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NAMES AND FACES

HONORED

Dean Barbara Nelson of the School of Public Affairs has been selected to co-chair the National Commission on Reducing Infant Mortality, sponsored by the Health Policy Institute of the Joint Center for Political and Economic Studies. A national, nonprofit research and public policy institution, the center is recognized as one of the nation’s premier think tanks on a broad range of public policy issues of concern to African Americans and other communities of color. Also on the commission is Michael Lu, assistant professor of obstetrics and gynecology at the UCLA Center for Healthier Children, Families and Communities.... Electrical Engineering Professor Ali Sayed was honored by the Kuwait Foundation for the Advancement of Sciences for his achievement in the area of adaptive systems. He won the Kuwait Prize for Basic Sciences.

CONGRATS

Maureen Mahon, assistant professor of African-American studies and anthropology, spoke at the Ralph J. Bunche Center for African American Studies about her new book, “Right to Rock: The Black Rock Coalition and the Cultural Politics of Race” (Duke University Press). “Right to Rock” centers on the Black Rock Coalition, an organization of New York-based black musicians and activists that formed in 1985 to challenge the recording industry’s unwillingness to accept African Americans as rock musicians.... Daniel Kaufman, professor in the Department of Molecular and Medical Pharmacology, was one of only 18 worldwide to receive a grant from the Michael J. Fox Foundation for innovative Parkinson’s disease research. Kaufman and his team will examine the neuroprotective effects of the drug Copaxone in animal models of Parkinson’s disease. The drug is currently used to treat multiple sclerosis.

IN MEMORIAM

Robert Jay Brown, who had a 24-year career in Campus Human Resources, died of cancer on Feb. 16 at the age of 67. His valiant seven year battle against cancer was awe-inspiring and remarkable. He was the beloved husband of Rochelle, precious father of Devon (David) Geffner and Jen (Dan) Culbertson, devoted brother of Jerry (Sandy) Brown. Bob and Chelle both graduated from UCLA. Bob worked in Campus Human Resources at UCLA, and was liked and respected by all who knew him. His greatest pleasure in life was spending time with his wife and two daugthers. Bob will be remembered for his kindness, selflessness, goodness, strength and bravery.

Henry J. Bruman, professor emeritus in the Department of Geography and namesake of UCLA’s Henry J. Bruman Maps and Government Information Library, died March 6. He was 91. He was born in Berlin, Germany on March 25, 1913, and immigrated to the USA with his parents. In 1922, he joined his grandfather in Los Angeles. He became a U.S. citizen in 1928, and attended schools in Los Angeles. He attended UCLA from 1931-36, and attained a B.A. in chemistry. He has also held a variety of positions at different universities and institutions from Director of the Education Abroad Program at the University of Goettingen (1966-68) to Cultural Geographer at the Smithsonian Institution (1943), and has been awarded with many distinctions, some of which include the Alexander von Humboldt Gold Medal, Federal Republic of Germany (1971), and the University Medal, University of Goettingen (1978).

Harry Handler, 76, former superintendent of the Los Angeles Unified School District and adjunct professor in the Graduate School of Education & Information Studies, died of cancer Feb. 20. As superintendent, he calmed a fractious Board of Education and restored morale and educational values to schools demoralized by a decade of battles over desegregation and busing. Handler lived in Brentwood and until his death had been teaching and conducting research as an adjunct professor at UCLA. Brought up in East Los Angeles, Handler graduated form Fairfax High School, earned a bachelor's degree in mathematics from UCLA and a master's and doctorate in education psychology from USC. He joined the Los Angeles school district in 1952 as a substitute junior high math teacher, and later served as supervisor of guidance and counseling for junior and senior high schools. He is survived by his wife, Kay; and daughter, Lisa. "Handler's most enduring legacy," the Times noted in an editorial the day he left office, "may be a school board that works in harmony. He inherited a contentious board, still wrangling over segregation. In his soft-spoken and reserved manner he persuaded the board to put rancor aside."

Robert “Buzz” Pauley, a leading Sonoma County businessman and son of Edwin W. Pauley, the former University of California regent for whom Pauley Pavilion is named, died Feb. 18 in a car crash. He was 60. A native of Los Angeles, Pauley was the son of Edwin W. Pauley, a prominent oilman and longtime University of California regent for whom UCLA's Pauley Pavilion is named. Robert Pauley grew up in Beverly Hills and graduated from UC Santa Barbara. From 1969 to 1970, he worked as an aide in Washington, D.C., to Robert Finch, secretary of Health, Education and Welfare. On his return to Southern California, Pauley ran unsuccessfully for a seat on the Los Angeles Community College Board of Trustees. He later moved to Hawthorne and lost in his effort to unseat state Sen. Ralph Dills (D-Gardena) in the 28th District. Pauley relocated to the Santa Rosa area in 1982 and focused his energies on business and community projects. He was one of the founders of Sonoma National Bank and served as a director from the bank's opening in 1985. He also founded Pauley Liquid Exports, a company that exported wines to the Far East in the 1980s and 1990s. Active in various causes, Pauley was on the board of the Pacific Oaks College and Children's School in Pasadena. He was also the founding director of the California Children's Lobby, an advocacy group for child safety issues. Pauley is survived by a son, Matthew, of Westwood; a daughter, Tasha Baum, also of Westwood; a stepdaughter, Courtney L. King, of Manhattan Beach; a sister, Susan Pauley French, of Santa Barbara; a brother, Stephen Pauley, of Sun Valley, Idaho; and two grandchildren.

Emeritus Professor of Medicine Jeremy Swan, 82, who developed a revolutionary catheter that measures blood flow and heart functions, died of heart failure on Feb. 7. The catheter, known as the Swan-Ganz and created with Dr. William Ganz, is inserted through a vein in the neck, shoulder or groin and fed into the right side of the heart. The device can measure the effects of a heart attack and a patient's response to medication, and is also used in heart surgery. Born in County Sligo, Ireland, he studied at St. Thomas's Hospital in London and earned a medical degree and doctorate from the University of London. In 1951, he joined the Mayo Clinic as a research associate and later directed the clinic's cardiology laboratory and studied the physiology of congenital heart disease. He was an associate professor of physiology at the University of Minnesota from 1960 to 1965, when he moved to Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles. Dr. Swan is survived by his wife of 32 years, Roma. The couple lived in Beverly Hills before moving to Pasadena a decade ago. He is also survived by six children from a previous marriage: two sons, Jeremy and Gordon, and four daughters, Caroline, Elizabeth, Geraldine, and Eleanor.

S.V. Venkateswaran, 79, professor emeritus in the Department of Atmospheric and Oceanic Sciences, died Feb. 14 after a long illness. Professor Venkateswaran was an outstanding teacher and scholar, truly dedicated to the advancement of science. He developed international recognition in the general field of upper atmospheric science and made important contributions over a broad range of topics including: innovative techniques for measuring atmospheric ozone, modeling of atmospheric tides and global ionosphere dynamic winds. Perhaps his greatest legacy is the dedicated graduate students that he supervised, many of whom subsequently became leading experts in their field. He taught classes at all levels (general education, honors, lower division, upper division and graduate courses). He often said that there wasn’t a course offered by his department that he could not teach.