2012 Annual Report, U.Va. Office of the President

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Year in review

January 2012 +

Jennifer Chiu, assistant professor at the Curry School of Education, receives a $1.35 million NSF grant to create new kinds of science lab activities that connect virtual and real environments.

The Society of Experimental Psychologists names Timothy Salthouse, the Brown-Forman Professor of Psychology, a fellow. He is one of ten psychologists from around the nation chosen this year for the distinction.

Dr. Richard L. Guerrant, the Thomas Harrison Hunter Professor in International Medicine, an infectious disease expert who has waged an international campaign against deadly childhood diarrhea, is honored as one of Virginia’s Outstanding Scientists for 2012 by Governor Robert F. McDonnell.

Seeking to support teaching, research, and curriculum development in leadership, John (McIntire ’85) and Amy (College ’98) Griffin commit $5 million to the McIntire School of Commerce to establish the Blue Ridge Leadership Fellows Program.

Next month

February 2012 +

The National Cancer Institute awards researchers at U.Va. and Johns Hopkins University a $3.3 million, five-year grant to develop a promising approach to treating incurable brain cancer using a series of high-tech procedures.

David J. Prior, the seventh chancellor of the University of Virginia College at Wise, dies unexpectedly. Prior led the College at Wise during a period of remarkable growth, both in student enrollment and its campus.

U.Va.’s observance of Black History Month includes a range of events highlighting the themes of preserving African-American culture and celebrating contributions of black artists.

Robert Covert, associate professor at the Curry School, receives the John T. Casteen III Diversity Equity Inclusion Leadership Award. Administered by U.Va.’s Office for Diversity and Equity, the award recognizes a student, faculty, or staff member who has demonstrated a deep commitment to diversity in the U.Va. community.

Rita Dove, Commonwealth Professor of English, is one of eight recipients of the 2011 National Medal of Arts. President Obama awards her with the medal at a White House ceremony in February.

Allie Tran (Nursing ’10), an Intensive Care Unit nurse at U.Va. Medical Center, along with a team of 10 other nursing alumni from around the country, completes a service trip to an underserved region of central Vietnam. The team provides medical check-ups and care to villagers. The School of Nursing Alumni Association partnered with Cavalier Travels to organize the eight-day trip.

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March 2012 +

Researchers led by Jonathan Kipnis have, for the first time, used immune therapy to halt the symptoms of Rett syndrome, an autism spectrum disorder, in test mice. The leading-edge research, conducted by Noël C. Derecki and colleagues in Kipnis’s lab, suggests that bone marrow transplantation may offer a potential treatment for humans with Rett syndrome, which is typically deadly in boys and debilitating in girls.

Engineering students Ashutosh Priyadarshy and Duylam Nguyen-Ngo win a student startup competition at the South by Southwest Interactive conference for WalkBack, a mobile phone app designed to optimize the effectiveness of safe-ride programs, campus police patrol routes, and emergency responses. They also win top honors in the annual U.Va.-Darden Business Plan Competition.

Researchers led by Dr. Anindya Dutta, the Harry F. Byrd Professor and chair of the Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Genetics, have discovered there are tens of thousands of previously unknown “microDNAs” outside the chromosomes in our cells. MicroDNA may contribute to diseases, such as autism, that scientists suspect have a genetic predisposition, but for which there are no suspect genes.

U.Va. physicists on a team examining data from the former Tevatron collider at the Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory near Chicago find hints of the Higgs boson, the much-sought-after particle that is thought to give mass to every other particle in existence.

Collaborating with the Pinacoteca Nazionale of Siena, and the Lindenau-Museum in Germany, the Fralin Museum of Art reunites the surviving components of Bartolo di Fredi’s 14th-century masterpiece, “The Adoration of the Magi,” shown here with Bruce Boucher, the Fralin’s director. After its U.Va. showing, the altarpiece is exhibited at the Museum of Biblical Art in New York City.

Performers in Miami, Indianapolis, and Charlottesville take advantage of advanced network technology to preview music from an award-winning opera by music professor Matthew Burtner. “Auksalaq: A Telematic Opera,” which will debut in its entirety in October, uses high-speed Internet connections to link audiences and performers from multiple sites.

Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas visits the School of Law, speaks to Professor Saikrishna Prakash’s Constitutional Law class, and meets informally with a number of law students and faculty members.

Next month

April 2012 +

First-year student Daniel Ng’s proposal to build community playgrounds in village schools in Bangladesh wins a Facebook-based competition run by BRAC, the world’s largest NGO devoted to education and community development. Ng visited Bangladesh earlier this year with a January Term class on social enterprises, led by Brad Brown, a professor in the McIntire School of Commerce.

Maurie McInnis, associate dean for undergraduate academic programs and professor of American art and material culture, is awarded the Smithsonian American Art Museum’s Charles C. Eldredge Prize for Distinguished Scholarship in American Art for her book Slaves Waiting for Sale: Abolitionist Art and the American Slave Trade.

The University and IBM’s World Community Grid launches the Computing for Sustainable Water Project, an effort to simulate and forecast the environmental and economic effects of agricultural, commercial, and industrial decisions over the next 20 years in and around the Chesapeake Bay. Using the massive power of 2 million computers provided by close to 600,000 World Community Grid volunteers in 80 countries, the effort seeks to compress and collapse 90 years’ worth of computational research into just one year.

The University announces the creation of a Contemplative Sciences Center, which will approach the theory and practice of contemplative traditions from a variety of perspectives. A $12 million gift from Sonia and Paul Jones (College ’76) of Greenwich, Connecticut, funds the center.

David Wu (College ’13), a double major in biology and cognitive science with a concentration in philosophy, receives a research scholarship from the Barry M. Goldwater Scholarship and Excellence in Education Foundation for 2012. Wu is among 282 students nationwide who receive scholarships given by the Goldwater Foundation to students who intend to pursue careers in mathematics, the natural sciences, or engineering.

Linda Bullock, the Jeanette Lancaster Alumni Professor of Nursing and associate dean for research, receives a $4 million NIH grant to study the possible role of tablet computers as detectors of domestic violence. The five-year study, funded by the Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development, will be overseen by Bullock and Phyllis W. Sharps, a nursing professor at Johns Hopkins University.

Rowan Sprague (Engineering ’13) receives a 2012 Udall Scholarship. She is one of 80 winners nationwide chosen for their commitment to careers in the environment, health care, or tribal public policy; leadership potential; and academic achievement.

Next month

May 2012 +

The first varsity eight wins its grand final to clinch for the Virginia rowing team its second NCAA Championship on Mercer Lake in West Windsor, New Jersey. It is U.Va.’s second national championship in three years—and the fourth NCAA Championship for the Virginia Athletics program in the last three years.

The Board of Visitors names the University of Virginia Art Museum for Cynthia and Heywood Fralin (College ’62) in honor of their donations of American art to its collections and for Heywood Fralin’s lifetime of service to the University as a Board of Visitors member and former rector.

The Big Data Summit hosted by the Office of the Vice President for Research and UVACSE brings together the research community to establish new cross-Grounds networks and collaborations that capitalize on expertise in managing and analyzing big data.

Following Final Exercises, U.Va. launches the much anticipated, full-scale renovation and repair effort at the Rotunda. The first of its kind in nearly 40 years, the project will span multiple phases over several years and include interior and exterior work.

A groundbreaking clinical trial conducted at the U.Va. Health System finds that scalpel-free surgery using focused ultrasound waves appears to be as effective in treating essential tremor as traditional surgery that requires drilling into the skull. The researchers plan to expand the research to include 15 more essential tremor patients; another trial has opened to evaluate focused ultrasound’s potential for treating tremor in patients with Parkinson’s disease.

Fourth-year anthropology students Amanda Below and Andi Maddox receive the Davis Prize for Peace to create a health education and water filtration program in San Lucas Tolimán, Guatemala, a rural lakeside town.

Three Virginia coaches earned ACC Coach of the Year Awards in 2011–12, including Mike London (football), Kevin Sauer (rowing), and Brian Boland (men’s tennis).

Next month

June 2012 +

Rector Helen Dragas sends an email to the University community announcing that President Teresa A. Sullivan will step down as president of the University of Virginia effective August 15. This event sets off more than two weeks of turmoil at the University.

The University of Virginia Faculty Senate, meeting in emergency session, overwhelmingly ratifies a resolution approved by its Executive Council, expressing opposition to the removal of President Sullivan.

The University of Virginia Board of Visitors meets in a special session and votes to name Carl P. Zeithaml, dean of the McIntire School of Commerce, as interim president of the University. Zeithaml soon decides to step back as interim president until President Sullivan’s future at the University is settled.

A “Rally for Honor” draws 3,000 people to the Lawn on a Sunday to hear approximately two dozen speakers call for the reinstatement of President Sullivan. The board ends 17 days of tumult that next Tuesday by voting unanimously to reinstate Teresa A. Sullivan as president, and calls for the community to unite behind her to address the many challenges facing U.Va. and higher education.

After President Sullivan’s reinstatement, board member Heywood Fralin makes a motion in support of Helen Dragas. The board votes unanimously in support of the motion. President Sullivan also speaks to the board, thanking them for renewing their confidence in her. “All of us seek only one thing: what is best for our University,” she says.

Governor Robert F. McDonnell reappoints Helen E. Dragas (College ’84, Darden ’88) of Virginia Beach for a second term on the University’s Board of Visitors. In addition, McDonnell appoints seven new members, including Linwood H. Rose (Curry ’87) of Harrisonburg; Dr. Edward D. Miller, of Baltimore; Victoria D. Harker (College ’86) of McLean; Frank B. Atkinson (Law ’82) of Richmond; Bobbie Kilberg of Herndon; and two nonvoting senior advisers, Charlottesville residents William H. Goodwin, Jr. (Darden ’66); and Leonard W. Sandridge, the University’s former executive vice president and chief operating officer.

Next month

July 2012 +

The Intercollegiate Tennis Association names rising-sophomore Mitchell Frank to the 2012 ITA Collegiate All-Star Team. The 2012 ITA National Freshman of the Year, Frank was named an All-American in his first collegiate season. He ends the year ranked No. 2 nationally in singles after posting a 38-2 record. Frank also won both of the fall’s major singles titles, the ITA All-American Championship and the ITA National Indoor Championship, and reached the quarterfinals of the NCAA Singles Championship.

Through a partnership with online-learning pioneer Coursera, four U.Va. courses soon will be available worldwide, at no cost, to anyone with a computer and Internet connection. The massive open online courses, or MOOCs, offer coursework from the world’s best universities while strengthening brands and broadening outreach.

Of the 43,000 Americans diagnosed with pancreatic cancer each year, only 10 to 15 percent are diagnosed early enough to receive potentially lifesaving surgery. To help give pancreatic cancer patients the best chance to defeat this aggressive disease, the U.Va. Emily Couric Clinical Cancer Center is among the first in the nation planning to open a comprehensive High-Risk Pancreatic Cancer Clinic to provide comprehensive care faster for these patients.

U.Va. professors seeking to incorporate technology-enhanced teaching tools to improve classroom instruction enter the Fall 2012 Challenge for Newly Hybrid Technology-Enhanced Courses. Hybrid learning combines face-to-face interaction—such as in-class discussions, active group work, and live lectures—with Web-based or digital technologies such as online course modules, assignments, discussion boards, and other Web-assisted learning tools.

Next month

August 2012 +

Art historian Melissa Jordan Love joins the Fralin Museum of Art as its first full-time academic curator following a national search.

The Jefferson Scholars Foundation’s board of directors announces the creation of two Jefferson Scholars Foundation Endowed Professorships—marking the first time the foundation has ventured into faculty support. Each of the endowed chairs is funded by $5 million commitments from longtime benefactors of the foundation, Paul T. Jones (College ’76) and David C. Walentas (Engineering ’61, Darden ’64).

The editors of Sloan Management Review at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology announce that Rob Cross and Peter Gray, professors in the McIntire School of Commerce, are the winners, along with three industry coauthors, of the 2012 Richard Beckhard Memorial Prize. The editors award the prize annually to the authors of the most outstanding article on planned change and organizational development.

Pamela Kulbok, professor of nursing and chair of the Department of Family, Community, and Mental Health Systems in the School of Nursing, is selected as a Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Executive Nurse Fellow for 2012. She joins a group of 20 nurse leaders chosen from around the country to participate in a three-year leadership development program.

Ellen Zhong (Engineering ’14) is a 2012 recipient of the Astronaut Scholarship. The scholarship is designated for undergraduate students in mathematics, engineering, and the sciences who wish to conduct research and advance their field. Former Skylab astronaut Jerry Carr will present the Astronaut Foundation Scholarship check to Zhong, who is only the second U.Va. student to receive the scholarship.

Chaired by Frank Batten School of Leadership and Public Policy professor Christine Mahoney, with 25 faculty representing 10 schools, the social entrepreneurship group creates three new courses offered in the 2012–13 academic year. Faculty and instructors from four U.Va. schools will team with experienced social entrepreneurs, including alumni, to teach the courses.

A three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 4th Circuit unanimously upholds a lower court’s decision to toss out the conviction and death sentence of a client represented by the School of Law’s Innocence Project Clinic and pro bono attorneys with the law firm King & Spalding and the Virginia Capital Representation Resource Center.

Next month

September 2012 +

President Teresa A. Sullivan and Governor Robert F. McDonnell join a group of about 60 business leaders, entrepreneurs, investors, scholars, educators, policymakers, and elected officials for the Jefferson Innovation Summit for the Commonwealth. The summit is hosted by the Batten Institute at the Darden School of Business in partnership with the governor’s office, as part of the governor’s Year of the Entrepreneur initiative.

Sophia Rosenfeld, a professor of history, receives the 2012 Lynton History Prize and the 2012 Society for Historians of the Early American Republic Book Prize for Common Sense: A Political History. Her work is a history of the American belief that ordinary people’s perceptions can be used for making decisions in politics—that running a government is not necessarily much different from making decisions around a kitchen table.

In a move reflecting the high priority of meeting the challenges facing higher education, the University appoints J. Milton Adams to fill the new post of senior vice provost, where he will be responsible for guiding strategic planning. Adams had previously served as vice provost for academic programs.

A new center of neuroimmunology at the School of Medicine brings together researchers from across disciplines to unlock the secrets of complex diseases and disorders ranging from multiple sclerosis to autism to Alzheimer’s. The creation of the Brain Immunology & Glia center, known as BIG, positions U.Va. among the leaders of a young but increasingly important field of research.

School of Medicine student Justin Mutter is named one of five Pisacano Scholars for 2012. The scholarship is awarded to fourth-year medical students who show a strong commitment to family medicine and who demonstrate qualities such as leadership, academic achievement, and integrity, in addition to performing notable community service.

The School of Architecture Foundation receives a $2 million anonymous gift to establish a cross-disciplinary professorship in design and health. This is the largest gift in the school’s history. The professorship supports the educational and research missions of the school’s Center for Design and Health.

Next month

October 2012 +

The American Academy of Nursing inducts Randy A. Jones (Nursing ’00 ’02, Graduate Arts & Sciences ’05), shown above, an associate professor in the School of Nursing; Dr. Don Eugene Detmer, a former Health System vice president and professor emeritus of surgery; and postgraduate nursing student Ken White, a professor of health administration at Virginia Commonwealth University.

President Teresa A. Sullivan names Patrick D. Hogan, a business executive with extensive background in finance, operations, and health care, to be the University’s new executive vice president and chief operating officer.

The University and Philippe Cousteau’s Azure Worldwide announce a collaboration with The Nature Conservancy and the Harte Research Institute for Gulf of Mexico Studies to develop a large-scale computer simulation game based on the Guadalupe-San Antonio River Basin in southeastern Texas. The game is the latest project in the U.Va. and Azure Worldwide’s Global Water Games initiative (an outgrowth of the U.Va. Bay Game), which has produced a Chesapeake Bay watershed simulation and numerous national and international collaborations.

The Dalai Lama joins five U.Va. Health System clinicians on the Paramount Theater stage to discuss compassion in 21st-century medicine. The event is streamed live at the School of Nursing’s Fenwick Auditorium in McLeod Hall.

Next month

November 2012 +

Joseph Riley (College ’13) receives a 2013 Rhodes Scholarship. The scholarship will fully fund two or three years of study at the University of Oxford in England. Riley is majoring in Mandarin Chinese and is a student in the politics honors program. He is U.Va.’s 48th Rhodes winner. A cadet in the U.S. Army ROTC program, Riley is also a 2012 Truman Scholar, a Jefferson Scholar, and an Echols Scholar.

Billy Cannaday, dean of the School of Continuing and Professional Studies, takes on new duties as the first vice provost for academic outreach, a position created to advance cross-University efforts to reach new off-Grounds students.

Fourth-year Hillary Hurd is named a 2013 Marshall Scholar by the Marshall Aid Commemoration Commission. A double major in Russian and East European studies and honors politics, she will pursue a master’s degree in international relations at Cambridge University and peace and conflict studies at the University of St. Andrews in Fife, Scotland.

INSIGHT Into Diversity magazine awards the University of Virginia an inaugural Higher Education Excellence in Diversity, or HEED, award. The HEED award is a national award that honors U.S. colleges, universities, and community colleges for an outstanding commitment to diversity and inclusion. U.Va. is also a 2012 recipient of a diversity award from Minority Access, Inc., for advancing diversity goals on several fronts, such as student, faculty, and staff recruitment and creating an inclusive community setting.

Robert Swap, research associate professor of environmental sciences, is named the 2012 Virginia Professor of the Year by the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching and the Council for the Advancement and Support of Education (CASE). The award program recognizes the most outstanding undergraduate instructors in the country—those who excel in teaching and influencing the careers of students. Swap, a faculty director of U.Va.’s summer study abroad program in Southern Africa, also directs ESAVANA, a U.Va.-led consortium of universities in Botswana, Mozambique, and South Africa that provides educational opportunities for students and faculty in several U.Va. schools.

The project to repair fireplaces on the Lawn and Range and install a fire suppression system is completed. A combination of donations and maintenance funds pays for the project, which is completed on time and within its approximate $3.5 million budget.

Next month

December 2012 +

U.Va. celebrates artist Lincoln Perry’s final additions to Students’ Progress, a mural that follows a student through four years of undergraduate study. The expansion of the mural, which lines the walls of the Cabell Hall lobby, depicts the student as an alumna who returns to U.Va. to teach music and as a parent whose daughter also attends the University. The panels include visual references to the Renaissance and earlier, as well as to the Jeffersonian architecture of the Grounds.

Through the Commonwealth of Virginia Campaign, U.Va. and state employees provide substantial financial support for area charities and nonprofits. This year, as part of the effort, President Sullivan declares November 14 to be “CVC Day” and hosts a “Supper with Sullivan” for two randomly selected CVC participants. Since 2000, U.Va. employees have donated more than $9 million through the CVC. At the close of the 2012 CVC, organizers anticipate that U.Va. employees will donate more than $850,000 through the campaign.

President Teresa A. Sullivan announces that Donna Price Henry will serve as the eighth chancellor of the College at Wise. Henry, a biologist with extensive and varied experience in the classroom and in higher education leadership roles, succeeds David J. Prior, who died unexpectedly in February after serving seven years as Wise’s chancellor.

Seven working groups created as part of the University’s strategic planning process begin hosting public meetings to solicit input. By February 2013, the working groups—Faculty Recruitment and Retention, Public University, Resources, Streamlining, Student Life, Synergies, and Technology—will submit three to five top priorities to the steering committee for review.