U News
11/5/2008University of Minnesota President Bob Bruininks has proposed a $141.2 million biennial budget to the Board of Regents, saying “The future of Minnesota rests on investment, and we are a good investment.” The amount is an increase of about 10 percent in state appropriations over the previous biennium, and the second-lowest percentage increase the U has requested in the past decade. More than two-thirds of the request is for general salary increases for faculty and staff. The creation of a $16 million Middle Income Scholarship Program makes up the remainder of the request. That program would provide tuition savings for students from middle-income families.
Regents professor of ecology David Tilman is the recipient of the 2008 International Prize for Biology. The award is presented to one individual in a different field of biology each year. The last recipient in ecology was the renowned Harvard evolutionary biologist Edward Wilson in 1993. Tilman was selected for research proving that biodiversity makes ecosystems more productive and resistant to drought, disease, and pests. More recently, he has applied his discoveries to renewable energy, showing that biofuel created from prairie grasses is more efficient and ecologically friendly than fuel made from food crops. Tilman will receive a prize of $100,000 and a gift from Emperor Akihito of Japan in a ceremony in Tokyo on December 8.
The School of Public Health will receive $8.2 million over five years to establish a Preparedness and Emergency Response Research Center. The school is one of seven nationwide to be awarded an emergency preparedness research grant by the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The U project will identify best practices for design and delivery of preparedness training in public health systems.
A new state-of-the-art facility for the undergraduate business program in the Carlson School of Management held its grand opening in late September. Hanson Hall, named in honor of Herbert M. Hanson (B.S. ’49), is four stories high, 132,000 square feet, and connects to the existing Carlson School building by skyway. Specially designed to help students find jobs once they graduate, it contains dozens of interview rooms, career-counseling centers, and lounges for students and recruiters. Hanson kicked off a building campaign for a new undergraduate facility in 2004 with a $10 million pledge.
Faculty in the arts, humanities, and design will be the beneficiaries of a new $1.3 million system-wide initiative. The Imagine Fund creates 250 annual awards of $3,000 that faculty can use in a variety of ways to support their research and teaching. It also creates two new endowed chairs, provides for the annual appointment of a world-class scholar to serve as a distinguished arts and humanities chair; and establishes a special fund to promote innovation, collaboration, and greater public engagement. The fund is supported by a major gift from the McKnight Foundation.
The National Institutes of Health has recognized chemistry assistant professor Christy Haynes with a New Innovator Award. The award gives Haynes and her team of researchers $1.5 million over five years to build a model of the human immune system one cell at a time. The research is aimed at identifying potential therapies for treating allergic reactions and asthma. The team’s work is being carried out in the U’s Nanofabrication Center.
The University’s St. Anthony Falls Laboratory opened a new state-of-the-art outdoor environmental research facility along the banks of the Mississippi River. The Outdoor StreamLab will be used to generate laboratory-quality measurements on habitat restoration, dam removal, channel realignment, and a variety of other river processes. Located across the river from downtown Minneapolis, the public will be able to view real-time data collection from the adjacent Xcel Energy Water Power Park. The St. Anthony Falls Laboratory is a research unit of the U’s department of civil engineering.
—Cynthia Scott
 | | | |  | | Culture Exchange | | A Chinese dragon joined University and Chinese officials to celebrate the opening of the Confucius Institute at the U in September. The institute will promote the study of Chinese language and culture throughout the state. Minnesota has had Chinese language programs in place for 30 years and leads the nation with five Chinese language immersion schools. Chinese language enrollment in Minnesota schools has risen 164 percent since 2002. The University’s relationship with China dates back to the early 1900s with the enrollment of the first Chinese students; it was formalized in 1979 with the establishment of the U’s China Institute. |
|
Print View