Category: Education

It’s no secret that Vermonters love snow. The state is known for destination-worthy skiing, snowshoeing and snowboarding, as evidenced by the 1800-member UVM Ski and Snowboard Club — the largest actively student-run organization on the university’s campus — and the Catamount men and women who consistently finish strong in both alpine and Nordic events. While we savor snow sports, we know that sprains, strains and fractures can happen if we overexert ourselves or fail to train properly. 

Rehabilitation and Movement Science Professor Karen Westervelt teaches biomechanics and kinesiology to exercise science students and musculoskeletal evaluation and treatment to physical therapy students. Dr. Westervelt recently accompanied Team USA to the 2020 Biathlon Youth and Junior World Championships in Lenzerheide, Switzerland, serving as a medical volunteer. Biathlon is a Nordic skiing event in which competitors combine cross-country skiing and marksmanship. Excelling in biathlon requires extreme aerobic exertion paired with motionless calm and precision. A nationally board certified orthopedic physical therapy specialist, health and wellness coach, and athletic trainer, Westervelt supports Team USA biathletes by providing care and prevention of athletic injuries to optimize the athletes’ performance.

We talked to Westervelt about how we can best sustain our health and enjoy the snow season to the fullest — and her experience with biathletes.

What techniques or exercises would you recommend that snow sports-enthusiasts adopt into their routines to help prevent injuries throughout the season?

KW: Strength train! Working the same muscles over and over again leads to imbalances. Some muscles are very strong because they get used a lot, whereas other muscles might be weak. An imbalance in force across the joints predisposes an athlete to injury. For example, Nordic skiers use their triceps a lot when poling, so they need to strengthen their biceps in the gym. Their anterior shoulder and core muscles also tend also to be very strong, but the upper back muscles don’t get used as much in skiing and therefore need to be strengthen to maintain balance in the shoulder complex and core. Hitting the gym helps keep an athlete injury-free and makes a more powerful skier.

You’ve worked closely with athletes and have seen quite a few competitions in your capacity as a physical therapist and athletic trainer. What are some of the most common yet preventable injuries you treat?

KW: One common mistake I see is athletes focusing on sport-specific training and not taking the time to cross train and work different muscles. Cross-training is fun and prevents injuries. Do both classic skiing and skate skiing. Try fat biking. Go ice skating. I see a lot of biathletes who only skate ski and end up with overuse injuries by midseason. A common overuse injury among Nordic skiers is anterior compartment syndrome — shin pain — followed by lumbar and thoracic spine pain and shoulder injuries. If anterior compartment syndrome isn’t addressed early, it may lead to a build-up of pressure and pain in the shin, tingling and numbness in the foot, and eventually a loss of control in muscles that flex the ankle. Proper technique and cross-training can reduce the incidence of overuse injuries.

Are there any common errors or avoidable mistakes you tend to see among athletes on race days?

KW: Athletes become vulnerable to injuries when they attempt to do something in competition that is not what they have practiced. The race-day excitement, cheering crowds, racers from all around the world and competitive drive may cause athletes to try something different from practice, like trying to go faster on hills or not taking time to relax into proper position. This tends not work out so well for the athlete. Even experienced athletes at the Biathlon Youth and Junior World Championships will start a distance race too hard and fast and run out of energy before the last lap, or miss multiple targets in a race because they lost focus and did not do what they had prepared over and over in practice. It’s very easy to get caught up in the adrenalin of race day excitement. This is important for recreational athletes, too: Don’t ski a black diamond expert trail until you have practiced turning and stopping on steeper intermediate terrain.

What should winter sports athletes do to prepare for a race or competition in advance, day-of and after competing?

KW: Stay healthy! Make an effort to maintain good physical and mental health during the mid-competitive season. Proper nutrition, rest, mental state, training and coaching all need to come together on race day. Remember the basics, too: Warm up properly before an intense day on the snow. After an event, do an active cool down, refuel and stretch. 

What would you recommend avid winter sport participants to sustain the longevity of their years on the snow?

KW: Learn good technique early on, with lessons or professional coaching. Use smart training practices, including a comprehensive off-season training program that focuses on building muscle strength, cardiovascular endurance, neuromotor coordination and flexibility.

Understand the snow conditions and modify technique accordingly. Icy snow demands a greater muscular co-contraction to provide stability and balance. Know your equipment, maintain it and check it regularly. Wear appropriate safety gear. For alpine athletes, this includes wearing a helmet. Helmets reduce head injuries. 

Finally, recognize the first sign of an injury and seek professional advice. Early intervention with a skilled health care professional such as a physical therapist of an athletic trainer can get you back on the snow quickly and safely and help you peform at your best. 

Source: UVM News

GlobalFoundries (GF) and the University of Vermont today announced they have created a partnership program which offers Vermont-based GF employees the opportunity to further their education at UVM in undergraduate, graduate and graduate certificate programs at discounted tuition rates coupled with GF’s tuition reimbursement program. For UVM, partnering with one of the largest private manufacturing employers in the state enables the university to further its land grant mission of helping Vermont address its workforce development challenges. It also creates a new pipeline of students to the university and brings experienced professionals into UVM classrooms and labs, broadening and enriching the learning environment for current students.

“This education partnership with the University of Vermont is a great opportunity for our employees to further their education and grow their skill sets to enhance their careers, with discounted tuition rates and leveraging the GF tuition reimbursement program,” said Dr. Thomas Caulfield, CEO, GlobalFoundries. “Our employees will benefit greatly from this partnership built on the excellent academic programming that the University provides. It is also an affirmation of GF’s continued investment in our Burlington manufacturing facility, our world-class workforce and the state of Vermont.”

UVM alumni comprise a strong presence within GlobalFoundries. The company also has a strong recruiting presence on campus, for both full-time employment and summer internships. The partnership agreement further strengthens the relationship between the two entities. Entering into this alliance with GlobalFoundries makes strategic sense for the university in light of all the above reasons as well as the continuing discussions surrounding an expanded strategic partnership between the organizations.

“We are very pleased to launch the first phase of this important partnership and look forward to making our outstanding academic programs available to GlobalFoundries’ employees,” said Suresh Garimella, UVM president. “The partnership lines up well with our commitment to workforce development and our land grant mission of helping grow the number of high-skill, high-wage jobs in Vermont. Integrating working professionals into the academic life of campus is also of great benefit to the university and our students and sets the stage for further collaboration between our organizations.”

Source: UVM News

A new virus, emergent from Wuhan in central China, seems to be spreading fast. And UVM is responding fast too. “We know these epidemics evolve quickly,” said Cindy Noyes, M.D., (above) an infectious disease specialist who co-leads the University of Vermont Medical Center’s preparations for the potential arrival of novel diseases like SARS, Ebola—and now this coronavirus, 2019-nCoV.

In addition to a careful count of masks and other extensive planning at the hospital, Noyes stressed the value of “temporizing people’s anxiety,” she said. “What is the risk? There’s a lot we don’t understand yet.”

She was speaking to an array of scientists, physicians, and students as part of a first-ever on-campus “virus slam,” on February 6^th, organized in just a few days by the university’s Translational Global Infectious Diseases Research Center. Over two hours, some twenty experts, from five UVM colleges and institutes, gave five-minute mini-talks. These stretched from explaining the biochemistry of the virus’s interaction with the human immune system; to interpreting the latest data from the World Health Organization; to pondering the wisdom of an unprecedented effort to bring new vaccines from lab to clinic in sixteen weeks; to noting the eons-long ecological dynamics that have led bats to be key reservoirs of viruses.

The experts were sharing knowledge, challenging forecasting models, reporting out on their own research—and considering what needs to be explored now to best confront this new disease.

A central fact is that these kinds of coronaviruses exhibit “constant recombination,” said UVM molecular biologist Markus Thali—an endless procession of new coats and costumes as they move from wild animals to people and then from person to person, possibly ping-ponging around the globe. Which means the epidemic might get more deadly or fade quickly. So much is unknown. “Welcome to medicine,” said Dr. Noyes to a student in the audience.

Source: UVM News

When Bernie Sanders’ presidential campaign released job numbers for its Green New Deal proposal last fall, projecting it would put 20 million people to work, it raised some eyebrows.

Politico suggested the figures were “outlandish,” while The New York Times cautioned that job growth was “not so simple.”

But University of Vermont professor Jon Erickson, who created the projections, knew the figures were sound: they came directly from economic analyses he’s been doing for decades.

“Any presidential candidate wants to show big job numbers behind their proposals,” said Erickson, a Gund Institute for Environment Fellow from the Rubenstein School of Environment and Natural Resources. “But these are actually modest numbers given the economic transformation needed to confront climate change. As with Roosevelt’s New Deal, the Green New Deal would redefine the economy as we know it.”

Erickson, the Blittersdorf Professor of Sustainability Science & Policy, has long informally advised Sanders’ staff on energy and environmental issues, and over the summer he volunteered to conduct the jobs analysis of the Green New Deal proposal. Using a national economic model of relationships between economic sectors, Erickson analyzed the expenditures of the proposed $16.3 trillion investment over a 10-year planning horizon. The plan’s economy-wide multiplier effects – covering everything from renewable energy development and infrastructure repairs to ecological restoration and climate resilience efforts – added up to a lot of jobs.

Economic modeling is tied to Erickson’s broader research on the environmental and social dimensions of economic transitions, including Vermont’s Genuine Progress Indicator (GPI), which he pioneered with colleague Eric Zencey. As an alternative to GDP, policy makers in Vermont and around the country use GPI to consider the broader costs and benefits of different development paths. 

As the Democratic presidential primary enters its pivotal phase, Erickson says the Green New Deal has sparked an outburst of student ideas and enthusiasm. His undergraduate students have researched and pitched Green Mountain Deal proposals to Vermont’s Lieutenant Governor David Zuckerman. Graduate students in the Leadership for the Ecozoic (L4E) and Economics for the Anthropocene (E4A) partnerships, international programs he co-leads, are investigating Green New Deal mobilizations in agriculture, energy systems, and more.

“Students already arrive at UVM looking to change the world,” said Erickson, whose E4A and L4E partnerships include over 50 graduate students at UVM, McGill University and York University working on a just transition. “The question is how do we rapidly create a carbon neutral economy with government stimulus and direction, and do it in a way that empowers the most vulnerable communities with justice, jobs, and hope?”

Erickson is also an Emmy award-winning film producer. He directed the 2017 documentary “Waking the Sleeping Giant” on the new progressive movement in the U.S., centered around Sanders’ 2016 run for the Democratic presidential nomination. His previous film, “Bloom,” focused on nutrient pollution and algae blooms in Lake Champlain.

After years of research showing the need for improved climate policies, and a growing chorus of citizens calling for action, Erickson said it increasingly feels as though policymakers are listening.

“For a long time, ecological economics has been calling for an economic transformation that recognizes pollution limits and prioritizes justice,” Erickson said. “The Green New Deal is pushing decades of research on alternative economies into policy conversations beyond the halls of academia.”

Apply now for Gund Postdoctoral Fellowships, Undergraduate Research Awards and a Joint Catalyst Award on rural health and the environment. Learn about ecological economics at UVM.

Source: UVM News

Across more than three decades, from 1941 to 1975, Senator George Aiken was a prominent voice on Capitol Hill during tumultuous times, helping to shape the nation’s course on issues from the Vietnam War to the resignation of President Richard Nixon. And throughout that long political career, from which he retired as senior member of the Senate, Aiken was what is now an increasingly rare animal—a legislator who consistently sought to bridge the partisan divide. A Republican, Aiken ate breakfast every morning with majority leader Sen. Mike Mansfield, a Democrat. (The Vermont senator always kept it simple, favoring an English muffin with peanut butter and coffee.)

“Say We Won and Get Out: George D. Aiken and the Vietnam War” by Stephen Terry ’64 details Aiken’s life and rise to prominence in the U.S. Senate—examining how his approach to politics stemmed from his early life as a farmer and horticulturist in Putney, Vermont. The author, whose credentials include working as a senate staffer for Aiken and serving as managing editor of the Rutland Herald, draws from historical records to weave a tale through Aiken’s early life, his rapid ascendance in Vermont politics, his public service in the nation’s capital, and his evolving views of the Vietnam war. The book includes Aiken’s “Declare Victory and Go Home” speech, in which he never actually spoke those oft-quoted words.  

As the Watergate cover-up unraveled and possible impeachment of Richard Nixon loomed, Aiken and other key senior Republicans decided they could no longer support the president. Nixon resigned his office after GOP senators Barry Goldwater and Hugh Scott told the President that the Senate would convict him if the full House voted to impeach. 

The book’s inclusion of a 1973 Vermont Life interview with Aiken conducted by a freelance journalist named Bernie Sanders offers a very different echo of today’s political headlines. In his capacity as an Aiken staffer, author Steve Terry was at the senator’s side for the interview as Sanders asked Aiken about the changing nature of Vermont, about businessmen running government, about corporations taking over Vermont businesses, and about all of the presidents that Aiken served with. 

The story of George Aiken’s life and politics couldn’t be told without including a close look into the role of his second wife, Lola. The daughter of a Barre granite worker, she was also deeply rooted in Vermont and was a fierce advocate for her husband and his legacy for years after his death in 1982. Lola Aiken passed away in 2014 at age 102. 

UVM student Louis Augeriworked with Terry as research assistant on Say We Won. The dual political science and history major won the 2018 Green Mountain Scholar Award for outstanding student research. An extensive companion website was developed by Eliza Giles, media director at CRVT.

The Aiken biography is published by the Center for Research on Vermont and White River Press with support from the Silver Special Collections Library and Continuing and Distance Education at the University of Vermont’s George D. Aiken Lecture series. 

Source: UVM News

In 1962, when Jackson J. W. Clemmons, Ph.D., M.D., moved to Vermont to join the UVM Department of Pathology, he was only the second African American on the College of Medicine faculty, and the first to stay for any length of time.

Early on, a large farmhouse for sale in the town of Charlotte caught his eye. Public transportation stopped at Shelburne so, according to his daughter, Lydia Clemmons, the doctor walked the remaining six miles down a dirt road to reach the property. Locals called it the “white elephant house,” but Dr. Clemmons’ childhood experience apprenticing with his grandfather, a master carpenter, helped him see the possibilities beneath its surface.

“I didn’t look at this like an old run-down house. This was a good building that could be developed,” recalls Dr. Clemmons. He and his wife, also named Lydia Clemmons, who was the first African American nurse anesthetist at UVM, purchased the Charlotte property—148 acres with six historic buildings—and raised five children there.

Pioneering through rocky terrain was second nature for the Clemmonses. As a biochemist, Dr. Clemmons had been part of the lab team of the noted scientist Karl Paul Link in Wisconsin that developed the anticoagulants Dicoumarol and Warfarin. He earned a B.S., M.S., and Ph.D. from the University of Wisconsin, and was then accepted into Western Reserve University School of Medicine in Ohio and promised financial aid; but, the younger Lydia says, the school’s admissions office rescinded that aid offer when he arrived and the administrators realized he was African American. The couple pinched pennies to get by, and Dr. Clemmons received his M.D. in 1959. Three years later he came to UVM, where he practiced pediatric pathology until 1991.

Seven years ago, the Clemmons family began asking the perennial question posed by all farming families: Does the next generation want to continue on the land? Concerned that African Americans have, over the last 100 years, lost 93 percent of their U.S. agricultural assets, the family decided to preserve the property and launched Clemmons Family Farm, a multicultural center dedicated to celebrating African American heritage through the arts.

“It’s very rare to find a farm that is owned by black people in New England,” says the younger Lydia. “It’s more than a family story. This is American history.”

Last May, Dr. Clemmons was awarded an honorary degree at UVM’s commencement ceremony—recognition by the institution for his work as a pioneer and innovative leader, both at the University and in the wider community.

This story originally appeared in Vermont Medicine Magazine.

Source: UVM News

The University of Vermont’s Office of Student and Community Relations (OSCR) and the Neighborhood Group Isham Street Gardening and Other Optimistic Doings (ISGOOD) were recently awarded a $2,250 Grow Grant from the New England Grassroots Environment Fund. 

The grant will fund materials to expand their work from Isham Street in Burlington, where they’ve focused in the past, to neighboring Hickok Place.

When Hickok Place residents and landlords saw the positive impacts on Isham Street from ISGOOD’s efforts, they wanted the same for their street. ISGOOD and OSCR responded by developing an action plan with their guidance fortified by funding from the Grow Grant and a landlord motivated to make change for his tenants on Hickok Place.

Work on Isham Street began 10 years ago with OSCR’s Community Coalition teaming up with Brian Cina and Phil Hammerslough, residents of Isham Street and the co-founders of ISGOOD. The Coalition is composed of UVM and Champlain College students, staff, and administrators, neighbors, landlords, and Burlington city officials and staff.

Focusing on topics ranging from housing problems to quality-of-life issues, members developed a street strategy as a community development pilot project. Using concepts such as collective efficacy, restorative practices, community-based research, and crime prevention through Environment Design 2.0, the strategy was later recognized as a best practice in Burlington’s Neighborhood Project Plan.

With help from groups and organizations, ISGOOD has been successful in cultivating community and relationships through gardening. Volunteers from UVM’s Upward Bound, the Summer Enrichment Scholars Program, TREK, the Burlington Health and Rehabilitation Center, and many others, have and continue to help the group and their mission thrive. In addition, a landlord donated central community garden was established in 2012 with an AARP grant also being secured that year.

In the spring of 2017, an Isham Street resident and UVM student applied for ISGOOD’s first awarded Grow Grant to complete gardens on the east side of the street. Most recently, UVM’s University Relations office provided funding to complete the gardening on the west side of the Street.

Through community gardening, positive relationships, and inviting people in, a traditionally transient crime heavy street had people now engaging with each other in a way they never had before. ISGOOD hosts annual Welcome to the Street events for new renters and carries out random acts of kindness throughout the year, like delivering Welcome Bags with resources in the fall, snow shovels in the winter, and potted house plants in the spring.

These efforts have resulted in a 50 percent reduction in burglaries, a 68 percent decrease in noise and an 86 percent reduction in vandalism (2012 to 2015 data from Burlington Police Department). The newfound sense of community and belonging and the increased safety net on the street has led to students renting for 2 years instead of the usual one year, and some shift in the street demographics. For instance, a family with young children has moved to the street in large part because of the sense of community.

With the new grant, OSCR and ISGOOD will continue this community-building model for its adjacent neighbors, with the intent to create a safe, resilient, and healthy neighborhood for all residents in this highly impacted area of the City.

Source: UVM News

University of Vermont president Suresh Garimella will participate in a panel discussion at a high-profile symposium this week commemorating the 70^th anniversary of the National Science Foundation.

The event, which will feature some of the nation’s top science leaders, will be held Feb. 6-7 at the organization’s headquarters in Alexandria, Virginia. It is being sponsored by the National Science Foundation.

Garimella will participate in a Feb. 6 panel titled “Partnerships to Address National Priorities.”  He is the only higher education leader on the panel.

“I’m pleased and honored to be attending NSF’s Anniversary Symposium and participating in this important panel discussion,” Garimella said. “Partnerships between the public and private sectors are a key means of driving innovation and of spawning the applied research that leads to economic growth and improved human welfare. I look forward to engaging in a dialog with the other panel members, to sharing my thoughts and to learning from my distinguished colleagues.”

Other panel members include geophysicist Marcia McNutt, president of the National Academy of Sciences and chair of the National Research Council; Prem Natarajan, vice president of Alexa AI and head of Natural Language Understanding at Amazon; Paul Dabbar, undersecretary of science at the U.S. Department of Energy; Walter Copan, director of the National Institute of Standards and Technology in the U.S. Department of Commerce; and Robert Conn, president of the Kavli Foundation (awaiting confirmation?). The panel will be moderated by Michael Kratsios, chief technology officer in the Office of Science and Technology Policy in the White House.   

Before coming to UVM in 2019, Garimella was executive vice president for research and partnerships at Purdue University. He led a $660 million per year research enterprise there and oversaw Discovery Park, a unique set of facilities and institutes where disciplines converge to solve global challenges related to health and life sciences, sustainability, food, energy and defense, and security. He was responsible for Purdue’s international programs and its global and corporate partnerships, focused on strengthening relationships to advance innovation, research, education and commercialization.

In 2018, Garimella was appointed to the National Science Board, which oversees the National Science Foundation and also serves as an independent body of advisers to both the president and Congress on policy matters related to science, engineering and educating the next generation of scientists. He is also a fellow of the National Academy of Inventors.

During Garimella’s inaugural year at UVM, the university has formed research partnerships with Google and the U.S. Army and is in the process of exploring alliances with several other multi-national organizations.  

Garimella is the co-author of over 525 widely cited archival publications and 13 patents.

The National Science Foundation was created in 1950, when President Truman signed the National Science Foundation Act, creating the only federal agency charged with funding fundamental research and education across all fields of science and engineering. In addition to commemorating NSF’s 70th anniversary, the symposium marks 75 years since the publication of Vannevar Bush’s visionary report, “Science—the Endless Frontier,” which laid the groundwork for the agency’s creation. 

The agenda for the symposium includes four other panel discussions and a series of presentations by leading scientists, including Frances Córdova, NSF director.

The panel (scheduled from 3:45-4:45 p.m. on Thursday, Feb. 6), and the entire symposium, will be webcast at https://www.nsf.gov/about/history/.

 

Source: UVM News