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| GAINESVILLE, Fla. » UF women's swim team member Kristin Connor practices the high dive on Friday, May 31, against a backdrop of portraits of former UF swimming and diving stars. Connor, a 19-year-old from Gainesville studying pre-medicine, leads a team of all-freshman swimmers. (UF photo by Joe Richard) |
NASA Funds UF For ER Work
GAINESVILLE, Fla. » University of Florida physicians who provide emergency medical support to NASA’s space shuttle launches and landings have completed countless hours of mock drills simulating every catastrophe imaginable. Now the National Aeronautics and Space Administration has awarded the UF College of Medicine’s department of emergency medicine more than $685,000 to continue making sure the doctors are ready, just in case. See full story at http://www.napa.ufl.edu/2002news/nasagrant.htm.
New UF Cancer Treatment
GAINESVILLE, Fla. » A high-fat, low-fiber diet is a nutritionist’s nightmare for good reason: It predisposes people to a host of troublesome medical problems, rectal cancer among them. Each year, thousands develop the cancer and face major abdominal surgery to remove diseased tissues, an operation that often leads to sizeable complications, a long, painful recovery and a life-altering permanent colostomy. Now select patients with an advanced form of rectal cancer could avoid all that, University of Florida physicians report in this month’s issue of the Journal of the American College of Surgeons. A treatment that uses chemotherapy and radiation to shrink tumors followed by a much more minor operation is the key. See full story at http://www.napa.ufl.edu/2002news/cancertreatment.htm.
No DJ's On This Radio
GAINESVILLE, Fla. » The silicon chip may soon join the growing list of devices to go wireless, a development that could speed computers and lead to a new breed of useful products. A team of researchers headed by a University of Florida electrical engineer has demonstrated the first wireless communication system built entirely on a computer chip. Composed of a miniature radio transmitter and antenna, the tiny system broadcasts information across a fingernail-sized chip, according to an article this month in the Journal of Solid State Circuits published by the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers. See full story at http://www.napa.ufl.edu/2002news/wirelesschip.htm.
New Interim Dean Of Dentistry
GAINESVILLE, Fla. » Dr. Teresa Dolan has been named Interim Dean in the College of Dentistry effective June 1. She had been serving as the college's associate dean for education. Dr. Dolan is a professor of dentistry and has been the Associate Dean for education at the college since 1996. She is a Phi Beta Kappa graduate of Rutgers University. She received a DDS degree from the University of Texas and a Master's of Public Health degree from UCLA. She was a Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Dental Health Services Research Scholar, and she completed a Veterans Administration Fellowship in Geriatric Dentistry.
New Biomedical Engineering Chairman Chosen
GAINESVILLE, Fla. » A professor who helped create a highly ranked joint Emory University-Georgia Tech biomedical engineering department has been tapped to serve as the first chairman of a new biomedical engineering department at the University of Florida. William Ditto, a professor of biomedical engineering at Georgia Institute of Technology and Emory, will become chairman of the UF College of Engineering department July 1. See full story at http://www.napa.ufl.edu/2002news/bioengineer.htm.
Old Enough To Live Better
GAINESVILLE, Fla. » The key to remaining independent late in life may lie in maintaining a balance between self-sufficiency and reliance on outside factors, a recent University of Florida study has shown. The study found that 56 percent of seniors 85 and older attributed their independence to a combination of internal factors they can control, such as diet and personality characteristics, and external sources, including past or current circumstances and supportive family members. See full story at http://www.napa.ufl.edu/2002news/oldindependence.htm.
At a Glance
Anthony Oliver-Smith, a University of Florida anthropology professor, has received a Fulbright Senior Specialists grant to the Pontificia Universidad Catolica del Peru.Oliver-Smith is among the first grantees under the new Fulbright Senior Specialists short-term grant program. The new program offers two- to six-week grants to leading U.S. academics and professionals to support curricular and faculty development and institutional planning at academic institutions in 140 countries around the world.
Oliver-Smith left on May 18 to spend two weeks at the Pontificia Universidad
Catolica del Peru in San Miguel, Peru, consulting in the design of a program
to evaluate the impact of development programs, urban expansion and natural
disasters. He also will consult on creation of a doctorate in anthropology.
In The News
UF shark expert George Burgess spoke May 20 at the National Press Club in Washington D.C. about the upcoming summer swimming season and shark threats. The story received extensive national print and broadcast coverage. See the entire story on USA Today's Web site at http://www.usatoday.com/news/nation/2002/05/21/sharks.htm .
UFactoid
Did you know that....
... the University of Florida received more IB (International Baccalaureate) transcripts in 2001 then any other institution in the world? In May of last year, 812 IB students asked that their academic transcripts and test scores be sent to UF. The second most requested school was the University of Alberta. By comparison, the University of Virginia received 165; University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill 164; University of Texas at Austin, 120 and the University of Michigan 115. The IB curriculum requires that students take accelerated courses in all academic disciplines as well as perform community service.
Editor's Note: Points of Pride will only be published one time per month during the summer.