TERP FALL 2026 25 Terp Innovations that Changed History The clickable hyperlink. The Universal Product Code. The Muppets. American life wouldn’t be the same without the ingenuity of UMD researchers and alums. pg. 18 Table of Contents Campus Life News 4 UMD Shatters Fundraising Record as Campaign Butilds Momentum Campus Life 6 The Revolutionary Type 7 Therapy Swing Uplifts Girl With Special Needs 7 Civic Engagement on the Move 8 Framing an Arts Landmark 10 A “Discovery” for Graduate Students 11 Fourth (Year) and Goal Explorations 12 NASA’s Next Telescope Has 50x Terp Power 13 Grand Challenges Grants 2.0 Confront Status Quo 14 How to Pick Up, Pluck and Plink an Instrument 14 Under the Sea, Electricity 15 Tiny Tech Gut Check 16 Drawn to Extremes 17 Now Hear This: AI Could Add Sound to a Picture 17 “Worth” a Read post-grad 38 Alumni Association 40 Planetary Protector 41 The Names in the Game? All Terps 42 Actor of War 43 Sounds From the Heart 43 Class Notes 44 Underexposed 45 Parting Shot FEATURES 18 25 Terp Innovations That Changed History The clickable hyperlink. The Universal Product Code. The Muppets. American life wouldn’t be the same without the ingenuity of UMD researchers and alums. By Chris Carroll and Annie Krakower 26 Findings Beyond the Founders Excavations by UMD researchers and students unearth new stories about the enslaved communities at the Jefferson and Madison estates. By Karen Shih ’09 32 Steny Hoyer Yields the Floor After 60 years in public service, the longtime congressman and Terp retires with a legacy etched on American history, in Maryland and across UMD’s campus. By John Tucker Online The Coolest Job Dining Services’ Jeff Russo leads the Maryland Dairy’s production of over 10,000 gallons of custom ice cream every year. go.umd.edu/thecoolestjob — Baby Terrapins Return to the Bay Faculty and students release classroom-raised hatchlings Tess and Tudo. go.umd.edu/babyterrapins — A Last Goodbye for UMD’s Yearbook Past editors flip back through the years as the once-popular publication ends. go.umd.edu/goodbyeyearbook From the President Whenever I speak to our alums, I tell them that the next time they are on vacation or at a concert or sporting event, to go ahead and yell out an enthusiastic “Go Terps!” I guarantee, more often than not, that they will get a “Go Terps!” back in response (I know this from firsthand experience). That’s because the Terp family is everywhere, and our pride in the University of Maryland is matched by how embedded Terp innovations and accomplishments have become in the daily lives of people around our nation and world. From the vitamins you take every day to the clothes you put on for a morning run, and from the TV shows you watch to the e-reader you use for books, the entrepreneurial spirit of Terp students, faculty, staff and researchers has left an indelible mark on society. You can read all about those Terp inventions and many more starting on page 18 in this issue’s cover story, “25 Terp Innovations That Changed History.” It is a wonderful reminder of the power and importance of America’s research enterprise, and the far-reaching influence of its higher education institutions, as we continue to celebrate the 250th anniversary of our country. There are few forces as powerful—as vital—in our society as our system of higher education, and the way that we use our creativity, curiosity, discovery, expertise and entrepreneurial spirit to impact the public good. Other articles in this issue shine a light on the David C. Driskell Center, a jewel in our campus arts culture devoted to the contributions and creations of Black artists (page 8); show how we continue to prepare our students to take on the grand challenges of our time with a first-of-its-kind, graduate student living-learning community located in the new Discovery House (page 9); and celebrate the legacy of one of our state’s greatest public servants, Congressman Steny Hoyer, on the occasion of his retirement. I hope each story reminds you how the University of Maryland has played a critical role in making real change for real people, and continues to move Fearlessly Forward into the future. Sincerely, Darryll J. Pines President, University of Maryland Glenn L. Martin Professor of Aerospace Engineering Letters to the Editor Diary of a Wimpy Terp A great, true honest-to-goodness life tale. Thank you for being vulnerable enough to share and wise enough to acknowledge who you are, your strengths and weaknesses, learn from your mistakes and make the necessary changes. Living and learning are lifelong journeys, pursuits, definitely not destinations by a long shot. Do we ever actually reach a destination? —Christine Billings Johnson ’98, Laurel, Md. FROM FACEBOOK Way to go, Jeff! I still remember racing to South Campus Dining Hall to read that day’s “Igdoof” in The Diamondback at lunch. I was so sad when Jeff graduated before me and “Igdoof” was gone. Kinda funny to think that Jeff might have been watching for my reaction! —Melissa Rae Me in CP 1989-93: Check The Diamondback to see what Igdoof was up to! Every. Day. —Pam Zimmerman ’93, Underhill, Vt. I still have a clipped strip from The Diamondback: —Jonathan P. Szczepanski ’98, Beltsville, Md. My 18-year-old loved, loved Wimpy Kid. I was a rock star to him the other day when I learned and told him I went to college with Jeff Kinney and when there I laughed at his comic strip daily. So fun to learn that we both enjoyed Kinney. We need the “Igdoof” bathroom book republished. I looked everywhere online and couldn’t find a copy. —Heather Christopher ’95, Rolling Hills Estates, Calif. FROM LINKEDIN The Diamondback comics in the ’90s were the best: Jeff Kinney, Frank Cho and Aaron McGruder were must-reads, along with the crossword puzzle. —Mark Hurley ’98, Falls Church, Va. This is one of the best issues of my alumni magazine that I read. I was laughing the entire time. I am proud to be a graduate of UMD! Go Terps! —Neomi Vembu ’87, Los Osos, Calif. This was fun to read! Brought back memories of reading The Diamondback on Shuttle-UM. —Jennifer Burns ’88, Deerfield Beach, Fla. — Write to us We love to hear from readers. Send your feedback, insights, compliments—and, yes, complaints—to terpfeedback@umd.edu or to: Terp magazine Office of Marketing and Communications 7736 Baltimore Ave. College Park, MD 20742 Due to rising costs, Terp magazine will shift from three issues a year to two. Look for your next issue in Spring 2027. ON THE MALL UMD Shatters Fundraising Record as Campaign Builds Momentum The University of Maryland recorded its most successful fundraising year in history, tallying $302 million as Forward: The University of Maryland Campaign for the Fearless caught fire. From July 2025 through June 2026, 42,251 donors supported the university, representing a 5.7% increase over the previous year, along with a nearly 50% jump in total giving. “We are fortunate to see our UMD community rally its support so generously at such an important time,” says Vice President for University Relations Jim Harris. “Donors at every level are recognizing Maryland’s momentum and joining with us to bring impact to our campus and far beyond.” The Forward campaign, launched last November, seeks to raise $2.5 billion to expand access to UMD’s world-class education, accelerate research that achieves real progress for real people, and unite Terps and allies to Do Good. Through donors’ support, the university has brought in more than $1.1 billion toward its goal. Highlights included a blockbuster Giving Day, in which nearly 10,000 UMD supporters donated a total of $9.4 million in 24 hours, and a series of generous gifts throughout the year from benefactors including the A. James & Alice B. Clark Foundation, civil engineering alum Stanley Zupnik ’59; and cell biology and molecular genetics Professor Anne Simon. Three significant new gifts continue to power the campaign forward: Smith Family’s $10M Gift Boosts Performing Arts, Business School Robert H. Smith ’50 was a famed D.C.-area builder, and his wife, Clarice, a celebrated artist. Their twin passions are imprinted across the UMD campus, on the business school and performing arts center that bear their names, and in the scholarships and programs there that they supported. Now their son, David Bruce Smith, has made a new $10 million bequest on behalf of the family’s foundation to continue their legacy at Maryland. The funds, split evenly between his late parents’ longtime interests at UMD, will establish the Robert H. Smith Do Good Endowed Professorship in Business Leadership, Technology and Societal Impact, and the Robert H. Smith Endowed Faculty Fellowship in Business and Innovation, in addition to other support for the business school. At The Clarice Smith Performing Arts Center, the gift will enhance its productions and programming initiatives. The arts and business, says Smith, “polish one another in the same way that my mother and father complemented each other.” The Smith family is one of the largest benefactors of the Smith School, University Libraries and the College of Arts and Humanities, which includes The Clarice, the Michelle Smith Collaboratory for Visual Culture and the Michelle Smith Performing Arts Library, the latter two of which are named for the Smiths’ late daughter. “You can’t tell the story of the University of Maryland without the story of the Smith family, just as thousands of students, scholars and artists wouldn’t have a home on campus without the landmark structures and institutions bearing Robert H., Clarice and Michelle Smith’s names,” says UMD President Darryll J. Pines.—SL alum Gives $15M to Support New Golf Performance Center, Sports Management Program The first time Stephen M. Schanwald ’77 golfed with Michael Jordan, the Bulls superstar broke Schanwald’s nose. During practice swings before the first tee shot, Schanwald forgot to take into account Jordan’s unusually broad wingspan and got whacked in the face by a club head. The Bulls’ executive vice president of business operations at the time, Schanwald raced to the clubhouse to wash off the blood before rejoining the match. “Bulls play hurt,” he jokes. Schanwald’s passion for golf—“my love affair,” he says—will now benefit the men’s and women’s golf programs at UMD. He has made a new commitment of $15 million to his alma mater, split between supporting construction of a state-of-the-art golf performance center on UMD’s campus to help student-athletes improve their game, and growing the Stephen M. Schanwald Sports Management Program in the Smith School. (He previously made an $18 million gift in 2024 to the program and Maryland Athletics, for a total commitment to UMD of at least $33 million.) UMD officials aim to finalize the design of the estimated 5,000-square-foot facility next year. It will include indoor and outdoor hitting bays, a dynamic putting lab, and sensors and high-speed cameras that spit out metrics like club speed, angle and force at contact. Other technological tools like Doppler radar will track the ball’s distance and spin rate. Smith School Dean Prabhudev Konana expressed gratitude for Schanwald’s continued investments in the sports management program, a multidisciplinary initiative designed to prepare students for global leadership roles. “His transformative involvement extends beyond his generous gift,” he says. “He offers his time and extensive industry knowledge to ensure students in the program are prepared to become leaders and innovators in the business of sports.”—JT Brin Family’s $8.16M Gift Honors Longtime Advocate of UMD Science and Arts Innovative approaches using climate data to improve weather forecasts and save lives. Expanding the frontiers of live performance. Fighting the world’s fastest-growing neurological disease. Those are among the goals behind a new $8.16 million commitment to UMD honoring the late Eugenia Brin, wife of mathematics Professor Emeritus Michael Brin and mother of Google co-founder Sergey Brin ’93 and Samuel Brin ’09. It directs nearly $3.1 million to an endowed chair and lectureship aimed at improving the use of data in meteorology and climate science, an equal amount to support the development of “expansive theater” in nontraditional performance venues, and $2 million to support an endowed chair for Parkinson’s disease research. Collectively, the family’s long record of philanthropic support of the university totals some $65 million. The funding for the endowed chairs will be matched by a $3.25 million award from the Maryland E-Nnovation Initiative Fund, a state program created to spur basic and applied research in scientific and technical fields at colleges and universities. The Moscow-born Eugenia emigrated to Maryland in 1979 with her family, including a young Sergey, her husband, and his mother, Maya Brin, who later became a Russian language instructor at UMD. Eugenia soon found a job at NASA Goddard Space Flight Center researching topics related to climate and meteorology. In 1998, at age 50, she was diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease. Eugenia went on to become a leading advocate of research into the neurodegenerative disorder. She died in 2024. This gift, says Michael Brin, “is shaped by the story of her life, from her career as a NASA climate scientist, to her lifelong love for the arts, to her battle against a terrible, but we believe, ultimately conquerable disease.”—CC The Revolutionary Type Grad Student Conserves Relics of Colonial Annapolis Couple’s Print Shop for 250 Exhibit More than a decade before the first musket shots heralded a new nation’s rise, Jonas and Anne Catharine Green were arming for rebellion in colonial Annapolis, with printer’s ink as their weapon. As the publisher of the pro-patriot Maryland Gazette, Jonas flouted British rule by marking his newspaper’s pages with a skull-and-crossbones insignia to protest the hated stamp tax. When he died in 1767, Anne Catharine took over, becoming one of the colonies’ first female news publishers and editors. The newspaper closed in 1839—its revival decades later led to today’s Capital Gazette—and much of what remains is now in the stewardship of a UMD master’s student. As an intern for the Maryland Archaeo-logical Conservation Lab (MACL), Emma Collett has helped preserve 1,100 pieces of lead printer’s type excavated from the Greens’ original shop, destroyed by a 1780 fire. It’s the largest collection of its kind in the United States, a selection of which is on display at the Jefferson Patterson Park and Museum in Calvert County through September as part of an exhibit on the Greens and freedom of the press. “The Gazette started before the nation formed, existed for 100 years while everything was changing, and offers a firsthand account of running a printshop through the perspectives of different family members,” says Collett. As a child in North Dakota, Collett tagged along with her mother to local archives to research birth, death and church records of her own ancestors, Swedish, Danish and English members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints who pulled handcarts and rode wagon trains to Utah and formed settlements. She tore into Dig magazine when it arrived by mail, fascinated by archaeological relics revealing similar family histories. Collett came to UMD’s anthropology department wanting to make archaeological collections more accessible. At the MACL, a repository for all state-owned artifacts, she learned that the Greens’ types were unearthed in the 1980s by the UMD-led field school Archaeology in Annapolis at the former print shop behind their Charles Street home. The surprisingly heavy objects each have a raised letter, symbol or artistic design, carved backward. Three playing card suits are accounted for (no diamonds emerged), as is Jonas’ “death’s head” motif. The type sat in storage until earlier this year, when the MACL earned a grant from the MD Two Fifty commission to curate and exhibit them. When Jonas died, Catharine Anne moved the press inside the house so she could put out the paper while caring for her six children. A son assumed leadership of the Gazette following her 1775 death, leading coverage about the War of Independence before another new generation of Greens stepped in. “All of archaeology is family history,” Collett says. —jt Therapy Swing Uplifts Girl With Special Needs Student Team Creates, Installs Motorized Device Before 13-year-old Avaleigh Vacovsky boarded the school bus one spring morning, she said one word over and over to her mother: “swing.” That afternoon, Avaleigh knew, a special motorized one from UMD would be installed on her family’s back porch in Jarrettsville, Md., providing an opportunity for play to a girl who’d never been able to use standard swings. Avaleigh has autism and the genetic condition USP9X depletion syndrome, which causes developmental delays; she communicates through American Sign Language and walks independently, but can’t ride a bike or play sports. UMD engineering students and mechanical engineering principal lecturer Vincent Nguyen, partnering with the IMAGE Center of Maryland, a nonprofit supporting people with disabilities, developed and built her a custom swing as part of Nguyen’s undergraduate class, “Entrepreneurial Design Realization for Projects of Positive Impact.” “Swing therapy is super common among the clients that [the IMAGE Center] sees,” says Nguyen, because it can help with core muscle development, engage the vestibular system (responsible for balance) and have a calming effect. Avaleigh’s swing calibrates itself based on the user’s weight. A sensor attached to the seat measures forward and backward movement, and a small motor atop the swing’s frame pulls the chains accordingly. Teddy Hersey ’26 says it was “amazing to finally be able to deliver this project after four semesters of teams working on it.” After Avaleigh tested out the device, she asked her aide if she could swing on it again later. “It’s staying here,” her aide told her. “It’s for you.” Avaleigh smiled.—SL Civic Engagement on the Move A new mural designed and created by Terps will mobilize social action—literally. California street artist Corie Mattie ’12 worked with Honors Humanities students (left) in the spring to design and create the mobile mural, called “Terps Take Action.” Featuring an image of Testudo with a megaphone and spray paint can, as well as a customizable QR code, the mural will be deployed starting this fall to events like blood drives, EarthFest and TerpsVote programs. The project was inspired by UMD’s selection of the U.S. Constitution as the 2025-26 First Year Book; this year’s selection is also tied to America’s 250th: the New York Times bestseller “How to Hide an Empire: A History of the Greater United States” by Daniel Immerwahr.—SL Framing an Arts Landmark Driskell Center Celebrates 25th Anniversary With Wide-Ranging Exhibition To mark the nation’s bicentennial, the Los Angeles County Museum of Art hired a rising artist and scholar to mount the landmark exhibition “Two Centuries of Black American Art,” the first comprehensive look at the subject. That artist and curator, the late David C. Driskell (right), joined the UMD faculty in 1977, on the heels of that smashing success. This year, a new milestone exhibition, “Jubilee: Celebrating 25 Years of the Driskell Center Opening,” looks back at the campus center that he launched and led. The 75 examples on display reflect prominent themes in Black artists’ work: spirituality, music and performance, landscape and abstraction, among others. “I hope that people will get a window into the real promise of the collection here at the center,” says Jordana Moore Saggese, director of the David C. Driskell Center. “It’s one of the only explicit collections of Black art at a public university.” Here, exhibition curator Adrienne L. Childs Ph.D. ’05 takes Terp through several significant works, spanning “Two Centuries,” the Driskell Center’s permanent collection and “Jubilee.”—SL 1940: William H. Johnson, Early Morning Work, ca. 1940, oil on burlap Johnson, one of the early 20th century’s most important Black modernist artists, “used an innovative style he developed through years of working in Harlem and in Europe to tell the stories of African Americans,” says Childs. Driskell chose nine works by Johnson for “Two Centuries,” which showcased 205 objects. 1959: David Driskell, “Pine Trees, No. 5,” 1959, oil on canvas Pine trees, which surrounded Driskell’s home in Falmouth, Maine, were a frequent subject for the artist. “He likened them to cathedrals, evoking their transcendence,” says Childs. The painting is part of the center’s substantial collection of its namesake’s drawings, prints and paintings. 1995: Sam Gilliam, “Scarcely Blue,” 1995, acrylic paint on wood The late Gilliam, who was based in Washington, represented “a generation of Black artists who broke with representational styles in the mid-20th century to choose the freedom of form and color,” says Childs. Works by other Black abstract artists including Alma Thomas, William T. Williams, Mary Lovelace O’Neal and E.J. Montgomery, make up a significant portion of the Driskell Center’s collection. 1995: Benny Andrews, “Morning Song Study #1: Musical Interlude Series,” 1999, collage and mixed media This image in the new exhibition by the late New York City-based artist shows a singing figure, incorporating the long tradition of Black musicianship, and is an homage to the natural world, says Childs. “It reflects the joy and promise of the title ‘Jubilee’ and looks forward with optimism.” 2024: Megan Lewis, “I Feel Less Pressure But I Have My Moments,” 2024, oil on photograph on canvas The contemporary Baltimore artist creates colorful, highly textured portraits of young people that “capture an expressive kind of beauty, composure and elegance,” says Childs. Lewis’ work in portraiture, like this new Driskell Center acquisition in the “Jubilee” exhibition, nods to the important role human subjects have played in Black art past and present. The Driskell Center’s permanent collection comprises: Nearly 2,000 artworks, including 200+ by Driskell 6,000 volumes on African and African diaspora art 17 archival collections, including the David C. Driskell Papers A “Discovery” for Graduate Students New Housing Opens With Interdisciplinary Academic Communities A just-completed six-story apartment building on the UMD campus unlocks a convenient new living option for 741 University of Maryland graduate students, as well as an opportunity for them to collaborate across disciplines in a scholarly community. Discovery House is the first UMD-affiliated housing for graduate students since Graduate Hills and Gardens in 1995. Built by Mosaic Development Partners, it’s located on the site of the Old Leonardtown community, adjacent to Discovery District Maryland and within walking distance of the College Park Metro Station. It offers fully furnished apartments ranging from studios to five- bedroom units, all with in-unit washers and dryers, along with study rooms and indoor bike storage. A top-floor terrace boasts views of Fraternity Row and Memorial Chapel. “You bring a shower curtain, sheets for your bed, kitchen stuff and you’re ready to go,” says Christopher Mason, Capstone On-Campus Management’s director of affiliated housing at UMD. Discovery House is also home to the Grand Challenges Graduate Communities, a first-of-its-kind initiative at UMD to reimagine how graduate students and faculty can work together to solve pressing societal problems. The three inaugural interdisciplinary academic cohorts, each with 15 to 20 students, will focus on AI and knowledge; food, water, energy and health; and the future of city planning. “Graduate students will gain access to mentors, collaborators and professional opportunities they may not otherwise have encountered,” says Stephen Roth, associate provost and dean of the Graduate School.—SL Fourth (Year) and Goal Star Linebacker Returns for Senior Season Eyeing Redemption for Terps After the final whistle of last football season, 10,500 players across NCAA divisions left the field and entered the transfer portal. The database allows student-athletes to shop around for the school that fits them best athletically, academically and—thanks to revenue sharing and name, image and likeness deals—financially, but it complicates building stable teams. So Terps fans were elated when Mary-land football in early January posted this message from the player voted MVP by his teammates: “I’m back.” Linebacker Daniel Wingate committed to a rare fourth season at the same school. Looking to build on his breakout junior season, when he recorded 102 tackles and earned All-Big Ten Honorable Mention recognition, he helped the Terps return 71% of their roster production—second only to Notre Dame. “I’m a guy that’s loyal, who sticks with those who were with him in the beginning,” Wingate says. “I know that there’s so much more that we could’ve done than 4-8. It really was motivation for me to come back and be able to go out with a bang with my guys by my side.” The Bowie, Md., native is used to defying the odds: When his mom, Erica, was five months pregnant with him, her van veered off Route 202, flipped over and hit a street sign. Mom was only minimally injured, and baby was unharmed. “Daniel survived the biggest tumble of his life,” she says. “I think it’s kinda how he got to be who he is today.” After backing up the likes of future NFLer Ruben Hyppolite II, Wingate suited up as a full-time starter last year to helm the Terps’ defense—a bright spot amid a frustrating season as it led the Big Ten in forced turnovers. His pick-six against Florida Atlantic opened UMD’s 2025 scoring, and his personal highlight reel only continued after that. “Because of the type of year he had,” head coach Michael Locksley says, “I’d be an idiot to not think that someone, somehow, some way wanted to have contact to gauge an interest.” Wingate admits he could hear the portal’s call. But after talking with his family and agent, he felt there was unfinished business at Maryland. “We have a lot of guys who believe in what’s going on right now,” he says. His commitment, along with that of sophomore quarterback Malik Washington, offered stability to young players in the program and kicked off a returnee domino effect, from center Michael Hershey to defensive back Lavain Scruggs to punter Bryce McFerson. That’s just the kind of leadership Locksley anticipates expanding in Wingate’s senior season—he’s already been named to the Football Writers Association of America’s watch list for national defensive player of the year. “You would expect that he’ll continue the upward trend of being one of the best linebackers not just in the Big Ten, but in the country,” he says.—AK NASA’s Next Telescope Has 50x Terp Power Powerful Instrument to Search Galaxy for Exoplanets, Dark Matter f wearing college spirit gear to work were a normal part of NASA culture, Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt might resemble McKeldin Mall between classes. That’s what Maxime Rizzo Ph.D. ’16 learned when he showed up for a gathering of University of Maryland alums working on the Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope, which was scheduled for launch as early as Aug. 30, after Terp’s press time. “I was totally shocked to see how many folks I’ve been working with so long who I had not known had gone to Maryland,” says the systems engineer for Roman’s 300-megapixel-widefield instrument. In all, more than 50 Terps are involved with the telescope, which will capture swaths of the sky about 100 times larger than an image from the Hubble Space Telescope once it begins science operations. It will orbit nearly a million miles from Earth near another astronomical tool led in part by Terps: the James Webb Space Telescope. Whereas Webb, launched in 2021, was built to look far and deep, Roman provides the sweeping vistas needed to investigate dark matter, dark energy and the structure of the universe; it will also enable an expansive search of the Milky Way galaxy for distant worlds called exoplanets. Astronomy Senior Research Scientist David Bennett, who has a joint appointment at Goddard, is one of the mission’s founders and will be using the wide-field camera for the mission’s “gravitational lensing” exoplanet survey. With his late wife and scientific collaborator, Sun Hong Rhie, Bennett discovered decades ago that even Earth-size celestial masses can bend space enough to briefly cause stars behind them to appear brighter, as if magnified by a glass lens. Roman will scan the breadth of the sky using this method, and the team hopes to spot thousands of planets that couldn’t be found with the more typical “transit” method, which observes the subtle dimming of stars when nearby planets in their system pass in front. Because it’s not dependent on the light of a nearby sun to work, gravitational lensing should even be able to spot mysterious planets that apparently wander starless through our galaxy. Watching the rocket carrying Roman take off represented a culmination of one part of Bennett’s career, and the beginning of a new phase. “The software we’ve written is going to be working through this data,” he says. “That means I have lots of work to do, so I’m not inclined to retire anytime soon.” Other UMD personnel on the mission include astronomy Ph.D. student Ellis Bogat, who is working on the telescope’s other major imaging device, a coronagraph, which will peer through the glare of distant stars to spot other exoplanets. Astronomy Associate Professor Suvi Gezari will use the wide-field instrument to search beyond our galaxy for tidal- disruption events—bright outbursts that occur when black holes rip apart stars. Meanwhile, the Roman mission’s administrative structure includes Goddard Space Flight Center Director Jamie Dunn ’93, Project Manager Jackie Townsend ’94 and Deputy Observatory Manager Hsiao Smith ’89. More recent grads are deeply embedded in the mission, too. Mechanical engineer Caroline Griffin ’21 has led the building of Roman’s primary structure, which she compares to the backbone of the telescope, holding wiring, electronics and other key components. Her interest in space was sparked as a high school freshman when a neighbor who works at Goddard gave her and her parents a tour. At the observation window into the towering clean room, Griffin was fascinated by the work of engineers and technicians piecing together the Webb Telescope. “I remember looking down at the people moving around in the white bunny suits creating this amazing spacecraft, and it seemed so surreal,” she says. “I said, That’s what I’m going to do someday. Here I am.”—cc Grand Challenges Grants 2.0 Confront Status Quo Second Round of Program Awards Nearly $15M to Research Projects Pressing societal needs like expanding access to mental health services, heading off pandemics and reducing educational disparities aren’t neatly divided among academic disciplines—and neither is the University of Maryland’s signature initiative to address them. This summer, UMD announced the awarding of nearly $15 million to support 11 high-impact research projects representing more than 40 disciplines through the Grand Challenges Grants Program. It’s the next step in an ongoing commitment to channel the university’s research power toward solutions for the public good. In 2023, the first round of grants committed $30 million to 50 projects spanning every college and school—the largest investment of its kind in the university’s history—resulting in almost $100 million in additional external funding. The largest three-year grants in this round are going to a new network connecting time spent in nature with evidence-based mental health care and an initiative to close knowledge gaps in women’s health across the lifespan. All Grand Challenges Grants 2.0 awardees will receive a 50% matching in-kind and/or cash investment from their college or unit. “These projects exemplify the power of interdisciplinary collaboration to generate new ideas, accelerate discovery and address the grand challenges facing communities in Maryland, across the nation and around the world,” Senior Vice President and Provost Jennifer King Rice and Vice President for Research Patrick O’Shea said in an announcement in June. How to Pick Up, Pluck and Plink an Instrument Maybe you’ve dreamed of a rock star moment, but the only guitar you can play is the air kind. Or kids and career muted your trumpet practice, but in retirement, your interest is back, louder than ever. Can adults on a musical mission strike the right note? “Learning an instrument is a really stimulating thing to do for your own enjoyment,” says Associate Professor of music education Stephanie Prichard. “As an adult, it’s not that it’s harder, it’s that you need to seek out the right kind of guidance, the right kinds of resources.” She offers tips to get your goals and results in harmony.—AK •Choose the instrument If starting from scratch, Prichard says, this is a more important first step than reading music, which will come in time. She suggests the piano because its layout makes music theory easy to grasp, or a string instrument like the guitar or ukulele suited to playing chords or accompanying other musicians. • Find the right teacher While youngsters may learn best through short lessons that incorporate play, adults have longer attention spans, Prichard says. Seek out an instructor—ideally in person—who has experience with older pupils and understands that being a novice doesn’t mean being a child. • Play the hits Love Taylor Swift or the Rolling Stones? Learn simplified arrangements of their songs. “With a collection of only three to five chords, you should be able to play some of your favorite pop songs,” Prichard says. Exploring classical themes or other genres is equally possible. “It’s rewarding to be able to play something that’s familiar.” • Do your homework “Take ownership over the process,” Prichard says. That means setting goals, structuring practice time and reflecting on progress. “You can ultimately gain a lot more satisfaction than you might have as a child.” Under the Sea, Electricity Researcher Leads Team Harvesting Electricity From Ocean Organisms Massive hilltop turbines harvesting the wind or black photovoltaic panels soaking up sun on rooftops no longer seem very novel—but what about a device that creates clean energy by scarfing up microscopic seafood? That’s what UMD environmental science and technology Professor Stephanie Lansing (right) and her multi-institutional team built and sank beneath the waves of the Delaware Bay (below) in July. It’s part of a $7.8 million project funded by the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency to create offshore electricity for communications equipment, sensors and other low-power devices without extending cables from ships or land. Lansing, a renewable energy expert who previously derived green fuels from animal waste and garbage, says we shouldn’t discount the oceans that cover 70% of our planet as a power source. The device known as PODPower sucks up plankton and other organic matter with a funnel modeled after fish gills. The mixture is fermented and then fed into a microbial fuel cell, where bacteria feeding on the organic goo shed electrons. The team’s test version is designed to put out at least 10 watts; 100-watt versions are up next. “We’ve taken things we learned how to do from working with farms and food waste, and put it under the sea,” she says.—CC Tiny Tech Gut Check Ingestible “Smart Pill” Could Help Patients Say Goodbye to Colonoscopies Like a pharmaceutical version of James Bond’s Aston Martin, a UMD-developed ingestible “smart pill” is loaded with hidden tech gadgetry for a high-stakes mission. The destination? A patient’s bowels. Zooming through the intestines, the pill fires electrical currents to detect its target—an abnormal growth needing a biopsy. Once there, it engages its tiny springs, gears and pistons to project a scythe-like blade from its shell. Spinning in motorized circles, it lances the problematic polyp, seizes some tissue and snaps back into the capsule, which is expelled from the body 24 hours after it’s swallowed and sent to a lab. Unlike an Ian Fleming novel, this pill isn’t fiction, though still a bit futuristic. Using artificial intelligence, low-power electronics and 3D-printed hardware, the device powered by a tiny battery could become reality within five years to screen for gastrointestinal diseases, detect bacterial imbalances and deliver drugs locally to GI invaders. Smart pills for GI tract imaging have existed for years, but this one could also have surgical applications, along with advanced diagnostic capabilities. The small intestine, now nearly impossible to explore, could suddenly be probed for Crohn’s disease, ulcerative colitis and various cancers. The number of colonoscopies, meanwhile, could be significantly reduced. “You no longer have to go through sedation or fast for 24 hours; you would do this at home at a fraction of the cost,” says Distinguished University Professor and Herbert Rabin Distinguished Chair in Engineering Reza Ghodssi, coauthor of a paper demonstrating the biopsy technique published in June in the Journal of Microelectro-mechanical Systems. Funded by the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases and the recipient of a 2026 UMD Grand Challenges Grant, the research signals a future of what he calls “wireless remote healthcare.” In testing, the engineering team pushes the pill through pig intestines until it arrives to a section manipulated to mimic inflammation. Through a Bluetooth-equipped phone app, a researcher activates the device. “At the push of a button, the heater melts, the device springs out, scrapes the tissue and zips back into the capsule, like a Rube Goldberg contraption,” says Justin Stine, an assistant research scientist for UMD’s MATRIX Lab, which focuses on autonomous robotics. In another recent study, the researchers demonstrated a smart pill delivering drugs to localized abnormalities. A mechanism inside the capsule ejects a microneedle from its shell and into the intestinal wall. The procedure could eliminate side effects of pills that dissolve into the bloodstream. The researchers’ next step is to use AI to train the pills to function autonomously, navigating the gut, Ghodssi says, “like a driverless taxi on the streets of San Francisco.”–jt Drawn to Extremes Confused by Electoral Map Chaos? Political Scientist Sets Us Straight States’ gerrymandered congressional maps have always looked like they were drawn by a preschooler wielding an Etch A Sketch. This year, it seems the youngster downed a king-size bag of Skittles first. Texas and California recently redrew their districts in hopes of scooping up five seats for Republicans and Democrats, respectively. Virginia, Louisiana, Florida, Alabama, Tennessee and Maryland are among the other states that have punched and counterpunched in “what’s become a bare-knuckles political brawl,” says James Gimpel, professor of government and politics and an expert on redistricting. Efforts to tilt the U.S. House of Representatives’ razor-thin GOP advantage this November have torpedoed candidacies, caused intra-party schisms and confused voters. In a conversation with Terp, Gimpel explains what this means for the electorate now and later, and why he still has hope for democracy –JT How did we get here? Traditionally, states have redrawn their maps every decade to maintain population balance while politicians have claimed high-mindedness—that redistricting promotes fairness and representation. In truth, there’s always been bias among state legislatures. What’s changed is that the Supreme Court began rejecting gerrymandering-related lawsuits, sending decisions back to the states. As a result, the mask is off: There’s no longer any doubt that this is about using political power for partisan advantage. What should we make of the Supreme Court’s decision eliminating race-conscious districting? The Court argues that things have progressed since the civil rights era—that its decision is a step toward race neutrality and formal equality. But it’s reasonable and historically grounded for people, including those steeped in the history of voting rights, to be upset. Progress has been made in some places much more than in others. In the short term, we will see fewer Black members in Congress and lower-level legislatures. If state legislatures remain partisan, won’t U.S. districts, too? There’s truth to that. More continuity in party control means less competitive districts going forward. But even though redistricting can tilt the field, it’s not destiny. Let’s say a Democratic legislature redraws its map to gain a seat, but in doing so, the other blue districts go from a 60% to 55% majority. Suddenly, that 5% edge might not be enough to win, depending on voter turnout and Independents. In the long term, I think we’ll still have seats with a 45-55 split that go back and forth. Does partisan redistricting hurt democracy? Yes. Ideally, we’d like to give voters some choice. There are still some reformers who say, “Let’s live out our higher standards.” But right now, most Democrats say, “Dang, we can’t afford to do that. What’s good for the goose is good for the gander.” The key takeaway, though, is that favored candidates can still lose. The best thing for people to do is get out and vote. If anything can overcome a redistricting bias, it’s an electorate that’s not discouraged. UMD Centers Civics The Maryland Democracy Initiative, UMD’s hub for research, teaching and learning about civic engagement, is hot on its own kind of campaign trail this fall. Its projects include: • Creating voter guides with info on Maryland candidates running for school boards and state and federal offices. • Surveying Maryland voters on their satisfaction with how elections are conducted. • Training middle school teachers on how to teach civics. Find out more at mdi.umd.edu. Now Hear This: AI Could Add Sound to a Picture Researchers Create Explorable Audio-Visual Scenes From Single Images A photo of a bustling cityscape or a majestic waterfall can be striking enough on its own. But picture this: What if you could virtually jump into those settings and take in all their sights—and sounds? University of Maryland researchers are working to make that possible through SonoWorld, a new step in virtual reality technology that generates a 3D scene, complete with spatial audio, from a single image. “When we are exploring our world, I can hear you, I can hear the music, I can hear the birds chirping,” says computer science Assistant Professor Ruohan Gao, who is working on the project along with Distinguished University Professor Ming C. Lin and doctoral students Derong Jin and Xiyi Chen. “Without this very important aspect, the world that we generate would be incomplete.” Using artificial intelligence vision and language models, SonoWorld creates a 360- degree panorama from an original image and predicts meaningful objects, like a microwave or sink in a kitchen, in a process called semantic grounding. AI also infers what sounds would make sense from different sources—beeping buttons, dripping water—allowing the researchers to encode spatial audio. Users can then realistically experience auditory change in each ear as they turn their head. Its applications include more efficient content creation for entertainment like gaming or film. The next step for the team is to incorporate dynamic motion into the scenes. “That is the kind of fully immersive experience that we hope to deliver,” Lin says. “We call it ‘being there.’”—AK “Worth” a Read Friendship Expert’s New Book Examines Self-Esteem—With Tips for Improvement If your daily mood depends on “fire” reactions to your Instagram story, invitations to oodles of outings or shout-outs from colleagues at a staff meeting, it’s time to look inward and stop the chase for external validation. That’s the core message of “Worth: The New Science of Self-Esteem and Secure Attachment” by Assistant Clinical Professor of psychology Marisa G. Franco (above), who delves into where our deepest insecurities come from and how to address them. “Your ability to connect with others really depends on your own sense of self,” says Franco, a friendship expert and bestselling author of “Platonic.” In her new book out Sept. 15, she offers practical, research-based exercises to improve your sense of worth. Here are three tips: • Change the past—in your brain Drawing from memory reconsolidation theory, Franco guides readers to revisit memories of rejection and picture themselves intervening as an adult. “You’re going to be safe, you’re going to be cared for, and the way they’re reacting has nothing to do with you,” she says. “Really visualize with all five senses.” • Transform tangible triggers Whether it’s a clenching in the chest, a lump in the throat or a tightness in the jaw, implicit memories can manifest as physical reactions. Focusing on that sensation while doing something mundane, like counting off by fours or even playing Tetris, can help you reprogram the body to let it go, says Franco. • Learn from the animal world Gazelles shake violently after escaping from a lion’s maw, freeing them of excess energy in the moment. Trauma research suggests people could take cues from this, she says, by trying somatic exercises: slow, mindful movements to track lingering tension and release it.—KS FEATURE: 25 Terp Innovations that Changed History The clickable hyperlink. The Universal Product Code. The Muppets. American life wouldn’t be the same without the ingenuity of UMD researchers and alums. By chris carroll and annie krakower An ancient myth tells of a great turtle that carries the world on its shell. For a modern take, look to the University of Maryland, where Terrapins have created scores of technologies, products and ideas that help keep our world turning. Every time you check out at the grocery store, click on a link or check the weekend forecast, you’re using an innovation developed by faculty or alums. Gas station fill-ups, videogaming sessions, daily vitamin regimens and workout attire would all be different—and worse—minus the spark of UMD genius. It’s part of a long tradition of American intellect, creativity and resourcefulness that found their highest expression in research universities, which fuse talent and training to produce advances that make life better for everyone, says UMD President Darryll J. Pines, author of the forthcoming book, “The Progress Machine: How Universities Will Drive Innovation Into the Next Century.” While the university consistently earns a top-10 spot in The Princeton Review and Entrepreneur magazine’s ranking of undergraduate entrepreneurship programs, Pines (an aerospace engineer with seven patents himself) says, “People don’t know—they don’t understand—how embedded Maryland is in so many things they depend on every day.” We aim to remedy that on the following pages, with an unofficial, chronological list of Terps’ greatest innovations. 1 Thanksgiving Turkeys The heroes of holiday dinners are a far cry from the wild birds featured at the first Thanksgiving, but they’re also quite different from the lanky domesticated turkeys of the early 20th century. In the 1930s, eminent scientist Morley Jull, then the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s senior poultry researcher, and colleague Stanley Marsden planned the breeding of a compact yet meaty turkey that would fit in small residential ovens. They hatched the Beltsville Small White, which became popular in the midcentury marketplace. Jull soon took over as chair of UMD’s Department of Poultry Science, and the Beltsville Small White went on to provide part of the genetic foundation of modern turkeys. 2 Modern Birth Control Research that dramatically reshaped family planning, gender roles, the workplace, sexual freedoms, and fertility trends in America and around the world all started with a root vegetable. Chemist Russell Marker 1923, M.S. 1924 set this cultural revolution into motion in the early 1940s by devising a cheap method for turning compounds in the Mexican yam into progesterone. He founded the pharmaceutical company Syntex to manufacture it, and by collapsing the drug’s price, he laid the foundation for safe, affordable and effective oral contraceptives and a pharmacy full of hormone therapies. Bonus brilliance: Marker and a colleague invented the octane system at Ethyl Corp. in 1926. The rating system to measure resistance to incomplete fuel ignition, aka engine knocking, lets drivers economize with 87-octane gas, and keep sport cars (or lawnmowers) breathing fire with 93. 3 Vitamin B12 For 20 years, scientists knew that raw liver helped cure once-fatal pernicious anemia, but didn’t know which of its components was responsible. That changed in 1948, when UMD poultry science researcher Mary Shaw Shorb’s breakthrough method measuring the growth of Lactobacillus lactis bacteria led to the isolation of vitamin B12, key in producing red blood cells, maintaining the nervous system and synthesizing DNA. It’s still relevant decades later, with B12 supplements counteracting vitamin deficiencies caused by common medications like Prilosec for stomach acid and metformin for blood sugar. 4 Puppets to Educate and Entertain on TV Before families could say, “Hi ho!” to Kermit the Frog, Big Bird and the rest of the Muppet gang, Jim Henson ’60 and his future wife, Jane Henson ’55, were experimenting with puppet potential at UMD. On their sketch show “Sam and Friends,” which debuted in 1955 on Washington’s NBC affiliate, they introduced an early version of the beloved amphibian—crafted from Jim’s mother’s felt coat and a ping-pong ball—and eliminated the traditional puppet stage, using the TV screen itself as the proscenium. The show’s success led the Hensons to “Sesame Street,” whose cuddly characters still charm audiences today while teaching counting, the alphabet and kindness in 150-plus countries. 5 The Moscow-Washington “Red Phone” While never actually a red phone on a desk, the hotline was instrumental in preventing escalation at the height of the Cold War. Game theory expert Thomas Schelling is among those credited with establishing a teletype system in 1963 to allow direct, speedy communication between U.S. and Soviet leaders. Later teaching about foreign policy, national security and nuclear strategy as a Distinguished University Professor of economics and public policy at UMD, he earned the Nobel Prize in Economics in 2005 for enhancing understanding of conflict and cooperation. The hotline has evolved significantly, operating as a secure computer link since 2008. 6 Computer Vision UMD’s roots in AI research stretch all the way to the 1964 launch of the Center for Automation Research (CFAR) by Distinguished University Professor Azriel Rosenfeld. Arguably the founder of the field of computer vision, he pioneered the study of computer image analysis, wrote the field’s first textbook and launched its first journal. The myriad applications inspired by CFAR proliferate at all levels of society, including facial recognition systems that unlock our phones, autonomous driving systems and medical imaging tools that help diagnose diseases earlier than ever before. 7 Creamy Ice Cream Longtime dairy science Professor Wendell S. Arbuckle, affectionately known worldwide as “Mr. Ice Cream,” had the scoop on tastier scoops. His extensive research into how the treat freezes and melts led to key smoothness strategies: Lower the “draw temperature” at which the ice cream is removed from the churning machine for smaller ice crystals, and freeze rapidly to lock those crystals into place. He compiled his findings into the 1966 textbook “Ice Cream,” which, seven editions later, is still widely considered the bible of the industry—even used by pint titans like Ben & Jerry’s. 8 Universal Product Code The block of vertical black bars and spaces is so ubiquitous on nearly every product as to be almost unnoticeable, but the last half-century of commerce wouldn’t have been possible without the UPC. George Laurer ’51 invented the barcode as an engineer at IBM in the early 1970s; it was first used to register the sale of a pack of Juicy Fruit chewing gum at an Ohio grocery store in 1974, speeding up the retail checkout process ever since. But because Laurer and IBM didn’t patent the UPC, they never made a dime from its use. 9 Dawn of Bioinformatics Cholera, a bacterial infection that kills an estimated 100,000 people yearly, was once thought to only spread person-to-person. But in a landmark 1975 research publication, microbiologist Rita Colwell, today a Distinguished University Professor in the University of Maryland Institute for Advanced Computer Studies, showed that Vibrio cholerae lives in bodies of water, independent of any human disease outbreak. This work was grounded in her pioneering use in the 1960s of computational methods to identify bacteria with a consistency that individual human observation couldn’t match. Starting in the 1980s, she developed a method that can calculate the risk of cholera outbreaks around the globe using satellite data. Along with her discoveries, she found—and fought—the bias that women couldn’t do science. 10 Freedom From Smoking Chemistry and biochemistry Professor Emeritus Paul Mazzocchi was ultimately unsuccessful in developing an addiction-proof opioid pain reliever. But the resulting modified benzazepine molecule he presented in a 1979 paper was still able to bind to morphine receptors in the brain. Scientists at Pfizer who found the paper decades later used it as a framework to create varenicline, also known as Chantix, a revolutionary drug that reduced cravings and withdrawal symptoms to help millions quit smoking. 11 Clickable Hyperlinks Reaching your online destination without a hyperlink is about as easy as eating soup without a spoon. The 6 billion worldwide web surfers daily have computer science Professor Emeritus Ben Shneiderman and UMD’s Human-Computer Interaction Lab to thank for the intuitive shortcut. In the 1980s, while working on an electronic encyclopedia for the future U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum, the idea of highlighting words in a paragraph to jump across documents struck Shneiderman. His team conducted experiments to determine the blue color still widely used today was best, visible on both white and black backgrounds. “Maryland was a world leader for developing user interface strategies in that period,” he says. “There was a fundamental belief in the need to bring these technologies to wider audiences.” That philosophy stretched to another of his human-computer innovations: smaller, high-precision touchscreens that activate when a user lifts their finger, allowing for today’s smartphone and tablet screens. 12 The Connected Internet By the late ’80s, the internet had sprouted isolated arms, but nothing made it the overarching global network we know and love (and hate) today. Then in 1988, UMD Director of Academic Computing and Networking Glenn Ricart Ph.D. ’80 flipped the switch on the world’s first internet exchange point; it bridged existing commercial, government and academic computer networks, vastly expanding users’ experience of the online world. Ricart is also credited as the force behind UMD becoming the first university to implement campuswide internet protocols in 1984. 13 The Modern TV Comedy “No hugging, no learning”: That was the credo of Larry David ’76 and Jerry Seinfeld when creating “Seinfeld” (1989-98), the landmark sitcom that eschewed sentimental life lessons and character growth and proved audiences could love a squad of unlikable protagonists. Dubbed a “show about nothing,” it also “showed that you could do a sitcom about what should seem like little irritations of modern life,” says longtime Baltimore Sun TV critic and Goucher College communications and media studies Assistant Professor of Practice David Zurawik Ph.D. ’00. The series paved the way for shows like “Arrested Development, “It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia” and of course, David’s later series, “Curb Your Enthusiasm.” Zurawik noted one other way the show changed culture: mainstreaming Jewish identity on network television. 14 E-reader Technology Prefer reading on a Kindle over lugging around a hardcover book? The namesake of UMD’s IDEA Factory was on the same digital page. In 1989, engineering alum E.A. Fernandez ’69 patented the microprocessor-based simulated book, a mass storage system with a display screen, access to a large database of chapters and pages, and the look and feel of a novel or nonfiction. Foundational in e-reading devices, it’s one of the most cited U.S. patents by technology and publishing companies. 15 Cardiac Care, Reinvented You’d need a patent librarian to keep track of the lifesaving biomedical inventions—more than 200 in all—that have poured from the mind of Robert E. Fischell M.S. ’54, Sc.D. (honorary) ’96. Several have reshaped cardiac care: A rechargeable pacemaker battery inspired by the physicist’s work with spacecraft batteries ended the need for frequent surgeries for replacement, while a series of coronary stents he introduced with sons David, Tim and Scott in the 1990s have helped maintain cardiovascular function for millions of patients. Today, a vast replica of his stent design towers over the ground floor of UMD’s A. James Clark Hall. Upstairs, researchers work toward new advances in the Fischell Department of Bioengineering and the Fischell Institute for Biomedical Devices. 16 A New Concept of Identity This analytical framework used by the social sciences to understand interlocking “-isms” related to race, gender and class was created in large part by Terps. The landmark book “Black Feminist Thought” by sociologist and Distinguished University Professor Emerita Patricia Hill Collins (right, top) helped establish intersectionality in 1990 as a rigorous field of scholarship. UMD’s Consortium on Race, Gender, and Ethnicity was founded in 1998 by scholar Bonnie Thornton Dill, a professor emerita of women’s studies and former College of Arts and Humanities dean, and women’s studies Professor Ruth Zambrana; it provided a home from which intersectionality developed in directions that influenced law, medicine, education and other fields. 17 Electronics Accessibility Self-serve kiosks can equal convenience when checking in at the airport or running a post office errand, but that wasn’t always the case for people with disabilities. A lack of haptic or audio feedback made the machines inaccessible for blind users, for example, and people with limited motor control might struggle to tap buttons precisely. The Trace Research and Development Center sought to “touch” more lives with the introduction of EZ Access in the 1990s. The set of interface enhancements to touchscreens, including a tactile keypad and speech output, has been implemented in tens of thousands of kiosks worldwide. 18 Real-World Quantum Computing Until physicist Christopher Monroe’s 1995 experiment at the National Institute of Standards and Technology in Boulder, Colo., quantum computing was only an exciting theory. He led the team that proved trapped ions could be used as “qubits”—units of computing information that can encode not just a 0 or 1, but potentially both at once—launching the global race to build superpowered computers. They hold the promise of both breaking and protecting secure systems, designing new materials and reinventing finance, healthcare and logistics. Monroe later became a Distinguished University Professor at UMD, where his group also was the first to demonstrate “long-distance quantum teleportation” of information, and then co-founded IonQ, one of the world’s leading quantum computing firms, based in College Park. Niccolo de Masi, IonQ chairman and CEO, remembers being inspired as an undergraduate by Monroe’s seminal paper about the experiment: “That moment was a shot heard around the world for anyone passionate about quantum mechanics, and it cemented my commitment to this company’s mission.” 19 Sweat-Wicking Compression Wear As special teams captain for Maryland, Kevin Plank ’96 described himself as “the sweatiest guy on the football field.” Seeking a solution to his soaked cotton tees, he researched and sourced a synthetic, sweat-wicking material. The stretchy, form-fitting shirts that he sold out of the trunk of his car to athletes and former teammates became the foundation of his new company: Under Armour. He soon produced a range of game-changing gear for heat—with fast-drying, chafe-free material—and for cold—with dual-layer fabric to keep athletes cool inside and dry outside. The clothing technology inspired competitors to follow suit. “They were the trailblazers,” says Maryland head football coach Mike Locksley, whose team wears Under Armour uniforms. “They’re allowing you to be more productive because of the gear that you have on.” 20 Modern Weather Forecasting If you’ve peeked at the 10-day forecast on your phone’s weather app, you’ve benefited from the work of atmospheric and oceanic science Distinguished University Professor Eugenia Kalnay. A pioneer in numerical weather prediction, she developed an ensemble forecasting method, running multiple forecasting models with slight variations in conditions instead of relying on just one; this more accurately measures forecast uncertainty. That, along with her improved data assimilation systems using satellites and radar, made possible useful extended forecasts. While working at the National Centers for Environmental Prediction, she also cleared the clouds on more than 40 years of global climate data with a 1996 reanalysis paper that became one of the most widely cited atmospheric datasets in history. 21 Graphics for Virtual Worlds The hit 1998 first-person shooter game Unreal did exactly the opposite of what its name implied: Its jaw-dropping lighting effects and large, open, simulated 3D spaces made gaming seem more real. The namesake graphics engine behind it was developed by Tim Sweeney ’93, who started the company Epic Games in his parents’ home in Potomac, Md. The Unreal Engine went on to run its 2017 breakout phenomenon, Fortnite (above), which now counts over 650 million registered users and more than $40 billion in revenue. The most recent iteration, Unreal Engine 5, is not only the foundation of countless state-of-the-art games; it’s also used to design buildings and cars, in medical training, and in film, TV production and broadcast environments. 22 Google: King of Search Engines Quick: Name the internet search engines of the day when Sergey Brin ’93 and Larry Page launched Google in September 1998. (Prize goes to the middle-aged reader in the corner who remembers Northern Light.) Its revolutionary approach to ranking World Wide Web pages operated with remarkable accuracy, and as a result, its number of daily queries skyrocketed from 10,000 at launch to 3.5 million in the first year. Today as part of Alphabet, it’s as pervasive as the air we breathe: Google owns about 90% of the search market, dominates online advertising, powers most of the world’s smartphones via Android and leads in autonomous vehicle service with Waymo—and Brin is still deeply involved. 23 Satellite Radio Around-the-clock yacht rock, podcasts spanning NPR to pro wrestling, and UFO conspiracy talk shows are all at our fingertips—or in our earbuds—through crystal clear, commercial-free radio conceived and designed by Terps. Alumna Martine Rothblatt was the first to petition the FCC to broadcast from space in a little-used section of the frequency band, while satellite communications expert Robert Briskman M.S. ’61 led the technical development of the system that debuted in 2002. That included his revolutionary, patented method to ensure listeners on the move would never hit the dead spots common in FM radio by smoothly combining the signals of multiple satellites. Based in part on the strength of Howard Stern, who brought his army of listeners to Sirius in 2004, it absorbed rival XM radio to form SiriusXM radio in 2008. 24 Democratized Gaming VR Oculus lit the fuse on consumer virtual reality when its 2012 Kickstarter campaign demonstrated demand for an immersive gaming headset. Cofounded by University of Maryland alumni Brendan Iribe, Michael Antonov ’03 and Andrew Reisse ’01, the company created devices that were far cheaper and performed better than the research-oriented products that preceded them. Facebook’s $2 billion acquisition in 2014 supercharged the venture, and the consumer Rift launched in 2016, reshaping immersive computing. “Oculus took virtual reality out of the research lab and put it in people’s hands, opening new possibilities for how we learn, experience and reimagine the world,” says computer science Professor Amitabh Varshney, dean of the College of Computer, Mathematical, and Natural Sciences and a leading expert on VR and related tech. 25 Language Model Pioneers Terp computer scientists helped launch the revolution in language AI that led to today’s eerily capable chatbots—with a nod to Jim Henson ’60’s Muppets. Computer science Associate Professor Mohit Iyyer Ph.D. ’17 co-authored the 2018 paper introducing ELMo (Embeddings from Language Models), a breakthrough that allowed word meanings to change based on context. That same year, Jacob Devlin M.S. ’09 led Google’s BERT (Bidirectional Encoder Representations from Transformers) team, which introduced a powerful new way to train a models known as “masked language modeling.” Together they ushered in the “Muppet Model” era with a pre-training approach that underpins modern AI language models, plus a naming tradition that grew to include Big Bird, ERNIE, RoBERTa and more. What Did We Miss? We couldn’t squeeze every Terp touchstone into this unofficial list. What do you think we should have included? Email us at terpfeedback@umd.edu. FEATURE: Findings Beyond the Founders Excavations by UMD researchers and students unearth new stories about the enslaved communities at the Jefferson and Madison estates. By Karen Shih ’09 photographs by stephanie s. cordle Just steps from President James Madison’s white-columned, brick Georgian mansion, Elizabeth McCague knelt in the red clay of a shallow excavation pit and dusted off a shard of ceramic. It wasn’t an uncommon find: Pieces of scalloped tortoiseshell plates, Chinese-style blue-and-white porcelain dishes and plain storage vessels are scattered in the soil across the rural Virginia plantation. But three raised capital letters, L-I-B, made this one, discovered in the ruins of enslaved people’s homes, stand out. McCague called down to the archaeology lab, and soon, her colleagues brought another fragment of broken white pottery. The two fit together perfectly, forming the basis of a tobacco pipe bowl that spelled out “liberty.” “It’s one of the most powerful artifacts I’ve ever encountered,” says the University of Maryland doctoral candidate, who made the discovery at Montpelier as a field crew member in 2016 and is now the estate’s archaeology lab director. “Someone who was enslaved under the watchful eye of James Madison, the father of the Constitution, serving him and his family, decided to own this. It was an aspirational endeavor. They knew: Liberty is out there, but not for you.” Thousands of relics uncovered and analyzed by UMD researchers and students at the historic homes of Madison and his neighbor and fellow Founding Father Thomas Jefferson are shedding new light on the complexities of their lives. The statesmen are celebrated not only for their roles in winning American independence, but for boldly forging a new system of representative government that inspired rebels fighting for democracy around the world. Jefferson’s radical pronouncement that “all men are created equal” might be the most influential expression of human dignity ever written; Madison, whose Bill of Rights secured individual freedoms in the Constitution, later called the United States “the workshop of liberty to the civilized world.” But those lofty ideals didn’t apply at their estates, or even at the White House, where they held men, women and children in bondage. As the United States celebrates its 250th anniversary, hundreds of thousands of people are expected to visit the two former plantations this year to explore restored rooms and walk the grounds. Now, thanks in part to UMD discoveries incorporated into exhibits and tours, visitors can better understand the humanity, ingenuity and resilience of enslaved workers who enabled these former presidents to dedicate their lives to a fledgling nation. Arriving by carriage at Montpelier or Jefferson’s Monticello at the turn of the 19th century, visitors might leave their horses with a farrier for reshoeing, enjoy fresh peas or sweet peaches served on imported dinnerware, or see in the distance vast fields of tobacco or wheat. Just a few white family members resided in the main house (only two of Jefferson’s children by his wife survived to adulthood, and Madison’s heir was his one stepson), while hundreds of enslaved workers lived and worked across the thousands of acres. Both men were broke when they died, so neither family held on to their bustling estates for long—a common outcome for many notable early Americans. Some homes fell into disrepair while others were sold off and remodeled dramatically. The earliest attempt at historic preservation started in the 1850s, when the Mount Vernon Ladies’ Association formed to save George Washington’s deteriorating house after federal and state governments declined to step in. “These women were not trying to recreate his life there,” says Susan Kern, director of UMD’s Historic Preservation Program and former director of Monticello’s archaeology department. They reopened the property along the Potomac River as a shrine, she says, highlighting his military leadership, farming innovations and presidency. The same happened at other historical homes up and down the East Coast, as private nonprofit organizations raised money to preserve them by selling admission tickets. Even after historians and archaeologists entered the scene in the mid-20th century, the focus has remained on the accomplishments of white men (and sometimes women, like first lady Dolley Madison and her famous hostessing skills). What got lost in these romantic tellings were their ecosystems of wealth and bondage. “Jefferson was held up as a paragon of the sturdy backwoodsman, as a solitary self-made man, but in reality, every Jefferson child had an enslaved child as their body servant,” says Kern, noting that his parents enslaved more than 60 workers when he was born. “At 2 years old, he owns another 2-year-old on paper. The house is set up to serve him.” Just 30 miles down the road, Madison’s family wealth provided the means for him to study at Princeton and serve in the Virginia legislature. Despite writing in a 1785 letter that he wished “to depend as little as possible on the labour of slaves,” by the time Madison inherited the property in 1801, the enslaved community there had grown to more than 100. Only in 1979 did Colonial Williamsburg establish the first department of African American interpretation at an early U.S. historic site. It took decades for others to follow suit. As an enslaved blacksmith named Moses sweated over molten metal, pouring and pounding to create tools and weaponry that supplied not only Montpelier but also clients throughout Virginia and even the Continental Army, the sounds of his work would have carried up the small hill to Madison’s main house. There, the man who later became the fourth president pored over centuries of political philosophy to write the Virginia Plan—the basis of the U.S. Constitution—enshrining rights that remained out of reach for most. “This is one of the coolest things we get to learn about in archaeology: the people who didn’t get memoirs written about them, the folks who left their mark in the form of nails and horseshoes and things left in the ground,” says McCague (left), part of the archaeological team that excavated the blacksmith shop this summer and is advised by UMD anthropology Chair and Professor Barnet Pavão-Zuckerman. The site was chosen in collaboration with the Montpelier Descendants Committee, an organization of people whose ancestors were enslaved there and nearby. In 2022, it became the first group in the nation to gain structural parity with the nonprofit foundation that runs a presidential home, giving it equal say in the research conducted, exhibits created and tours offered. It’s a new model that MDC member Henry Anglin, whose great-grandfather was enslaved at the adjacent Newman Plantation, hopes others will follow. “It’s really essential for descendants to have a true voice to end up with a realistic, truthful story,” says Anglin, who’s leading efforts to build a memorial for the enslaved next to Montpelier’s unmarked burial ground, now shrouded by woods and overgrown vegetation. Drawing from oral histories, the committee has filled in gaps in knowledge as the archaeological team combines historical ledgers and papers with discoveries like a whittled children’s toy or rusted pocketknife. One such family story came from MDC member Bettye Kearse, whose ancestor, Mandy, was captured in Ghana, transported across the Middle Passage and bought by Madison’s father. She was said to have worn a red bead in her hair and passed it down to her daughter, Coreen. But as generations served the Madisons in the kitchen, this bead was lost—possibly until archaeologists recovered a reddish quartz ring centuries later. Encountering the artifact felt like destiny to Sara Thiam MAA ’26. While applying to UMD, she’d taken a trip to Mali and Senegal, where she has ancestors, and she immediately recognized the intact circle of carnelian from Montpelier because she’d bought several similar pieces of jewelry at traditional markets. Initially, researchers thought the ring originated in India, a better-known source of carnelian, and had been traded to Africa. But Thiam reviewed European accounts, largely in French, showing that West Africa also held extensive deposits that supported a quartz mining industry dating back to the first century. She also delved into what the carnelian was and is still used for: Women across the region adorn themselves with the quartz as a symbol of fertility and protection, whether braided into their hair or worn on a finger. “One of the greatest mysteries of all of those who are descendants of the enslaved, stolen from the African continent, is the essence of our identity. That’s something that DNA tests can’t give us back. That’s something that genealogy research can’t give us directly,” says Thiam. “I was naturally drawn to this opportunity to restore an aspect of that, and to work with the descendants from start to finish.” In Jefferson’s sun-drenched butter-yellow dining room, America’s “founding foodie” and his family were served what was then exotic cuisine. Macaroni and cheese, crispy fries and refreshing scoops of ice cream—all unfamiliar to the States and inspired by his time as U.S. minister to France—appeared via a revolving food service door and a wine dumbwaiter built into the side of a fireplace. But out of sight, toiling in the tunnels beneath them, were enslaved people like brothers James and Peter Hemings and sisters-in-law Edith Fossett and Frances Hern, who bought or grew the ingredients and prepared the dishes. “These enslaved cooks brought creativity and ingenuity in creating a whole new food system, combining ingredients and techniques from many cultures,” including West African and Native American traditions, says Pavão-Zuckerman. As a zooarchaeologist studying bones, she and her students offer a glimpse into the everyday lives of people on the plantations, from the owners to the overseers to the enslaved people. Animals interacted with humans daily, whether horses pulling carts, caged birds singing, or livestock providing wool and meat. Her research at Montpelier goes back to 2001, and just before the pandemic she added Monticello to her portfolio. That’s led to insights about the types of meat that the Jeffersons and Madisons would have eaten: an assortment of wild game pre-1800s, and later, domesticated young livestock like suckling pig and veal. What’s been more eye-opening is the variety of animals found at the homes of enslaved workers. Given meager rations of just cornmeal, preserved fish and pickled pork, they were expected to supplement their own diets to survive. For domestic workers, that might take the form of growing a small garden (which they could tend only at night or on Sundays, ostensibly a day of rest) or raising poultry. “Chickens were often the only way enslaved people could earn money,” says doctoral student Kristen Hickey, poring over bags of bones and broken eggshells in the zooarchaeology lab at UMD’s Woods Hall. Eggs could be sold in town or even to enslavers so they could buy extra cloth for clothes, blankets or other household items. A surprising number of fish bones have been found around the homes of carpenters and blacksmiths. Tasked with making a certain number of chairs or nails a day, they had more control over their time than other enslaved workers and could visit nearby rivers or ponds, says Pavão-Zuckerman (right). Even field workers, who labored from sunup to sundown, were found to have remains of raccoons, possums, squirrels and other small game in their homes, likely trapped or killed with slingshots as the animals crept among the crops. “Humans are extraordinarily resilient, even under the worst circumstances,” says Pavão-Zuckerman, whose findings are displayed in reconstructed homes next to the main house at Montpelier. “These enslaved people exercised whatever control and power they could to survive. They found ways of doing what they needed to preserve their own humanity, and the humanity of their families.” Twenty-four feet underground, enslaved workers packed frozen blocks into an icehouse each winter so the Madisons could store meat, cream and other perishables throughout the year. Concealed by “the temple,” a domed, open-air neoclassical structure held up by eight white pillars (itself a symbol of freedom and enlightenment used by abolitionists to point out the hypocrisy of enslavers), the pit was built into the back of a hill, invisible to visitors coming down the road to the main house. The small opening above, letting in just a spear of sunlight, would have felt as far away as the liberty promised by the Founding Fathers. That’s where Pavão-Zuckerman found herself in June, standing in the dark with a couple of undergraduates from the College of Behavioral and Social Sciences’ Summer Research Initiative. It was a world away from the airy, painting-filled drawing rooms they’d toured at Monticello a day prior, says anthropology major Pierce Smith ’29. “It feels more real.” Bringing undergrads along on her visits to both sites each summer is an opportunity to pique their interest in history, archaeology and preservation as well as deepen the connection between UMD and the scholars at the two plantations. She gives lectures to field students and checks in on the excavations and labs; over the last decade, a half-dozen of Pavão-Zuckerman’s students have been involved. Working with Terps “is great because we’re able to do research we would never have the resources to do our ourselves,” says Matt Reeves, Montpelier’s director of archaeology. “Their specialized analyses advance our research and what we’re able to present to the public.” This fall, Montpelier archaeology intern Lee Stamey will continue the tradition as they pursue a master’s degree in applied anthropology at UMD. Over the past year, Stamey has been working with the archaeological team to excavate the blacksmith’s shop and adjacent homes of enslaved people. “People will veer off the path and come ask, ‘What are you digging up?’” says Stamey, who has held out a button from a shirt or earthenware dinner dishes, for example, to help visitors relate findings to their own lives. The “liberty” pipe McCague helped find, meanwhile, is part of an exhibit in the Montpelier cellars. That’s the impact of an artifact. When the smoke clears from the nationwide celebrations of America’s 250th, Stamey hopes people will see beyond the familiar tales of the Founding Fathers, one clay-encased find at a time. “It’s really rewarding to show somebody something new, and see the moment when something changes in their mind.” terp FEATURE: Steny Hoyer Yields the Floor After 60 years in public service, the longtime congressman and Terp retires with a legacy etched on American history, in Maryland and across UMD’s campus By John Tucker Sipping a beer at a capitol hill soirée in 1988, John Berry ’80 overheard a congressional staffer mention that a Virginia university was lobbying the National Archives to build a huge facility on its campus to house millions of its documents. The next morning Berry tipped off his boss, U.S. Rep. Steny H. Hoyer ’63, that the prized repository was in play. Within days, Hoyer and University System of Maryland Chancellor John S. Toll were leading the archivist of the United States on a tour of UMD’s campus; a couple of weeks later, Hoyer added an earmark to an appropriations bill establishing UMD as the site of the eventual 1.8 million-square-foot building. A befuddled Virginia staffer who later ran into Berry said, “I’ve never been so thoroughly sideswiped. Hoyer outsmarted us.” Hoyer recalls the coup jubilantly: “Now it’s probably the premier archival institution in the world,” he says. “We brought some fantastic researchers to the campus.” It was a classic move by Hoyer, who will retire from a 45-year career in Congress when his term ends in January. The longest-serving member of either chamber to represent Maryland, Hoyer shaped the influential 5th District abutting Washington into a research powerhouse, helping pump billions of dollars into behemoths like NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center, Patuxent River Naval Air Station and NOAA Center for Weather and Climate Prediction, many of them tightly aligned with the University of Maryland. “Steny’s leadership resulted in the modern federal research presence in the state of Maryland,” says emeritus UMD trustee Tim Maloney, a former state delegate whose district overlapped with Hoyer’s. “He did it quietly and without recognition. He was just interested in seeing results.” The No. 2 member of the Democratic caucus for two decades—second only to Rep. Nancy Pelosi, an ally and frequent sparring partner—Hoyer played the role of happy warrior and shrewd tactician, a consensus-building centrist who complemented her street-fighting progressivism. The 87-year-old has spent nearly his entire career in public office; Hoyer was elected in 1966 to the Maryland Senate and joined the U.S. House of Representatives in 1981. Still popular—he won 72% of the vote in his district in the 2024 primary—Hoyer walks away as the only Marylander to serve as majority leader. A throwback to an era when members of both major parties respected each other, he helped steer the passage of bipartisan landmark legislation including the 1990 American with Disabilities Act and the 2002 Help Americas Vote Act in response to the contested 2000 presidential election, the most sweeping election reform since the Voting Rights Act. “He is one of the most underrated giants of U.S. legislative history,” says Berry, who after working for Hoyer ran President Obama’s Office of Personnel Management and served as ambassador to Australia. Following retirement, Hoyer will donate his official papers to UMD Libraries, a collection that contains everything from personal notes, speeches, photos, campaign materials and correspondences with constituents and colleagues. “From the very beginning, the University of Maryland has been a big part of my life, and I’m very proud of it,” he says. born in new york, Hoyer moved to District Heights, Md., as a child and enrolled in UMD in 1957 (tuition: $178). After posting 1.7 and 1.0 GPAs his freshman year, he took a semester off, then reenrolled, still without direction. One day that spring, he was set to leave campus when a Pontiac convertible cruised by, carrying the guest speaker to the annual convocation ceremony. Hoyer thought the car looked cool and decided to follow it. The teenager sat in awe as the handsome young U.S. senator talked passionately about politics and implored graduates to serve their communities and country. Immediately drawn to public service, Hoyer now calls his walk to the field house to hear John F. Kennedy “my road to Damascus.” He changed his major from business to government and politics and was elected student government vice president. After marrying his high school sweetheart and graduating with high honors, Hoyer enrolled in Georgetown law school and joined the campaign team of U.S. Rep. Daniel Brewster of Maryland; there, he met a young staffer from Baltimore named Nancy D’Alesandro, who the following year became Nancy Pelosi. After he was elected president of the Maryland Young Democrats, anointed by The Washington Post as “a man to watch” and remained on staff when Brewster became a U.S. senator, he made his first run for elected office, distinguishing himself in a crowded field vying for a state Senate seat with a platform on fair housing. The newly drawn district had backed segregationist candidate George Wallace in the 1964 presidential election, but Hoyer focused on a concentration of Black constituents, knocking on doors till his knuckles hurt. “People saw a skinny white kid looking younger than my 26 years, and said, ‘What are you doing here?’” he recalls. He won Black voters’ support nearly 7-to-1 and claimed the seat by 300 votes. In Annapolis, he cast one of his first votes to end the ban on interracial marriage. At 35, he became Maryland’s youngest-ever Senate president, championing a district growing increasingly Black, educated, affluent and attractive to federal government workers. In 1981 he won a special election to represent the U.S. House’s 5th District, earning the nickname Boy Wonder. “There was a certain way Steny Hoyer’s heels click-clicked along the marble halls of the State House that set him apart from the others. He had the sharpest, most urgent click-click in Annapolis,” the Post wrote upon his departure from the legislature. Among his new constituents was Yvette Lewis, a Prince George’s County music teacher who dreamed of singing professionally—if only she could get her foot in the door at the Kennedy Center. Her husband suggested she call her congressman; maybe she could speak with a staffer. With surprising ease, she secured a meeting with Hoyer. She left with a smile and no expectations, but two weeks later received a letter from the Kennedy Center offering an interview. Lewis landed a Kennedy Center teaching job, then a Washington Opera audition, then a resident understudy position. Following the contentious 2000 presidential election, she became politically active and ultimately served as chair of the Maryland Democratic Party for eight years. “Steny Hoyer changed my life,” she says. Hoyer didn’t remember their original meeting when they first bumped into each other in political circles years later, but that didn’t surprise her. “I’m not unique,” says Lewis, now a close friend who sits on the University System of Maryland Board of Regents. “I’m one of a million Hoyer stories.” Hoyer gradually built his influence in Congress, chairing the Helsinki Commission on U.S.-European security, earning a seat on the powerful House Appropriations Committee and traveling to Darfur and South Sudan to raise awareness of genocide. He became Pelosi’s chief lieutenant in 2003 and House majority leader in 2007, charged with scheduling floor business and mobilizing the party vote on important legislation. With increased clout, he directed millions of dollars into UMD programs through federal agency appropriations. A savvy analyst, he identified potential research partnerships, joint faculty appointments and student pipelines connecting UMD to the government, then brokered behind-the-scenes deals. “He might tell his colleagues in the House, ‘Hey, the engineering school’s developing a remote sensing program that would be great for NASA Goddard,’” says Brian Darmody, chief strategy officer for the Association of University Research Parks. Formerly UMD’s assistant vice president for research and economic development, he worked closely with Hoyer in the 2000s to establish M Square, a public-private research hub that has since grown into UMD’s Discovery District Maryland. Hoyer also secured funds from the Department of Defense for a UMD center now known as the Applied Research Lab for Intelligence and Security; from the Department of Agriculture for the Beltsville Agricultural Research Center, where more than two dozen UMD faculty work; and from the Food and Drug Administration for its Center for Food Safety and Applied Nutrition, which has a research partnership with UMD in College Park. On campus, Hoyer also helped net construction money for the Physical Sciences Complex and The Clarice Smith Performing Arts Center. Meanwhile, he continued preaching in support of civil rights. In 2010, when a bill to end the “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” policy banning gay Americans from serving openly in the military died in committee, Hoyer sidestepped the blockade by orchestrating a second Senate vote at the eleventh hour of the session, a “political miracle,” says Berry, his former staffer. Hoyer was the first person whom Berry came out to as gay, after his parents. When Berry’s partner died of AIDS, Hoyer pulled over on Route 50 and listened to him weep on the phone for 30 minutes. “He’s not only the best boss I’ve ever had, but a mentor, a second father, a true saint,” says Berry. Hoyer looks younger than his 87 years, and he knows it. “God’s been good,” he says, after practically bounding into his office on the top floor of the Longworth building in crisp shirtsleeves and a yellow tie. Mentally sharp, though unsure whether he could deliver at 89, he is retiring somewhat reluctantly. Pelosi, his longtime colleague, is also stepping down at age 86. One corner of Hoyer’s office is dedicated to the late Rep. John Lewis, one of his closest friends in Congress, with whom he marched 15 times across the Edmund Pettus Bridge in Selma, Ala., to make good trouble. In an opposite corner is the flag of Denmark (the self-described “proud Dane” in 2009 was honored as a Knight of the Order of the Dannebrog). After retirement, he’ll remain active in Democratic politics and spend more time in his St. Mary’s County home. A rabid UMD football and basketball fan, he intends to keep shouting at nearly every home game alongside his wife, Elaine Kamarck, a director at a public policy nonprofit whom he married in 2023. (Hoyer’s first wife, the educator Judy Pickett Hoyer, died in 1997, leading Hoyer to create early-childhood programs across Maryland in her name.) He’ll leave the House having shaped the careers of hundreds of staffers, including Jazz Lewis ’11, MPP ’14, who met Hoyer as a graduate student intending to become a community organizer. Instead, he agreed to lead his reelection campaign the day after commencement. “His approach to public service was kindness, thoughtfulness and always following up. Every function was super long because he listened to everyone—it didn’t matter if they were a mechanic or someone’s granny,” says Lewis, who became Hoyer’s senior policy adviser and is now UMD’s director of state government relations. Hoyer’s seat will almost certainly be inherited by another recent campaign manager, 32-year-old state Del. Adrian Boafo, who in June won the Democratic primary. Ever congenial, the lion of the House laments that American politics has devolved into pettiness and divisiveness over the last decade. Still, he’s an optimist, easily quoting from Kennedy’s 1961 inaugural address: “The torch has been passed to a new generation of Americans … unwilling to witness or permit the slow undoing of those human rights to which this nation has always been committed.” Twelve presidential administrations later, in an emotional January speech on the House floor to announce his retirement, Hoyer passed his own torch, urging his colleagues to examine their conscience and renew their courage: “We must remember that we are not great or unique because we say we’re great, but because we are just, generous and fair.” terp ALUMNI ASSOCIATION Letter From the Senior Executive Director As I travel to alumni events across the country, one thing I’ve found myself saying often is, “There has never been a more exciting time to be a Terp.” Maryland’s momentum is undeniable. What does that mean for you? It means you’re part of a powerful network with a shared connection to a university continuing to rise. It means there are more opportunities than ever to connect with fellow Terps, share your expertise, grow professionally and support the next generation of Maryland graduates. One of the best ways to do that is through Terrapins Connect, our networking and mentorship platform that helps students and alums build meaningful connections across industries, interests and generations. We’re excited to have recently launched a new mobile app, making it even easier to tap into the strength of the Maryland network wherever you are. Visit alumni.umd.edu to learn more. We’re also investing in new ways to support your personal and professional growth. This year, we relaunched our Coaches Corner program, offering exclusive opportunities to connect with professional coaches and gain guidance at every career stage. No matter where life takes you, I encourage you to stay connected to Maryland and to one another. Whether you’re attending an event, volunteering with a local network, mentoring a student or simply striking up a conversation when you spot a fellow Terp, you’re helping strengthen a tradition that defines our community: Terps supporting Terps. It’s a tradition that has connected generations of Maryland graduates, and one that will continue to move us Forward together. Jessica K. Roberts ’02 Senior Executive Director University of Maryland Alumni Association 3 Terp Stories, 1 Forever Home Every Terp’s path to and through the University of Maryland is different. But all of us can commemorate that connection with a personalized brick or paver on Legacy Plaza or Testudo Row, just steps away from SECU Stadium at the Samuel Riggs IV Alumni Center. Here’s why three alums did just that. Family in Different Forms Kirk Bell’s favorite memories of his days on campus with his fraternity, Phi Sigma Kappa (PSK), aren’t about big events like Greek Week. They’re the shared moments spent on the porch of 7 Fraternity Row, looking out toward Memorial Chapel, reading The Washington Post or cheering for their hometown teams. “We all came from different walks of life, different backgrounds, different areas and formed a very close-knit bond,” says Bell ’88. “It was a true brotherhood.” His fraternity brothers were there for his wedding and remain close with his family. Whenever one of the group passes on, all too soon, Bell and his brothers come together to gather donations for a brick on Testudo Row, right by the iconic Testudo statue at Riggs Alumni Center that greets fans on football game days. He always shares the bricks’ location with his brothers’ surviving family members, so they can visit anytime. “It was about finding a way to remember them,” Bell says, “and to further our bond at UMD.” His children, Megan ’16, Connor ’18 and Ryan ’21, M.Ed. ’22, also attended Maryland, where the boys joined PSK. Bell purchased bricks for all three when they graduated. “Maryland provides us all a common bond, to go to alumni events, sporting events and tailgate for football,” Bell says. “It’s always going to be near and dear to my family.” A Full-Circle Memento Blessing Enekwe ’04, M.A. ’09, Ph.D. ’16 moved from Massachusetts to attend UMD as an undergraduate, but never expected to be here 25 years later. First she fell in love with the campus—suburban, but close to Washington, D.C. Then she got involved with student groups, from the Black Student Union to The Eclipse. Now the triple Terp serves as program director for postdoctoral affairs at the Graduate School, where she supports these scholars and helps them decide what’s next. “One of the things about Maryland is that there are a lot of opportunities, but it can be pretty overwhelming at times,” she says. “Having been here for this many years in various capacities, I’m able to draw on my own experiences.” That quarter-century on campus is something she chose to celebrate with a commemorative brick. “I’ve walked these sidewalks, I’ve walked this whole terrain, for 20-plus years,” she says. “My hope is that my children will attend the university and as they walk by the Alumni Association, they can always look out for my brick.” Across Miles and Milestones The study abroad trips that Rudy de Leon Dinglas ’07 took to Germany and Italy as an undergraduate weren’t just the defining experiences of his time at Maryland. They sparked a lifelong love of travel. Even as his journey has taken him around the world, many times and many miles from Maryland, his connection remains strong. “[Seeing a Terp abroad,] you have this instant connection and end up talking to a random stranger just because you see someone with a [Terps] hat or a backpack or a pin,” he says. His brick serves as a reminder that no matter where he goes, he’s part of a network larger than himself. “The brick was a meaningful way for me to give back while leaving a small piece of my story on campus, particularly next to Testudo,” Dinglas says. “When you look down at the names and quotes on the bricks, it creates a link across generations of Terps.” What’s your story? Leave a permanent mark on campus at alumni.umd.edu/bricks. POST GRAD Planetary Protector NASA Scientist Leads U.S. Efforts to Stop Asteroids Hurtling through the solar system at more than 30,000 mph, an asteroid striking Earth could have ripple effects for all of humanity. The dinosaurs had no warning 66 million years ago. Luckily for us, there’s Kelly Fast M.S. ’93, Ph.D. ’05. As NASA’s acting planetary defense officer, she oversees U.S. efforts and global coordination to survey the sky, calculate orbits, study physical properties of near-Earth objects and identify possible impact risks. When observations in early 2025 showed asteroid 2024 YR4—half the length of a football field—on a potential crash course with Earth in 2032, she had to make the nerve-wracking call to notify U.S. agencies and the United Nations on behalf of the International Asteroid Warning Network (IAWN). A flurry of global news stories followed as the probability kept increasing, peaking at 1 in 30. By the end of February, though, additional observations narrowed down 2024 YR4’s path; Earth was in the clear. For Fast and her colleagues, 2024 YR4 turned out to be a good exercise and a reminder of why they do the work: “It’s all about finding the asteroids before they find us,” she says. The Hollywood-raised Fast developed her love of astronomy watching “Star Trek” and “Space: 1999” rather than “Armageddon.” She worked at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt during and after her Ph.D., focusing on planetary astronomy research. After moving to NASA headquarters in Washington, she pivoted to managing the Near-Earth Object Observations Program, and in mid-2024, she stepped in to lead NASA’s Planetary Defense Coordination Office. Most of the solar system’s estimated 1.4 million asteroids are concentrated within the belt between Mars and Jupiter, but they occasionally get knocked off orbit and swing toward the inner planets. Miles-long objects aren’t the main concern since they’re rare and highly visible, nor are little ones that disintegrate in Earth’s atmosphere and make shooting stars or fireballs. Instead, NASA focuses on those in between, particularly 140 meters and larger that are tricky to spot amid many different orbits. Her work frequently reconnects her with her alma mater; the 2022 Double Asteroid Redirection Test (DART) mission, humanity’s first attempt to alter a celestial body’s orbit, included UMD researchers, and NASA’s Planetary Data System Small Bodies Node, which archives spacecraft data and supports IAWN coordination, is based at UMD’s astronomy department. “UMD is such a key part of NASA data activity,” she says. She’s looking forward to the launch next year of NASA’s NEO Surveyor mission, which will be the first infrared space telescope specifically designed to find near-earth objects, giving scientists the ability to detect darker asteroids, as well as provide a better view closer to the direction of the sun, which can obscure objects for ground-based telescopes. Ultimately, “an asteroid impact is a very rare event,” Fast says. “Other natural disasters happen all the time, but this is the only one we could potentially prevent.”—ks The Names in the Game? All Terps Alum Brothers Expand Puzzle Book Series With UMD Theme Are you someone who while watching TV points at the screen and exclaims (whether or not anyone else is in the room), “That’s a Terp!”? Maybe that’s just us. But a more fun way to put that knowledge to use might be with “Celebrity Word Scramble: Top Terps,” the 35th book by brothers Bill ’80 (above right) and Martin Maier ’79 (right). The latest in their series challenges readers to solve 112 puzzles, and all the solutions are notable UMD alums. “It was a lot of fun going through and learning about some of these Terps who made an impact on the community,” Bill says. The book features puzzles with four common four-, five- and six-letter words to unscramble, with circled letters in each then used to form a celeb’s name, such as Harry Hughes ’49, Joy Bauer ’86 and Dominique Dawes ’02. Ready to test your solving skills? Try one of the “Top Terps” puzzles below.—AK Actor of War Archaeologist Alum Blended Personal, Professional Interests on Reenacted Battlefields or decades, up and down the Eastern Seaboard, Larry Babits ’69, M.A. ’74 transformed time and again into a stranger he knew intimately: a nameless rear rank private in the First Maryland Regiment, fighting the British for American independence. Nurturing an interest initially sparked while a UMD undergraduate, Babits has taken part in some 200 living history events: shooting competitions and Revolutionary and Civil War reenactments, a hobby that both influenced and was influenced by his work as an archaeologist specializing in American battlefields and sunken military ships. “My work made the details of the reenactments better,” says Babits, now a retired professor of maritime studies at East Carolina University. “You look for patterns in the artifacts, and you can extrapolate from that to reproduce things that enable you to better interpret what you’re doing.” Babits, known for his seminal book “A Devil of a Whipping,” on the critical 1781 Battle of Cowpens in South Carolina, was particularly curious about the daily lives of low-ranking soldiers. For reenactments, Babits’ wife sewed his uniforms, and he carried a historically accurate weapon; his first gun, a flintlock musket, was an original that he bought from the descendants of a Revolutionary War soldier. “He’s like a dog on a bone when he’s researching,” says a friend, former Maryland Historical Society President Burt Kummerow. “He’s done really important stuff for the community that’s interested in that subject matter.” A favorite battle to reenact, Babits says, was Antietam. “We were in the sunken lane, where the Irish Brigade came up over the hill, and you could see their flagstaffs before they came up, and then you could see their bayonets come up, and then you could see the men come up,” he says. “That’s something people hadn’t remarked on in their letters about the battle.” During a reenactment to mark the Battle of Cowpens’ 200th anniversary, Babits took note of an anachronism that might have changed the course of history—someone had turned up with a highly decorated long rifle. When the sun emerged from behind the clouds, its flash on the rifle’s silver was visible even 50 yards away. “That’s one thing you wouldn’t have seen in the Revolution, because it gave away a man’s position.” Babits still participates in uniformed shooting competitions but gave up reenacting in 1995, when his age started to make his portrayal of a low-ranking soldier unrealistic, in his detail-oriented historian’s view. “A lot of reenactors don’t stop, but their bent shoulders, potbellies and gray hair show they are not front-line infantrymen.”—sl Sounds From the Heart Alum’s Device Enables At-Home Tracking of Cardio, Lung Problems Heart disease is the leading cause of death around the world, claiming victims from far-flung villages in Kenya to cities along the American Rust Belt. Soon, a portable, patient-driven device co-created by a UMD graduate could empower millions of people to better track their heart health, wherever they are. SoundHeart, an electronic stethoscope guided by a user interface on a mobile app, enables patients to reliably record heart and lung sounds at home and securely share them with a physician. “We want to reach as many patients as we can, especially those who face barriers to accessing in-person care,” says Akshaya Anand ’19, M.P.S. ’23 (above), chief operating officer of Korion Health (“cor” means “heart” in Latin). This fall, telehealth companies and health systems will be able to purchase the device for their patients to monitor chronic health conditions, collect long-term data and catch changes between visits. SoundHeart also enables early detection of symptoms related to congestive heart failure, valvular disease or asthma. Anand met co-founder Anna Li, a University of Pittsburgh and Carnegie Mellon University M.D./Ph.D. student, at a hackathon in 2021 and was spurred by Li’s experiences with sicker-than-usual patients coming to the emergency room because they couldn’t access regular care during the pandemic. They homed in on the stethoscope after interviewing healthcare providers, and their idea won the $1 million Hult Prize in 2024, beating nearly 10,000 teams of young people from around the world. That funding enabled them to grow their team to five employees, navigate the hurdles of getting medical device clearance from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, and buy materials, equipment and robotic assembly tools for the manufacturing process. After additional clinical trials in the U.S. and abroad, they plan to release the product directly to consumers. “We had a pretty steep learning curve,” says Anand, but she credits UMD resources like Startup Shell and the Dingman Center for Entrepreneurship for mentorship and networking opportunities. “Every day I wake up motivated and excited, working on something to help others in the community. That makes all the difference.”—KS Class Notes Liliana Norkaitis ’25 was appointed to Harford County’s Board of Education less than four years after graduating from the school system, making her one of the state’s youngest public officials. She earned a government and politics degree at UMD in three years and serves as communications director for state House of Delegates District 7. Coby Goodhart ’20 was profiled by People magazine for juggling his full-time work as an engineer with his luxury dog walking business in New York City, Goodhart Dog Co. Kara McGrath ’13, owner of Paste & Rind in Washington, D.C., won the categories of Perfect Plate and Perfect Beverage at the Cheesemonger Invitational, which brings together experts from the U.S. and Europe to compete in cheese trivia, blind taste tests, on-the-spot sensory analyses and salesmanship.  Monica McNutt M.Jour. ’13, New York Knicks radio analyst for ESPN and an NBA, WNBA and college basketball analyst for MSG Networks, called every game of the team’s 2026 championship run. Ann Marie Allison M.A. ’98 wrote and directed the comedy “You’re Dating a Narcissist” starring Marisa Tomei and now available on Apple TV and Prime Video. Inspired by her own experiences in dating, it’s about a psychology professor trying to stop her daughter’s whirlwind engagement from a man whom she believes is trouble. Underexposed Crabby Camaraderie Terps claw into a crab feast on campus in 1983, but that’s all the info we could find about this photo in the university’s archives. Recognize anyone rocking ’80s styles while cracking open shells and cold brews? Do you know what occasion called for the newspaper placemats? Brush off the Old Bay and let us know at terpfeedback@umd.edu, then read the responses in the next issue alongside another snapshot of UMD history.—AK From the Last Issue… A few readers shelled out information about the reptilian race featured in the Spring 2026 photo, which they noted was a Terrapin Derby, common during Homecoming festivities of decades past. Drury Bagwell, former assistant vice president of student affairs, recalled spearheading the idea in the 1970s to encourage engagement across student groups. Bernie Bogdan ’79 thought he recognized classmate Miriam Moriarty ’79 in the pictured 1978 event coaxing the competitors fearlessly—albeit slowly—forward. Parting Shot Wet Nose, Full Hearts The newest addition to the UMD Police Department is a “facility dog” named Sammy. He comes from Canine Companions, a national organization that trains service dogs, and can perform 40 commands, such as “tug” to open drawers or “push” to press a button to open a door with either his nose or paws. Elena Rivello ‘26 pets the 2-year-old Labrador-golden retriever mix as he looks to his handler, Cpl. Bart Brady. Read more about Sammy at go.umd.edu/facilitydog.  Photo by dylan singleton