Grand prize for UC dining

Last summer in Toronto, UC's CenterCourt dining facility received the grand prize from the National Association of College and University Food Services in the category "single, stand-alone concept." Judges considered menu variety, nutrition, presentation and student feedback in making their decision.

CenterCourt opened in the new Campus Recreation Center in January '06 with seven taste stations, featuring a Mongolian grill, vegetarian offerings and brick-oven pizzas and breads, all for a single price.

UC rankings jump

U.S. News & World Report -- The University of Cincinnati's annual ranking in U.S. News jumped this year from 145 to 139 in the "Best National Universities" category, moving UC up 33 places in six years. Furthermore, the score for UC's reputation among peer institutions had significantly improved, and numbers in almost every other category were better than last year.

Washington Monthly -- UC is 118th on a list of 245 U.S. universities that are "heroes of higher education." Schools are selected according to performance as an engine of social mobility, fostering of scientific and humanistic research, and promotion of an ethic of service to the country.

Journal of Real Estate Economics -- UC is the fifth most influential real estate research institution in the U.S., based on the quality of faculty research and literary citations in journals. UC's Real Estate Center placed ahead of schools such as Cornell, Harvard, Wisconsin and Yale.

Princeton Review -- The College of Business is named in the "Best 282 Business Schools: 2007 Edition" and described as one of the best institutions students could attend to earn an MBA. Academic programs, institutional data and candid student opinions were examined to support the selection.

BusinessWeek -- DAAP is one of the world's top innovation and design schools, as listed in a special report in BusinessWeek. The magazine asked major employers who hire innovation talent to participate in the selection. Graduate student Dan Li, who has worked with P&G's vice president of innovation, appears in the report.

Planetizen Guide -- UC's graduate urban planning program ranks fourth in the Midwest and 18th in the nation in the new Planetizen 2007 Guide to Graduate Urban Planning Programs. In the top 25, UC stands ahead of planning programs at Columbia University and Ohio State. In the Midwest, UC stands with programs at the University of Michigan and Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.

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See a rundown of all of UC's rankings

Strive: Improving region's urban centers

Recognizing that a stronger, smarter city starts with education, UC joined an effort known as "Strive," an impressive coalition of local educators, executives and city leaders who intend to transform the face of education in Cincinnati and Northern Kentucky. Strive's aim is to focus the city's resources and reengineer a world-class education system that takes Greater Cincinnati's urban core from birth to career. But the goal getting the most attention is the effort to guarantee scholarships for every schoolchild in Cincinnati, Covington and Newport.

The unprecedented collaboration -- UC, Northern Kentucky University, Xavier University, area school districts, the United Way and other foundations, as well as mayors from all three cities and business partners -- announced last summer that it intends to model and exceed the Kalamazoo Promise, a scholarship guarantee for kids in Kalamazoo, Mich. Many believe that effort is breathing new life into Kalamazoo, boosting not only the number of college-educated citizens but also the local housing market and economy.

Medical breakthroughs

Lead dangers -- Most write it off as the clumsy teenage years, but a group of scientists at UC have linked injury-prone post-pubescents to their exposure to lead as children. In a study of more than 200 Cincinnati teens, health experts found that those who experienced high blood-lead levels in their early years appear to suffer more accidental injuries, especially falls from a loss of balance.

"We know that lead exposure can affect motor coordination," says Amit Bhattacharya, a professor of environmental health and study collaborator. "But our research shows that this early-life exposure can cause lasting health effects."

'Beading' cancer -- University doctors are using a new technique that involves injecting patients with millions of tiny radioactive glass beads to fight liver cancer. Smaller than a strand of hair, the beads are injected into the artery feeding the liver tumor. Once inside, the radioactive bits kill the tumor.

"By delivering highly targeted radiation from inside the body, we can help minimize damage to surrounding tissue and slow the progression of the liver cancer for patients awaiting liver transplant," says Darryl Zuckerman, an associate professor and interventional radiologist. "For other patients, this procedure can reduce the size of the tumor to a point where it can be removed surgically, giving patients new hope for survival."

4-D camera -- UC physiologist Jay Hove is using a $1.53 million National Institutes of Health grant to create a laser-illuminated 4-D camera expected to help scientists better study the movement of fluids and cells inside the body in three dimensions, plus the fourth D, real time. Hove, an assistant professor in UC's Genome Research Institute, is working to adapt Caltech's prototype 4-D camera technology (now used to study ocean flow around fish and airflow around airplane wings) to fit on the end of a microscope.

World first -- A UC surgeon performed what is believed to be the world's first laparoscopic liver surgery on a child last year. Transplant doctor Mark Thomas performed the minimally invasive surgery on a 2-year-old boy with liver cancer in Mexico City, where Thomas was invited to teach. Operating through tube-like ports in the boy's abdomen, Thomas used a fiber-optic light, camera and specialized instruments to remove a cancerous tumor. Thomas and his team perform about 250 laparoscopic liver cases a year, a method that causes only 2-inch incisions and leads to a fast recovery as opposed to traditional open surgery which requires up to a 30-inch incision.

UC Board allows domestic-partner benefits

New Schneider Quad celebrates co-op's 100th anniversary