Mote Receives National Engineering Award Dan Mote tests instrumental ski equipment, critical to his research on reducing skiing injuries. His experiments led to new industry standards for ski equipment.
MANY RECOGNIZE University
President Dan Mote for leading Maryland to its Top 20 public research university status. In the engineering field, he is known for revolutionizing saw mechanics and ski equipment. For this accomplishment, the National Academy of Engineering bestowed its Founders Award on him at a ceremony last fall. Mote, who has served as president of the university since 1998, received the Founders Award “for the creation of a comprehensive body of work on the dynamics of moving flexible structures and for leadership in academia.” His research in saw mechanics enabled the forest products industry to
significantly decrease waste and preserve natural resources worldwide, improve product quality and reduce the noise and hearing loss associated with wood machining. Through his experiments with ski mechanics and skiing biomechanics, Mote uncovered the basic mechanism behind many skiing injuries, established the fundamental dynamic models for the skier and ski equipment and helped protect skiers by developing industry standards for ski equipment. Before coming to the university, Mote held various administrative roles at the University of California, Berkeley, where he guided 56 graduate students to achieving Ph.D.s. Today, he continues to mentor students and gives lectures on engineering. “Every student should have a mentor,” says Mote. “Mentoring is as important to student achievement as teaching.”
ses•qui•cen•ten•ni•al TAKE THE WORD centennial—from the Latin centum, meaning hundred— and add the appropriate prefix. What do you get? Sesquicentennial. Why say that the University of Maryland is celebrating 150 glorious years when sesquicentennial sounds so much more grandiose? Found smack dab in the middle of centennial and bicentennial, sesquicentennial—sesqui is a Latin prefix denoting one-and-a-half—has two usages, according to the Oxford English Dictionary. • As an adjective it pertains to a celebration of a 150th anniversary. • As a noun it is the actual anniversary or its celebration. Although we are sure to set the bar high for Maryland’s 150th anniversary, we can already begin to look forward to celebrating our 175th anniversary, the terquasquicentennial! —JMR
MOTE PHOTO BY PATSY MOTE; TESTUDO AND DOCTORATE GRADUATES BY JOHN T. CONSOLI; WHITTLE PHOTO COURTESY OF UNIVERSITY ARCHIVES; MITCHELL PHOTO COURTESY OF PARREN JAMES MITCHELL
Important Firsts: African American Graduates
IN HONOR OF Black History Month (February), Terp magazine recognizes some important firsts at the University of Maryland. • In 1951, Hiram Whittle was the first African American undergraduate to be admitted to the University of Maryland. • The first African American graduate student to complete his coursework on campus was Parren James Mitchell, who received his master’s in sociology in 1952. The first African American elected to Congress from the state of Maryland, Mitchell is a member of the University of Maryland Alumni Hall of Fame. Other early African American students at the university include Rose Shockley Wiseman, Myrtle Holmes Wake and John Francis Davis, who completed their coursework off-campus but received their master’s degrees in education at the June 9, 1951, commencement ceremony in College Park. • Elaine Johnson, the first African American female undergraduate student, began her studies in 1955 and received her degree in education in 1959. • In 1966, Rebecca Carroll became the first African American woman to earn a doctorate from the University of Maryland. She received her degree in education. • In 2000, Kimberly Weems, Tasha Inniss and Sherry Scott Joseph (shown, left to right) were the first three African American women to receive doctoral degrees in mathematics from Maryland. • Today, the University of Maryland is first among the nation’s Top 20 public universities in the total number of degrees conferred upon African Americans.
TERP WINTER
2006
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