University Communications and Public Affairs
After an extensive national search, the UC Regents approved the appointment of Linda S. Greene, the Evjue-Bascom Professor of Law at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, as UC San Diego’s first Vice Chancellor of Equity, Diversity and Inclusion. Greene will lead the development of a diversity strategic plan for UC San Diego.
Marye Anne Fox will step down as Chancellor at the end of July after eight years of leadership service at UC San Diego. She has led our campus during a historic era of extraordinary growth and unprecedented financial challenges. She has assembled a diverse leadership team and set a visionary course for our future. Under her leadership, UC San Diego successfully completed a billion-dollar capital campaign, celebrated the campus’s 50th anniversary, enhanced the campus climate, and expanded at a record-setting pace to accommodate increasing numbers of students and a billion-dollar research enterprise. In this interview, she reflects on her time as Chancellor and talks about what’s next for her and the campus.
Student involvement on campus can lead to more than just a great college experience. It can also lead to a job. Garron Engstrom is a prime example. He graduated last year with a degree in cognitive science and now works as an Interaction Designer at Mitchell International in San Diego. In this interview, he talks about how his work as a student ambassador led him to his current position, and he also offers advice for new graduates.
Thousands of students, faculty, staff and community members use the UC San Diego Libraries every day. The Libraries provide more than 7 million digital and print volumes, journals and multimedia materials, and its resources and services are accessed on the Web almost 90,000 times a day. Ever-evolving shifts in user needs and the continuous decline in state funding, have led the Libraries to implement a number of changes, including the consolidation of some library buildings and collections.
Angela Fang says just thinking about starting college makes her positively giddy, especially because she’s about to become a UC San Diego Triton. She is currently a high school senior at The Preuss School, so she is very familiar with campus.
Fascinating is the right word. In fact, it would be fair to say that I am infatuated with my research. I guess what I find fascinating about psychology is the constant experience of discovering that the way the mind works is even more interesting than our best theories assume.
Antigone Blackwell is using her skills as a fundraiser, and her passion for diversity and access, to raise money for programs at UC San Diego that attract the best and brightest students from underrepresented communities. As the Director of Development for Diversity Initiatives, she has been working with students, faculty and staff all over campus, and individuals and groups in the community, to identify, cultivate and steward major gift prospects for various diversity activities. She came to UC San Diego from DePaul University in Chicago, where access was part of the school’s mission. In this interview, she talks about her priorities, the importance of collaboration, and the challenges and opportunities she faces.
Shandy Pinkowski is going to be an exceptional lawyer. When she sets her mind on something, she makes it happen. And it doesn't hurt that she likes to argue. To say that she is determined is an understatement. She has lived on her own since she was 16 years old. She grew up in a difficult home, and briefly lived in foster care. But through it all, she had her mind set on going to college, and she dreamed of traveling. She says it was her way out — of her small hometown in California and the way of life she grew up watching. In this interview, Shandy talks about her motivation to pursue a higher education, her experiences studying abroad, and the important role mentors and other supporters have had in her life.
Carlos Coimbra, a professor of mechanical and aerospace engineering, has been named the new Faculty Director of the IDEA Student Center at the Jacobs School of Engineering. He joined the Jacobs School in fall 2011. He is originally from Brazil, got his Ph.D. from UC Irvine, and has been on faculty at the University of Hawaii and UC Merced, where he was involved in many outreach and academic research programs for undergraduate students. Coimbra's professional goal is to develop the smart solar power farms of the future. He uses a network of solar observatories throughout the University of California system to harvest data for forecasting solar power output. He analyzes this data using artificial intelligence methods and a new, sophisticated type of variable order differential equations he developed. He answered some of our questions about his new role, the programs he has been involved with and the importance of diversity.
Alumnus Tim Lee wasn't supposed to be a comedian. A biologist by training, he graduated in 1993 magna cum laude from UC San Diego with honors in biology. He went on to complete his Ph.D. at UC Davis. He spent years developing simulation and analytical models of population dynamics before he discovered that this bored him to tears. So he tried comedy, and has become an underground sensation, with over 4 million views on his YouTube videos. He now sells out performances from New York to Sydney. In this interview, Tim talks about his transition from biology to comedy, and how his biology research recently helped him out in a San Francisco coffee shop.