A Sampling of Clips for September 22^th, 2009

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

Watching Life in Real Time
The New York Times, Sept. 21 – A Q & A with Nobel Prize-winner Martin Chalfie, head of the biological sciences department at Columbia University. Chalfie was awarded was awarded the Nobel Prize in Chemistry last year, along with Osamu Shimomura’s and Roger Tsien’s, professor of pharmacology, chemistry and biochemistry at UCSD. More

Winning Netflix Team Draws From AT&T, Yahoo
Wall Street Journal, Sept. 21 – For the members of BellKor’s Pragmatic Chaos, winning Netflix’s recommendation-improvement contest fulfilled a dream — literally. Netflix Chief Product Officer Neil Hunt, Michael Jahrer and Bob Bell attend Netflix’s prize event in New York. The competition “pretty much defined our lives, professional choices and activities,” said team member Yehuda Koren. During the first year of the contest, he dreamt about ways to achieve the 10% improvement and woke up, he said, “with ratings in mind.” (Mentions Charles Elkan, a computer-science professor at UCSD) More

UCSD Starts Classes This Week; 550 Fewer Freshmen Than Last Year
San Diego Union-Tribune, Sept. 21 – An estimated 28,500 students will start classes this week at UCSD, according to university officials. The La Jolla-area university accepted about 550 fewer freshmen for its fall 2009 quarter due to the state's budget cuts, said Christine Hurley, director of Institutional Research. "But an increased continuing student population should keep us at the same undergraduate level," she said. More

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Following the Flow of Pollutants
San Diego Union-Tribune, Sept. 22 -- Dozens of scientists, engineers and volunteers in wet suits and immersed in 67-degree water are setting up sensitive equipment along Imperial Beach's shoreline to better understand water pollution. The work is part of a $1.5 million experiment that may help manage beach closures along the entire California coast. Scientists with UCSD's Scripps Institution of Oceanography say the goal of the Imperial Beach Pollutant Transport and Dilution Experiment is to track how pollutants are moved by waves, currents and tides. More

Artist Mark Bradford, USC's Elyn Saks win MacArthur Grants
Los Angeles Times, Sept. 22 -- They are among 24 who will each receive $500,000 in the next five years. Bradford specializes in collages with found objects. Saks' schizophrenia has informed her advocacy for the mentally ill.
A Los Angeles artist who specializes in incorporating found objects into his pieces and a USC law professor whose own battle with schizophrenia has informed her advocacy for those suffering from mental illness are among the 24 winners of this year's "genius" grants from the MacArthur Foundation. (Mentions UCSD) More

UCSD Again Tops San Diego's "Top Doctors" List
KFMB, Sept. 22 -- UCSD Medical Center has once again excelled in the "Physicians of Exceptional Excellence" survey, which will appear in the October issue of San Diego Magazine. Eighty UCSD physicians in 30 specialties were rated the best doctors in the region by their peers, and more than any other health care system or medical group in San Diego County. UCSD has consistently had more physicians on the top doctors list than any other medical group and the number of UCSD physicians that are named the best in San Diego continues to grow every year. More

Works & Process
New Yorker, Sept. 22 -- As in years past, the festival is sold out, but don’t despair: there will be a line for returns before each performance. Companies paying tribute to Diaghilev’s Ballets Russes will be the Boston Ballet, with Nijinsky’s “Afternoon of a Faun” on Tuesday and Wednesday, and Les Grands Ballets Canadiens de Montréal, with their take on Nijinska’s powerful and seldom seen “Les Noces” (1922) on Thursday and Friday; Basil Twist gives us his puppet “Petrushka” on Saturday and Sunday. Other companies performing this week include Paul Taylor, Batsheva, Morphoses, and Tangueros del Sur, featuring the fabulous Gabriel Misse, showing off his quicksilver footwork. (Mentions Susan Narucki, professor in UCSD’s Department of Music) More

Creative Minds Coming Together at Literature Conference
The Press-Enterprise, Sept. 21 -- Want to meet the minds behind books like "If You Give a Mouse a Cookie" and the "Max and Ruby" series? Children's authors Laura Numeroff and Rosemary Wells are two of several writers and illustrators scheduled to appear Saturday at the third annual Children's Literacy/Literature Conference at the Mission Inn. (Mentions UCSD) More

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