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Please let me introduce myself.  My name is Herbert Rabin, and I am serving as interim dean while the university searches for an outstanding successor to replace our former dean, Nariman Farvardin, now senior vice president for academic affairs and provost of the University of Maryland.  I served as interim dean once before, during the search that yielded Dr. Farvardin in 2000.  I have every confidence that the university will once again secure an exceptional leader to accelerate still further the school’s amazing progress.  In the meantime, it is an honor to send you this report on the Clark School’s many achievements during the last six months.

LEAFHouse: A VICTORY FOR THE UNIVERSITY AND THE ENVIRONMENT

Placing first in the U.S. and second worldwide, the University of Maryland’s Solar Decathlon team and its beautifully designed and engineered LEAFHouse have given us all a tremendous victory.  The Solar Decathlon, a DOE-sponsored bi-annual event in which students design, build, and demonstrate an 800 square-foot, fully functional home powered only by the sun, pitted Maryland’s team against 19 of the world’s best—including MIT, Georgia Tech, and Carnegie Mellon in the U.S. as well as Technische Universitat Darmstadt (the worldwide winner) and other international schools.

Students and faculty across the campus, aided by corporate mentors, worked endless hours over the last two years to complete their project, culminating in an exciting competition on the National Mall.  Our congratulations to all involved, especially Clark School faculty advisor Associate Professor Kaye Brubaker, and our thanks to corporate sponsors including Sanyo Energy Corporation and Constellation Energy.

THE BEST PREDICTOR OF CONTINUED PROGRESS

A key indicator of future success in our research and educational initiatives is the influx of exceptional new faculty members to the Clark School during the last calendar year.  These talented people have been selected for their strong academic and corporate experience, exciting research portfolios, entrepreneurial outlook, and dedication to teaching and mentoring our graduate and undergraduate students. 

This year we have been fortunate to attract the following new faculty members (their Ph.D. institutions are shown in parentheses): Derek Paley (Princeton), Ray Sedwick (MIT), Bruce Yu (Johns Hopkins), Yu Chen (University of Pennsylvania), Yunfeng Zhang (California Institute of Technology), Jeffrey Klauda (University of Delaware), Ganesh Sriram (Iowa State University), Chunsheng Wang (Zhejiang University), Arnaud Trouve (Ecole Centrale), Byeng Youn (University of Iowa), Sarah Bergbreiter (University of California, Berkeley, pictured above), Nikhil Chopra (University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign), Millard S. Firebaugh (MIT), and Oded Rabin (MIT). 

NEW DONORS HELP DRIVE THE GREAT EXPECTATIONS CAMPAIGN

The Clark School leads the campus in gifts to the university’s $1 billion Great Expectations campaign, having, as of the end of December, garnered $118.4 million, or 64 percent, of the School’s $185 million goal.  What’s more, we have received nearly $8 million in 2007, $1 million more than in 2006, indicating that giving is proceeding at an ever faster rate.  Let me take this opportunity to extend our deepest gratitude to everyone who has made a contribution.

These include not only our best-known benefactors but also our many first-time donors, who are providing significant impetus at this crucial stage of the campaign.  Some recent noteworthy contributors include A. James Clark, Mark Huston, Charles E. Waggner, Warren Citrin, Professor Anthony Ephremides, Professor Jimmy Lin, Betsy Waldo, Ed Schinner, Sr., Willie M. Webb, the Mickey Dale Family Foundation, Ann Regan, Rodney A. Harrill, Barbara G. Hulka, Marvin F. Weissberg, Anik Singal, the Aerospace Corporation, BAE Systems, Black and Decker Corporation, Combustion Science and Engineering, FM Global, FRAMAX LLC, Hong Ji Corporation, Hughes Associates, Lockheed Martin Corporation, Sprint Nextel, and Windermere/Essex. I strongly encourage everyone who is considering making a gift to the campaign to contact the Clark School’s development office for more information. 

During this interim period between deans, my posture has been to maintain our current forward motion as exemplified by accomplishments noted here and in the accompanying pages. I know you will do your part to give the future dean maximum support from which to advance the school to even greater heights. 

Herbert Rabin
Professor and Interim Dean