Task Force Seeks Input at
Town Hall on Future Campus Funding
Members of the UC San Diego campus got a chance to voice concerns Thursday about the budget situation facing the university. At a town hall meeting organized by the Joint Senate-Administration Task Force on the Budget, about a dozen people spoke up about how funds could be better collected and administered. More

UCSD Embarks on
$73 Million Energy Efficiency Program
UC San Diego has embarked on a $73 million program to increase the energy efficiency of 25 of its older buildings to lower their combined energy consumption by at least $6 million a year. The project is part of a larger $247.4 million University of California initiative to reduce greenhouse-gas emissions and cut energy costs at its 10 campuses by $36 million annually. More

Campus Announces New
Center for Migration and Health
UC San Diego will lead a new Center of Expertise on Migration and Health as one of three multi-campus initiatives launched by the University of California system under the auspices of the new UC Global Health Institute. More

Active Desk Aims to Get Office Workers Up and Moving
UC San Diego researcher Ernesto Ramirez has logged more than 34 miles of walking in the past month, and he hasn't even had to leave the office to do it. Ramirez, has designed and built what he calls the "Active Desk" — a raised work station connected to a standard treadmill that allows him to walk while he works. The project stems from a body of scientific research that links sedentary behavior (like sitting at a desk all day) with an elevated risk of mortality from all causes and from cardiovascular disease. More

Life in Time: UCSD’s New Center for
Chronobiology Studies Rhythms of Existence
UC San Diego is among the nation’s leaders for encouraging and supporting interdisciplinary research. The university’s Organized Research Units (ORUs) demonstrate both the necessity for, and the wisdom of, bringing together experts from an array of fields to study complex processes, create new forms of expression, and solve daunting problems. One of the newest ORUs is the Center for Chronobiology. More

New Incisionless Surgery to Treat GERD, California First
Every day, more than 20 percent of the U.S. population experiences the painful burning symptoms of gastroesophageal reflux disease (GERD). For these 20 million Americans, the first line of defense is medication. To find a long-term, permanent solution for this nagging condition, the Center for the Future of Surgery at the Medical Center is leading a multicenter clinical trial to test the safety and effectiveness of a new incisionless GERD treatment. More

Scripps Scientists to Develop ‘Swarms’
of Miniature Robotic Ocean Explorers
In an effort to plug gaps of knowledge about key ocean processes, scientists at Scripps Institution of Oceanography at UC San Diego have been awarded nearly $1 million from the National Science Foundation to develop a new breed of ocean-probing instruments. Scripps researchers Jules Jaffe and Peter Franks will be spearheading an effort to design and deploy autonomous underwater explorers, or AUEs, which will trace fine details of fundamental oceanographic mechanisms that are vital to tiny marine inhabitants. More

Chair of Economics Named Bren Fellow
at Public Policy Institute of California
UC San Diego economist Julian Betts, chair of the department of economics, is an inaugural Bren Fellow at the Public Policy Institute of California. Betts, who is an expert on K-12 education and is also a research associate at the National Bureau of Economic Research, has been an adjunct fellow at the institute since 1998. More