FROM THE ARCHIVES

Mother Lode 46

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aniel prescott (1898– 1970) was a professor of education, director emeritus of the university’s Institute for Child Study from 1947–60 and a distinguished writer and scholar of child psychology. But before all that, he was a young man away at war who didn’t want his mom to worry.

To mark the 100th anniversary of the end of World War I, we read a series of letters Prescott sent her in 1917, when he was in the American Field Service with the French Army. The letters, which were

D

donated to University Archives, describe battles on the front and the “damnable efficiency of the whole German empire.”

But mostly, he reassured her he was eating well, sleeping comfortably, getting the occasional “corking good” bath, improving in health and strength, and safer than in the States.

Yet Prescott couldn’t have been too far from danger. Among the other donated artifacts and papers are a field service medal and a piece of shrapnel that nearly struck him.—lb

P H O T O B Y J O H N T. C O N S O L I

Look up your old roommate.

Reconnect with a mentor.

Find your old flame (or fling).

CONNECT WITH FELLOW TERPS THROUGH THE NEW ONLINE ALUMNI DIRECTORY Create an account, decide how much information to share about yourself, and locate former classmates, roommates, teammates and friends.

REGISTER NOW and create your online I L L U S T R AT I O N / P H O T O C R E D I T profile at alumni.umd.edu/directory.

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ALUMNI

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T E R P. U M D . E D U

POWERED BY FEARLESS IDEAS.

SUPPORTED BY YOU. Support a student scholarship. Fund exploration in the arts.

Invest in pioneering research. One gift every year makes a difference every day.

TURNED OPERA INTO A VIRTUAL-REALITY WONDERLAND

DEVELOPED WALKING TOUR ON UMD’S AFRICAN-AMERICAN HISTORY

CREATING 3-D-PRINTED HEART TO HELP DOCTORS PRACTICE FOR SURGERIES

LAUNCHING APP TO GIVE DRIVERS INCENTIVES TO CHANGE COMMUTES

LED SUMMER PROGRAM TO SUPPORT PRESCHOOLERS WITH COCHLEAR IMPLANTS

BIG OR SMALL, YOUR GIFTS HELP DISCOVER NEW KNOWLEDGE / INSPIRE MARYLAND PRIDE / FA L L TRANSFORM THE STUDENT EXPERIENCE / TURN IMAGINATION INTO INNOVATION.

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LEARN MORE AT GIVING.UMD.EDU/TERP

2018

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