Director's Message to UMIACS September '24

Welcome back to a busy Fall 2024 semester. A quick glance at this month’s newsletter shows a lot of activity over the summer—successful undergraduate internships, prestigious faculty awards, outstanding academic work by our graduate students and postdocs, and much more.

It never ceases to amaze me what a vibrant research community we have.

Some of the mechanisms that underlie our success are easily seen. This includes our faculty earning recognition from their peers and from professional organizations, or UMIACS researchers receiving significant external funding as a principal investigator or as part of an interdisciplinary team.

Other reasons for our success are more subdued, yet are equally as important.

As we began the semester, I sent an email out that offered thanks to the numerous UMIACS faculty that have volunteered to serve on our APT, steering and merit pay committees. This is important service work that keeps the institute functioning smoothly and helps immensely as we continue to move forward.

On that note, I want to offer a heartfelt “Thank You” to Joseph JaJa, who has dedicated much of his professional career to helping make UMIACS what it is today.

I encourage you to look at this issue's feature story that highlights Joseph’s successful journey at the University of Maryland, and his unwavering service to UMIACS. While officially retired, he still comes to his office in the Iribe Center on a regular basis, maintaining several longtime research collaborations he’s built while also exploring new ones.

Joseph has been an invaluable resource during my time as director of the institute. And he’s also a beacon of positivity to the many people he talks with—fellow faculty, our tech and business staff, and others—as he makes the trek from his office to our kitchen area several times each day for his beloved coffee.

Joseph’s commitment to service is certainly an inspiration to me. The impact that he’s had during his time here—for his students, fellow faculty members, and our staff—is quite large, and will remain that way for many years to come.

—Mihai Pop, UMIACS Director