TERP Fall 2025 The Paths Forward As UMD steps up with a bold $2.5B fundraising campaign, take an interactive jaunt through Terp pride, purpose and progress. pg. 18 Table of Contents News 4 Clark Foundation Invests $51.7M in Engineering 5 UMD Virologist Makes $16M Planned Gift 5 Sweet No. 16 Campus Life 6 Preventing Tragedy With Ingenuity 7 From Bee to UMD 8 Going Green on the Greens 9 The Art of the City 10 Bouncing Back 11 Mckinley’s Climb 11 Sports Briefs Explorations 12 Super Mario Gets New Job: Driving Instructor 13 Virtual Game, Real Learning 13 Going Solo? Your Online Reviews Are More Trusted 14 Just Like Cats and Dogs 15 Don’t Wash Your Chicken (and Other Food Safety Tips) 15 You Changed Doctors. What if Your Medical Records Didn’t? 16 Cold Coverage 17 Effects of a Flash POST-GRAD 36 Alumni Association 38 Stuntman Crashes and Burns—Repeatedly 39 Class Notes 40 A Design Career Takes Off 41 Chief Insector 43 Underexposed 44 Parting Shot Features 18 The Paths Forward As UMD steps up with a bold $2.5B fundraising campaign, take an interactive jaunt through Terp pride, purpose and progress.  By Terp Staff 30 Wild Ambitions for AI An illegal trade in animals is booming worldwide. Now a UMD conservation criminologist is turning to artificial intelligence to snare smugglers and expose their networks. By Jennifer S. Holland M.S. ’98 Online AI Certificate Program Builds a Savvier Workforce More than 32,000 people have registered for a free online program launched in May by the Robert H. Smith School of Business. — Lifesaving Potential for Liver Cancer Patients As global deaths from liver cancer keep rising, a Maryland Robotics Center researcher is developing steerable microcatheters that can deliver chemotherapy straight to a tumor. — Bad Bunny Takes Stage as Academic Inspiration He’s the most popular rapper-singer in the world and will be Super Bowl LX’s halftime performer. A new UMD course suggests Bad Bunny is also a poet, historian and cultural critic. From the President Sometimes all it takes is just a word to open a lifetime of new possibilities. That is what happened four years ago, when I saw a young girl named Zaila Avant-garde correctly spell “murraya” (a type of flowering plant) and become the first African American to win the Scripps National Spelling Bee. I reached out to her online right then and offered a scholarship if she came to the University of Maryland, with no clue what would come next. Fast forward to this fall, and Zaila—who is also a bestselling author and record-setting juggler—is now officially a Terp, studying cell biology and molecular genetics with hopes of one day working for NASA (page 7). She is the type of bright, ambitious and adventurous student who wants to be in College Park and study under our internationally renowned faculty, collaborate with groundbreaking researchers, and take advantage of opportunities and experiences only found at UMD. That’s why, to use another word, we must keep moving “forward.” Starting on page 18, this issue of Terp will take you inside our new $2.5 billion fundraising campaign, Forward: The University of Maryland Campaign for the Fearless. You will learn how we are leaping forward for tomorrow’s trailblazers, for bold and brave solutions and for stronger communities, through our commitments to scholarships, the arts, entrepreneurship, beyond-the-classroom experiences and more. We have launched this campaign because now is the time to capitalize on our momentum. From leading the way in quantum computing and artificial intelligence to increasing literacy for our state’s children, Terps have been achieving new heights in research, discovery, creativity and advancing the public good—all culminating in the historic milestone of reaching our highest-ever U.S. News and World Report rankings, coming in at No. 16 among public institutions (page 5). But for students like Zaila, and all the Terps who will come after her, we cannot be satisfied with the status quo and let this moment pass us by. Let’s show the world the power of another word—“pride”—and make this the start of something truly special. Sincerely, Sincerely, Darryll J. Pines President, University of Maryland Glenn L. Martin Professor of Aerospace Engineering Letters to the Editor Targeting the World’s Most Bloodthirsty Killer Thank you for this thrilling and exciting read. Yay for Burkino Faso! (I was there when it was the Republic of Upper Volta.) I’m so happy that the research has such heavy African scientist participation along with UMD and international funding, despite the fact that USAID no longer exists. Reading about the mathematical modeling made me cry because this was the type of thing my father used to do for the Defense Department, and it was the type of thing my husband did as a geophysicist at Northwestern University. Every single aspect of this research is impressive. —Christine Speed, via terp.umd.edu Buzzwords With Buzz The school, the state of Maryland and all the alums and friends of the University of Maryland are 100% behind you, Coach. All the best this year and the years to follow. —John Langton ’65, Sarasota, Fla. Not Just a Walk in the “Park” Reading about the parkrun brought back a lot of fond memories of College Park. I met my husband Jacob ’13 at the running club, and the rest is history. I had never run much before, but I recently completed my first 100K ultramarathon! —Anna Strauss Schiff ‘14, Los Angeles Housing, Reframed Thank you for highlighting modular homes. Ours was built by North American Modular Homes in 1982. Quite a bit more can be said about their quality for the homeowner, but also for the working conditions of the builders who can work in a temperature-controlled warehouse with all the amenities, as well as a stable location for where to report to work. —Wendy Feaga ‘76, Ellicott City, Md. For Marines’ Historian, It’s Semper Fi on Corps Lore In the Fall 2025 issue on page 41, John Hancock is credited with signing a document in 1975 commissioning Samuel Nicholas as captain of the new Continental Marines. If true, that surely is an achievement. Other than that, I am very impressed with the articles about UMD.  —Barbara Sadowski Ph.D. ’78, Naples, Fla. Editor’s Note: We took some well-deserved ribbing from readers for this typo. We meant to write “1775.” 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 ON THE MALL Clark Foundation Invests $51.7M in Engineering Series of Commitments Adds to Legacy of Giving at UMD The university of maryland has received $51.7 million in new philanthropic investments from its most generous benefactor, the A. James & Alice B. Clark Foundation, to dramatically expand scholarships for promising engineering students and deepen academic collaborations with a network of other top engineering schools. The support is the latest example of the transformational giving of the foundation, which ceased operations in December. In total, the Clark family, Clark Enterprises and Clark Foundation have contributed over $364 million to UMD, including more than $125 million to Forward: The University of Maryland Campaign for the Fearless, the new effort to raise a record $2.5 billion. (See page 18.) “It’s impossible to imagine the University of Maryland, or the landscape of this region, without the Clarks—both the generosity of the Clark family and the Clark Foundation, and the leadership and vision of A. James Clark himself, who was truly one of the great builders and philanthropists of our time,” says UMD President Darryll J. Pines. “These latest investments further strengthen the foundation of educational excellence they have helped construct.” Clark credited a state scholarship with allowing him to afford his education in civil engineering at UMD. After graduating in 1950, he worked to grow Clark Construction into one of the largest firms of its kind in the nation. Remembering his roots, he made a $15 million donation to his alma mater in 1994 to support undergraduate engineering education; the A. James Clark School of Engineering was named in his honor. Following his 2015 passing, the Clark Foundation committed a historic $219.5 million to UMD through its Building Together investment, which funded a sweeping array of need-based scholarships, graduate fellowships, endowed faculty chairs and capital projects. In 2023, a new $20.6 million investment established the Clark School as the permanent home of the Clark Scholars Program Network (left), which supports talented students with financial need at 11 top engineering schools.  The latest series of commitments includes $25 million for Clark Legacy Endowed Scholarships, which provide merit- and need-based scholarships for engineering undergraduates. The Clark Opportunity Transfer Scholars Program, supporting high-achieving engineering students who come to UMD from Maryland community colleges, also received supplementary funding for scholarships. Additionally, the foundation’s investment will bolster the endowment for the university’s Clark Scholars Program and create new funds supporting scholars’ professional development, providing emergency funds and launching a philanthropy challenge, where scholars will annually award a local nonprofit. Further funding will support new and existing CSPN programming. The Clark Foundation has also entrusted UMD with maintaining its legacy website and a designated space in the new Stanley R. Zupnik Hall. “We know that our partners at Maryland will use the investments to take the university to new heights of scholarship, innovation, exploration and excellence,” says Courtney Clark Pastrick, chair of the Clark Foundation’s board and the couple’s daughter.—ak UMD Virologist Makes $16M Planned Gift Seven years ago, Professor Anne Simon (right) suddenly found herself out of funding. After decades of published research, she was between federal grants, and her lab was at risk of shuttering—before she could finish developing a vaccine to save the world’s citrus groves from a deadly disease. Department support helped tide her over. But she still remembers the stress of possibly letting go of the dedicated scientists on her team. “I want to pay it back and keep that from happening to others,” she says. “I want to keep good people here and attract good researchers, especially junior faculty, in these fields that I love.” That’s why the plant virologist (and longtime “The X-Files” scientific adviser) this fall made a $15 million planned gift to the Department of Cell Biology and Molecular Genetics to create two endowed professorships, one in virology and another in ribonucleic acid (RNA) or plant biology, and multiple postdoctoral and graduate fellowships. An additional $1 million will fund the Sondra Simon Memorial Maryland Promise Scholarship, in honor of her mother. “The University of Maryland has been a leader in virology research thanks to faculty members like Anne Simon, and her generous support through this bequest will help us immeasurably to expand our work in this vital area,” says College of Computer, Mathematical, and Natural Sciences Dean Amitabh Varshney. “Our research in virology and related areas is emblematic of our drive to tackle the world’s most pressing grand challenges.” Simon’s support stems from her company, Silvec Biologics, which she created with her brother, Rafael Simon, in 2019 to stop citrus greening disease. This bacterial infection has decimated more than 90% of oranges, grapefruits and other fruits in Florida since 2005 and spread extensively in Asia, the Americas and Africa. While temporary fixes exist, such as injecting medical-grade antibiotics into trees, Simon instead vaccinates them using an RNA virus to deliver antimicrobial peptides; lab testing has been effective and field testing is underway.—KS Sweet No. 16 UMD Hits All-time High in U.S. News Rankings The University of Maryland achieved its highest-ever rankings from U.S. News & World Report in the influential 2026 “Best Colleges” guide, climbing to No. 16 among public schools. It also rose to No. 42 among national universities in the new list—up 22 spots since 2020. The university now has a combined 69 top-25 rankings for its schools, colleges, programs and specialties, according to U.S. News. The record-high rating is based on factors including improved student graduation and retention rates, increased spending on student educational experiences, higher faculty salaries and rising post-graduation student earnings. Preventing Tragedy With Ingenuity Student Entrepreneurs Win $250K in xFoundry Competition to Develop Tech That Detects Guns, Tracks Suspects in Schools When Arnav Dadarya ’26 was a high school senior, someone reported a shooting on campus. He followed the drill, taking cover under a desk and keeping his phone in his pocket as a SWAT team rushed in. It turned out to be a false alarm, but the panic was real. Dadarya’s teachers “had no clue” about what was happening, he recalled. Over three semesters, Dadarya and 11 UMD classmates developed a tool that uses artificial intelligence to detect a gun carried visibly within a school and track the suspect’s movements while school staff and security get automatic alerts. Soon, they will introduce their technology to the real world as cofounders of a startup. In September their group, DefenX, earned $250,000 from the University of Maryland College Park Foundation after winning the inaugural Xperience Competition, an initiative from the UMD-based xFoundry that kick-starts the careers of budding entrepreneurs who develop a tech solution to a societal issue. DefenX’s system uses video cameras, machine learning and a geographical coordinate system to identify weapons and monitor suspects. The students also developed a mental health resources guide for distribution following an incident. “We’ve made this technology as beginning-to-end as possible,” says team member Srinidhi Gubba ’26. The contest included 89 students across more than two dozen disciplines and representing each of UMD’s 12 schools, achieving an xFoundry goal to foster creativity and innovation through collaborations across campus. Their members belong to the first generation of Americans for whom school shootings are an unceasing threat: In the past 25 years, at least 360,000 students have experienced gun violence at school, according to Brady United, a gun control organization. Open to undergraduates and graduate students, the 15-month Xperience Competition requires them to develop an investment-grade product along with a business plan, product strategy and a presentation for investors. An optional three-semester course provides instruction in entrepreneurial concepts like team building, product development and collaboration. Competition entrants are judged by UMD experts and interdisciplinary professionals outside of the university.  Over the next several months, DefenX will refine its product and seek further investment before launching pilot programs in K-12 schools. A second student cohort is underway, working on technologies to address the next Xperience global challenge, centered on mental health. “This program allows every student from every University of Maryland discipline to focus their passion, energy and talent on a solution that takes a major world problem off the board,” says xFoundry founder and CEO Amir Ansari, an engineer with more than 60 patents. “They’re building real, viable products on their own, with no spoon-feeding.”–JT From Bee to UMD Spelling Champ, Basketball Record-Holder Juggles Skills or zaila avant-garde ’29, there’s more than one way to spell success. One way is M-U-R-R-A-Y-A (a kind of tropical tree), which she correctly rattled off as an eighth grader in 2021 to become the first African American to win the Scripps National Spelling Bee. Now, another way is U-M-D. After her groundbreaking victory, scholarship offers poured in, including from University of Maryland President Darryll J. Pines: “We hope you’ll bring your ‘Murraya’ win to Maryland!” he wrote on social media. Four years later, she did, and now she’s a freshman studying cell biology and molecular genetics and honing her other spectacular skills: bestselling book-writing and world-record basketball-juggling. “It was a full-circle moment,” says Avant-garde, who reunited with Pines at the beginning of the academic year. “I’m really interested in coming here and taking my first true scholastic steps toward my career.” The Harvey, La., native was destined to stand out: To honor a John Coltrane jazz album, her dad, Jawara Spacetime (a surname he had changed from Heard), also switched her last name to Avant-garde. In middle school, back when the Scripps bee aired on ESPN, her dad was watching the channel and jokingly quizzed his daughter with some of the competition’s nearly impossible words, like “knaidel,” the winning one from 2013. She nailed it—and nearly every other one he threw at her. That set her on her own path to the bee. And while studying 13,000 words for seven hours a day around her homeschooling, she was keeping several balls in the air— literally. Also a basketball player, she worked on hand-eye coordination from an early age at Jawara’s suggestion: “Imagine if you could dribble two basketballs really well. Doesn’t that mean you’d be better at dribbling one?” he asked her. “And then I was like, ‘Imagine if I could dribble three basketballs, or four or five!’” Avant-garde says. She’s bounced her way to four Guinness World Records, two of which she still holds: most basketballs dribbled simultaneously by one person (six) and most bounce juggles in one minute with four basketballs (255). She’s eyeing more records, and hopes UMD’s Juggling Club can help her add pins and other objects to the mix. That’s not all Avant-garde has spinning: She’s written five children’s books, with another on the way, about the magic of words and being “wonderfully weird.” She wants to one day work for NASA’s Human Research Program and help make life on Mars possible—even if that “makes me sound like an old guy sitting in the corner with a pipe talking crazy,” she says. “She has an amazing attitude toward learning and work, and she’s willing to grind,” says Columbia University neuroscientist Tessa Montague, with whom Avant-garde interned after her bee success. “Being a scientist, as with a lot of careers, requires a lot of grind.”—ak Going Green on the Greens UMD’s Golf Course Doubles as Sustainable Living Classroom Terps trekking across the University of Maryland Golf Course might not just be looking for eagles and birdies beyond the fairways, but in the treetops. The course, which hosts upward of 50,000 rounds of golf per year, also acts as a living classroom. It welcomes classes ranging from entomology to turf management, with Terps studying critters, sampling water and exploring biodiversity. “That’s what we’re continuing to focus on: having environmental, recreational and educational benefits on the golf course,” says Laura Russell, who handles the course’s special projects. “It’s a multitasker.” After a powerful storm surged through College Park in July 2022, uprooting 284 of the course’s trees, employees turned the destruction into an opportunity for growth. They used a university Sustainability Fund grant to add nearly 4,000 seedlings and other plants in the most damaged area, between the 15th and 16th fairways, transforming it into a pollinator meadow. Through birds, blooms and bees, it adds to the many ways the course is sustainably supporting the UMD community. Tee off for a tour.—AK Birdhouses UMD’s chapter of the National Audubon Society installed six birdhouses throughout the new meadow, providing habitats for native species like swallows and bluebirds. The first babies hatched in June, and Terps completed a NestWatch report for inclusion in a national dataset. Bee Boxes To boost pollination, members of UMD’s Bee Campus Committee placed three mason bee boxes in the meadow last spring, with small cardboard tubes and mud for the insects to create their new digs. They’re 95% efficient pollinators—much better than honeybees, Russell says—and typically don’t sting. Native Trees The D.C.-based environmental nonprofit Casey Trees planted 61 saplings, including holly, oak and magnolias, at the course’s entrance and along the fence line in 2024. “Some of it is for safety,” says Russell, as the trunks add an extra barrier between the fairways and Adelphi Road. “Besides that, they’re great at capturing carbon.” Outdoor Classroom Educational signs and benches crafted from trees that fell during the storm make this area, surrounded by the pollinator meadow, a picture-perfect gathering space for classes. It also acted as a checkpoint during the 2025 international BioBlitz species-counting competition, where Terps placed third for the total number identified (353). Watershed The course’s creeks act as a filtration system: Runoff from Adelphi and Metzerott roads leaves the area much cleaner than when it enters. Last spring, an environmental science and technology class took water and soil samples to identify areas where this system could be bolstered, leading to successful watershed restoration near the 16th green and inspiring future projects. The Art of the City Art Professor Depicts Different Sides of Baltimore in New Audiovisual Installation When Shannon Collis moved to Baltimore’s Locust Point neighborhood 12 years ago, she was struck by the peninsula’s panorama of industry: marine terminals dotting the port, freight railways circling rowhomes and the iconic, aromatic Domino Sugar factory towering nearby. The multidisciplinary artist appreciated the contrast between her new city’s grit and the Canadian prairie town in which she grew up. That theme of juxtaposition—urban industry and natural environment—anchors the associate professor of art’s newest installation, depicting Baltimore’s heavily industrial Curtis Bay neighborhood and Masonville Cove, a bucolic wildlife refuge 2 miles away. For a year, Collis and her collaborator, Liz Donadio, captured the pulse of those areas with video cameras and sound recorders, resulting in an immersive audiovisual exhibit set to open in April at the Pikesville Amory in Baltimore County. Funded by an ArtsAMP grant from the university’s Arts for All initiative to support community-impact projects, “Resonant Site” projects moving images onto screens that will hang throughout the 30,000-square-foot space, accompanied by recordings of industrial machinery, trains, water and wind. The videos will portray the divergent landscapes in summer and winter, sometimes from a drone’s aerial view, revealing an ever-changing city. Some of that tension lies in Curtis Bay, known for a coal export terminal that has polluted the community’s air. Through it, Collis explores how industry embeds into daily life. Creating art in her adopted town brings more meaning to Collis’ work. “As you make sense of the world closer to home, you feel invested in its future,” she says.–JT Bouncing Back After Conquering Cancer, Men’s Basketball Transfer Shoots for More Wins on the Court As point guard Myles Rice dribbles to set up plays, the ball isn’t all that’s popping on the court. His fingernails flash with team colors, but he didn’t always add such panache to every pass. Rice, who transferred to Maryland last offseason, frequently had his hair styled in different designs—until it fell out in chemotherapy. “So I was like, ‘Okay, I’m gonna find something else to express my creativity.’” He was diagnosed in 2022 with Hodgkin lymphoma, a cancer that affects the immune system, causing him to miss what would’ve been his redshirt freshman season at Washington State University. Through seven months of grueling treatments, he vowed to return to the court, and now, he’s applying that same grit as a member of new head coach Buzz Williams’ squad. Rated a top-15 prospect in his home state of Georgia, Rice committed to the Cougars and felt strong as a new arrival. When he noticed some swelling in his neck, he got tested as a precaution. But on Sept. 12, after calling his mom to wish her a happy birthday, he had to call back with a much more somber message. “Your mind starts to race. You start thinking of the worst,” Rice says of the diagnosis. “We all leaned on each other to not only assess what the news was, but get through it.” The series of 14 chemo treatments took a toll: He lost not only his hair, but also muscle mass and slept 16 hours a day, with virtually no energy to eat or shower. Throughout the struggles, he still traveled with his team whenever he could, sneaking in shots here and there. It all proved worth it: As Rice rang the treatment center’s bell after finishing chemo in March 2023, he also rang in a major winning year. “I threw myself into the deep end” to catch up with conditioning, he recalls, resulting in a Pac-12 Freshman of the Year performance just over a year after his diagnosis. “It was only the beginning,” he says. “I knew there was a lot more work to be done—not just athletically, but academically and in life.” After a year at Indiana, Rice joined UMD, drawn by Williams’ coaching style and family- like culture. As he helps lead his new Terp team, Rice’s red, white, black and gold nails are a bright reminder of where he’s been. “He is a person who exemplifies positivity and making an impact on others,” Williams says. “His story thus far in college will eventually become a book.”—AK Mckinley’s Climb Wrestler Trains With Men While Dominating Women in Independent Tournaments In the “fireman’s carry,” a wrestler hoists an opponent over their shoulders before flipping them to the mat. It sounds like a move favored by mountainous pros like the Rock or the Big Show, but it’s also the favorite of a freckle-faced 5’5” Terp who stands among the nation’s best female collegiate grapplers. Then-freshman Mckinley Jovanovic won last year’s National Collegiate Wrestling Association (NCWA) Mideast regional tournament in the women’s 131-pound weight class—a first for a UMD woman in any class—and finished fifth in nationals to net All-American honors. The Silver Spring, Md., native, who enrolled at UMD as the state’s top female wrestler in her weight division, has grappled with challenges off the mat, too: Women’s wrestling at the NCAA Division I level is a rarity—just six schools have teams—and Jovanovic is one of two women on UMD’s club team. After training with men all week, she enters independent women’s tournaments during weekends, when she can find them, and pays her own travel costs. The NCWA oversees female competitions only during the postseason tournament. Jovanovic sees parallels between her athletic pursuits and her studies as a triple major in history, education and public policy; she gravitates toward U.S. history classes that celebrate unsung women who overcame 20th century adversity. The 20-year-old hopes to finish No. 1 in her NCWA weight class this March, then try out for USA Wrestling’s under-23 women’s team, the first step to qualifying for the national squad that can enter the world tournament and Olympic trials. Despite the sport’s sometimes-bruising physicality, she says it’s the mental aspect that’s bred success: “The best thing about wrestling is that you can be down nine points and still come back to win if you keep persisting.”–JT Olympics’ Teen Track Star Signs With UMD 2024 Olympic gold medalist and under-18 400-meter world record holder Quincy Wilson has signed with UMD’s track and field program. Wilson, a senior at the Bullis School in Potomac, Md., says that being close to home—and his mom’s cooking—played a big role in his decision in November.  “I started my legacy in 2024 at the Summer Olympic Games, and I had the whole city behind me,” he says. “With 2028 coming, I want the whole city behind me. And I’m ready to do it at the University of Maryland.” Wilson adds that he looks forward to training under UMD head coach Andrew Valmon, who still owns the 4x400 world record set at the 1993 World Championships and won gold medals in the 1988 and 1992 Games. At the Summer Games in Paris, Wilson became the youngest track and field male Olympian in U.S. history when he was a 16-year-old member of the 4x400 meter relay pool. Historic Season for Men’s Soccer After completing an undefeated regular season with a No. 1 national ranking and a Big Ten title, the Maryland men’s soccer team ended the year with a run to the Elite Eight in the NCAA Tournament. The conference title, clinched with a 4-3 victory over Michigan State, was Maryland’s 50th across all sports since joining the Big Ten in 2014. Standout performances from six First Team All-Big Ten honorees, a men’s soccer program record, fueled the Terps’ success. The team suffered its first loss, 3-1, to No. 3 Washington, on Dec. 6. “They brought the Maryland style, the Maryland culture and the Maryland pride back into our program,” head coach Sasho Cirovski says of his team. “I’m so grateful for the season we’ve had.” Super Mario Gets New Job: Driving Instructor Engineers Use AI on Popular Video Game to Improve Autonomous Vehicles ollowing last year’s release of Mario Kart World alongside the Nintendo Switch 2, the video game sold nearly 6 million units in two months, the franchise’s most successful launch yet. Now UMD engineering researchers are using the mustachioed cartoon plumber who races a cart around a track as a model for—wait for it—responsible driving. Funded by the U.S. Naval Air Warfare Center Aircraft Division, the researchers are using artificial intelligence (AI) to train a computer to “play” Mario Kart on its own—in this case, the inaugural 1992 Super Nintendo version—circling the track as fast as possible while hewing to actual laws of physics and, most importantly, avoiding risk. Eventually, the UMD team hopes to provide regulators with a roadmap to certify AI technologies in autonomous vehicle fleets that are increasingly popping up in cities across the U.S. and around the world. The research is led by aerospace engineering Associate Professor Mumu Xu, who studies federal safety certification for planes and cars. She recently became interested in the disconnect between long-established vehicle safety norms and the wildly complex algorithms used in autonomous cars and trucks, making it almost impossible for engineers to fully understand the systems’ driving and safety decisions. “With AI, all the old mathematics we use to show that a system is safe no longer hold because no one knows what’s under the hood,” Xu says. So Xu and her colleagues sought out a meeting point between humans and machines that everyone could understand—and it happened to wear a bushy mustache. In a study published last spring in IEEE Xplore, they demonstrated how Mario Kart can be used to teach an autonomous simulator to avoid collisions through an AI method called deep reinforcement learning. The 33-year-old Super Mario Kart, with its pixelated landscapes and A-B-A-B button-pushing combos, pales in comparison to the lavish 3D graphics and gyroscopic controllers of today’s version, but its codes are simpler and available to the public. When Xu’s team reconfigured them so a computer could take the wheel, it added a reward system that offered points for whizzing past checkpoints and subtracted them for spinouts and slowdowns. The computer then raced Mario around the track millions of times. At first, Xu says, it “drove stupidly,” hopping up and down and bouncing into walls. But eventually it learned to zip through the course without a dent. The researchers’ next goal is to ensure that Mario’s maneuvers are mathematically feasible: Can he really carve a turn at 40 mph without running off the road, for example? Those answers will help fine-tune their algorithms in a second Navy-funded study. The research applies not just to self-driving vehicles but to any consumer product relying on algorithmic software, Xu says. “For anything that uses AI, whether it’s a medical device or a gadget like Amazon Echo, we hope that their algorithms are safe,” she says. “This is our attempt to figure that out.”—jt Virtual Game, Real Learning VR Reading Adventure Improves Skills for Dyslexic Youth Dyslexia isn’t just frustrating for children struggling to decipher squiggles as letters. At schools that can’t support students one-on-one, it can be costly for parents who turn to private reading tutors. A new virtual reality game led by Terps offers an alternative, helping kids to learn letters, build words, and connect sight and sound as they race through obstacles in a fantasy world—while still in their classrooms. IRIS Reads, co-developed by education Associate Professor Donald J. Bolger, linguistics Professor Juan Uriagereka and physics Professor Drew Baden and helmed by CEO Anne-Laurence Nemorin ’20, has students ages 8-13 travel to Antarctica, the Great Wall of China and the pyramids of Giza to chase time bandits who have stolen historic objects. Through each level, students might “grab” different letters out of the air to create words or “slice and dice” words into different syllables (à la Fruit Ninja) to gain confidence in reading. Using a VR headset removes distractions, especially welcome for dyslexic kids who also struggle with attention and auditory or visual processing, says Bolger, who investigates the neurocognitive underpinnings of language development and reading. “Your whole body is engaged,” he says. “These are fundamental skills, but it’s also really fun.” The game has been tested in schools around the D.C. metro area that specialize in dyslexia. Students have demonstrated a 13-22% increase in standard reading scores after playing regularly in class. The team plans to launch it this summer for home and classroom use.—KS Going Solo? Your Online Reviews Are More Trusted Study: Tripadvisor Readers See Lone Consumers as Invested in Activities The most trusted reviewers of a leisure experience—like a visit to an art gallery, museum, movie theater or zoo—are people who go it alone. “People think that someone who does stuff alone must really be interested in or knowledgeable about that activity,” says Rebecca Ratner, Dean’s Professor of Marketing, who published a paper on the finding in the Journal of Marketing Research. But if they went with a friend, she found, it could be just because they wanted to do something outside on a nice day. Ratner for the past decade has studied people’s reluctance to do activities alone, finding that they often enjoy themselves more than they expected. For this latest research, she and co-author Yuechen Wu Ph.D. ’19, an assistant professor at Oklahoma State, examined reviews from Tripadvisor that revealed if consumers were alone or with others. Other Tripadvisor users gave more “likes” by clicking a thumbs-up button to reviews and recommendations from people who did something alone—results the researchers validated through lab experiments. Ratner hopes more people take a cue from other solo consumers that they can get out there sans companion: “Don’t let it stop you if you don’t happen to have a friend or a partner or a child to go with you that day. Live your life and do the things that you think would be fun.”—Carrie Handwerker Just Like Cats and Dogs Wild Predators Navigate the World Similarly to Domesticated Cousins, Study Finds The next time you watch your dog sniff around the same places in your yard or notice your cat explore a new area every time it ventures outside, consider this: You might be witnessing ancient evolutionary strategies in action. A recent UMD-led study in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences reveals that wild canids—wolves, foxes, coyotes and others—consistently create and stick to specific travel routes within their territories. But their distant carnivore cousins in the cat family—like bobcats, lions and leopards—tend to roam more freely, relying less strongly on favored routes.  The study, conducted with 177 collaborators worldwide, used GPS collar data to track the movement of 1,239 individual carnivores from 34 species across six continents over the past decade. The largest-ever comparative study of carnivore movement ecology, the project was funded by the U.S. National Science Foundation and German science agencies. “We found that carnivore species use space in fundamentally different ways,” says lead scientist William Fagan, a Distinguished University Professor of biology at UMD. “It looks like these different navigation strategies have developed over millions of years since dogs and cats last shared a common ancestor.”  The findings challenge scientists’ traditional understanding that predators moved randomly throughout their territories, an assumption so widespread that it was baked into standard mathematical models. However, the new findings show that many carnivores create invisible “highway” systems that they use to move around their home ranges, perhaps thanks in part to dogs’ powerful sense of smell. “Canids possess superior olfactory abilities compared to felids, potentially helping them establish and remember preferred travel routes,” Fagan says. The magnitude and consistency of differences between the two predator groups are striking given the large, varied dataset, says senior author Justin M. Calabrese, head of the Earth System Science research group at Center for Advanced Systems Understanding in Germany and an adjunct professor at UMD.  Intriguingly, the differences between canids and felids actually became stronger when the researchers restricted their analyses to nine shared landscapes where they could be studied together, removing the influence of variation in vegetation type, human “footprints” and other factors. The findings have many implications for improving wildlife conservation and management practices, such as predicting human-wildlife encounters and organizing conservation areas to protect endangered species from threats including poaching, Fagan says. “The project demonstrated how modern GPS technology and sophisticated analysis methods developed by our research group can reveal fascinating hidden aspects of animal behavior that were impossible to study just a short time ago,” he says.—georgia jiang  Ask the Expert: Don’t Wash Your Chicken (and Other Food Safety Tips) Picture your favorite meal. Maybe it’s your mom’s comforting congee, pot of creamy fettucine Alfredo or a platter of richly spiced doro wat. But imagine the cook forgot to rinse the veggies. Or came from the Metro with only a cursory hand wash. “Do you want to take the risk and eat it?” asks UMD Extension family and consumer sciences Senior Agent Shauna Henley. She works to reduce those risks across the state, from leading a cooking club for elementary school students in Baltimore to training farmers about produce safety, to teaching canning and food preservation to consumers. Here are her tips: Wash your hands on repeat Don’t stop with one soapy scrub before your meal prep, says Henley. Make sure you wash throughout. For example, “we’re touching our phones, our tablets to scroll for recipes,” and those devices are covered in germs. But not your chicken Use a paper towel to get the slime off your poultry—don’t run it under the tap. “You can get an aerosolized spray of bacteria” like salmonella or campylobacter, she says, which can cause diarrhea and vomiting. Use a food thermometer “People only pull it out for Thanksgiving, but you should use it anytime you’re cooking proteins or even heating leftovers,” Henley says. Know the safe internal minimum temperatures, especially for items like pork and poultry that must be fully cooked. Quickly store and consume leftovers Don’t let dishes languish more than two hours before getting them into the refrigerator, because bacteria can grow rapidly. If you have a party, portion items into smaller bowls and swap them out regularly. And eat or freeze leftovers within four days.—KS You Changed Doctors. What if Your Medical Records Didn’t? Whether it involves a stack of paper or yet another internet portal, cue the déjà vu while answering the same medical history questions for seemingly the hundredth time for a new doctor. Beyond the time suck, what does starting every medical relationship as essentially a blank slate to your provider mean for your health? With support from a $1.4 million National Institutes of Health grant, Nate Apathy, assistant professor of health policy and management at UMD, is working with A. Jay Holmgren of the University of California, San Francisco School of Medicine to find out. They’re using machine learning and artificial intelligence tools to examine patients’ electronic health records and determine how doctors’ decision-making is shaped by seeing either limited data or “outside” data” (transferred from other medical offices), and how that affects patients. “When health data travels seamlessly between institutions, there is immense promise to drive down health care costs and reduce health care use and duplicative paperwork, all of which can improve patient health and satisfaction,” Apathy says. “We hope this research and the open-source tools we will create from it will contribute to improved decision-making and health outcomes.” —Fid Thompson Cold Coverage Scientist Examines Sea Ice Via Satellite, Plane and Snowmobile The best snack to bring on an Arctic mission, Associate Professor Sinead Farrell declares, is chocolate. A banana or sandwich will be as chewable as a backyard paver after a few miles on a snowmobile. That bar, however, will melt right in your mouth, even if it’s 5 degrees Fahrenheit outside. That’s the kind of surprising tidbit Farrell has learned over nearly a dozen trips to the North and South poles for research on sea ice. A faculty member in the departments of Geographical Sciences and Atmospheric and Oceanic Science, she has used remote sensing to determine long-term changes and year-over-year fluctuations in ice cover for nearly two decades. To validate satellite data, her team takes measurements from aircraft and on the ground. In December, she authored part of the annual Arctic Report Card, which found that sea ice cover in March 2025 was the smallest winter maximum recorded in 47 years, 8% lower than the long-term average. She explains why sea ice is so important, how she once saw five sunsets in one day and why she only uses mechanical pencils in the field.—KS Why does the Earth need sea ice? It regulates the global temperature and helps keep the planet cool, which is what we all need to survive. If less of the Arctic Ocean is insulated with ice, this allows more heat from the sun to be absorbed by the ocean each summer, which melts more sea ice, exposing more of the ocean and so on. It’s also important for biodiversity. The marine food web depends on it, everything from birds to seals to orca. People also use it for transportation between villages and hunting. Why do we need to know how it fluctuates? Many livelihoods depend on knowledge of conditions. Summer is the busiest time in the Arctic for tourists, wildlife and industry. For example, the Bering Sea is the crab and lobster fishery capital of the world, and the shipping trade in the polar regions is growing rapidly. How do you survey by plane? The majority of my field research has been on NASA aircraft, over places like Greenland and Alaska. I’ve also flown from southern Chile over Antarctica and back. We use lots of instruments to take infrared, visible and radar measurements to get a much more complete picture of the total thickness of the snow and ice. From a satellite image, taken from 600 kilometers away (roughly the distance from D.C. to Boston), there’s no context: Is this long ice ridge 1 foot tall? Five feet tall? We’re using new techniques to measure the ice from space to get a handle on the volume of ice not just the area; if you lose area but thicken the ice so it’s more dense, that could be harder to melt. But if there’s less area and it’s thinner, it will melt quicker. Over the 14-hour flight, we crossed multiple time zones, so the sun set again and again as we crossed time zones. It was really fascinating! What is it like to step onto the ice? It’s truly magical, so stark, blue and white. It’s a completely quiet environment—so quiet it allows you to hear the ice cracking beneath your feet. It’s sensory deprivation, almost. The conditions are quite hazardous, even in the summer. The cold weather wreaks havoc with our normal experimental approach, from instruments not working because batteries are dead to your pen freezing, so I bring mechanical pencils. Why work with Indigenous communities? At Maryland, we’re trying to improve the collaboration with local communities, because they’re the most knowledgeable about the ice, the current conditions and placing that in the context of the past. And a lot of the work we do directly impacts their livelihood, so we want to connect our measurements with the need on the ground. The very first time I ever went out on sea ice, near Utqiagvik, Alaska, I was only there for five minutes before a polar bear was sighted. We always travel with a bear guard because they’re dangerous animals and very inquisitive—they often cross paths with our field campaigns and sometimes even take the instruments apart. While driving the snow machine, our Indigenous guide saw the bear, a quarter of a mile away, without using binoculars. Effects of a Flash Study: Lightning Creates, and Eliminates, Pollution “All-natural” is often used as a synonym for “pure,” but nature’s fury can get pretty dirty—think volcanoes. Recent UMD research shows how even lightning can release the same pollution—nitrogen oxide—as your car when it’s idling in traffic. For the first time, scientists from the University of Maryland were able to detect lightning’s impact on air quality using high-frequency satellite observations that revealed how storms produce both pollution and other critical chemicals that help cleanse Earth’s atmosphere. Over the course of a few days last summer, atmospheric and oceanic science Research Professor Kenneth Pickering and Associate Research Scientist Dale Allen used data from NASA’s orbiting TEMPO instrument to monitor the evolution of Eastern U.S. thunderstorms, with readings taken at 10-minute intervals. A lightning flash’s extremely hot temperatures break apart nitrogen and oxygen molecules, resulting in up to 15% of all nitrogen oxides released into the atmosphere, contributing to ozone pollution that can trigger asthma and other respiratory conditions.  “Human pollution is much greater, but what’s important to consider is that lightning releases nitrogen oxides at much higher altitudes, where it can be more efficient at catalyzing the production of ozone,” Pickering says. Luckily, lightning doesn’t just create pollution—it also triggers the formation of hydroxyl radicals, important molecules that help clean Earth’s atmosphere by breaking down gases like methane, an important contributor to global warming and ozone pollution. Feature: The Paths Forward As UMD steps up with a bold $2.5B fundraising campaign, take an interactive jaunt through Terp pride, purpose and progress. By Terp Staff Terps sometimes like to say that terrapins can only move in one direction: forward. Determined. Dauntless. Driven. But what if they strapped on rocket packs? That’s how it feels at the University of Maryland, where we’re increasing our momentum like never before. In the past year, we’ve achieved our best-ever U.S. News & World Report rankings. Notched a new high in research and development spending. Racked up the largest number of freshmen applications and the most competitive class of incoming students. We’ve never been afraid to think big. Never shied away from big moves, powerful actions or doing what’s right rather than what’s easy. Now we’re launching Forward: The University of Maryland Campaign for the Fearless, an audacious bid to raise a record $2.5 billion. We’re in pursuit of unprecedented transformation to advance new discoveries and knowledge, and to change life and lives—on this campus and throughout the state, nation and world. On the following pages, come along on a journey that’s both local and global, soaring with ambition and down to earth, and see how this campaign’s 12 universitywide fundraising priorities will prepare a new generation of Terps to tackle the challenges that face us all. FORWARD FOR TOMORROW’S TRAILBLAZERS UMD is expanding access to a world-class education, enhancing Terps’ academic and personal growth, and preparing them for careers in a quickly evolving job market. Fundraising Priority One Scholarships and Graduate Fellowships To become a top 10 public university, UMD needs to recruit and enroll the nation’s best applicants. Donor-funded scholarships and graduate fellowships not only make Maryland more appealing than ever, they also swing open the doors to a Maryland education for students with financial need. The Mighty Sound of Support // If Ken Isman ’86 was using one part of his brain while at UMD to learn about suppressing or controlling fires, the other was to get Terps fired up. The fire protection engineering major happily spent his free time on campus playing the tuba in the marching and pep bands, along with the jazz band. But a doubling of his expenses senior year threatened to silence Isman’s twin interests. No longer able to get by on his $500-per-semester band scholarship, Isman applied for, but didn’t receive, the few need-based engineering scholarships available back then. He was bracing to drop out so he could earn enough money to finish his degree later. That’s when then-Director of Bands John Wakefield learned of Isman’s plight and doubled his music scholarship. “It made the difference in my ability to stay in school,” Isman says. “I owe everything in my career to that degree.” Isman worked for the National Fire Sprinkler Association for 28 years, then returned to the A. James Clark School of Engineering as a clinical professor for a decade. He never forgot his gratitude for that scholarship, though: He and his wife, Joan, have established an endowment to support Maryland bands—whose purchases have included new tubas—and created need-based scholarships for students in fire protection engineering. “I want to see that industry succeed, so we need to get more people into the program, and hopefully scholarships are a major encouragement,” he says. Fundraising Priority Two Beyond-the-Classroom Experiences Our students aren’t just joining a hypercompetitive workforce. They’re defining it. Terps should have the opportunity to level up their learning through action-oriented experiences to make an impact as interns, advocates and researchers now. A Commanders Performance // Instead of sitting in a cubicle or making coffee runs, Vinay Kumar ’26 got to call Northwest Stadium his office last fall. As an intern for the Washington Commanders, he enjoyed the full behind-the-scenes gameday experience, assisting with fan traffic flow, answering questions from season ticket holders and even scoring some swag. He’s a member of the second cohort of the Stephen M. Schanwald Sports Management Program, endowed as part of an $18 million gift from the 1977 graduate and trailblazing marketing executive. “It’s really given me that foot in the door in sports,” Kumar says. Follow Kumar on a day in the life, gameday edition, by scanning the QR code at right. Fundraising Priority Three Leadership Programs To prepare Terps to step up and stand out, we’re reimagining how we educate and inspire across every discipline. Teaching and learning in leadership programs cultivate the next generation of changemakers by encouraging critical thinking and creative problem-solving. What’s the best leadership advice you’ve received in your career? Tell us about it at terpfeedback@umd.edu, and we’ll publish a selection of responses in Maryland Today near Commencement to inspire our newest graduates. Fundraising Priority Four The Entrepreneurship Ecosystem Through classes, programs, clubs, consulting groups, makerspaces, hackathons, accelerators, internships, mentors, pitch competitions and more (whew!), UMD supercharges student startups, equipping Terps with skills, resources and expert mentors on the road to success. Terps created some of the brands you use every day, whether you’re going online or going to lunch: // Axios // Beyond Meat // Cava // Epic Games // Google (that’s a given!) // Sirius XM // SquareSpace // Under Armour Streetwear Savvy // One of the hottest tickets during the 2025 men’s basketball team’s NCAA tournament run was a tee, and it was designed by a Terp. Marketing major Milan Chaudhary ’26, founder and CEO of Brown Boy Nation, produced the wildly popular “Crab 5” shirt celebrating the starting lineup. Now he’s inking deals with stars on the court, the big screen and beyond. His custom streetwear company has signed nearly 100 clients across the U.S. since 2023; legendary actor Robert De Niro, basketball great LeBron James’ son Bryce and renowned stylist Zerina Akers have appeared in his apparel. Last fall, Chaudhary became licensed with Maryland Athletics to support Terp teams’ name, image and likeness deals. He credits UMD experts with offering guidance to help his young business grow. “A lot of professors here at the Smith School have made themselves available because they really, truly believe in entrepreneurs,” he says. “Without them, I don’t think I would be as successful.” Scan the QR code to read more about Chaudhary and see some of his top tees. // UMD was ranked No. 7 among all U.S. universities for undergraduate entrepreneurship studies by The Princeton Review and Entrepreneur magazine for 2026—Maryland’s 11th straight year in the top 10. The university also ranked No. 15 overall for graduate studies in entrepreneurship. FORWARD FOR BOLD AND BRAVE SOLUTIONS UMD is making real progress for real people by pushing frontiers in emerging fields, making groundbreaking discoveries and spinning out innovations that tackle our world’s most pressing problems. Fundraising Priority Five Artificial Intelligence UMD is harnessing artificial intelligence (AI) to boost human potential, promoting its trustworthy and responsible use throughout society. We’re preparing students from all majors to thrive in an AI-integrated workforce. The university’s hub for AI collaboration is the Artificial Intelligence Interdisciplinary Institute at Maryland (AIM). With donor support, AIM can continue to develop new AI majors, minors, certificates and graduate degrees and expand a research seed award program to steer this revolutionary field for the benefit of all. AI as a Lifeline // In a natural disaster or a terrorist attack, human rescuers might be unable to promptly reach the trapped and injured. Maryland robotics and AI experts are developing airborne drones and ground-based bots like RoboScout that could locate and even provide aid to a victim. RoboScout can measure vitals, provide an audio link to a human rescuer and converse directly using a non-scripted speech system based on generative AI. Such robots working the wreckage could boost the capabilities of first responders, helping them provide speedy critical care to those who need it most. To see the RoboScout in action, scan the QR code at above left. // Top 10 public university in AI programs U.S. News & World Report // Top 5 Ph.D. producer of AI degrees National Bureau of Economic Research // No. 3 producer of AI publications csrankings.org Fundraising Priority Six The Capital of Quantum Long a leader in quantum science, UMD is accelerating a statewide effort to amp up discovery and economic growth in a field that holds the potential to revolutionize education, health care and commerce. The beating heart of the Capital of Quantum is the research underway in campus landmarks like the Physical Sciences Complex, the IDEA Factory and the Brendan Iribe Center for Computer Science and Engineering. Here, our faculty and students continually lay the groundwork for a growing ecosystem of quantum startups and innovation that extend from UMD’s Discovery District to the entire region. Follow the QR code to learn more about UMD’s quantum facilities with an interactive version of this map. Fundraising Priority Seven Literacy Frederick Douglass wrote back in 1845, “Once you learn to read, you’ll be forever free.” That rings true today: Children who reach adulthood without knowing how to read or write are at risk of being unable to find a job, access health care or even vote. Through the Maryland Initiative for Literacy and Equity (MILE), UMD faculty have partnered with school districts across the state to create research-based teacher training and instructional strategies, professional development opportunities, and new tools to engage families and communities with the goal of boosting students’ reading scores. One example is researchers’ work with nonprofits including Open Source Phonics and Reading University, which offer free materials and activities for the classroom and home. Novice readers must learn 29 high-frequency words by heart that don’t follow traditional phonics rules and have unique, irregular spelling and pronunciations. Think what, said and you. Can you find the “heart words” in this quiz, adapted from the organizations’ websites? Fundraising Priority Eight Grand Challenges Grants Creative solutions to the state’s and world’s most vexing problems require unconventional approaches. That’s the impetus for UMD’s Grand Challenges Grants program, an unprecedented $30 million investment in 50 projects that emphasizes cross-campus collaborations. Initiatives funded in its 2023 launch have made important strides to protect our planet, build healthier communities, strengthen data security and online privacy and much more. Financial support can keep their work going and fuel additional funding. By the Numbers 450 Partnerships $55 M in additional external funding secured 100% Maryland counties benefited 6,500 students involved 63K Stakeholders engaged FORWARD FOR STRONGER COMMUNITIES Terps coming together ignite powerful reactions, whether deepening connections, amplifying excellence or uniting to do good on our campus and around the globe. Fundraising Priority Nine Do Good Campus As the nation’s first Do Good campus, UMD catalyzes a culture of social innovation and philanthropy. We’re growing our lineup of courses and adding more training and unique experiences that propel chance takers and difference makers to change the world now. The Do Good Rings outside Thurgood Marshall Hall feature recordings of powerful quotes from Terps who’ve turned ideas into impact: “We started with grilled cheese fundraisers. Now we’re building schools across Honduras.” —Ava Matino ’24, M.P.P ’25, Students Helping Honduras “By partnering with D.C. cemeteries, we save 7 million gallons of water annually.” —Kahlil Kettering MPM ’15, the Nature Conservancy “We’ve provided recycled medication to over 600,000 individuals.” —Matthew Hollister ’18, James Hollister Wellness Foundation “We’ve raised over $6 million for the patients at Children’s National Hospital.” —Sashwat Venkatesh ’24, Terp Thon “We have rescued 7 million pounds of food from going to waste.” —Evan Lutz ’14, Hungry Harvest Questions to Get You Moving What’s your wildest dream for a thriving world? How can you use your skills to do good? What small action could you take today for a better tomorrow? Fundraising Priority Ten Civic Engagement UMD’s initiatives in K-12 classrooms, across higher education and beyond prepare the next generation of voters to participate in the democratic process and create a more just society for all. Sleuths for Truths // The flood of information coming from your phone and laptop can be relentless—and it’s hard to parse what’s real and what’s not as you scroll through attention-grabbing headlines and flashy graphics. Now imagine being 13 and trying to navigate this chronic chaos. “Students aren’t very good at evaluating information online … but that’s where they are turning for news,” says Associate Professor Sarah McGrew, a misinformation expert. That’s why she works with social studies teachers in middle and high schools. “If we teach strategies explicitly to help students find credible information and identify misinformation, we help them make better decisions.” Her work is part of a broader push across UMD to promote civic education and engagement through the Maryland Democracy Initiative, which has been supported by more than $6 million in gifts from Marsha ’64 and Henry Laufer. Does the made-up social media graphic at right seem credible? Follow the QR code to get McGrew’s tips on how to pick out what’s real and what’s not. Fundraising Priority Eleven Arts for All Our ambitious campuswide initiative bridges the arts, tech and sciences to spark important conversations, expand understanding and kick-start action. Immersive programs, pop-up performances and other arts explorations fire our imagination and reveal our shared humanity. A Tuxedo for Testudo // Testudo brings the hype to every Terps game, tailgate or campus event. Now, he’s ready to bring high style. In the fall, he debuted a tuxedo, complete with a plush red jacket, subtle diamond-patterned lining and Maryland flag pocket square, designed by Bailey Hammett-Colwell M.F.A. ’25 and created by Costume Shop staffers at The Clarice. It’s the first outfit custom-made for Testudo, though Athletics has bought him off-the-shelf items like a yellow rain jacket and pink blazer. More attire is coming, including a lab coat designed by Katie Glenn M.F.A. ’27, a painter’s smock and giant pom-poms. The project was funded by Arts for All, led by Professor Craig Kier. “By elevating the arts in a really visible way, people can understand how it creates joy, or helps us consider really complicated topics.” Flip to the inside back cover for a Testudo paper doll and three of his outfits. Fundraising Priority Twelve Terrapin Pride We rev up Terrapin pride by supporting student-athletes in the game and in the classroom and by rallying alums through the Alumni Association’s donor-funded programs that merge passion and purpose. The Forward campaign will elevate UMD’s championship culture and empower young people to realize their full potential by supporting scholarships and career development programs and allowing Maryland Athletics to thrive in the revenue-sharing era. From NCAA championships to field-storming, feel-good wins, Terp teams have delivered plenty of moments that make Maryland spirit soar. Think you can identify some of the most special ones from just a snapshot? Find the answers on the right side of the page. The Next Steps Want to be part of the journey Forward at Maryland? Just scan this QR code. Feature: Wild Ambitions for AI An illegal trade in animals is booming worldwide. Now, a UMD conservation criminologist is turning to artificial intelligence to snare smugglers and expose their networks. By Jennifer S. Holland M.S. ’98 eredith Gore was eight-and-a-half months pregnant when a federal agent called with an unexpected request: Could she take in 900 other babies—the kind with shells? Customs agents at the Canada-Michigan border had just caught a man with “irregularly shaped bulges” in his sweatpants trying to smuggle what would amount to a small fortune in young terrapins to sell as illegal pets. Most were stuffed in cereal boxes in his luggage, but some were taped to his legs and groin. “Just no. I’m a social scientist. I’m a dog person. I wouldn’t know what to do with 900 turtles,” Gore told the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service agent. But she had cared for confiscated reptiles at the authorities’ request before, so the then-Michigan State professor and expert on the illegal wildlife trade finally agreed to foster a solitary African spur tortoise that would serve as evidence to finally convict the smuggler. The incident represented just one thread pulled out of the vast fabric of the global illegal wildlife trade, with an estimated annual U.S. value exceeding $1 billion; the worldwide total is anyone’s guess, Gore says. For every obvious criminal like the man with turtles in his pants, perhaps 100 more-creative ones slip through—hummingbirds nestled inside wigs, scorpions labeled as chocolates, seahorses buried in boxes of chili peppers, even iguanas stuffed into a prosthetic leg. “We do a terrible job reducing the scope and scale of the illegal trade with seizures,” says Gore, today a human-focused geographer at the University of Maryland. One hurdle is the ceaseless demand for animals in traditional medicines and dishes in various cultures and their diaspora communities. Others are inconsistent data collection and reporting, and the herculean nature of organizing international law enforcement operations. The environmental and social costs of this illicit trafficking are extreme: habitat destruction, loss of species, damage to human communities reliant on healthy ecosystems, even the potential spread of diseases and pandemics. “This is a massive driver of accelerating biodiversity loss on our planet—one that’s basically hidden,” Gore says. But the environmental law enforcement challenges that seemed nearly insurmountable before look less so today, as artificial intelligence (AI) continues to grow in sophistication. The advanced computing methods can sift through vast piles of information, quickly find subtle connections that human researchers might be slow to spot—or never see—and suggest new approaches to solving some of the world’s greatest challenges. Gore is collaborating with computer science experts at the University of Southern California (USC) to use machine learning and AI to leverage the “big data” available from airport crime and travel records. While the information can be gap-toothed, the team sees potential and has begun to demonstrate how the system could identify hotspots or smuggling routes, giving traffickers a run for their illegally gotten money in a kind of futuristic “CSI: Wildlife.” Gore grew up chasing snakes and finding injured birds to nurse in the Central Massachusetts woods with her dog, Abby, at her heels. She became a scientist to help solve problems for wildlife, but today it’s the motivations of people that move her the most. As a student intern tasked with filing at the nonprofit Defenders of Wildlife, she discovered studies on human behaviors relating to wildlife conservation and wondered, “Why aren’t decision makers using the social science data in these studies? I wanted to change that,” she recalls. Later, while studying human-black bear interactions for her doctorate, she became frustrated by people’s continual feeding of the animals despite clear evidence—and laws—against it. She began seeing how criminology could be the teeth of her wildlife work. “In a way, I’m an ‘anti-disciplinary’ scientist, meaning I’m not one thing or the other,” she says. “I work in the spaces in between.” Helping to develop and then run the Conservation Criminology program at Michigan State solidified Gore’s devotion to that in-between. Then, after more than a decade building a scientific understanding of wildlife crime, she brought her layered expertise to UMD’s geographical sciences department, where she continues to lead multidisciplinary projects studying the social drivers of global environmental change and seeking solutions. Gore is no deskbound scientist: She’ll sit on a wooden crate under a tree in Cameroon with villagers as they draw maps showing where scaly anteaters called pangolins are poached, or squat on a dock in Mexico talking to fishermen about incentives to protect sea cucumbers from illegal fishing. She’s interviewed rhino guards about their perceptions of crime prevention from the back of a pickup truck in Zambia and led focus groups about local poaching methods with park managers in fire towers overlooking vast forests in Vietnam. Her students are similarly hands-on, whether researching wildlife poaching in Namibia, tiger trafficking in Indonesia, illegal logging in Madagascar or overfishing in Brazil’s Pantanal wetland. Time and again, she’s seen the “why” of illegal wildlife trade. It often starts with rural people trying to provide for their families through activities like hunting and trapping, similar to those their forebears engaged in legally, she says. “What a terrible calculus to have to choose to break the law to get food or medication for your child.” On the demand side, buyers are looking to cure illness or boost sexual prowess with folk medicine, or to impress peers with luxury foods or exotic pets, never comprehending the ecological harm they contribute to. With so many stakeholders and facets to the problem, a single knockout blow to broadly solve wildlife smuggling is an unrealistic goal. “The aim is disruption at as many points as possible,” Gore says. “So we are tackling the problem with evidence from different angles and all along the chain.” Gore’s ability to embrace complexity—the way wildlife crime often nests with drug smuggling or human trafficking, for example, or the need to unite different academic disciplines to comprehend the challenge—is one of her superpowers, colleagues say. “She knows how to collaborate, how to talk to all sorts of stakeholders, and how to tackle things across different dimensions,” says research collaborator Bistra Dilkina, a USC professor of computer science. Reducing the illegal trade requires focus on another “in between,” Gore realized: It’s not just about the buyers or sellers themselves, but how they connect. After all, if you can’t get the dried seahorses from the boat dock to the curio shop two continents away, the trade withers and dies. Finding those paths and links essentially meant making the invisible visible, and that’s where the AI-based methods used by Dilkina and her Ph.D. student, Hannah Murray, became central. They teamed up with Gore to identify the global flight networks smugglers prefer, using AI to build models and find patterns that might predict trading hubs not yet on officials’ radar. “We wanted to know, why do traffickers select the airports they do—what are the drivers? And where are the undetected hotspots of trafficking activity?” says Murray. “Which routes are they most likely to use?” The lack of standardized reporting means airport trafficking data is inconsistent and sorely incomplete, creating an obvious bias toward detected incidents. But AI and other computational strategies can suggest answers to these questions by parsing out the hidden interactions in data. For a study published last year in Nature Communications Earth & Environment, the team used AI to create a model that considered reams of historical trafficking data from some 2,000 airports worldwide: arrest locations, what was snatched, and smugglers’ origins and destinations. It also assessed 1,300 airport features influencing their airport choice, from size and proximity to natural resources to whether it’s located in a country that has joined the Convention in International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES). “Why would a smuggler choose Rome instead of Milan, Denver over Detroit?” asks Gore. “By looking at the feature analysis, we can understand better what influences the social network.” The model used machine learning to obtain an unprecedented kind of tipoff: It offered the best predictors of an airport’s likely involvement in wildlife crimes, a list topped by centrality in the global airline network, history of unlawful plant trafficking (which often goes hand in hand with animal smuggling) and level of anti-trafficking measures at each location. Then the model highlighted 307 airports as potential “hidden” trade hubs (where illegal wildlife commerce hadn’t yet been detected), circling 11 of those as likely hotspots. Those included Dallas Fort Worth International and Denver International, not previously flagged in global trafficking databases based on seizures. The list also points out airports in Indonesia, the Philippines, China, Mexico and Italy, suggesting they’re worth watching more closely. “The technology isn’t just predictive; it can also help in decision making and resource allocation,” Dilkina says. The model’s revelations of the negatives—places smuggling would be expected but hasn’t been recorded—suggest where to boost anti-interventions such as putting more law enforcement personnel at airports, providing more training for workers and posting signs in bathrooms asking travelers to report suspicious behavior. For animals caught up in the trafficking world, AI is proving the master of “speed data-ing.” Case in point: pangolins, the world’s most trafficked mammal. The nocturnal cat-size animals, native to parts of Asia and Africa, have long been poached for their meat and scales, the latter of which is used mostly in traditional Asian medicine. As a result, CITES has listed all eight pangolin species as being threatened with extinction and banned commercial trade in the animals and their parts. Gore and Dilkina joined conservation ecologist Matt Shirley of Florida Inter-national University (FIU) for Operation Pangolin (OP), a multidisciplinary effort using AI to analyze information combined from wildlife crime, wildlife population monitoring and socio-ecological systems in areas pangolins live. One aim, says Shirley, OP’s lead researcher, is to predict where crimes will occur—like where animals are likely to be captured, slaughtered or sold to a smuggler—and shape effective responses and policy recommendations to prevent them from happening in the first place. (In Gore’s past projects, prevention has ranged from involving local law enforcement to working with churches or community organizers. Arresting people is not always the aim, she says.) Pairing AI with other technologies using a range of sensors and tracking systems is central to OP’s work. “For example, imagine the time needed to look through 100,000 images or videos trying to pick out the pangolins, then having to answer, black-bellied or white-bellied?” Gore says. “AI can do this kind of work for us at speed and scale.” Now the OP team is setting up machine learning systems to automatically process data as soon as it arrives, Shirley says. “So, now, if a field biologist finds a trapped animal we can get a text with an instant ID, and we know right away if a sound he or she reports hearing was a tree fall or a gunshot, which has real-time implications for how we respond.” Land animals aren’t the only ones swept up for illegal sale. Sharks are hot commodities globally as food; currently CITES lists 149 threatened species. Gore’s shark work has focused in part on understanding public perception of the animals; their sinister image can be an obstacle to protecting them from illegal fishing and trade. Her FIU collaborator, Diego Cardeñosa, uses molecular and forensic tools to fight shark fin trafficking. He developed an inexpensive DNA test that takes just two hours to identify the species in a sample taken from a suspicious seafood shipment, instead of the months that sorting out DNA can normally take. “Often if you don’t provide evidence that a shipment of shark fins is illegal within the first 24 hours, you have to let the container go, and illegal behavior goes unpunished,” he says. The team’s goal is to generate an increasing flow of data on where containers are coming from, where they’re going, which species are being traded and who is involved, and use AI to categorize the seemingly chaotic permutations arising from all vessels, routes and species entangled in the global illicit trade. It’s a powerful way to funnel information into CITES and other authorities to trigger investigations, enforcement and punishment. A successful day in the field for Gore looks something like one that took place in August 2024 in a vast transnational “peace park” spanning South Africa, Mozambique and Zimbabwe. She and her team were seeking links between elephant poaching, poisoning of vultures to prevent them from leading law enforcement to crime scenes, trade in vulture parts for traditional use, and disease transmission risks from elephants to vultures to people. Operating from an empty classroom in a school in a remote Mozambican village, she met with a succession of local people, including elders, teenagers, and working men and women, all willing to help with “participatory mapping” of, literally, where the wild things are, and where they’re being killed. Once the team explained the disease linkages—and residents got past their surprise that an institution like UMD would send people thousands of miles just to learn what they had to say—the interviews provided a torrent of valuable information. “The local people have so much knowledge and understand the trade perfectly,” she says. “They are the best teachers.” “Successful” doesn’t always mean easy: Gore and her team faced the logistics of tagging vultures with ethical and safe “backpacks,” moving a team of 15 from camp several hours away to the village via front-wheel-drive trucks on dirt roads and buying and preparing chickens or a goat to feed everyone. The demands of feeding a voracious AI algorithm are even greater, however, and the interviews required voluminous and precise data gathering that left the team “cognitively exhausted,” she says. Maybe they wouldn’t need AI if the depth of cooperation they found in this village existed everywhere, or they’d had permission to work on the project in Zimbabwe—or if her U.S. Defense Threat Reduction Agency grant hadn’t fallen victim to and sweeping cuts to federally funded science, keeping her and her team out of South Africa. The result is “data deserts” that exist in parts of the park, or even whole countries, inaccessible for political, logistical or funding reasons. “The AI helps us stitch all these things together, giving us the ability to extrapolate data in a rigorous, replicable way that previously was not possible,” she says. Dilkina notes that while continuing to improve the airport model, “we want to apply this method to other transportation modes, as a lot of illegal wildlife trade is happening by maritime transport.” Across the projects, Gore says, AI and machine learning aren’t just a kind of super calculator; they give her and her collaborators a chance to leapfrog barriers to knowledge with a tool that combines human intuition and cutting-edge computing. With AI, they’re slicing through the mystery around a trade its practitioners are working furiously to hide. “With so many people in different disciplines working to reduce illegal trade, if there were an easy solution—or even a moderately hard solution—we would have found it already,” Gore says. “These computational approaches are the force multiplier for data integration that conservation has been waiting for.” terp UMD Research Changes Lives University of Maryland scientists and scholars come together to spark new ideas, pursue important discoveries and tackle humanity’s grand challenges—improving lives in our communities and around the globe. See more examples at today.umd.edu/topic/research-impact. ALUMNI ASSOCIATION Letter From the Senior Executive Director This past July marked my first full year as the leader of your Alumni Association, and what an incredible year it was. I’m grateful for the many Terps I met at events across the country—each one eager to stay connected, share their pride and celebrate how Maryland continues to move Forward. UMD has been transformational for all of us. Maybe it inspired you to take a new career path. Maybe a fellow student, professor or class changed your perspective. Or maybe you—like me!—met your Terp love on campus. As you hear about all of the grand challenges the university is stepping up to address, I encourage you to think about your own challenges and triumphs, and how being a Terp set the stage for who you are today. I want to make sure that you feel included in UMD’s Forward momentum. In the coming months we’ll be bringing events to you, so you can hear directly about emerging topics and how they affect you. In the fall, we hosted a virtual town hall with President Darryll J. Pines to help alums know their voices are heard and valued. And more than 150 alums attended an event in Arlington, Va., for those managing career transitions to share the important message that you are never alone—the Terp community is behind you. Our Terrapins Connect platform also continues to thrive, engaging nearly 22,000 alums and students in volunteer mentorship opportunities. Across the country, our regional alumni networks host game watches, crab feasts, trivia nights and more, bringing a piece of Maryland wherever life takes you. To our 24,000+ members, thank you—you’re the heart of Terp pride. Membership fuels student and alumni programming, helping connect Terps across generations. When you give back through mentorship, membership or support of a program that’s close to your heart, you’re helping ensure that future Terps have life-changing experiences, too. Go Terps! Jessica K. Roberts ’02 Senior Executive Director University of Maryland Alumni Association 4 Ways to Stay Connected as Maryland Moves Forward Alums Play Crucial Role in Accelerating UMD’s Momentum There’s never been a better time to be a Terp. UMD is ranking higher than ever, innovating at the forefront of global issues and making a difference in communities worldwide. A large part of that success comes from a network of more than 431,000 alums—Terps connected by pride and the power of a Maryland education. As an alum, here’s how you can help the university soar as it begins a $2.5 billion fundraising effort, Forward: The University of Maryland Campaign for the Fearless. 1 Volunteer with Terps in your community. Join a regional alumni network to plan events and bring alums together in your area. Or find an affinity network to engage with Terps who share your interests and affiliations. You can also volunteer with your company or at service events across the nation during Do Good Service Month in April. alumni.umd.edu/volunteer “I have learned so much through every position I’ve held on the board, from creating memorable events and working with different types of people from all walks of life, to meeting and building relationships with alums of all ages.” —Aurelia Michael-Holmgren ’08 2 Give back to support all terps. Your alma mater helped shape who you are today. Pay it forward to touch the lives of current and future generations of Terps. Become a member of your Alumni Association to fuel programs for alums and student scholarships. Shop for Terp gear at the Alumni Store, where every purchase gives back. Show your support on Giving Day, March 4, for a campus unit that means the most to you. Every gift counts! alumni.umd.edu “From having a daughter attend Maryland, to conducting mock interviews with business students, mentoring and co-leading seminars, to serving on the Smith Alumni Board, my connection [with Maryland] has only grown. How could I not be a lifetime member—with my name on the wall?” —Richard Blackman ’73 3 attend an event. Your Alumni Association hosts events for every Terp: social gatherings and game watches, lifelong-learning opportunities, networking gatherings, events headlined by celebrity Terp speakers and so much more. You can also travel the world with Terps, reunite with friends at a tailgate or shop Terp-owned at a Maryland-made market. We can’t wait to see you! alumni.umd.edu/events Save the Date Maryland Minds: Shaping the Future With AI the clarice // Feb. 17 Learn how the university is solidifying its role as a global leader in emerging technologies at this TED Talk-style event. Join us to celebrate the pioneering work of our faculty, staff and students and highlight how UMD is making real progress for real people. 4 Join the conversation on social media. The best way to stay informed about all things Maryland is to follow us on social media for event announcements, giveaways, Terp nostalgia and more. You can inform us, too! We love seeing your comments, from photos with the iconic Jim Henson statue to your favorite places to eat in College Park. Terps together, Stay Fearless forever. Find us on: Instagram: @maryland_alumni Facebook: @TerpAlumni LinkedIn: University of Maryland Alumni Association POST GRAD Stuntman Crashes and Burns—Repeatedly Alum Flips, Fights, Tumbles Across New York Sets printing through the streets of New York with cops in pursuit, then getting hit by a yellow cab and shot in the leg was one of the best days of Warren Hull’s life: The brutal 2014 chase scene for the TV series “Person of Interest” jump-started his career as a stuntman. “It cemented exactly that this was what I wanted to do,” says Hull ’11. Since then, he’s done everything from mauling humans as a zombie in “Fallout” to rappelling from the ceiling to arrest Rachel Brosnahan on “Saturday Night Live” and diving across a football field as a Pop-Tart for NFL commercials. He credits Gymkana in part for putting him on the path. Tumbling for a Washington Wizards halftime show led to an invitation to join a stunt dunking troupe, which he balanced with a full-time job at an engineering firm after graduation. But he never considered leaving his 9-5 until 2014, when his dunk team signed on for a bit part in the Amy Schumer movie “Trainwreck.” The two weeks on set changed his life. He qualified to join the Screen Actors Guild, which opened the door to more jobs. But finding them wasn’t easy—especially because all the websites Hull scoured were grossly out of date and hard to navigate. He put his tool-designing skills to use, co-creating with Derric Stotts ’09 StuntListing.com, a database featuring photos, wardrobe details, reels and more. Now it’s the biggest stunt casting website in the world. Since it was launched in 2017—shortly after he finally quit his day job—it’s helped New York-based Hull make copious industry connections. Staying flexible is key; he’s often being contacted on Monday to ask if he’s free on Thursday—or even the same day. “They’ll say, ‘Start driving to Brooklyn and your contract will be on your phone by the time you get there.’” Flip through some of his projects: Silliest “Queens of the Dead,” a campy zombie movie. Hull was covered head to toe in green glitter as he threatened to eat people before finally getting a drill to the head by Margaret Cho. “It was so funny, but that glitter didn’t come out for weeks.” Scariest Playing a Speedo-clad corpse floating off the coast of Fire Island in 50-degree water for the indie film “Instagays.” “It’s probably one of the most dangerous stunts I’ve done, for hypothermia reasons,” he says. When they hauled him out after four minutes, he couldn’t stand or dress on his own, and was so cold his body didn’t even start shivering for another 15. Most famous star he’s been a double for Ice-T on the latest season of “Law & Order: SVU.” Hull not only doubled for the actor in a scene where the character gets beat up, but helped develop the fight and even taught the “SVU” veteran a few moves. “You’re trying to save the bodies of the actors,” he says. Hottest Crime drama “Godfather of Harlem.” Hull set his fellow stuntman ablaze while his buddy was tied to a chair—one of about 200 he’s started over the years. Hull’s also been on fire a few times himself; it takes flame-resistant clothing, protective gel and training to hold your breath while squirming convincingly and keeping the heat out of sensitive areas like armpits.—ks A Design Career Takes Off Architect Wants Your Next Airport Experience to Feel Less Terminal n airport’s moving walkway offers a window into the spectrum of human emotion in motion: the exhaustion of a mother placating her toddler with M&Ms; the collective fury over a canceled flight; the apathy brewing in a stagnant queue at Starbucks. But when architect Charishma Hunjan ’13, M.Arch./MRED ’15 was designing a new terminal for Pittsburgh International Airport, her team drew inspiration from another shared sentiment—the joy of reunion. In Pittsburgh, it’s personified by the city’s “meeter-greeter” culture: throngs of people with homemade signs waiting in baggage claim. “We wanted to take that little nugget, which is such an important experience for this community, and create something amazing,” she says. An architect for the past decade with the global design firm Gensler’s aviation practice, Hunjan has spent a lot of time in airports. Her teams were behind Toronto Pearson International Airport’s Terminal 1 expansion, the upgrade at Syracuse, N.Y.’s international airport and the new terminal in Pittsburgh. Her latest project, the glassy, butterfly-shaped Terminal 1 at New York’s JFK Airport, is slated to welcome flyers this summer. “Airport architect” is not the career most students dream of, but Hunjan had a clear runway: Her thesis at Maryland was a new scheme for Seattle’s SeaTac International Airport, a slow-burn idea lit her senior year after a dismal trek to her gate for an education abroad trip. “It was this long, unending hallway and really miserable,” she recalls. “I kept thinking, ‘Am I going the right way? Why are there no windows? Is that the same Cinnabon?’” Hunjan had picked architecture as a major for its power to impact people; she’d design an airport for its ability to bring them together. “I wanted to create a place that offered these shared experiences for people, regardless of where they’re from,” she says. “And I thought, what is that? Well, an airport.” Hunjan flexed her newly acquired real estate development skills to navigate what’s akin to building a small city. But when she realized she was in over her head, a former classmate connected her with Ty Osbaugh, a principal at Gensler who oversees its aviation practice. “She just blew me away with the amount of rigor she put into it, and she continues to put so much thought into her work,” says Osbaugh. “I’ve told her this point blank: She’s the future of Gensler aviation.” The complexity of designing airports isn’t juggling the traffic patterns of large, steel birds or the myriad technical aspects, he says; it’s the thousands of stakeholders with no shortage of opinions. Hunjan, he says, is adept at working with the developers, investors, airport authorities, vendors and others with a quiet confidence. “It’s a building type that challenges everyone, and every day is a little bit of a fight,” he says. “I thrive on her calmness.” Tranquility isn’t an emotion easily channeled into the travel experience, but Hunjan says certain design elements can soothe and provide predictability. Simple, linear movement from security to the gate helps the hurried traveler, while abundant windows, calming natural light and clear signage help the harried one. Once travelers off-ramp, they’ll find opportunities for different types of experiences in Hunjan’s designs, from welcoming corners to gather gate-side, to a traffic-stopper piece of art in the arrivals area. In October, an open house gave the Pittsburgh community its first glimpse of the airport’s new meeter-greeter hall, its expansive reception area capped with a vaulted wood ceiling inspired by Western Pennsylvania’s forests and hoisted by sleek steel “branches.” It’s a far cry from the terminal’s nondescript concrete lobby that previously welcomed weary travelers. “When I think about the places I’ve been, I think of moments—it’s not always about the whole building,” says Hunjan. “It’s about creating space to enjoy the moment. And why can’t that happen at an airport?”—maggie haslam Chief Insector Alum Serves, Protects State’s Threatened Bug Community The Baltimore checkerspot, the state butterfly, owes its name to a wing pattern resembling the checkered quadrants of Maryland’s beloved flag. But the orange-and-black beauties lately have struggled to survive. “If populations keep dwindling, it will be hard to keep calling them the state butterfly,” says Max Ferlauto Ph.D. ’24, who as Maryland’s state entomologist is tasked with conserving all manner of bugs, beetles and butterflies, with particular TLC given to the rarest and most vulnerable insecta. Employed by the Wildlife and Heritage Service, the binocular-carrying Ferlauto travels from Appalachia to the Eastern Shore, quantifying his tiny charges in hopes of preserving them. The plight of the checkerspot is largely due to deer feasting on its host plant, the white turtlehead flower, leaving the hungry butterflies nowhere to prosper but farther north, where deer populations are less dense. To protect the insect, Ferlauto must first protect the flower. So he consults a database of Western Marylanders whose wetland properties could grow turtleheads, then calls them, asking to survey and eventually place fencing around the plants in their backyards. “Usually they say, ’Sure, come on by,’” Ferlauto says. On other days Ferlauto might putter a boat across the Chesapeake Bay to a ribbon of sand that is home to threatened Puritan tiger beetles, which breed on the clay cliffs above. He and a colleague trek across miles of coastline, tallying the bugs one by one. On a given visit, the team might observe up to 200; if the count is too low, it returns with herbicide-spraying drones to clear the cliffs of invasive vegetation. The diversity of insect species far surpasses mammals’, and for Ferlauto, each one—including native critters like the Sedge leafhopper and Edwards’ hairstreak—plays a vital ecosystem role: Bees pollinate flowers. Flies decompose compost into garden soil. Wasps prey on caterpillars destroying your backyard forsythia. The entomologist, who is building a habitat on his own property to attract wildlife including reptiles and bats, even defends the much- maligned mosquito, history’s most bloodthirsty killer. “They’re food for dragonflies, which we do like,” he says. –JT Class Notes Sarah Lee ‘18, known professionally as Rei Ami, provided the singing voice for Zoey in Netflix’s animated “KPop Demon Hunters,” the streaming service’s most-watched film of all time. The song “Golden” clinched the No. 1 spot on Billboard’s Hot 100 and was nominated for a Golden Globe and Grammy. A year after winning gold in the triple jump at the 2024 Paris Olympics, Thea LaFond-Gadson ’14 took silver at the 2025 World Championships in Tokyo with a mark of 14.89 meters. Dijon Duenas ’14, a singer, songwriter and producer who goes by his first name, earned two Grammy nominations—for producer of the year (non-classical) and album of the year—for his work on Justin Bieber’s “SWAG.” He was “Saturday Night Live’s” musical guest on Dec. 6. Elizabeth Atwood Ph.D. ’94 wrote the new book “Deadline: 200 Years of Violence Against Journalists in the United States.” The former longtime reporter and editor at The Baltimore Sun was inspired to write this book by the 2018 murder of a colleague in The (Annapolis) Capital shootings. Atwood is now an associate professor of journalism at Hood College in Frederick, Md. Bob Becker ’70, at age 80, broke the record in July as the oldest finisher of the Badwater Ultramarathon, a 135-mile race through Death Valley, Calif., called the “toughest footrace in the world” by National Geographic magazine. The course includes 14,000 feet of elevation gain. He completed it in 45 hours. Underexposed Snow Day? Terps Dig It After a 1983 blizzard dumped 21 inches on campus and canceled classes, students stepped up to shovel the area across from Cambridge Hall. Do you know any of these Terps, like the one tackling the frosty task in shorts or the man with a “Magnum P.I.” mustache looking on? And why were they clearing the campus lot themselves? Share your memories with us at terpfeedback@umd.edu, and check out the responses in the next issue alongside another snapshot of UMD history. From the Last Issue… Both Caryl Hall ’97, whose roommate played field hockey, and Brian Layman ’97, a former Terp wrestler, recognized goalie Erin Flanagan pulling along teammates Jen Pratt ’97, Lynsey McVicker ’98 and Emily Ward ’00 in the 1998 picture featured in the Fall 2025 issue. “This photo brought back so many memories of the fun we all had in College Park!” Hall wrote. The responses kept rolling in: Jay Samuels ’02 spotted himself at the bottom right of the human pyramid from 1988, shown in the Spring 2025 issue. Parting Shot twin pinks The giant window in the E.A. Fernandez IDEA Factory’s facade casts the interior in an otherworldly light as Andrew Schafer ’26 relaxes on the third floor. The dichroic glass, which changes color based on lighting conditions and angle of view, is the signature design element of the building. Photo by dylan singleton