2008: The Year in Review

Ioana Patringenaru | December 22, 2008

UC San Diego researcher Roger Tsien shared the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in October. This summer, a UCSD student and a UCSD alumna competed in the Beijing Olympic Games. Meanwhile, earlier this year, the university unveiled a wide-ranging initiative to become the leading user of renewable energy among U.S. campuses within the next few years. It’s been an exciting year at UCSD and with 2009 just around the corner, we are taking a look back at the past 12 months. Here is a list of some of the most important and interesting stories of 2008.

Jan | Feb | Mar | Apr | May | Jun | Jul | Aug | Sep | Oct | Nov | Dec

"Climate Crisis" in the West Predicted with Increasing Certainty
A new analysis led by researchers at Scripps Institution of Oceanography at UC San Diego shows that climate change from human activity is already disrupting water supplies in the western United States.
http://ucsdnews.ucsd.edu/thisweek/2008/01/07_climate_crisis.asp

Campus Begins Trading Greenhouse
Gas Credits on Chicago Climate Exchange
UC San Diego has become the first campus on the West Coast to join the Chicago Climate Exchange (CCX), North America’s only voluntary, legally binding trading system to reduce emissions of greenhouse gases. UCSD is only the seventh university in the nation to join the climate exchange.
http://ucsdnews.ucsd.edu/newsrel/science/01-08ChicagoClimateExchange.html

Vice Chancellor for Resource Management & Planning Appointed
Gary C. Matthews, a recognized leader in higher education management, has been appointed vice chancellor for Resource Management & Planning.  Matthews has served as interim vice chancellor for Resource Management & Planning since December 2006, when former Vice Chancellor John Woods retired. His new appointment has been approved by the UC Board of Regents.
http://ucsdnews.ucsd.edu/newsrel/general/01-08GaryMathews.asp

New Chief Diversity Officer Named
Dr. Sandra Daley has been named the new campus Associate Chancellor and Chief Diversity Officer. Currently the assistant dean of Diversity and Community Partnerships and professor of pediatrics at the School of Medicine, Daley begins work in her new post this week.
http://ucsdnews.ucsd.edu/newsrel/awards/01-08SandraDaley.asp

Campus Shows Its Support
for Diversity at Martin Luther King Jr. Parade
“I say UC; you say?” “SD” “UCSD!” “I say Martin Luther; you say?” “Kiiing!” “Martin Luther Kiiiing!” UCSD students chanted as they made their way past the San Diego Convention Center and PETCO Park Saturday during San Diego’s 28th annual Martin Luther King Jr. Day parade. In all, more than 300 UCSD students, faculty, staff and top administrators, led by Chancellor Marye Anne Fox, turned out for the event.
http://ucsdnews.ucsd.edu/thisweek/2008/01/22_mlkparade08.asp

UCSD Students Join Hands with Others Across
the Nation to Look for Solutions to Climate Change
“There is no magic solution, but the responsibility to save the world belongs in the hands of our youth,” UC San Diego sociology professor Ivan Evans told a Focus the Nation panel discussion on Thursday. The panel talk was one of many diverse events organized by UCSD students to recognize the first nationwide Focus the Nation event, which took place Jan. 28 to 31.
http://ucsdnews.ucsd.edu/thisweek/2008/02/04_focusnation.asp

A Warming Climate Can Support Glacial Ice
New research challenges the generally accepted belief that substantial ice sheets could not have existed on Earth during past super-warm climate events. The study by researchers at Scripps Institution of Oceanography at UC San Diego provides strong evidence that a glacial ice cap, about half the size of the modern day glacial ice sheet, existed 91 million years ago during a period of intense global warming. This study offers valuable insight into current day climate conditions and the environmental mechanisms for global sea level ris.
http://ucsdnews.ucsd.edu/newsrel/science/01-08WarmingClimateGlacialIce.asp

Cycling to the Top
Olympic Hopeful Balances Love for Cycling with Goal
of Designing Earthquake-Safe Structures in Third World
Anna Lang is a doctoral candidate at the Jacobs School of Engineering who has dedicated herself to elite-level cycling for three years and become one of the fastest female sprinters in the country. She is training to be a member of the 2012 U.S. Olympic Cycling Team and hopes to be named as an alternate for the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing.
http://ucsdnews.ucsd.edu/thisweek/2008/01/07_anna_lang.asp

Rapid Effects of Intensive Therapy Seen
in Brains of Patients with Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder
In a study that may significantly advance the understanding of how cognitive-behavioral therapy affects the brain, researchers have shown that significant changes in activity in certain regions of the brain can be produced with as little as four weeks of daily therapy in patients with obsessive-compulsive disorder. The discovery could have important clinical implications, according to principal investigator Dr. Sanjaya Saxena, director of the Obsessive-Compulsive Disorders Program at the School of Medicine.
http://ucsdnews.ucsd.edu/newsrel/health/01-08OCD.asp

Lake Mead Could Be Dry by 2021, Scripps Researchers Warn
There is a 50 percent chance Lake Mead, a key source of water for millions of people in the southwestern United States, will be dry by 2021 if climate changes as expected and future water usage is not curtailed, according to a pair of researchers at UCSD's Scripps Institution of Oceanography.
http://ucsdnews.ucsd.edu/newsrel/science/02-08LakeMead.asp

Scripps Expedition Provides New
Baseline for Coral Reef Conservation
An ambitious expedition led by scientists at Scripps Institution of Oceanography at UC San Diego to a chain of little-known islands in the central Pacific Ocean has yielded an unprecedented wealth of information about coral reefs and threats from human activities.
http://ucsdnews.ucsd.edu/newsrel/science/02-08CoralReefConservation.asp

New Approach May Render Disease-Causing Staph Harmless
A multi-institution collaboration between U.S. and Taiwanese scientists, including researchers at the UCSD School of Medicine and the Skaggs School of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences, has uncovered a completely new treatment strategy for serious Staphylococcus aureus ("Staph") infections. The research, published Feb. 14 in the online version of the journal Science, comes at a time when strains of antibiotic-resistant Staph, known as MRSA, are spreading in epidemic proportions in both hospital and community settings.
http://ucsdnews.ucsd.edu/newsrel/health/02-08RenderDiseaseCausingStaphHarmless.asp

Engineering is Fun, Eighth-graders
Learn at National Engineers Week Outreach Event
They learned how to extract DNA from strawberries. They helped make holograms. They built six-foot-tall towers out of plastic straws, paper clips and tape. About 400 San Diego middle school students got to know more about studying engineering at UCSD Wednesday, when they took part in a massive outreach effort organized by student organizations at the Jacobs School of Engineering.
http://ucsdnews.ucsd.edu/thisweek/2008/02/25_engineering_week.asp

Study Finds Future 'Battlegrounds'
for Conservation Very Different to Those in Past
UCSD biologists have developed a series of global maps that show where projected habitat loss and climate change are expected to drive the need for future reserves to prevent biodiversity loss.
http://ucsdnews.ucsd.edu/newsrel/science/
02-08BattlegroundsForConservation.asp

“Love Hormone” Promotes Bonding
Gazing into your lover’s eyes isn’t only romantic; it may also mimic early attachments that forever alter your brain and body. Researchers at the School of Medicine are studying whether the brain hormone released with touches, hugs, or when a mother and her newborn baby bond might help patients with schizophrenia, social anxiety and a variety of other disorders.
http://ucsdnews.ucsd.edu/newsrel/health/02-08LoveHormone.asp

Correcting Poor Vision Can Help a Preschooler's Performance
Preschoolers with poor vision have lower scores in developmental testing indicative of success in school performance, but those scores improve significantly within six weeks when the children are given prescription glasses, according to a new study by researchers at the UCSD School of Medicine.
http://ucsdnews.ucsd.edu/newsrel/health/02-08CorrectingPoorVision.asp

UCSD to Offer Nation's First Concurrent Oceanography Doctoral and MBA Degree
UC San Diego will begin offering a concurrent oceanography doctoral and MBA degree program this year. This is the first concurrent degree program in the country to combine a doctorate in oceanography and an MBA.
http://ucsdnews.ucsd.edu/newsrel/general/02-08FirstConcurrentOceanographyPHD-MD.asp

Beyond Boundaries: Grad Student Connects
Young Minds to India with Latest Technology
A UC San Diego graduate student is teaching USCD students a class on web-based technology – not in front of the classroom, but from his remote desktop in Mumbai, India. Although the course is very interactive, Derek Lomas teaches it using various forms of web-based technologies, including wiki sites, video streams and e-mail.
http://ucsdnews.ucsd.edu/newsrel/general/02-08BeyondBoundaries.asp

Campus Launches Global Seminars
Program for Study Abroad During the Summer
They will try to discover the mathematical beauty in Rome’s ancient monuments. They will watch flamenco performances in Spain. They will volunteer at a clinic in Costa Rica. More than 200 students are getting the opportunity to take part in UCSD’s new Global Seminars program, which will offer 10 five-week sessions this summer. The application deadline is Feb. 15.
http://ucsdnews.ucsd.edu/thisweek/2008/02/11_global_seminars.asp

Health Problems in Persian Gulf War Veterans Higher Due to Chemical Exposure
A study by researchers at the School of Medicine shows there is increasing evidence that high rates of illness in Persian Gulf War Veterans can be explained, in part, by exposure to certain chemicals, including pesticides and nerve agents. Veterans from the 1990-91 conflict have a higher rate of chronic, multi-symptom health problems than either non-deployed personnel or those deployed elsewhere.
http://ucsdnews.ucsd.edu/newsrel/health/03-08GulfWarVeteransHealth.asp

Black Carbon Pollution Emerges
as Major Player in Global Warming
Black carbon, a form of particulate air pollution most often produced from biomass burning, cooking with solid fuels and diesel exhaust, has a warming effect in the atmosphere three to four times greater than prevailing estimates, according to scientists in an upcoming review article in the journal Nature Geoscience. Soot and other forms of black carbon could have as much as 60 percent of the current global warming effect of carbon dioxide, more than that of any greenhouse gas besides CO2, said scientists from UCSD's Scripps Institution of Oceanography and the University of Iowa.
http://ucsdnews.ucsd.edu/newsrel/science/03-08BlackCarbonPollution.asp

UCSD Chemists Find Important Contributor to Smog
Chemists at UC San Diego have discovered that a chemical reaction inthe atmosphere above major cities long assumed to be unimportant in urban air pollution is in fact a significant contributor to urban ozone—the main component of smog. Their finding, detailed in the journal Science, should help air quality experts devise better strategies to reduce ozone for the more than 300 counties across the United States with ozone levels that exceed new standards announced last week by the Environmental Protection Agency.
http://ucsdnews.ucsd.edu/newsrel/science/03-08Smog.asp

Scientists Develop Sensors for Homemade Bombs
A team of chemists and physicists at UC San Diego has developed a tiny, inexpensive sensor chip capable of detecting trace amounts of hydrogen peroxide, a chemical used in the most common form of homemade explosives.
http://ucsdnews.ucsd.edu/newsrel/science/03-
08SensorForHomemadeBombs.asp

UC San Diego Receives High Marks in U.S. News Graduate Program Ranking
Graduate education programs at UC San Diego maintained their top national rankings in the 2008 U.S. News & World Report survey released March 27. UC San Diego again was one of only a handful of universities to have both an engineering school and a medical school both ranked in the top 15.
http://ucsdnews.ucsd.edu/newsrel/general/03-08UCSDReceiveHighRanks.asp

Medical Center Reports First Oral Appendix Removal in United States
On March 12, surgeons at the UC San Diego Medical Center performed what is believed to be the country’s first removal of a diseased appendix through the mouth. This clinical trial procedure received approval for a limited number of patients by UC San Diego’s Institutional Review Board, which oversees clinical research.
http://ucsdnews.ucsd.edu/newsrel/health/03-08OralAppendixRemoval.asp

Men’s Basketball Team Achieves Best Season in History
UCSD’s men’s basketball team ended its best season in history Friday with an appearance in the NCAA’s Division II regional tournament in Anchorage, Alaska. The Tritons fell to the University of Alaska at Anchorage. A day later, the women’s team reached the semifinals of their NCAA regional tournament in Seattle, Wash., losing to Seattle Pacific University. It is the first time in the history of UCSD's basketball program that both the women’s and men’s teams reached the NCAA’s Division II regional tournaments. It’s the men’s first time at that level.
http://ucsdnews.ucsd.edu/thisweek/2008/03/17_ncaa.asp

Alumni Brothers Spice Up Chocolate World
Eating Chuao Chocolatier’s “firecracker” bonbon is a multi-sensory experience. Popping candy rings in your ears and crunches in your mouth. Meanwhile, a dash of chipotle chili pepper ignites under your tongue, while fudgy caramel smoothes your palate. The overall effect is fun, disconcerting and yummy. These are precisely some of the feelings that Chuao’s co-founders, who also are UCSD alumni, said they wanted to bring about with their chocolate concoctions. Michael and Richard Antonorsi opened their first chocolate store, in a small mall off Highway 101 in Encinitas, in 2002, after facing what Richard calls a mid-life crisis and Michael a “mid-life revision.”
http://ucsdnews.ucsd.edu/thisweek/2008/03/10_chuao.asp

Top UC San Diego Academic Chosen
to Lead University of California’s Academic Senate
Dr. Henry C. Powell, a professor of pathology and immediate past chair of the Academic Senate at UC San Diego, has been chosen for a leadership role on the University of California’s Academic Council and Academic Senate in Oakland. His two-year tenure, first as vice chair, and then chair, begins Sept. 1 and lasts through 2010.
http://ucsdnews.ucsd.edu/newsrel/general/03-08HenryPowell.asp

Non-invasive Imaging Provides Window
into Genetic Properties of Brain Tumors
Doctors diagnose and prescribe treatment for brain tumors by studying, under a microscope, tumor tissue and cell samples obtained through invasive biopsy or surgery. Now, researchers at the School of Medicine have shown that Magnetic Resonance Imaging technology has the potential to non-invasively characterize tumors and determine which of them may be responsive to specific forms of treatment, based on their specific molecular properties.
http://ucsdnews.ucsd.edu/newsrel/health/03-08BrainTumor.asp

UC San Diego and Salk Institute Establish Center to Study the Origin of Humans
Perhaps the oldest question in the world is “where do I come from?” To help answer this question from a scientific perspective, a multidisciplinary group of researchers at UC San Diego, along with colleagues at the Salk Institute for Biological Studies in La Jolla, have established a center to formally explore the origins of humanity and the many facets of what makes us human.
http://ucsdnews.ucsd.edu/newsrel/health/03-08OriginOfHumans.asp

UC San Diego Delegation
Advocates for University in State Capitol
Chancellor Marye Anne Fox and a delegation of UC San Diego alumni, staff and students met with state lawmakers in Sacramento on March 4 to advocate on behalf of the university as part of UC Day.
http://ucsdnews.ucsd.edu/thisweek/2008/03/17_ucday.asp

UCSD Aims to Become Greenest University in the Nation
Solar power panels will cover 26 buildings on campus. Fuel cells and wind farms will help power dorms, labs and cafeterias. UC San Diego is aiming to become the leading user of renewable energy among U.S. universities within the next few years and unveiled Thursday several steps the campus will take to reach that goal.
http://ucsdnews.ucsd.edu/thisweek/2008/04/07_greenucsd.asp

Tidal Wave of Green Activities
Comes to Campus During Earth Week
“Is this recyclable?” staff member Alonso Noble asked, lifting a Styrofoam cup out of a pile of trash. A group of about a dozen students and employees hesitated, considering. Finally, Noble told them the answer: “No.” A few minutes later, he held up a plastic water bottle. “Is this recyclable?” he asked again. “Yes,” came back as the resounding answer. “Getting better,” said Noble, assistant superintendent in UC San Diego’s facilities management department. He and a crew of about a dozen students and staff members were taking part Tuesday in a trash-sorting event, which has become one of the hallmarks of the campus’ annual Earth Week celebrations.
http://ucsdnews.ucsd.edu/thisweek/2008/04/28_earthweek.asp

Students Paint a Green Picture at Film Festival
VidFest Works Promote Sustainable Lifestyle
UC San Diego students showcased their commitment to the environment and talent for visual arts during the second Earth Week “VidFest” film festival on Wednesday night at the Price Center Theatre. The competition featured 11 original videos by undergraduate students. The short pieces differed in style, but all were created specifically for the competition to increase awareness about the environment.
http://ucsdnews.ucsd.edu/thisweek/2008/04/28_vidfest.asp

From Bench to Bedside in One Year:
Stem Cell Research Leads to Potential
New Therapy for Rare Blood Disorder
A unique partnership between industry and academia has led to human clinical trials of a new drug for a rare class of blood diseases called myeloproliferative disorders, which are Graphic of Stem Cells all driven by the same genetic mutation and can evolve into leukemia. In just one year, collaborative discoveries by stem cell researchers moved from identification of the most promising drug candidate to clinical trials for a new drug to fight the degenerative blood disorder.
http://ucsdnews.ucsd.edu/newsrel/health/04-08RareBloodDisorder.asp

Statins Shown to Lower Blood Pressure
A large, randomized drug trial has shown for the first time that statin drugs result in a modest, but significant, reduction in blood pressure. These effects may contribute to the reduced risk of stroke and cardiovascular events reported for patients on statins, according to lead investigator Dr. Beatrice Golomb of the UCSD School of Medicine.
http://ucsdnews.ucsd.edu/newsrel/health/04-08Statins.asp

Medical Center Expands Neonatal Intensive
Care Unit to Address Rising Numbers of Premature Babies
UC San Diego Medical Center-Hillcrest celebrated the opening of an expanded Neonatal Intensive Care Unit Wednesday designed for the 24-hour specialized care of premature infants and newborns with complications. Nine licensed beds have been added to the existing 40-bed unit to increase the number of infants who can receive Level III neonatal intensive care from 780 newborns per year to more than 900. The $2.6 million project is the first of a series of initiatives to expand and improve women’s and infant’s services at the Medical Center.
http://ucsdnews.ucsd.edu/newsrel/health/04-08NeonatalIntensiveCareUnit.asp

Fishing Throws Targeted
Species Off Balance, Scripps Study Shows
Research led at UC San Diego's Scripps Institution of Oceanography with a team of government and international experts demonstrates that fishing can throw targeted fish populations off kilter. Fishing can alter the “age pyramid” by lopping off the few large, older fish that make up the top of the pyramid, leaving a broad base of faster-growing small younglings. The team found that this rapidly growing and transitory base is dynamically unstable—a finding having profound implications for the ecosystem and the fishing industries built upon it.
http://ucsdnews.ucsd.edu/newsrel/science/04-08DisruptiveFishing.asp

Study Finds Mice Can Sense Oxygen Through Skin
UC San Diego biologists have discovered that the skin of mice can sense low levels of oxygen and regulate the production of erythropoietin, or EPO, the hormone that stimulates our bodies to produce red blood cells and allows us to adapt to high-altitude, low-oxygen environments. If found to apply to humans, the discovery could be used to improve the performance of endurance athletes competing in this summer’s Olympic Games.
http://ucsdnews.ucsd.edu/newsrel/science/04-08OxygenThroughSkin.asp

Muir College to Celebrate 40^th Birthday
Four decades ago, the perfect name for the newly formed second college at the University of California, San Diego, came to then-provost John Stewart while hiking with his wife — John Muir College, in honor of the nature writer, conservationist and Sierra Club founder. John Muir College is now one of six colleges at UC San Diego, all designed to offer students a smaller educational environment with all the advantages of a large research university renowned for its local impact, national influence and global reach.
http://ucsdnews.ucsd.edu/newsrel/events/04-08Muir40thAnniversary.asp

Technology Born at UC San Diego Featured on CSI: Miami
The UCSD Medical Center has established a new program in Clinical Cardiovascular A new way to detect explosives featured tonight on CBS’s popular show "CSI: Miami" had its origins in a UC San Diego chemistry laboratory. William Trogler, professor of chemistry and biochemistry, developed the sensor ink for a portable explosives detection system, the XPAK, which was developed by the Rockville, Md. Company RedXDefense.
http://ucsdnews.ucsd.edu/thisweek/2008/04/28_xpak.asp

Going Far, Doing Good
Ashley Nall went to a small, rural school in China and fell in love with the children who study there. She and scores Photo of Ashley Nallof other UCSD students fanned across the globe last month for spring break. They took part in alternative spring breaks, a program that allows students to take one-week service trips to many destinations, from China, to Russia and Guatemala. This is Nall's story.
http://ucsdnews.ucsd.edu/thisweek/2008/04/07_alternative_spring_break01.asp

Quitting Smoking Good for Your Social Health Too
Putting down cigarettes for good can have unexpected social benefits, according to new research from Harvard and UC San Diego. Smoking is bad, it turns out, not only for your physical wellbeing but for your social health, too — with smokers increasingly edged out to the margins of social circles.
http://ucsdnews.ucsd.edu/newsrel/soc/05-08QuitSmoking.asp

A New Era in Stem Cell Research
Head of State Stem Cell Institute Comes to Campus in Wake of $43 million Grant to Build Stem Cell Research Facility on Torrey Pines Mesa
Alan Trounson, a well-known stem cell researcher, joked that the first time he came to San Diego, he knew the city had a zoo, but didn’t know it had a university. Much has changed since then. Trounson now heads California’s agency dedicated to stem cell research, while UC San Diego has become one of the major players in that field. Thursday, Trounson came to UCSD just one day after the governing board of the California Institute for Regenerative Medicine (CIRM) granted $43 million to the San Diego Consortium for Regenerative Medicine to build a center dedicated to stem cell research on the Torrey Pines Mesa.
http://ucsdnews.ucsd.edu/thisweek/2008/05/12_stemcell_cirm.asp

The Preuss School Named Sixth
Among Nation’s Top 10 High Schools by Newsweek
The Preuss School ranks sixth in the nation on Newsweek magazine’s second annual listing of the 1,300 top U.S. high schools. The school bounced up three ranks from its listing in 2007 as ninth among 1,200 high schools in the U.S. regarded as the best of the best.
http://ucsdnews.ucsd.edu/newsrel/general/05-08PreussNo6.asp

External Relations Leader
Debra G. Neuman Named as New Vice Chancellor
Debra G. Neuman, Senior Vice President, External Relations at CARE USA in Atlanta, has been appointed as UC San Diego’s Vice Chancellor – External Relations, following approval by the University of California Board of Regents. Neuman, a nationally recognized development professional who led CARE USA’s fundraising response to the December 2004 South Asia tsunami and similar international efforts, will join UC San Diego on June 16, 2008.
http://ucsdnews.ucsd.edu/newsrel/general/05-08DebraNeuman.asp

More than Half of Commuters
to Campus Now Take Alternative Transportation
More than half of regular commuters to the UC San Diego campus and the UCSD Medical Center in Hillcrest are taking alternative forms of transportation —as opposed to single-occupant vehicles — according to a recent report from the UCSD Department of Transportation and Parking Services.
http://ucsdnews.ucsd.edu/thisweek/2008/05/05_alternative_transporation.asp

Campus Celebrates Opening
of Price Center Expansion with Launch Party
Students, staff members and faculty packed the Price Center’s new atrium, leaning over balconies and crowding staircases. Many held plates piled with food. Other listened to the many DJs and bands scattered throughout the building. In all, about 4,000 members of the UC San Diego community turned out Thursday for a launch party that celebrated the expansion of the Price Center.
http://ucsdnews.ucsd.edu/thisweek/2008/05/19_pce-launch.asp

UC San Diego Staff Member
to Become Staff Advisor to UC Regents
Edward L. Abeyta, the registrar and director of academic services at UC San Diego Extension, will serve as a staff advisor to the UC Regents next academic year, the UC Office of the President announced last week. "Ed brings great dedication to the university and its staff to the position of staff advisor-designate,” said Associate Vice President of Human Resources Judy Boyette. “His selection signals a wonderful addition to the program."
http://ucsdnews.ucsd.edu/thisweek/2008/05/27_staffadvisor.asp

Global View Shows Link
Between Vitamin D Status, Breast Cancer
Using newly available data on worldwide cancer incidence, researchers at the Moores Cancer Center and the Department of Family and Preventive Medicine have shown a clear association between deficiency in exposure to sunlight, specifically ultraviolet B and breast cancer.
http://ucsdnews.ucsd.edu/newsrel/health/05-08VitaminDBreastCancer.asp

Researchers Target Tumors with Tiny ‘Nanoworms’
Scientists at UC San Diego, UC Santa Barbara and MIT have developed nanometer-sized “nanoworms” that can cruise through the bloodstream without significant interference from the body’s immune defense system and—like tiny anti-cancer missiles—home in on tumors.
http://ucsdnews.ucsd.edu/newsrel/science/05-08Nanoworms.asp

A Modest Glass of Wine Each Day Could Improve Liver Health
Researchers at the UC San Diego School of Medicine are challenging conventional thinking with a study showing that modest wine consumption, defined as one glass a day, may not only be safe for the liver, but may actually decrease the prevalence of Non-Alcoholic Fatty Liver Disease.
http://ucsdnews.ucsd.edu/newsrel/health/05-08WineLiverHealth.asp

UC San Diego Receives $2.5 Million
NIH Grant to Establish Digestive Diseases Research Center
In a major boost to important research into gastrointestinal disease being conducted at the UC San Diego School of Medicine, a $2.5 million basic research core grant to establish a Digestive Diseases Research Development Center has been awarded to UC San Diego’s Division of Gastroenterology. The grant, funded by The National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases of the National Institutes of Health, is the first-ever NIH Center award for the division, adding them to the ranks of only 19 other NIH-funded digestive disease centers in the United States.
http://ucsdnews.ucsd.edu/newsrel/awards/05-082.5MillionNIHGrant.asp

Oxygen Depletion: A New Form of Ocean Habitat Loss
An international team of physical oceanographers including a researcher from UCSD's Scripps Institution of Oceanography has discovered that oxygen-poor regions of tropical oceans are expanding as the oceans warm, limiting the areas in which predatory fishes and other marine organisms can live or enter in search of food.
http://ucsdnews.ucsd.edu/newsrel/science/05-08OxygenDepletion.asp

Newly Revamped Sun God Music Festival Attracts Record Crowd
Students swarmed RIMAC field Friday as the Sun God music festival marked the highest attendance ever in its 26-year history. This year, the festival offered a new format. For the first time, Sun God was centrally located on RIMAC field and it featured three distinct stages, a street fair, art show and carnival. In addition, a new ticketing system allowed students to enter and exit the grounds for the majority of the festival.
http://ucsdnews.ucsd.edu/thisweek/2008/05/19_sungod.asp

Treatment of Severe Blood Loss: Less Is More
Intravenous administration of isotonic fluids is the standard emergency treatment in the U.S. for patients with severe blood loss, but UC San Diego bioengineering researchers have reported improved resuscitation with a radically different approach.
http://ucsdnews.ucsd.edu/newsrel/health/04-08SevereBloodLoss.asp

Study Links Vitamin D, Type 1 Diabetes
Sun exposure and vitamin D levels may play a strong role in risk of Type 1 diabetes in children, according to new findings by researchers at the Moores Cancer Center and the department of Family and Preventive Medicine. This association comes on the heels of similar research findings by this same group regarding vitamin D levels and several major cancers.
http://ucsdnews.ucsd.edu/newsrel/health/06-08VitaminDType1Diabetes.asp

Students from All Colleges Unite to Celebrate
as UCSD Revives Tradition of All-Campus Graduation
It all started with the low rumble of Japanese taiko drums and an audience of students, parents and alumni clapping and cheering to the rhythm of the beat. Then students, both undergraduate and graduate, got some advice from UC San Diego top administrators about life after college. Finally, bouquets of fireworks lit up the night, much to the delight of the celebrating crowd. UCSD revived its all-campus graduation tradition Thursday evening at RIMAC Field and 500 members of the campus community turned out for the occasion.
http://ucsdnews.ucsd.edu/thisweek/2008/06/23_graduation_2008.asp

A Week to Remember:
UCSD Seniors Have Fun in San Diego During Senior Week
Watching the Shamu show; getting a peek at the San Diego Zoo’s pandas and kayaking in Mission Bay: The first-ever Senior Week, held June 15 to 19, is bound to be one week that many UC San Diego students will never forget.
http://ucsdnews.ucsd.edu/thisweek/2008/06/23_senior_week.asp

UCSD Scientists Highlight Biofuels,
Stem Cells Research at Biotech Convention
At the BIO 2008 convention at the San Diego Convention Center last week, a new biotechnology issue grabbed the headlines, and UC San Diego played a significant role. This year, biofuels were a hot topic—due to soaring gasoline prices, intense interest in sustainable energy and the need for climate change solutions.
http://ucsdnews.ucsd.edu/thisweek/2008/06/23_bio2008.asp

A Year Without "Made in China":
One Alum’s True Life Adventure in the Global Economy
On a steamy Tuesday morning last July, I found myself in a place I never dreamed I would visit: the green room of CNN’s New York studios, waiting to go on air for a live interview. In a haze of nerves I focused on odd details. Muffin crumbs on the carpet. A cup of milk abandoned on the table beside a tower of wilting fruit. It took me a couple of minutes to notice the huge window behind me with a view of Columbus Circle and a bright green corner of Central Park. When a gruff, shorts-clad soundman appeared in the door and motioned for me to follow him, a question popped into my head: How in the world did I get here.
http://ucsdnews.ucsd.edu/thisweek/2008/06/02_made_in_china.asp

Surfing to Academic Success
Physics of Surfing Class Introduces Students to Research
It was a sunny Saturday morning in La Jolla and a UCSD student was getting ready to wade in the waves with his surfboard. But the undergraduate wasn’t there to just have fun. He also was trying to measure the physical forces at work when he surfed. Two devices were snugly duct-taped to the front and the back of his board. The experiment was part of a class titled “The Physics of Surfing” taught by Professor David Sandwell at UCSD’s Scripps Institution of Oceanography.
http://ucsdnews.ucsd.edu/thisweek/2008/06/16_surfing.asp

San Diego Region’s First
Science Festival to be Launched March 2009
Have you ever wanted to sit down and chat with a Nobel Laureate? Did you know that red wine not only goes well with steak, but also has anti-aging properties? Have you ever wanted to uncover the mysteries of baseball’s knuckleball pitch? Were you curious about the science behind Harry Potter’s magic? These and other intriguing questions will be answered at the inaugural San Diego Science Festival, planned as one of the biggest-ever celebrations of science on the West Coast.
http://ucsdnews.ucsd.edu/newsrel/events/06-08ScienceFestival.asp

Women, Smoking and Heart Disease
In a first-of-its-kind study, research results show that toenail nicotine levels can help predict risk of coronary heart disease in women. Researchers at the UC San Diego School of Medicine, in collaboration with colleagues from Harvard University, showed that the higher the level of nicotine in the toenails, the higher the risk of coronary heart disease, no matter the number of cigarettes smoked or level of exposure to second hand smoke.
http://ucsdnews.ucsd.edu/newsrel/health/06-08WomenSmokingHeartDisease.asp

Anti-estrogen Drug Therapy Reduces Risk
of Invasive Breast Cancer in Older Women
New analysis of a drug approved for osteoporosis prevention and treatment has provided definitive evidence that the medication is also effective as a breast cancer preventative for certain cancers. Women who took the drug raloxifene were less likely to develop invasive, estrogen-receptor positive breast cancer compared with women who did not take the drug. The results of the randomized controlled trial were published in the June 10 online issue of the Journal of the National Cancer Institute.
http://ucsdnews.ucsd.edu/newsrel/health/06-08AntiEstrogenDrugTherapy.asp

UC San Diego Computer Scientist
Turns his Face into a Remote Control
A computer science Ph.D. student can turn his face into a remote control that speeds and slows video playback. The proof-of-concept demonstration is part of a larger project to use automated facial expression recognition to make robots more effective teachers. Jacob Whitehill, a computer science Ph.D. student from UC San Diego’s Jacobs School of Engineering, is leading this project.
http://ucsdnews.ucsd.edu/newsrel/science/06-08RemoteControl.asp

UCSD Students Reach Across Borders to
Improve Children's Health as Part of Project Nicaragua
Scores of people were waiting in line for care in hospital hallways. Families slept on the floor in patients’ rooms. They hung their laundry out to dry outside the hospital’s door. The sight that greeted UCSD alum Nicholas Gastelum when he first set foot in the El Hospital Antonio Lenin Fonseca in Nicaragua’s capital was not easy to take in, he recalls.
http://ucsdnews.ucsd.edu/thisweek/2008/06/09_project_nicaragua.asp

UC San Diego Delegation Advocates
for University During First Annual UCSD Week at City Hall
The San Diego City Council honored UC San Diego last week with a resolution prepared by Mayor Jerry Sanders and the council declaring May 26 to May 30 “UC San Diego Week.”
http://ucsdnews.ucsd.edu/thisweek/2008/06/02_ucsdweek.asp

UCSD Captures the CCAA Commissioner's Cup
For the third consecutive year, UC San Diego has taken the California Collegiate Athletic Association (CCAA) Commissioner’s Cup for the just-completed 2007-08 athletics season.
http://ucsdnews.ucsd.edu/thisweek/
2008/06/09_commissioners_cup.asp

Seth Lerer Named Dean of Arts and Humanities at UC San Diego
Seth Lerer, one of the nation’s leading literature scholars, with particularly strong administrative and leadership experience, has been named Dean of Arts and Humanities at the University of California,
San Diego.
http://ucsdnews.ucsd.edu/newsrel/arts/06-08SethLerer.asp

U.S. Open Makes Light Impact on UCSD Campus
On one side of North Torrey Pines Road last week, crowds gathered to watch the world’s best golf players vie for the U.S. Open title. On the other side of the road, on the UC San Diego campus, it was pretty much business-as-usual, officials said. The Open’s impact on campus turned out to be fairly small—including June 16 when the golf tournament went into overtime with a playoff between Tiger Woods and Rocco Mediate.
http://ucsdnews.ucsd.edu/thisweek/2008/06/16_usopen.asp

Campus Launches Construction on Sweeping Sustainable Energy Program as Part of Goal to Be ‘Greenest University’ in Nation
UC San Diego further bolstered its reputation as one of the nation’s greenest college campuses recently when it began construction on its sustainable energy program—one of the largest such programs in the nation by a university.
http://ucsdnews.ucsd.edu/thisweek/2008/07/21_sustainable_energy_program.asp

UC San Diego Sends Two on Quest for Olympic Gold in Beijing
Making it onto an Olympic team is tough enough. Making it twice puts an athlete’s achievement in a whole different league. And that’s exactly what a UC San Diego student and an alumna have managed to do this year. Carrie Johnson, 24, will compete in the Olympics for the second time as a flat-water kayaker. Julie Swail Ertel, 35, is trying to bring back a medal in the Olympic triathlon in Beijing.
http://ucsdnews.ucsd.edu/thisweek/2008/07/21_olympics.asp

I’ll take Scripps for $1000’
On Thursday, the popular game show “Jeopardy!,” featured Scripps’s history of cutting-edge ocean and earth science by awarding the institution its own category. Host Alex Trebek presented contestants with a variety of questions related to the research and people that have made Scripps Oceanography and Birch Aquarium at Scripps famous. Scripps staff members served as tour guides and prop procurers for Jeopardy’s field producers and “Clue Crew” members who filmed answers and promos at several locations on campus and at the aquarium on March 26.
http://ucsdnews.ucsd.edu/thisweek/2008/07/21_jeopardy.asp

Physical Activity in Children Declines Significantly from Age 9 to 15
The increase in childhood obesity may be due, in part, to children’s decline in physical activity as they age, according to a new study by researchers at the UC San Diego School of Medicine; University of Arkansas; University of North Carolina at Greensboro; and RTI International.
http://ucsdnews.ucsd.edu/newsrel/health/07-08ChildrenPhysicalActivity.asp

At-Home Deaths from Combining Rx Drugs,
Street Drugs and/or Alcohol Skyrocket By More Than 3,000 Percent
Asking patients to monitor their own medications can be fatal, as exemplified by the recent death of actor Heath Ledger. In the first large-scale study of home medication consumption, sociologists at the University of California, San Diego have found a 3,196 percent increase in fatal domestic medication errors involving alcohol and/or street drugs.
http://ucsdnews.ucsd.edu/newsrel/soc/07-08DomesticFatalMeds.asp

UC San Diego Researchers Identify
Potential New Drug Candidates to Combat “Bird Flu”
A team of UC San Diego scientists - with the help of resources at the San Diego Supercomputer Center (SDSC), also at UC San Diego - have isolated more than two dozen promising and novel compounds from which new “designer drugs” might be developed to combat this disease. In some cases, the compounds appeared to be equal or stronger inhibitors than currently available anti-flu remedies. http://ucsdnews.ucsd.edu/newsrel/supercomputer/07-08BirdFlu.asp

UC San Diego Lauded as One of the Best Values for a Public Education
University of California, San Diego, respected as one of the world’s most accomplished research institutions, was ranked as the sixth best value among public universities in the United States by the prestigious The Princeton Review.
http://ucsdnews.ucsd.edu/newsrel/awards/07-08UCSDLauded.asp

UC San Diego Medical Center Among Nation’s Best
UCSD Medical Center is the only San Diego hospital ranked among the nation’s best in eight specialties in U.S. News & World Report’s new 2008 “America’s Best Hospitals” issue. Among the five leading California hospitals in the total number of top-ranked specialties, UC San Diego Medical Center has combined innovative treatments and compassionate care to earn recognition in multiple specialties for several years in this annual survey.
http://ucsdnews.ucsd.edu/newsrel/health/07-08UCSDMedCtrNationsBest.asp

Liver Protein Associated with Type 2 Diabetes in Older Adults
The presence of a protein expressed by the liver which inhibits insulin action may identify individuals more likely to develop type 2 diabetes, according to a new study led by a researcher from the University of California, San Diego School of Medicine, to be published July 9 in the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA.)
http://ucsdnews.ucsd.edu/newsrel/health/07-08LiverProtein.asp

Political Participation Is Partially Rooted in Genetic
Inheritance and Specifically Associated with Two Genes
The decision to vote is partly genetic, according to a new study published in the American Political Science Review.  The research, by James H. Fowler and Christopher T. Dawes, of the University of California, San Diego and Laura A. Baker, of the University of Southern California, is the first to show that genes influence participation in elections and in a wide range of political activities.
http://ucsdnews.ucsd.edu/newsrel/soc/06-08GenesAndPolitics.asp

“Smart Bomb” Nanoparticle Strategy Impacts Metastasis
A new treatment strategy using molecular “smart bombs” to target metastasis with anti-cancer drugs leads to good results using significantly lower doses of toxic chemotherapy, with less collateral damage to surrounding tissue, according to a collaborative team of researchers at the University of California, San Diego. By designing a “nanoparticle” drug delivery system, the UC San Diego team, led by Moores UCSD Cancer Center Director of Translational Research David Cheresh, Ph.D., has identified a way to target chemotherapy to achieve a profound impact on metastasis in pancreatic and kidney cancer in mice.
http://ucsdnews.ucsd.edu/newsrel/health/07-07SmartBomb.asp

UC San Diego Unveils World's
Highest-Resolution Scientific Display System
As the size of complex scientific data sets grows exponentially, so does the need for scientists to explore the data visually and collaboratively in ultra-high resolution environments. To that end, the California Institute for Telecommunications and Information Technology (Calit2) has unveiled the highest-resolution display system for scientific visualization in the world at the University of California, San Diego.
http://ucsdnews.ucsd.edu/newsrel/general/07-08HIPerSpace.asp

Jeff Elman Appointed Dean of Social Sciences Division
Jeffrey Elman, Associate Dean of the Division of Social Sciences and Distinguished Professor in the department of cognitive science, has been named Dean of the Division of Social Sciences, effective Sept. 1. In making the announcement, Chancellor Marye Anne Fox said, "Jeff Elman's administrative and scholarly accomplishments and his vision and extraordinary leadership skills make him an outstanding choice as UCSD's next Dean of the Division of Social Sciences.
http://ucsdnews.ucsd.edu/thisweek/2008/07/21_jeffrey_elman.asp

Chinese Efforts to Curb Pollution During Olympics
Turn Into Once-in-a-Lifetime Opportunity for Scripps Researcher
When Chinese government officials decided to cut back on pollution and clean up the air in Beijing, they were concerned about athletes’ health during the Olympic Games. But they also inadvertently gave scientists at UC San Diego’s Scripps Institution of Oceanography a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to find out the real impact of pollution on climate change.
http://ucsdnews.ucsd.edu/thisweek/2008/08/18_olympics_pollution.asp

CIRM New Faculty Grants Awarded to UC San Diego Researchers
Adding $11.5 million to the more than $20 million in funding that researchers at the University of California, San Diego have received to date from the California Institute for Regenerative Medicine (CIRM), five UC San Diego researchers and physicians have been awarded New Faculty grants.
http://ucsdnews.ucsd.edu/newsrel/awards/08-08CIRM.asp

UC San Diego Ranked 7th Best Public University
in U.S. News & World Report Nationwide Survey
The University of California, San Diego ranked as the seventh best public university in the nation in the 2009 America’s Best Colleges guidebook issued today by U.S. News & World Report, up one rank from the 2008 listings.
http://ucsdnews.ucsd.edu/newsrel/general/08-08UCSDRanking.asp

UC San Diego Alums Average Third Highest
Salaries Among Public University Graduates
UC San Diego graduates rank third nationally in their salary earnings among U.S. public universities, according to Forbes.com. The rank was based on a new study by PayScale.com that looked at earnings of alumni at colleges around the country. The survey covered graduates with 10-20 years experience in the workplace.
http://ucsdnews.ucsd.edu/newsrel/general/08-08Salaries.asp

UC San Diego Ranked First in Division II NCSA Collegiate Power Listings
The University of California, San Diego is listed as first among Division II National Collegiate Athletic Association schools in the 6th annual “Collegiate Power Rankings” announced by the National Collegiate Scouting Association (NCSA). Additionally, UC San Diego was listed as 20th in a ranking of all Division I, II and III athletic programs.
http://ucsdnews.ucsd.edu/newsrel/general/08-08UCSD-NCSA-Ranking.asp

UCSD Grad Student Wins Big on Jeopardy! Game Show
Aaron Schroeder has always had a knack for remembering facts. So, the UC San Diego graduate student in economics didn’t cram before heading out to Los Angeles to become a contestant on Jeopardy! In the end, Schroeder’s memory delivered, making him a five-time champion on the game show and allowing him to win close to $130,000 in prize money.
http://ucsdnews.ucsd.edu/thisweek/2008/08/18_jeopardy.asp

Oceans on the Precipice: Scripps Scientist
Warns of Mass Extinctions and ‘Rise of Slime’
Human activities are cumulatively driving the health of the world’s oceans down a rapid spiral, and only prompt and wholesale changes will slow or perhaps ultimately reverse the catastrophic problems they are facing. Such is the prognosis of Jeremy Jackson, a professor of oceanography at UCSD'S Scripps Institution of Oceanography, in a bold new assessment of the oceans and their ecological health.
http://ucsdnews.ucsd.edu/newsrel/science/08-08Oceans.asp

How Flesh-Eating Bacteria Attack the Body’s Immune System
“Flesh-eating” or “Strep” bacteria are able to survive and spread in the body by degrading a key immune defense molecule, according to researchers at the School of Medicine and Skaggs School of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences. The finding could aid in development of new treatments for serious infections in human patients.
http://ucsdnews.ucsd.edu/newsrel/health/08-08FleshEatingBacteria.asp

Dirty Smoke from Ships Found to Degrade Air Quality in Coastal Cities
Chemists at UC San Diego have measured for the first time the impact that dirty smoke from ships cruising at sea and generating electricity in port can have on the air quality of coastal cities. The scientists report in this week’s early online edition of the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences that the impact of dirty smoke from ships burning high-sulfur fuel can be substantial, on some days accounting for nearly one-half of the fine, sulfur-rich particulate matter in the air known to be hazardous to human health.
http://ucsdnews.ucsd.edu/newsrel/science/08-08DirtySmoke.asp

Lowering Cholesterol Early in Life Could Save Lives
With heart disease maintaining top billing as the leading cause of death in the United States, a team of UC San Diego School of Medicine physician-researchers is proposing that aggressive intervention to lower cholesterol levels as early as childhood is the best approach available today to reducing the incidence of coronary heart disease.
http://ucsdnews.ucsd.edu/newsrel/health/08-08Cholesterol.asp

UC San Diego Contributes $7.2 Billion to California’s Economy
The University of California, San Diego contributes more than $7.2 billion in direct and indirect spending and personal income each year to the California economy and generates 39,000 jobs, according to an independent economic analysis released today.
http://ucsdnews.ucsd.edu/newsrel/
general/09-08UCSDEconContribution.asp

Students Find Greener UCSD on Return to Campus
More than 28,500 students are coming back to UC San Diego this year and they are finding a campus that is getting greener every day, as the university solidifies its position as a leader in sustainability among the nation’s higher education institutions. This fall, sustainability initiatives have come to fruition in several areas, including facilities, housing and dining. Several student organizations also are helping make the campus greener.
http://ucsdnews.ucsd.edu/thisweek/2008/09/29_greener_ucsd.asp

Freshmen Welcomed to Campus at Formal Kickoff to College Experience
Sunday, Professor Steven Schick recalled his uncommon walking odyssey during UC San Diego’s third annual convocation for an audience of incoming freshmen about to embark on their own journey of sorts—their college experience. His 700-mile trip illustrates qualities that Schick said will help students succeed in life: curiosity, awareness and the willingness to do things that don’t always make sense.
http://ucsdnews.ucsd.edu/thisweek/2008/09/22_convocation.asp

Warming World in Range of Dangerous Consequences
The earth will warm about 4.3° F above pre-industrial levels even under extremely conservative greenhouse-gas emission scenarios and under the assumption that efforts to clean up particulate pollution continue to be successful, according to a new analysis by a pair of researchers at UCSD's Scripps Institution of Oceanography.
http://ucsdnews.ucsd.edu/newsrel/science/09-08WarmingWorld.asp

Bringing Out the Scientist in Students
Bringing Out the Scientist in Students
This summer, graduate students and high school teachers spent hours in the lab to create original experiments that would get students excited about science. Their efforts were part of the Socrates Fellows Program, funded by a $3 million grant from the National Science Foundation.
http://ucsdnews.ucsd.edu/thisweek/2008/09/29_socrates.asp

Smoke Smudges Mexico City’s Air, Chemists Identify Sources
Mexico City once topped lists of places with the worst air pollution in the world. Although efforts to curb emissions have improved the situation, tiny particles called aerosols still clog the air. Now, atmospheric scientists from UC San Diego and six other institutions have sorted through the pall that hangs over the city to precisely identify aerosols that make up the haze and chart daily patterns of changes to the mix.
http://ucsdnews.ucsd.edu/newsrel/science/09-08MexAir.asp

UC San Diego Receives 6th Place Ranking in NSF’s
Study of Federal Research & Development Funding
The University of California, San Diego moved to 6th place nationally among public universities and colleges in federal research and development funding, up from the previous year’s ranking of 7th, according to a recently released study by the National Science Foundation.
http://ucsdnews.ucsd.edu/newsrel/general/09-08NSIStudy.asp

3D Virtual Reality Environment Helps Scientists Innovate
Its name sounds like something out of science fiction, but the StarCAVE at UC San Diego is now a science fact. The virtual-reality environment allows groups of scientists to venture into worlds as small as nanoparticles and as big as the cosmos – permitting new insights that could fuel discoveries in many fields.
http://ucsdnews.ucsd.edu/newsrel/general/09-083DVirtualReality.asp

Do 68 Molecules Hold the Key to Understanding Disease?
Reviewing findings from multiple disciplines, Jamey Marth, Ph.D., UC San Diego Professor of Cellular and Molecular Medicine and Investigator with the Howard Hughes Medical Institute, realized that only 68 molecular building blocks are used to construct these four fundamental components of cells: the nucleic acids (DNA and RNA), proteins, glycans and lipids. His work, which illustrates the primary composition of all cells, is published in the September issue of Nature Cell Biology.
http://ucsdnews.ucsd.edu/newsrel/health/09-0868Molecules.asp

Groundbreaking Obesity Surgery Performed by
UC San Diego Center for Future of Surgery, U.S. First
On Tuesday, September 16, 2008, the UC San Diego Center for the Future of Surgery performed the nation’s first gastrectomy, a partial removal of the stomach, through the vagina. This new “natural orifice” technique may be an attractive alternative for the 200,000 U.S. patients who undergo surgery for the treatment of obesity each year.
http://ucsdnews.ucsd.edu/newsrel/health/09-08ObesitySurgery.asp

Researchers Develop Nano-Sized ‘Cargo Ships’ to Target and Destroy Tumors
Scientists have developed nanometer-sized ‘cargo ships’ that can sail throughout the body via the bloodstream without immediate detection from the body’s immune radar system and ferry their cargo of anti-cancer drugs and markers into tumors that might otherwise go untreated or undetected.
http://ucsdnews.ucsd.edu/newsrel/science/09-08Nanoships.asp

New Center for Study of Human Origins Opens in San Diego
A multidisciplinary group of researchers at the University of California, San Diego, along with colleagues at the Salk Institute for Biological Studies in La Jolla, have established a center to formally explore the origins of humanity and the many facets of what makes us human. To celebrate its opening, The Center for Academic Research and Training in Anthropogeny, (CARTA) will present a half-day symposium featuring expert speakers from around the world.
http://ucsdnews.ucsd.edu/newsrel/health/09-08CARTA.asp

UC San Diego to Lead Nationwide Study of Posttraumatic Stress and Brain Injury
The UC San Diego School of Medicine will lead a $60 million, five-year, 10-site Clinical Consortium funded by the Department of Defense Psychological Health/Traumatic Brain Injury Research Program (to conduct studies leading to the prevention and treatment of posttraumatic stress disorder and traumatic brain injury, two prevalent but poorly understood battlefield-related disorders that affect millions of individuals, both military and civilian.
http://ucsdnews.ucsd.edu/newsrel/awards/09-08PTSD-TBI.asp

UC San Diego’s Theatre District
is Site of Region’s First Wolfgang Puck Restaurant
Austria-born über chef Wolfgang Puck regretted never having the opportunity to go to college. But on August 20, he announced “Now I can say I go to UC San Diego!” at the official opening of Jai by Wolfgang Puck in the university’s Theatre District, next to the La Jolla Playhouse’s Mandell Weiss Forum.
http://ucsdnews.ucsd.edu/thisweek/2008/09/22_jai.asp

Tsien Takes National Spotlight with Nobel Prize Win in Chemistry
Rumors had been circulating and expectations had been rising for almost a week after a news service predicted that UC San Diego scientist Roger Tsien would win the Nobel Prize in Chemistry this year. Tsien himself remained skeptical. But around 2 a.m. Wednesday, rumor became reality. The researcher received a call from the Royal Swedish Academy in Stockholm and learned that he had indeed become a Nobel laureate.
http://ucsdnews.ucsd.edu/thisweek/2008/10/13_tsien.asp

Nobel Laureate,
'Father of Modern Cell Biology' George Palade Dies
Nobel Laureate Dr. George Palade, considered the father of modern cell biology, died at home Oct. 7 at age 95 after a long illness. Palade, Professor Emeritus of Medicine and Cellular and Molecular Medicine, and founding Dean for Scientific Affairs at the UC San Diego School of Medicine, was a resident of Del Mar, Calif., with his wife Marilyn Farquhar, Ph.D., Chair of Cellular and Molecular Medicine at UCSD.
http://ucsdnews.ucsd.edu/newsrel/health/10-08GeorgePalade.asp

UC San Diego Named Among 10 ‘Best Value’ Public Universities
The University of California, San Diego has been named one of the nation’s top 10 “Best Values in Public Colleges” in the December 2008 issue of Kiplinger’s Personal Finance, the magazine’s editors announced today.
http://ucsdnews.ucsd.edu/newsrel/general/10-08Kiplingers.asp

Solar Pioneer Joins UC San Diego
New Director of Strategic Energy
Initiatives Set World Record for Solar Conversion
UC San Diego’s reputation as one of the “greenest universities” took a giant leap forward with the appointment of solar pioneer Byron Washom as director of strategic energy initiatives.
http://ucsdnews.ucsd.edu/newsrel/general/10-08SolarPioneer.asp

New Symbol of Triton Spirit Unveiled in Heart of Campus
The sound of a conch blowing along Lyman Lane Thursday announced the unveiling of a 750-pound bronze statue of the campus' mascot, the Triton, standing in the heart of campus.
http://ucsdnews.ucsd.edu/thisweek/
2008/10/20_triton_statue.asp

Rebuilding Their Lives
Staff and faculty reflect on losing their homes
as San Diego marks one-year anniversary of devastating wildfires
On a warm Tuesday afternoon, Judy Davis, a UCSD staff member, and her husband, Ken, stood on an overhang, looking down on the busy construction site that surrounds their new home. It had been exactly one year to the day since the Harris fire came through Deerhorn Valley, near Jamul, turning the home the couple had shared for 23 years into a jumble of rubble and twisted iron. Now, a new wooden frame topped by a plywood roof rises where the home’s ruins stood. Davis smiled and hugged her husband. They kissed.
http://ucsdnews.ucsd.edu/thisweek/2008/10/27_afterthefires.asp

Parents Connect With Campus During Family Weekend
They went on a behind-the-scenes tour of the Birch Aquarium. They tried rock climbing. Most importantly, they got to spend time with their children and discover all the resources UC San Diego has to offer.
http://ucsdnews.ucsd.edu/thisweek/
2008/10/27_familyweekend.asp

Volcanoes May Have Provided Sparks of First Life
New research suggests that lightening and volcanoes may have sparked early life on Earth. Researcher Jeffrey Bada at UCSD's Scripps Institution of Oceanography and colleagues reanalyzed Stanley Miller’s classic origin of life experiment, offering a new analysis on how the essential building blocks of life may have arisen from volcanic eruptions.
http://ucsdnews.ucsd.edu/newsrel/science/10-08Volcanoes.asp

Potent Greenhouse Gas More
Prevalent in Atmosphere than Previously Assumed
A powerful greenhouse gas is at least four times more prevalent in the atmosphere than previously estimated, according to a team of researchers at Scripps Institution of Oceanography at UC San Diego. Using new analytical techniques, a team led by Scripps geochemistry professor Ray Weiss made the first atmospheric measurements of nitrogen trifluoride (NF3), which is thousands of times more effective at warming the atmosphere than an equal mass of carbon dioxide.
http://ucsdnews.ucsd.edu/newsrel/science/10-08GreenhouseGas.asp

King Solomon's (Copper) Mines?
Did the Bible’s King David and his son Solomon control the copper industry in present-day southern Jordan? Though that remains an open question, the possibility is raised once again by research reported in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. Led by Thomas Levy of UC San Diego and Mohammad Najjar of Jordan’s Friends of Archaeology, an international team of archaeologists has excavated an ancient copper-production center at Khirbat en-Nahas down to virgin soil, through more than 20 feet of industrial smelting debris, or slag.
http://ucsdnews.ucsd.edu/newsrel/soc/10-22KingSolomon.asp

Keys Can be Copied From Afar,
UC San Diego Computer Scientists Show
UC San Diego computer scientists have built a software program that can perform key duplication without having the key. Instead, the computer scientists only need a photograph of the key.
http://ucsdnews.ucsd.edu/newsrel/science/10-08ComputerLocksmith.asp

Eating Red Meat Sets Up Target for Disease-Causing Bacteria
Offering another reason why eating red meat could be bad for you, an international research team, including University of California, San Diego School of Medicine professor Ajit Varki, M.D., has uncovered the first example of a bacterium that causes food poisoning in humans when it targets a non-human molecule absorbed into the body through red meats such as lamb, pork and beef.
http://ucsdnews.ucsd.edu/newsrel/health/10-08RedMeat.asp

Field-Hospital-on-a-Chip Project Awarded to NanoEngineer
With a $1.6 million grant from the U.S. Office of Naval Research, Joseph Wang, a professor in the nanoengineering department, will lead a project to create a “field-hospital-on-a-chip” that soldiers can wear on the battlefield.
http://ucsdnews.ucsd.edu/newsrel/
science/10-08FieldHospitalOnAChip.asp

Free Software Helps You Track Your Laptop If Stolen or Lost
Researchers at the University of Washington and UC San Diego have created a laptop theft-protection tool that will help you locate your lost or stolen laptop while at the same time ensuring that no third party can use the system to monitor your whereabouts.
http://ucsdnews.ucsd.edu/newsrel/science/10-08Adeona.asp

Novel Lung Cancer Vaccine Trial Launched at Moores UCSD Cancer Center
Oncologists at the Moores UCSD Cancer Center are hoping to stave off the relentless march of advanced lung cancer by treating patients with a novel kind of cancer vaccine. While many vaccines attempt to pump up the immune system to fight off a cancer, the new vaccine, Lucanix, is genetically engineered to also trick the cancer into turning off its immune system-suppressing activities.
http://ucsdnews.ucsd.edu/newsrel/health/10-08LungCancer.asp

First Detection of Magnetic Field
in Distant Galaxy Produces a Surprise
Using a powerful radio telescope to peer into the early universe, a team of California astronomers has obtained the first direct measurement of a nascent galaxy’s magnetic field as it appeared 6.5 billion years ago.
http://ucsdnews.ucsd.edu/newsrel/science/09-08MagneticFields.asp

Oral Vitamin D May Help Prevent Some Skin Infections
A study led by researchers at the School of Medicine suggests that use of oral Vitamin D supplements bolsters production of a protective chemical normally found in the skin, and may help prevent skin infections that are a common result of atopic dermatitis, the most common form of eczema.
http://ucsdnews.ucsd.edu/newsrel/health/10-06VitaminDEczema.asp

Supercomputer Center Dedicates New
Campus Building, Announces ‘Triton Resource’ Project
With the press of an oversized green ‘I/O’ button, officials of the San Diego Supercomputer Center and UC San Diego “powered up” a new era in data-intensive computing by dedicating a new energy-efficient building extension that will serve as key resource for the university and beyond.
http://ucsdnews.ucsd.edu/thisweek/2008/10/20_SDSC.asp

Moores UCSD Cancer Center Researchers
Receive $1.14 Million from Susan G. Komen for the Cure®
Four cancer researchers at the Moores Cancer Center at the University of California, San Diego (UC San Diego) have received a total of $1.14 million from Susan G. Komen for the Cure® to study the nature, development and spread of breast cancer. These are the organization’s only research and training awards given to scientists in San Diego for 2008.
http://ucsdnews.ucsd.edu/newsrel/awards/10-08KomenAwards.aspp

UCSD Chancellor Catches a Ride With the Blue Angels
Chancellor Marye Anne Fox got a chance to fly with the Blue Angels last week, while the elite squadron was performing in San Francisco. Fox, UC San Diego’s seventh chancellor, flew in Blue Angel 7.
http://ucsdnews.ucsd.edu/thisweek/
2008/10/gallery/blueangels/slide01.html

Four Home-Schooled Siblings Together Again at UCSD
Kim Nguyen is used to going to school with her siblings—all five of them—but not in a regular classroom. The Nguyen brothers and sisters were all home schooled for many years. Now, Kim and three of her siblings are back together again, this time on the same campus at UC San Diego.
http://ucsdnews.ucsd.edu/thisweek/2008/10/06_six_siblings.asp

UC San Diego Leaders Tapped
as Key Members of President-Elect
Barack Obama’s Administration Transition Teams
Two prominent scholars at UC San Diego have been named by President-elect Barack Obama to serve on his transition teams. Peter Cowhey, dean of the School of International Relations and Pacific Studies, has been chosen as a Co-Leader of the President-Elect transition team preparing for the new administration’s Special Representative for Trade Policy. Nobel laureate, Mario Molina, a professor of chemistry and biochemistry, has been named as Co-Leader of the transition team assigned to develop plans for the nation's science and technology policy.
http://ucsdnews.ucsd.edu/newsrel/international/11-08TransitionTeams.asp

Widespread and Complex Climatic
Changes Outlined in New U.N. Report
Cities from Beijing to New Delhi are getting darker, glaciers in ranges like the Himalayas are melting faster and weather systems becoming more extreme, in part, due to the combined effects of man-made atmospheric brown clouds and greenhouse gases in the atmosphere. These are among the conclusions of a team of scientists led by V. Ramanathan who are studying a more than three kilometer-thick layer of soot and other man-made particles that stretches from the Arabian Peninsula to China and the western Pacific Ocean. Ramanathan is an atmospheric sciences professor at UCSD's Scripps Institution of Oceanography.
http://ucsdnews.ucsd.edu/newsrel/science/11-08BrownCloudReport.asp

UC San Diego Ranked a Top Surfing School
A popular surfing magazine has ranked UC San Diego the third-best surfing college in the nation based on academics, surf quality, life experience, cost, and partying. In announcing its 2008 ranking, Transworld Surf praised UCSD for its diverse student population and high academic standards, but also noted its convenient location adjacent to the famed Black’s Beach. Surfer Magazine and Sports Illustrated also have ranked UC San Diego a top surfing school.
hhttp://ucsdnews.ucsd.edu/newsrel/general/11-08UCSDTopSurfing.asp

Campus on Fast Track to Fewer Cars
More than half of the daily commuters to the UC San Diego campus are pedaling bikes, riding shuttle buses or carpooling with fellow students, staff and faculty, an alternative transportation milestone for one of the nation’s greenest universities.
http://ucsdnews.ucsd.edu/thisweek/2008/11/24_fasttrack.asp

How Eating Red Meat Can Spur Cancer Progression
Researchers at the School of Medicine, led by Dr. Ajit Varki, have shown a new mechanism for how human consumption of red meat and milk products could contribute to the increased risk of cancerous tumors. Their findings suggest that inflammation resulting from a molecule introduced through consumption of these foods could promote tumor growth.
http://ucsdnews.ucsd.edu/newsrel/health/11-08RedMeatCancer.asp

Tumors Grow Faster Without Blood-Supply Promoting Molecule
Dense networks of blood vessels thought to spur cancer’s growth could actually hinder rather than promote tumor progression, according to a UC San Diego study. The findings partly explain why drugs designed to treat cancer by strangling its blood supply have been disappointing when used alone and why those treatments are more effective when combined with traditional chemotherapy.
http://ucsdnews.ucsd.edu/newsrel/science/11-08Tumors.asp

Moores UCSD Cancer Center Studying
Novel Leukemia Vaccine for High-Risk Patients
Researchers at the Moores Cancer Center are conducting clinical trials of a novel therapy aimed at revving up the immune system to combat a particularly difficult-to-treat form of leukemia.
http://ucsdnews.ucsd.edu/newsrel/health/11-08CLL.asp

Former Alum, Navy Seal and CIA Agent
Killed in Ambush Honored in Campus Memorial
As a boy, Christopher Glenn Mueller often staged war games in the family’s backyard. As a young man, his passion lead him to become a Navy Seal and later a CIA agent, deployed first to Iraq, then to Afghanistan, a few months after he graduated from UC San Diego. But on Oct. 25, 2003, Mueller’s mission came to an end during an ambush in the remote border region between Afghanistan and Pakistan. That day, he saved the life of an Afghan commander, before losing his own.
http://ucsdnews.ucsd.edu/thisweek/2008/11/24_mueller.asp

PRIME Program Takes Undergraduates
to Pacific Rim to Broaden Research Experiences
They went to the other side of the world to study and work on high-tech projects, including a computer model of muscle cells in the heart and graphical user interfaces. They also learned about different cultures and picked up different languages. In the past five years, more than 70 UCSD undergraduates have taken part in the Pacific Rim Experiences for Undergraduates program.
http://ucsdnews.ucsd.edu/thisweek/2008/11/03_prime.asp

Researchers Identify Potential New Drug Target for Chronic Leukemia
Researchers have discovered what could be a novel drug target for an often difficult-to-treat form of leukemia. The UCSD investigators have identified a unique “signature” or pattern of a specific family of enzymes in patients with chronic lymphocytic leukemia, the most common form of adult leukemia.
http://ucsdnews.ucsd.edu/newsrel/health/11-08ChronicLeukemia.asp

Scripps Oceanography Awarded New
Research Building to Study Fragile Marine Ecosystems
Scripps Institution of Oceanography at UC San Diego has been awarded $12 million by the U.S. Department of Commerce (DoC)/National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) to construct a new laboratory building on the Scripps campus for research on marine ecosystem forecasting. This new building will become a resource for marine ecological research at Scripps and for other national and international ocean science organizations that address the management of marine resources.
http://ucsdnews.ucsd.edu/newsrel/science/11-08MarineEcosystems.asp

Passion, Excitement and Tears at UCSD on Election Night
UC San Diego students posted their support of the 2008 presidential candidates on their Facebook pages in the lead up to the election. Tuesday night, more than 400 of them stepped away from their computers to celebrate the historic Nov. 4 vote with fellow students at Great Hall on the Eleanor Roosevelt College campus.
http://ucsdnews.ucsd.edu/thisweek/2008/11/10_election_party.asp

Arbor Day Foundation Recognizes
UCSD for Best Practices in Campus Forestry
“I’m going to plant a tree today,” proudly announced 5-year-old Seth Christensen, a member of the kindergarten class at UCSD’s Early Childhood Education Center, as he wiggled in his seat before the speeches began. And so he did. Seth and his classmates were on hand for a ceremony Wednesday during which the Arbor Day Foundation recognized UC San Diego for its best practices in campus community forestry through a tree-planting event.
http://ucsdnews.ucsd.edu/thisweek/2008/11/17_arbordaytrees.asp

UC San Diego Physician Defies Gravity
with Four Kids Who Spend Their Lives in Wheelchairs
Erik Viirre, M.D., Ph.D., a University of California, San Diego School of Medicine physician who specializes in diseases of the inner ear, recently completed his fifth weightless flight with Zero Gravity Corporation. Aboard the same plane were four paraplegic children who left their wheelchairs on earth as they floated free in a zero-gravity environment.
http://ucsdnews.ucsd.edu/newsrel/health/11-08ZeroGravity.asp

Arthur Wagner Theatre Named in Honor of Theatre
and Dance Department Founder and Longtime Supporter
If science and engineering are the head of our society, then the arts are the heart and soul,” notes Arthur Wagner, founder and emeritus faculty of the department of theatre and dance. “It’s crucial to support the arts in this country at this time."
http://ucsdnews.ucsd.edu/newsrel/general/11-08Wagner.aspp

Spreading the Joy Around
Researchers document the contagious power of happiness in social networks
A laugh can be infectious. You don’t need a sophisticated study to tell you that. But does this happy contagion vanish as quickly as a smile? New research from James Fowler of UC San Diego and Nicholas Christakis of Harvard Medical School shows that happiness spreads far and wide through a social network traveling not just the well-known path from one person to another but even to people up to three degrees removed.
http://ucsdnews.ucsd.edu/newsrel/soc/12-08Happiness.asp

Preuss School Ranked 8th by U.S. News & World Report
in Annual Analysis of "America's Best High Schools"
The Preuss School at the University of California, San Diego has been named 8th among the nation’s “best high schools” by U.S. News & World Report in its annual survey of 21,000 public high schools. The new ranking is up from the school’s 10th place spot in the 2007 listing.
http://ucsdnews.ucsd.edu/newsrel/general/12-08PreussRanked8.asp

UC San Diego Adds Power Storage
to Fuel Cell Project, Part of ‘Smart Energy Grid’
The University of California, San Diego plans to store power produced at night from a planned 2.8 megawatt "green" fuel cell and use the energy during peak-demand hours the following day when electricity rates are highest. Implementation of the advanced energy storage system at UC San Diego, one of the greenest universities in the nation, was made possible by the Nov. 21 approval by the California Public Utility Commission (CPUC) of a measure designed to lower peak demands on the state’s electrical power grid.
http://ucsdnews.ucsd.edu/newsrel/science/12-08FuelCellProject.asp

Students Tout Campus Greenness in National Video Competition
Think UC San Diego has one of the coolest sustainability programs around? Now there’s a way to let everyone know. The campus is talking part in the nationwide Chill Out competition organized by the National Wildlife Federation. Voting is easy: just watch UCSD’s video and other contest submissions and vote for the strongest entry.
http://ucsdnews.ucsd.edu/thisweek/2008/12/01_chillout.asp

Clinical Trial at UC San Diego Medical Center
Tests Treatment for Heart Failure with Adult Stem Cells
The University of California, San Diego Medical Center is the first hospital in California to enroll patients in a multi-center clinical trial, sponsored by Angioblast Systems Inc., to examine the safety and feasibility of administering adult stems cells to treat congestive heart failure. The cells, derived from bone marrow, are injected by a catheter directly into the heart muscle. Sixty patients will be recruited for this clinical trial through UC San Diego Medical Center and hospitals nationwide.
http://ucsdnews.ucsd.edu/newsrel/health/12-08AdultStemCells.asp

Why Do Some Bird Species Lay Only One Egg?
UC San Diego Study Offers Some Answers
Why do some species of birds lay only one egg in their nest, while others lay 10 or more? A global study of the wide variation among birds in this trait, known as the “clutch size,” now provides biologists with some answers. The study, published in the current issue of the journal PLoS Biology, combined data on the clutch sizes of 5,290 species of birds with information on the biology and environment of each of these species.
http://ucsdnews.ucsd.edu/newsrel/science/12-08BirdEggs.asp

A Diet High in Vegetables, Fruit and Fiber May Cut
Risk of Breast Cancer Recurrence in Women Without Hot Flashes
A secondary analysis of a large, multicenter clinical trial has shown that a diet loaded with fruits, vegetables and fiber and somewhat lower in fat compared to standard federal dietary recommendations cuts the risk of recurrence in a subgroup of early-stage breast cancer survivors – women who didn’t have hot flashes – by approximately 31 percent. These patients typically have higher recurrence and lower survival rates than breast cancer patients who have hot flashes. The study team, led by researchers at the Moores Cancer Center at the University of California, San Diego, along with six other sites, including the University of California, Davis, reported its results online December 15, 2008, in the Journal of Clinical Oncology.
http://ucsdnews.ucsd.edu/newsrel/health/12-08BreastCancerDiet.asp

Interactive Gene “Networks” May Predict
if Leukemia is Aggressive or Slow-Growing
Rather than testing for individual marker genes or proteins, researchers at the University of California, San Diego and the Moores UCSD Cancer Center have evidence that groups, or networks, of interactive genes may be more reliable in determining the likelihood that a form of leukemia is fast-moving or slow-growing.
http://ucsdnews.ucsd.edu/newsrel/health/12-08ChuangGeneNet.asp

A Legacy Takes Root
Alumni Brothers Cultivate Family Business in Vineyards of Paso Robles
In the past four decades, Daniel and Georges Daou have lived in three different countries on three different continents. It’s perhaps not surprising then that the two UCSD alumni are attracted to the notion of terroir, a French word that roughly translates to a sense of place and has come to mean a wine’s character. This interest now has taken the Daou brothers to the wine region of Paso Robles, where they are planting vines and building a winery.
http://ucsdnews.ucsd.edu/thisweek/2008/12/01_wine.asp

Treating Sleep Apnea in Alzheimer’s Patients Helps Cognition
Continuous positive airway pressure treatment seems to improve cognitive functioning in patients with Alzheimer’s disease who also suffer from obstructive sleep apnea, according to the results of a randomized clinical trial conducted at the University of California, San Diego. The study – led by Sonia Ancoli-Israel, Ph.D., professor of psychiatry at the UC San Diego School of Medicine and one of the nation’s preeminent experts in the field of sleep disorders and sleep research in aging populations – was published in the November issue of the Journal of the American Geriatrics Society.
http://ucsdnews.ucsd.edu/newsrel/health/12-08SleepApneaAlzheimer.asp