UMBC leads in environmental science & tech. research

From the 2013 Legislative Testimony, Dr Freeman Hrabowski, III, UMBC President

According to the Higher Education Research & Development Survey, the campus ranks 18^th nationally in environmental science research and development expenditures. We recently launched the Goddard Planetary Heliophysics Institute (GPHI) through a Cooperative Agreement with the NASA Goddard Space Flight Center (GSFC) in Greenbelt, Maryland. Based at GSFC, GPHI is a center for collaborative research in solar-planetary sciences linking researchers from UMBC, the University of Maryland, College Park, and American University. The Institute focuses on phenomena ranging from solar wind to sunspots, including the effects that weather on the Sun can have on Earth and our orbiting satellites.

The recent realignment of the former University of Maryland Biotechnology Institute faculty has brought many new scientific and technology-development assets to UMBC. Maryland Sustainable Mariculture (MSM), a spin-off company founded by UMBC marine biotechnology faculty, is currently negotiating with a group of international investors who plan to lease space at the Columbus Center in downtown Baltimore to model marine aquaculture in a public display. Plasmonix, a biotechnology start-up based on technologies licensed from the Institute of Fluorescence, recently received venture capital from the Governor’s “Invest Maryland Challenge” and is now located at bwtech@UMBC, our research and technology park. In addition, our core facilities in mass spectrometry, imaging, and high-performance computing support both faculty research and companies. We work aggressively to create multi-level partnerships that connect faculty and students with companies, agencies, foundations, and school systems – and these partnerships enable us to leverage State funds. For example, we have developed major research centers and other partnerships with support from NASA and from IBM, Lockheed Martin, Northrop Grumman, SAIC, Wyeth Pharmaceuticals, the Department of Defense, the National Security Agency (NSA), and other organizations. Other partnerships with Federal and State agencies have allowed us to leverage State funds and contribute to the policy arena in gerontology (through the Erickson School for Aging, Management, and Policy and the Center for Aging Studies), the environment (through our Center for Urban Environmental Research & Education – CUERE), health care (through our Hilltop Institute), and teacher education (through the Center for History Education, the Center for Excellence in STEM Education, and the Maryland Geographic Alliance).

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