Husky fans across the region can now indulge in the
tremendously popular UConn Dairy Bar Ice Cream. UConn
has been making and selling the frozen confectionery
at the main campus for more than 50 years. Eight
varieties are now available in stores across
Connecticut, Massachusetts and New York, with clever
names that reflect the University's academic and
athletic prowess. A percentage of the proceeds from
the premium UConn product will be used to further
enhance the University's academic programs.A portal with panache
Believing in architecture's power to enrich the
University, UConn enticed Frank Gehry, arguably the
world's most famous architect, to develop conceptual
designs for a new School of Fine Arts building. The
School's dean, David G. Woods, secured a $75,000
National Endowment for the Arts grant to fund a
design competition that featured entries by Gehry,
Zaha Hadid, and the team of Mack Sogin and Merrill
Elam. Gehry's winning building design will represent
one of the most significant landmarks in New England.
Gehry's genius will link UConn's main campus in
Storrs to the adjacent new downtown now being
planned.
Building relationships motivates healthful habits
Nutritional sciences professor Ann Ferris is working
within Connecticut's inner cities, combating the
excessive incidence of anemia. One of UConn's top ten
grant-funded researchers, Ferris directs UConn's
Family Nutrition Program. This cluster of projects
seeks to address nutrition problems through research
and community education. With research grants that
totaled $3.6 million, Ferris and her team provide
personal nutrition counseling, working with families,
the health care community, and other support agencies
to prevent disease and restore patients' health.
Marcel P. Dufresne, associate professor of journalism, received the national Distinguished Teaching in Journalism Award from the Society of Professional Journalists. The annual award recognizes outstanding teaching ability, contributions to journalism education, and contributions toward maintaining the highest standards of the profession. Professor Dufresne teaches investigative and computer-assisted reporting and guides his classes through hands-on projects that have won first-place SPJ awards from state and national groups. The L.A. Times-Washington Post News Service has nationally distributed his students' commentary assignments.
School of law among nation's best
U.S. News & World Report ranked the University of Connecticut School of Law among the nation's top law schools. The School now ranks 17th among public law schools and 40th among all law schools in the country. This year applications for admittance rose 46% over last year, resulting in the strongest incoming class ever.
Invention may greatly enhance breast cancer detection
UConn's Quing Zhu, a physicist and assistant
professor of electrical and computer engineering, is
developing a noninvasive medical device that both
pinpoints and characterizes breast lesions. Each year
hundreds of thousands endure cancer scares because of
imprecision in breast cancer screening. Currently,
when a mass is found an ultrasound is performed. If
that test reveals a solid lesion, the patient often
undergoes a biopsy, anxiously awaiting results. Zhu's
invention is showing promise of providing more
immediate reliable information from a single painless
test. The ultrasound aspect of Zhu's tool pinpoints a
mass's location while its near-infrared light
component characterizes whether it is cancerous. An
$800,000 grant from the National Institutes of Health
is funding clinical trials at UConn's Health Center,
with the goal of reducing unnecessary breast
biopsies.