Applause

The Graduate Division's 2008 Dickson Emeritus Professorship Award went to Akio Arakawa, Department of Atmospheric and Oceanic Sciences; Nazir Ali Jairazbhoy, Department of Ethnomusicology; James N. Miller, Department of Microbiology, Immunology and Molecular Genetics; David Rapoport, Department of Political Science; and J. Fred Weston, Anderson School of Management. The award honors outstanding research, teaching and/or educational service to the university and to the profession. Nominated by their departments, winners each receive a $4,000 prize.

Longtime UCLA administrator John Sandbrook has begun an appointment as UC President Mark Yudof's acting chief of staff for 2008-09 at the Office of the President in Oakland.

Peter Hayashida, assistant vice chancellor for external affairs, received the LGBT Distinguished Alumnus Award at this year's Lavender Graduation honoring LGBT (lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender) graduates. He was keynote speaker at the ceremony.

Patti Schifter Caravello, a librarian in the Charles E. Young Research Library's Department of Collections, Research and Instructional Services, has been named 2008 Librarian of the Year by the Librarians Association of the University of California, Los Angeles. This award recognizes excellence in librarianship, particularly as it furthers the teaching and research mission of UCLA and meets the intellectual, informational and cultural needs of the university community.

Professor of Public Policy Mark Kleiman was part of a panel of experts titled "Policing Skid Row," sponsored by the Manhattan Institute and the Milken Institute. The panel was filmed for Full Disclosure Network as an ongoing series that is examining the various solutions proposed to deal with violent and nonviolent street crimes, drugs and alcohol addiction and mental illness among the homeless population. The series debuted March 23 on L.A. Cable Channel 36 and 44 other cable channels.

Lené Levy-Storms, associate professor of social welfare and medicine/geriatrics, received an American Medical Directors Association Foundation/Pfizer Award for Quality Improvement. As part of the award, she will receive $13,300 to conduct a study titled, "How to Communicate and ‘Connect' with Alzheimer's: A Practical Strategy for Family Visitors of Relatives with Dementia." The purpose of the study is to improve how family caregivers relate to their loved ones with dementia during visits in nursing homes.

Judea Pearl, professor of computer science, served as the keynote speaker for Chapman University's 2008 undergraduate commencement in Orange, Calif. At the event, he received the university's Honorary Doctorate of Humane Letters degree

Raymond Goldstone, UCLA's dean of students emeritus, was honored on the 20th anniversary of the Association for Student Judicial Affairs (ASJA) with the establishment of the Raymond H. Goldstone ASJA Foundation, "to support and enhance ASJA's educational, scholarship and leadership initiatives." Goldstone is a founding member of ASJA, which is the primary association in higher education for student affairs professionals responsible for student conduct administration and conflict resolution.

Donald L. Morton, professor emeritus of surgery, is the recipient of the 2008 Jacobson Innovation Award of the American College of Surgeons. Morton was honored with the award in recognition of his contribution of the technique of sentinel lymph node (SLN) biopsy to the field of surgery. His pioneering research efforts toward the development and clinical application of SLN biopsy have transformed the surgical management of many solid tumors, particularly melanoma and breast cancer.

On June 17, UCLA's Staff Assembly held its annual reception to honor campus employees with awards and scholarships for the 2007-08 year. The winner of the Excellence in Service Award, which carries a $5,000 prize, was Marsha Coutin, Campus Human Resources, while the Faculty/Staff Partnership Award went to Aimee Dorr, dean of the Graduate School of Education & Information Studies. Michael Deluca, director of Cultural and Recreational Affairs, won the Excellence in Leadership (EXCEL) Award, sponsored by UCLA's Administrative Management Group. Aleksandr Lipetsky, administrative computing programmer analyst in Social Sciences Computing, was presented with the President's Award for his work on the Staff Assembly's Web site redesign. Staff Assembly also offers scholarships to promote career enhancement and professional growth; winners of this year's scholarships were Jodie Crites, Brain Research Institute; Rosario De Leon, Audit and Advisory Services; Eric Gardner, Cotsen Institute of Archaeology; Renee Leighton, Laboratory & Pathology Medicine; Linnaea Mallette, Office of Research Administration; Dana Pysz, Office of Residential Life; Fernanda Valentino, External Affairs; Roxana Vargas, Radiation Oncology/Revlon Breast Center; Janet Vera, Psychology; and Mary Watkins, Graduate Division.

The Henry Samueli School of Engineering and Applied Science has received a $1.3-million endowment gift from an anonymous donor to fund scholarships for financially needy undergraduates. In an effort to double the number of scholarships the endowment will provide, UCLA Engineering is leveraging the gift, asking other donors to give $25,000 or more, to be matched by this fund. In this way, the school will be able to provide 48 scholarships — rather than just 24 — worth $50,000 each, beginning in fall 2009. Each scholarship will be named for the donor who matches the challenge gift amount.

Elaine Schmidt, senior media relations officer in UCLA's Health Sciences Media Relations, received an Award of Excellence in the "shoestring PR" category from the Association of American Medical Colleges' Group on Institutional Advancement. Schmidt was recognized for the media coverage she generated on UCLA medical school graduate Kellie Lim. The shoestring category acknowledges the most creative and effective approaches used to promote academic medicine in the United States through alumni, development, public affairs, public relations and marketing programs and products on a limited budget.

UC's California Program on Access to Care announced $271,750 in research grant awards for eight research projects that could assist policymakers in expanding health-care coverage in California. Two of these projects are from UCLA. Professor of Public Health Richard Brown and Shana Lavarreda, UCLA senior research associate, received $15,000 for a dissertation project titled "Discontinuous Enrollment in Medi-Cal and Healthy Families, and the Effects on Access to Physician Services." Annette Maxwell, adjunct associate professor in the School of Public Health and in the Jonsson Comprehensive Cancer Center, received $10,000 for her project titled "Trends in Colorectal Cancer Screening Rates among Racial/Ethnic Groups in California: CHIS 2001, 2003, 2005."

The David Geffen School of Medicine recently honored the recipients of its 2008 Award for Excellence in Education. Established to recognize outstanding dedication, innovation and sustained excellence in education, the award was presented to Gabriel Danovitch, professor of medicine and director of nephrology; O. Joe Hines, associate professor of surgery; Robert Pechnick, professor-in-residence in the Department of Psychiatry and Biobehavioral Sciences; Andrea J. Rapkin, professor of obstetrics and gynecology; Jane E.L. Weinreb, associate professor of clinical medicine; and Neil S. Wenger, professor of geriatric and internal medicine.

Several faculty in the Division of General Internal Medicine and Health Services Research have recently been honored with awards: Katherine L. Kahn, professor of medicine; Diana M. Tisnado, adjunct assistant professor of medicine; and John L. Adams, senior statistician at RAND Corp., won the Health Services Research journal's 2008 Eisenberg Award for their article, "Does Ambulatory Process of Care Predict Health Related Quality of Life for Patients with Chronic Disease?" The award recognizes "excellent and original research among all articles published in the journal during the year prior to the award." Nazleen Bharmal, a Robert Wood Johnson Foundation clinical scholar in the division, won a Mack Lipkin Sr. Associate Member Award from the Society of General Internal Medicine for her presentation, "State Variations in the Contributions of Major Diseases to Disparities in Mortality," at the society's annual meeting in April.

Helmut Anheier, professor of public policy and social welfare and director of the UCLA Center for Civil Society, is co-editor of "Global Civil Society 2007/08: Communicative Power and Democracy." The annual publication serves as a guide to global civil society, or civic participation and action around the world.

Volker Hartenstein, professor of molecular, cellular and developmental biology, received a Humboldt Research Award after being nominated by German scientist Elisabeth Knust of the Max Planck Institut für molekulare Zellbiologie und Genetik in Dresden. This award, conferred by the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation, recognizes lifetime achievements in research. Additionally, awardees are invited to carry out research projects of their choice in collaboration with specialist colleagues in Germany in hopes of promoting international scientific cooperation.