More Highlights of Fall 2008

As the semester begins to wind down, we can look back on some of the highlights:

The Kansas City Repertory Theatre’s production of Clay, “a one man hip-hop musical loosely based on Shakespeare’s Henry IV” moved to New York’s Lincoln Center Theatre for the LCT3 program. LCT3 is a new program which is devoted to producing work by up-and-coming playwrights, directors and designers. In collaboration with Eric Rosen, the artistic director of the KC Repertory Theatre, Matt Sax, who is the writer and sole actor, is the first artist to have been chosen for the program. Participants in the UMKC New York Alumni Reception, including Dean Karen Vorst, Troy Lillebo, and Curt Crespino, attended Clay at Lincoln Center. Clay was seen by a reviewer of the New York Times on the same night (see the article in the New York Times here ).

Another journey we have embarked on this semester is work towards a UMKC Decision Theatre. A Decision Theatre is state-of-the-art tool which can be used for collaboration between disciplines and promote interaction with the community. A Decision Theatre at UMKC would join computer technology with research expertise in order to project 3-D images on a 360 degree image screen. You can take a tour of Arizona State University’s Decision Theatre and you can read more about the work towards the vision of creating a Decision Theatre at UMKC in the University News.

School of Law professor, Pat Randolph, has been honored with the National Friendship Prize for his long term work in real estate law as a visiting professor at the Peking University. The National Friendship Prize is considered the most prestigious award in China that is given to foreigners. Present Hu Jintao and Premier Wen Jiabao presided over the ceremony honoring Randolph.

We have also been honored with grants that further our vision to become a model urban research university and contribute to our goal to strengthen resource base and financial capacity.

• In the Department of Oral Biology, David Eick, Ph.D. received a grant approaching $1.7 million from the U.S. Department of Defense for his work on the Consortium for Bone and Tissue Repair and Regeneration.
• Anil Kumar, from the School of Pharmacy, received a grant of almost $2.3 million for his work on Methamphetamine and AIDS in a Non-Human Primate Model.
• Glen Jacobs, of the Center for Academic Development, received funding for the Jumpstart program, which matches UMKC student mentors with children in preschool from low-income families.
• Kathy Whited, in the School of Education, received multiple grants from the Missouri Department of Elementary and Secondary Education for the UMKC Professional Development Center, which works toward high quality professional development for educators.
  

We are excited to see what the rest of this semester and the beginning of the new semester will bring.