UC's Latest Accomplishments

UC has seen quite a few  accomplishments recently. From reaching the billion-dollar milestone in the largest fundraising campaign in UC history, to continually providing cutting-edge research and learning opportunities, your alma mater has given many people a reason to be proud.  There are many reasons to be proud to be UC alum this year. Some of the accomplishments include:

• UC among “Nation’s Best” for sixth straight year – UC has once again been named one of the nation’s best institutions for undergraduate education for the sixth straight year.
• Massive Open Online Course (MOOC) – UC will be one of the first to offer MOOC for free. This seven week service is offered to students who will master tools necessary to generate new ideas and transform those concepts into viable new products and services. 
• International College of Medicine – UC and a partner Chinese University will apply this summer to local governments in Chongqing to open an International College of Medicine and start teaching medical students in China, largest source of UC’s international students.
• Former Athletic Director inducted into Hall of Fame – Bob Goin, UC’s former athletic director (1997-2005) was in ducted into the National Association of Collegiate Directors of Athletics (NACDA) Hall of Fame on June 14. Goin had previously been inducted into the University of Cincinnati James P. Kelly Athletics Hall of Fame.
• Ranked No. 1 for industrial design – UC’s College of Design, Architecture, Art and Planning (DAAP) was named as the country’s best undergraduate industrial design program for the second straight year. The DAAP program is tied with the Art Center College of Design in Pasadena, California. 
• “Green” University – UC is named in the top tier of the nation’s “green” universities for the third straight year. 

These accomplishments are just a few of many from the past year. The success to make UC such a standout institution comes from the help of UC faculty/staff, alumni like you and students of UC. To learn about more of the accomplishments visit the UC Magazine website.

UC College of Medicine Hosts Campaign Events In California

Did you know in LA and the San Francisco Bay Area, there are more than 270 alumni from the University of Cincinnati College of Medicine in each city. This year, the Associate of American Medical Colleges will hold its annual conference in San Francisco, and UC will host an alumni gathering with Thomas F. Boat, Dean of UC's College of Medicine in the Bay Area.

This won't be Dean Boat's first time meeting with College of Medicine alumni in California. This past June, Dean Boat met with UC alumni during three separate events in Pasadena and San Francisco. He shared his vision for the college and significant achievements of the college over the past few years.



The events were hosted by three alums - Dr. Dan Asimus '72,  Dr. Alan Solinger '74, and Dr. Thomas Fogarty '60. Alumni enjoyed gathering at Dr. Asimus's beautiful home in Pasadena. While other alumni gathered at the Solinger’s beautiful home overlooking Oakland, the Bay and down town San Francisco, and at the Thomas Fogarty Winery which was founded over 30 years ago in the Santa Cruz mountains.

Stay tuned for more alumni events in the California area!

UC's ambitions continue to draw attention

The University of Cincinnati continues to turn heads with progressive goals and recent accomplishments. The university garnered some noteworthy attention this past week regarding university-wide goals and achievements including innovative ideas to stimulate economic development, President Williams' State of the University address, Dean Thomas Boat's vision for the College of Medicine and the continued excitement from UC Athletics including UC's win over USF and the hiring of a new athletic director.

 Photo courtesy of the University of Cincinnati.

UC College of Engineering and Applied Science Dean Carlo Montemagno was featured in a Cincinnati Enquirer Article, "UC an engine for innovation." Dean Montemagno discussed the Entrepreneurial Innovation Center. According to the Enquirer, the innovation center will provide the college's 140 professors and 4,300 students access to workshops, mentors, lab space and an engineering accelerator program to help build and launch businesses. This entrepreneurial initiative will not only create high-tech, high paying jobs while driving economic development, it will create an opportunity for UC to develop products that could change the world.

Later in the week UC's President Gregory H. Williams gave the State of the University Address at the All-University Faculty Meeting where he discussed the university's big dreams and how these dreams are in UC's reach through UC2019. Based on President Williams speech, it is evident UC is on its way to being one of the best institutions in the nation. President Williams also pointed out three areas of opportunity that UC “must address if we want to achieve our aspirations of being one of the finest universities in the nation.” Those opportunities are:

• National Academy membership,
• industrial funding,
• and the number of research/scholarship doctoral degrees awarded.

When President Williams discussed UC2019 he quoted Walt Disney saying, "If you can dream, you can do it."

 Photo courtesy of the University of Cincinnati.

President Williams wasn't the only one talking about UC's ambitious dreams. UC's College of Medicine Dean Thomas Boat shared his vision for the college this week, which includes:

• Making the UC College of Medicine the preferred destination in the Midwest for the best medical students, graduate students, residents and postdoctoral fellows.
• Making UC Health the regional care center of choice for patients who require complex procedures.
• Joining the University of Pittsburgh, the University of Michigan and Washington University in St. Louis as elite biomedical research institutions in the Midwest.

And how could we forget the beloved Bearcats. They broke into the Associated Press Top 25 this week with their victory over USF, bringing their record to 6-1. Following this win, UC announced the hiring of UC's new Athletic Director, Whit Babcock.

UC continues to make big things happen. What makes you proud to be a Bearcat?

Tears and Cheers at Match Day 2011

UC’s graduating medical students just got a peek into their future. And for many, that means more than just the next stage in their medical careers. It means life in a new city.

The annual Match Day celebration is a long-standing tradition at UC's College of Medicine, allowing med students to find out (on the spot and at random!) where they’ve matched for residency and will spend their next three to seven years in training. You can imagine the emotion and suspense of such an event...where the culmination of four long years of medical school ends with a surprise letter that is met by a wave of cheers from their biggest supporters.

Of the 156 graduating medical students, nearly half learned they will remain in Ohio for their residency positions, matching with such locations as UC Health University Hospital, Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Center, St. Elizabeth Medical Center, Jewish Hospital, Christ Hospital and Good Samaritan Hospital.

The other 55% of the group will be taking up residency in 29 other U.S. states, including the most popular behind Ohio: Pennsylvania, Michigan, Colorado and California.

The moment of truth is met with cheers from family, friends, professors and classmates and in many cases, followed by a few tears of joy and relief. Watch this video to see some of this year’s student reactions and then browse the 2011 gallery of photos. Then see who's heading to your city!

UC Professor Gives Sneak Peek of Feb. 16th NY Event

Still sticking to your New Years resolution to live a healthier lifestyle and maintain a more well-balanced diet? We hope so! Either way, no time is better than now to be educated of those internal forces you simply can't control when trying to lose weight.

According to UC professor and Director of the Cincinnati Diabetes and Research Center, Randy Seeley, PhD, America's obesity epidemic is driven more by the conversation between our body and brain and less by proven weight loss therapies and drugs or even our own will power to put the fork down.

Randy shares a sneak peek of next week's visit to New York where he'll host a seminar for UC alumni to learn from his expertise in obesity and weight loss challenges. Join Randy and your fellow New York alumni on Feb. 16th at the Princeton Club of New York. For more details and to register for this event, contact Lindsay Deeter – lindsay.deeter@uc.edu or 513-556-0435.

UC Professor Previews Healthy Living Event in Big Apple

With the dawn of 2011, weight loss seems to be a recurring theme this time of year and has researchers at UC asking some of the same questions as others: Why is our ability to lose weight with diet or drugs so limited? And why has the development of new weight-loss therapies been so slow?

A large research effort at UC is focused on just these questions. UC professor and Director of the Cincinnati Diabetes and Research Center, Randy Seeley, PhD, says that part of the answer lies in how our brains process the various signals associated with the food to control when we put our forks down. On February 16th, he’s inviting New Yorkers to the Princeton Club of New York to join the discussion and learn more about how our bodies and brains communicate about food. Randy gives a sneak peak of the discussion:

NBC's hit reality show, “Biggest Loser,” relies on the element of competition to give dieters an edge in the battle with their bodies. Contestants are pitted against one another with a large cash prize as an added inducement to lose the most weight. However, dangling monetary incentives won’t change the basic relationship between the body’s inherent bias to defend an established weight. Cash may stiffen our will, but it can also promote unhealthy short cuts.

The difficulty of losing large amounts of weight can’t be overstated. The notion that weight control is strictly a matter of self-control and will power flies in the face of strong evidence that body weight regulation has a genetic component that can present an enormous handicap to even the most disciplined. Indeed, there are many examples of thinned and trimmed celebrities who having tapped some inner strength to achieve striking weight reduction, and then gradually relent to other internal pressures and regain what was miraculously lost. 

The benefits to lifestyle modification and maximized fitness—at any weight—cannot be stressed enough. However there are limits to the amount of weight we can lose with diet and exercise alone. Few good options exist that assist with what can be accomplished with lifestyle changes. The reality is that while some benefits can be obtained from medications, on average, individuals lose only 5 to 10 lbs when compared to people receiving an inactive placebo.

Bring your insights and appetite to the Princeton Club at 6:30 PM on February 16th. For more details and to register for this event, contact Molly O’Connor – lindsay.deeter@uc.edu or 513-556-0435.

Unique UC Research Center Fights the Flu

The flu. We’ve all had it: the aching, the coughing, the fevers. For most of us, a bout with the flu can’t be over soon enough. But for researchers at UC, the flu is just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to intriguing illnesses.

The University of Cincinnati’s Midwest Center for Emerging Infectious Diseases (MI-CEID) exists for the sole purpose of researching, preventing and containing biological threats throughout the country: bioterrorism, biological threats, pandemic outbreaks and yes, even seasonal flu viruses.

Malak Kotb, Ph.D., chair of the department of molecular genetics, biochemistry and microbiology at UC’s College of Medicine, oversees the MI-CEID program, which is a collaborative effort between several medical disciplines, including researchers within UC, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), local hospitals, regional health departments and more. According to Kotb, the joint approach has been a key to the center’s success:

Solutions to disease treatment and prevention require innovation – and you can’t be innovative and be in silos. And without private support to spur on the ground-breaking research we do day in and day, essential studies – including those that can save lives or reduce medical costs – would not exist.

So if you get hit with the flu bug this year – and we hope you don’t! – take heart; thanks to the unique vision at UC’s MI-CEID, future treatments will be more timely and effective than ever. And that’s nothing to sneeze at!

UC's College of Medicine Visits DC!

Thanks to all our DC alumni who came out to the Washington Marriott Wardman Park on December 7th for our College of Medicine reception. We hope you enjoyed meeting our host, Dr. Andrew T. Filak, Acting Interim Dean of the College of Medicine and Vice President for Health Affairs.

Did you attend this event? Find your photo below and tell us what you learned about the College of Medicine!