A Sampling of Clips for May 24, 2010

* UCSD faculty and staff may obtain a copy of an article by e-mailing the University Communications Office

Craig Venter: A Product of Veterans' Education and Community Colleges
Science, May 21 -- Yesterday's big science news -- the creation of a bacteria cell with a synthesized genome -- comes from the J. Craig Venter Institute in Rockville, Maryland, and San Diego, California. Craig Venter himself is already a scientific legend due to his role in the sequencing of the human genome. But one aspect of his story is less well-known, and shows how scientific talent can emerge from unlikely sources: In his case, the U.S. Navy and community colleges. Venter is a UC San Diego alumnus. More

Similar story in
The Guardian, U.K.
San Diego Union-Tribune

Hot Jobs for College Graduates
Forbes, May 21 -- According to U.S. Census Bureau statistics, 3.2 million college degrees have been or will be awarded this year, adding millions of new applicants to the job market. And with 15 million unemployed Americans, this year's graduating classes face an overwhelmingly tough employment arena.  A new report from UC San Diego Extension says graduates can enrich their job prospects by seeking employment in 14 niche industries that are on the rise. More

Bauer's Hit Lifts Tritons in Ninth
News & Observer, Charlotte, N.C., May 23 -- Grant Bauer helped top-ranked UC San Diego survive Saturday. Bauer's two-out single in the bottom of the ninth lifted the Tritons to a 3-2 win over Georgia College in a first-round game at the NCAA Division II baseball championships at the USA Baseball National Training Complex. More

Similar story in
Kansas City Star
San Diego Union-Tribune
North County Times
San Diego Union-Tribune

Homeland Security Wants to Turn Your Cell Phone into a Smell Phone
Christian Science Monitor, May 20 -- The U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) is hoping that soon your cell phone will sniff out poisonous gases. It’s funding three companies to create a small chip – about the size of a dime – that would sit inside of cell phones and alert users to potentially deadly smells. Michael Sailor, whose research team at UC San Diego works for Rhevision Technology, Inc. to create the chip, says the chips are most useful for first responders or other emergency workers. More

Cal State System's Ban on Studying in Tijuana Draws Protest
Los Angeles Times, May 23 -- San Diego State is a U.S. university with one foot in Mexico. For years, students pursuing international degrees have attended the hillside campus because a study abroad experience is only a quick trip down Interstate 5.  (Mentions UC San Diego) More

Palin's Message is More Diffuse, But Her Star Power's Undiminished
Denver Post, May 23 -- As a vice presidential hopeful two years ago, Sarah Palin drew passion and loyalty from the Republican base even before there was a Tea Party movement. (Quotes UC San Diego political scientist Gary Jacobson) More

Just Passing Through: Children’s Pool Seals
San Diego Union-Tribune, May 24 -- Conventional thinking for years has been that roughly 200 harbor seals belong to an isolated colony at Children’s Pool beach in La Jolla. Emerging research from UC San Diego suggests the reality is far different. More

UCSD to Test Anti-terrorism Robot
San Diego Union-Tribune, May 24 -- Engineers at UC San Diego are installing sensors on a small army of the robots to see if they can spot and predict the movement of harmless smoke that will be released during a controlled experiment on campus this summer. More

Political Chameleon
San Diego Union-Tribune, Editorial, May 24 -- If truth is the first casualty of war, then consistency must be one of the first things to perish in the immigration debate. (Mentions research by Wayne Cornelius, formerly of UC San Diego) More

Low Income Students Receive College Scholarships
FOX 5 San Diego, May 23 - Nearly 200 local high school students were awarded college scholarships from California Student Opportunity and Access Program on Sunday. For the 4th year, low income students from San Diego and Imperial Counties proudly gathered at UC San Diego to receive their scholarships from Cal-SOAP. More

Mad Max Wins UCSD 'Junkyard Derby'
San Diego Union-Tribune, May 22 -- Ah, the power of ingenuity. UC San Diego recently held its annual Junkyard Derby, a competition in which students are given two days to transform junk and abandoned bicycles into boxcars, which they race down Peterson Hill. More

White House Dinner
San Diego Union-Tribune, May 22 -- Despite our proximity to Mexico, San Diego was barely represented among the 200 or so guests attending President Barack Obama’s state dinner feting Mexican President Felipe Calderón and his wife Wednesday. Among the attendees was UC San Diego and Scripps Institution of Oceanography chemistry professor Mario Molina, a Nobel laureate who sits on Obama’s Council of Advisors on Science and Technology. Molina, who was accompanied by his wife, Guadelupe Alvarez, was named last week to an international committee tasked with reviewing the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. More

Families (Nuclear or Calm) a la Globe
San Diego Union-Tribune, May 23 -- There are plays for families, and plays about families. The former are fun for the whole gang. The latter sometimes can make you blush even to discuss with the junior members of the household. (Mentions UC San Diego faculty member and Globe regular Kyle Donnelly) More

Teaching to the Test or Just Using a Different One?
Voice of San Diego, May 21 -- Wondering why San Diego scores stagnated on a national test at the same time its state test scores jumped?(Quotes Julian Betts, who heads the economics department at UC San Diego) More

New Auditorium for UCSD Rady School Under Way
San Diego Daily Transcript, May 21 -- The Rady School of Management at UC San Diego broke ground Friday on a new auditorium as part of the expansion of the Rady School campus. More

Stem Cell Center Brings Incubator Hopes for UCI
Orange County Business Journal, May 23 -- Could the University of California, Irvine’s new stem cell center turn research into business for the school? “That is absolutely one of the things we would like to have happen,” said Peter Donovan, co-director of UC Irvine’s Sue and Bill Gross Hall. (Mentions UC San Diego) More

‘Inner Views’ Showcases New Asian American Plays
SDNN, May 20 -- What’s on the mind of Asian Americans? The San Diego Asian American Repertory Theatre wanted to know – in brief. (Mentions Naomi Iizuka, head of the UC San Diego Playwriting MFA program) More

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