Veritas, Vol. 49, No. 04, December 2006

              3 Leonard and Jayne Abess give $5 million to the Center for Ecosystem Science and Policy.
4 Through his cutting-edge research, doctoral student Wade Cooper is helping to save the world’s coral reefs.
5 Time capsule: A new digital archive of
the UM Libraries provides a glimpse into South Florida’s history.
Volume 49 ■ Number 4 ■ December 2006
For the Faculty and Staff of the University of Miami
www.miami.edu/veritas
UNIVERSITY GETS A BEHIND-THE-SCENES LOOK AT THE SUPREME COURT
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.is colleagues call him “chief,” and he calls them by their first names. He handwrites all of his opinions. No justice gets to speak twice until everyone has spoken at least once, and decisions are made as a collegial body after consultation.
Those were among the behind-the-scenes details of the inner workings of the Supreme Court provided by Chief Justice of the United States John G. Roberts, Jr., during a recent discussion before an audience of more than 3,500 at the University of Miami’s BankUnited Center.
In a wide-ranging conversation, Roberts talked about everything
Legal talk: Chief Justice Roberts answers questions from Jan Crawford Greenburg.
from his college days at Harvard and his judicial philosophy to the importance of making decisions based on the rule of law and not on personal policy preferences.
Interviewed by ABC News correspondent Jan Crawford Greenburg, Roberts appeared as the inaugural guest of the University Lecture Series. He was asked to speak at the University by Chairman of the UM Board of Trustees Dean Colson, a partner in the Coral Gables-based firm of Colson Hicks Eidson, whose connection with the Chief Justice goes back to 1980, when they both clerked for then-Associate Justice William H. Rehnquist.
During his talk, Roberts also provided details regarding the closed-door conferences the justices attend while debating cases on the docket. “I have the same vote everybody else does, and we decide things as a collegial body,” Roberts said. “The chief justice really doesn’t have a lot of authority of the sort that would cause you to refer to him as a boss.”
Roberts spent the next day with University of Miami students in history, communication, and constitutional law classes.
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The Vances have uncovered critical clues to the origins of diseases like Parkinson’s and Alzheimer’s
Renowned geneticists recruited to the University
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acclaimed geneticists in the world,
Margaret Pericak-Vance and Jeffery Vance of Duke University, are bringing their pioneering research into the genetics of a multitude of diseases to Miami.
The Vances’ Center for Human Genetics at Duke has uncovered critical clues to the origins of diseases, including Parkinson’s, Alzheimer’s, age-related macular degeneration, multiple sclerosis, autism, and the muscular dystrophies.
At the University of Miami Miller School of Medicine, they will lead a team of investigators that will make up a new Institute of Human Genomics and a proposed Department of Human Genetics.
“The state of Florida is making substantial strides in recruiting some of the very best scientific institutes and centers to our region,” says Pascal J.
Goldschmidt, senior vice president for medical affairs and dean of the Miller School of Medicine. “A paradigm for this remarkable opportunity for the citizens of Florida is the recruitment of the Center for Human Genetics, led by Margaret and Jeff Vance.”
Margaret Pericak-Vance is director of Duke’s Center for Human Genetics,
James B. Duke Professor of Medicine, and chief of the Section of Medical Genetics at Duke University Medical Center. Her groundbreaking use of novel disease gene mapping led in 1993 to the identification of the major susceptibility gene for Alzheimer’s disease—apolipoprotein E—and very recently to the discovery of a gene that determines risk for developing age-related macular degeneration, a leading cause of blindness.
Jeffery Vance is associate director of the Duke Center for Human Genetics, professor of medicine, and director of the Morris K. Udall Parkinson’s Disease Research Center of Excellence at Duke.
His lab has found and studied genes that contribute to diseases, including Parkinson’s, Alzheimer’s, cardiovascular disease, and one of the most common inherited neurological disorders,
Charcot-Marie-Tooth disease.
“Jeff and I love to build things, we love to be creative when we build things, and we like to think outside the
UM’s good genes: Margaret Pericak-Vance and Jeffery Vance are renowned for their pioneering work in uncovering genes linked to Parkinson’s, Alzheimer’s, and other diseases.
box,” Pericak-Vance says. “This is the opportunity to build something truly outstanding and to integrate all of the University of Miami’s strengths into one program.”
UM President Donna E. Shalala says the Vances “lead the field of human genetics, particularly as it relates to the common illnesses that all of us are exposed to—neurological disorders, heart disease, cancer, vision
impairment. In Miami they will lead one of the premier institutes for human genomics in the world.”
Dean Goldschmidt says the Miami genomics institute “will create a formidable opportunity to apply the new knowledge brought out by the Human Genome Project and translate this knowledge in findings that will help our patients survive some of the most deadly diseases.
“They will bring this opportunity not only to all of us at the Miller School of Medicine, but also to everyone involved in biomedical research in South Florida, including Florida International University,
Florida Atlantic University, the Scripps Research Institute, and many other groups,” Goldschmidt says.
The Duke team includes several other investigators who will also be moving to South Florida. “We’re a very Continued on page 3
Grant enriches computer science and math
A
laboratory uses new software tools to explore the unfolding world of genomes. A researcher in the U.S. Department of Defense develops new technology for ensuring national security. And a team of mathematicians uses its expertise to solve problems of worldwide concern, from projecting the pathways of AIDS to anticipating global population growth.
Such highly specialized professions all have one thing in common: they require a strong background in computer science or mathematics.
But what if the nation’s pool of qualified talent in these areas began to shrink?
Recently, that’s been exactly the trend, as computer science enrollments at the nation’s colleges and universities
have dropped, raising concerns about the economic growth and national security of the country.
Doubling up: From left, associate professors Victor Pestien, Geoff Sutcliffe, and Burton Rosenberg lead a new initiative that will award scholarships to students seeking a double major in computer science or mathematics.
A new initiative at the University of Miami, however, will help reverse that troubling decline. The Computer Science and Mathematics for Scientists (CSMS) project awards scholarships to Continued on page 3