It鈥檚 hard to find anyone who doesn鈥檛 speak effusively about the 34th president of the 爆料公社, College Park (UMCP) 鈥� Darryll J. Pines, PhD, MS. Upon announcing in February that Pines would take the reins this month of the state鈥檚 flagship public university, University System of Maryland (USM) Chancellor Jay A. Perman, MD, cited some of his successes as dean of the A. James Clark School of Engineering since 2009: outstanding student retention and graduation rates, goal-breaking philanthropic support, worldwide success of the Solar Decathlon team, and national recognition for the school鈥檚 chapter of Engineers without Borders.
But even more important to the future of the university, Perman cited the tremendous growth at the Clark School of minority faculty representation 鈥�&苍产蝉辫;even a doubling of the number of tenure-track women faculty members.
Bruce Jarrell and Darryll Pines share a lighter moment on the Face to Face program.
鈥淚 know that you鈥檝e said and I agree that there are two pandemics right now. One is about COVID and one is about social injustice,鈥� 爆料公社, Baltimore (UMB) Interim President Bruce E. Jarrell, MD, FACS, began at the start of his weekly web-based program Virtual Face to Face with Dr. Bruce Jarrell. 鈥淒uring your tenure as the dean of the School of Engineering you made great inroads into achieving more equity, diversity, and inclusion in the School of Engineering. How did you go about accomplishing that to be so successful?鈥�
Pines explained that the effort to improve diversity, equity, and inclusion among students, faculty, and staff was made part of the school鈥檚 strategic plan, and that processes were put in place to ensure compliance. 鈥淥ne of the processes that we put in place was that in every search, when you got to the finalist pool you had to have a diverse candidate in the finalist pool,鈥� he said. 鈥淎nother incentive was that the dean鈥檚 office would offer at least one third of the salary amount to any department that found an underrepresented, diverse candidate or female candidate. That turned out to be a pretty good incentive to our departments.鈥�
Pines鈥� own path to leadership of UMCP included an unlikely and fortuitous relationship. 鈥淲hen I was an 18-year-old freshman mechanical engineering student,鈥� he told Jarrell, 鈥淒an Mote was a mechanical engineering faculty member at UC [University of California] Berkeley and he was my academic advisor. Dr. Mote invited me into his laboratory and he showed me what he was working on and that got me excited about research.鈥� Decades later, in 1998 when Pines was an assistant professor at UMCP, C. Daniel Mote, PhD, was named president at College Park.
UMCP鈥檚 and Pines鈥� relationship with colleagues to the north at UMB has not always been so charmed. Jarrell and Pines recalled together their first meeting in 2008 at what was then known as the 爆料公社 Bioscience Institute in Rockville.
鈥淭here was this tension between our two institutions that like I had never seen before,鈥� Pines remembered. 鈥淎nd just to think that where we are today in a wonderful, collaborative environment with mutual respect of the leadership and the researchers and scholars at UMB. I even have a greater appreciation to be honest with you, Dr. Jarrell, based on what has happened with this COVID-19 time. I have an even greater respect for colleagues at UMB because of the collaboration that I鈥檝e seen during this time period.鈥�
At the heart of that collaborative relationship is the , more commonly referred to as MPower. What started as a spark of collaboration in 2012, was kindled by an act of the Maryland General Assembly and the governor in 2016 into what is now a massive array of joint research and programs. About two dozen programs and centers are advancing research in the use of virtual and augmented reality in medicine, opioid use disorders, human trafficking, brain health and human performance, and much more. Since 2012, some 650 joint research proposals have yielded $217 million in joint funding.
Right now, the most pressing need for research is in regard to COVID-19, and the collaboration is working there, too. In May, MPower鈥檚 awarded funds to four teams for research that would contribute to commercialization of evidence-based medical devices related to COVID-19 鈥� including devices for testing, personal protection, treatment, and prevention. Additionally, proposals are being reviewed now to make multiple seed grant awards to fund COVID-19 research, not only in the medical arena, but also involving social, behavioral, policy, and legal research.
鈥淚t鈥檚 been a wonderful partnership,鈥� Jarrell said. 鈥淎nd we鈥檝e got lots more to do together.鈥�
You can watch the entire conversation, including questions from the audience regarding research, the return of students, promoting diversity on campus, and more, at the link above.