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| VOL. 26. NO.14 MAY 9, 2006 |
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BRIEFS ONLINE
Give them an ‘A’
Five teaching assistants and associates have been selected by the Academic Senate’s Committee on Teaching to receive the Distinguished Teaching Assistant Award. They are O. James Rocha, philosophy; Stephan J. Pennington, musicology; Brent James, Spanish & Portuguese; Moss Pike, classics; and Denise Cruz, English. The recipients will receive a $2,500 honorarium. Non-Senate faculty winners of the Distinguished Teaching Awards will be announced later this week.
A night of honors
The UCLA Alumni Association will host the UCLA Awards Ceremony June 4 at an invitation-only gala honoring the Senate faculty winners of the Distinguished Teaching Award, five outstanding alumni, graduate students and seniors. Named Alumnus of the Year is Congressman Jerry Lewis, R-Redlands. Other alumni being honored include CBS 2/KCAL 9 journalist Linda Alvarez, for professional achievement; Peace Corps health training specialist Theresa Elders, for community service; Michael Soderberg, chief of detectives, Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department, for public service; and UCLA philanthropist and former chair of the UCLA Foundation Roy Aaron, for university service.
Spin-wave buses
Engineers at the UCLA Henry Samueli School of Engineering and Applied Science have made a critical new breakthrough in semiconductor spin-wave research. Engineering Adjunct Professor Mary Mehrnoosh Eshaghian-Wilner, researcher Alexander Khitun and Professor Kang Wang have created three novel nanoscale computational architectures using a technology they pioneered called "spin-wave buses" as the mechanism for interconnection. The three nanoscale architectures are not only power-efficient, but also possess a high degree of interconnectivity. “Progress in the miniaturization of semiconductor electronic devices has meant chip features have become nanoscale,” Wang said. “Today's current devices, which are based on complementary metal oxide semiconductor standards, or ‘CMOS,” can't get much smaller and still function properly and effectively. CMOS continues to face increasing power and cost challenges,” Wang said.
Celebrity stand-ins
Comedian Larry David (“Curb Your Enthusiasm”) and his wife Laurie (organizer of the Stop Global Warming Virtual March and producer of a documentary on global warming, “An Inconvenient Truth”) surprised a UCLA undergraduate class May 3 with a guest appearance arranged by mtvU, an MTV Networks channel seen on many college and university campuses. Laurie David spoke on the severe adverse effects of global warning in a class taught by Scott Sherman and Randy Parraz, “Effective Methods for Social Change.” After class, Larry David gave his Toyota Prius — the hybrid car he drove on his TV show — to UCLA medical student Erick Tarula, who won a “Curb Global Warming” contest sponsored by mtvU. "This was a great day, except for the part when I gave away the car," Larry David quipped. The couple’s UCLA appearance will be featured on “Stand In” at mtvU.com beginning today.
Bowl Game champion
A UCLA team that included a freshman and a graduate student recently became the first team from the West — and the first from this campus — to win the College Bowl National Championship in 26 years. Senior Charles Meigs, junior Dwight Wynne, graduate student Jay Turetzky and freshman Clifford Galliher handily answered questions about history, literature, science, mathematics, philosophy and geography in a format similar to TV’s “Jeopardy!” “It’s quite a momentous win for us personally,” said Meigs, a history major and senior captain. He was named an All-Star for his performance in the round robin portion of the tournament. “But perhaps our greatest hope is that the school realizes what our club (the UCLA College Bowl Club) can contribute to it in terms of academic prestige. We hope that such a win can bring us better funding and more interested recruits.” Anyone can join in when the team practices Mondays at 7 p.m. in Ackerman 2510. For details, go to http://quizbowl.bol.ucla.edu/.
Where it all began for him
An exhibit currently in the lobby of the James West Alumni Center pays homage to one of UCLA’s most revered alumni – Ralph J. Bunche. “ ‘Where It All Began For Me’: A Tribute to Ralph J. Bunche ’27” details the life of the late Nobel laureate, from his student days at UCLA to his death in 1971. The exhibit will be on view through August. Stop by and learn more about this great Bruin through memorabilia, photographs and commentary. The exhibit was organized by the UCLA Alumni Association and the Charles E. Young Research Library’s Department of Special Collections.
Girls and gaming
A workshop that examined issues of girls and women and computer games was one of two events held May 8 and today on campus that focused on gender, game design and play. The workshop, “Beyond Barbie and Mortal Kombat: New Perspectives on Gender, Games and Computing” drew a variety of researchers, designers and industry professionals Asia and North America to discuss and review current trends in game design and marketing, and outline a new research agenda. Additionally, participants attended “Girls ’n’ Games,&rdquo a conference focused on where girls and women are in games and what they want. The conference and workshop were organized by Associate Professor Yasmin Kafai from UCLA's Graduate School of Education & Information Studies; Professor Carrie Heeter from Michigan State University; and Jill Denner, senior research associate from Education, Training, Research Associates.
A fete at 40
The Jules Stein Eye Institute will celebrate its 40th anniversary on May 19 with a gala for 200 guests as part of its Clinical and Research Seminar. A cocktail reception in the lobby of the Jules Stein building will kick off the event, culminating with an elegant al fresco dinner served on the terrace outside the auditorium. Founded in 1966 by physician, businessman and philanthropist Jules Stein, and his wife Doris Stein, the institute has trained thousands of residents and fellows; cared for millions of patients; and contributed major advances to the field of vision research. Consistently ranked as the best eye care center in the West by U.S. News & World Report, the institute will expand to a third facility in the near future.
Encore
A tribute video to Chancellor Carnesale that was made for Staff Assembly’s April 18 event to honor him before he leaves Murphy Hall is now on the Web for all to see. The link is available at:
http://164.67.141.39:8080/ramgen/specialevents/carnesale/tribute.smil
You will need “Real Player&rdquo to view the video. If you don't have it on your computer, here is the link to download a free copy:
http://www.real.com/freeplayer/?rppr=rnwk. If you have trouble with the video or downloading Real Player, contact your computer support coordinator or Stacey Rosborough (stacey@humnet.ucla.edu). The video will also be accessible soon from the Staff Assembly Web site, www.staffassembly.ucla.edu.
Nonprofits fall behind in meeting needs
Researchers led by Helmut K. Anheier, director of the UCLA Center for Civil Society and professor of public policy and social welfare, found that while the nonprofit sector continued to grow, California’s continuing fiscal crisis may have caused the region's nonprofits to fall behind in their collective capacity to respond to the needs of an expanding population. The center’s report, “New Horizons,” is an update on the scale and scope of nonprofit and philanthropic activities in the Los Angeles region. Analyzing more than 30,000 public-serving charities, researchers found that the growth of nonprofit organizations between December 2004 and January 2006 was the lowest it has been since 1995; however, expenditures have increased, particularly in higher education.
Stamping out harmful bacteria
Dental Researchers from the School of Dentistry report they are the first to chemically synthesize a new antimicrobial composition that efficiently eradicates harmful bacteria while leaving helpful bacteria undisturbed. Their research is presented in the April issue of Antimicrobial Agents and Chemotherapy. The new composition developed at UCLA belongs to a new class of peptides known by the acronym STAMP, or Specifically Targeted Anti-Microbial Peptide. Representing a major step forward in antimicrobial treatment, a STAMP combines a targeting peptide with an antimicrobial peptide to first recognize a target microbial organism and then unleash an antimicrobial effect on that organism. “This work lays a foundation for generating additional target-specific ‘smart’ antimicrobials as an alternative to currently available conventional antibiotics,” said Wenyuan Shi, professor and chair of the oral biology section.
Men’s volleyball champs
Surpassing everyone’s expectations but its own, the UCLA men’s
volleyball team, ranked ninth as recently as the middle of the season,
defeated host Penn State in three straight games to win the 2006 NCAA
championship. On May 6, the Bruins soundly beat the Nittany Lions,
30-27, 30-27, 30-27, before a rowdy sellout crowd of 5,453 at Rec Hall
in State College, Pa. It was the 14th victory in a row for the Bruins,
who finished the season with an overall record of 26-12, the most losses
by an NCAA champion and the second most in school history. It is the
19th NCAA title for the men’s volleyball team and Head Coach Al Scates,
a number that exceeds any school's total for the sport in either gender.
The championship is also UCLA's first of the 2005-06 season, bringing
its overall total to 98, the most of any school in the nation.
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