Chancellor's Medals Awarded to 'Citizens
of the Highest Order' to Close 50th Anniversary Year
UC San Diego today announced the outstanding community leaders and campus supporters who have been selected to receive prestigious Chancellor's Medals as the university's 50th Anniversary year comes to a close. Chancellor's Medal recipients for 2011 are Richard and Rita Atkinson, John and Ann Davies, Sheldon and Susan Engelhorn, Anne Ratner, and Sam and Aline Skaggs. One of the highest honors given by UC San Diego, the Chancellor's Medal recognizes exceptional service in support of the university's mission. More

Groundbreaking Chicano Legacy
40 Años Mosaic to be Unveiled
The Chicano Legacy 40 Años mural, which covered the east wall of Peterson Hall on campus for two years, has been installed as a permanent mosaic. The 17-by-54- foot mural, made up of thousands of pieces of colored glass, will be unveiled at noon, May 25, in a free event open to the campus and San Diego community. More

Four Preuss School Seniors Named
Gates Millennium Scholarship Winners
Four seniors at The Preuss School UCSD—a charter middle and high school for motivated, low-income students—have won scholarships from the prestigious Gates Millennium Scholars Program, a national competition that annually awards "good through graduation" college scholarships to 1000 talented students nationwide. Over the past five years, 21 Preuss School seniors have won Gates Scholarships.
More

Campus to Celebrate
Intellectual, Entrepreneurial, Cultural
and Economic Power of 130,000 Alumni June 16-19
UC San Diego alumni are innovators, entrepreneurs and leaders who continue to change the world across all industries, from science, technology, medicine and public service to business, education, politics and the arts. They will be coming back to campus to celebrate their achievements—and the achievements of all alumni—during the third annual Alumni Weekend June 16-19. More

Graduate Students Impress
Legislators with Latest in UC Research
Ramsin Khoshabeh is a UC San Diego doctoral student developing a system to enable surgeons to see laparoscopic surgeries in 3D, without the need for specialized glasses. In response to the 2007 San Diego wildfires, communications doctoral student Katrina Petersen began researching disaster mapping so that in the future, emergency responders will be better prepared to communicate information and coordinate relief efforts. On Wednesday, Khoshabeh, Petersen and other University of California graduate students took their stories to Sacramento as part of UC Graduate Research Advocacy Day. More

Help Name New Species of Deep-Sea Worms
Celebrate World Ocean Day by helping Birch Aquarium at Scripps and researchers from Scripps Institution of Oceanography name two new species of deep-sea marine worms. One name will be selected from the public at large and another will be chosen from a K-12 school. Suggestions can be submitted through May 25 on Birch Aquarium's website or at the aquarium during its monthly SEA Days event May 21. More

Brain-Monitoring Technology Makes Media Waves
Brain waves, particularly those being studied by UC San Diego researchers, have been making media waves. ABC News, KPBS, UCSD TV and other media outlets have all recently featured new brain-computer interface technology developed by Tzyy-Ping Jung and associates Yu-Te Wang and Yijun Wang of the Institute for Neural Computation. The innovative technology heralds a new and fast-advancing generation of mobile, wireless brain-activity-monitoring systems. More

Study Finds Therapies Using Induced Pluripotent
Stem Cells Could Encounter Immune Rejection Problems
Biologists at UC San Diego have discovered that an important class of stem cells known as "induced pluripotent stem cells," or iPSCs, derived from an individual's own cells, could face immune rejection problems if they are used in future stem cell therapies. In a paper in journal Nature, the researchers report the first clear evidence of immune system rejection of cells derived from autologous iPSCs that can be differentiated into a wide variety of cell types. More

Tiny Talk on a Barnacle's Back
Even the merest of microbes must be able to talk, to be able to interact with its environment and with others to not just survive, but to thrive. This cellular chatter comes in the form of signaling molecules and exchanged metabolites (molecules involved in the process of metabolism or living) that can have effects far larger than the organism itself. More

Study Finds Filipino Children in San Diego
County at Higher Risk for Kawasaki Disease
While children of all ethnicities can contract Kawasaki disease, a study led by researchers at the Kawasaki Disease Research Center at UC San Diego and Rady Children's Hospital-San Diego finds that Filipino children with the disease are at a higher risk for inflammation of the blood vessels of the heart than those of other Asian and non-Asian backgrounds. More

Genome of Marine Organism Reveals Hidden Secrets
An international team of researchers led by scientists at Scripps Institution of Oceanography has deciphered the genome of a tropical marine organism known to produce substances potentially useful against human diseases. Tiny photosynthetic microorganisms called cyanobacteria are some of the oldest forms of life on the planet. More

Naomi Oreskes Named
'Climate Change Communicator of the Year'
Naomi Oreskes, professor of history and science studies at UC San Diego, has been named 2011 "Climate Change Communicator of the Year" by George Mason University's Center for Climate Change Communication (4C). The honor, established in 2009, recognizes an individual and an organization for "great strides in helping society understand and respond to climate change." More

Alumna Only American Featured
at 2011 Cannes Directors' Fortnight
The Directors’ Fortnight committee chose 25 films, from a pool of 2,288, to show in this year’s screenings at the Cannes Film Festival. And the only American filmmaker selected in this exclusive group is artist and UC San Diego alumna Liza Johnson. Johnson’s “Return” is premiering at the prestigious Directors’ Fortnight May 12-22. More

Biologist Awarded San Diego Science Educator's
Association Excellence in University Teaching Award
James Nieh, a professor of biology, has been named this year's winner of the San Diego Science Educator's Association Excellence in University Teaching Award. The region's professional science education support organization annually recognizes a university-K12 program for the award, which "has had a substantive, positive impact on science education in the San Diego area." More