COLLEGE PARK, Md. -- Cal Ripken, Jr., one of the greatest baseball players of all time and a Maryland legend, delivered the University of Maryland commencement address on May 19, 2013. Ripken, who played professional baseball for 21 years and founded Ripken Baseball, Inc. and the Cal Ripken, Sr. Foundation, addressed a record-setting audience of graduates and family and friends at the spring ceremony.

COLLEGE PARK, Md. - As the University of Maryland prepares to hand out more than 7,700 degrees on Sunday, May 19, the Office of Undergraduate Admissions has been busy enrolling new students for the 2013-14 academic year.

According to Barbara Gill, Assistant Vice President for Admissions and Enrollment Planning, "We're excited that we're on track to meet our enrollment goals and are looking forward to welcoming the most talented freshman class in the history of the University." Admissions applications have steadily risen during the last decade – up to more than 33,000 freshman and transfer applications last year.  

Ranked in U.S. News & World Report’s Top 20 public universities, the University of Maryland is the state’s flagship university and one of the nation's preeminent public research universities. A global leader in research, entrepreneurship, and innovation, Maryland has been consistently recognized by Kiplinger’s for providing an outstanding education, at an affordable price.

The university has produced six Nobel laureates, six Pulitzer Prize winners, more than 49 members of the national academies, and scores of Fulbright scholars. The university is recognized for its diversity, with underrepresented students comprising one-third of the student population.

COLLEGE PARK, Md. – University of Maryland School of Public Policy professor Jacques Gansler (pictured right) has been nominated to serve as the next university co-chair of the Government-University-Industry Research Roundtable (GUIRR), a National Academies organization that explores issues related to the national and global science and technology agenda. 

Gansler, a member of the National Academy of Engineering, will succeed former UMD president C. Dan Mote, Jr. as GUIRR co-chair, beginning June 1.  Mote held the position for the past two three-year terms and has accepted the position of president of the National Academy of Engineering. 

In addition to GUIRR, Gansler is also chairing two committees for the National Academies, "Integrating Humans, Machines and Networks: A Global Review of Data-to-Decision Technologies" and "Small Business Innovative Research."

Gansler served as Under Secretary of Defense for Acquisition, Technology and Logistics from 1997-2001 and now holds the Roger C. Lipitz Chair in Public Policy and Private Enterprise at the UMD School of Public Policy.  He also directs the UMD School of Public Policy's Center for Public Policy and Private Enterprise, a research center focused on the relationship between government and the private sector. 

As GUIRR co-chair, Gansler will help set the agenda for the organization, which regularly convenes senior representatives from government, universities, and industry to define and explore critical issues related to the national and global science and technology agenda.

"Government, industry and academia must collaborate in order to solve current and future complex global problems, making the work of the Government-University-Industry Research Roundtable absolutely critical," Gansler said.  "This opportunity enables me to build on the work I've been devoted to throughout my career, especially the research at the School of Public Policy's Center for Public Policy and Private Enterprise.  I'm very pleased to assume the chairmanship of this prestigious organization."

UMD School of Public Policy Dean Donald Kettl said, "Jack brings unparalleled leadership and expertise in government-university-industry collaboration and a commitment to improving the effectiveness of the nation in science and technology.  This prestigious appointment is another example of the depth of leadership and the impact of our faculty and research centers, particularly when it comes to bringing together the public, private and nonprofit sectors to create national and international policy solutions."

In addition to his position at the UMD School of Public Policy, Gansler is the Glenn L. Martin Institute Fellow of Engineering at the UMD A. James Clark School of Engineering, and an Affiliate Faculty member at UMD's Robert H. Smith School of Business.  He has also held leadership positions in industry.

COLLEGE PARK, Md. – Michael L. Pack, director of the University of Maryland's Center for Advanced Transportation Technology Laboratory (CATT Lab) has been recognized by the White House as a Transportation "Champion of Change."

The Transportation "Champion of Change" program recognizes honorees for their "exemplary leadership in developing or implementing transportation technology solutions to enhance performance, reduce congestion, improve safety, and facilitate communications across the transportation industry at the local, state, or national level."

Driving transportation innovation at the CATT Lab, Pack focuses on improving transportation operations, management, and communications. His work is enabling more efficient use of government resources — allowing researchers and transportation professionals to dedicate more energy towards solving important transportation problems through data and user-friendly analytics tools. For example, the CATT Lab's expertise has been used during presidential inaugurations to monitor area roads to help local and state agencies react quickly to traffic problems.

"I'm particularly excited to receive national attention for the work that we've been doing over the years," says Pack. "Our research isn't just advancing transportation alone, but moving towards enabling thousands of other researchers around the world to do great things.  It's especially rewarding to have our peers in the industry recognize our achievements."

In addition to leading the CATT Lab, Pack serves as the creative director of the Regional Integrated Transportation Information System (RITIS), an automated transportation sharing, dissemination, and archiving system that improves communications efforts between traffic management and transit agencies. He also chairs the Visualization Committee of the National Academies of Science Transportation Research Board, and as a career public servant, strives to change the way agencies think about sharing information and the importance of visual communications. 

Transportation champions are not new to the University of Maryland's Civil and Environment Engineering program. Alumna Veronica O. Davis '01, P.E., was recognized as a Transportation "Champion of Change" in 2012 for founding Black Women Bike and her contributions to various Washington D.C. transportation boards.