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PEDIATRIC RESEARCH INSTITUTE OPENS
A Boost for Children
  hen
Falcon Batchelor was 14 years old, he and his family weren’t ready to
accept the three-year timeline doctors gave him for survival of cystic
fibrosis. Looking for answers and better care, George Batchelor took
his son to the University of Miami School of Medicine and Robert McKey,
Jr., founder and then-director of the University’s Cystic Fibrosis Center.
Under McKey’s care, Falcon lived 20 more years.
With a leadership gift of $10 million to create the Batchelor
Children’s Research Institute at the School of Medicine, George Batchelor,
an aviation pioneer and philanthropist, has more than expressed his
gratitude. And at the building’s May 3 dedication, Batchelor expressed
his appreciation even further, stunning the audience with the announcement
of an additional $5 million gift to the School of Medicine. But it’s
not just the funding that makes Batchelor’s gift so significant—it’s
the promise of dedication to healing thousands of children that comes
with the institute’s establishment. It brings to fruition his quest
to create a world-class research facility to improve the health and
welfare of children.
One of the largest centers in the world devoted exclusively
to research in children’s health, the Batchelor Children’s Research
Institute includes 147,500 square feet of specially designed space dedicated
to basic and clinical research. The numerous research initiatives of
the school’s respected Department of Pediatrics will be housed in the
state-of-the-art facility.
“We are very grateful to George Batchelor for his magnificent
gift,” says John G. Clarkson, senior vice president for medical affairs
and dean of the School of Medicine. “We now are able to bring together
under one roof the scientists, clinicians, and doctoral fellows who
are working to find treatments and cures that will one day help millions
of children live a better life.”
Augmenting the Batchelor Foundation’s leadership gift
is a $5 million contribution from the Harcourt M. and Virginia W. Sylvester
Foundation to establish the Sylvester Family Children’s Cancer and Neonatology
Research Center within the Batchelor Children’s Research Institute.
The Sylvester Foundation is a leader in the fight against cancer and
a longtime supporter of the University, funding the creation and continued
development of the School of Medicine’s Sylvester Comprehensive Cancer
Center.
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SCIENTISTS TEST PROTOTYPE FILTRATION SYSTEM
A New Approach
 very
day, large quantities of ballast water from all over the world are discharged
into United States waters. Carried by ships to provide stability, this
ballast water often contains nonnative plants, animals, bacteria, and
pathogens that have the potential to displace native species, degrade
native habitats, spread disease, and disrupt human social and economic
activities.
 In
response to this growing ecological concern, scientists from the University
of Miami’s College of Engineering and Rosenstiel School of Marine
and Atmospheric Science have been selected by the United States Coast
Guard to design, build, and test a full-scale prototype that takes a
new approach to ballast water management.
“We were considered competitive for the project because
of the quality of the research staff on the project from UM, which tipped
the scale in our favor,” says Tom Waite, associate dean and professor
of environmental engineering in the College of Engineering, who designed
the new system. One of few research engineers in the world with previous
experience designing and building a filtration-based ballast water treatment
system, Waite built a similar system in Singapore in 1999.
The new ballast water treatment system uses filtration
and UV-irradiation to remove invasive aquatic species from ballast water
aboard ships before they reach their port of call. The system pumps
in sea water, routes it into a series of pipes, one of which separates
biological organisms like zooplankton and phytoplankton through a hydroclone
filtration system, then passes the water through a UV radiation system,
killing bacteria.
The prototype treatment facility is currently located
off one of the docks at the Rosenstiel School in Virginia Key, Florida.
The new system is being tested to determine its efficiency under a variety
of water quality conditions, such as turbid waters. Results from the
tests will guide the Coast Guard in setting future standards for shipboard
ballast water treatment systems.
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University Reaches Out through Language
and Technology
 one
are the days when students foraged for space at the busy library
computer lab to do research. The University’s Coral Gables campus
has gone wireless thanks to a wireless network from Avaya.
 Now
anyone with a laptop and a special network card can surf the Web
inside and outdoors, without plugging into a phone line. Because
network access isn’t tied to cables or workstations, this “wireless
cloud” gives students increased access to learning tools and information.
The special network card costs about $160
and enables the user to connect directly into the University’s
high-speed network, use the University’s online resources, and
surf the Internet as they would through any regularly connected
desktop PC.
And through another effort to provide additional
opportunities to communicate, people from around the world now
have a new way to access and read information posted on the University
of Miami’s Web site—in Spanish (www.miami.edu/espanol).
In a move to appeal to bilingual students
and their families both in the United States and in Latin America,
UM has launched a Spanish-language Web site, becoming one of a
select few of American schools that offer online information in
a foreign language.
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COMMUNICATION SCHOOL GETS NEW FACILITY
On the Cutting Edge
group of broadcast journalism students working out
of a video editing suite meticulously edits video footage of a Hurricane
baseball game. In a Macintosh computer lab on a different floor, students
in an editing class put the finishing touches on a mock newspaper layout.
And not far from there, in a student news service bureau, a print journalism
student makes the final corrections to a story on campus nightlife.
 While
this might seem like a typical day at the School of Communication, it
is literally history in the making. For the first time in its 15-year
existence, the school now houses all of its academic programs in one
facility—the new $10 million Frances L. Wolfson Building.
The new building includes broadcast and film studios,
AVID and video editing suites, digital photography labs, Mac and PC
computer labs, and a cable TV channel. A student news service, animation
studio, classrooms, and faculty and administrative offices also are
housed in the new 56,000-square-foot facility. The building was made
possible through the generosity of Frances L. Wolfson, a UM trustee.
School of Communication Dean Edward Pfister says the new
building not only will create synergy among faculty and students, but
also will give the school’s 1,300-plus undergraduate and graduate students
a competitive edge. “This building was designed and built for communication
education in this century,” says Pfister.
Counting among its former students TV/film director David
Nutter (X Files and Millennium) and ESPN broadcasters
Roy Firestone and Suzie Kolber, the already strong school now has yet
another effective recruiting tool to lure top talent. “For students
who are checking into applying,” says Associate Dean Robert Hosmon,
“this new building is like the icing on the cake.”
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UM Researchers Develop Piracy-Proof Technology
 niversity
of Miami researchers have developed a new digital watermarking technology
that embeds an imperceptible digital code into audio files to prevent
illicit duplication and piracy, and to enhance multimedia information.
 Created
by Alexander Iliev, a software specialist in Information Technology,
and Michael Scordilis, associate professor of electrical and computer
engineering, the technology is being licensed to Chicago-based BitzMart,
Inc.
The demand for technology that prevents the unauthorized
copying and distribution of recording artists’ work is enormous, especially
because music increasingly is downloaded from the Web instead of being
purchased in stores. According to the International Intellectual Property
Alliance, in 1998 U.S. companies lost approximately $12.4 billion worldwide
because of piracy, while the European Commission estimates that more
than 5 percent of world trade is lost to counterfeiting.
“Consumers now will be able to buy only what they
want, saving a great deal of money, and creators will get paid equitably
and fairly for their hard work,” says Howard Leventhal, BitzMart CEO.
“It frees consumption by making it easier, faster, and cheaper to obtain
a single item.”
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NEW PROGRAM IN THE NEUROSCIENCES
A Critical Investment
ith
its recent commitment of $1.8 million for a new program in the
neurosciences, the University of Miami will ensure continued excellence
in a research area in which it is already well-known and widely
regarded.
 The
funding, part of the University’s Innovative Educational
and Research Initiative, was awarded to the School of Medicine
as well as to the departments of biology and psychology in the
College of Arts and Sciences.
“This new program will lead to a quantum leap in
excellence in the neurosciences, one of the strongest overall
research disciplines at the University,” says Executive Vice President
and Provost Luis Glaser. “It is an investment in people and programs
designed to retain this strength and significantly advance critical
research and training in this area.”
A major goal of the program is to bring together
faculty and students interested in various aspects of the neurosciences,
represented in different departments and disciplines, and bridge
the gap between molecular/cellular neuroscience, psychology, biology,
and the social sciences. The program will meet this challenge
by establishing the Neuroscience Center, a “home” for neuroscience
research and education that will strengthen the graduate program
and centralize research facilities and educational programs.
“Much of the most important science today is pursued
in places where traditional disciplines intersect, and nowhere
is the traffic busier or more exciting than in neuroscience—where
mind, brain, and body are open as never before to the pathways
of promising inquiry and understanding,” says Daniel L. Pals,
interim dean of the College of Arts and Sciences.
An important element in the development of the program
will be the recruitment of an internationally recognized neuroscientist
to fill the recently endowed Ross Chair in Developmental Neuroscience.
This scientist will direct the creation of a research program
that taps into the enormous potential of the clinical neuroscience
departments, The Miami Project to Cure Paralysis, and the neuroscientists
in basic science departments.
“This is a tremendous opportunity for the University
to capitalize on its significant strengths in neuroscience research,”
says John G. Clarkson, senior vice president for medical affairs
and dean of the School of Medicine. “Our ongoing research in areas
such as Parkinson’s disease, ALS, and spinal cord injury will
be enhanced through this important new initiative.”
One of the key components of the new program is
the creation of an undergraduate neuroscience major with a research-based
curriculum that incorporates a neuroscience laboratory course,
a new major track in neurobiology, and the teaching participation
of faculty from various UM units.
Graduates will be candidates for health professional
schools or graduate programs in the biomedical/mental health fields.
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Book Explores Autism-Related Disorder
  ow
that they finally are receiving accurate diagnoses, children with Asperger
Syndrome (AS) are no longer being banished as social misfits. A neurological
disorder closely related to autism, AS—named for the doctor who first
described the condition—is characterized by an inability to read social
cues or even notice them.
Though it is not something that is “cured,” children
can learn to adapt and live with it. The key is getting them an appropriate
range of help, which is what has brought two experts on the disorder
to write Asperger Syndrome and Adolescence: Practical Solutions for
School Success. In this new book, Diane Adreon, associate director of
the Center for Autism and Related Disabilities at the University of
Miami, and Brenda Smith Myles, professor of special education at the
University of Kansas, cover the strategies necessary to ensure a successful
school experience for middle and high school students with AS.
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MONITORING FISH POPULATIONS TO AVOID OVERFISHING
Laws of the Sea
 niversity
of Miami researchers for the past two years have been studying the rapidly
dwindling populations of coral reef fish in one of the United States’
last marine frontiers, the Dry Tortugas. Sometimes called “Florida’s
Yellowstone,” the Tortugas helps support the multibillion-dollar fishing
and tourism industry in the Florida Keys.
 During
the latter part of the 20th century, populations of a number of coral
reef species in the Dry Tortugas, Florida Keys, and the Gulf of Mexico
steadily declined due to overfishing and habitat loss. The Tortugas,
renowned for its luxuriant coral reefs and spectacular beauty, has a
coral reef fish community comprised of more than 220 species spread
out over a 600-square-mile area. The Tortugas continue to be heavily
exploited by the sport and commercial fishing industries despite its
remote location 70 miles west of Key West.
In an attempt to take a census of marine life in the Dry
Tortugas, Jerald Ault, associate professor of marine biology and fisheries,
has led a research team that has conducted approximately 3,000 scuba
dives there. University of Miami scientists and collaborators have been
exploring and mapping this ecologically essential and unique underwater
habitat in an effort to effect legislation to stop the overfishing that
is causing the depletion of many fish and coral reef species.
Their work finally is paying off. Due in part to their
findings, the Dry Tortugas “no-take” zone was approved in
April by Governor Jeb Bush. Bush and the Cabinet unanimously approved
the Tortugas Ecological Reserve, creating the United States’ largest
no-fishing zone in the Dry Tortugas.
According to Ault, who helped devise the no-take zone,
it was essential that steps be taken now before declining species collapsed
altogether. He points out that fish populations in the Tortugas and
other areas off the Florida Keys had been overfished despite intensive
efforts by fishery management agencies to regulate harvests through
size and catch limits, licensing and gear restrictions, and limited
seasons.
“It is becoming more and more difficult to find a fish
bigger than the minimum legal size for capture,” says Ault. “It was
imperative that we reexamined traditional fishery management regulations
that were clearly not working, resulting in grouper stocks today at
only 10 percent of their previous population levels from the 1930s and
1940s. Hopefully, this new legislation will help make a big difference.”
Overfishing in the Tortugas is symptomatic of a larger
problem that not only affects the current populations of reef fish species
in the area, but also encompasses impacts to other fish species from
throughout the Keys. These species travel to spawn in the coral and
seagrass habitats around the Dry Tortugas. Sadly, many species are caught
before they can spawn. Gulf Stream currents carry the eggs, larvae,
and juveniles of those fishes that make it from the Tortugas spawning
grounds east and north to appropriate habitats that help to sustain
fish populations throughout the Keys and southern Florida.
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CUBA DOCUMENTARY DEBUTS ON VIDEO
A Night to Remember
  he
critically acclaimed documentary Last Night in Cuba, written, filmed,
and edited by students of the University of Miami’s Documentary Unit
at the School of Communication, can be purchased and enjoyed in both
English and Spanish. The hour-long film examines the universal question:
“What did you experience before leaving your homeland?”
For the film, students interviewed ten people
of different ages and socioeconomic backgrounds, including Santiago
Rey Pernas, Miami radio personality and an author of the 1940 Cuban
Constitution; Luis Botifoll, former president of Republic National Bank;
and Manty Morse, Miami-Dade County School Board member, all of whom
fled Cuba between the arrival of President Fidel Castro in Havana in
1959 and 1963.
The documentary is the first segment in what will
eventually become a trilogy, with parts two and three dealing with those
who fled Cuba in the ensuing years. The film premiered in Tallahassee,
Florida, on April 17, the 40th anniversary of the Bay of Pigs Invasion,
to a group of dignitaries and legislators including Florida Governor
Jeb Bush.
Under the direction of two award-winning School
of Communication professors, Sanjeev Chatterjee and Grace Barnes, the
project received a grant from Bacardi through the University’s Institute
for Cuban and Cuban American Studies and support from its founder and
director, Jaime Suchlicki.
Available in either language for $25 per tape
(shipping and handling included), Last Night in Cuba can be purchased
by downloading an order form from the Web site www.miami.edu/com/news/cuba_orderform.pdf,
via e-mail at gremer@miami.edu, or by calling 305-284-1870. Profits
will support the production of the second film.
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Go Figure
A strictly by-the-numbers
perspective of UM
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Heaviest squat weight by
a Hurricane football
player—Jim Burt (1980):
680 pounds
Weight of the heaviest Sumo
wrestler
in history—Konishiki (1997):
680 pounds
Number of sports injuries,
including weight lifter’s
back, treated in the United States each year:
10 million+
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U.S. pass rate for first-time
takers of the national Physical
Therapist Licensing Examination:
91.93 percent
State of Florida pass rate
for first-time takers
of the national Physical
Therapist Licensing Examination:
89.34 percent
University of Miami Division
of Physical Therapy
pass rate for first-time takers of the national
Physical Therapist Licensing Examination:
98.33 percent
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Eligible voters casting
ballots in the
2000 presidential election:
51.2 percent
Number of votes cast in
the 2000 presidential election:
105.4 million
Increase in voter turnout
compared
to the 1996 election:
2.2 percent
Total donations to the University
of Miami
in fiscal 2001—the highest amount ever:
$105.8 million
Increase in alumni support
compared to fiscal 2000:
45.4 percent
Sources: University
of Miami Sports Information Office, Office of University Advancement,
and Division of Physical Therapy; The
Washington Post; The
Merck Manual; and Committee
for the Study of the American Electorate.
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