The University of New Mexico

Category Archives: Academics & Faculty

UNM Libraries Faculty Member Chosen for Leadership Program

June 18, 2013 | By Karen Wentworth
Zoe Chao

Zoe Chao

Zoe Chao, a fac­ulty mem­ber with UNM Libraries, will par­tic­i­pate in “Lead­ing to the Future,” the Amer­i­can Library Association’s four-day immer­sive lead­er­ship devel­op­ment pro­gram for future library leaders.

The selec­tion com­mit­tee searched for a diverse par­tic­i­pant mix based on type of library (pub­lic, aca­d­e­mic, school, spe­cial), orga­ni­za­tional respon­si­bil­ity, geog­ra­phy, gen­der and race/ethnicity, as well as demon­strated lead­er­ship poten­tial, readi­ness for increased respon­si­bil­ity, pro­fes­sional achieve­ment and com­mu­nity or cam­pus involvement.

ALA Pres­i­dent Mau­reen Sul­li­van and Asso­ci­a­tion of Col­lege Research Libraries Con­tent Strate­gist Kathryn Deiss will lead this inau­gural ALA Lead­er­ship Insti­tute.  It is designed to help par­tic­i­pants develop and prac­tice their lead­er­ship skills in crit­i­cal areas and allow them to form a vibrant learn­ing com­mu­nity and network.

Par­tic­i­pants are expected to return to their insti­tu­tion with greater self-awareness and self-confidence, equipped with bet­ter skills for lead­ing, coach­ing, col­lab­o­rat­ing and engag­ing within their orga­ni­za­tions and in their com­mu­ni­ties, and pre­pared to iden­tify, develop and imple­ment solu­tions that will ben­e­fit all stakeholders.

Posted in Academics & Faculty, University News | |

Albuquerque Teachers Learn New Technologies at UNM’s Southwest Center for Microsystems Education

June 12, 2013 | By Karen Wentworth

Physics, biol­ogy, geol­ogy, chem­istry and math teach­ers from Albu­querque Pub­lic Schools and the ASK Acad­emy are spend­ing part of their sum­mer in class­rooms at the Uni­ver­sity of New Mex­ico learn­ing about MEMS systems. 

Micro­Electro­Mechan­i­cal­Sytems (MEMS) are tech­nolo­gies embed­ded in auto­mo­biles, tablets and smart phones. The teach­ers are learn­ing ways to teach their stu­dents about MEMS devices as part of units in physics or biology.

MEMS man­u­fac­tur­ing tech­ni­cians are in very high demand and instruc­tors drive home that point by empha­siz­ing that stu­dents who pur­sue MEMS man­u­fac­tur­ing cer­ti­fi­ca­tion can make $100,000 a year as mem­bers of the tech­ni­cal staff at the national laboratories. But first the teach­ers must learn the tech­nol­ogy and explore ways to incor­po­rate it into a typ­i­cal high school curriculum. The South­west Cen­ter for Microsys­tems Edu­ca­tion at UNM has come up with learn­ing mod­ules teach­ers can use to teach spe­cific con­cepts such as build­ing a pres­sure sensor.

Stu­dents at UNM and Cen­tral New Mex­ico Com­mu­nity Col­lege already have access to MEMS man­u­fac­tur­ing courses. At UNM, stu­dents can design MEMS appli­ca­tions as well.

The teach­ers tak­ing courses this sum­mer will bring MEMS con­cepts into Albu­querque high schools this fall. The South­west Cen­ter for Microsys­tems Edu­ca­tion is sup­ported by a grant from National Sci­ence Foun­da­tion with the goal of build­ing a work­force to han­dle advanced mate­ri­als manufacturing.

Media con­tact: Karen Went­worth (505) 277.5626; email: kwent2@unm.edu

Posted in Academics & Faculty, University News | |

Monica Orozco Named Vice Provost for Extended Learning at UNM

June 3, 2013 | By Karen Wentworth
Monica Orozco

Mon­ica Orozco

Mon­ica Orozco has been named Vice Provost for Extended Learn­ing at UNM. Provost Chaouki Abdal­lah says the appoint­ment will be effec­tive July 1, 2013.

“I am pleased to announce Dr. Mon­ica Orozco as Vice Provost for Extended Learning. She brings a broad and unique national and global per­spec­tive in the area of dis­tance learn­ing and, in my view, has the abil­ity to take our Extended Learn­ing divi­sion to the next level. Her lead­er­ship will be par­tic­u­larly impor­tant as we look to grow our extended learn­ing and online pres­ence and inte­grate our divi­sion of Con­tin­u­ing Edu­ca­tion dur­ing times of fast changes in dis­tance and adult edu­ca­tion” said Abdallah.

When asked about her appoint­ment, Orozco com­mented, “I am delighted to join the Uni­ver­sity of New Mex­ico com­mu­nity.  Extended Learn­ing at UNM offers high-quality pro­gram­ming across the state that serves pre-school stu­dents through senior cit­i­zens.  In addi­tion, UNM is at the fore­front of inno­va­tion in online education. I look for­ward to col­lab­o­rat­ing with my UNM col­leagues to build upon this very rich foundation.”

Orozco earned her Ph.D. in Instruc­tion & Cur­ricu­lum from the Uni­ver­sity of Florida. Her research, pub­lished in the Amer­i­can Jour­nal of Dis­tance Edu­ca­tion and the Sloan Consortium’s Jour­nal of Asyn­chro­nous Learn­ing Net­works has focused on dis­tance learn­ing stu­dent suc­cess and fac­ulty devel­op­ment. Orozco is also an alumna of the Insti­tute for Emerg­ing Lead­ers in Online Learn­ing, which is offered by Penn State in col­lab­o­ra­tion with the Sloan Consortium.

Prior to her posi­tion at Florida Atlantic Uni­ver­sity (FAU), where she cur­rently serves as assis­tant provost for eLearn­ing, she worked at Auburn Uni­ver­sity, where she served as direc­tor of Dis­tance Learn­ing and Out­reach. With over a decade of expe­ri­ence, Orozco has also pre­vi­ously held posi­tions at Cape Fear Com­mu­nity Col­lege, Sun­Gard Higher Edu­ca­tion, and Florida State Col­lege at Jacksonville.

Ques­tions and/or com­ments should be directed to provost@unm.edu.

Posted in Academics & Faculty, Administration, University News | |

‘Urban Composition’ by Mark Childs Wins 2013 EDRA Great Places Award

June 1, 2013 | By Carolyn Gonzales

Mark Childs, pro­fes­sor, Uni­ver­sity of New Mex­ico School of Archi­tec­ture and Plan­ning, was noti­fied by the Board of Direc­tors of the Envi­ron­men­tal Design Research Asso­ci­a­tion and the EDRA Great Places Awards jurors, that his book sub­mis­sion, Urban Com­po­si­tion: Devel­op­ing Com­mu­nity Through Design, is a recip­i­ent of the esteemed 2013 EDRA Great Places Award in the Place Book Award category.

Jurors wrote, “In a year with an extra­or­di­nary num­ber of high-quality entries, your sub­mis­sion truly exem­pli­fied the con­cern for human fac­tors in the design of the built envi­ron­ments, and a com­mit­ment to pro­mot­ing the links between design research and prac­tice. We’re proud to honor your work and inspiration.”

Childs will be rec­og­nized at the EDRA awards ban­quet Sat­ur­day, June 1, in Rhode Island. The ban­quet is in con­junc­tion with the Envi­ron­men­tal Design Research Asso­ci­a­tion Conference.

Prince­ton Archi­tec­tural Press, pub­lisher of the book, writes:

Cities and towns are among humanity’s great­est achieve­ments, yet no sin­gle indi­vid­ual or orga­ni­za­tion cre­ates them. The build­ings, streets and gar­dens of even a small town embody sub­stan­tial invest­ments of money, nat­ural resources and polit­i­cal cap­i­tal. Much more than the sum of its parts, a settlement’s vital­ity comes from its col­lec­tive com­po­si­tion. Some­times the cities and towns that emerge are glo­ri­ous places, but too fre­quently they have only frag­ments of great­ness or are soul­less and envi­ron­men­tally unhealthy.

Our new Archi­tec­ture Brief Urban Com­po­si­tion shows archi­tects, plan­ners, artists and engi­neers of indi­vid­ual projects how they can best ful­fill their pub­lic trust to help make mean­ing­ful urban places. Each chap­ter con­tains a set of design queries fol­lowed by a dis­cus­sion, illus­tra­tions, and ref­er­ences for fur­ther research. This acces­si­ble primer on urban design pro­vides guide­lines for design­ing build­ings or plans for large cities or small towns. Urban Com­po­si­tion show­cases projects across the United States and inter­na­tion­ally, in met­ro­pol­i­tan areas such as Chicago, Seat­tle and Lon­don, and small com­mu­ni­ties such as Marfa, Texas.

Media Con­tact: Car­olyn Gon­za­les (505) 277‑5920; email: cgonzal@unm.edu

Posted in Academics & Faculty, University News | |

Krause Named Dean of Honors College and University College

May 31, 2013 | By Karen Wentworth
Cather­ine "Kate" Krause

Cather­ine “Kate” Krause

Uni­ver­sity of New Mex­ico Eco­nom­ics Pro­fes­sor Kate Krause has been appointed to the posi­tion of Dean of the Hon­ors Col­lege and Uni­ver­sity Col­lege by Provost Chaouki Abdallah. The appoint­ment is effec­tive immediately.

“I am extra­or­di­nar­ily pleased to announce Dr. Kate Krause as Dean of the Hon­ors Col­lege and Uni­ver­sity Col­lege,” Abdal­lah said. “During her short tenure as Interim Dean, she suc­cess­fully reor­ga­nized Uni­ver­sity Col­lege and was very effec­tive in assess­ing the value of and sup­port­ing our most suc­cess­ful under­grad­u­ate stu­dent suc­cess pro­grams.  Addi­tion­ally, she suc­cess­fully and expertly imple­mented the rec­om­men­da­tions of the Hon­ors Col­lege Task force. I am con­fi­dent that she will con­tinue to excel in this impor­tant lead­er­ship posi­tion for Aca­d­e­mic Affairs.”

Krause earned her B.S. in Eco­nom­ics from the Uni­ver­sity of Min­nesota, Twin Cities in 1977. She went on to earn a J.D. from Stan­ford Law School and her Ph.D. in Eco­nom­ics from the Uni­ver­sity of Wis­con­sin in 1996.  She joined the Eco­nom­ics Depart­ment fac­ulty at the Uni­ver­sity of New Mex­ico in 1996.

In 2007-08 Krause was a recip­i­ent of the UNM Out­stand­ing Teacher of the Year Award.

Ques­tions and/or com­ments should be directed to Michael Dougher, Sr. Vice Provost for Aca­d­e­mic Affairs dougher@unm.edu

Media con­tact: Karen Went­worth (505)277‑5627; email: kwent2@unm.edu

Posted in Academics & Faculty, University News | |

UNM Joins Coursera for Online Courses

May 29, 2013 | By Karen Wentworth
UNM students will be able to take Coursera courses for credit with approval of the relevant academic department.

UNM stu­dents will be able to take Cours­era courses for credit with approval of the rel­e­vant aca­d­e­mic department.

The Uni­ver­sity of New Mex­ico and nine other state uni­ver­sity sys­tems and pub­lic flag­ships will be part­ner­ing with Cours­era to explore the pos­si­bil­i­ties of using Mas­sive Open Online Courses (MOOCs) to increase stu­dent access to high-quality online edu­ca­tional content.

Along with UNM, the insti­tu­tions are State Uni­ver­sity of New York (SUNY), the Ten­nessee Board of Regents and Uni­ver­sity of Ten­nessee Sys­tems, Uni­ver­sity of Col­orado Sys­tem, Uni­ver­sity of Hous­ton Sys­tem, Uni­ver­sity of Ken­tucky, Uni­ver­sity of Nebraska, Uni­ver­sity Sys­tem of Geor­gia, and West Vir­ginia University.

Each sys­tem and uni­ver­sity plans to uti­lize Coursera’s plat­form and MOOC tech­nol­ogy dif­fer­ently. Usage options include:

  • Insti­tu­tions and fac­ulty to uti­lize Coursera’s plat­form to cre­ate and exper­i­ment with ‘blended learn­ing’ and MOOC con­tent — whether in their own class­rooms, across cam­puses, or to a wider Cours­era audience.
  • Insti­tu­tions and pro­fes­sors to col­lab­o­rate with their peers within their own insti­tu­tions and across other uni­ver­si­ties, and to enable them to use data from Coursera’s plat­form to improve teach­ing and iden­tify learn­ing obsta­cles among students.

After proper vet­ting by the appro­pri­ate UNM fac­ulty and author­i­ties, UNM depart­ments may accept some Cours­era courses for credit and UNM fac­ulty will be able to sub­mit courses to Cours­era to be taken by stu­dents at other uni­ver­si­ties for credit.

The UNM Fac­ulty Sen­ate passed a res­o­lu­tion in the spring 2013 semes­ter to encour­age study­ing oppor­tu­ni­ties and finan­cial mod­els for MOOCs.  The Cours­era agree­ment is a small step in that direc­tion.  The rev­enues gen­er­ated by stu­dents tak­ing courses offered by UNM fac­ulty (Cours­era will be charg­ing stu­dents if they desire to get credit) will be shared with UNM.  UNM’s Office of Aca­d­e­mic Affairs will begin to study, with the fac­ulty sen­ate and oth­ers, approaches to shar­ing rev­enues with the fac­ulty who gen­er­ate them.

Aca­d­e­mic depart­ments will deter­mine which Cours­era courses can be accepted for credit at UNM.  The agree­ment does not require fac­ulty to sub­mit courses.  It sim­ply gives UNM a seat at the table with other pub­lic flag­ship uni­ver­si­ties and sys­tems as this fast devel­op­ing medium grows.

UNM Provost Chaouki Abdal­lah said, “This may also pro­vide some of our fac­ulty mem­bers with an extra income stream (at a time when com­pen­sa­tion increases have been ane­mic. ) I am hop­ing that UNM’s fac­ulty can claim some spe­cific areas (such as anthro­pol­ogy, South­west­ern lit­er­a­ture or arts, courses taught in Span­ish, etc) in the MOOC space.  Also some of our fac­ulty could choose (as I do) the freely-available MOOC courses as an extra resource.  Free courses may also help reduce the cost of a degree and even allow some High School stu­dents to come to UNM bet­ter pre­pared for col­lege work.”

For aca­d­e­mic pur­poses, the Coursea agree­ment will go into effect for the fall 2013 semester.

Media con­tact: Karen Went­worth (505) 277‑5627; email: kwent2@unm.edu

Posted in Academics & Faculty, University News | |

Pyle Organizes New Mexico Chamber Music Festival

May 21, 2013 | By Carolyn Gonzales

Pamela Pyle

Clas­si­cal music fes­ti­vals have been an impor­tant eco­nomic boon to places like Aspen, Buf­falo and Charleston. Pamela Pyle, asso­ciate pro­fes­sor of music, thinks New Mex­ico could reap the ben­e­fits of hold­ing one in Albuquerque.

Pyle is orga­niz­ing the New Mex­ico Cham­ber Music Fes­ti­val, which runs from Sun­day, June 2 through Sat­ur­day, June 8, with con­certs at the Uni­ver­sity of New Mex­ico Cen­ter for the Arts’ Keller Hall on Fri­day, June 7 at 7:30 p.m. and another on Sat­ur­day, June 8 at 2 p.m. at the Albu­querque Museum of Art and His­tory, 2000 Moun­tain Rd., NW. Tick­ets are not required for entrance.

The fes­ti­val has global rep­re­sen­ta­tion with stu­dents from Brazil, China, Korea, Tai­wan, Venezuela and the U.S. attend­ing. These stu­dents are study­ing across the coun­try at the East­man School of Music, New Eng­land Con­ser­va­tory, the Uni­ver­sity of Texas, Austin, Ari­zona State Uni­ver­sity and the Uni­ver­sity of North Dakota, plus some recent UNM graduates.

In addi­tion to Pyle, who teaches and per­forms piano and col­lab­o­ra­tive piano, the fac­ulty includes acclaimed vio­lin­ists Guillermo Figueroa, L.P. How and Dis­tin­guished Pro­fes­sor of vio­lon­cello at the East­man School of Music, Alan Harris.

For this inau­gural year, Pyle has hand selected 14 stu­dents, who will be divided into four cham­ber groups– two piano quar­tets and two piano trios, plus addi­tional con­fig­u­ra­tions of piano/string duos and a string quartet.

“It’s very excit­ing, as most of these stu­dents have not worked together before, so there will be very fresh col­lab­o­ra­tions afoot! I think they are an extra­or­di­nary group of young per­form­ers,” Pyle said.

Pyle said that she sees the via­bil­ity of the fes­ti­val catch­ing on and becom­ing a recur­ring event. “A music fes­ti­val is a unique expe­ri­ence for stu­dents and ulti­mately for the com­mu­nity that hears and sup­ports them. They work for a short but intensely focused period on spe­cific reper­toire, and their whole lives for that time revolve around the music and their work with the fac­ulty and other stu­dents. It is an immer­sion that allows them to learn and grow with the music, with the added bonus of get­ting to present their inter­pre­ta­tions to an audi­ence at the end of their explorations.”

Pyle has done exten­sive fundrais­ing. Donors from across the city have con­tributed, as have some of Pyle’s col­leagues within the Col­lege of Fine Arts and admin­is­tra­tors and oth­ers across cam­pus, and the Cul­tural Ser­vices offices of the City of Albu­querque. Piano Werkes has gra­ciously loaned the fes­ti­val the use of a Yamaha con­cert grand piano. As a result, the fes­ti­val is free to the stu­dent participants.

“The stu­dents will be stay­ing with us here on cam­pus. We were able to raise enough money to fly them, and four cel­los, in for the fes­ti­val,” she said. “I am so grate­ful for the sup­port we have received from so many mem­bers of the com­mu­nity. The econ­omy of a city can be pos­i­tively effected by host­ing such a fes­ti­val, but beyond this, the influx of inter­na­tional stu­dents and fac­ulty add to the vision of our city as a val­ued cen­ter for the arts and creativity.”

Media Con­tact: Car­olyn Gon­za­les (505) 277‑5920; email: cgonzal@unm.edu

Posted in Academics & Faculty, Events | |

Two UNM School of Engineering Faculty Receive CAREER Awards

May 14, 2013 | By Karen Wentworth

Two junior fac­ulty in the UNM School of Engi­neer­ing, Meeko Oishi and Mark Stone, received pres­ti­gious National Sci­ence Foun­da­tion (NSF) Fac­ulty Early Career Devel­op­ment (CAREER) Awards. The CAREER Pro­gram is a Foundation-wide activ­ity that offers the NSF’s most pres­ti­gious awards in sup­port of junior fac­ulty who exem­plify the role of teacher-scholars through out­stand­ing research, excel­lent edu­ca­tion and the inte­gra­tion of edu­ca­tion and research within the con­text of the mis­sion of their organizations.

Meeko Oishi

Oishi, an elec­tri­cal and com­puter engi­neer­ing assis­tant pro­fes­sor, received the CAREER award to develop the­o­ret­i­cal and com­pu­ta­tional tech­niques to make col­lab­o­ra­tive human-automation sys­tems more reli­able by iden­ti­fy­ing poten­tial prob­lems in user-interfaces and automa­tion at the design stage. The research will use con­trol the­o­retic tech­niques for dynamics-driven user-interface design, with appli­ca­tion to large, safety-critical, high-risk or expen­sive systems.

Oishi’s research focuses on pro­vid­ing guar­an­tees of safety and per­for­mance in cyber­phys­i­cal sys­tems through care­ful design of con­trollers and user-interfaces (for sys­tems that are not fully auto­mated). Another aspect of her work is char­ac­ter­i­za­tion of bio­med­ical sys­tems using con­trol the­o­retic tech­niques. In col­lab­o­ra­tion with neu­rol­o­gists who focus on Parkinson’s dis­ease and neu­ro­sur­geons who focus on trau­matic brain injury, her group aims to iden­tify poten­tial bio­mark­ers through sys­tem iden­ti­fi­ca­tion and dynam­i­cal sys­tem analy­sis. For more, visit Oishi’s research, awards, pub­li­ca­tions and back­ground.

Mark Stone

Stone, a civil engi­neer­ing assis­tant pro­fes­sor, will use “river foren­sics” to recon­struct his­tor­i­cal river con­di­tions dat­ing back over 100 years using com­puter mod­els. The mod­els will be used to describe flood waves as var­i­ous river engi­neer­ing projects were imple­mented through­out the mid­dle Rio Grande val­ley. The project will also include impor­tant out­reach activ­i­ties involv­ing the Bosque Ecosys­tem Mon­i­tor­ing Pro­gram (BEMP) and the South­west Indian Poly­tech­nic Insti­tute (SIPI).

The research is under­way because humans have long attempted to exert con­trol over rivers to sat­isfy imme­di­ate needs. River engi­neer­ing projects have included con­struc­tion of dams and lev­ees, chan­nel­iz­ing rivers, and devel­op­ing flood­plains. Such projects have allowed our civ­i­liza­tion to pros­per but at an eco­log­i­cal cost that is now bet­ter under­stood and more greatly appre­ci­ated by soci­ety. The results of Stone’s research will improve under­stand­ing of these impacts while also inform­ing river restora­tion efforts. For more, visit at Stone’s research, awards, pub­li­ca­tions and back­ground.

Media con­tact: Tamara Williams (505) 277‑5859; email: tamara@unm.edu

Posted in Academics & Faculty, University News | |

CityLab Exhibit Features ‘Root 66′

May 10, 2013 | By Carolyn Gonzales

A stu­dent from the City­Lab stu­dio explains his project to Dean Geral­dine Forbes Isais.

The UNM School of Archi­tec­ture and Plan­ning recently opened an exhi­bi­tion at ABQ+UNM City­Lab, located at 505 Cen­tral Ave., fea­tur­ing devel­op­ment, revi­tal­iza­tion strate­gies and site-specific projects along his­toric Route 66.

The exhi­bi­tion is work from the inau­gural mul­ti­dis­ci­pli­nary stu­dio, Root 66, which brought together archi­tec­ture, land­scape archi­tec­ture and com­mu­nity and regional plan­ning — the three dis­ci­pli­nary areas of the school.

Geral­dine Forbes Isais, dean, UNM School of Archi­tec­ture and Plan­ning, said, “The exhi­bi­tion was pre­sented for the City of Albu­querque staff to come by to see the stu­dents’ work, eval­u­ate it and talk with the stu­dents. We believe it’s a mutual goal to have stu­dent interns con­tinue to work in City­Lab and with the city.”

See slideshow.

Posted in Academics & Faculty, Campus Community, University News | |

Burr Receives Awards from New Mexico Press Women

May 9, 2013 | By Carolyn Gonzales

Burr, cen­ter, with sec­ond year law stu­dent Jef­frey Mitchell, who served as co-host; and author Melody Groves, the fea­tured guest for the win­ning Arts Talk episode.

Regents Pro­fes­sor of Law Sherri Burr recently received four first place awards from New Mex­ico Press Women. Two awards were for her Com­cast Cable Access tele­vi­sion show Arts Talk, and two for her South­west Sage column.

Arts Talk received first place awards in the cat­e­gories of Best Tele­vi­sion Talk Show and Best Tele­vi­sion Inter­view. Stu­dent Jef­frey Mitchell attended and was awarded as well. The inter­view was with authors Don Bullis and Slim Randles.

Episodes that were taped this semes­ter will be rebroad­cast Mon­day nights at 7 p.m. on Com­cast chan­nel 27.

May 13: Jonathan Miller, author of Rat­tlesnake Lawyer and Rat­tlesnake Wedding

May 20: Col­lege of Fine Arts Dean Kym Pyn­der and Arts Man­age­ment Direc­tor Ram­sey Lofton with co-host Marne Elmore, an art law stu­dent study­ing for a master’s in Fine Arts.

May 27: Pho­tog­ra­pher Craig Var­jabe­dian with co-host Jef­frey Mitchell.

Media Con­tact: Car­olyn Gon­za­les (505) 277‑5920; email: cgonzal@unm.edu

Posted in Academics & Faculty, University News | |