Athletic Honors
Director of Athletics Lew Perkins was selected in June as Street & Smith's SportsBusiness Journal's 1999-2000 Athletic Director of the Year. He was also selected as the 1999-2000 Division I-AA/AAA Northeast region NACDA/Continental Athletic Director of the Year. Since Perkins' arrival in 1990, UConn has won three national championships in basketball, while its 23 intercollegiate teams have collectively posted a .700 winning percentage. Geno Auriemma was the consensus selection as the Women's Basketball National Coach of the Year as he led UConn to its second national title. All-American Shea Ralph won the Honda Award for basketball, recognizing her as the nation's top collegiate player for the 1999-2000 season. In all, fifteen UConn student-athletes received All-America honors.

The Best in the Business
It's hard to select the best of the best. But choose UConn Trustees did as six members of the University faculty were chosen as the first to be recognized as Board of Trustees Distinguished Professors.The six, Stanley Biggs, professor of accounting; Lynn Bloom, professor of English; Howard Lasnik, professor of linguistics; Joseph Renzulli, professor of educational psychology; Bruce Stave, professor of history; and Michael Turvey, professor of psychology, have been cited for achieving "exceptional distinction in scholarship, teaching and service." The program permits individuals to use for life the title Board of Trustees' Distinguished Professor.

Aquaculture Project Hooks $2.5 Million
A five-year aquaculture project under the direction of Dr. Thomas Chen, director of UConn's Biotechnology Center, has landed a $2.5 million grant from the U.S. Department of Agriculture. Using transgenesis technology, in which the DNA from one species of fish is transferred to another species, Chen, a world leader in finfish biotechnology, is exploring the development of disease-resis tant, fast-growing fish. Improving the growth rate and disease resistance of fish could have worldwide impact on a vital food source.

Door to Door Neonatal Care
The Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU) at the UConn Health Center celebrated 25 years of service to Connecticut families this year, and added two new, state-of-the-art mobile units to its resources. Now, the high quality intensive care services of the unit can go on the road, 24 hours a day, seven days a week, to bring babies born prematurely or with serious illness to the Health Center. The vehicles are equipped with controlled lighting, custom-designed incubator set-ups and back-up generators. Mechanical ventilation, IV therapy, full cardio-pulmonary monitoring, and blood gases can be provided in the vehicles. The Health Center is the neonatal referral center for the northern Connecticut region. Since 1975, it has been a leader in neonatal care in Connecticut and has cared for more than 6,000 babies.

Living with HIV
Advances in the treatment of HIV often do not resolve how HIV-positive individuals can maintain healthy lifestyles. With a $3.5 million grant this year from the National Institute of Mental Health, University of Connecticut professor of psychology Jeffery Fisher has developed a program to assist clinicians who counsel HIV-positive patients regarding safe sex. The clinicians are central to counseling intervention, Fisher says, because they tend to develop close relationships with people who are HIV-positive, while providing them with medical treatment for extended periods of time. This recent research grant brings Professor Fisher's total grant awards for theory-based research on HIV intervention to approximately $8 million since 1989.