zipcar program provides alternative to owning a car ... has partnered with zipcar, ... the beach or...
TRANSCRIPT
News for Faculty and Staff of the University of California, Riverside • Volume 6, Number 4• Feb. 24, 2010 • www.InsideUCR.ucr.edu
By Bettye MillerTo the titles Recipient of a National
Humanities Medal and Professor of History
Emeritus, Henry Snyder can add one more:
Offi cer of the Most Excellent Order of the
British Empire.
The award, which is presented to few
individuals outside the United Kingdom, was
announced by Queen Elizabeth II in December
and will be presented to Snyder at the British
embassy in Washington, D.C., in early spring.
Snyder, a scholar of British history, was
recognized for “service to English Studies
worldwide” for his work of more than 32 years
on the English Short-Title Catalogue. The cat-
alog is a searchable database of every known
publication in England and its dependencies
from the birth of the printing press in 1473 to
1800. It is the largest bibliography of its kind
ever attempted, Snyder said, and lists nearly
500,000 items, including books, handbills,
fl iers, pamphlets and warrants.
“This is the great early printed bibliogra-
phy of any language group,” he said. “It was
in many ways the pioneer.”
The catalog, whose American component
is funded by the National Endowment for the
Humanities, is a joint effort of UCR’s Center
for Bibliographical Studies and Research, the
British Library and the American Antiquarian
Society.
“It’s nice to get the recognition. I’ve put
a lot of effort into the project,” said Snyder,
who was nominated by the British Library.
The Most Excellent Order of the British
By Kris LovekinTwo UCR professors will be honored Thurs-
day, March 4, for their innovative teaching
styles and success in enhancing the student
learning experience during the 2009 Innova-
tive Teaching Award and Lecture. The event
starts at 2:30 p.m. in Bourns A265.
Ward Beyermann, associate professor in the
Department of Physics and Astronomy, will talk
about how to engage students in the lesson.
“To be successful, students must spend
much of their class time actively engaged in
doing, thinking and talking about the material,
not listening to a lecture,” Beyermann said. He
will share how he carefully measures the results
of any change he makes in his teaching.
Andrew Winer, assistant professor in the
Department of Creative Writing, will address
whether creativity can be taught and how
he successfully teaches students not only to
recognize good writing, but to create it them-
selves. Winer is a novelist and an artist.
Both professors were nominated by their
students and/or their colleagues for effec-
tively using innovative teaching techniques to
engage students in the learning process. Their
techniques have shown measurable results in
the classroom and this is refl ected in the excel-
lent evaluations from their students, according
to Gladis Herrera-Berkowitz, UCR’s director
of instructional development in the Offi ce of
Undergraduate Education.
“The event is a resource for our teaching
faculty,” she said. “We stop what we are doing
long enough to recognize what has gone right,
and to ask ourselves how we share those tech-
niques across the campus.”
The event is open to all but an RSVP is
requested by March 1 to [email protected].
Sharing a Wealth of Teaching Techniques
It’s Of� cial: Henry Snyder is Most ExcellentEmpire is an order of
chivalry created in 1917
by George V. There are
fi ve degrees of award in
civil and military divi-
sions; Offi cer is fourth
out of the fi ve degrees
and is not one of those
for which knighthood is
conferred. Snyder is one
of 11 individuals honored in this category.
Fully retired since Dec. 31, Snyder said
he will continue to offer some assistance to
the Center for Bibliographical Studies and
Research, which he previously served as
director. He plans to display his OBE medal
next to his NEH medal in a case in his TV
room at home.
Working to combat a steep slide in state
support for higher education, advocates for
the University of California are planning large
rallies in Sacramento this spring to persuade
lawmakers that public higher education
should be a funding priority.
The UC Student Association on March 1
will hold a rally and press conference at the
state Capitol. University of California Presi-
dent Mark G. Yudof, along with several UC
regents and chancellors, will join student
organizers later in the day for meetings with
key legislative leaders.
A second rally on April 27 is being hosted
by a coalition that includes UC, the California
State University and California Community
Colleges. Leaders and key stakeholders from
the three public higher education systems
will be joined by a select group of community
leaders from throughout the state for a joint
advocacy day in Sacramento.
Organizers hope to draw a broad spectrum
of participants, from parents and students, to
community organizers, business leaders, fac-
ulty and staff.
State support for UC has been eroding
since the 1990s, but last year, amid a severe
recession, lawmakers slashed UC funding
by 20 percent. The resulting fi nancial crisis
brought layoffs, employee furloughs, reduced
class offerings and higher student fees.
The UC Board of Regents in November
proposed a 2010-11 budget that asks the
state for $913 million more in funding, an
amount that would allow UC to restore core
funding for university operations.
UC’s efforts to build support for the
restored funding include the launch of an
online, grassroots movement to educate law-
makers and the public about all the ways
that UC serves California and its people. The
group is now nearly 300,000 strong — with
more than 130,000 people added to the list
of UCforCA.org advocates since November.
Campuses have also been active, hosting
teach-ins, visiting the district offi ces of local
lawmakers and sponsoring “write-ins,” like the
campiagn initiated by UC Riverside’s Citizens
University Committee. That effort branched out
to include service clubs, community groups,
chambers of commerce and professional
organizations. In addition, the directors and
presidents of UC’s alumni associations met in
January to begin mobilizing their members.
President Yudof and all 10 chancellors
have made frequent trips to Sacramento and
Washington, D.C., in recent weeks, advocat-
ing on UC’s behalf and highlighting the uni-
versity’s contributions to California and the
nation in terms of research, economic growth
and public service.
On Jan. 12, Yudof and UCSF Chancellor
Susan Desmond-Hellmann met with Assem-
bly Speaker-elect John Perez (D- Los Ange-
les). They discussed the need to re-establish
higher education funding as a priority in the
state budget, and also talked about how UC
and its campuses can help the state recover
from the current recession.
The pair met later in the day with the gov-
ernor on both fi scal and policy matters.
Yudof returned to the Capitol on Jan.
25, accompanied by UC San Diego Chancel-
lor Marye Anne Fox, this time meeting with
Senate President Pro Tem Darrell Steinberg
(D-Sacramento) and Senate Appropria-
tions Chair Christine Kehoe (D-San Diego),
among others, to once again press the case
for increased funding.
UC advocacy continues on the federal
level as well. President Obama’s 2011
budget request included increased funding
for Pell Grants and key research agencies
including the National Institutes of Health,
National Science Foundation and the
Department of Energy’s Offi ce of Science.
As the budget process moves forward,
UC’s Washington offi ce will continue work-
ing with advocates, students, regents and
chancellors to persuade policymakers to
provide strong and stable funding for higher
education in the areas of education and
research, as well as in infrastructure and
other areas. UC is also working with nation-
al policymakers to re-examine the federal
role in supporting higher education and to
expand its support for other areas that are
critical to the university’s operations.
The concerted advocacy efforts seem to
be working. Gov. Schwarzenegger’s proposed
budget restores $371 million in funding for
the university, one clear signal that the uni-
versity’s message is being heard.
Find out more about UC’s advocacy
efforts at www.UC4CA.org.
Staff, Faculty Asked to Get Involved in Budget Advocacy
Henry Snyder
By Kim LaneFor many commuters “I need my car dur-
ing the day” is a stock response for why they
do not use alternative transportation in their
commute to UCR
But that excuse may not fl y anymore.
In an attempt to reduce traffi c congestion,
parking problems and improve air quality,
UCR has partnered with Zipcar, the world’s
largest car-sharing service, to offer four-fuel
effi cient car-sharing vehicles that are avail-
able for use 24 hours a day, seven days a
week. The cars are located in reserved spaces
in parking lots 1 and 15.
To take advantage of the service, faculty,
staff and students pay an annual membership
fee of $35. Rental fees are $8 per hour or
$66 per day on weekdays, and $9 per hour or
$72 per day on weekends.
Gas, insurance, 180 driving miles,
reserved parking and roadside assistance are
included in rates.
In addition, members 21 and older have
access to Zipcar’s network of more than
6,500 vehicles throughout the U.K. and
North America.
Local residents not associated with UCR
who are ages 21 and older can join for $75,
which includes a $25 one-time application
fee and $50 annual fee.
The service is designed
to help UCR manage the
increasing demand for park-
ing and associated conges-
tion, while also offering a
convenient, economical and
environmentally friendly
alternative to owning a car,
said Mike Delo, director of
transportation and parking
services.
“We are hoping that the
Zipcar program will con-
vince some people that they
do not need to bring a vehi-
cle to campus,” said Delo. “These cars can
be used for a doctor’s appointment or to run
errands during the day, for a pleasure trip to
the beach or in the case of students who live
on campus, a trip home for the weekend.”
Zipcar, which has been offering campus
car sharing since 2002, has programs at more
than 120 colleges and universities across the
country including MIT, Columbia, George-
town, American University, Harvard Univer-
sity, University of Minnesota, University of
Toronto, University of North Carolina, The
University of Chicago, UCLA and Amherst.
For more information, including how to
join UCR’s Zipcar program, is available at
www.zipcar.com/ucr.
Zipcar Program Provides Alternative to Owning a Car
Specially reserved spaces in lots 1 and 15
are home to campus Zipcars. Photo by Steve Brazil
In a rare mailed ballot election, Academ-
ic Senate members approved fi ve resolutions
relating to strategic planning and budget cuts.
The resolutions had been presented at the last
division meeting Dec. 4.
Four of the resolutions were proposed by
a concerned faculty group. Of those four, the
resolution that received the most favorable
votes — 82 percent of those cast — urged the
university “to provide meaningful guidance
and long-term planning to ensure continued
viability and equity in the provision of retire-
ment benefi ts.”
More faculty cast ballots on this resolution
— 36 percent of active faculty — than on any
other.
Emerti faculty are permitted to vote but few
do, said Academic Senate Chair Anthony Nor-
man.
The other resolutions (with approval per-
centages) called for:
• The university to reconstitute the Com-
mission on the Future and allow more time
for consideration of policy alternatives and
budget realities. (70 percent)
• The university to provide meaningful fi s-
cal transparency, halt cuts in instructional
staff positions until the consequences
are examined in a forum open to all, and
to avoid student fee hikes until further
administrative cuts, cost deferrals and new
sources of revenue, such as borrowing, are
presented.(60 percent)
•The availability of all reports in UCR’s
strategic planning process and for particu-
lar weight to be placed on issues of access
and diversity, unintended consequences of
the pursuit of AAU status and equitable
distribution of resources. (61 percent)
A resolution proposed by Professor Harry
Green asked the administration to make the
highest priority in the strategic planning pro-
cess the reduction of unfi lled faculty FTE to
less than 11 percent. It was approved by a plu-
rality of 44 percent, a three-vote margin.
Details of the resolutions and votes are
available on the Academic Senate Web site at
senate.ucr.edu.
Academic Senate Members Approve Resolutions
Staff, faculty and students can take part
in the national car-sharing program.
role of the engineer in society.
Honorary Doctorate for ZukMarlene Zuk, a professor of biol-
ogy, received an honorary doctorate
on Jan. 22 from Uppsala University
in Sweden.
The university
confers the title
of honorary doc-
tor, doctor honoris
causa, upon aca-
demics, primarily
from abroad, who
have established
ties with Swedish
academic researchers or other indi-
viduals who have not taken a doctor-
ate through academic studies but
should clearly be inducted into the
research community.
Zuk, an expert on the evolution of
behavior, did a sabbatical at Uppsala
University in 1999, and has since
returned a few times to teach short
courses at the university.
“I am honored that the university,
one of the oldest in Europe, gave me
the award,” she said. The honorary
doctorate originated at Uppsala Uni-
versity in 1839.
Name: Marla Jo Booth – a good ole Texas double fi rst name.
Department: Academic Senate
Job: Administrative analyst II
Length of employment at UCR: I started in September ‘85 in a tem-
porary position in the biochemistry department.
My work focuses on: Staff support for six Academic Senate standing
committees as well as ad hoc committees, as assigned. My duties are
everything from scheduling meetings, putting together agendas and
doing minutes to numerous detailed reports as well as everything in
between. As a committee analyst, my job is to make sure the commit-
tee chairs are informed and complete their tasks by assigned dead-
lines – sometimes I feel like a nag!
Things you should know: My three children are grown, but I have an
11-year-old grandson, an 8-year-old granddaughter, and in April, there will be a new grandson. I am a proud
Texan and bleed burnt orange — Hook ‘Em Horns! I have been a Yankee fan since I was 4 and will be ‘til my
dying day. I am a member of two home-brew clubs (yes, we brew beer) and secretary of the board of directors for
the California Homebrewers Association. We organize an annual brewfest that is a festival of about 28 home-brew
clubs at Lake Casitas. We sample each other’s brews, learn from professional microbrewers the art of brewing
through educational talks, enjoy great music, and have a great time by the lake. Yes, a few over-indulge, but all
the clubs promote responsible drinking, and we provide buses for the attendees from the campsites to the festival
area. The clubs have meetings, group brewings, pub crawls, competitions and tastings. Funny how beer brings
together people of all ages, genders, religious and political beliefs, and we all get along!
page 2 • Feb. 24, 2010 • www.InsideUCR.ucr.edu
Who Says? Getting Personal
“I think we have to crank out different kinds of doctors. So obviously
there’s a ton of California kids trying to get into medical school traveling
a long way.”
Dr. G. Richard Olds, founding dean of the UCR School of Medicine,
on the opportunities and obstacles present in opening a medical
school in Southern California.
THE NEW YORK TIMES
“The media treats Dow 10000 as if it is a big deal, but institutional
investors, hedge funds, mutual funds, and most experienced individual
investors don’t. Why should they?”
Peter Chung, professor of fi nance, on the misappropriation of im-
portance to the Dow 10000.
WALL STREET JOURNAL
“This is the critical point of this linkage between the two parts of this
reserve. We all believe that (lawsuit), which is a federal suit, should be
resolved before any fi nal decisions are made on either of these two proj-
ects.”
Len Nunney, professor of biology, commenting on his belief that
a 37-acre industrial and warehouse development plan near River-
side’s Sycamore Canyon Wilderness Park, would pose a danger to
wildlife and other endangered species.
THE PRESS-ENTERPRISE
“This is an entirely new interpretation of ancient ocean chemistry. Our
model provides a brand-new backdrop for the earliest evolution of animal
life on the planet. We show that the sulfi dic ocean wedge, along with an
absence of oxygen, can hinder the colonization of early animals on the
shallow seafl oor and infl uence their evolution as they take a foothold.”
Chao Li, assistant research specialist, on the importance of hydro-
gen sulfi de in explaining the evolution and symbiotic relationship
between animals and eukaryotes in the ocean.
CHEMINFO.COM
“She revolutionized Asian American studies. She helped create it as a
serious discipline. She was the fi rst scholar to write anything about the
women [in the early Chinese American community].”
Edna Bonacich, professor of sociology, on the death of Lucie
Cheng, a UCLA sociologist who was well known for her work in the
area of Asian American studies.
LOS ANGELES TIMES
”The BioStation technology coupled with UCR’s expertise in video bioin-
formatics will greatly facilitate our ability to understand dynamic cell pro-
cesses and will provide data essential for attacking degenerative disease.”
Prue Talbot, professor of cell biology and director of the Stem
Cell Center, speaking about the just-opened stem cell core facility,
which provides equipment and trained personnel not available in
most laboratories.
NORTH COUNTY TIMES
“Most intriguing ... is the theory of the Wells scholar Bernard Bergonzi
that the Holt edition was prepared from an entirely different, earlier and
now-lost manuscript,”
Melissa Conway, head of Special Collections at UCR Libraries, on
the recent UCR Libraries acquisition of a rare copy of the fi rst-
print American edition of H.G. Wells’ classic novel “The Time Ma-
chine”
NORTH COUNTY TIMES
“Some spider silks are really strong, but not all of them are. The ones
that are really strong can actually rival steel and approach the tensile
strength of Kevlar.”
Cheryl Hayashi, professor of biology, speaking of the properties of
spider silk and methods for replicating it.
WIRED.COM
To become a media source or to announce upcoming
published research or an award, contact the Offi ce of Strategic
Communications at (951) 827-6397 or (951) UCR-NEWS or
Did You Know?
Marla Jo Booth
Awards & HonorsMahalingam Named ASME Fellow
Shankar Mahalingam, profes-
sor and chair of the Department of
Mechanical Engineering, has been
named a fellow of the ASME, the
preeminent professional organization
of mechanical engineers.
Mahalingam’s status as a fellow
recognizes his signifi cant achieve-
ments and contributions to the engi-
neering profession.
Candidates for the
honor are nominat-
ed by their peers
and selected by
the ASME Fellow
Review Committee
with fi nal approval
of the Committee
of Past Presidents.
Less that 3,000 of the ASME’s
93,537 members are recognized as
fellows.
Mahalingam’s expertise is in the
area of turbulent combustion, char-
acterized by unsteady three-dimen-
sional motion that can promote the
mixing of fuel and air, and lead to
more vigorous combustion. He was
among the earliest group of research-
ers to develop direct and large eddy
simulation methodology to study the
dynamics of co-fl owing jet diffusion
fl ames.
Over the last 10 years, he
has extended large eddy simula-
tion to the study of fi re behavior in
shrub fuels. He is one of the lead-
ing experts in the area of modeling
transition behavior in fi res, including
marginal burning and transition of
surface fi res to crown fi res, utilizing
both simulations and laboratory scale
experimentation.
Mahalingam has coauthored more
than 100 papers, including refereed
journal papers, refereed conference
proceedings and other non-refereed
conference papers. He has served
as an invited professor at the Laba-
ratoire EM2C, Ecole Centrale Paris,
and as a visiting professor at the Uni-
versity of Coimbra, Portugal.
Founded in 1880 as the Ameri-
can Society of Mechanical Engineers,
ASME is a not-for-profi t professional
organization that enables collabora-
tion, knowledge sharing and skill
development across all engineering
disciplines, while promoting the vital
The UCR Catastrophic Leave Program provides a means for UCR
employees to donate vacation leave to assist fellow staff and faculty who
must take extended time off due to catastrophic illness or injury.
Donations, which may be made in one-hour increments, will be used for
temporary salary and benefi t continuation for staff and fi scal-year academic
employees who have exhausted their accrued vacation and paid leave cred-
its.
Program guidelines are available at humanresources.ucr.edu/?content=
PoliciesAndContracts/LeaveSharingGuidelines.htm.
The Catastrophic Donation Leave Form can be downloaded at human-
resources.ucr.edu/Forms/CatastrophicLeaveDonationForm.doc. Completed
forms can be forwarded to Heidie Rhodes in Human Resources. For more
information, contact Rhodes at [email protected] or via phone at
Shankar
Mahalingam
CorrectionAn article in the Dec. 9 issue of Inside UCR incorrectly stated that
there would be no 2010 increase in insurance costs for employees.
While dental and vision insurance remain free for employees and the
university’s contribution to health insurance premiums remains 87.7
percent, there was an increase in premiums and employees may pay
signifi cantly more for health insurance this year, depending on their
pay band.
For example, when the higher-paid employees’ subsidy of lower-paid
employees’ premiums are factored in, the increases ranged from $4.36 per
month at the lowest pay band for a family in the Kaiser plan to $375.48 a
month in the highest pay band for a family in the Blue Cross PPO plan.
Marlene Zuk
UCR’s Sweeney Art Gallery has
closed in its current location and has
begun the several-month process of
moving down the block into the three-
story Barbara and Art Culver Center
of the Arts, which is located in an
under-renovation late-19th century
department store in the 3800 block
of Main Street in Riverside.
The gallery’s fi nal exhibit in its
current location closed on Feb. 6.
Once in the Culver Center,
Sweeney’s programming will expand
to include more performing arts,
screenings and large-scale instal-
lations, which will be presented in
their own galleries and in a two-story,
2,000-square-foot atrium, located at
the center of the Culver Center.
Both the Culver Center and the
Sweeney Art Gallery will open during
gala events Oct. 7 to 9.
Sweeney Art Gallery Director,
Tyler Stallings, says that “Sweeney
has always aimed to be a bridge
between campus and community
with its exhibitions and programs,
but the Culver will allow this to
become even more so. The atrium
will become a natural gathering spot
and a place for an exchange of ideas.
The screening room will fi ll a gap
in Riverside in which there are only
venues showing mainstream cinema.
The second-fl oor Media Lab for UCR
faculty and students will provide an
opportunity for an ongoing presence
downtown. Having more room for its
vast collections will allow the CMP to
create more study areas for faculty,
students and visiting scholars. Alto-
gether, they show UCR’s commitment
to the value of arts in the community
and as a signifi -
cant component
to research in the
humanities.”
During the
transition, the
gallery will hold
several exhibits
at other locations.
The gallery will
hold its annual
student exhibits
at the neighbor-
ing UCR California
Museum of Pho-
tography (CMP).
The M.F.A. Thesis
2010 exhibits will run from April 24
through May 15, the senior thesis
exhibit will open on May 28 and run
through June 12.
The Sweeney Art Gallery will co-
sponsor with the UC Institute for
Research in the Arts “Dry Immersion
3” a two-day event held March 6 and
7 in Wonder Valley and Palm Des-
ert. The event will include exhibits,
interventions, performances, read-
ings and screenings. The 19 art and
research projects were developed in
connection with an artists’ retreat
and roaming workshop held in Octo-
ber 2009 at the same locations.
Information about this event is avail-
able at sweeney.ucr.edu.
Sweeney Gallery preview events
will be held during the First Thurs-
day ArtsWalks, held on the Riverside
pedestrian mall on May 6, June 3,
July 1, Aug. 5 and Sept. 2.
The UCR Sweeney Art Gallery
opened on campus in 1963 in Olm-
sted Hall, and then moved to Watkins
House in 1978.
In 2006, the gallery moved into
a building next to the UCR/California
Museum of Photography, which has
been located in downtown Riverside
since 1990.
Scheduled to be completed in
2010 and open in October, the Cul-
ver Center of the Arts. The Culver
Center will provide new exhibition
space; a 100-seat fi lm and video
screening room; an atrium gallery for
installation, music, and performance
under a 40-foot-high naturally illu-
minated clerestory monitor; a public
café; a new seismically protected
home for the UCR/CMP’s Keystone-
Mast glass-plate stereo collection;
and an advanced faculty and student
research Media Lab.
The lower level basement facili-
ties of the Culver Center will be
devoted to collections and the pres-
ervation and support of archives.
More information is available at
www.artsblock.ucr.edu.
Sweeney Closes Temporarily to Reopen in the Culver Center
Sweeney will reopen in October in the Barbara and
Art Culver Center of the Arts.
www.InsideUCR.ucr.edu • Feb. 24, 2010 • page 3
Research & Scholarship
Chancellor: Timothy P. White
Associate Vice Chancellor for Strategic Communications: Marcia McQuern
Editor: Kim Lane
Editorial Assistant: Konrad Nagy
Inside UCR is published by the Of! ce of Strategic Communications, twice monthly, except December, July, August and September, when it is published once a month.
Send story ideas and comments to [email protected]
Issues are available online at www.insideucr.ucr.edu.
Speaking of HappinessSonja Lyubomirsky, professor of
psychology, was an invited speaker
at the American Association for the
Advancement of Science annual
meeting Feb. 18-22 in San Diego.
Known internationally for her
research on happiness, Lyubomi-
rsky’s topic was “The Science of
Interventions for Increased Well-
Being.” She presented a conceptual
model of happiness which proposes
that a person’s level of happiness is
governed by three types of factors:
the genetically determined set point
for happiness, which she says is
relatively immune to infl uence; life
circumstances, such as location,
income and marital status, “which
are diffi cult but not impossible to
change”; and “intentional cognitive,
motivational and behavioral activi-
ties that can infl uence well-being,
and are feasible but effortful to
practice.”
She presented data from sev-
eral positive interventions from her
lab and elsewhere that illustrate
“the happiness-boosting effects of
applying positive activities such as
expressing gratitude, committing
acts of kindness and visualizing best
possible future selves.”
Wu Co-authors Paper on Anti-icing Coatings
Jianzhong Wu, professor of chem-
ical and environmental engineering,
was co-author of the paper “Anti-
Icing Superhydro-
phobic Coatings”
in the American
Chemical Soci-
ety’s journal Lang-
muir. The paper
describes new
anti-ice coatings
for solid surfaces
such as roads, airplane exteriors and
power lines.
Inspired by the self-cleaning
ridged surface of lotus leaves, the
nanoparticle-based coating is an
extension of research on water repel-
lants. Because ice behaves differ-
ently than water, coatings must be
specifi cally formulated to repel ice
formation. The research team discov-
ered the superhydrophobic surfaces
they created that contained silica
particles less than 50 nanometers in
size prevented icing.
Applications for this technology
could result in safer roadways, less
likelihood of tree limbs breaking, and
the prevention of ice buildup on sur-
faces of airplanes and other equip-
ment subject to extreme weather
conditions.
The research was featured in
recent articles by US News and World
Report, Phys.Org.com, Science Daily
and United Press International.
Symposium Addresses Solar Incentives
Alfredo Martinez-Morales, man-
aging director of UCR’s Southern
California Research Initiative on
Solar Energy (SC-RISE) gave a pre-
sentation at a Feb. 9 symposium on
how to take advantage of California
Assembly Bill 811, which provides
for low-interest loans to stimulate
the use of solar panels and other
sustainable technologies.
Martinez-Morales noted that
incentives like AB 811 and greater
public awareness of the economic
and environmental benefi ts are
essential to the widespread adoption
of affordable solar technologies.
“We wanted attendees to think
of SC-RISE as a potential partner
in developing AB 811 programs in
the Inland Empire area, and for end-
users to know they are doing some-
thing of benefi t not only to them, but
also to society as well,” Martinez-
Morales said.
“Our goal is to work closely with
local government, utilities, technolo-
gy companies and contractors to pro-
vide the general public support and
information about energy effi ciency,
resource conservation and available
technologies,” he said.
Martinez-Morales also hosted a
meeting of regional colleges the fol-
lowing day to share expertise and
experience and to discover areas of
collaboration on solar energy.
Honor in the 19th CenturyCambridge University Press will
publish a book, “Honor, Politics and
the Law in Imperial Germany, 1871-
1914,” by Ann
Goldberg in May.
G o l d b e r g ,
associate professor
of history, focuses
on the tradition of
honor in 19th cen-
tury Germany.
Using court
cases involving
defamation lawsuits, newspaper
accounts and parliamentary debates,
she explores “the confl icts of daily
life and the intense politicization of
libel jurisprudence in an era when
an authoritarian state faced off
against groups and individuals from
‘below’ claiming new citizenship
rights around a democratized notion
of honor and law,” according to the
publisher.
High School Students Get College Physics
For the third year in a row, the
Department of Physics and Astrono-
my will host San Jacinto High School
students for the International Mas-
terclass in particle physics, March 2
and 3.
Through lectures and exercises,
physics faculty introduce particle
physics, experiments and detectors
to the students and facilitate a vid-
eoconference between the students
and groups of high school students
in Portugal, Poland and England.
Professors Bill Gary, Gail Han-
son, Bob Clare and Owen Long will
give the lectures on March 2. The
ALPHA Center’s Maria Chiara Simani
will help with the exercises and other
activities later that day. The video-
conference will take place March 3.
The masterclass is an annual
program of the European Particle
Physics Outreach Group.
Exploring SuperconductorsHigh-temperature superconduc-
tors are materials that lose their
resistance to the fl ow of electricity
at relatively high temperatures.
The quest to synthesize new
classes of superconductors is a
high-risk, high-impact endeavor.
Superconductivity already has
important applications, such as
medical diagnostic equipment, but
researchers say many more technol-
ogies will become possible if purely
organic high temperature supercon-
ductors become available.
Reporting online in the Feb. 5
Journal of the American Chemical
Society, Robert Haddon and his
research team are the fi rst to identi-
fy the occurrence of the Resonating
Valence Bond (RVB) ground state in
an organic solid state structure.
The RVB theory of the electron-
ic structure of metals is based upon
the idea that pairs of electrons,
occupying bond positions between
adjacent pairs of atoms, are able to
carry out unsynchronized resonance
throughout the crystal.
Some researchers believe that
the RVB ground state underlies the
electronic structure of the high-Tc
materials that were discovered more
than 20 years ago at IBM and cur-
rently exhibit the highest transition
temperatures of all superconduc-
tors. Grants from the Department
of Energy funded the research.
Santiago Contributes to Book Revision
Louis Santiago, an assistant pro-
fessor of physiological ecology in
the Department of Botany and Plant
Sciences, has added an important
detail to a section of Lierre Keith’s
book, “The Vegetarian Myth: Food,
Justice, and Sus-
tainability,” now
undergoing a revi-
sion.
The section
explores the diet
of Australopith-
ecus, an extinct
hominid believed
to be a human ancestor.
Santiago, the co-director of the
Facility for Isotope Ratio Mass Spec-
trometery on campus, explains in the
rewriting that Australopithecines did
not eat grass even though their fos-
sils in South Africa have been shown
to have a carbon isotopic composi-
tion similar to tropical grasses
“They must have been eating
animals that eat grass,” he said.
“This is important because it was
previously thought that they were
fruit eaters, an idea promoted by
vegetarians. But Keith found data
that suggests otherwise.”
Santiago interpreted the carbon
isotope data for Keith and helped
her properly describe how carbon
isotopes were used to determine the
carnivorous nature of the Australo-
pithecine diet.
Ocean Chemistry More ComplexA research team led by biogeo-
chemists Chao Li, Gordon Love and
Timothy Lyons in the Department
of Earth Sciences has developed a
detailed and dynamic three-dimen-
sional model of Earth’s early ocean
chemistry that can signifi cantly
advance understanding of how early
animal life evolved on the planet.
Working on rock samples from
the Doushantuo Formation of South
China, the research team is the fi rst
to show that Earth’s early ocean
chemistry during a large portion of
the Ediacaran Period (635-551 mil-
lion years ago) was far more complex
than previously imagined.
Their model for the ancient
ocean argues for a stratifi ed marine
basin, one with a chemically layered
water column. The overall picture
is a marine basin with co-existing
oxygen-rich, sulfi dic and ferruginous
(oxygen-deprived and iron-dominat-
ed) water layers — a new backdrop
for the earliest evolution of animal
life on the planet.
Reporting Feb. 11 in Science
Express, the researchers argue that
the sulfi dic water layer varied in
size and was capable of hindering
the colonization of early animals on
the shallow seafl oor, and infl uencing
their evolution.
Li, Love and Lyons were joined in
the study by David A. Fike at Wash-
ington University in St. Louis, Mo.;
Alex L. Sessions at the California
Institute of Technology; and Xuelei
Chu at the Chinese Academy of Sci-
ences, Beijing.
The NSF and the Agouron Insti-
tute funded the study.
Jianzhong
Wu
Malaria remains one of the most deadly infectious diseases. Yet,
how Plasmodium, the malaria parasite, regulates its infectious cycle has
remained an enigma despite decades of rigorous research.
But now a research team led by Karine Le Roch, an assistant professor
of cell biology and neuroscience, has identifi ed a mechanism by which
Plasmodium intensively replicates itself in human blood to spread the
disease.
In the cells of eukaryotes, such as the unicellular Plasmodium and
humans, DNA, which can be as long as two meters, is closely packed to
fi t into the cell’s tiny nucleus. Huge complex proteins called nucleosomes
facilitate this DNA compaction so that eventually the DNA is coiled in an
ordered manner to form chromosomes.
Made up of histone, a kind of protein, the nucleosomes are repeat-
ing units around which the double helix of DNA gets wrapped and vast
amounts of genetic information get organized.
Le Roch’s team found that 18 hours after Plasmodium enters a red
blood cell, a kind of “histone crash” takes place – a massive breakdown
of histone that explains how the parasite can replicate extensively its DNA
and coding gene in human red blood cells.
For cell multiplication to occur, the genes in a DNA strand need to
fi rst be transcribed and translated (converted) into protein. For this tran-
scription to take place, however, the nucleosomes must fi rst get evicted
(removed), a process that opens up the DNA strand to give special tran-
scription factors full access to the genes. The transcription factors then
convert these genes into protein.
While in humans such eviction of nucleosomes is specifi c to only
some sections of the DNA strand and performed only when needed, in
Plasmodium the situation is vastly different.
“We found in our experiments that histones are massively evicted
everywhere in the Plasmodium genome, resulting in most of the Plas-
modium genes being transcribed at once,” Le Roch said. “If we can fi nd
a candidate enzyme that can regulate this massive histone eviction, we
could halt or greatly limit Plasmodium replication.”
Study results appear this month in the journal Genome Research.
Le Roch was joined in the study by Nadia Ponts, Elena Harris, Jacques
Prudhomme, Glenn Hicks and Stefano Lonardi at UCR; and Ivan Wick,
Colleen Eckhardt-Ludka and Gary Hardiman at UC San Diego.
Uncovering the Mystery of Malaria
Jeannette Wing, assistant direc-
tor of the Computer and Information
Science and Engineering Director-
ate at the National Science Foun-
dation, gave a talk, “Computational
Thinking,” at the Bourns College of
Engineering’s 20th Anniversary Dis-
tinguished Speaker Series Feb. 17.
In her talk, Wing promoted the
idea of introducing computational
thinking early in students’ lives (i.e.,
in grades K-12). Wing discussed
abstraction and automation as foun-
dations for computation thinking.
“Abstraction is a function which
takes information at one level and
maps it to a higher level, ignoring
NSF’s Wing Makes Case for Computational Thinking
irrelevant details at the lower level,”
she said. “The process of doing that
– of getting machines to learn – is a
very creative process. That’s where
human ingenuity comes in.”
She supported her case with
examples of how computational
thinking infl uences a wide range
of other fi elds such as biology, eco-
nomics, sports, chemistry, medicine
and the geosciences.
Wing gave an example of ways
computational thinking can pose
legal questions by citing an Oral
B scientist’s challenge to discover
what pattern of toothbrush bristles
was most effective.
Louis
Santiago
Ann
Goldberg
African-American students at UCR continue beyond their fi rst year and graduate at higher rates than any other ethnic group, according to the latest retention and six-year gradua-tion fi gures.
African-Americans in the fall 2002 freshman class had a 73.9 percent graduation rate by 2008, while the overall campus graduation rate was 64.3 percent. Their fi rst-year retention rate was 92.8 percent, while the campus persistence rate was 84.9 percent.
Nationwide, about 54 percent of full-time students at four-year public universities graduate in six years, but the rate for African-Americans is 38 percent, according to the National Center for Education Statistics.
“I’m delighted to see concrete evidence of what we have known anecdotally – that our African-Amer-ican students are doing as well, or in many instances, better, than UCR students overall,” said UCR Chancel-lor Timothy P. White. “However, our goal is to further increase both reten-tion and graduation rates for African-American students as well as for all student groups.”
Campus offi cials are not entirely sure why African-Americans do so well at UCR, but they believe a criti-cal factor is that African-Americans feel comfortable on the campus, which is the most diverse in the UC system and was ranked fi fth most diverse nationally by U.S. News and World Report.
“Critical mass matters,” said White, “and UCR’s undergraduate
student body refl ects the face of California.” African-Americans are 7 percent of UCR’s student body, not the 1 percent they are on some col-lege campuses.
A 2008 systemwide survey of undergraduate UC students found that a higher percentage of African-Americans on the UCR campus reported that “students of my race/ethnicity are respected on this cam-pus” than their counterparts at any other UC campus
At UCR a total of 71 percent of African-American men responding said this was true as did 83 percent of African-American women. In the overall UC system only 58 percent of male African-Americans and 63 per-cent of female African-Americans agreed.
In the same survey 91 percent of all UCR undergraduates respond-ing compared to 83 percent of UC system undergraduates agreed that “diversity is important on this cam-pus.”
African-American students in engineering and the hard sciences have lower retention and graduation rates than those in the social sci-ences and arts, but this is true for all ethnic groups.
At a recent Board of Regents meeting White said that eliminat-ing all gaps in graduation rates is a “defi ning feature of UCR’s commit-ment to excellence through diver-sity” and he reported data showing that for the past several years UCR is outperforming peer institutions nationally in this regard.
African American Students Do Well at UCR
page 4 • Feb. 24, 2010 • www.InsideUCR.ucr.edu
Campus Calendar
For the most up-to-date information on these and other events view the UCR Calendar at www.events.ucr.edu.
OngoingUCR/ California Museum of Photography
Exhibition: “Ansel Adams at Work: The Fiat Lux Commission.” Fiat Lux (Let There Be Light) is the motto of the University of California and the title of the book Ansel Adams published in 1968 to celebrate the UC’s centennial. Drawn from reproduction prints the photographer made for this commercial commission, the exhibition shows Ansel Adams at work.
Exhibition: “Mirjam Dröge : The Need to Hold Still.” This exhibition features the work of Mirjam Dröge, a contemporary artist based in Berlin, Germany. Dröge captures physical locations that emphasize privacy, stillness and contemplation, such as clandestine treehouses, self-portraits and still lifes. This is the artist’s fi rst exhibition in the United States.
The exhibits run through May 8. The UCR/CMP is located at 3824 Main St., Riverside. Informa-tion: www.cmp.ucr.edu.
February
24 WednesdayTraining: Making Excellence Inclusive: a UCR Di-versity Certifi cate Program, 11:30 a.m.–1 p.m., Human Resources Building (Personnel) Suite I. Free. Information: www.hrtraining.ucr.edu.
25 ThursdayTraining: National Coalition Building Institute (NCBI) - Prejudice Reduction Model; Chancel-lor’s Diversity Education Program, 8 a.m.–noon, Human Resources Building (Personnel) Suite I. Free. Information: www.humanresources.ucr.
edu/ed.
Reading: Michael Jaime-Becerra Debuts “This Time Tomorrow,” 2–4 p.m., UCR Campus Store. Free. Information: www.book-
store.ucr.edu.
Colloquium: Daniel Sternheimer- Keio University, “Deforma-tions, Quantizations, and the Geometry of Space-time: An Introductory Overview,” 3:40–5 p.m., Surge Building 284. Free. Information: www.mathdept.ucr.edu.
Screening: “Dolley Madison,” special sneak pre-view, 4–5:30 p.m., INTS 1128. Free. Information: www.ideasandsociety.ucr.edu/
Campus Activity: “Journey To a Hate-Free Millen-nium” Screening and Dialogue, 6–7:30 p.m., HUB 268. Free. Information: www.out.ucr.edu.
Performance: “Vagina Monologues,” 7–9 p.m., HUB 302. 12 pre-sale tickets; $15 at the door; $5 parking per car, Lot 1. The performance runs again on March 2. Information: www.wrc.ucr.edu.
Performance: “Marriage of Figaro,” a play by Beaumarchais, 8–10 p.m., Studio Theatre, ARTS 113. $14 general, $12 students/seniors. The performance runs through March 6. Information: www.theatre.ucr.edu.
Campus Activity: Mosaic’s Utterly Sophisticated Literary Salon and Open Mic Night, 8:30–10:30 p.m., The Barn. Free. Information: www.rside.ucr.
edu/barnseries/
Lecture: Fatima Badry, “Appropriating the Global: English in Identity Construction in the UAE,” 11:30a.m.–2:15 p.m., INTS 1111. Free, only 75 seats available. Information: www.globalstudies.
ucr.edu.
Lecture: Prue Talbot, “Unleashing the Potential of Stem Cells.” Noon, Graduate Club Room, UCR Palm Desert. Free. Information: www.ucrgift.org. Registration: (951) 827-6186.
26 FridayConference: Philosophy Annual Conference, “Sav-ing the Sacred in a Secular Age,” 10 a.m.–9:30 p.m., INTS 1113. Free. Information: www.philosophy.ucr.edu.
27 SaturdayScreening: Movie and Queer People of Color Panel, 7:30–9:30 p.m., HUB 260. Free. Information: www.well.ucr.edu.
28 SundayEnrichment: An Introduction to Digital Scrapbook-ing, 6–9 p.m., UCR Extension Center. $155. Information: www.extension.ucr.edu.
March
1 MondayColloquium: Fanny Price: “Is she solemn?—Is she queer?—Is she prudish?” 12:30–2 p.m., HMNSS 2212. Free. Information: www.english.ucr.edu.
Seminar: A Year of New Resolutions: Gaining a New Perspective on Life, 5–6 p.m., HUB 265. Free. Information: www.well.ucr.edu.
Training: From Self-Respect to Self-Defense, 6–8 p.m., Costo Hall Lower Level. Free. Information: www.wrc.ucr.edu.
2 TuesdayConcert: UCR Taiko Ensem-ble: Japanese Drumming, noon, ARTS Amphitheatre Steps. Free. Information: www.music.ucr.edu.
Reception: Celebration for a Day of Appreciation and Recognition of Women Students, 5–7 p.m., HUB 355. Free. Information: www.wrc.edu.
3 WednesdayConcert: Wed@Noon; UCR Composers Collec-tive - Laptop Orchestra, 12:10-1 p.m., Music Rehearsal Hall, ARTS 157. Free. Information: www.music.ucr.edu.
4 ThursdayPerformance: UCR is Dancing 2010, 8-9:30 p.m., UV Humanities 400. $10.50 general, $8.50 students, seniors and children. The performance runs through March 6. Information: www.dance.ucr.edu.
Concert: Student Musician’s Association, free Rock & Hip Hop Show, 8:30-10:30 p.m., The Barn. Free. Information: www.rside.ucr.edu/
barnseries.
5 FridayConcert: UCR Jazz Ensemble & Highlander Concert Band, 8-9:30 p.m., Performance Lab, ARTS 166. $10 general, $8 students/seniors, $6 children. Information: www.music.ucr.edu.
Conference: Re-Imagining American Religions; A Conversation on New World Cultures through the 21st Century, 10 a.m.-noon, INTS 1113. Free. Information: www.religiousstudies.ucr.edu.
8 MondayPerformance: Dance Showings; Winter 2010, 8:30 a.m.-4:30 p.m., ARTS 100, ARTS 300 and PE 102. Free. The performance runs through March 12. Information: www.dance.ucr.edu.
Michael Jaime-Becerra
UCR Taiko Ensemble
In honor of Women’s History Month
in March, the Women’s Resource Center
presents the second annual “Celebration
for a Day of Appreciation and Recognition
of Women Students” on Tuesday, March 2,
from 5 to 7 p.m. in HUB 355.
The event is free and open to the pub-
lic. Reservations are requested and may
be made at ucr.wufoo.com/forms/womens-
resource-center-celebration.
Yolanda Moses, associate vice chancel-
lor for diversity, excellence and equity and a
UCR alumna, will be the keynote speaker.
The event lauds the achievements of
outstanding women students, said Adrienne
Sims, director of the Women’s Resource
Center. Six students will receive awards for
academic excellence, civic engagement,
or overcoming adversity as well as demon-
strated efforts toward social justice, human
rights and equality. They are: Viet Nguyen,
Danielle Wickman, Christine Huynh Ho,
Hansheng Pan, Jennifer Wright and Genet
Tulgetske.
“Besides showcasing their inimitable
backgrounds, the celebration will illustrate
that regardless of circumstance, dedicated
women students cannot be deterred in reach-
ing their educational goals,” Sims said.
For more information contact Sims at
(951) 827-3337 or [email protected].
Outstanding Women Students Honored
UCR celebrated homecoming Feb. 8
through 13 with a series of events for stu-
dents, faculty and staff. Above, UCR’s mas-
cot, Scotty, joins students as they ice skate in
a rink in front of the bell tower.
Above right: It was a full house at UCR’s
annual Heat Music Festival, which featured
DJs and several bands in a tent in front of the
bell tower.
Right middle: Staff members welcome
students at the beer garden event during
Tailgate. Later, visitors attended the basket-
ball game against Cal Poly San Luis Obispo,
which UCR lost 87-84 in double overtime.
Bottom right: The Graduate School of
Education Dean’s Offi ce won the award for
the “Best Academic Department” in the Staff
Assembly’s Offi ce Decorating Contest. Other
winners were Student’s Choice: Child Devel-
opment Center Building; Best Administrative
Unit: AVC/ Dean of Students; and Best Resi-
dence Hall: Aberdeen/Inverness.
Homecoming 2010 — Ice, HEAT, Celebration
How would you rescue a wet cell phone? Does music affect your driving speed? Does sleep deprivation affect your IQ? Are bigger magnets also stronger magnets? And does sound affect the way tomato hornworm cat-erpillars eat?
More than 275 K-12 students from near-ly 25 local schools answered these and other questions at the 21st annual Science and Engineering Fair on campus Feb. 16-18.
A hands-on competition designed to cap-ture the interest of young people, the fair has in past years inspired students to pursue careers in science, technology, engineering and mathematics.
This year, the students presented nearly 260 innovative projects at the fair, which UCR hosted in partnership with the River-side Unifi ed School District (RUSD). The fair took place at the Pentland Hills Bear Cave on campus.
During the fi rst two days, students set up their projects; UCR researchers and RUSD volunteers judged the competition.
“Every year the fair gets better and bet-
ter,” said Thomas O. Baldwin, the dean of the College of Natural and Agricultural Sci-ences (CNAS). “What these young people are able to achieve is remarkable, and shows the excellent education they are receiving in science and math. Our faculty and gradu-ate students enjoy judging the entries, and our departments enjoy providing prizes for the winners. This is indeed fun!”
The Bourns College of Engineering co-hosted the event with CNAS. Researchers at the College of Engineering - Center for Environmental Research and Technology worked with students on their projects.
“It is always gratifying to observe the creativity and the energy of the participat-ing students as they apply what they have learned to real-world problems,” said Reza Abbaschian, the dean of the Bourns College of Engineering.
“These future scientists and engineers represent the promise for our future, and we’re pleased to host them and encourage their pursuit of new knowledge.”
UCR Co-hosts Annual District Science Fair
Following extensive remodeling, the Geology Building was reopened on Feb. 13 with a cer-
emonial ribbon cutting sponsored by the Department of Earth Sciences. Participating in the
ceremony were (left to right) Layne Arthur, a representative from contractor Barnhart Inc.;
Pam Touschner, from architect WWCOT; Tom Baldwin, dean of CNAS; Mary Droser, chair
of earth sciences; Chancellor Timothy P. White; Mike Gardner, Riverside councilmember;
Don Caskey, campus architect and associate vice chancellor of design and construction; and
Riverside Mayor Ron Loveridge. Partially visible behind Baldwin are earth sciences alumnus
Bob Gaines (Ph.D. ‘03) and current student Monica Galaviz. About 200 alumni attended the
event. Photo by Sara Clausen