Annual Staff Picnic Highlights
Campus Commitment to Sustainability
They played games, listened to music, enjoyed delectable sweets and came together to celebrate being a member of the UC San Diego community. More than 3,500 employees gathered at the Town Square Friday for the university's annual All Staff Picnic. This year's theme, "Good Clean Fun," embraced the campus's commitment to sustainability. In an effort to be greener, the traditional lunch boxes were replaced with reusable UC San Diego Bookstore bags. More

Watch a slideshow of the Annual Staff Picnic

Pfizer/UC San Diego Health Sciences
Drug Discovery Partnership Aims to Speed
Delivery of Promising Therapies to Patients
Pfizer, Inc. and UC San Diego Health Sciences are embarking on an innovative, five-year research collaboration through Pfizer's Centers for Therapeutic Innovation, a network of partnerships with top-tier life sciences research institutions in California, New York and Massachusetts that aims to accelerate and transform drug discovery and development. More

Spoiler Alert: Stories Are Not Spoiled by 'Spoilers'
Many of us go to extraordinary lengths to avoid learning the endings of stories we have yet to read or see—plugging our ears, for example, and loudly repeating "la-la-la-la," when discussion threatens to reveal the outcome. Of book and movie critics, we demand they not give away any plot twists or, at least, oblige with a clearly labeled "spoiler alert." We get angry with friends who slip up and spill a fictional secret. But we're wrong and wasting our time, suggests a new experimental study from UC San Diego researchers. More

Measurements at Scripps Pier Reveal
Extent of Leakage from Damaged Fukushima Reactor
Atmospheric chemists at UC San Diego report the first quantitative measurement of the amount of radiation leaked from the damaged nuclear reactor in Fukushima, Japan, following the devastating earthquake and tsunami earlier this year. More

Campus Reaches Out to Area Businesses
to 'Demystify' Process of Working with University
Workshops include 'Small Business Diversity Expo'
About 250 representatives of area small businesses took careful notes and exchanged business cards during an Aug. 8 workshop with UC San Diego officials involved in purchasing and construction at the campus. The session and a Diversity Expo the following day were intended to help area businesses, particularly those owned by women, minorities, disabled veterans or members of disadvantaged groups, do more business with the university. More

With State Support Sagging,
Strong Research Funding Proves Vital
With the campus facing a $70.5-million cut this year—a 25.8 percent reduction in state funding for 2011-2012 —funding for research is more vital than ever. As state support continues to decline, therefore, it's good news that campus research teams competed for and received more than $960 million dollars for research in fiscal year 2011. More

First Day of School for Students
at The Preuss School UCSD
More than 800 middle and high school students returned to The Preuss School UCSD on Monday, August 22, to begin their 2011-2012 school year at the 'No. 1 Transformative High School in the Nation' (as designated by Newsweek magazine). Preuss faculty, staff, donors, UC San Diego officials and other friends of the charter school were on hand to hear about the great work being done at Preuss and to welcome students back.

Watch a Slideshow of the First Day of School at Preuss

New Campus Housing
Showcases Latest in Green Innovation
New housing on campus has students seeing green. Newly completed apartments at Revelle and John Muir College, two of UC San Diego's six undergraduate colleges, and the second phase of the transfer housing complex, the Village, are opening their doors this fall. Revelle's Charles David Keeling apartments are projected to be Leadership in Energy Efficient Design (LEED) platinum certified, a first for any structure on campus. More

Far from Home, Undergrads Participating
in Summer Research Program Investigate
Earthquake Damage in 'Pacific Ring of Fire'
The research opportunity of a lifetime is coming to a close for nearly two dozen undergraduates who have had summer research adventures that took them thousands of miles from home as part of a unique international summer research program at UC San Diego. Three of these students investigated earthquakes in locations that are part of the Pacific Ring of Fire, an area of the world touching several continents surrounding the Pacific Ocean where large numbers of earthquakes and volcanic eruptions occur. More

Rady School Sets Sights on Future in Wake of
Earning AACSB International Business Accreditation
The Rady School of Management at UC San Diego has earned initial accreditation from AACSB International—Association to Advance Collegiate Schools of Business. Founded in 2003, the Rady School is the only new business school created at a U.S. News & World Report top 10 ranked public research university during the past 30 years, and is one of the youngest in the nation ever to achieve this AACSB recognition. More

Bill Ping Piu Kuo Named
2011 Young Scholar by Marconi Society
Bill Ping Piu Kuo, a photonics student who is about to receive his doctorate in electrical engineering from UC San Diego, is one of three students worldwide to be honored by the prestigious Marconi Society. He was selected a Marconi Young Scholar in part because of key work developing wideband optical parametric mixers and ultrafast transmission schemes to send and receive signals of unprecedented speed and quality—and with record low power consumption. More

UC San Diego Alumni Board of
Directors Announces New Members
The Alumni Board of Directors has announced the appointment of four new members: Megan Bettilyon, '07, M.S. '10; Sandi Logan, '86; Mark Suster, '91; and Suzanne Valentine, '89. "Over the past 12 months, our UCSD Alumni group has gained tremendous momentum while celebrating UC San Diego's 50th Anniversary with alumni both locally and across the globe," says Armin Afsahi, '90, executive director of UCSD Alumni. "Our new board members bring new energy and talent to UCSD Alumni." More

New Take on Old Work:
San Diego Museum of Art Surveys Prof's Punk Period
Punk music was once banned from Mexican stages and airwaves. In spite of that, or maybe because of it, punk left its mark in Mexico—at the very least on one man, artist Rubén Ortiz-Torres. The longtime UC San Diego professor of visual arts is the subject of a solo exhibition at the San Diego Museum of Art, "Portrait of an Artist as a Young Man: Works by Rubén Ortiz-Torres," which chronicles his early curiosity about and political interest in punk music. More