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NATIONAL ACADEMY OF SCIENCES TO HOLD 
PUBLIC SYMPOSIUM AT UCSD NOVEMBER 29

Scientific advances ranging from the internet to the oceans will be discussed at a public symposium to be sponsored by the National Academy of Sciences at the University of California, San Diego, at 1 p.m. Nov. 29 in the Price Center Theater.

The public symposium is being held in conjunction with a regional meeting of some 80 NAS members on the UCSD campus.

Symposium speakers and topics include V. Ramanathan, professor of Atmospheric and Climate Sciences, Scripps Institution of Oceanography, “The Asian Brown Cloud”; Jeremy Jackson, professor of Oceanography, Scripps Institution of Oceanography, “Unnatural Oceans”; Webster Cavenee, professor and director, Ludwig Center for Cancer Research, “Exploiting Mutations in Tumors for Targeted Therapy”, and Larry L. Smarr, professor of computer science and engineering and director, California Institute for Telecommunications and Information Technology, “Empowering Scientific Research with the 21st Century Internet.”

“Most large scale science projects being proposed for the next decade will require vastly increased reach and power in the underlying global information and computational infrastructure,” Smarr notes. His lecture will illustrate this with several examples, including the recently NIH-funded Biomedical Informatics Research Network (BIRN) as well as high resolution 3D seismic imaging for earth sciences.  “Although these are vastly different disciplines when looked at in a traditional scientific disciplinary fashion they turn out to require a very similar infrastructure. They both rely on and drive the development of new capabilities in the internet such as wireless sensornets, collaboration and visualization technologies, and the development of powerful photonic networks,” Smarr notes.

Cavenee will discuss a tumor-associated molecule which is representative of a new class of cancer targets which offer rational selection and therapy. Specifically, he will detail a molecule in a mutated form of the epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) that has been found in large proportions of tumors of the brain, lung, prostate and breast. His studies have determined the mode of action of this receptor and used this information to target it using small molecule inhibitors and specifically directed monoclonal antibodies. 

In his talk Jackson will show how retrospective data not only help clarify underlying causes and rates of ecological change in the oceans, but they also demonstrate achievable goals for restoration and management of coastal ecosystems that could not even be contemplated based on the limited perspective of recent observations alone.

Ramanathan will discuss the Indian Ocean Experiment whose observations of the winter season brownish haze that spreads over most of the North Indian Ocean, South and East Asia has revealed new insights into how this phenomenon is regulating the climate system.

The symposium will be available via live streaming video as part of the California Institute of Telecommunications and Information Technology webcast series. During symposium hours, 1-3:30 p.m., pacific time, the webcast can be accessed at rtsp://132.239.50.152:554/encoder/nas.rm. After the meeting, the presentations will be archived for on-demand viewing.

Co-organizers for the symposium were Ronald L. Graham, Irwin and Joan Jacobs professor of Computer and Information Science; Edward W. Holmes, vice chancellor for Health Sciences and dean, School of Medicine, and Charles F. Kennel, director, Scripps Institution of Oceanography.