University Communications and Public Affairs
Rising stars of cinema at the University of California, San Diego will be celebrated at the 5th annual Up and Coming Student Film Festival at 8 p.m., May 17 in The Loft.
For the first time, researchers at the University of California, San Diego have peered inside a living mouse cell and mapped the processes that power the celebrated health benefits of omega-3 fatty acids. More profoundly, they say their findings suggest it may be possible to manipulate these processes to short-circuit inflammation before it begins, or at least help to resolve inflammation before it becomes detrimental.
Researchers at the University of California, San Diego School of Medicine and Moores Cancer Center have identified a new biomarker and therapeutic target for pancreatic cancer, an often-fatal disease for which there is currently no reliable method for early detection or therapeutic intervention.
Researchers at the Comprehensive Alzheimer’s Program at the University of California, San Diego School of Medicine have announced two new clinical trials for patients with either mild to moderate Alzheimer’s disease (AD) and one trial for Mild Cognitive Impairment.
A marine ecologist known for his work on community ecology and chemical ecology has been selected to receive the 2012 Robert L. and Bettie P. Cody Award in Ocean Sciences from Scripps Institution of Oceanography at UC San Diego. Mark Hay, Teasley Professor of Environmental Biology and co-director of the Center for Aquatic Chemical Ecology at Georgia Tech, will be awarded the prestigious prize during a private ceremony on June 14.
A clinical study of 30 adult patients with multiple sclerosis (MS) at the University of California, San Diego School of Medicine has shown that smoked cannabis may be an effective treatment for spasticity – a common and disabling symptom of this neurological disease.
For the third consecutive year, the University of California, San Diego has been named to the President’s Community Service Honor Roll with distinction for its efforts to solve community problems, place students on a lifelong path of civic engagement and achieve meaningful, measureable outcomes of community service.
The University of California, San Diego Jacobs School of Engineering announced today that it is a Grand Challenges Explorations winner, an initiative funded by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. Bioengineering Professor Todd Coleman, in collaboration with Materials Science and Engineering Professor John A. Rogers at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, will pursue an innovative global health and development research project, titled “Epidermal Electronics for Continuous Pregnancy Monitoring.”
A 100-fold upsurge in human-produced plastic garbage in the ocean is altering habitats in the marine environment, according to a new study led by a graduate student researcher at Scripps Institution of Oceanography at UC San Diego.
It’s the University of California’s oldest arts research center and was one of the University of California, San Diego’s first Organized Research Units. It’s been housed in everything from a converted Marine Corps bowling alley to a state-of-the-art research facility, and in its 40-year history, the Center for Research in Computing and the Arts (CRCA) has been an incubator for myriad experiments at the intersection of culture and computer science research, from computer-spatialized audio and future cinema to video games and virtual reality.
A team of researchers led by computer scientist Serge Belongie at the University of California, San Diego, has good news for birders: they have developed an iPad app that will identify most North American birds, with a little help from a human user.
Diabetes affects nearly 24 million people in the United States, most with Type 2 diabetes, a disease which is often coupled with obesity. Concerned by the increasing number of overweight Americans, nutrition experts with the UC San Diego School of Medicine are launching Take Charge, a research study analyzing the effectiveness of a commercial weight-loss program on participants with Type 2 diabetes who have a BMI of 25 – 45.
An international team of scientists, led by researchers at the University of California, San Diego School of Medicine, report that significant numbers of myofibroblasts – cells that produce the fibrous scarring in chronic liver injury – revert to an inactive phenotype as the liver heals. The discovery in mouse models could ultimately help lead to new human therapies for reversing fibrosis in the liver, and in other organs like the lungs and kidneys.
A new Organized Research Unit (ORU) that focuses on “Food and Fuel for the 21st Century” has been established at the University of California, San Diego.
On May 3, 2012, Rady Children’s Hospital-San Diego and the UC San Diego School of Medicine launched the Center for the Promotion of Maternal Health and Infant Development. The new center, located on the campus of Rady Children’s Hospital at 7910 Frost Street in San Diego, will focus on identifying the best ways to optimize pregnancy outcomes and to improve the health of children in San Diego through groundbreaking research and patient care.
Can a computer be taught to automatically label every song on the Internet using sets of examples provided by unpaid music fans? University of California, San Diego engineers have found that the answer is yes, and the results are as accurate as using paid music experts to provide the examples, saving considerable time and money.
University of California President Mark G. Yudof announced today that he has selected Pradeep K. Khosla, dean of Carnegie Mellon University’s College of Engineering, to serve as the eighth chancellor of UC San Diego. Khosla is an accomplished leader, educator, researcher and champion for diversity. Details of the appointment will be voted on at the May 16 meeting of the UC Board of Regents.
The San Diego Supercomputer Center (SDSC) at the University of California, San Diego has announced a 10-week computational science program to provide a limited number of undergraduate students with paid, hands-on experience using Gordon, the center’s new data-intensive supercomputer.
May 03, 2012 • On Campus, Science and Engineering, SDSC, Undergraduate Research
James Fallows, national correspondent for The Atlantic, will speak on his new book, “China Airborne: Aviation and the Future of China,” on Tuesday, May 15, 2012 at the University of California San Diego Institute of the Americas. The talk is free and open to the public with no tickets or reservations required.
Invasive and costly tests commonly performed on women before surgery for stress urinary incontinence (SUI) may not be necessary, according to researchers at the University of California San Diego, School of Medicine and the Urinary Incontinence Treatment Network. The study, supported by the National Institutes of Health (NIH), will be released online May 2 by the New England Journal of Medicine (NEJM).
This spring’s warmer than normal temperatures brought early blooming throughout much of the Eastern United States. Biologists discovered in a new study that plant warming experiments may dramatically underestimate how plants respond to future increases in temperatures from global warming.
Paul S. Viviano has accepted the position as the new CEO of UC San Diego Health System and associate vice chancellor for Health Sciences. His appointment was approved by the UC Board of Regents, and will commence June 1, 2012.
The National Academy of Sciences today elected three professors at the University of California, San Diego to membership in the prestigious National Academy of Sciences, one of the highest honors bestowed on U.S. scientists and engineers.
In the online May 2 issue of the journal Cell Metabolism, researchers at the University of California, San Diego School of Medicine publish three distinct articles exploring: the complex interactions of lipids and inflammation in insulin resistance; the roles of omega 3 fatty acids and a particular gene in fighting inflammation;how elevated levels of a particular protein might delay the muscle-destroying effects of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis.
China’s economy is growing rapidly, but Chinese currency has yet to join the ranks of the U.S. dollar, euro, yen and sterling pound to become a global reserve currency. Three prominent keynote speakers and many distinguished economists, bankers and business people will give their views on the internationalization of Chinese currency (renminbi or RMB) at the University of California, San Diego June 7 to 8.
Forget about building a better mouse trap. University of California, San Diego sophomore Riley Yeakle and his teammates have come up with a better camera trap, and they will be facing off with finalists from around the country when they unveil working prototypes of their visions for embedded systems at a new, national engineering student competition.
May 01, 2012 • General, Science and Engineering, Undergraduate Research
An international consortium of researchers has overcome an important barrier to the generation of single photons using a tiny, chip-scale device constructed from the most widely used material underpinning modern electronics: silicon.
William G. Bradley, Jr., MD, PhD, FACR, chairman of the Department of Radiology, was awarded the ACR Gold Medal and Honorary Fellowship, the highest honor of the American College of Radiology on April 22, during the ACR annual meeting and Chapter Leadership Conference held in Washington, D.C. The ACR said of Bradley, “(He) is renowned for his endless dedication…to advance the science and cause of radiology locally, nationally and internationally.”
April 30, 2012 • Awards, General, Health, Science and Engineering
A study to be published in the June 2012 issue of Journal of Adolescent Health looking at the relationships between body satisfaction and healthy psychological functioning in overweight adolescents has found that young women who are happy with the size and shape of their bodies report higher levels of self-esteem.
The world can significantly slow the pace of climate change with practical efforts to control so-called “short-lived climate pollutants” and by bringing successful Western technologies to the developing world, according to three UC San Diego scientists in the journal Foreign Affairs.
Steven Garfin, MD, Distinguished Professor and chair of the Department of Orthopaedic Surgery at UC San Diego Health System was named President of the International Society for the Advancement of Spine Surgery (ISASS) for 2012 to 2013.
April 26, 2012 • Awards, General, Health, On Campus, Science and Engineering
Tape measures. Rulers. Graphs. The gas gauge in your car, and the icon on your favorite digital device showing battery power. The number line and its cousins – notations that map numbers onto space and often represent magnitude – are everywhere. Most adults in industrialized societies are so fluent at using the concept, we hardly think about it. We don’t stop to wonder: Is it “natural”? Is it cultural?
Jack E. Dixon, PhD, Vice President and Chief Scientific Officer of the Howard Hughes Medical Institute, and professor of pharmacology, cellular and molecular medicine, chemistry and biochemistry at the University of California, San Diego has been named a foreign member of the Royal Society.
April 25, 2012 • Awards, General, Health, Science and Engineering
University of California, San Diego scientists have used powerful computational tools and laboratory tests to discover new support for a once-marginalized theory about the underlying cause of Parkinson’s disease.
On May 1, the UC San Diego Libraries will present an exhibit of materials in Geisel Library from its world-renowned Melanesian Archive, a unique archive of materials on the people, cultures, history and languages of Papua New Guinea and other island countries of the southwestern Pacific.
Carolyn Schutt, a Ph.D student in bioengineering at the University of California, San Diego is developing a new imaging technique that could lead to highly-sensitive light imaging deeper inside the body, improving the way we diagnose breast cancer.
According to the California Department of Motor Vehicles (CADMV), distracted driving is on the rise due to an increase in the use of cell phones and other electronic devices and the increasing importance of these devices in individuals’ lives. Studies have shown that phoning and driving increases the risk of crashes four-fold, with hands free and hand held devices equally dangerous. Texting increases this risk 8-16 times.
According to a new study, the neuron-killing pathology of Alzheimer’s disease (AD), which begins before clinical symptoms appear, requires the presence of both amyloid-beta (a-beta) plaque deposits and elevated levels of an altered protein called p-tau.
Richard C. Atkinson, who served as chancellor of the University of California, San Diego for fifteen years, was barely four weeks into his tenure as president of the University of California system when the UC Regents voted to end affirmative action in August 1995.
A team of Harvard University researchers has been allocated time on the Trestles supercomputer at the San Diego Supercomputer Center (SDSC) at the University of California, San Diego to perform computational calculations with the goal of creating the next generation of organic solar cells as an inexpensive and efficient source of energy.
People with nonalcoholic fatty liver disease (NALFD) who consume alcohol in modest amounts – no more than one or two servings per day – are half as likely to develop hepatitis as non-drinkers with the same condition, reports a national team of scientists led by researchers at the University of California, San Diego School of Medicine.
Although perceived as sheer fantasy by many, the magic depicted in the popular Harry Potter novels by author J.K. Rowling can be traced to Renaissance traditions that played a pivotal role in the development of modern science and medicine. The UC San Diego Libraries have been selected by the U.S. National Library of Medicine to host “Harry Potter’s World: Renaissance Science, Magic, and Medicine,” a traveling exhibit that sheds light on the Renaissance traditions featured in the Harry Potter canon.
The University of California, San Diego is one of the most environmentally responsible colleges in the U.S. and Canada, according to The Princeton Review. The education services company selected UC San Diego for inclusion in the second annual edition of “The Princeton Review’s Guide to 322 Green Colleges: 2012 Edition.”
UC San Diego Medical Center, located in Hillcrest, has been named one of the nation’s 100 Top Hospitals® by Thomson Reuters. Ranked among the country’s major teaching hospitals, the Medical Center was also one of twelve hospitals to receive the Everest Award. This award honors hospitals that have achieved both the highest current performance and the fastest long-term improvement over a five-year period in Reuter’s national benchmarking study.
April 17, 2012 • Awards, General, Health, Science and Engineering
The San Diego Supercomputer Center (SDSC) at the University of California, San Diego is launching a new “center of excellence” aimed at leveraging SDSC’s data-intensive expertise and resources to help create the next generation of data researchers by leading a collaborative, nationwide education and training effort among academia, industry, and government.
Karl Y. Hostetler, MD, has been selected as the recipient of the 2012 Gertrude Elion Memorial Lecture Award by the International Society of Antiviral Research. Hostetler is a professor of medicine in the Divisions of Infectious Diseases and Endocrinology at the UC San Diego School of Medicine.
April 17, 2012 • Awards, General, Health, Science and Engineering
The Rady School of Management at UC San Diego has been awarded a $1.7 million Ideas to Innovation Challenge grant from the Graduate Management Admission Council (GMAC), a nonprofit education organization of leading graduate business schools and owner of the Graduate Management Admission Test (GMAT®) exam.
The University of California, San Diego’s Sixth College will celebrate its 10th Anniversary with a special guest appearance from Conan O’Brien, host of the late night talk show, “Conan.” Sixth College will also be renamed “Conan O’Brien College” for the day of O’Brien’s appearance, April 20, 2012, according to Sixth College Provost Dan Donoghue.
Susan Ferro-Novick, PhD, professor in the Department of Cellular and Molecular Medicine at the University of California, San Diego School of Medicine, and Herbert Levine, PhD, professor in the UC San Diego Department of Physics, have been elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.
April 17, 2012 • Awards, General, Health, Science and Engineering
The University of California, San Diego has admitted a record 22,947 freshmen for Fall 2012. The number of admitted students is up 4,715, which represents a 25.9 percent increase from last year. The new freshmen were selected from a record 60,800 applications.
As fellow researchers from the University of California, San Diego were participating in the San Diego Science Festival last month, research scientist and Jacobs School of Engineering alumnus Albert Yu-Min Lin (‘08, ’06 and ’04) was exciting students and the public at a science festival more than 10,000 miles away – in South Africa.
The UC San Diego Sulpizio Cardiovascular Center is the first hospital-based project in the region to receive LEED Gold certification from the United States Green Building Council (USGBC). Representatives from the USGBC – San Diego Chapter recently presented a plaque to the building project and design team.
The 15th annual Fiesta de las Estrellas—a “celebration of the stars” hosted by the University of California, San Diego’s Hispanic Scholarship Council—will raise much-needed scholarship funding for ambitious and motivated UC San Diego students on April 18. Since its founding 15 years ago, the event has raised more than $1 million for undergraduate scholarships to help ensure that students from all backgrounds can access a world-class UC San Diego education.
Once upon a time, it was fairly easy to manage your old photos, correspondence, and even home movies, which, for the most part, were locked into one format, and could only be shared in the physical sense.
Scott M. Lippman, MD, chair of Thoracic/Head and Neck Medical Oncology at The University of Texas (UT) MD Anderson Cancer Center, has accepted the position of director of Moores Cancer Center at the University of California, San Diego, beginning May 1, 2012.
April 13, 2012 • General, Health, On Campus, Science and Engineering
What happens when you put a fully equipped five-story building, which includes an intensive care unit, a surgery suite, piping and air conditioning, fire barriers and even a working elevator, through a series of high-intensity earthquakes?
UC San Diego nanoengineering professor Joseph Wang will accept the 2012 Breyer Medal in person this Sunday, April 15, in Perth, Australia. The medal is the top Australian award in the field of electrochemistry, and it will be presented at the annual Royal Australian Chemical Institute (RACI) Electrochemistry Symposium.
A study conducted on roundworms by biologists at UC San Diego has uncovered some important clues to answering the question of how humans and other animals are able to discriminate between disease-causing microbes and innocuous ones to rapidly respond to infections.
On Monday, April 9, 2012, Santiago Horgan, MD, chief of minimally invasive surgery at UC San Diego Health System implanted the new FDA-approved LINX device in a 29-year old patient suffering from gastroesophageal reflux disease (GERD), a chronic digestive disease that can lead to severe inflammation, stricture, Barrett’s esophagus and esophageal cancer.
When Bobbi Warren was diagnosed with stage 1 breast cancer a year and a half ago, she was not surprised. Cancer was an all too familiar figure in her family—her father and sister had both died from cancer and her son is a survivor of Hodgkin’s Lymphoma.
This spring, the UC San Diego Holocaust Living History Workshop (HLHW), sponsored by the UC San Diego Libraries and the Judaic Studies Program, continues its popular “Witnessing History” program, a series of talks focusing on the experience of history in the making.
The Center for Research Libraries (CRL) has certified Chronopolis, a large-scale data preservation network, as a “trustworthy digital repository” that meets accepted best practices in the management of digital repositories.
“Best Time to Cross the Border” is a new service that is accessible on the Web – http://traffic.calit2.net/border/ – and also as an Android app via https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=net.calit2.ports the Android Market (aka Google Play). Border crossers can also search for the Android app under the name “Best Time to Cross the Border” in the Google Play store.
April 06, 2012 • General, Science and Engineering, Undergraduate Research
Researchers at the University of California, San Diego and Veterans Affairs San Diego Healthcare System have shown that elevated pulse pressure may increase the risk of cerebrovascular disease (CVD) in older adults with Alzheimer’s disease (AD).
