May 2013 (Vol. 12, No. 10)

This Month's Top Stories . . .

• Class of 2013 Celebrates Graduation
• President Sullivan Hires RPI Engineering Dean as New Provost
• Trustees Approve Historically Low Tuition Increase
• Three UVM Students, Two Alumni Named Fulbright Scholars
• UVM to Host National Ecological Economics Conference
• Research: Increased Heart Attack Risk in HIV-Infected Individuals
• New Website Measures Global Happiness
• College of Medicine Announces Medical Alumni Association Honorees
• Conference Showcases Student Research
• Brief, Wondrous Talk by Junot Diaz
• Alumna Helps Bring 'Ghost Army' Documentary to PBS
• UVM Student Named to National Orienteering Team
• Athletics Updates
• In Memoriam: T. Alan Broughton, Burton E. Sobel, Dharam Pal Yadav
• Campus Kudos

Class of 2013 Celebrates Graduation
Heralding the passage of a college graduation, it’s a happy circumstance to have one of the world’s foremost trumpeters in the house. A crowd of approximately 10,000 gathered on the UVM Green the morning of May 19 to celebrate the achievements of more than 3,000 UVM students receiving diplomas and passing from the ranks of students to alumni. Musician Wynton Marsalis helped them mark the moment, delivering the University of Vermont 2013 commencement address with a heartfelt talk that was wise, wry, musical, and throughout—appropriately enough for the father of Simeon Marsalis, UVM Class of 2013—fatherly. Then the New Orleans native picked up his horn and played “When the Saints Go Marching In,” the crowd clapping time. Read more here.

President Sullivan Hires RPI Engineering Dean as New Provost
University of Vermont President E. Thomas Sullivan has announced the appointment of David V. Rosowsky, dean of the School of Engineering at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, as Provost and Senior Vice President, beginning August 1, 2013. “We set very high expectations and qualifications for this critically important position,” said Sullivan. “We need our new provost to be a highly accomplished scholar of distinction and also an inspirational and collaborative leader, and a creative, strategic-oriented individual. Dr. Rosowsky meets these criteria. I am confident that he will be an outstanding provost at UVM.” Read more here.

Trustees Approve Historically Low Tuition Increase
At its May 2013 meeting, UVM’s Board of Trustees approved the lowest tuition increase in 36 years, put in place the first component of an ambitious General Education initiative, and adjusted the university’s debt limit policy to accommodate the potential construction of proposed new and renovated facilities in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM). Trustees approved a 2.9 percent increase in tuition, the lowest since 1977. The increase brings in-state tuition to $13,728 and out-of-state tuition to $34,656 for the 2013-2014 academic year. Read more here.

Three UVM Students, Two Alumni Named Fulbright Scholars
Three University of Vermont students and two recent alumni have been awarded Fulbright U.S. Student Program Scholarships. The prestigious awards are fully funded, year-long fellowships which enable seniors, recent graduates and graduate students who have an outstanding academic record to live abroad and conduct research or teach English as part of an intellectual and cultural exchange. Read more here.

UVM to Host National Ecological Economics Conference
Many of the nation’s experts in the growing field of ecological economics will gather at the University of Vermont, June 9-12. UVM’s Gund Institute for Ecological Economics and Rubenstein School of Environment and Natural Resources are hosting the seventh U.S. Society for Ecological Economics (USSEE) Conference. Academics, organizational leaders, students and other attendees will engage the theme of “Building Local, Scaling Global: Implementing Solutions for Sustainability.” The conference’s final lecture will be free and open to the public. Read more here.

Research: Increased Heart Attack Risk in HIV-Infected Individuals
While potent combination antiretroviral therapy “cocktails” have been truly lifesaving for HIV patients – transforming the formerly fatal diagnosis to a manageable chronic condition over the past fifteen years – a new study of more than 80,000 veterans published in JAMA Internal Medicine Online First shows that increased heart disease risk may be an unexpected side effect. University of Vermont Professor of Pathology and Biochemistry Russell Tracy, Ph.D., served as a coauthor on the paper, which reported that HIV infection is associated with a 50 percent higher risk of heart attack beyond the risk associated with recognized cardiovascular risk factors. Read more here.

New Website Measures Global Happiness
A team of scientists from the University of Vermont and The MITRE Corporation have been gaining international attention over the last few years for the creation of what they’re calling a hedonometer. It’s a happiness sensor. Now findings from this research are updated every 24 hours (soon to be every hour, and, eventually, every minute) — and are available to the public for free. The day of the Boston Marathon was the saddest day measured by the scientists in nearly 5 years of observations. Read more here.

College of Medicine Announces Medical Alumni Association Honorees
The University of Vermont College of Medicine has announced the winners of the 2013 Medical Alumni Association Awards to be presented during its annual Medical Alumni Reunion, May 31, 2013, on the UVM College of Medicine campus. Read about the honorees here.

Conference Showcases Student Research
UVM held it annual Student Research Conference April 23, with more than 300 projects on display. Both undergraduate and graduate students participated, with guidance from faculty advisers across the disciplines. For a glimpse of the sort of projects undertaken this year, click here.

Brief, Wondrous Talk by Junot Diaz
Gentle and profane, provocative and hilarious, Junot Diaz was his Pulitzer-winning, MacArthur Genius self during a recent afternoon reading/talk on campus. The author’s fans packed the Davis Center’s Livak Ballroom for the English Department’s Writer’s Workshop Series event; and Diaz packed his hour-long presentation with a short reading and a generous round of questions and answers. Read more here.

Alumna Helps Bring 'Ghost Army' Documentary to PBS
Martha Gavin ’70 had no idea until recently that her uncle, John Jarvie, had been a member of a top secret World War II unit of 1,100 eclectic artists, actors, set designers and sound technicians known as the “Ghost Army.” The special unit was responsible for engineering some of the greatest military deceptions in history using inflatable rubber tanks and artillery, deceptive artistic scenes, and the latest sound technology. Its efforts helped the Allies win the war by arranging 20 intricately orchestrated battlefield deceptions from June 1944 to March 1945 in France, Belgium, Luxembourg and Germany that tricked Hitler’s armies into believing that Allied forces were in places they were nowhere near. Her fascination with the subject led to her involvement as a producer in a documentary film that recently made its debut on PBS. Read more here.

UVM Student Named to National Orienteering Team
Ethan Childs, a first-year student in UVM's Honors College, has been named to the 2013 U.S. Junior World Orienteering Championship (JWOC) team. He is one of just six young men and six young women, age 20 and under, selected to represent the USA in international competition this summer in the Czech Republic. Childs has competed around the U.S., Canada and Europe in orienteering, a navigation sport in which competitors rely on a map and compass, and not on GPS, to find their way through a landscape. Read more here.

Athletics Updates

The Vermont men's soccer program will host a 50th Anniversary celebration in October. Read more.

The Vermont Men's Hockey program will host a 50th anniversary celebration November 1-2, 2013 as part of the university's Reunion and Homecoming Weekend. The celebration will look at the history of the men's hockey program including how the program started and where it is now. The weekend's events will include an alumni game, Catamount men's hockey games and a celebration dinner. Read more.

The annual Catamount Golf Classic will be held July 15 at Vermont National Country Club. Read more.

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In Memoriam

English Professor Emeritus T. Alan Broughton, 76, died May 17 at Vermont Respite House in the company of his family. A novelist, poet and short story writer, Broughton taught writing and literature for 35 years at the University of Vermont, from 1966 to 2001, chairing the English Department and developing and directing the Writers' Workshop Program, still in existence today. He is survived by his wife, Laurel Broughton, who also taught in the English Department, and by three children and five grandchildren.

University Distinguished Professor of Medicine Dr. Burton (Burt) E. Sobel passed away Friday, May 3, 2013. An inspiring and internationally-recognized leader in cardiovascular medicine, he graduated from Cornell University and obtained his MD from Harvard Medical School (magna cum laude). He came to the University of Vermont in 1994 to become the E. L. Amidon Professor and chair of the Department of Medicine. During his eleven years as chair and physician leader, his vision and energy revitalized the Department of Medicine with a marked expansion in the research endeavors, the education programs and the clinics. In 2005, he established the Cardiovascular Research Institute at UVM and Fletcher Allen. His many contributions were recognized when he was honored as an inaugural University of Vermont Distinguished University Professor in 2009.

Professor Dharam Pal Yadav passed away peacefully on Thursday, April 4, 2013. Professor Yadav came to UVM in 1970 as an Assistant Professor in the Department of Communication in the College of Arts and Sciences. In 1980, he was promoted to Associate Professor in the Department of Communication and in 1981 became a faculty member in the Department of Psychology. During his tenure at UVM, he was chairman of the Department of Communications and served on a number of university committees including the Faculty Senate, the Faculty Senate Executive Council, and the Enrollment Management Council. Professor Yadav is survived by his beloved wife of 41 years, Meena, and his three children, Pramila Rajni Yadav, M.D. ('94, MD'99), Anuradha Yadav, Esq. (’96), and Sanjeev Pal Yadav ‘(05).

Campus Kudos

Emeritus Professor Lyndon Carew will receive the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences’ 2013 Sinclair Cup award for serving CALS with distinction as a member of the faculty for the majority of his professional career.

Four University of Vermont animal science students participating in Miner Institute’s Advanced Dairy Management program earned a first place award at the 12th annual North American Intercollegiate Dairy Challenge which was held April 4-6 in Fort Wayne, Ind. The team – Kaitlin Benoit, Morgen Doane, Andrew Whitney, and Melissa Woolpert – was coached by Wanda Emerich, the Dairy Outreach Coordinator at Miner Institute. They placed first from a field of eight teams which all evaluated the same dairy farm near Fort Wayne. Out of a field of 32, the UVM team was one of four first place teams which included South Dakota State University, California Polytechnic University, University of Wisconsin River-Falls.

Richard L. Gamelli, senior vice president and provost of the Health Sciences Division at Loyola University Chicago and a member of the UVM Board of Trustees, has been awarded the President’s Leadership Award from the American Burn Association. Dr. Gamelli is a past president of the ABA and currently serves as president of the International Society for Burn Injuries. The award recognizes truly distinguished and exceptional service to the ABA and to the profession of burn care.

Five School of Business Administration students received the “Rookie of the Year” award at the 2013 United States National Enactus Exposition. Harrison Gessow, James Holtman, Ryan Little, Amelia Traynor and Jake Webber traveled to Kansas City, Missouri earlier this month to represent the university at the national competition. Enactus is a community of student, academic and business leaders committed to using the power of entrepreneurial action to enable human progress.  There are currently 535 Enactus teams worldwide with over 21,000 active students.

The Graduate College awarded Ben Green, a doctoral candidate in animal science, one of the two university-wide Graduate Teaching Assistant awards for the 2012-2013 academic year.

Betsy Greene, professor of animal science, will be presented with the American Society of Animal Scientists 2013 Equine Science Award at the ADSA-ASAS joint annual meeting in Indianapolis in July.

University of Vermont Professor of Neurological Sciences Gary Mawe was recently honored by the International Foundation for Functional Gastrointestinal Disorders for his role in scientific advancement in the area of chronic digestive disorders. Mawe was one of eight 2013 Research Award recipients recognized at the 10th International Symposium on Functional Gastrointestinal Disorders held in Milwakee, Wisc., April 12 to 14. Mawe was the awardee in the Senior Basic Investigator category. Read more.

The Center for the Study of Citizenship at Wayne State University awarded Jonah Steinberg, assistant professor of anthropology, the 2013 Book Award for his work, Isma'ili Modern: Globalization and Identity in a Muslim Community (Chapel Hill: The University of North Carolina Press, 2011).

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