Researchers Monitoring
Radioactive Levels from Scripps Pier
If any small, harmless amounts of radiation from Japan's troubled nuclear reactors reach the UC San Diego campus, Mark Thiemens, dean of the Physical Sciences Division, and the researchers in his lab will be the first to know. Thiemens and his team operate a device that uses sulfur to measure radioactivity in the environment. Like many fellow scientists, President Barack Obama and several U.S. government agencies, Thiemens stresses that harmful radiation will not reach the West Coast. He said he doubts whether the radiation will even be detectable. More

UC Regents Scrutinize Fiscal Crisis
The University of California Board of Regents took the unusual step Wednesday of devoting its entire public session to analyzing UC's budget crisis and discussing the tradeoffs inherent in various scenarios for coping. The university faces a stark gap between diminishing state support and rising operational costs—a gap that will grow larger in coming years unless UC finds a stable source of revenue growth. "This is not a blip. This is 20 years of reduced funding for the university," President Mark G. Yudof told the board. "We need a long-term plan. Our collective job is to figure out how to do it." More

Read About the Potential Impacts of
2011-12 Proposed Reduction at UC San Diego

Number of Heavy Smokers Decreased
Dramatically in California and United States Since 1965
A study led by researchers at UC San Diego shows that high-intensity smoking—more than 20 cigarettes per day—declined markedly in both California and the remaining United States since 1965. California dropped from 65 percent of all smokers to 23 percent (2.6 percent of the population) while the remaining states dropped to 40 percent (7.2 percent of the population). These changes help explain the larger drop in lung cancer seen in California than in the rest of the nation. More

UC San Diego Ranked Among Best Graduate Schools
Graduate programs at UC San Diego continue to be highly ranked as noted in America's Best Graduate Schools, 2012 Edition released today by U.S. News Media Group, publishers of U.S. News & World Report. Each year, U.S. News ranks professional-school programs in business, education, engineering, law and medicine. More

Ancient 'Hyperthermals' a
Guide to Anticipated Climate Changes
Bursts of intense global warming that have lasted tens of thousands of years have taken place more frequently throughout history than previously believed, according to evidence gathered by a team led by researchers from UCSD's Scripps Institution of Oceanography. More

Transmissible Treatment Proposed for
HIV Could Target Superspreaders to Curb Epidemic
Researchers at UC San Diego and UCLA have proposed a fundamentally new intervention for the HIV/AIDS epidemic based on engineered, virus-like particles that could subdue HIV infection within individual patients and spread to high-risk populations that are difficult for public health workers to reach. More

Engineering Students Help Preserve
African Communities and Endangered Gorillas
In the jungles of Uganda's Bwindi Impenetrable Forest live half the world's population of mountain gorillas. It is one of the most biologically diverse areas on Earth. However, in many parts of Africa wild animals such as gorillas serve as a major source of protein for local inhabitants. But as human populations increase, overhunting is a major threat to the survival of these species. More

UC San Diego Students Help Underserved
High School Students Navigate Road to College
As a high school student, Vidiana Cervantes knew that college would be the next step for her; the only uncertainty was in how to make it happen. Both of her parents emigrated from Mexico and were not familiar with the school system in the U.S., let alone college application requirements. Cervantes found support through the University of California's Early Academic Outreach Program, which has a branch at each of the 10 UC campuses, including UCSD. More

Navy Bomb Expert Proposes at Scripps Kelp Tank
Love was in the…, well, water…at Birch Aquarium over the weekend. U.S. Navy Chief Warrant Officer Scott Mielock made a splash during the aquarium’s kelp tank dive show on Saturday when he proposed to his girlfriend, Heidi Brueggeman. Near the end of the show, Scripps divers unveiled an underwater sign that asked a very surprised Heidi if she would marry Scott. She said yes – in front of about 100 visitors. Scott is an explosive ordinance disposal technician who returned last week from a deployment in Afghanistan. Scott chose the aquarium as the place to pop the question because he is a Navy diver. More

UC San Diego Donor Featured
on New Reality TV Show "Secret Millionaire"
UC San Diego donor Marc Paskin recently starred in the second installment of ABC’s new reality series “Secret Millionaire,” which aired March 13. On the show, Paskin traveled to Detroit to spend a week volunteering with local charities, not revealing his identity until the final day, when he gave away nearly $125,000 to the organizations with which he worked. Prior to his debut on “Secret Millionaire,” Paskin had been quietly giving to several organizations, including more than $1.3 million to UC San Diego. More

Dilip V. Jeste Elected as New
President-Elect of American Psychiatric Association
Dr. Dilip V. Jeste, director of the Sam and Rose Stein Institute for Research on Aging, has been elected by his peers across the country as the president-elect of the American Psychiatric Association (APA.) More