Fellows of AICP are honored in recognition of achievements as model planners who have made significant contributions to planning and society. Fellowship is granted to planners who have been members of AICP and have achieved excellence in professional practice, teaching and mentoring, research, public and community service, and leadership.

“It is a very great honor to be selected as a fellow,” says Scheer. “As an academic, the recognition from my profession holds a special value and commits me even more to the mentoring of new professional planners and urban designers.”

“As the leadership of the Utah chapter of the American Planning Association, we are very proud of Brenda and grateful for the positive aura she lends to the planning profession and our state,” says Aric Jensen, director of planning and economic development for Bountiful City, and president of the Utah chapter of APA. “It is no accident that Utah’s emergence as an example of planning innovation corresponds with the growth of the College of Architecture and Planning at the University of Utah.”

Scheer has been dean of the college since 2004. During her tenure, the former Graduate School of Architecture has been transformed and is now also home to one of the most well regarded urban planning departments in the United States. Course offerings include interdisciplinary programs in product design, preservation and sustainability. New degrees in the college include a Ph.D. in planning, a master of real estate development (with the School of Business), and a recently accredited graduate degree in city and metropolitan planning. Future projects include renovating and expanding the architecture building on campus into a net-zero energy facility—the first of its size in the United States.

Scheer has prioritized social and civic responsibility, with students and faculty heavily engaged in outreach and service learning programs, as well as new interdisciplinary activities. Faculty have developed new hands-on programs, including a project where students design and build a home for a Navajo family, an urban planning studio that concentrates on helping Hispanic neighborhoods of Salt Lake City, and an innovative honors course that engages interdisciplinary freshmen and sophomores in a think tank with community partners.

Scheer graduated with bachelor’s and master’s degrees in architecture from Rice University and was a Loeb Fellow at the Harvard Graduate School of Design. She also continues to practice architecture as a principal in the firm Scheer & Scheer.

ABOUT THE U’S COLLEGE OF ARCHITECTURE + PLANNING:

The College of Architecture + Planning (CA+P) at the University of Utah facilitates an educational community of students, faculty  and staff with interests and expertise in creative design, building, planning, computer technology, issues of social and ecological responsibility and the scholarly study of the history and theory of the built landscape. CA+P educates future professionals who are concerned with constructing and maintaining the highest quality in built and natural environments.

That is among the conclusions of a review of nearly 200 scientific studies relevant to the topic. The review was scheduled for online publication this week in the journal Biological Conservation by Çağan Şekercioğlu (pronounced Cha-awn Shay-care-gee-oh-loo), an assistant professor of biology at the University of Utah.

There are roughly 10,000 bird species worldwide. About 87 percent spend at least some time in the tropics, but if migratory birds are excluded, about 6,100 bird species live only in the tropics, Şekercioğlu says.

He points out that already, “12.5 percent of the world’s 10,000 bird species are threatened with extinction” – listed as vulnerable, endangered or critically endangered by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (www.redlist.org).

Şekercioğlu’s research indicates about 100 to 2,500 land bird species may go extinct due to climate change, depending on the severity of global warming and habitat loss due to development, and on the ability of birds to find new homes as rising temperatures push them poleward or to higher elevations. The most likely number of land bird extinctions, without additional conservation efforts, is 600 to 900 by the year 2100, Şekercioğlu says.

“Birds are perfect canaries in the coal mine – it’s hard to avoid that metaphor – for showing the effects of global change on the world’s ecosystems and the people who depend on those ecosystems,” he adds.

Şekercioğlu reviewed the scientific literature relevant to climate change and tropical birds with Richard Primack, a biologist at Boston University, and Janice Wormworth, a freelance science writer and ecological consultant in Australia.

Wormworth and Şekercioğlu coauthored the 2011 book, “Winged Sentinels: Birds and Climate Change.” The new article is an updated condensation of that book and another 2011 book Şekercioğlu coauthored, “Conservation of Tropical Birds.”

The review was funded by the Christensen Fund – which finances community-based conservation projects – the University of Utah and National Science Foundation.

Putting the Heat on Tropical Birds

Scientists expect climate change to bring not only continued warming, but larger and-or more frequent extreme weather events such as droughts, heat waves, fires, cold spells and “once-in-a-century” storms and hurricanes. Birds may withstand an increase in temperature, yet extreme weather may wreck habitats or make foraging impossible.

“The balance of evidence points to increases in the numbers of intense tropical hurricanes (though hurricane frequency could decrease overall),” Şekercioğlu and colleagues write. “This would predominantly affect tropical bird communities, especially species living in coastal and island habitats.”

Şekercioğlu says it is difficult to predict how habitat loss, emerging diseases, invasive species, hunting and pollution will combine with climate change to threaten tropical birds, although “in some cases habitat loss [from agriculture and development] can increase bird extinctions caused by climate change by nearly 50 percent.”

In addition, “compared to temperate species that often experience a wide range of temperature on a yearly basis, tropical species, especially those limited to tropical forests with stable climates, are less likely to keep up with rapid climate change.”

The researchers say studies indicate:

• Climate change already has caused some low-elevation birds to shift their ranges, either poleward or to higher elevations, causing problems for other species. Global warming helped rainbow-billed toucans move from Costa Rican lowlands to higher-elevation cloud forests, where they now compete for tree-cavity nest space with the resplendent quetzal. The toucans also eat quetzal eggs and nestlings.

• Birds with slower metabolisms often live in cooler tropical environments with relatively little temperature variation. They can withstand a narrower range of temperature and are more vulnerable to climate change.

• Climate change may spread malaria-bearing mosquitoes to higher elevations in places like Hawaii, where the malaria parasite can threaten previously unexposed birds.

• Longer and less regular dry seasons and droughts expected during global warming may reduce populations of tropical birds that often time their breeding with wet seasons when food is abundant.

Şekercioğlu acknowledges that “not all effects of climate change are negative, and changes in temperature and precipitation regimes will benefit some species. … Nevertheless, climate change will not benefit many species.”

Scenarios for Extinction

A 2008 study by Şekercioğlu and late climatologist Stephen Schneider calculated 60 scenarios of how tropical land bird extinction rates will be affected by various possible combinations of three variables: climate change, habitat loss and how easily birds can shift their range, meaning move to new habitat. Citing those estimates, the new review paper says that “depending on the amount of habitat loss, each degree of surface warming can lead to approximately 100 to 500 additional bird extinctions.”

The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change has predicted 1.1 to 6.4 degrees Celsius (2 to 11.5 degrees Fahrenheit) of global warming of the Earth’s surface by the year 2100, which Şekercioğlu’s study converted into a best case of about 100 land bird extinctions and a worst case of 2,500.

He says the most likely case now is considered to be 3.5 C (6.3 F) warming by 2100, resulting in about 600 to 900 land bird species going extinct. These estimates are conservative because they exclude water birds, which are 14 percent of all bird species.

Because they don’t travel far, “sedentary” birds “are five times more likely to go extinct in the 21st century than are long-distance migratory birds,” says Şekercioğlu.

The review found:

• Tropical mountain birds are among the most vulnerable to climate change. Warmer temperatures at lower elevations force them to higher elevations where there is less or no habitat, so some highland species may go extinct.

• Climate change and accompanying sea-level rise pose problems for birds in tropical coastal and island ecosystems, “which are disappearing at a rapid rate,” Şekercioğlu and colleagues write. Many such ecosystems already have been invaded by non-native species and exploited by humans.

• Birds in extensive lowland forests with few mountains – areas such as the Amazon and Congo basins – may have trouble relocating far or high enough to survive.

• Tropical birds in open habitats such as savanna, grasslands, scrub and desert face shifting and shrinkage of their habitats.

• Rising sea levels will threaten aquatic birds such as waders, ducks and geese, yet they often are hemmed in by cities and farms with no place to go for new habitat.

• Tropical birds in arid zones are assumed to be resilient to hot, dry conditions, yet climate change may test their resilience by drying out oases on which they depend.

More Research and Conservation Needed

To better understand and reduce the impact of climate change on tropical birds, Şekercioğlu urges more research, identification and monitoring of species at greatest risk, restoration of degraded lands, relocation of certain species, and new and expanded protected areas and corridors based on anticipated changes in a species’ range.

“Nevertheless,” Şekercioğlu and colleagues write, “such efforts will be temporary fixes if we fail to achieve important societal change to reduce consumption, to control the emissions of greenhouse gases and to stop climate change.”

“Otherwise,” they add, “we face the prospect of an out-of-control climate that will not only lead to enormous human suffering, but will also trigger the extinction of countless organisms, among which tropical birds will be but a fraction of the total.”

The University of Utah offers a satellite uplink service for live interviews or video feeds about this story. For more information, please visit: http://unews.utah.edu/broadcast-services

This year’s recipients of the Distinguished Alumnus/a Award are actress Klea Blackhurst BFA’85, businessman H. Roger Boyer BS’65, former U vice president J. Michael Mattsson BS’60, and scientist Arthur L. Ruoff PhD’55. Gary Crocker, a Utah entrepreneur who founded Research Medical, will receive the Honorary Alumnus Award, in recognition of his support of the University. These awards are the highest honor the University of Utah Alumni Association gives to U graduates and a non-alumnus/a, in recognition of their outstanding professional and personal achievements, and/or public service.

Blackhurst, who currently plays Shelby Cross on The Onion News Network, has appeared in numerous off-Broadway productions and created the well-received homage to Ethel Merman Everything the Traffic Will Allow. Blackhurst has sung in concert appearances in London and all over the U.S., teaches master voice classes and does television commercials and voiceover work for radio.

Boyer is chair and founder of The Boyer Company, which has developed many significant commercial properties throughout the Intermountain West, including The Gateway shopping center in Salt Lake City. He is a former chair of the Utah Division of Business and Economic Development Board and has served as a member of the University of Utah’s Board of Trustees.

Mattsson served the U in leadership roles for more than 40 years, including as director of development and communications for the University of Utah Medical Center and later as the University’s vice president of development from 1985 to 2006, helping the U raise a then-unprecedented $1.7 billion.

Ruoff has had an influential and award-winning career in the field of high-pressure chemistry and materials science. A professor at Cornell University since receiving his doctorate at the U, he wrote two influential books on materials science, published more than 300 articles, and developed a tutorial course that has been used in 60 universities.

Crocker, a highly successful biomedical innovator and investor, is currently president of Crocker Ventures and chair of Merrimack Pharmaceuticals. A former member of the U’s Board of Trustees and currently chair of the U’s College of Science Advisory Board, he has been a significant donor to the U.

More information about the award recipients may be found online at: www.alumni.utah.edu/u-news/november11/foundersday.php.

From February 22 to 24, researchers and practitioners from around the world will gather at the University of Utah to address these issues at a conference on “Global Justice: Economic Globalization, Crisis, and the Common Good.” This event is the sixth annual Conference on Human Rights, Conflict Resolution, Nonviolence, and Peace presented by the Barbara L. and Norman C. Tanner Center for Nonviolent Human Rights Advocacy at the University of Utah.

Deen Chatterjee, chair of the Conference Organizing Committee, notes the urgency of the conference theme in view of current events.  “As globalization has deepened worldwide economic integration, pressing questions about justice have become increasingly common. The conference addresses the latest ideas on this important topic by some of the leading figures in this debate.”

“Our conference panelists will be examining challenging and complicated issues that can have an impact on all of our lives—in terms of how we choose to spend our money, for whom we choose to vote, and to what causes we devote our time,” says Thomas Maloney, professor of economics at the U and director of the Tanner Human Rights Center.  “We really hope that this conference, like all of our events, will help build constructive and lasting connections between the university and the broader community.”

All events are free and open to the public. More information, and a detailed schedule, is available at http://www.humanrights.utah.edu/forum/Forum2012/index.html.

HIGHLIGHTS OF EVENTS

Wednesday, February 22, 6:30 p.m.
Salt Lake City Main Library Auditorium
“Can We Fix the Global Crisis? Obstacles and Opportunities.”
Keynote address by Richard Falk, Milbank professor emeritus of International Law at Princeton University and distinguished visiting professor at the University of California, Santa Barbara. Falk will examine potential responses to current crises in the global economy, political relations, the environment and values.

Thursday, February 23, 12:15 p.m.
S.J. Quinney College of Law, The University of Utah
“Globalization, Justice, and the Global Power Shift”
Richard Miller, the Hutchinson professor of philosophy and director of the Program on Ethics and Public Life at Cornell University. Miller will discuss the interplay of economic, political and human rights concerns in US-China relations as well as broader changes in global power relationships.

Friday, February 24, 2:00 p.m.
Officers’ Club, Fort Douglas, The University of Utah
Roundtable discussion led by Joel Rosenthal, president of the Carnegie Council for Ethics in International Affairs.

In addition, several panel discussions will take place throughout the day on Thursday, February 23, and Friday, February 24, examining the impacts of economic globalization and on the global capacity to deal with issues ranging from environmental degradation, population growth, and threats to the status of women, minorities and indigenous peoples.

ABOUT THE TANNER CENTER

The Tanner Center is dedicated to providing University of Utah students, faculty and the broader community with the inspiration and education needed to become advocates for peace, nonviolence and human rights. The center seeks to provide avenues for the open discussion of important issues dividing the community, the nation and the world.

“We essentially replaced traditional username and password authentication systems with a proprietary virtual ID badge,” said Austin Aerts, CFO of EMRID Technologies, and accounting student at the David Eccles School of Business. “We knew we had this great idea, but entering Opportunity Quest really taught us the difference between a great idea and a great business plan.”

Other EMRID team members were Emily Theisen, CEO of EMRID, and Ph.D student David Kent of the U’s College of Pharmacy, who is also a student at the S.J. Quinney College of Law.

EMRID’s business plan recently bested 23 entries made by undergraduate, graduate and Ph.D. students in the business school’s annual Opportunity Quest competition. More than 200 students, mentors, advisors and business team members gathered to contribute to the multi-round competition. Business plan submissions stemmed from the medical, chemical, technological, athletic, social, security and educational fields.

Numerous colleges across Utah host separate Opportunity Quest competitions. Top teams, like EMRID, advance to the Utah Entrepreneur Challenge at the U for a chance to win $40,000. EMRID hopes their technology is innovative enough to win the top prize.

“Employees constantly use personal mobile devices for professional activities, yet sensitive information must continue to be protected by company and governmental standards,” Aerts said. “EMRID offers a simple — yet elegant — solution to this by turning mobile devices into virtual ID badges. In doing so, they don’t need to enter a password that can be hacked and the device can facilitate professional use of personal devices while working within the constraints of current IT and security systems.”

Dolly Holt, winner of the fall’s techTITANS idea competition, won continued support for her ligament and tendon repair device by placing second in Opportunity Quest. IB-Tape, a sports medicine product team, placed third. TechTITANS, the first of the three competitions in the Utah Entrepreneur Series, precedes Opportunity Quest and the Utah Entrepreneur Challenge. For the first time, green energy ideas can earn $100,000 through the Challenge by taking advantage of a new partnership between the Utah Entrepreneur Series and the University of Colorado Boulder.

The 24 entries in the U’s Opportunity Quest underlined students’ innovative mindset and entrepreneurial tendencies. Several entries emerged from the U’s Lassonde Center and Technology Commercialization Office, while others utilized resources such as the Foundry and Student Entrepreneur Conference to develop their ideas. University students were provided access to mentors in the business community, whose expertise helped to refine ideas and give them real-world application.

“Because of my success within techTITANS and Opportunity Quest, I was recently contacted by a company regarding a potential partnership,” says Holt.

Opportunity Quest is part of the U’s Lassonde Entrepreneur Center, which provides a variety of business and entrepreneurship programs for undergraduates and graduates. The Lassonde Center is jointly managed by the David Eccles School of Business and the Technology Venture Development office.

Learn more about Opportunity Quest and related competitions at www.ues.utah.edu.

Winners of the University of Utah Opportunity Quest

• First Place ($5,000): EMRID Technologies, University of Utah, Emily Theisen, Austin Aerts, David Kent. Replaces username/password authentication by turning mobile devices into ID badges.
• Second Place ($3,000): Ligadon, University of Utah, Dolly Holt, Adam Eshenroder, Paul Charles Hogrebe. Medical device to improve ligament and tendon repair after injury.
• Third Place ($2,000): IB-Tape, University of Utah and Westminster College, Parker Tyler, Jared Turley, Tyler Kjesbo, Camilla Fraschini. Sports medicine product.

The new species, collected on two small islands off Madagascar, brings to about 170 the number of species in the genus Amorphophallus, which is Greek for “misshapen penis” because of the shape of the plants’ flower-covered shaft, called the inflorescence or the spadix, says Greg Wahlert, a postdoctoral researcher in biology.

The 4.5-foot-tall plant, Amorphophallus perrieri, began reeking Friday, Feb. 3 as it approached the peak of its bloom in a campus greenhouse. A day later, Wahlert began cutting down the plant in stages so the spadix, the surrounding leafy spathe and other parts could be pressed, mounted and submitted to the National Museum of Natural History in Paris as part of the process of designating the plant a new species.

That won’t be official until about a year from now after Wahlert publishes a scientific paper formally describing the species, which can grow to 5 feet high, and how it differs from relatives in the genus, including Amorphophallus titanum – also known as the “corpse plant,” “corpse flower” and “titan arum” – which grows to 20 feet high.

After Wahlert first collected specimens of the new plant in 2006 and 2007 and discovered it was a new species, he found the Paris museum’s herbarium held a dried specimen collected from one of the same islands by French botanist-geologist Joseph Marie Henri Perrier de la Bâthie (1873-1958), who didn’t realize it was a new species. So Wahlert is naming it for Perrier.

“Perrier collected it in 1932, and it sat in the museum until we dug it up and compared it to the other specimens and the plants that I had collected,” Wahlert says. “Perrier spent years working on scores of other plant groups [and describing hundreds of other new species] and just never got around to it.”

The corpse flower smells like rotting meat to attract the flies and beetles that pollinate it. Wahlert had expected the new species would smell like cheese, which it did briefly when it began blooming Feb. 3. But the odor soon grew worse – much worse – and more like its giant relative.

“I smelled rotting roadkill out in the sun reeking,” says University of Utah biology Professor Lynn Bohs, in whose lab Wahlert works. “There’s also a note of public restroom – a Porta Potty smell.”

Wahlert added: “I would say carrion and feces. When you get right up to it, it’s really foul and disgusting.”

Another Utah researcher collected volatile gases emitted by the plant “and will identify the components of the smell,” Wahlert says. Only a small group of Amorphophallus species have been tested for odors, but the known aromas range from rotting meat to anise, cheese, dung, fish, urine, spice and chocolate, he adds.

Two weeks before the plant began to bloom, “it was just a little bud sticking out of the dirt,” he says. When it bloomed, the stalk was almost 4 feet tall and the inflorescence or spadix was about 10 inches long. It was yellow, with pollen on the top part. The lower part, hidden by the reddish, leafy spathe, was covered by hundreds of tiny flowers, each a fraction of an inch wide. (Sometimes the entire spadix is referred to informally as the flower.)

“They are just so rude – their appearance and smell,” Bohs says. “Everybody I’ve talked to says they almost started puking when they smelled it. It’s horrid.”

In the Same Family as Philodendrons and Skunk Cabbage

Some thought the plants’ suggestive genus name was horrid. In 2008, Sir David Attenborough said he invented the name “titan arum” for the corpse flower for his BBC series “The Private Life of Plants” because he thought it would be inappropriate to repeatedly refer to Amorphophallus.

Bohs says the genus belongs to the family Araceae, commonly known as the arum or aroid family. The family includes philodendrons, taro root (from which Hawaiians make poi), skunk cabbage and anthurium, a plant common in floral arrangements, with a yellow spadix surrounded by a leafy, red, heart-shaped spathe.

Wahlert says plants in the genus Amorphophallus are found in southern Asia, the South Pacific, Australia and Africa, including Madagascar. Of the 170 or so species in the genus, which first was discovered in 1834, “a lot have been known for 150 years, but one, two or three new species are described every year,” he adds.

A. titanum grows naturally only in Sumatra in Indonesia, although it is found around the world in greenhouses that compete for the largest corpse flower plant. The Guinness Book of Records title currently is held by a New Hampshire specimen that had a spadix measuring 10-feet-2.25-inches tall in 2010. Counting the stem and spadix, A. titanum can reach 20 feet tall, compared with a 5-foot maximum for A. perrieri, which has a longer stem and shorter spadix – about 10 inches long in the case of the one that bloomed on campus.

New Species Collected from a Burial Island

Wahlert collected the new species from Nosy Mitsio and Nosy Ankarea – two islands northwest of Madagascar, which is off the east coast of Africa. “Nosy” means island in the Malagasy language. The plant since has been found on Madagascar.

He had to obtain permission from a local village to visit Nosy Ankarea, an uninhabited, half-mile-wide island where the Sakalava people buried their rulers. Unlike Ankarea, which is still vegetated, Mitsio is heavily deforested. A. perrieri was found there in low scrub behind beach dunes.

“I went there in 2006 to collect tree violets, and when I got there I discovered these Amorphophallus in full bloom on the first day in the field,” cutting and collecting four or five specimens, Wahlert says. “That night I got malaria. I stayed there a week but was so sick I couldn’t do much collecting.”

After the trip, Wahlert showed the specimens to Dutch botanist Wilbert Hetterscheid of Wageningen University. Hetterscheid, an expert on Amorphophallus, said they were a new species, and is co-authoring the descriptive paper with Wahlert.

In October 2007, Wahlert went back to the islands at the end of the dry season, and once again the new species were in full bloom. He collected 15 tubers – the roots – so he could grow the plants.

Wahlert kept the live plants at various institutions where he worked and gave others away, ending up with one left when he moved to Utah last fall.

Why should anyone care about a stinking plant with a suggestive shape?

“It’s not high-tech, but it’s still important to describe new species, to document biodiversity, particularly in a place like Madagascar, which is one of the world’s great biodiversity hotspots,” Wahlert says. “It’s been severely deforested and is continuing to be deforested. So it’s important to document new species before they go extinct.”

New students entering each school will be able to compete for $750,000 in new scholarships to be allocated over a 15-year period, with special consideration given to FJ Management employees who apply. At the conclusion of their education, all business students at both universities will benefit from an additional $1 million to fund brand new, fully staffed career services centers that will bear the Flying J name. The facilities will provide conference space and staff and will act as a valuable career outreach resource in connecting students with key hiring people at organizations.

Crystal Call Maggelet, chief executive officer of FJ Management, said the donations were a fulfillment of her late father’s vision to help young people. Maggelet’s father, Jay Call, founded Flying J Fuel Co. in 1968.

“My father died suddenly at a young age.  He was generous everyday in small ways but never had much of an opportunity to give back in ways that could help hundreds of students for years to come,” Maggelet said. “He started with nothing, but through hard work and determination he built Flying J to become one of North America’s largest diesel fuel retailers. This gift will help hundreds of students accomplish their educational dreams. It is my hope that those who receive this scholarship will apply the same spirit of entrepreneurship and independence in their lives that my father demonstrated.”

Taylor Randall, dean of the David Eccles School of Business, called the donations significant.

“I applaud FJ Management for its generosity in making higher education a priority,” Randall said. “This donation is helping to fund our new career services center, the first time the business school has had a specific facility dedicated to career enhancement. This donation will personally touch the lives of many university students for generations to come.”

Douglas D. Anderson, dean of the Jon M. Huntsman School of Business, said the donation presents new opportunities for students in helping them pay for higher education.

“FJ Management’s noble vision of what is possible sets a new standard for each of us,” Anderson said. “Because of that spirit, countless students will benefit from FJ Management’s generosity. The advantages born from these scholarships will reach far beyond the classroom as they help build future business and civic leaders.”

“Major histocompatibility complex” (MHC) proteins are found on the surface of most cells in vertebrate animals. They distinguish self from foreign, and trigger an immune response against foreign invaders. MHCs recognize invading germs, reject or accept transplanted organs and play a role in helping us smell compatible mates.

“This study explains why there are so many versions of the MHC genes, and why the ones that cause susceptibility to diseases are being maintained and not eliminated,” says biology Professor Wayne Potts. “They are involved in a never-ending arms race that causes them, at any point in time, to be good against some infections but bad against other infections and autoimmune diseases.”

By allowing a disease virus to evolve rapidly in mice, the study produced new experimental evidence for the arms race between genes and germs – known technically as “antagonistic coevolution.” The findings will be published online the week of Feb. 6, 2012, in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

Potts, the senior author, ran the study with first author and former doctoral student Jason Kubinak, now a postdoctoral fellow in pathology. Other co-authors were biology doctoral student James Ruff, biology undergraduate C. Whitney Hyzer and Patricia Slev, a clinical assistant professor of pathology. The research was funded by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases.

Theories for the Diversity of Immune-System MHC Genes

Most genes in humans and other vertebrate have only one or two “alleles,” which are varieties or variants of a single gene. Although any given person carries no more than 12 varieties of the six human MHC genes, the human population has anywhere from hundreds to 2,300 varieties of each of the six human genes that produce MHC proteins.

“The mystery is why there are so many different versions of the same [MHC] genes in the human population,” Kubinak says, especially because many people carry MHCs that make them susceptible to many pathogens (including the AIDS virus, malaria and hepatitis B and C) and autoimmune diseases (including type I diabetes, rheumatoid arthritis, lupus, multiple sclerosis, irritable bowel disease and ankylosing spondylitis).

Scientists have proposed three theories for why so many MHC gene variants exist in vertebrate animal populations (invertebrates don’t have MHCs), and say all three likely are involved in maintaining the tremendous diversity of MHCs:

• An organism with more MHC varieties has a better immune response than organisms with fewer varieties, so over time, organisms with more MHCs are more likely to survive. However, this theory cannot explain the full extent of MHC diversity.

• Previous research indicates people and other animals are attracted to the smell of potential mates with MHCs that are “foreign” rather than “self.” Parents with different MHC variants produce children with more MHCs and thus stronger immune systems.

• Antagonistic coevolution between an organism and its pathogens. Kubinak says: “We have an organism and the microbes that infect it. Microbes evolve to better exploit the organism, and the organism evolves better defenses to fight off the infection. One theory to explain this great diversity in MHC genes is that those competing interests over time favor retaining more diversity.”

The Arms Race between Germs and MHC Genes

“You naturally keep genes that fight disease,” Kubinak says. “They help you survive, so those MHC genes become more common in the population over time because the people who carry them live to have offspring.”

Pathogens – disease-causing viruses, bacteria or parasites – infect animals, which defend themselves with MHCs that recognize the invader and trigger an immune response to destroy the invading pathogen.

But over time, some pathogens mutate and evolve to become less recognizable by the MHCs and thus evade an immune response. As a result, the pathogens thrive. MHCs that lose the battle to germs become less common because they now predispose people who carry them to get sick and maybe die. It was thought such disease-susceptibility MHC genes eventually should vanish from the population, but they usually don’t.

Why? While some of those MHCs do go extinct, others can persist, for two reasons. First, some of the now-rare MHCs gain an advantage because they no longer are targeted by evolving microbes, so they regain an ability to detect and fight the same germ that earlier defeated them – after that germ mutates yet again. Second, some of the rare MHCs can mount an effective immune response against completely different microbes.

How the Study was Performed; Implications of the Findings

The researchers studied 60 mice that were genetically identical, except the mice were divided into three groups, each with a different variety of MHC genes known as b, d and k, respectively.

A mouse leukemia virus named the Friend virus was grown in tissue culture and used to infect two mice from each of the three MHC types. The fast-evolving retrovirus grew within the mice for 12 days, attacking, enlarging and replicating within the spleen and liver. Virus particles in the spleen were collected, and the severity of illness was measured by weighing the enlarged spleen.

Then, virus taken from each of the first three pairs of mice (b, d and k) was used to infect another three pair of mice with the same MHC types. The process was repeated until 10 pairs of mice in each MHC type were infected, allowing the virus time to mutate.

In this first experiment, the biologists showed they could get the Friend virus to adapt to and thus evade the MHC variants (b, d or k) in the mouse cells it attacked.

Next, the researchers showed that the virus adapted only to specific MHC proteins. For example, viruses that adapted to and sickened mice with the MHC type b protein still were attacked effectively in mice that had the type d and k MHCs.

In the third experiment, the researchers showed that pathogen fitness (measured by the number of virus particles in the spleen) correlated with pathogen virulence (as measured by spleen enlargement and thus weight). So the virus that evaded MHC type b made mice with that MHC sicker.

Together, the experiments demonstrate “the first step in the antagonistic coevolutionary dance” between a virus and MHC genes, Potts says.

Potts says the findings have some important implications:

• The use of antibiotics to boost productivity in dairy herds and other livestock is a major reason human diseases increasingly resist antibiotics. Selective breeding for more milk and beef has reduced genetic diversity in livestock, including their MHCs. So breeding more MHCs back into herds could enhance their resistance to disease and thus reduce the need for antibiotics.

• Because their populations are diminished, endangered species have less genetic diversity, making them an easier target for germs. Potts says it would be desirable to breed protective MHCs back into endangered species to bolster their disease defenses.

• Genetic variation of MHCs in people and other organisms is important for limiting the evolution and spread of emerging diseases. In effect, Potts and colleagues created emerging diseases by making a virus evolve in mice. “It’s a model to identify what things change in viruses to make them more virulent and thus an emerging disease.”

Salt Lake City was the fifth city in the world to install central station electric street lighting, following New York, London, San Francisco and Cleveland. Rocky Mountain Power, formerly Utah Power and Light, brought electricity to the region around the turn of the century which allowed for the rapid development of mining and other emerging industries, and played a big role in urban and residential planning.

In celebrating its centennial, Rocky Mountain Power has contributed a vast collection of fascinating materials – vintage photographic materials such as glass negatives, albumen prints and “magic lantern slides,” which were viewed through an antique projector with a candle for illumination. Accounting ledgers, work orders, and blueprint planning documents of power houses and distribution lines (both above and below ground) will also be on display. The collection spans from 1885 through 1985, with a few images from the early 1990’s.

In August of 2010, Rocky Mountain Power contracted the U’s Marriott Library to clean, preserve, and digitize more than 3,000 photographs and negatives. The manuscripts and photos are currently being indexed and will be accessible to the public at the George S. Eccles Special Collections Reading Room on level 4 of the library.

Collection Highlights

• Photographs of L.L. Nunn, 19^th century entrepreneur who partnered with George Westinghouse to engineer hydroelectric power for mining operations in Colorado
• Diagrams illustrating the energy conversion process at the Arco Borax nuclear plant in Idaho
• Interiors and exteriors of power plants evolving over the century with energy demands of a rapidly growing population
• Large section showing miles and miles of power lines (transmission) crisscrossing the West
• The Teton Dam collapse
• Original Salt Palace dome 
• Black and white photos depicting people using electric power in various antiquated ways over the decades
• Ledgers containing the supply, planning, litigation and financial details
• Blueprint planning documents of power houses and lines
• 1876 Articles of Incorporation and meeting minutes of the Salt Lake City Railroad Company, of which Brigham Young was the president
• The Synchronizer from 1927 that was published by and for the employees of the Utah Power and Light Company. It contains a section of photographs and short stories illustrating the successes of electricity, specifically the use of Holidays lights on the outside of your home and the use of an electric stove and oven to cook for family and friends during the holiday season.

The tournament theme this year was Food Factor and focused on food handling and safety, and everything teams did related to this central topic. For example, they completed LEGO missions with autonomous robots on thematic playing fields that are based on food safety (e.g., their robots must move LEGO bacteria across the table to a LEGO sink). Each team also completed an innovative project and presentation that relates to food safety.

At the center of this gathering of young innovators was the Office of Technology Venture Development (“Tech Ventures”) at the University of Utah, which seeks to promote creativity and an interest in technology, innovation and engineering among Utah kids. Organizers point to these things as a key to Utah’s economic future.

“We are proud of the success and growth of the program in Utah. We are especially grateful to our qualifying tournament partners who make it possible for children statewide to participate,” said Kathy Hajeb, FLL operational partner and chief of staff at Tech Ventures. “Many of these young Utah students are so creative and enjoy the thrill of fast-paced problem-solving. These are our state’s future inventors and problem-solvers.”

During each of the championship and qualifying tournaments, the center stage consisted of teams taking turns navigating their robots through a variety of challenges on thematic playing fields. But the robots are only part of the FLL events. The teams also competed for robot design, innovation project presentation and “Core Values” awards. FLL core values include friendly competition and gracious professionalism.

“Excitement runs very high at these tournaments,” Hajeb said. “The environment is fun and collaborative. The team members motivate each other, parents cheer and the spectators watch the scoreboard. It’s a sporting event for the mind.”

Organizing the state’s second annual FLL championship and nine qualifiers has been a partnership of people and organizations. The program’s qualifying tournament partners believe that bringing FIRST LEGO League to their communities is beneficial. Volunteer coaches created self-organized teams of up to 10 students each. Teams have worked for months to build their robots and program them using LEGO MINDSTORMS technology. Meanwhile, sponsors and event organizers met regularly to manage logistics, and hundreds of volunteers are expected to bring the competitions to life.

This year’s sponsors for the Utah FLL Championship include Boart Longyear, Northrop Grumman, Rocky Mountain Power, Questar, Upstart Ventures, Williams, IM Flash Technologies, Antczak Polich Law, Steven Borst, Gary Schmitt, FLL and the University of Utah. Qualifying tournament partners include: Carbon School District, Copperview Recreation Center with Salt Lake County, Ecker Hill Intermediate with Mark and Amy Fehlberg, Holladay Recreation Center with Salt Lake County, The McGillis School with UEN, Murray High School with Murray City Parks and Recreation, Sunrise Ridge Intermediate with University of Utah Continuing Education at St. George, Thanksgiving Point Institute, and Weber State University with Hill Air Force Base.

The Jr. FLL expo was held in conjunction with the Utah FLL State Championship. Jr. FLL is for children ages 6-9, and it’s designed to capture young children’s curiosity and direct it toward discovering the possibilities of improving the world around them. Like FLL, Jr. FLL features a real-world challenge to be solved by research, critical thinking and imagination.

The Utah FLL Championship is one of many annual similar events held across the world. This year, 200,000 children and 54,000 volunteers were involved with FLL competitions in over 55 countries.

The University of Utah partners with the national FLL organization to bring this program to Utah. FLL is one of a series of related programs offered by FIRST, which was established in 1989 and is based in Manchester, N.H. For more information, go to www.utfll.utah.edu and www.usfirst.org.

In addition, the U will be putting on the Exuberant Sustainability: a symposium for community engagement on February 16. Headlining those events will be Richard Louv, the author of the best-selling book Last Child in the Woods and a new book The Nature Principle, which has received much acclaim. Louv was one of the pioneers of what is called nature deficit disorder and he will give a presentation entitled, The New Nature Movement.

Co-sponsors of this year’s teach-in with the Office of Sustainability include the College of Architecture & Planning, University Professor for Campus Sustainability Stephen Goldsmith, the College of Law, the Stegner Center, the College of Education, the College of Mines and Earth Sciences, the Ecology Planning Center, the Nature Conservancy, Undergraduate Studies and the College of Social Work Green Team.

The U’s effort is part of the Focus the Nation Forums-to-Action program that develops new student leaders to drive solution oriented clean energy collaborations between their campuses and communities. More than 30 colleges and universities are scheduled to participate.

For more details about how you can get involved, please contact the University of Utah Office of Sustainability at 801-581-7506 or visit: http://www.sustainability.utah.edu.

Exuberant Sustainability: a symposium for community engagement on February 16
Schedule of Public Events:

10:45 a.m. – 12:05 p.m.
·     Evidence of evolution
What: Come hear from students and staff about some of the many sustainability programs on campus and how to participate in the activities.
Who: Student sustainability leaders on campus
Location: School of Social Work, Goodwill Humanitarian Building, Community Meeting Room (#155)

12:30 pm – 1:45 pm
·     Getting to Net Zero
What & Who: Brenda Case Scheer, dean of the College of Architecture + Planning and Talley Goodson, President of 3-Form will discuss the role of Net Zero and what it means.
Location:School of Social Work, Goodwill Humanitarian Building, Community Meeting Room (#155)

2 pm – 3 pm
·     The New Nature Movement
What: Dr. Richard Louv will provide the keynote lecture of the day, an engaging presentation on The New Nature Movement.
Who:  Dr. Richard Louv is the author of The Nature Principle: human restoration and the end of nature deficit disorder and the award winning book Last Child in the Woods.
Location:Fine Arts Auditorium

3:30 pm – 4:30 pm
·     Focusing on you
What: Affinity groups working on sustainability issues both on and off campus.
Who: Open to anyone working, or interested in working on, sustainability issues.
Location:  School of Social Work, Goodwill Humanitarian Building, Community Meeting Room (#155)

As innovation advisors, Murphy and Wilkins will support the Innovation Center in testing new models of care delivery, form partnerships with local organizations to drive delivery system reform, and make improvements in their own health system—The University of Utah Department of Pediatrics and its health care partner, Primary Children’s Medical Center—to deliver better care at a lower cost and ultimately improve the health of the community.

“We’re looking to these innovation advisors to be our partners—we want them to discover and generate new ideas that will work and help us bring them to every corner of the United States,” said Rick Gilfillan, M.D., CMS Innovation Center director.

While serving as innovation advisors, Murphy and Wilkins each receive a $20,000 stipend to support their activities in the program. Funding was made possible by the Affordable Care Act.

As the immediate past chair of the American Academy of Pediatrics’ Council on Children with Disabilities, Murphy is founder and director of the Pediatric Special Care Program at Primary Children’s Medical Center, a unique service of subspecialty care for children with complex, chronic conditions who are dependent on technology for their ongoing care, such as patients with cerebral palsy, respiratory illnesses, or feeding tubes. Her research career has focused on studying the health, function, and quality of life of children with disabilities and their families.

Murphy is working to expand the Pediatric Special Care Program clinical model to a comprehensive model that will streamline care between hospital providers and patients’ primary care providers, particularly in rural areas, to reduce redundancy and gaps in care. “I’m looking forward to connecting with others around the country to learn from their successes and barriers,” she says.

As a young researcher, Wilkins is looking forward to acquiring new skills and refining existing ones as she embarks on a new research project to improve communication between physicians and parents of pediatric patients upon discharge from the hospital. “I hope to gain new skills to apply to my research and to disseminate these proficiencies to others in the field,” she says.

According to Wilkins, current research mainly focuses on discharge communication among adult patients. With the help of a $50,000 Primary Children’s Medical Center Foundation Early Career Development Research Grant and the Innovation Advisors stipend, Wilkins has a good start for establishing a framework for successful discharge communication to decrease readmission rates and ER visits and improve medication adherence.

Murphy and Wilkins are among 73 individuals selected from 920 applicants through a competitive process. Participants include clinicians, allied health professionals, health administrators and others from 27 states and the District of Columbia. More information about the Innovation Advisors Program, including a fact sheet and a complete list of participants and their affiliated organizations, can be found at http://innovations.cms.gov/initiatives/innovation-advisors/index.html.

“We are grateful to RPB for their charitable gifts and continual support of our research. The research efforts at the Moran Eye Center are moving forward at a rapid pace and these gifts will further the studies that will lead to treatments and cures for devastating eye diseases,” said Olson.

RPB is the world’s leading voluntary organization supporting eye research. Since it was founded in 1960, RPB has channeled hundreds of millions of dollars to medical institutions for research into the causes, treatment and prevention of blinding eye diseases. For information on RPB, RPB-funded research, eye disorders and the RPB Grants Program, go to www.rpbusa.org.

About  Gregory Hageman, Ph.D.

Gregory S. Hageman, Ph.D. is the John A. Moran Presidential Professor of Ophthalmology and Visual Sciences and the Director of the Moran Center for Translational Medicine at the John A. Moran Eye Center. He is an author of more than 100 refereed publications, and an inventor on multiple issued patents. He has presented a number of plenary and named lectureships, including the Ashton Eponymous, LuEster Mertz, Bradley R. Straatsma, Ashton, Joseph M. Bryan, Walter R. Stafford, James A. Craig and Jonathan Bok Memorial lectures.

Hageman’s primary research interest during the past 20 years has been directed toward assessment of pathways involved in the etiology of age-related macular degeneration (AMD), the leading cause of irreversible worldwide blindness.

About Randall J Olson, M.D.

Randall J Olson, M.D. is the CEO of the John A. Moran Eye Center. A specialist in the research of intra-ocular lens complications, teleophthalmology, and corneal transplantation techniques, he is the author of more than 300 professional publications and is a worldwide lecturer. He was selected as one of the 15 best cataract surgeons in the United States in a peer survey conducted by Ophthalmology Times. Cataract and Refractive Surgery Today also named Dr. Olson one of 50 international opinion leaders. He has appeared in the last three editions of Best Doctors in America.

About the John A. Moran Eye Center

The John A. Moran Eye Center is committed to the goal that no person with a blinding condition, eye disease or visual impairment should be without hope, understanding, and treatment. The Moran Eye Center is home to more than 50 faculty members, including one of the top retinal research teams in the world. Moran researchers are largely funded by grants from the National Institutes of Health and are involved in more than 50 active clinical trials. Each year, Moran hosts more than 120,000 clinic visits, including more than 7,000 surgeries. Ophthalmologists at the Moran Eye Center are highly involved in international outreach and perform multiple medical missions throughout the world every year.

MBA students Tyler Riggs and J.J. Oliver recently claimed top honors in the Adobe Web Analytics Competition, marking another milestone in the school’s mission to provide the best hands-on business education in the nation. The team analyzed the online performance of DepartmentofGoods.com, a closeout/outlet site owned by Backcountry.com, a Utah-based Web retailer of outdoor recreational gear, clothing and accessories. Riggs and Oliver focused on, among other things, how best to reduce the number of customers who make “shopping cart” product selections, but then abandon the transactions before completing purchases.

University of Utah students claimed another first place finish in the Intermountain University Think Tank contest, sponsored by Intermountain Healthcare (IHC). The Utah student team of Andre Kemeny, MBA/Master of Healthcare Administration (MHA) and Suzanne Sigmund, MPH/MHA each earned $4,000 in cash prizes and $5,000 more for the University’s general scholarship fund.

Kemeny and Sigmund contended with other teams from each of seven Utah universities with the objective to “generate creative new perspectives on healthcare delivery that expand the way IHC operates and become the foundation for programs that improve how they achieve their mission.” The student teams were each assigned a mentor from IHC to work with and gave final presentations in front of IHC executives.

For the Adobe Web Analytics Competition, the team of Utah MBA students, Tyler Riggs and J.J. Oliver, competed and won first place defeating teams from other top universities. With a $15,000 first-place prize on the line, student teams assumed the role of digital marketing consultants. Using Adobe web analytic tools, the student teams were asked to analyze an actual retail website and make recommendations for improving its performance.

Riggs, a second-year MBA student, called participation in the contest “one of the greatest opportunities that I’ve ever had, not only during my time in the David Eccles School of Business MBA program but throughout my entire career — academically and professionally.”

“The opportunity to work with a major company like Adobe, analyzing a real Web site from another major company like Backcountry.com, and using real data to make recommendations that could actually be used by the client company, was phenomenal,” Riggs says. “The things we do in school and in this competition are things that we will use on the job in the future as digital marketers, and to be able to gain experience doing it in a high-profile setting has been invaluable.”

Oliver, also in his second year of the MBA program, credited the school’s “great professors providing the knowledge base to perform quantitative analysis and ask the critical questions which led to our success.”

Linda Wells, director of the MBA program and the Sorenson Center for Innovation and Discovery, hailed the curriculum developed at the David Eccles School of Business and the competition for providing students with real-world experience and learning opportunities.

“It’s a thrill to see the results of the hard work of our students. They’ve had both curricular and co-curricular programming to help prepare them for competitions. They have invested a tremendous amount of their own time to polish their research and presentations,” says Wells. “We are proud of them individually and we’ree grateful that they have so positively represented the school and the full-time MBA Program.”

Business competitions such as those offered by Adobe and IHC are just a few of the opportunities David Eccles School of Business students are engaged in to develop corporate acumen. The school offers the Utah Entrepreneur Challenge, a business-plan writing contest; Opportunity Quest, a qualifying competition for the Utah Entrepreneur Challenge; techTITANS, a multi-discipline business idea contest; and the Utah Real Estate Challenge, a real estate development plan competition.

To learn more about the David Eccles School of Business and its award-winning programs, visit http://www.business.utah.edu.

FREE AND OPEN TO THE PUBLIC

During the last century, a branch of geometry known as topology became a major focus of mathematicians and physicists. Topologists study what properties of objects and shapes remain the same even when they are stretched and distorted. For instance, a square can be “squeezed” into a circle, but not into a perfectly straight line or a sphere.

John Morgan will define the notions of “dimension,” “shape” and “space” – and reveal some methods topologists use to describe these concepts during a public lecture at the University of Utah on Wednesday, Feb. 1.

By the turn of the 20th century, two-dimensional spaces – which are surfaces – were well understood by topologists. In 1904, Henri Poincaré, the leading mathematician of his day, proposed the study of higher-dimensional spaces. Poincaré said that “while we cannot directly visualize higher-dimensional spaces, they are nonetheless subject to precise mathematical definition and investigation, and no one today doubts their importance or the need to investigate them.”

Poincaré then formulated a mathematical problem, or conjecture, to explain the simplest example of a three-dimensional shape: the sphere. Since a three-dimensional sphere is contained in four-dimensional space, it is defined as the set of points at a fixed distance from a given point (the center). His conjecture was a way to prove when a shape was a three-dimensional sphere, even if it was distorted, by performing measurements inside the shape. The unsolved problem became known as the Poincaré conjecture and was the most important topic in topology throughout the 20th century.

In 2000, the prestigious Clay Mathematics Institute offered a $1 million prize for a solution to the Poincaré conjecture. The problem illustrates how challenging it can be to understand higher-dimensional spaces. The Poincaré conjecture, which seemed intuitively obvious, turned out to be incredibly complicated and puzzled topologists for nearly 100 years, until Grigori Perelman solved it in 2003.

Morgan will explain the solution to Poincaré’s conjecture and how it has now been applied to the study of all three-dimensional shapes and higher-dimensional spaces.

Morgan founded the Simons Center for Geometry and Physics at Stony Brook University in 2009. He is a member of the National Academy of Sciences and professor emeritus of mathematics at Columbia University, where he had taught for 36 years.

The Frontiers of Science lecture series is sponsored by the College of Science and the College of Mines and Earth Sciences. Lectures are free and open to the public. Visit www.science.utah.edu for more information.

January 23, 2012 – Let the games begin! Believe it or not, it’s been 10 years since Salt Lake City hosted the Winter Olympic Games. The Utah Ski Archives, part of the Special Collections Department at the J. Willard Marriott Library, University of Utah, will be hosting the Olympic Experience Exhibition February 1-29 in the George S. Eccles Reading Room on level 4 of the library. This exhibition, which is free and open to the public, will highlight the many Utah residents – volunteers, athletes, and staff – who participated in the Olympic Games and the events on the University of Utah campus.

During the 2002 Olympic Winter Games, the University of Utah was the epicenter of the Games. The opening and closing ceremonies were held at the Rice-Eccles Stadium on campus and the Olympic Village lodged athletes (and now serves as the University dorms). To document this central role, the Special Collections Department asked that anyone in the University community who had anything to do with the Olympics – those who volunteered, attended an event, or just took photos of the campus and the city – donate their photos to the Special Collections Department. More than 4,000 photographs have been archived, creating the Olympic Experience collection. “We’d love to see more donations from the public,” comments Roy Webb, Multimedia Archivist at the J. Willard Marriott Library. “It is through individuals that we are able to archive historic collections for future generations.”  The collection can be accessed at http://tinyurl.com/Oly-Exp-ML .

Olympic History Resources at the J. Willard Marriott Library

The Special Collections Department, J. Willard Marriott Library, University of Utah, is the official repository for all records, photographs, films, video and other documentation for the 2002 Olympic Winter Games and Paralympics held in Utah. This includes records from early attempts to secure the Games (including the bid scandal), through the formation of the Salt Lake Organizing Committee (SLOC) and the lead-in to the Olympics and the Games themselves. The collection contains thousands of documents, tens of thousands of photographs, and hours of video that document this historic event. In addition, Special Collections has a wide array of books that have been written about the Olympics in general and the Salt Lake Winter Olympics in particular, many magazines and other publication clippings related to the Olympics.

Additional Olympic Exhibitions Taking Place in February:

Alf Engen Ski Museum, Park City: Photo and multimedia display all month
Kimball Arts Center, Park City: photograph display all month
Gateway Center Grand Hall, Salt Lake City, February 18: One-day display

A 20-member Presidential Search Committee chaired by Regent Nolan Karras, narrowed the
search down to two finalists announced earlier this week. Working with a search firm, the
committee considered more than 80 potential candidates and recommended Pershing as a
finalist after an in-depth screening process and several days of comprehensive interviews.

Dr. Pershing is a Distinguished Professor of Chemical Engineering who has spent the last 14
years in a leadership role at the University of Utah helping the U navigate a challenging
economic climate for higher education by finding innovative ways to fund growth and drive
academic excellence. A gifted teacher and prolific researcher, Dr. Pershing is the recipient of
both the Distinguished Teaching and Distinguished Research Awards and the Rosenblatt
Prize for Excellence. He has authored more than 80 peer-reviewed publications, won more
than 20 research grants totaling approximately $60 million, and earned five patents. He was
named Engineering Educator of the Year by the Utah Engineering Council in 2002 and is a
winner of the Governor’s Medal for Science and Technology. He was director of the University of Utah’s Center for Simulation of Accidental Fires and Explosions, fueled by a $40 million grant from the U.S. Department of Energy of Utah.

“I am honored to have the opportunity to lead the University of Utah into its next growth
phase,” said President Pershing. “When I arrived at the U three decades ago my sole
ambition was to become an effective teacher in the Chemical Engineering Department. I
never dreamed that I would be given so many wonderful opportunities — to teach bright,
inquisitive students, pursue exciting research and, in my most recent role overseeing
academic affairs, help shape the remarkable trajectory of this institution. Now I am eager to
work with our superb faculty, deans, cabinet, trustees and staff to accelerate our efforts. I am committed to ensuring that the U sustains its focus on academic excellence, outstanding health care, and cutting edge scholarship and research, while finding innovative ways to
support our amazing students and maximize our economic contribution to the State of Utah.”

Dr. Pershing joined the University of Utah as an Assistant Professor in Chemical Engineering
in 1977. He was named a Presidential Young Investigator by the National Science Foundation in 1984 and became Dean of the College of Engineering in 1987. He holds a bachelor’s degree from Purdue University and a Ph.D. from the University of Arizona, both in Chemical Engineering.

The University of Utah is the flagship institution of the Utah System of Higher Education.
Founded in 1850, it is the first and largest public higher education institution in Utah, with
more than 31,000 students and a campus comprising almost 1,500 acres in the eastern
foothills of Salt Lake City. A major academic and research institution with an extensive health sciences center, the university offers majors in 72 subjects at the undergraduate level and more than 90 major fields of study at the graduate level, including law and medicine.

About The Utah System of Higher Education: USHE includes all of Utah’s eight public
colleges and universities: The University of Utah, Utah State University, Weber State
University, Southern Utah University, Snow College, Dixie State College, Utah Valley
University and Salt Lake Community College. For more information on the Utah System of
Higher Education, visit our website at http://www.higheredutah.org.