ACHIEVING EXCELLENCE
THE STRATEGIC PLAN OF THE
COLLEGE OF CHEMICAL AND LIFE SCIENCES
October 9, 2009
TABLE OF CONTENTS
I. Executive Summary..................................................................................................................... 4
II. Mission ....................................................................................................................................... 8
Vision ...................................................................................................................................... 8
III. History and Organization .......................................................................................................... 8
The 2001 and 2004 Strategic Plans ....................................................................................... 10
IV. College Strengths, Challenges, Opportunities, Threats .......................................................... 10
A. Our Strengths ....................................................................................................................... 10
Location ................................................................................................................................ 10
The University ...................................................................................................................... 11
Undergraduate Programs ...................................................................................................... 11
Graduate Programs................................................................................................................ 12
Research ................................................................................................................................ 13
Partnerships, Outreach, and Engagement ............................................................................. 16
International Programs .......................................................................................................... 16
External Relations, Communications, Development ............................................................ 17
Diversity and Community ..................................................................................................... 17
B. Challenges ............................................................................................................................ 18
Increasing Enrollments ......................................................................................................... 18
Faculty Size........................................................................................................................... 18
Pressures on Federal and State Budgets................................................................................ 19
Limited Engagement in “Big Science” ................................................................................. 19
C. Opportunities ........................................................................................................................ 19
Infusion of Faculty Talent ..................................................................................................... 19
Major New Facilities............................................................................................................. 19
Diversity and Community ..................................................................................................... 20
D. Threats .................................................................................................................................. 20
Potential Loss of Faculty ...................................................................................................... 20
Animal Care and Facilities.................................................................................................... 20
Safety Hazards ...................................................................................................................... 20
V. Strategic Initiatives and Goals ................................................................................................. 21
Initiative 1: Continue to build a world class faculty. ................................................................ 21
Initiative 2: Offer undergraduate programs that communicate the excitement of scientific
discovery in the 21st century, and that provide students with outstanding advising and
mentoring experiences. ............................................................................................................. 23
Initiative 3: Increase the excellence and size of our graduate and postdoctoral programs to
match those of peer institutions, and to enable expansion of the research and academic
programs of the College. ........................................................................................................... 28
Initiative 4: Increase the scientific excellence and national and international impact of the
College’s research programs. .................................................................................................... 30
Initiative 5: Infuse international perspectives and activities into all aspects of the College’s
programs. .................................................................................................................................. 34
Initiative 6: Develop robust communications, development, and external relations programs to
support the College’s academic, research, and outreach missions. .......................................... 35
CLFS Strategic Plan, 2009
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Initiative 7: Continue to build information technology capabilities to support academic,
research, outreach, communications, and administrative needs. .............................................. 36
Initiative 8: Increase Partnerships, Outreach, and Engagement with External Communities. . 36
Initiative 9: Continue to Build upon Our Diversity and Community. ...................................... 38
VI. The Future of CLFS ................................................................................................................ 38
VII. Metrics ................................................................................................................................... 39
Appendix I .................................................................................................................................... 41
A. Partnerships with other agencies – examples.................................................................... 41
B. Partnerships for K-16 and STEM Education .................................................................... 42
C. International Programs ...................................................................................................... 42
D. External Relations and Communications Activities ......................................................... 43
E. Examples of Shared Instrumentation ................................................................................ 44
F. Exceeding Campus Strategic Plan Goals for Graduate Education ................................... 44
G. Approaches to Increase Engagement in Translational Science ........................................ 45
Appendix II – Tables and Figures ................................................................................................. 46
Appendix III – Executive Summaries of Department Plans ......................................................... 48
Biology...................................................................................................................................... 48
Cell Biology and Molecular Genetics ....................................................................................... 50
Chemistry and Biochemistry..................................................................................................... 52
Entomology ............................................................................................................................... 54
Table of Figures
Figure 1: CLFS faculty size and total student credit hours taught over the past 11 years. ..... 9
Figure 2: Sources of external research funding. ................................................................... 13
Figure 3: Research awards and expenditures in $ M. ........................................................... 14
Figure 4: Geographic distribution of CLFS international research activities. ...................... 16
Figure A1: CLFS and university undergraduate program diversity. .................................... 47
Table of Tables
Table 1: Relationship between department research programs and College and UM research
initiatives. .............................................................................................................................. 22
Table A1: Faculty Composition at Peer Institutions. ............................................................ 46
Table A2: Postdoctoral appointees in doctorate-granting institutions (2006). ..................... 46
Table A3 Comparisons of doctoral productivity in UM CLFS and peer institutions. .......... 47
CLFS Strategic Plan, 2009
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I. Executive Summary
T
he research, educational, and outreach programs of the College of Chemical and Life
Sciences are directed at deepening our scientific understanding of the nature of life and
the universe in which we live, and using that knowledge to develop new approaches to
improving human health and sustaining the global environment. Thus, chemistry and the
biological sciences offer powerful approaches to developing new solutions to contemporary
challenges in health, climate, the environment, and energy, as well as in many other areas.
Over the next decade, the College will become a national leader in research and education in the
biological and chemical sciences, and, more importantly, we will also develop the capacity to
sustain that leadership on a national and international scale. Our innovative research programs
will address major human health and environmental challenges of the 21st century, and our
programs will be ranked in the top 15 among public research universities in our disciplines. We
will sustain vibrant and rigorous academic programs that prepare our undergraduate and graduate
students for a lifetime of achievement and service to society. Our outreach and international
programs will be recognized for their excellence and impact -- locally, nationally, and globally.
Faculty
A great faculty is the sine qua non of building excellence in all dimensions of our mission. At
this point, the greatest barrier to our achieving national eminence is the small size of our faculty,
which has remained constant at 110 faculty members for 15 years, despite large increases in the
number of majors in the College, and the demand across campus for both undergraduate and
graduate courses in chemistry and the biological sciences. The University’s goal for the size of
the faculty in the College was 150 in the year 2000. In achieving this goal we will:
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Recruit faculty members who fully embrace the tripartite mission of the University -research, teaching, and service -- and who have the potential to become leaders in the
University, nationally, and internationally.
Focus faculty hiring in the areas of our strategic research initiatives so that we move
forward in building the critical mass that is required to undertake major research and
academic initiatives.
Emphasize recruitment of mid-career faculty who are recognized as future scientific
leaders, with well funded research programs and the ability and drive to expand them.
Develop robust, ongoing faculty mentoring and review programs, to ensure that every
faculty member achieves, and sustains, outstanding accomplishment throughout their
career.
Bolster both faculty recruitment and retention through the development of Research
Clusters, graduate programs that consistently recruit outstanding students, a strong
postdoctoral community, research resources that are competitive with peer institutions,
and excellent administrative support.
CLFS Strategic Plan, 2009
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Undergraduate Programs
Ongoing innovation in curriculum development, driven by the rapid pace of discovery in both
the biological and chemical sciences, the needs of our increasingly ambitious and talented
students, and federal and foundation funding opportunities, will be the hallmark of our
undergraduate programs. The excellence of our undergraduate programs is even now reflected in
retention and graduation rates that are among the highest on campus, awards of major campus
and national scholarships to our students, sixteen years of continuous funding from the Howard
Hughes Medical Institute, and federal grants for curriculum development. We will build on this
excellence and move to even higher levels of achievement. Our emphasis is on transformational
projects, enhancing linkages between biology and the physical sciences and mathematics,
rigorous assessment and analysis of student success, and providing national leadership in the
scholarship of teaching and learning in the STEM disciplines. To enhance our undergraduate
programs, we will:
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Increase student engagement and challenge by infusing the undergraduate experience
with the excitement of scientific discovery and its relevance to the challenges of the 21st
century.
Increase interaction and engagement between undergraduates and faculty members.
Reshape student advising and support programs to focus on student achievement and
success, to expand students’ vision, goals, and ownership of academic and career
planning and preparation.
Expand opportunities for undergraduates beyond the classroom, to foster students’
development and leadership potential, and to emphasize global and cultural awareness
through study abroad and service learning.
Graduate Programs
The College’s graduate programs in the Biological Sciences and in Chemistry were ranked most
recently by U.S. News and World Report (2007) as 22nd among all public universities. Our goal
is to have all programs ranked in the top 15 among public universities and in the top 25 of all
universities. The progress made in past few years has positioned the College well to achieve
these goals by implementing the following strategies:
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•
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Elevate the quality and impact of our research programs and enhance our research
infrastructure.
Ensure the success of the College’s new umbrella graduate program in the Biological
Sciences (BISI).
Increase the number of doctoral students by 150% to match the size of our peers, while
increasing selectivity.
Increase 12-month stipends for all programs to nationally competitive levels and sustain
them at that level. Guarantee support for five years for doctoral students and improve
health benefits for fellows and other students not eligible for the State plan.
Increase the percentage of doctoral students supported on fellowships, research grants,
and training grants to 75%, and reduce TA support to 25%.
Reduce average Ph.D. completion time to five years.
CLFS Strategic Plan, 2009
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•
•
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Increase engagement with federal agencies and laboratories to enhance graduate
education and experiences.
Provide more mentoring, and more opportunities for professional development.
Support and increase diversity.
Research Excellence
In 2004, the College committed to building excellence in five broad research strategic research
initiatives: (1) comparative and functional genomics, (2) environmental sustainability, (3) hostpathogen interactions, (4) nanoscience and biomaterials, and (5) sensory neuroscience. These
were selected because they were areas where we already had built focus and strength in research,
and where we had continued opportunity to achieve national and international eminence. These
strategic research initiatives provided immediate opportunities to make major discoveries.
Significantly, even as we built these areas, they continued to be high priorities for the nation and
State, and their importance continues to grow. Very importantly, these strategic research
initiatives also position the College to make major contributions to strategic research initiatives
of the campus, in health, climate, energy, and nanoscience. Therefore we will sustain our
commitment to these areas, with the goal of taking bold strides to increase their excellence and
impact.
Our greatest challenge and opportunity in building research excellence is to increase the level of
our external funding for research. Our goal is to increase funding to $40M/year. To accomplish
this we will:
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Foster multi-investigator research through the development of “Research Clusters” of
faculty with shared interest that will be able to tackle “big science” questions.
Increase faculty engagement in interdisciplinary research and the major research
initiatives of the campus.
Increase engagement with major federal agencies.
Increase the number of postdoctoral fellows to match our peers, and improve the quality
of the postdoctoral experience by improving benefits, developing a postdoctoral
community, and providing more opportunities for professional development in areas such
as teaching, and entrepreneurship.
Develop core facilities staffed by professional scientists, and work with key campus
personnel to develop AAALAC-accredited animal facilities.
Develop an effective and efficient administrative infrastructure to support proposal
development and enhance post-award grants management.
Build entrepreneurial and technology transfer capacity.
Continue to renovate our older buildings to provide enhanced environmental control and
improved infrastructure.
Partnerships and Outreach
The College has many partnerships, outreach programs, and mechanisms for engaging external
constituents. Some of these are long-standing, and many have been developed within the past
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decade. They include programs with local schools for chemical education, middle school
summer science programs; STEM programs with high schools and community colleges; joint
graduate training programs with the National Institutes of Health (NIH), the Smithsonian
Institution, and National Institute for Standards and Technology (NIST); and research
partnerships with many universities, research institutes, state and federal agencies and
laboratories. We will sustain and strengthen our ongoing outreach programs, and work to
develop new partnerships, particularly with the Beltsville Agricultural Research Center (BARC),
U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA), NIH, NIST, the Smithsonian Institution,
corporations, foundations, non-governmental organizations (NGOs), and international
organizations.
International Programs
Our goal is to infuse international experiences and perspectives into all of our programs. We will
work with the campus to increase recruitment of international students. A major focus of this
goal will be to identify and develop robust multi-level partnerships with a few, carefully chosen,
major international universities with which the University and faculty members in the College
already have relationships. This will include development of reciprocal international exchanges
to add new dimensions to research and educational programs for our faculty, graduate students,
and postdoctoral trainees. We will encourage our undergraduates to participate in study abroad
programs and international service-learning and research opportunities.
Diversity
The College has a strong sense of community and is proud of its diversity and its support for
diversity. The College undergraduate student body is highly diverse (48% non-Caucasian, 60%
women). Fifteen percent of the faculty and 10% of our graduate students are members of
underrepresented groups. We will continue our efforts to recruit members of underrepresented
groups as faculty members, students, and staff, and to create a sense of community that is
inclusive and promotes success.
Our Future
During the past decade, the College has laid the foundation for achieving genuine excellence.
The quality and impact of all of the College’s programs has increased substantially, and we are
now recognized nationally for our excellent and highly innovative undergraduate programs, our
successful graduate programs, and our achievements in several areas of research. We are a
diverse and strong community, with vibrant outreach programs. Thus, here is every reason to
believe that the College will be able to achieve the ambitious goals described in this Strategic
Plan.
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II. Mission
T
The mission of the College of Chemical and Life Sciences is to provide outstanding
leadership in research, education, and outreach programs in the chemical and biological
sciences -- locally, nationally, and internationally. The research of the faculty and
students in the College is directed at deepening scientific understanding of the nature of life and
the universe in which we live, and at developing new approaches to improving human health and
sustaining the global environment. Our academic programs prepare our students for a lifetime of
accomplishment and contributions to society in a 21st century world that is undergoing rapid
change and is increasingly complex. The College’s graduate and postdoctoral programs provide
advanced mentoring and training in research that prepare students to become the next generation
of scientific leaders. The impact of all of these efforts is broadened through outreach and
partnerships in K-12 and community college education, the corporate sector, and federal and
state agencies, and by communicating the joys and benefits of science and scientific discovery to
the people of Maryland and the nation. Increasingly, the College’s programs link the University
and the State to the international community, and create new partnerships that strengthen our
programs and the State’s intellectual and economic leadership role in the global community.
Vision
Over the next decade, the College will advance its standing in national and international
leadership in research and education in the biological and chemical sciences. We will develop
nationally and internationally competitive research programs that address major challenges in
21st century science, and will be ranked in the top 15 among public research universities. We will
sustain vibrant and rigorous academic programs that prepare our undergraduate and graduate
students for a lifetime of achievement and service to society. Our outreach and international
programs will be recognized for their excellence and impact locally, nationally, and globally.
III. History and Organization
T
he College was created in 1993 when the former College of Agriculture and Life Sciences
was reorganized to create the College of Agriculture and Natural Resources and the
College of Life Sciences. In 2005, the College of Life Sciences changed its name to the
College of Chemical and Life Sciences (CLFS) and is currently the home of four academic
departments: Biology (BIOL); Cell Biology and Molecular Genetics (CBMG); Chemistry and
Biochemistry (CHEM); and Entomology (ENTM) (jointly funded with the College of
Agriculture and Natural Resources).
The College offers undergraduate and graduate degrees. The College-wide undergraduate
Biological Sciences major (BSCI) has four concentration areas (see Undergraduate Programs,
page 11 for details). Undergraduate degrees are also granted in both Chemistry and
Biochemistry, and in Environmental Science and Policy (ENSP). The College offers several
graduate degrees in the chemical and biological sciences and participates in additional graduate
programs that cross college and campus boundaries (see Graduate Programs, page 12).
CLFS Strategic Plan, 2009
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The College has two research Centers -- the Maryland (Maryland Pathogen Research Institute)
(MPRI) and the Center for Biomolecular Structure and Organization (CBSO). College faculty
members also participate extensively in, and provide leadership to, a number of University-wide
Centers including the Maryland NanoCenter, the Center for Comparative and Evolutionary
Biology of Hearing (C-CEBH), the Center for Bioinformatics and Computational Biology
(CBCB), and the Institute for Physical Science and Technology (IPST). Core instrumentation
facilities support research in biomolecular structure, genomics, imaging, proteomics, and other
areas of research.
The size of the tenured/tenure track full-time faculty in CLFS has remained constant (110) over
the 15 years of the College’s existence while the number of credit hours taught by these faculty
has risen substantially (Fig. 1). Along with the increase in credit hours taught, the number of
undergraduate majors has increased by 40%, from 2,015 in fall 2000 to 2,887 in fall 2009.
Graduate student enrollment has increased from 558 in 2000 to 638 in fall 2009 driven largely by
increases in our Master of Chemical and Life Sciences (MCLFS) program for high school
teachers. The number of postdoctoral fellows has increased in recent years to approximately 140.
The College has a substantial and critical role in undergraduate education University-wide
through general education, “service” courses that meet requirements for other majors, and
courses taken by student’s preparing for all health professions career paths, regardless of
academic major. Of the 70,000 undergraduate student credit hours the College provided in 2008,
nearly 50% were enrolled by students from other colleges.
Figure 1: CLFS faculty size and total student credit hours taught over the past 11 years.
Total Tenure/Tenure Track FTE - bars; Total student credit hours – diamonds.
CLFS Strategic Plan, 2009
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The 2001 and 2004 Strategic Plans
This is the third strategic plan that the College has developed under the leadership of Dean
Norma Allewell. Since the strategic framework of the two previous plans has been effective, this
new plan continues the same fundamental goals. At the same time, under this updated strategic
framework, our objectives, ambitions, and benchmarks for success are higher – challenging us to
achieve, and maintain, exceptional programs that are recognized and ranked nationally and
internationally as among the best. Our goals are to:
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Elevate the quality of undergraduate education in order to provide all students with
enriched and challenging educational experiences.
Build a strong, College-wide culture of excellence in graduate and postdoctoral
education, research, and scholarship.
Pursue research that advances the boundaries of 21st century science and provides
national and international leadership.
Foster an environment that is inclusive as well as diverse, and that generates a sense of
community among faculty, staff, and students.
Engage more fully in outreach and collaborative partnerships with the greater
community.
Develop international programs that have reciprocal benefits for the University, faculty,
and students from UM and partner institutions.
Ensure an administrative, operational, and physical infrastructure that fully supports a
first-class College and University, and
Build and sustain robust external relations and fundraising programs to support the
College’s strategic research initiatives.
The 2001 and 2004 plans can be found at: http://chemlife.umd.edu/facultystaffresources.
IV. College Strengths, Challenges, Opportunities, Threats
O
ur plan for the future builds on our current strengths and recognize both challenges and new
opportunities, as we embark on an ambitious agenda of growth and development.
A. Our Strengths
Location
The University is located in a region with tremendous strengths in both chemistry and the life
sciences, creating unparalleled opportunities for developing collaborations, sharing sophisticated
instrumentation, providing unique training research and training environments for students and
faculty, and for participating in shaping science policy. Moreover, Maryland has a strong
biotechnology industry, providing many opportunities for collaboration and technology transfer.
CLFS Strategic Plan, 2009
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The University
The 2008-2018 University strategic plan "Transforming Maryland: Higher Expectations" lays
out an ambitious set of institutional priorities and strategic initiatives that provide a roadmap for
developing and enhancing College-level programs. The campus culture encourages and rewards
agility, ambition, collaboration, collegiality, creativity, entrepreneurship, excellence,
inclusiveness, innovation, and partnerships at all levels. Major new campus research facilities,
such as the Maryland NanoCenter, provide important new research opportunities that help to
attract and retain faculty members.
Undergraduate Programs
The College has a history of distinction in undergraduate education, and is the leading producer
of undergraduate degrees in the biosciences in the State of Maryland. Total CLFS undergraduate
enrollment has increased 40% in the past five years. The College enrolls some of the most
academically talented freshmen in the University, including 57% who are part of special livinglearning programs. The CLFS undergraduate student body is very diverse (see Fig. A1, page 47
and Diversity and Community, page 17).
The CLFS curriculum is characterized by its breadth, depth, and innovative approaches to
teaching and learning. The Biological Sciences major offers four specializations – Cell Biology
and Genetics, Ecology and Evolution, Microbiology, and Physiology and Neurobiology – or
students may pursue a broader General Biology degree. Our Chemistry and Biochemistry
program features innovative general and organic chemistry course sequences, and specialized
laboratory coursework for majors. Creative approaches to teaching and learning in both lecture
and laboratory throughout the College have gained national recognition through dissemination
efforts and engagement with leading national organizations in curriculum reform.
Seventy percent of CLFS undergraduates pursue research or internship experiences in
laboratories in the College and campus-wide, at federal agencies, or at research institutions
across the region. Each CLFS department offers research-based honors programs that require indepth independent research projects mentored by CLFS faculty members, and the writing and
defense of an honors thesis. HHMI Research Fellowships support about forty outstanding
students each year.
The College graduates more than 500 students with B.S. degrees each year. Forty percent enroll
directly in medical, dental, allied health, or graduate schools. An equal number enter the
workforce, with the goal of entering graduate or professional school after a few years. Our
campus admit rate to medical school exceeds the national average by 15 percent, and each year
includes admits to the top ten ranked medical schools.
CLFS Strategic Plan, 2009
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Graduate Programs
Graduate programs in the College include: an innovative College-wide umbrella Ph.D. degree in
Biological Sciences (BISI); M.S. and Ph.D. degrees in the Department of Chemistry and
Biochemistry (CHEM); M.S. and Ph.D. degrees in the Department of Entomology (ENTM); and
a web-based Master’s program (MLFSC), primarily for secondary school science teachers.
In addition, the College leads, or actively participates in, the USM-wide Marine, Estuarine, and
Environmental Sciences (MEES) program, and several UM-wide programs including:
Biophysics, Chemical Physics, Neuroscience and Cognitive Science (NACS), and Sustainable
Development and Conservation Biology (CONS).
The College’s Biological Sciences and Chemistry programs both rank #22 among U.S. Public
Institutions (U.S. News and World Report, 2007). The rankings for the Biological Sciences
include campuses with medical schools that have very large numbers of biology-related
researchers. When comparing the CLFS Biological Sciences programs with public institutions
without medical schools, our program is ranked #8.
To advance the goals of moving our graduate programs to the top 15 of public universities, with
or without medical schools, and to enroll graduate students of the highest caliber, our multiple
graduate programs in biological sciences were comprehensively reviewed in 2007-2008. As a
result of this review, we developed a new umbrella program in the biological sciences (BISI) that
offers four concentration areas: Behavior, Ecology, Evolution, and Systematics (BEES);
Computational Biology, Bioinformatics, and Genomics (CBBG); Molecular and Cellular
Biology (MOCB); and Physiological Systems (PSYS). 1 The BISI program will accept its first
students for the fall 2010 entering class. BISI will enable us to recruit larger numbers of
outstanding students, develop a national and international reputation for excellence in graduate
education, and, most importantly, substantially strengthen our research programs.
At the same time as we are moving ahead in the biological sciences, our Chemistry and
Biochemistry programs are taking steps, as outlined in their strategic plan (page 52), to attract
and support better graduate students, and to provide an environment for graduate opportunities
and education that ranks among the best in the country. Similarly, through self-studies and
external reviews we are making strides to substantially upgrade a number of our other programs
including Entomology, CONS, and MEES.
To enhance research and create specialized training opportunities for our graduate students and
postdocs, we have also initiated the development of “Research Clusters” that offer research and
training opportunities in forefront areas based not only in specific degree-granting disciplines,
but also extending across the campus and the State to embrace faculty with shared research
interests.
The College’s graduate programs already meet or exceed a number of the goals set out in the
campus 2008 strategic plan by providing 100% student support, guarantees of full support for the
duration of doctoral education, stipends well above the campus level; and partnerships with
1
To date, approved by University Senate and awaiting State approval.
CLFS Strategic Plan, 2009
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leading area organizations. We are also moving towards greater diversity. Further details are
provided in Appendix I-F (page 44).
Research
During the past eight years the College’s research capabilities have increased dramatically as a
result of implementation of many of the goals of the ambitious 2004 College strategic plan,
major construction projects and facilities renovations, and aggressive recruitment of new faculty
members. 2
In the 2004 strategic plan we committed to building research strength in five major areas (see
page 14). We have recruited outstanding junior and mid-career faculty in each area, invested in
sophisticated instrumentation to support their research needs, provided generous startup
packages to enable them to launch their programs, and reorganized our graduate programs to
enable faculty members to recruit outstanding students (page 12). University-wide Centers
provide additional support (Appendix I-A, page 41).
Significant progress has been made in improving the College’s research infrastructure with
funding from the University, NIH, and NSF. This has resulted in acquisition of new, shared
instrumentation that has the potential to have a major impact on our research programs (see
Appendix I-F, page 44).
Figure 2: Sources of external research funding.
External funding for research is growing, and is drawn from diverse sources. As shown in Figure
2, the NIH funds now account for approximately one-half of our research, the NSF funds
approximately one-quarter, and the rest is funded by a variety of public and private sources, with
the State of Maryland providing approximately $1M, primarily for research in nanobioscience
2
Primarily to replace faculty who have retired or left. Yet, while the net faculty size has not increased as a result of
recruitment, faculty research productivity measures have improved greatly because of the quality of faculty recruited
at all academic ranks.
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and technology. The College has also generally increased its research expenditures over the past
five years (Fig. 3).
Figure 3: Research awards and expenditures in $ M. 3
Intentional focus in five strategic research initiatives positions us for greater impact and success
in faculty hiring, funding, research, education, and outreach. These focal themes in College
research and graduate education programs are described briefly below:
•
Comparative and Functional Genomics: The College has more than a dozen research groups
working at the whole genome level. Together, these groups constitute a powerful resource for
the investigation of the many genetic traits and common diseases that are controlled by more
than one gene in an organism, or by the interaction of genes with environmental factors.
Working together, cell biologists, evolutionary geneticists, and experts in bioinformatics in
CLFS study these complex patterns of inheritance and evolution. With the development of
high-throughput genetic technologies, our researchers are poised to make important
contributions to understanding the relationship between genetic architecture and the
functioning of an organism, advancing understanding of evolutionary mechanisms, and
contributing to fields ranging from conservation biology to medicine.
•
Environmental Sustainability: The College has major expertise in several key aspects of
sustainability science -- population and community ecology, biodiversity assessment,
environmental chemistry, conservation biology, ecoinformatics, the study of climate change,
invasive species, and other types of human influence on the environment. We will focus new
faculty recruitment in ecology and conservation biology, leveraging both the University’s
eminence in computer science, engineering, and mathematics, and its location among federal
research centers, regulatory agencies, and non-governmental organizations devoted to
conservation and environmental protection. While maintaining strength in reductionist
approaches and natural systems, we will increase emphasis on: (a) large-scale ecosystem
processes, computationally-intensive modeling, forecasting of ecological processes, and
construction and analysis of large databases (ecoinformatics) and, (b) the study of human
3
Note: The dip in FY04-05 was caused by the transfer of the FDA-funded Joint Institute for Food Safety and
Applied Nutrition to the College of Agriculture and Natural Resources.
CLFS Strategic Plan, 2009
Page 14
influence including climate change on ecosystems, in collaboration with other campus units
and nearby partner organizations including the Smithsonian Institution.
•
Host-Pathogen Interactions: The College has responded to the emergence of infectious
diseases as a major health problem and global biodefense concern by making a strong
commitment to expanding research in pathogenesis. Twenty-three faculty members (13 hired
in the past five years) from all four CLFS departments engage in research focused on
microbial, viral, or fungal pathogenesis, immunology, or drug development. The Maryland
Pathogen Research Institute (MPRI) was established as a University-wide Institute that also
includes scientists from major regional research centers, and strategic collaborations with the
NIH, DHS, USAMRIID, FDA, USDA, and Maryland biotechnology companies. The MPRI
mission is to create a comprehensive interdisciplinary program that engages life scientists,
physical scientists, computer scientists, and bioengineers to develop new approaches to
preventing the spread of infectious pathogens, and enhancing diagnosis and treatment. The
organisms that are being studied include potential security threats, emerging and neglected
diseases, and environmental pathogens. MPRI will ensure a role for the College in defining
the future of pathogen research, biodefense, and homeland security.
•
Nanoscience and Biomaterials: Nanoscience is a highly dynamic area of basic research
involving the study of nanostructures smaller than 100 nanometers that provides capabilities
to organize materials at the molecular scale into complex patterns, including self-assembly of
viral, peptide, and DNA nanostructures. A wide variety of materials (including metallic
particles, proteins, and other inorganic and organic particles and compounds) can be attached
to these nanostructures at directed sites. The Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry has
been central to the development of nanoscience and nanotechnology research on campus, and
strong core expertise has been heightened by six strategic hires since 2004. Our goals for the
future are to build further strength in nanobiotechnology through additional hiring, with
expanded collaborations within the University and into government laboratories, and to
create an infrastructure that will enable the University to take a national leadership position.
•
Sensory Neuroscience: The focus of this initiative is to understand: (1) how humans and
other organisms gather and process information about the world around them through their
sensory systems; (2) how the brain processes and responds to that information; and (3)
changes in nervous system structure and function associated with normal and abnormal
development and aging. This area focuses on research of substantial biomedical importance
since sensory deficits, such as hearing and visual impairment, impact a very substantial
portion of the human population, particularly with aging. The College, along with the
College of Behavioral and Social Sciences, led the development of one of the strongest
research groups in the world studying hearing (Center for Comparative and Evolutionary
Biology of Hearing), as documented by exceptional federal funding for research, training,
and infrastructure. Over the past several years, we have expanding this auditory neuroscience
group, and also made excellent hires in visual neuroscience, with the goal of bringing the
latter group to the same level of international stature. We plan with future hiring to expand
into the chemical senses, and to areas of sensory neuroscience that bridge the groups focused
on individual senses. Achievement of these goals will result in a comprehensive program in
sensory neuroscience that is internationally preeminent.
CLFS Strategic Plan, 2009
Page 15
Faculty-initiated Research Clusters cross the five research foci of the College, and often involve
other colleges, and the broader local research community. Development of these clusters will
foster sharing of ideas, facilities, and development of shared research and graduate training
grants, such as those already obtained in auditory neuroscience, molecular and cellular biology,
and virology. Because they are faculty-initiated, Research Clusters have the capacity to be fluid,
developing and changing as the research interests of the faculty evolve.
Partnerships, Outreach, and Engagement
The College has several robust partnerships with federal agencies (see Appendix I-A (page 41).
It also has numerous linkages with K-16 STEM education initiatives in Maryland (Appendix I-B,
page 42). There are also very useful and important partnerships with other universities and
research centers (Appendix I-A, page 41).
International Programs
Researchers in CLFS have built scientific collaborations that now extend to more than 60
countries, as illustrated in Figure 4 (page 16) and Appendix I-C (page 42). These collaborations
provide a foundation for developing high impact programs that can be expanded to include more
faculty, graduate students, postdocs, and undergraduates, enabling the College to benefit from
working with international partners, and bringing more international scientists and students to
College Park.
Figure 4: Geographic distribution of CLFS international research activities.
CLFS Strategic Plan, 2009
Page 16
External Relations, Communications, Development
The College’s external relations, communications, and development programs have built
momentum over the past few years, and are poised for greater successes in the future. Major
activities are given in Appendix I-E (page 43) and include: an active Board of Visitors; enhanced
and multifaceted fundraising approaches; several new strategies for communicating with the
public and our alumni; and a newly designed Web environment that came on-line in 2009. The
College raised $3M in FY09 and has reached 44% of its Campaign Goal.
Diversity and Community
The diversity of the CLFS undergraduate student body outpaces that of the University and
reflects the growing diversity of the nation and the region (Fig. A1, page 47). The College ranks
10th in the nation in overall minority degree production in the Biological/Biomedical sciences,
and ranks third among “traditionally white institutions” in graduating African-American
students. 4 We rank second among public non-HBCUs in producing African-American applicants
to medical school 5, and tenth as the undergraduate institution of origin for African-American
STEM Ph.D. recipients. 6
The percentage of women in our graduate programs is consistently 50-60%. Increasing graduate
student racial/ethnic diversity was an explicit goal of the CLFS 2004 strategic plan, and a multifaceted strategy has brought enrollment of underrepresented groups to 10%, with further
increases expected in subsequent years. Faculty members and students now participate actively
in national meetings aimed at undergraduates from underrepresented groups interested in
pursuing careers in science (e.g., ABRCMS, NOBCChE, SACNAS). The HHMI Jump Start
program brings junior and senior undergraduates from underrepresented groups to campus for a
summer research program, and HBCU faculty members are invited to campus to acquaint them
with our programs, and to enlist them as recruiters. The Department of Chemistry and
Biochemistry, with NIST, jointly offers the Milligan Fellowship to an incoming AfricanAmerican graduate student.
The diversity profile of CLFS staff changed significantly from 2000 to 2009, although the total
number of staff remained the same (110). Our staff is now 36% non-Caucasian, and 9%
international. This balance reflects the vigorous attention paid, since 2004, to equity and
diversity issues in hiring.
After growing from 1995 to 2000, the percentage of women on the faculty has been in the 2328% range over the past nine years. At the same time, the percentage of FTE faculty members
from underrepresented groups has increased from 11% in 2004 to 19% in 2009. With a clear
commitment to increasing and supporting diversity at all levels, we expect the rich and exciting
diversity of the College to continue to grow in future years.
4
DIVERSE: Issues in Higher Education, 2009
Association of American Medical Colleges data
6
National Science Foundation data
5
CLFS Strategic Plan, 2009
Page 17
Developing community within the College and its units has been a high priority. We first focused
on developing a strong Academic Executive Leadership Team (AcELT) -- comprised of the
Dean, Associate Deans, and Department Chairs -- that provides overall leadership to the College.
Active and interactive teams of business officers, IT personnel, College-level staff, and other
groups build cross-College relationships. Active training and cross training across units at annual
staff retreats contribute to developing a College-wide team approach, and “brown bag lunches”
provide informal professional development opportunities. Development of Research Clusters
(see page 31) will bring together faculty members with shared research interests.
To enhance our ability to work with, and support, our graduate students and postdoctoral
scholars we have fostered development of organizations for, and run by, our trainees. A Collegewide Graduate Student Organization supports the needs and interests of graduate students, and
ensures their representation in discussions relevant to them. We also encouraged the formation of
the first Postdoctoral Association on campus, and we anticipate that the CLFS Postdoctoral
Association will be involved in many college-wide activities that potentially impact postdocs,
and will also help develop mechanisms to improve the “quality of life” for these very important
colleagues.
B. Challenges
Increasing Enrollments
The excitement and career potential of chemistry and the biological sciences has result in large
increases in CLFS enrollments by 40%, from 2015 in 2000 to 2,887 in 2009, and student credit
hours by 25%, from 62,000 in 2000 to 78,000 in 2009. Because faculty size has not increased,
average undergraduate lecture class size has increased by 25%, from 73 to 92. This rapid growth
is increasingly threatening the quality of the undergraduate student experience, eroding the
ability of the faulty members to develop their research programs and teach graduate-level
courses, and consuming an increasing fraction of the College’s budget.
Faculty Size
Over the past fifteen years, the College has grown along almost every axis -- size and quality of
undergraduate and graduate programs, external funding for research, fundraising, diversity, and
outreach – except for the number of tenured/tenure track (T/TT) faculty. Our faculty size is not
adequate for the College’s mission to advance research, nor is it sufficient to meet the substantial
growth in student demand for our courses and programs by undergraduates, as discussed above.
Although the College has hired vigorously, the number of new hires has been offset by the
number of faculty who have retired or who have been recruited away by other institutions. The
College’s budget is sufficient to sustain current faculty size, but does not allow the size of the
faculty to grow. The increasing number of majors in the College, as well as courses that must be
offered to students outside of the College, dictate that, without an increase in faculty numbers, it
will be very hard to maintain and enhance excellence in all areas of the College mission. As
discussed below, the size of the faculty limits our ability to compete successfully for more
substantial research funding programs that will enable our researchers to address large, complex
questions.
CLFS Strategic Plan, 2009
Page 18
Pressures on Federal and State Budgets
Recent limitations in the growth of budgets of the federal agencies that are the principal sources
of our research funding – the NIH and the NSF -- have led to significant declines nationally in
the fraction of grants funded, and in the level of funding for individual grants. Despite this
challenge, CLFS faculty members have been quite successful in obtaining research funding.
External funding for research in CLFS has steadily increased, and we are optimistic that, when
economic conditions improve and federal budgets for science increase, external funding for
research in the College will increase dramatically.
The State budget for the University continues to lag well behind peer institutions, and fluctuates
substantially with the economy. The 2002 recession damped our growth, and the current
recession is having a much more severe impact.
The College faculty is dedicated to the strategy of continued and increased efforts to develop
long-term external funding bases, increase the number of individual research grants, and move
into arenas where we secure large multi-investigator grants and contracts that support research
groups for extended periods.
Limited Engagement in “Big Science”
Over the past decade, much of biology has shifted nationally from “small science,” practiced by
individual researchers, to “big science” carried out by teams of interdisciplinary scientists, often
from different institutions, and even different countries. There clearly needs to be more “big
science” in the College, and our intent is to work with our faculty to move in this direction at a
rapid pace. Our research grants, and the number of graduate students and postdoctoral fellows
trained per faculty member, tend to be small relative to our peers (Table A1, page 46). Our goal
is to shift our culture, and enable the faculty to develop larger and more complex research
agendas that engage teams of highly skilled investigators sustained by much larger grants,
through the development and support of Research Clusters (see page 16).
C. Opportunities
Infusion of Faculty Talent
The College has had the good fortune to be able to recruit 43 new faculty members, out of a total
of 110, in the past eight years, and we recruited an additional four (to a total of 114) through
joint appointments with other colleges. This is about the same faculty size as we had in 1993
because recruitment has been offset by retirements and departures. However, the 43 hires reflect
a major influx of talent, energy, new ideas, and new perspectives that has generated excitement,
momentum, and changes in the culture and programs of the College.
Major New Facilities
Two major construction projects in the past decade provide outstanding new research and
teaching space. Chemistry Wing 3 provides state-of-the art laboratory space for research and
CLFS Strategic Plan, 2009
Page 19
teaching in organic chemistry, and the new Bioscience Research Building encompasses 35
research laboratories for the biological sciences. In addition, more than 40 research laboratories
in other buildings have been thoroughly renovated.
Diversity and Community
The diversity of the College’s undergraduate student body is a major strength (page 17), and the
College is now recognized as a national leader in graduating students who are members of
racial/ethnic groups underrepresented in science. With this momentum building, the College has
the opportunity to become one of the top choices of both graduate students and faculty who are
members of underrepresented group. In turn, their presence and participation in recruiting and
teaching will further strengthen our undergraduate programs.
D. Threats
Potential Loss of Faculty
Recruiting outstanding faculty and building a national and international reputation also exposes
the University to the risk that the best of our faculty will be targets for recruitment, particularly
by top-ranked universities with deep pockets. To this point, the College has been able to counter
most attempts to recruit our faculty, although we have lost five outstanding faculty members in
the past four years. Moreover, as our junior faculty members develop their careers, and as our
mid-career faculty members become more distinguished, the risk will increase. Countering this
will require building a tight-knit community of scholars that faculty members do not want to
leave, and developing unique research resources that cannot be easily matched at other
institutions. It will also require competitive salaries, reduced teaching loads for the most
productive faculty members, strong graduate programs, an attractive and supportive environment
for postdoctoral fellows, strong administrative and technical support, excellent facilities, and an
administration that makes it clear that the University values them and their research programs.
Animal Care and Facilities
Much of 21st century biological and biomedical research requires use of laboratory animals.
Indeed, many of the areas of life sciences in which UM chooses to excel require animal models
for which there can be no substitute. Accreditation by the Association for the Assessment and
Accreditation of Laboratory Animal Care (AAALAC) is the gold standard that must be met for
animal care, and a standard that many investigators require to ensure the health and safety of
their valuable research subjects. While small steps have been taken towards AAALAC
accreditation, a much more aggressive approach is needed if the College and University are to
continue on their upward trajectory in biomedical research.
Safety Hazards
Despite renovations, many of our laboratories and buildings are substandard. Outmoded
electrical and ventilation systems in older buildings are inadequate to support modern scientific
research, cannot maintain stable temperature and humidity control, and must be improved to
CLFS Strategic Plan, 2009
Page 20
maintain a healthy workplace. Training employees and students in laboratory safety and
developing a culture that respects the importance of laboratory safety remains a high priority.
V. Strategic Initiatives and Goals
T
he strategic initiatives and goals discussed in this section are designed to address our
challenges, to seize new opportunities, and to raise the expectations of all faculty, staff, and
students in the College.
Initiative 1: Continue to build a world class faculty.
Goal 1: Bring the budget and faculty size of the College into alignment with its mission
and responsibilities.
Increasing faculty size is clearly the most important and expensive initiative, and the one for
which the only real answer is to have a significant increase in our State budget. We realize that
this is not simple, and that we have to work with reallocation processes and other opportunities
for increased hard-budget funding, and then to demonstrate that the College is moving towards
its goal of continuously increased excellence. But, the conundrum is that without increased
faculty size, and increased personnel and infrastructure to support the faculty, we cannot fulfill
our aspirations in research, education, or outreach.
At the same time, we can use alternative revenue sources to address infrastructure needs or
support one-time costs such as startup funds. Alternative revenue sources might include:
increasing our DRIF through increased research funding; foundation funding; naming gifts with
funds used to support start-up costs; cost recovery for core and animal facilities; and income
from revenue-generating academic programs.
Goal 2: Recruit and retain outstanding faculty members who fully embrace the
tripartite mission of the University -- research, teaching, and service -- and who have
the potential to become University, national, and international leaders.
We must focus on recruiting faculty members who fully embrace, and can make substantial
contributions to, all three areas of the mission of the University—research, education, and
outreach. Moreover, we must also make a special effort to recruit individuals with the ability to
be strong and effective leaders to advance excellence in our mission. In addition, we must
emphasize recruitment of mid-career faculty who are recognized as future scientific leaders, with
well funded research programs and the ability and drive to expand them.
As we continue to build an outstanding faculty, we must also retain faculty members not only
until they have achieved international stature, but for the duration of their productive careers. We
must continue to make our departments, College, and the University vibrant intellectual
communities and satisfying workplaces. While achieving this goal primarily involves assuring
excellence in our research space, infrastructure, salaries, and other support, it also requires
CLFS Strategic Plan, 2009
Page 21
enabling our best and brightest faculty members to be part of Research Clusters that uniquely
meet their professional goals and needs. Thus, continuing to hire excellent faculty members
assists in the retention of current faculty members.
Goal 3: Focus faculty hiring in selected areas to build the critical mass necessary to
undertake major research and academic initiatives.
The complexity of today’s scientific issues requires multi-disciplinary, multi-investigator teams,
supported by major funding by federal agencies, international organizations, and private
foundations. To contribute substantively at the highest levels in this environment, the College
must develop the capacity to participate and provide leadership on campus and nationally in
these types of efforts. Building critical mass is crucial, and so we must be selective in the number
of areas in which we build. The most effective path for the College is to build in areas in which it
currently has excellence or has been building towards excellence, and move these areas to higher
levels of national and international recognition and scientific leadership.
Table 1: Relationship between department research programs and College and UM research
initiatives.
Department
Biology
Cell Biology &
Molecular
Genetics
Chemistry &
Biochemistry
Entomology
Research Area
Genomics
Sensory Neuroscience,
Cellular Biophysics
Ecology
Microbial Pathogenesis
Signal Transduction in
Cell Biology
Systems Biology and
Bioinformatics
Biological Chemistry
Energy Science
Vector Biology/ Medical
Entomology
Apiculture Science/
Genomics
2004 CLFS Strategic Research
Initiatives
Comparative and Functional Genomics
Health
Sensory Neuroscience
Health
Ecological Sustainability
Host-pathogen Interactions
Environment/Climate
Health, Environment
Comparative and Functional Genomics
Health
Comparative and Functional Genomics
Health
Nanoscience/Biomaterials
Nanoscience/Biomaterials
Health/Nanoscience
Energy/Nanoscience
Host-pathogen Interactions
Health/Environment
Ecological Sustainability/ Genomics
Environment
University Initiative
In developing the College’s 2009 strategic plan, we intensively re-examined the 2004 strategic
research initiatives (see page 14 for detailed descriptions), and concluded that these broad areas
have served us exceedingly well and, most importantly, are well-aligned with where we see
chemical and life sciences nationally and internationally moving over the next ten years, and
beyond. Thus, we shall retain and build upon these research initiatives. Very importantly, our
departments have defined their hiring objectives both in the context of our strategic research
initiatives (and those from 2004) and the disciplinary focus of each department. As a
consequence, the quality of scholarship in the College and our departments has grown
substantially by this focus. The broad areas that each department will focus on are closely related
to the strategic research initiatives of the College and University, as summarized in Table 1 (page
22). Further information is provided in the individual Department Strategic Plans (executive
summaries in Appendix III, page 48). (Full executive plans can be found at: Biology; Cell
Biology and Molecular Genetics, Chemistry & Biochemistry; and Entomology.)
CLFS Strategic Plan, 2009
Page 22
Goal 4: Develop robust, ongoing faculty mentoring and review programs to ensure
that every faculty member achieves and sustains a life-long career of outstanding
accomplishment.
Part of ensuring the success of our new faculty recruits is to foster the development of skills to
meet all of the challenges of being a member of a complex university community. And, part of
ensuring that all faculty members have career-long effectiveness requires that we provide
continuing constructive review and support, particularly as careers evolve. One of the greatest
challenges of the College is to create an environment that fosters a lifelong commitment to
embracing change, exploration, and discovery, sustains the highest standards of excellence and
achievement in every professional activity, and creates an environment where, as needed, senior
faculty can shift the focus of their contributions (e.g., from research to service or teaching) to
foster their ongoing contributions to their units and the campus.
Strategies
•
•
•
•
Expand our continuing set of workshops for junior faculty, including topics driven by
faculty requests and input, including: the tenure process; managing a laboratory;
mentoring; and balancing work and family.
Continue to put in place processes that ensure that every junior faculty member receives
ongoing, confidential, informal mentoring that provides guidance and assistance in all
aspects of faculty life.
Ensure that senior faculty members have an understanding of the breadth, complexity,
and importance of the mentoring process, through mentorship training seminars and other
venues.
Adopt and implement a plan for rigorous post-tenure review on a regular cycle to
promote and sustain ongoing career development by senior faculty. The overall goal of
this process is to help faculty achieve all that they can, and to contribute significantly to
the overall mission of the department and the University.
Initiative 2: Offer undergraduate programs that communicate the
excitement of scientific discovery in the 21st century, and that provide
students with outstanding advising and mentoring experiences.
Goal 1: Engage the tenured/tenure track (T/TT) faculty more fully in the
undergraduate program, and strengthen the partnership between the T/TT and
instructional faculty.
Delivery and administration of the undergraduate academic program involves several different
partnerships: between the Dean’s Office and the departments, between T/TT and instructional
CLFS Strategic Plan, 2009
Page 23
faculty, 7 and between the faculty and professional advisors. This model is widely used at many
research intensive universities with large undergraduate programs and multiple life sciences
departments. The Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry has full responsibility for
instruction and advising its majors throughout their program of studies. In contrast, faculty
members from three College departments teach courses in the Biological Sciences major (BSCI)
and much of the administrative support is provided by the Dean’s Office, particularly for the
introductory course sequence. Cross-College coordination of curricular change, policies, and
procedures is achieved through the AcELT and faculty committees.
Administrative and programmatic centralization offers many advantages, particularly in a
College where faculty in several different departments are able to share the responsibility for
teaching different sections of the same course (e.g., the freshmen/sophomore biology majors
sequence). However, this model sometimes results in faculty members feeling distanced from
issues of curriculum ownership and engagement in decision making, and the extent to which the
T/TT faculty is engaged in our undergraduate program is quite variable. As a consequence, our
goal is to develop expectations and structures that allow our entire faculty to contribute
meaningfully to undergraduate education – through teaching, advising, mentoring, curriculum
development, and oversight -- so as to increase the level of challenge, innovation, relevance, and
faculty student engagement of our program.
Strategies
•
•
•
Emphasize the expectation of excellence in undergraduate teaching, advising, and
undergraduate research mentorship in the appointment, evaluation, and promotion of all
faculty members, and reward outstanding contributions.
Review and restructure faculty leadership and governance roles in undergraduate education
to increase faculty engagement and ownership at all levels of the undergraduate curriculum.
Expand the collaborations of T/TT and instructional faculty members, to help the T/TT
faculty members balance commitments to teaching and research, to bring research
perspectives to the undergraduate curriculum, and to engage lecturers more fully in the
mission of the departments and College. Clearly define the scope of lecturers’
responsibilities, providing adequate time and opportunity for these faculty members to grow
as scientists and educators.
Goal 2: Infuse courses with content that engages and challenges students,
encompasses new discoveries, and deepens connections with other scientific
disciplines.
The rapid pace of discovery in the sciences requires that academic programs engage in a
continuous process of assessment and innovation to maintain the rigor and relevance of the
curriculum. Our vision is to cultivate a rigorous and challenging educational environment,
inspired by the teaching and research of our faculty members, and an environment that engages
7
The College faculty currently includes about 25 full-time Ph.D.-holding instructors and lecturers, collectively
referred to as “instructional faculty” who make substantial contributions in undergraduate teaching programs and
administration. We rely very little on part-time or adjunct instruction in our undergraduate program.
CLFS Strategic Plan, 2009
Page 24
students actively in learning, is inclusive of interdisciplinary perspectives in understanding
scientific questions, and fosters students’ development as lifelong learners, researchers, and
communicators.
Faculty members in CLFS are deeply committed to curriculum renewal and assessment -- within
and among courses, and increasingly, across disciplinary boundaries. This is exemplified in a
strong record of federal and private grant support, activities of the CLFS Teaching and Learning
Center, and exemplary national leadership in curriculum renewal efforts through professional
societies. There is significant opportunity to build on this strong foundation, and extend these
efforts to include more faculty members throughout the College.
The College uses a learning outcomes assessment framework to guide changes in the curriculum.
However, assessment design, interpretation, and making decisions about constructive course
improvements are challenging because of the very broad range of abilities, aspirations, and
motivations of our students. A consequence of the many paths of entry and broad range of
backgrounds and abilities is content redundancy, which we would like to eliminate. This can be
achieved only by defining the objectives and content of courses more clearly, and
communicating this information more effectively across courses, across colleges, and even to
key transfer institutions.
Strategies
•
•
•
•
•
Build curriculum sequences that reduce redundancy and foster deep learning;
systematically review the goals, content, and level of challenge of laboratory courses
across the curriculum. Use the learning outcomes assessment feedback cycle to
strengthen our curricula, student learning, and academic success. Reemphasize and
expand writing, analysis and communication skills across the curriculum.
Develop innovative ideas for undergraduate research and curriculum development, using
a process of broad faculty engagement; secure additional grants from foundations, federal
agencies, and private philanthropy to support instructional innovations, undergraduate
research facilities, and equipment.
Build cross-disciplinary and interdisciplinary curriculum opportunities in mathematics/
biology, physics/biology, public health science, bioinformatics, neuroscience,
nanoscience, and entrepreneurship. Responding to a critical national need, expand the
profile of training opportunities for students to pursue careers as secondary school
teachers in STEM disciplines.
Identify opportunities for engagement in the new University Honors College by creating
an innovative program to offer to new Honors students.
Enhance the profile of the College as a national leader in the scholarship of teaching and
learning by encouraging opportunities for professional development and dissemination of
our teaching and learning innovations.
CLFS Strategic Plan, 2009
Page 25
Goal 3: Immerse students more fully in the intellectual life of the College and campus
by fostering interaction among students and faculty members.
As the size of the CLFS student body has increased and the size of the faculty has remained
constant, fewer students experience one-on-one interactions with, and mentoring by, faculty. Yet,
we recognize the vital importance of undergraduates having access to faculty members,
opportunities to learn in faculty research labs, and mentoring dialogues about science and careers
in science. We must continue to find creative solutions to connect students with faculty in
meaningful ways that simultaneously serve students’ needs, while respecting faculty time and
effort.
Strategies
•
•
•
Address the imbalance between the size of the CLFS faculty by increasing the size of the
faculty (see Strategic Initiative 1, page 21) and developing a selective admissions process
for new freshmen and transfer students that serves to reduce the number of CLFS
undergraduates.
Decrease average CLFS undergraduate lecture class size in parallel with faculty
expansion; reduce low enrollment courses, increasing the teaching expectations of
research-inactive faculty members; and establish College-wide targets for average class
size.
Reemphasize engagement in the research mission of the College as an essential
component of all students’ scientific training, whether or not their goal is to pursue a
research career. Expand departmental honors programs, increase the number of
undergraduates pursuing faculty-mentored research, and increase student participation in
existing scholarly seminars.
Goal 4: Develop comprehensive student advising and support programs that empower
and guide students and foster student achievement and success.
Mentors and academic advisors are crucial to the success of every student, helping students to
make successful educational transitions, to develop personal academic and career goals, and to
pursue research and co-curricular opportunities. Increased emphasis on long-range academic
planning and self-empowerment (e.g. through UNIV 100 and BSCI 279T), coupled with a broad
range of information technology resources, provide opportunities to move beyond mandatory
advising focused on course selection for all students each semester. New approaches could
emphasize advising interventions for students in academic difficulty, and would shift more
ownership and responsibility for course selection and completion of degree requirements to the
students themselves, especially for the many students making good academic progress. Faculty
time could then be reinvested in providing guidance related post-undergraduate training, research
and career opportunities.
CLFS Strategic Plan, 2009
Page 26
Strategies
•
•
•
•
•
Revise the mandatory advising structure currently in place to a model that does not
require course registration-related academic advising for every student, every semester;
identify students whose academic progress is declining and provide targeted
interventions.
Improve IT resources for academic planning to enhance students’ self-efficacy and
ownership of academic planning. Create a CLFS undergraduate portal that motivates
students to return regularly to the CLFS website.
Improve academic success by: reviewing and enhancing orientation course curricula,
initiating new studies to understand differential achievement/success of subsets of the
CLFS student body, and analyzing success in CLFS courses; adjust the curriculum and
better define expectations as necessary.
Increase interactions with community college science faculties to address articulation
issues and student transition challenges, initiate new curriculum initiatives, and enhance
the recruitment and success of transfer students in CLFS.
Expand co-curricular opportunities for transfer students, particularly in research and
internship opportunities. Focus more specifically on the unique issues faced by
commuters and non-traditional students.
Goal 5: Expand opportunities for undergraduates beyond the classroom, to foster their
development and leadership potential.
Our students are enriched through research experiences, service learning, co-curricular activities,
interdisciplinary and international opportunities, and through the unique educational
opportunities afforded by the “unfair advantage” of our location in the Baltimore-Washington
corridor. Exploiting these advantages is the key to providing a rich, challenging and unparalleled
undergraduate experience for all students in the College.
Strategies
•
•
Expand opportunities for undergraduate service and leadership development though
undergraduate teaching assistantships, peer mentorships, outreach to K-12 schools,
campus leadership and student government, and increased engagement with the local
community; encourage more CLFS students to pursue national awards, scholarships, and
fellowships.
Expand global competencies by encouraging study abroad (semesters and individual
courses), international research and service opportunities, and enhanced inclusion of
global themes in CLFS courses.
CLFS Strategic Plan, 2009
Page 27
Initiative 3: Increase the excellence and size of our graduate and
postdoctoral programs to match those of peer institutions, and to enable
expansion of the research and academic programs of the College.
Scientific research in universities and graduate education within the sciences are driven primarily
by research laboratories led by faculty members, and comprised of graduate students,
postdoctoral fellows (“postdocs”), and undergraduate researchers. The size and productivity of a
research lab, and its ability to acquire and maintain high levels of research funding, are clearly
correlated.
To build labs with higher productivity, and to establish thriving Research Clusters (see section
on Research, page 13), we must increase the size and quality of our population of doctoral
students and postdocs while still maintaining excellent mentorship, full financial support for
stipends and research, and excellent placement when they leave the University. While the
number of doctoral students and postdocs in any one lab will vary depending upon many factors,
our overall and long-term goal is to increase the number of doctoral students by 50% and
postdocs by 100% in order to bring us into line with the levels of our peer institutions. Indeed,
we have far fewer postdocs than our peers (Table A2, page 46). While finding data on number of
doctoral students at peer institutions is more difficult, analysis of the NSF doctoral graduation
rates at UM and at peers suggests that we have at least 50% fewer graduate students per mentor
than our peers (Table A3, page 47).
Of course, this growth critically depends on our success in increasing the size and funding of our
research programs -- groups cannot be expanded without the funds to support them – and being
able to ensure excellent placement of our Ph.D.’s and postdocs after they leave us.
Goal 1: Significantly improve the quality and size of our Ph.D. programs.
The first major step in improving the quality of our program have already been taken by the
development of the Biological Sciences (BISI) graduate program, and the related intent to
strengthen our programs in other disciplines in the College. Thus, our goal in this Strategic Plan
is to strengthen our doctoral training programs to ensure higher levels of success over the next
decade. This involves a commitment to increasing the levels of stipends, enhancing external
funding for research assistantships through grants and philanthropy to support the increased
number of doctoral students, and improving our graduate courses, mentoring, and environment
for graduate training.
Strategies
•
•
•
Raise 12-month graduate stipends to nationally competitive levels (currently $30K) by
increasing them by at least 4-5% each year. Guarantee graduate student stipends for five
years with satisfactory progress.
Reduce average time to the Ph.D. to five years.
Increase the percentage of doctoral students supported on fellowships, research grants,
and training grants to 75%, and reduce TA support to 25%, so that students are supported
CLFS Strategic Plan, 2009
Page 28
•
•
on TAships for no more than three semesters. 8 This will enable doctoral students to
dedicate much more of their time to their research activities. Increase the amount of
external funding to support doctoral students, particularly from training grants such as
those from NIH and NSF, and external fundraising. Increase the number of students
supported by University and national fellowships. Require faculty members to support
graduate students on their research grants, to the extent possible.
Work with campus to lower the indirect cost of supporting a graduate student on a
research grant, thereby enabling faculty to support more students on research grants. 9
Develop a better sense of community for graduate students, who spend a great portion of
their time in the labs of their mentors, and have little opportunity to interact with other
students. Implement professional development programs for graduate students to provide
them with skills and training not necessarily acquired in lab research. These include
presentations, grantsmanship, resume writing, time management, skills for working in
groups, etc.
A number of other steps are needed to improve the quality and size of both doctoral and
postdoctoral programs. These include:
•
•
•
•
Increase the diversity, and support for diversity, in our programs, employing the
strategies discussed in the section on Diversity (page 38). Similar efforts will be made to
increase the diversity profile of our postdoctoral fellows.
Increase opportunities for graduate students and postdoctoral fellows to work in regional
national laboratories, both to expand training opportunities, and to provide access to the
highly specialized equipment only available in the federal laboratories.
Provide opportunities for graduate students and postdocs to work and learn on the
international stage by supporting their attendance at international courses and scientific
meetings, and to do research for short periods in research labs at international partner
institutions.
Work to improve the placement of our graduates so that they are prepared to enter
postdoctoral positions at major research universities when they graduate, and so will be
on track to pursue highly competitive career opportunities.
As part of our goal for improving the quality of our graduate and postdoctoral programs, it will
be imperative to develop means to assess whether we have achieved our goals. Mechanisms will
be developed to:
•
•
Assess whether we have improved the quality of students admitted to our graduate
programs.
Make better use of Learning Outcome Assessments (LOAs) to measure and improve the
quality of our graduate programs.
8
NSF data demonstrate that students in the chemical and biological sciences fully supported by TAs have a time to
degree one year longer than those supported on fellowship funds.
9
Typically, the total cost of stipend, tuition, and other benefits is close to $40K/year, and indirect costs add another
$20K/year. Many NSF grants are in the range of $100K/year (direct + indirect costs), so supporting one graduate
student consumes more than half of the grant.
CLFS Strategic Plan, 2009
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•
•
Assess the quality of our graduates through mechanisms that may include longitudinal
tracking of our doctoral students and postdocs after they leave UM.
Assess the quality of our master’s level programs, possibly by looking at the positions of
our graduates.
Goal 2: Significantly increase the size of our postdoctoral population and make the
postdoctoral experience one of considerable value for the trainees.
Postdoctoral investigators are an immense asset to research programs in the chemical and life
sciences. Moreover, postdoctoral training is a requirement for an individual to be nationally
competitive for employment in research faculty positions. Yet, while CLFS and its faculty
greatly value postdocs, the environment for postdoctoral fellows at UM falls far short of the
environment provided at institutions with the strongest programs in chemistry and biological
sciences.
Strategies
•
•
•
•
Develop a community environment for postdocs to improve the quality of professional
life, and to attract more postdocs to the College. Provide postdocs with opportunities to
participate in the academic and scholarly life of the College, and to be represented on
committees and other groups at which their expertise would be valuable and/or which
affect post-doctoral issues.
Implement programming for postdocs, through the CLFS Postdoctoral Association, for
career development, mentoring, and scientific outreach. Provide postdocs with
opportunities to have mentored teaching experiences to better prepare postdocs who want
to pursue academic positions.
Work with campus to provide excellent health insurance and other benefits for postdocs
whose funding does not allow them to be considered State employees.
Work to ensure that postdocs leaving UM are prepared to compete for highly competitive
positions at distinguished institutions.
Initiative 4: Increase the scientific excellence and national and
international impact of the College’s research programs.
Goal 1: Develop “Research Clusters” that encourage faculty members to engage in
large-scale research programs that lead to major advances and contributions to
human health, climate and the environment, energy, and nanoscience.
Substantively increasing the scope and scale of CLFS research programs requires a multipronged approach. Other sections of this plan describe the need to increase faculty size, improve
doctoral and postdoctoral programs, enhancement of the research and administrative
infrastructure, and other factors.
CLFS Strategic Plan, 2009
Page 30
At the same time, increasing the ability of CLFS faculty to expand their research programs in
vision, scope, and size requires a major transformation of the research culture of the College.
This change primarily involves moving from an approach that encourages and supports
individual faculty or small informal groups of scholars to an environment that encourages and
supports a number of Research Clusters, as discussed earlier (page 16).
Our principal goals for Research Clusters are to: (1) create thriving centers of research and
training; (2) substantially increase our research visibility, nationally and internationally; (3)
expand funding in focused research areas; and (4) increase success in obtaining graduate training
grants, and multi-investigator research and infrastructure support from federal agencies and
foundations.
Strategies
•
•
•
Foster development of new Research Clusters, each of which will focus on a specific set
of common research questions, supported by training grant funding (T32 or IGERT) to
support students, as well as infrastructure or shared instrumentation grants.
Create a grants development office (see Goal 2 below) to help faculty members to seek
major research funding.
Develop endowments and other giving directed at named chairs and named Research
Clusters.
Goal 2: Increase research proposals, awards, and funding to enhance the effectiveness
of faculty members and Research Clusters.
The greatest challenge that the College faces in expanding the scope and scale of its research
programs is to accelerate the rate of growth of external funding for research. This can only be
achieved by developing the necessary grants development and administration infrastructure,
which must have at least three capabilities: (1) identify major funding opportunities well in
advance of submission deadlines; (2) bring together appropriate faculty members and assist them
in preparing large, complex, successful grant proposals efficiently; and (3) manage complex
grant awards with ease.
To facilitate funding, the College will create, by early 2010, a cross-College grants
administration team, led by one of the Associate Deans, to provide direction and oversight, for
grants programs. This team will include one to two staff members at the Director/Associate
Director level who have the professional experience and capabilities to develop strategies for
identifying and capitalizing on major funding opportunities, coordinate the preparation of multiinvestigator grant proposals and write major sections of these proposals. These staff members
will be based in the Dean’s Office, and will support the preparation of major multi-investigator
proposals across the College. In addition, the team will include pre-award staff members in each
department at the Coordinator level to provide administrative support for all proposal preparation
and submission in the department, and who will interface with departmental grants accountants
to ensure compliance with federal regulations and effective utilization of funds.
CLFS Strategic Plan, 2009
Page 31
This investment in grants infrastructure will build the capacity to produce a three-fold increase in
proposal submission in three years, and six to ten multi-investigator research, training,
instrumentation, or facilities grant proposals each year. In addition, CLFS intends to increase
total research funding from $25M to $40M, including increasing both NIH and NSF funding by
150%.
Goal 3: Enhance animal care programs to support biological research.
As discussed earlier in this Plan (Animal Care, page 20), advancing our understanding of human
and animal biology and promoting translational research are virtually impossible without the use
of research animals, and this requires excellent facilities for holding and caring for animals. The
need for improvement and expansion of animal facilities is increasing rapidly as research in the
College expands, and will soon be a limiting factor in terms of increasing the size of our faculty
and the scale of our research activities.
Within the College, renovation of the animal facilities in the Microbiology and BiologyPsychology building is an urgent priority. State funding will enable the first stages of renovations
in Biology-Psychology. Significant efforts are being made to obtain NIH funding to renovate the
facility in the Microbiology building. The long-term goal must be to have animal facilities and
care that meet the standards for accreditation by AAALAC (Association for Assessment and
Accreditation of Laboratory Animal Care), and ongoing University support of these facilities.
Strategies
•
•
•
Work with campus to seek NIH and NSF funding for CLFS animal care facilities.
Increase the number of animal care personnel working in the College with salaries for
animal care paid by recharges to research grants.
Work with the campus to achieve AAALAC accreditation within three years.
Goal 4: Build the research infrastructure that will enable increases in the scope and
scale of our research programs.
Powerful new enabling technologies have been major drivers in the development of 20th and
21st century chemistry and biology. Because the instrumentation based on these technologies is
expensive and constantly evolving, obtaining and maintaining instrumentation is an ever
increasing challenge.
Continue development of shared core facilities managed by professional staff that can train and
provide support for users in order to optimize investment in instrumentation. Moreover,
developing sound policies for managing these facilities, and a user base large enough to support
and enable facilities to grow is critical to their long-term success.
Strategies
•
Develop a five-year strategic plan for College research core facilities that includes: a
statement of anticipated instrumentation needs and priorities; identifies facilities,
CLFS Strategic Plan, 2009
Page 32
•
•
personnel, and maintenance requirements, including service contracts; and outlines
detailed plans for seeking instrumentation grants and covering operational costs.
Develop a plan to submit proposals for each NIH and NSF instrumentation grant cycle.
Work with alumni and friends in scientific instrumentation companies to negotiate
favorable costs and service contracts.
Goal 5: Work with the Office of Research and other colleges to develop Universitywide core research facilities.
With the exception of the Maryland NanoCenter, the development of research infrastructure has
been primarily an individual college responsibility up to this point. However, the research
infrastructure required by contemporary chemical and life sciences costs more than any single
college is likely to be able to afford. Moreover, faculty members with the same instrumentation
needs are being hired in several colleges. The most efficient and effective way for the University
to meet this need is to develop University-level core facilities that meet the needs of the entire
campus, modeled along the lines of the Maryland NanoCenter. Meeting the needs of all
constituents is not a trivial challenge, since there are often subtle differences in the
instrumentation required in different areas of research. However, an inclusive process that
assesses all constituents’ needs and includes them in decision-making is highly desirable,
because of the synergy and economies of scale can be achieved with University-wide core
facilities.
Goal 6: Build entrepreneurial and technology transfer capacity.
Increasing technology transfer is a high priority for the College. We have engaged alumni and
friends who have achieved success in biotechnology, environmental management, patent law,
pharmaceutical, scientific instrumentation, venture capital, and other corporations in developing
translational research and technology transfer in the College. We work closely with programs
and offices on campus, including the Office of Technology Commercialization, MTECH, and the
Dingman Center to generate interest and knowledge among faculty, staff, and students.
By far the most important factors in achieving that potential are increasing research activity in
the College, particularly in areas relevant to societal challenges, and building the capacity for
translational research. However, developing the technology transfer infrastructure at both the
University and College level is also critical.
When funding permits, we will create a position for a Director of Technology Transfer, and add,
as needed, additional positions by FY 2015, one of which would be jointly with the Office of
Technology and Commercialization.
CLFS Strategic Plan, 2009
Page 33
Initiative 5: Infuse international perspectives and activities into all
aspects of the College’s programs.
In the 21st century, great universities must engage the global community at many levels. During
the past decade, the University has forged strong relationships with governments, universities,
and research institutions around the world.
In developing its own international activities and programs, the College has substantial
experience upon which to draw. Our faculty, staff, and students come from many countries; our
alumni live and work in many different countries; and faculty, graduate students, and
postdoctoral fellows have research projects and collaborations in more than 60 countries (see
Appendix I-C, page 42). Moving beyond this stage requires that the College make an
organizational commitment, by defining specific goals, and developing the infrastructure needed
to achieve them.
Goal 1: Seek ways to explicitly infuse international perspectives into our
undergraduate curriculum and graduate programs, and assess the collective success of
this initiative.
Strategies to accomplish this goal are discussed for undergraduate students on page 27 and for
graduate students and postdocs on page 29.
Goal 2: Identify and develop robust research and educational partnerships with a few
major universities with which faculty in the College or the University already have
relationships.
Our immediate goal is to identify two universities in different regions of the world with which
we can establish a robust, multi-level partnership that would include short- and long-term student
and faculty exchanges, large collaborative research programs, and shared use of instrumentation.
We will examine these organizations in terms of faculty interest, ability to leverage our research
programs, potential to expose students to another culture, minimal language barriers, political
stability, cost of establishing a program, and travel costs.
Goal 3: Develop reciprocal exchange programs that enable faculty, graduate students,
postdocs, and undergraduates to study or conduct research abroad, and that enable
faculty and students from international institutions to participate in existing and new
UM academic and research programs.
We will work with partner universities to identify or develop specific courses, research
initiatives, and other opportunities that that take advantage of, and leverage, our strengths and
that enhance scholarly opportunities for our students and faculty.
CLFS Strategic Plan, 2009
Page 34
Goal 4: Develop an organizational structure to support international initiatives
throughout the College’s programs.
The College does not currently have an office of international programs, nor a specific person
responsible for this area. Initially, we will reallocate responsibilities and resources to enable
current members of the Dean’s Office with international experience to work with the campus
Office of International Programs, with the goal of appointing a Director of International
Programs within the next five years
Initiative 6: Develop robust communications, development, and external
relations programs to support the College’s academic, research, and
outreach missions.
Goal 1: Effectively communicate the College’s many strengths and successes internally,
across campus, and externally.
The College communication strategy has been re-focused through the comprehensive redesign of
our Web environment. Integration of our e-newsletter into the new website has enabled us to
streamline communications, increase their impact and visual content, and expand our
communication network (see Appendix I-D, page 43). However, further development of the
website is required to make it become the “go-to” site for all our alums, friends, constituents, and
the news media, as well as all students, faculty, and staff within the College. We will also sustain
selected print publications, including the College’s new Scope magazine.
We will strengthen our relationships with University Marketing and Communications, news
media, partner institutions and funding entities to ensure that the College’s successes are
recognized and communicated widely. We must also provide support and training to enable
CLFS faculty and staff members to communicate effectively with news media and the public in
ways that not only advance their own research but also the “brand” and mission of the College.
Goal 2: Build a strong and effective development program.
The College has more than 15,000 alumni, and its network of alumni and friends is global. Many
of our alumni have achieved a high level of success -- in academia, industry, community
leadership, at all levels of government, and in international agencies. The potential rewards of
developing a network that allows resources and communications to travel back and forth
between the College and the community are huge.
Cultivating a vital Board of Visitors (BOV) and a complementary volunteer structure is critical
for the full integration of the College into the surrounding community at many levels (see
Appendix I-D, page 43). Since its inception in 2001, the Board of Visitors has been comprised of
distinguished academics, corporate leaders, intellectual property attorneys, senior administrators
and scientists from federal agencies, and leaders in K-12 education. Most of the members of the
current Board are alumni of the College.
CLFS Strategic Plan, 2009
Page 35
Strategies
•
•
Continue to develop the Board by establishing a committee structure to support and
provide advice on the principal activities of the College -- research and graduate
programs, development, undergraduate education and career development, technology
transfer and corporate relations, STEM, and external relations.
Strengthen existing departmental and institute advisory boards, and establish boards for
units that do not now have them. Integrate the work of the different advisory boards to
enhance synergy and define common goals.
Initiative 7: Continue to build information technology capabilities to
support academic, research, outreach, communications, and
administrative needs.
The College has a robust information technology group (ITG) led by a Director in the Dean’s
Office and computer managers in each department. The ITG addresses administrative, academic,
and research needs, and works actively with the University’s Office of Information Technology.
Yet, there is an urgent need to increase the College’s scientific computing capacity, since many
areas of chemistry and biology now generate, and depend upon, enormous data sets.
Strategies
•
•
•
Develop a robust data store and workgroup collaborative environment with appropriate
security, and provide technical support for complex scientific computing packages.
Expand instructional technology capabilities and use of the ELMS (Enterprise Learning
Management System) system and its successors, including Sakai, an open-source
courseware management system.
Enhance laboratory instruction through support of online video development, and equip
all teaching facilities with current technologies.
Initiative 8: Increase Partnerships, Outreach, and Engagement with
External Communities.
Outreach to the community has many dimensions -- to the citizens of Maryland; the K-12
schools, community colleges and other universities; research institutes; philanthropic
organizations; non-governmental agencies; local, state and federal governments; corporations;
and many different types of international organizations. The College has outreach programs that
extend to all of these groups, including some that are long-standing, and many that have been
developed within the past decade (Appendix I-B (page 42)). We will sustain and strengthen our
ongoing outreach programs. We will also work to develop new partnerships, particularly with
BARC, FDA, NIH, NIST, the Smithsonian Institution, corporations, foundations, NGOs, and
international organizations.
CLFS Strategic Plan, 2009
Page 36
Goal 1: Develop new partnerships in research and graduate and postdoctoral training
with intramural programs in the appropriate units in major federal agencies.
Partnerships with federal and other agencies provide opportunities for our faculty and students to
have access to resources unavailable on campus, expand training opportunities, and enhance the
strength of Research Clusters by engaging external scientists (See Appendix I-A, page 41, for
examples of current partnerships).
Strategies
•
Leverage our growing strength in the areas of our strategic research initiatives to build
additional research and training collaborations with federal and State organizations, and
to participate with us in developing training programs and grants. We will also work to
appoint distinguished scientists from local federal agencies as Adjunct Professors,
Professors of the Practice, and College Park Professors.
Goal 2: Develop new corporate and clinical research, training, and technology transfer
partnerships.
Though much of its history, the research focus of the College has been strongly oriented towards
basic science. However, as science has advanced, and state and national priorities have evolved,
many of our faculty and students have recognized the value of increasing the societal impact of
their research, and have begun move their research programs toward translational research. To
assist faculty members and students who want to move in this direction, CLFS will work with
the campus in providing opportunities to learn about translational research and technology
transfer (Initiative 4, Goal 5), and to engage in corporate and clinical partnerships. Our focus in
both basic and applied research will continue to be directed toward major scientific and societal
impact.
Strategies
• Offer a course for graduate students and postdocs in translational biomedicine to enhance
understanding of the application of basic research to advances in biomedicine. Partner
with colleagues at UMB and/or Children’s Research Institute to develop and teach this
course. Create a similar course for technology transfer.
• Develop methods to promote translational research, such as seed funding for faculty and
students, to explore translational applications.
• Develop collaborations for graduate students and postdocs to gain exposure to clinical and
biomedical research approaches. Promote corporate and clinical research partnerships
through internships for undergraduates and graduate students at corporate partners.
• Create opportunities for faculty members, corporate, and clinical scientists to spend time
(including mini-sabbaticals) in each other’s laboratories and co-mentor students.
Other approaches are suggested in Appendix I-G (page 45).
CLFS Strategic Plan, 2009
Page 37
Goal 3: Seek new opportunities with foundations and non-governmental
organizations.
Strategies
•
•
Sustain existing partnerships with NGOs such as the internship opportunities with
numerous NGOs with environmental and conservation missions for students in the CONS
programs.
Working with the Director of Corporate and Foundation Relations in University
Relations, and the Office of the Vice President for Research, develop relationships with
foundations that fund programs in the chemical and life sciences.
Initiative 9: Continue to Build upon Our Diversity and Community.
Goal: Energetically recruit members of racial/ethnic groups underrepresented in
science as faculty members and students, and build staff diversity. Create a sense of
community that fosters inclusion and teamwork in achieving College goals.
The College has a strong sense of community and has done a great deal to increase and support
diversity (see Diversity and Community, page 17). Yet, we are not content with the current status
quo, and are setting higher goals to increase diversity, and build our community.
Strategies
•
•
•
Ensure that faculty, staff, and students who are members of underrepresented groups are
actively involved in recruitment activities at all levels, and are well represented on search
committees, including serving as committee chairs.
Increase the diversity of the faculty from 15% to 25% in five years. Increase the diversity
of the graduate student body by 10% in five years. Maintain the diversity of the staff, so
that at least 40% of staff at all levels are members of underrepresented groups, and 50%
of the staff are women.
Develop a robust set of professional development programs for faculty, staff, and
students at all levels that foster inclusion, build community, and enhance professional
success.
VI. The Future of CLFS
T
he strategic plan presented here, and the departmental strategic plans (see Executive
Summaries of these plans in Appendix III, page 48), represent a set of bold and
imaginative ideas and strategies that are designed to move the research, teaching, and
outreach programs of the College ahead rapidly, and with a shared vision of continually
advancing excellence. Our goal is simple -- we intend to move our programs to new levels of
national and international eminence. We will take newer, or less well known, programs and
CLFS Strategic Plan, 2009
Page 38
enable them to grow and strengthen through focal hiring and the expansion of Research Clusters.
We will focus our efforts and investments in strategic research areas that have this potential. In
all areas, we will set greater expectations when we meet or exceed our goals.
VII. Metrics
Initiative 1: Continue to Build a World Class Faculty.
• Increase faculty size from 110 FTE to 150 FTE.
• Move from hiring five faculty members per year which maintains current faculty size, to
hiring eight to ten per year to enable the faculty size to grow substantially.
• Improve retention of current faculty members, so that rather than losing an average of
one to three faculty members to other universities annually, we lose no more than one
faculty member per year.
• Decrease teaching responsibilities of most productive research faculty from one
course/semester to three courses every four semesters.
• Increase teaching responsibilities of the least research productive faculty from one course
per semester to two or more courses per semester.
• Increase the diversity of the faculty from 15% to 25% in five years.
Initiative 2: Offer undergraduate programs that are grounded in 21st century science and
that communicate the excitement of scientific discovery, and provide students with
outstanding advising, and mentoring experiences.
• Increase grant support for undergraduate education to: four NSF-CCLI or equivalent
grants, two collaborative/interdisciplinary STEM grants, and one additional grant to
support student research training in the next five years.
• Increase the number of students registered for research credits in faculty labs to an
average of two/research active faculty member, with at least one student enrolled in the
departmental honors program.
• Increase the percentage of graduating students pursuing at least one research experience
or internship from 70% to 80% in five years.
• Increase the percentage of student pursuing study abroad to 20% in five years.
• Reduce the count of majors in CLFS by 25%, to a total enrollment of 2,100, by limited
enrollment status over five years. Link subsequent adjustments in program size to the size
of the T/TT faculty.
• Reduce average undergraduate lecture class size by 25%, from 93 to 70 over the next five
years.
• Increase enrollment in the BSCI program at the Universities at Shady Grove to 100
students in five years.
• Increase the four-year graduation rate from 67% to 70% in five years; increase the sixyear graduation rate from 84% to 86% in five years.
• Reduce the gap in six-year graduation rates for underrepresented students by 5% in five
years.
CLFS Strategic Plan, 2009
Page 39
Initiative 3: Increase the excellence and size of our graduate and postdoctoral programs to
match those of peer institutions and to enable expansion of the research and academic
programs of the College.
• Increase the average number of graduate students per faculty member by 50%.
• Increase enrollment of graduate students from racial/ethnic groups underrepresented in
science from 10% to 20%.
• Continue to ensure 100% support for five years for doctoral students.
• Continue to raise graduate student stipends by at least 4-5% per year.
• Increase external and fellowship support for graduate students from 60% to 75%.
• Decrease average time to doctoral degree from 5.5 to 5 years.
• Increase the average number of postdoctoral researchers per faculty member by 100%.
• Increase number of training grants (for example, NIH T32 and NSF IGERT) from three
to eight.
• Increase rankings in U.S. News and World Report of both Chemistry and Biological
Sciences into the top 15 among public universities.
Initiative 4: Increase the scientific excellence and national and international impact of the
College’s research programs.
• Increase research funding from $25M to $40M, including a 150% increase in NIH and
NSF funding.
• Develop ten Research Clusters that have the capacity to compete for major training and
infrastructure grants.
• Increase the number of multi-year, multi-investigator grants to support Research Clusters
(for example, NIH P30) to ten.
Initiative 6: Develop robust communications, development, and external relations
programs to support the College’s academic, research, and outreach missions.
• Develop advisory boards for each unit and institute within the college.
• Increase annual giving from $4M to $10M.
• Increase the number of annual donors by 100%, from ~550 to 1100.
• Increase the numbers of development-related contacts and visits in proportion to
increases in staff (funded by University Relations).
• Meet or exceed the College’s $40M fund raising target for the Great Expectations
campaign.
CLFS Strategic Plan, 2009
Page 40
Appendix I
A. Partnerships with other agencies – examples
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
Auditory neuroscientists in the College and across the University have a long-standing,
broadly based partnership with the National Institute of Deafness and Other
Communication Disorders (NIDCD) of the National Institutes of Health (NIH) that
enables co-mentoring of graduate students by faculty members and NIDCD scientists,
and shared use of equipment and facilities. Collaborative research is supported by a P30
Program Project Grant that was renewed last year and graduate training by a T32
Training Grant that has just been renewed for an unprecedented third time with reviews
that comment on the international stature of the training program and of the research
programs of the faculty in the Center for the Comparative and Evolutionary Biology of
Hearing (C-CEBH).
The Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry works closely with the National Institute
of Standards and Technology (NIST) in collaborative research, shared use of
instrumentation, and in recruitment, support, and mentoring of graduate students -particularly students from underrepresented groups. The NIST-UM Milligan Fellowship
supports one outstanding African-American graduate student in the Department of
Chemistry and Biochemistry, and the competition for the fellowship typically allows the
Department to identify and recruit several additional African-American students.
The Maryland Pathogen Research Institute has a collaborative research agreement with
the United States Army Medical Research Institute for Infectious Disease (USAMRIID)
to develop micro detection systems for water-borne pathogens.
An MOU with the Smithsonian Institution, signed in 2009, enables Smithsonian staff
scientists and CLFS faculty members to co-mentor graduate students, and gives students
and faculty members access to the collections and scholarly resources of the Smithsonian
Institution, particularly the National Museum of Natural History and the Smithsonian
National Zoo.
The Department of Entomology has collaborative activities with the Beltsville
Agriculture Research Center (BARC) in systematics, apiary science, and invasive
species.
Graduate training program, funded by an NIH training grant, in Mechanisms of Viral
Replication and Gene Expression --joint with NIH, the National Cancer Institute, and
BARC.
NIH-funded graduate training grant in Cellular and Molecular Biology -- jointly with
NIH, UMBI, and Children’s National Medical Center.
Joint graduate training program with the Korean Advanced Institute for Science and
Technology (KAIST).
The College has engaged with several institutions to build programs in translational
research -- the process that takes discoveries in basic biomedical research from the bench
to the bedside. The College participated in developing a proposal to NIH for a Center for
Translational Sciences Award (CTSA) with a D.C. consortium consisting of George
Washington, Georgetown, and Howard Universities, Children’s National Medical Center
CLFS Strategic Plan, 2009
Page 41
•
•
and the District of Columbia Veterans Administration Hospital. It also worked with the
University of Maryland Medical School (UMB) in developing their CTSA proposal, and
participates in a pilot project program to foster collaborations.
A partnership with United Therapeutics is enabling MPRI scientists to develop new viral
detection and treatment methods, aimed at potential bioterrorism threats.
An NSF grant enables UM faculty to work with Bowie State University to improve
utilization of their high speed computing facility and to develop a B.S. in bioinformatics
at BSU.
B. Partnerships for K-16 and STEM Education
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
The College offers the final two years of a B.S. degree in the Biological Sciences at the
Universities at Shady Grove campus, created as an articulated 2+2 partnership with
Maryland community colleges.
The College is a lead unit on a $12.4M NSF grant to USM to improve STEM education
in Prince George’s County public schools and Prince George’s Community College, and
leads several other bridging initiatives in curriculum development and transfer student
success with local community colleges.
The College has provided substantial support to the Germantown campus of Montgomery
College in planning and designing its Bioscience Center and Research Park.
The College’s Web-based Master of Chemical and Life Sciences program (MCLFS)
provides in-service professional training secondary school science teachers (200-250
registrants per term). Over time, teachers have enrolled from 43 states and six countries.
The Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry sponsors the REACTS and Chemathon
programs to support the teaching of Chemistry in high schools.
The CLFS Howard Hughes Medical Institute (HHMI) program includes a summer Jump
Start program to introduce high school juniors to research, and a Teacher’s Symposium at
Bioscience Day.
The Department of Entomology hosts a very popular summer Insect Camp for 7- to 11year-olds.
C. International Programs
•
Faculty members conduct research in more than 60 countries, as illustrated in Figure 4
(page 16). Examples of established, robust programs include:
o Dr. Borgia (BIOL): Evolutionary behavior of bowerbirds in Australia.
o Drs. Carleton and Kocher (BIOL): Evolution of cichlid fishes in East Africa.
o Dr. Dietz (BIOL): Coastal rainforest conservation programs in Brazil, particularly
conservation of golden lion tamarins.
o Dr. Dinman (CBMG): Maintains research collaborations at CNRS/IGBMC,
Strasbourg, France (on yeast ribosome crystallization), and at U. Salzburg, Austria
(telomere maintenance and aging).
o Dr. Alexander (CHEM): Collaborations with Chinese Academy of Sciences, Institute
of Chemical Physics.
CLFS Strategic Plan, 2009
Page 42
o Dr. Fagan (BIOL): Conservation of penguins in Antarctica; migration patterns of
Mongolian gazelles in Asia.
o Dr. Popper (BIOL) and other faculty from C-CEBH co-teach a triennial international
course in Animal Communication with colleagues at the University of Southern
Denmark in Odense.
o Dr. Wilkinson (BIOL): Behavioral genetics of stalk-eyed flies from Central America,
and Southeast Asia.
•
Many faculty members have well-established international collaborations. A few
examples are listed below, and are discussed more extensively in departmental Strategic
Plans.
o Dr. Alexander: Germany and United Kingdom
o Dr. Carr: Denmark
o Dr. Davis: Italy, Spain, United Kingdom
o Dr. Doyle: China, India, France
o Dr. El-Sayed: China
o Drs. Fagan, Popper, and Wilkinson: Canada
o Dr. Fushman: Israel
o Drs. Kwak and S.-B. Lee: Korea
o Dr. Lorimer: Israel
o Dr. McIver, Sweden
o Dr. Quinlan: Italy
o Dr. Sze: Germany
•
Faculty members have taken leadership in organizing meetings and conferences that have
broad international impact.
o Dr. Popper organized an international conference in Nyborg, Denmark in 2007 on
effects of human-generated sounds on marine life that attracted participants from 40
countries and funding from seven international agencies, and he is now organizing a
second, larger meeting, to take place in Cork, Ireland, in 2010.
o Dr. Doyle served as Deputy Panel Convener, Research Assessment Exercise (2006)
for Physical Sciences in Hong Kong.
o Dr. Benson developed and led short-term study abroad courses for UM students to
China, Hong Kong, Macao, Laos, and Vietnam, building a platform for educational
exchanges with universities in these countries.
D. External Relations and Communications Activities
•
•
The College’s 15 member Board of Visitors includes national leaders in the corporate
sector, academic community, and government, about half of whom are alumni of the
College. The Board advocates for CLFS, and meets twice a year to review and provide
advice about the College’s programs and progress.
Communication vehicles include an e-newsletter produced quarterly, e-blasts that
communicate important developments, The Scope magazine produced twice per year, and
an annual calendar featuring people as well as academic and research programs in the
College.
CLFS Strategic Plan, 2009
Page 43
•
•
•
•
The College’s Web environment was completely redesigned in 2008-2009.
Bioscience Research and Technology Day is an annual a campus-wide program
organized by CLFS that serves to showcase bioscience research across campus. Events
include a keynote speaker, symposia, poster session, career fair, and program for high
school teachers. The day draws about 1000 on- and off-campus participants each year.
Numerous events for alumni are hosted each year: Young Alumni Game Watch,
Professional Advice Day for pre-dental and pre-medical students, several tailgating
parties, invitation only dinners, and receptions with featured speakers.
Approximately 300 donors and prospects are visited annually.
E. Examples of Shared Instrumentation
•
•
•
Core facilities in the Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry have been rejuvenated
through the purchase of two new 600 MHz NMR (nuclear magnetic resonance)
spectrometers, a macrobiomolecular X-ray crystallography system, and a small molecule
X-ray diffraction unit.
A proteomics core facility, staffed by a research scientist and equipped with a Thermo
Finnegan LTQ Orbitrap XL mass spectrometer, has been established.
Imaging facilities have been upgraded through the purchase of a new confocal
microscope, spinning disk microscope, two-photon confocal microscope, and two
fluorescence activated cell sorters.
F. Exceeding Campus Strategic Plan Goals for Graduate Education
CLFS already meets or exceeds the goals of the 2008 Campus strategic plan in very
important ways. These include:
•
•
•
•
•
•
The number of students admitted to CLFS doctoral programs is driven by faculty size,
carrying capacity of research labs, funding available to provide 100% support to each
student for the duration of their time in our programs, and the goal of bringing in the very
best students.
All doctoral students receive 12-month support through a combination of University or
national fellowship, teaching assistantships, and research assistantships.
All incoming graduate students in the Biological Sciences are guaranteed five years’
support, provided progress is satisfactory. Chemistry and Biochemistry students are
guaranteed year-by-year support (as is the tradition nationally, including at peer
institutions).
Current 9.5-month stipends range from $18,519 (Step I) to $19,685 (Step III), with
uniform stipend levels that are 3% higher than called for by the University strategic plan.
Partnerships with major federal agencies, including the NIH and the Smithsonian
Institution, enable co-mentoring by faculty members and agency scientists.
Commitment to increasing and supporting diversity, through participation and
recruitment at several national scientific meetings for members of underrepresented
groups.
CLFS Strategic Plan, 2009
Page 44
•
Students are encouraged and supported to attend national and international scientific
meetings.
G. Approaches to Increase Engagement in Translational Science
•
•
•
Promote translational research by:
o Providing seed funding for pilot projects.
o Creating opportunities for graduate students and postdoctoral fellows to be comentored by a faculty member and a corporate scientist.
o Offering competitive awards to graduate students and postdoctoral fellows for
achievements in translational research.
o Developing a distinguished lecture series in translational research.
o Creating opportunities for faculty to take sabbaticals in corporate or clinical settings.
o Providing workshops on NIH SBIR and STIR programs.
Promote technology transfer by:
o Funding a staff position dedicated to the College in the Office of Technology
Commercialization.
o Developing a process for critiquing inventor’s pitches.
o Continuing Professors’ Pitches at Bioscience Day, a competition judged by local
venture capitalists.
o Providing support for the development of promotional materials.
o Sustaining and further developing Entrepreneurial Office Hours for College faculty
and staff members, and students, hosted by OTC and local entrepreneurs, VCs, and
patent attorneys.
o Celebrating patent awards, and licensing agreements.
Promote corporate and clinical research partnerships by:
o Continuing to create opportunities for students to participate in corporate research
internships.
o Creating opportunities for faculty sabbaticals in corporate or clinical settings.
o Creating opportunities for corporate and clinical scientists to teach, take courses,
conduct research, and mentor students at UM.
o Developing short courses for corporate scientists and managers.
o Participating in local and national meetings of corporate scientists: for example, those
sponsored by the American Chemical Society, BIO, and the Tech Council of
Maryland.
CLFS Strategic Plan, 2009
Page 45
Appendix II – Tables and Figures
Table A1: Faculty Composition at Peer Institutions. 10
Biochemistry
/ Biophysics
Chemistry
Mol Gen/
Cell Biology
Neuroscience
2004
2009
2004
2009
2004
2009
2004
2009
2004
2009
2004
2009
13
16
33
20
43**
13
10
31
28
10
28
55
41
34
61
28
49
41
19
43
24
44
21
56
12
34
50
28
23
25
7
18
21
19
8
12
15
32
25
8
33
34
72
28
32
28
25
30
30
51
105
167
188
157
156
110
149
162
125
137
North Carolina*
38**
41
33
33
24
Peer Average
30
18
45
37
31
*Does not include medical school unless specified.
**Basic biochemistry and biophysics in medical school
33
32
6
14
6
17
16
36
23
32
117
157
136
136
University
Maryland
Berkeley
Illinois*
UCLA*
Michigan*
Ecology/
Evolution
Totals
Table A2: Postdoctoral appointees in doctorate-granting institutions (2006). 11
University
Maryland
Berkeley
Illinois
UCLA
Michigan
North Carolina
Peer Average
10
11
Science Postdocs
140
655
303
551
377
410
385
Data from NSF
Data from NSF
CLFS Strategic Plan, 2009
Page 46
Table A3 Comparisons of doctoral productivity in UM CLFS and peer institutions. 12
Normalized data (last column) are based on extrapolating each university to having 0.75 doctorates
per faculty member – the average for the UM peer institutions. Based on our peers and the number
of faculty we currently have in CLFS, doctoral production should go up by 80%, but this can only
happen if we generate more funding to support graduate students. (Note, if our faculty size
increases, doctoral student production should go up at least proportionally.)
University
UC Berkeley
UCLA
UI
U. Mich.
UNC
Peer Average
UM
# degrees
(2006)
120
90
106
109
84
102
46
# faculty
(2009)
149
125
162
137
106
136
110
Average degrees
per faculty
0.81
0.72
0.65
0.80
0.79
0.75
0.40
Normalized average
degrees/faculty (see legend)
112
94
121
103
79
102
86
Figure A1: CLFS and university undergraduate program diversity.
12
Data for number of degrees are from NSF (2006); number of faculty members are for 2009 was determined by
examination of available data on websites.
CLFS Strategic Plan, 2009
Page 47
Appendix III – Executive Summaries of Department Plans
Biology
(Full plan at: http://www.biology.umd.edu/facultystaffresources/forms)
Over the next 5-10 years, the Department of Biology will establish itself as a national
resource for integrative biology. Its faculty will conduct multi-disciplinary research with
collaborators both inside and outside the University, and will investigate large-scale biological
processes such as evolution, brain function, the impact of climate and disease on populations
across the globe, and the function of complex molecules. The Department will investigate these
processes in animals, plants, and microbes. The Department will be a locus within the University
for the application of quantitative methods and mathematical modeling to biological problems of
every kind. Retiring faculty will be replaced by hires that strengthen Research Clusters in the
Department. The Department will lead in the creation of a campus-wide Center for Sensory
Neuroscience that will conduct significant translational research into the origins and treatment of
sensory and brain disorders. The Department will establish Research Clusters in Evolutionary
Genetics and in Evolutionary Developmental Biology. Evolutionary Genetics is an area of
current research strength within the Department, and is a key to understanding the structure and
function of the many genomes now sequenced. Evolutionary Developmental Biology has
recently come to the forefront of biomedical science because genes that direct the development
of body plans in a variety of animals have also been shown to cause human disease.
Graduate students will conduct interdisciplinary studies within concentration areas of the
new Biological Sciences Graduate Program (BISI). The Department’s efforts in every area of
graduate education will be supported by training grants for predoctoral and postdoctoral trainees,
and by equipment grants. More postdoctoral trainees will be recruited and supported on grants.
The undergraduate curriculum will include a greater emphasis on the use of mathematics
and physics to explain biology. Lower level physics and mathematics classes will prepare
students for this curriculum. A much larger group of undergraduates will be enrolled and
graduated from the Ecology and Evolution specialization of the Biological Sciences major,
contributing to the societal need for more graduates with a strong grasp of the science needed to
understand and address underlying threats to our environment. Curriculum improvement grants
from agencies and foundations will support this curriculum revitalization and provide enriching
and innovative laboratory classes.
The Department will improve its administrative structure and work with the College to
coordinate its administrative functions with the other departments within the College. Staff
members will be cross-trained so as to be able to fill-in for each other and to enhance
productivity.
Faculty and graduate student diversity will continue to improve, so that we will have a
cohort of 5-10 faculty and 25% of our graduate students of both genders from underrepresented
groups. We will increase the percentage of our female faculty from its current 33% towards 50%.
CLFS Strategic Plan, 2009
Page 48
Research Action Plan Summary
 Through hiring, the creation of Research Clusters and multi-investigator grants,
we will:
o Build research that crosses traditional disciplinary boundaries within
Evolutionary Biology and Ecology.
o Form a Research Cluster in Evolutionary Genetics
o Build Evolutionary Developmental Biology.
o Build a campus Center in Sensory Neuroscience.
o Expand quantitative, computational and biophysical approaches in all areas.
•
•
•
Increase the number of postdoctoral researchers in the Department.
Continue to upgrade our animal facilities and core equipment.
Emphasize research mentoring in our peer review process.
Graduate Education Action Plan Summary
•
•
•
•
Promote interdisciplinary research and quantitative approaches for students across all of
the proposed concentration areas of BISI.
Teach graduate courses across BISI that exemplify the Department’s approach to
biological problem solving.
Reduce reliance on TAships by emphasizing training grants and individual investigator
awards.
Reduce average Ph.D. completion time to five years.
Undergraduate Education Action Plan summary
 Faculty will include or expand elements in their courses that highlight the Department’s
mission. For example:
o Mathematical Biology
o Evolutionary approaches
o Interdisciplinary approaches




Launch re-evaluations of syllabi across “vertical” swathes of the BSCI curriculum
Attract more students into the upper level Ecology and Evolution specialization area
Task teams of faculty and instructors with obtaining external funding.
Achieve an upper level course size limit of 60 students.
Staff Action Plan Summary
 Complete cross-training of staff to enhance flexibility in the tasks that they perform, so
that they can overlap tasks and stand-in for one another.
 Collaborate with other units in the College to adopt uniform, parallel structures for
administrative and technical staff that conform to best practices.
CLFS Strategic Plan, 2009
Page 49
Cell Biology and Molecular Genetics
(Full Plan: http://cbmg.umd.edu/departmentstrategicplan)
In the next decade, the Department of Cell Biology and Molecular Genetics (CBMG) will build
on our current strengths to generate high-impact, transformative discoveries in gene expression,
signal transduction, microbial pathogenesis, and complex networks at the whole cell or systems
level. The strategic recruitment of new faculty, the improvement of core facilities, the expansion
of existing programs, and the development of new high-impact Research Clusters will position
the Department to achieve national and international research prominence in the coming decade.
CBMG will continue to take the most modern approaches and apply state-of-the-art technologies
to the study of cell and molecular biology, with the goal of improving human life. In addition to
building on existing strengths in host-pathogen interactions and functional genomics, new areas
within cell and molecular biology that will be targeted for expansion will include signal
transduction at the single cell and systems levels, and the regulation of gene expression. We will
expand collaborations across the campus, to take advantage of expertise in bioengineering and
bioinformatics, and across the State, to take advantage of the federal laboratories and
biotechnology companies located in close proximity to the University. Important new research
discoveries leading to innovations in biomedicine, bioenergy, and nutrition that positively impact
the global environment and enhance the competitiveness of the U.S. economy will emerge from
this new plan.
The mission of the Department’s graduate training is to build upon our strengths in providing an
outstanding and enriching environment for training independent scientists for successful
research-based careers in academia, education, industry, and government. Specifically, this
includes continuing to obtain training grants, increased support of students on RAs, recruitment
of outstanding applicants including underrepresented minorities, enhancing course content and
standards within BISI, and fostering an interactive research community. Through these measures,
CBMG will continue to produce graduates that are equipped to meet the critical needs of society,
and who will also direct and shape the future of science.
The Department will offer an engaging and academically rigorous undergraduate program that
addresses the national need for professionally trained scientists and scientifically literate citizens,
serving as a model for undergraduate education at a research university. Faculty members will
take active roles in using their research to shape undergraduate education and making real-life
research experiences available to our majors. The Department will ensure that our student’s
education in cell biology and molecular genetics is among the best in the nation. This will be
accomplished by providing increased opportunities for undergraduate research, by developing
faculty interest groups to improve and integrate course content, and by increasing expectations
for student learning.
The Department of Cell Biology and Molecular Genetics strives to improve its research
capabilities and infrastructure, enhance graduate and undergraduate education, and establish
itself among the premier departments in the country.
CLFS Strategic Plan, 2009
Page 50
Short term goals:
1. Expand the Department’s research capabilities through strategic hiring of faculty
members, and by the development of collaborations with other departments and centers
across the campus through joint hires. Some specific examples of this are:
o Expand research capabilities in cell biology and signal transduction by hiring
faculty that will initiate a research program of national significance and integrate
with existing CBMG faculty.
o Expand research capabilities in molecular biology and gene expression by hiring
faculty that will initiate a research program of national significance and integrate
with existing CBMG faculty.
o Build on existing strengths in functional genomics by pursuing joint hires with the
Center for Bioinformatics and Computational Biology (CBCB), by establishing
collaborations with the Institute for Genomic Sciences (IGS) at UMB, and with
federal agencies, such as NIST.
o Build on existing strengths in Host-Pathogen Interactions by pursuing joint hires
with other units (e.g. vector biology with Entomology, infectious diseases with
the School of Public Health). This area can also be strengthened through
collaborations with biotechnology companies, federal agencies, and other research
institutions.
2. Improve the number and quality of graduate students coming into the Department by
adding at least one additional training grant to support graduate education and research.
Improve graduate education by revising the curriculum to include an emphasis on
research-centered instruction and team-taught classes.
3. Improve the undergraduate training program by continuing to have faculty actively
involved in the design and implementation of the curriculum, and by encouraging faculty
research groups to continue to publish in top-tier education journals.
Long term goals:
1. Build a Research Cluster in cell biology with an emphasis on signal transduction at the
single cell and systems levels.
2. Build a Research Cluster in molecular biology with an emphasis on the regulation of gene
expression.
3. Continue to enhance pathogen research and functional genomics through joint hires,
expanded collaborations, and innovative interactions with outside institutions and
agencies.
4. Improve the research infrastructure by expanding the core facilities, with support from
the administration and made possible by a doubling of the grant funding coming into the
Department.
5. Make CBMG a national model for undergraduate education in the life sciences, by
continuing to support the development of innovative methods for teaching science to
undergraduate majors.
CLFS Strategic Plan, 2009
Page 51
Chemistry and Biochemistry
(Full Plan: http://www.chem.umd.edu/files/chem/doc/StrategicPlanforweb.pdf)
The Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry implements the missions of the College,
University and State by providing world class research and instruction in the molecular sciences. These
efforts encompass chemistry and biochemistry as traditionally defined, but are increasingly becoming
interdisciplinary in nature. The Department supports and informs instruction and research in allied areas
such as engineering, the life sciences, medicine, material sciences, agriculture, environmental sciences,
and public policy.
After careful examination of its strengths and weaknesses, and based on opportunities that are
available, the Department has outlined its plans to strengthen its research by:
•
•
•
•
Emphasizing nano-biotechnology in hiring, infrastructure, and curriculum development, including
joint hires with national laboratories;
Enhancing structural biology by new hires in biomolecular crystallography and mass spectrometry
and increasing access to state-of-the-art instrumentation;
Emphasizing energy in interdisciplinary hiring, infrastructure, and curriculum development; and
Bringing connections of energy to the environment.
Our plan calls for a two-pronged strategy of hiring faculty and strengthening infrastructure in key areas.
The execution of this plan will allow us to achieve world-class stature. These investments will open
opportunities for the creation of externally funded Centers and for success in obtaining training grants,
high-end instrumentation, and graduate student support resources.
The Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry has one of the largest graduate programs at the
University of Maryland, but it remains dwarfed by those of our peer institutions. Because the graduate
program is the most critical fuel for our research programs, we plan to advance the University’s
Chemistry (CHEM) and Biochemistry (BCHM) doctoral programs. Specifically, we will:
•
•
•
•
Restructure administration of the graduate program;
Establish a new modular graduate course system with innovative curricula and greater
interdepartmental cooperation;
Seek to identify resources to establish a Professional Masters Program in the Chemical Sciences, the
Biochemical Sciences, or both; and
Leverage linkages to national laboratories through a Joint UM/Government Laboratory Graduate
Opportunity and National Laboratory Internships.
A result of these initiatives will be the expansion of our graduate programs, increased revenue to the
University, and a closer linkage to national laboratories and government agencies.
The undergraduate program is a strength of the Department, and further enhancement will be
focused to:
•
Undertake extensive evaluation and revision of the 400-level courses for majors, with particular
emphasis on the laboratory experience and interdisciplinary courses with Biology and Engineering;
CLFS Strategic Plan, 2009
Page 52
•
•
•
•
Develop 100- and 300-level courses for non-science majors that will satisfy CORE and Honors
requirements for students;
Develop a viable scheme for funding laboratory courses that incorporates lab fee increases,
extramural grant funding, and development opportunities;
Develop assessment vehicles for all courses, especially the new 400-level courses; and
Provide every major with a research-level experience that includes critical thinking about modern
research topics and presentation of scientific results.
With adequate numbers and expertise of personnel we will:
•
•
•
•
•
Increase cost-saving operations in purchases;
Enhance compliance with Environmental Health and Safety (EHS) expectations;
Reduce the number of individual orders, making more effective use of chemicals, while reducing
shipping costs;
Manage instrument facilities as revenue centers, to recoup operating expenses; and
Continue training opportunities for staff.
The Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry has partnerships with the National Organization for
the Professional Development of Black Chemists and Chemical Engineers (NOBCChE), the National
Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), and the Food and Drug Administration (FDA). Our
high-visibility REACTS and Chemathon outreach for Maryland and area high schools teachers and
students impacts chemical education State-wide. These partnerships will be strengthened, and initiatives
related to research and education goals will be introduced.
Among other initiatives in international activities, we will focus on our strengths in emphasizing
international relations with China and South Korea and develop resources to bring an increasing number
of distinguished international visitors to the Department and University.
CLFS Strategic Plan, 2009
Page 53
Entomology
(Full plan at: http://www.leptree.net/ep)
1. Vision. Over the next decade, the Department of Entomology will rise to prominence as a
center for research, training, and outreach in insect science and its application. As a key step
toward this goal, we will host a vigorous, well-funded Insect Science Consortium that takes full
advantage of our location amidst one of the world’s richest concentrations of entomological
expertise. Our bridge-building efforts, and our own emphases within the broad spectrum of
insect science, will strongly support the strategic initiatives of both Colleges with which we
work, as well as those of the University.
2. Department Overview. Entomology, a full member of the College of Chemical and Life
Sciences (CLFS), gets half its budget through, and also participates in, the research and
extension programs of the College of Agriculture and Natural Resources (AGNR), especially
those relating to integrated pest management (IPM).
3. Research and Scholarship. Our diverse research programs, spanning all levels of biological
organization, are unified by two shared goals:
A. An integrative, multidisciplinary understanding of insect biology; and
B. The Land Grant ideal of science directed at public needs, especially:
o Environmentally sound solutions to insect pest and disease-vector problems
exacerbated by climate change, globalization, and urbanization;
o Understanding and prevention of human-caused biodiversity loss and environmental
degradation, for which insects, the dominant component of terrestrial life, are
essential research and monitoring subjects; and,
o Deciphering the basic biological processes that underlie human health and disease, for
which insects have become key laboratory models.
Research Initiatives:
We ranked 6th among 39 entomology departments in the most recent national productivity/
impact ratings (2007). In aiming to achieve higher ranking, we will:
• Double our external funding by more than doubling our investment in health-related, NIHeligible research, while enhancing our current strengths in basic and applied ecology and in
biodiversity/evolution/comparative genomics;
• Expand our existing ties to the Smithsonian Institution, the U.S. Department of Agriculture,
and other nearby partners to build a high-profile Insect Science consortium.
4. Graduate Education. To expand and improve our training efforts, building on our 100% past
placement record, we will:
• Develop a Research Cluster in insect biology, supported by a training grant, as the first step
toward a larger Insect Science Consortium;
• Develop a graduate specialization in plant protection and biosecurity, in partnership with
AGNR’s Department of Plant Science & Landscape Architecture plus federal and State
allies, that addresses a national shortage of expertise;
• Increase our student funding base through increased grant funding, expanding internships
with industry, and augmenting our scholarship endowments.
CLFS Strategic Plan, 2009
Page 54
5. Undergraduate Education. To help address the significant increase in CLFS enrollments,
and new campus priorities, we will:
• Expand our undergraduate teaching contribution by 30%, targeting high-demand courses;
• Upgrade our Department honors program and raise our total undergraduate research
mentorship effort by 25%.
6. Administrative Infrastructure. To maximize overall unit productivity, we will:
• Differentially allocate teaching, advising, proposal writing, and other tasks so that individual
faculty spend maximal time at, and get rewarded for, what they do best;
• Overcome a shortage of operating funds through increased income-generating efforts
including overload teaching, and making income contribution an explicit criterion in merit
review.
7. Partnerships, Extension and Outreach. In support of University outreach priorities, we will:
• Work with Maryland Extension and our state and federal partners in the newly-established
Plant Protection Center, to achieve increased funding and teamwork for applied research and
outreach in pest management and plant protection;
• Expand our highly popular outreach public programs, developing an entrepreneurial funding
stream to do so.
8. International Programs. In support of University international engagement aims, we will:
• Lead expansion of a new collaboration between our two Colleges and the Plant Biology
Institute of the Chinese Academy of Sciences at Shanghai;
• Add an undergraduate component, a campus priority, to our long-standing engagement with
tropical agriculture, concentrated in Latin America and the Philippines.
9. External Relations, Development and Communications. To increase engagement with and
support from the Department’s friends, we will:
• Establish an external Board of Advisors to provide counsel on achieving program excellence
and finding new funding sources;
• Strengthen our links with alumni, emeriti and other partners and friends, through frequent
updates and sponsored events;
• Work with the CLFS and campus development offices to:
o Increase our scholarship endowment to $1M (a 50% increase);
o Secure the endowment of a chair in apiary science, in collaboration with the
Maryland Honeybee Working Group.
CLFS Strategic Plan, 2009
Page 55