ºÚÁϳԹÏÍø±¬ÍøÕ¾

Jill Smith (German) was awarded a grant from the German Embassy for a September 2024 program titled “Germany on Campus.” It’s part of an ongoing embassy initiative supporting an annual series of events at colleges across the US bringing German culture to campus through seminars, readings, media screenings, and discussions.

This latest grant helped fund a visit to campus by Berlin-based film director Henk Handloegten—one of the creators of the hit German language TV series Babylon Berlin. He introduced a public screening of scenes from the fourth season of the show, followed by a discussion. The show is set during the latter years of the Weimar Republic, leading up to the outbreak of World War II—a period of German history somewhat neglected until recently, said Smith, who is associate professor of German and department chair. Smith moderated the discussion with Handloegten with her University of Maryland colleague ,  who, along with Smith, is coeditor of the first scholarly volume on Babylon Berlin. The embassy grant also funded Baer’s visit to ºÚÁϳԹÏÍø±¬ÍøÕ¾.

“We are so grateful to the embassy for supporting our ideas for programming year after year,” said Smith. “We have applied for and received a grant every year but two since the initiative’s inception in 2009. The latest event made a big splash,” she added. “The German Consulate in Boston identified it as a showcase event for German in New England and sent a representative to attend.”

Kana Takematsu (chemistry and biochemistry) was awarded the Henry Dreyfus Teacher-Scholar Award by the for her project titled “Driving Protons with Light in Unconventional Solvent Environments.”

The movement of protons, or positively charged hydrogen ions, is essential in many chemical processes and applications, including carbon capture and release, explained Takematsu, who is ºÚÁϳԹÏÍø±¬ÍøÕ¾’s Viola Ward Brinning and Elbert Calhoun Brinning Associate Professor of Chemistry and Biochemistry. Her lab uses photoacids, molecules that release protons upon excitation, to understand how chemical and environmental factors affect the movement of protons. Through her studies, she is learning that it is not only the structure of the photoacid but their surroundings that drive the proton movement. In this project, she and her team are expanding their investigations beyond the aqueous phase to unconventional solvent environments.

Takematsu said she is deeply honored to be a Henry Dreyfus Teacher-Scholar. “The award recognizes that, to advance chemistry, we must be committed to conducting good research while teaching and mentoring the next generation of scientists. I have been so fortunate to work with such wonderful students at ºÚÁϳԹÏÍø±¬ÍøÕ¾,” she said. “I am proud of our work together and the positive difference that my students continue to make after graduating from ºÚÁϳԹÏÍø±¬ÍøÕ¾.” Takematsu said the award gives her the freedom to continue supporting students in research and to keep asking fundamental science questions.

Mary Lou Zeeman (mathematics) and her collaborators were awarded a grant from the NSF for their project titled “.” (NSF Award No. 2412115)

How does an infection turn into a pandemic? This is the driving question for R. Wells Johnson Professor of Mathematics Zeeman and her colleagues at the NSF’s APPEX Center. Led by the University of Tennessee at Knoxville, the Center promotes a multidisciplinary approach to the study of pandemic science. “Biomedical and physical, ecological, socio-behavioral, economic, built and natural environmental, and information access factors are all likely to contribute to these perfect storm scenarios,” the NSF noted in its . Each aspect studied in isolation “may seem minor or overlooked” but can lead to serious impacts when happening together, something that can vastly complicate how to study, understand, and prepare to address pandemic risks.

Given this, the center embraces the idea that researchers from various disciplines need to be aware of the value of other fields when addressing complex questions. The seven-year project focuses on enabling “multidisciplinary collaborations specifically focused on combinatorial risk scenarios that need simultaneous consideration by multiple domains and disciplines.” The aim, therefore, is to spur “the development of a rigorous hierarchy of evidence for pandemic risk, leading to improved methodologies.”