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FEATURED NEWS Astronomers Watch Instant Replay of Powerful Stellar Eruption Astronomers are watching the astronomical equivalent of an instant replay of a spectacular outburst from the unstable, behemoth double-star system Eta Carinae, which was initially seen on Earth nearly 170 years ago. Astrophysicists affiliated with UC Santa Barbara and Las Cumbres Observatory Global Telescope Network (LCOGT) contributed to the study. Federica Bianco, a postdoctoral researcher at UCSB and LCOGT, used LCOGT’s Faulkes Telescope South in Australia to record the explosion and compare it to eyewitness reports of the brightness. Faculty Member Awarded Sloan Research Fellowship M. Scott Shell, an assistant professor of chemical engineering at UC Santa Barbara, is among this year’s winners of Sloan Research Fellowships from the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation. Shell is among 126 fellowship winners announced today by the Sloan Foundation. The two-year fellowships are awarded to researchers in recognition of distinguished performance and a unique potential to make substantial contributions to their fields. UCSB faculty members have received 15 Sloan Fellowships in the past eight years. Satellite Reveals Enormous Haze of Energetic Particles at the Center of Milky Way Images produced by the Planck satellite have revealed an enormous cloud of electrons traveling near the speed of light in the heart of our galaxy, the Milky Way. These electrons interact with the galaxy's magnetic field to produce a haze of microwave radiation seen by Planck. The discovery builds upon earlier research by Planck team member Gregory Dobler, a postdoctoral fellow at the Kavli Institute for Theoretical Physics at UC Santa Barbara. Dobler, along with collaborators, previously studied hints of this emission in images from the Wilkinson Microwave Anistropy Probe. Chemists Mimic Nature to Design Better Medical Tests Over their 3.8 billion years of evolution, living organisms have developed countless strategies for monitoring their surroundings. Chemists at UC Santa Barbara and University of Rome Tor Vergata have adapted some of these strategies to improve the performance of DNA detectors. Their findings may aid efforts to build better medical diagnostics, such as improved HIV or cancer tests. The research was led by the team of Kevin Plaxco, a professor of chemistry. Alexis Vallée-Bélisle, a postdoctoral fellow, is the first author of the study. Professor Elected to the National Academy of Engineering Steven P. DenBaars, a professor of electrical and computer engineering and of materials, is among the 66 new members elected by the National Academy of Engineering. DenBaars, who is also the Mitsubishi Chemical Professor in Solid State Lighting and Displays, and co-director of the campus’s Solid-State Lighting and Energy Center, was recognized for his contributions to gallium nitride-based materials and devices for solid state lighting and displays. New Book by Art Historian is the First to Catalog Indigenous African Art Owned by an African Collector In his new book, “Making History: African Collectors and the Canon of African Art,” Sylvester Okwunodu Ogbechie, a professor of history of art and architecture, formalizes and interprets the private collection of indigenous African art owned by Femi Akinsanya. The book, published in English and French editions, is the first of its kind to catalog a collection of African art owned by an African. Researchers Examine Consequences of Non-Intervention for Infectious Disease in Endangered African Great Apes Infectious disease has joined poaching and habitat loss as a major threat to the survival of African great apes as they have become restricted to ever-smaller populations. Despite the work of dedicated conservationists, efforts to save our closest living relatives from ecological extinction are largely failing, and new scientific approaches are necessary to analyze major threats and find innovative solutions. Researchers at UC Santa Barbara’s National Center for Ecological Analysis and Synthesis have conducted a pioneering study that illustrates how severely disease threatens the long-term survival of wild gorillas and chimpanzees. Global Experts Question Claims About Jellyfish Populations Blooms, or proliferation, of jellyfish have shown a substantial, visible impact on coastal populations –– clogged nets for fishermen, stinging waters for tourists, even choked intake lines for power plants –– and recent media reports have created a perception that the world’s oceans are experiencing increases in jellyfish due to human activities such as global warming and overharvesting of fish. Now, a new study conducted at UC Santa Barbara’s National Center for Ecological Analysis and Synthesis questions claims that jellyfish are increasing worldwide and suggests claims are not supported with any hard evidence or scientific analyses to date. The results of the study appear in the latest issue of the journal BioScience. Graduate Student Wins UNESCO Fellowship Graduate student Alejandra Jaramillo has been awarded a prestigious fellowship with the UNESCO-L’Oréal Fellowships for Young Women in Life Sciences for 2011. She is one of only 15 recipients worldwide. Her research is in the areas of parasitology and epidemiology. “It was a great honor to receive this award,” said Jaramillo, who is a graduate student in the Department of Ecology, Evolution & Marine Biology. “I was very excited and proud to be the first Panamanian scientist to receive it. I was also very excited because it allowed me to fund some of my Ph.D. research.” Kavli Institute for Theoretical Physics Awarded $2.5 Million by the Simons Foundation The Kavli Institute for Theoretical Physics (KITP) at UC Santa Barbara has been awarded $2.5 million by the Simons Foundation to support the work of leading scientists on extended visits at the world-renowned research center. Nobel Prize-winner David Gross, director of the Kavli Institute, expressed his sincere appreciation for the grant from the Simons Foundation. “We are enormously grateful to the Simons Foundation for their generous award that will enable us to support extended leaves of distinguished scientists at the KITP. ” Every year, the KITP hosts hundreds of leading theoretical physicists who come to Santa Barbara to explore some of the most challenging scientific questions of our time. Film by Sociology Professor to Premiere at Santa Barbara International Film Festival What would Valentine's Day be without chocolate? According to some estimates, over one billion boxes of chocolates will be sold throughout the United States in the week prior to the big day. At the heart of all that chocolate are cocoa beans grown in, among other places, Ivory Coast and Ghana. Depending on the chocolate manufacturer's procurement practices, the beans used to produce all those boxes of chocolates may well have been harvested by children abducted by slave traders and sold to cocoa bean farmers for the sole purpose of providing free labor. In her film “Nothing Like Chocolate,” Kum-Kum Bhavnani, a filmmaker and professor of sociology, tackles the issue of slave labor in the chocolate manufacturing business head-on. The film will screen at the Santa Barbara International Film Festival at 2 p.m. on Friday, February 3, at the Lobero Theatre. UCSB Among Top 20 Campuses Producing Peace Corps Volunteers UC Santa Barbara has moved up in the 2012 rankings of colleges and universities that send the largest number of volunteers to serve in the Peace Corps. UCSB is ranked number 16 among all large universities in the nation, according to the rankings released this week. With 70 alumni currently serving as Peace Corps volunteers, UCSB has moved up from number 22 in 2011 and number 28 in 2010. In addition, UCSB is ranked number 12 in the nation among universities that have sent volunteers to the Peace Corps since its inception in 1961, with 1,564 alumni having served. “We take great pride in our UC Santa Barbara alumni who volunteer to serve in the Peace Corps,” said UCSB Chancellor Henry T. Yang. Researchers Discover the Processes Leading to Acute Myeloid Leukemia Researchers at UCSB have discovered a molecular pathway that may explain how a particularly deadly form of cancer develops. The discovery may lead to new cancer therapies that reprogram cells instead of killing them. The research team described how a certain mutation in DNA disrupts cellular function in patients with acute myeloid leukemia. According to the team, there is developing interest in the broader field of epigenetics as a direction for the treatment of cancer. “There’s definitely the idea that this may be a new way of developing therapeutics, because you don’t have to kill the cancer cell,” said Norbert Reich, professor of chemistry and biochemistry. “Almost every cancer therapy that’s out there works on the principle that a cancer cell needs to be killed.” Sociologist Receives $300,000 Grant to Study Gang-Associated Youth Victor Rios, associate professor of sociology, has received a $300,000 grant from the William T. Grant Foundation for a study examining how the interactions between gang-associated youth and their parents, school professionals, police, and probation officers affect their identity and criminal behavior. Rios’s grant is one of six awards totaling more than $2.5 million to support researchers and organizations working to understand and improve the environments in which at-risk youth spend time. The funding will allow him to expand his current research into a longitudinal study that examines the quality of interactions between at-risk adolescents and the authority figures in their lives. Study of Ocean Acidification Helps Scientists Evaluate Effects of Atmospheric Carbon Dioxide on Marine Life A UCSB marine scientist and a team of 18 other researchers have reported results of the broadest worldwide study of ocean acidification to date. Acidification is known to be a direct result of the increasing amount of greenhouse gas emissions. The scientists used sensors to measure the acidity of 15 ocean locations, including seawater in the Antarctic, and in temperate and tropical waters. “We were able to illustrate how parts of the world’s oceans currently have different pH, and thus how they might respond to climate changes in the future,” said Gretchen Hofmann, professor in UCSB’s Department of Ecology, Evolution & Marine Biology. New Study Evaluates Impact of Land-Use Activity in the Amazon Basin A new paper published today in the journal Nature reveals that human land-use activity has begun to change the regional water and energy cycles the interplay of air coming in from the Atlantic Ocean, water transpiration by the forest, and solar radiation of parts of the Amazon basin. In addition, it shows that ongoing interactions of deforestation, fire, and climate change have the potential to alter carbon storage, rainfall patterns, and river discharge on an even larger basinwide scale. The research was led by the Woods Hole Research Center, with contributions from UC Santa Barbara’s National Center for Ecological Analysis and Synthesis. UCSB Receives 68,331 Applications for Fall 2012 From Prospective Freshmen and Transfer Students UC Santa Barbara has received 68,331 applications for undergraduate admission for fall 2012. The total is 5,028 more than last year, an increase of 7.9 percent. Of the total, 54,807 applications were from prospective first-year students, and 13,524 were from applicants seeking to transfer to UCSB. The UC system received a record 160,939 applications, with all nine undergraduate campuses experiencing increases in freshman applicants. Campus Installs New Bicycle Repair Stations UC Santa Barbara has made two-wheeling around campus even easier for its burgeoning population of bicycle-riding students, faculty, and staff. Thanks to funding provided by the UCSB Department of Housing & Residential Services and support from Associated Students, four bicycle repair stations were recently installed on campus, and two more will be added soon. English Professor Receives NEH Grant for Humanities Social Network If the poet William Wordsworth belonged to LinkedIn, his network might include colleagues Samuel Taylor Coleridge and Robert Southey. It might also include Alan Liu, professor of English at UC Santa Barbara, who is listed on Wordsworth’s profile page in the Research-oriented Social Environment (RoSE) that brings together social and bibliographical paradigms and allows for novel interactive research practices and sense of social engagement with the past. With a $50,000 grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities, RoSE is moving from prototype to working model. Hubble Pinpoints Farthest Protocluster of Galaxies Ever Seen An astrophysicist at UCSB contributed to the discovery of a cluster of galaxies in the initial stages of construction — the most distant such grouping ever observed in the early universe. The finding was made using NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope. “Just a couple of years ago, a discovery like this one would have seemed impossible,” said Tommaso Treu, professor of physics. “Now, we are not only finding galaxies as close as ever before to the Bang Bang, but we are actually finding entire structures of them!” Chemical Measurements Confirm Estimate of Gulf Oil Spill Rate By combining detailed chemical measurements in the deep ocean, in the oil slick, and in the air, a team of scientists including UC Santa Barbara’s David Valentine has independently estimated how fast gases and oil were leaking during the Deepwater Horizon oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico in 2010. The new chemistry-based estimate –– an average of 11,130 tons of gas and oil compounds per day –– is close to the official average leak rate estimate of about 11,350 tons of gas and oil per day. Scientists Explain How Gulf Topography Played a Key Role in Consumption of Oil and Gas After Deepwater Horizon Disaster In a new study, Professors David Valentine, left, and Igor Mezic, and their co-authors explain how they used an innovative computer model to demonstrate the roles of underwater topography, currents, and bacteria of the Gulf of Mexico in the disappearance of methane and other chemicals that spewed from the well for nearly three months after it erupted about 40 miles off the Louisiana coast on April 20, 2010. UCSB TV Debuts University of California Television (UCTV) will make its Santa Barbara debut on January 10 on Cox Cable channel 72. UCSB TV, the campus’s UCTV channel, will bring round-the-clock educational programming to audiences in Santa Barbara, Goleta, and Carpinteria. Roughly 30 percent of the programming on UCTV originates at UCSB. In NCEAS Study, Ecologists Call for Screening Imported Plants to Prevent New Wave of Invasive Species A recent study conducted by a working group at UC Santa Barbara's National Center for Ecological Analysis and Synthesis (NCEAS) suggests that climate change predicted for the United States will boost demand for imported drought- and heat-tolerant landscaping plants from Africa and the Middle East. This greatly increases the risk that a new wave of invasive species will overrun native ecosystems. Earth Science Department Awarded $553,000 to Advance Geoscience Research UC Santa Barbara’s Department of Earth Science has received a $553,000 award from Seismic Micro-Technology Inc. in the form of educational and research software that will enable 3D visualization, mapping, and modeling of seismic data from subsurface sedimentary deposits. “Working with the KINGDOM software, students and researchers can accurately and quickly interpret three-dimensional geological structures and their various field relations, and can further quantify their properties and subsurface geometry,” said Craig Nicholson, a research scientist at the campus’s Marine Science Institute. “Through this grant, Seismic Micro-Technology helps ensure that UCSB and its students in earth science gain this valuable research capability and experience.” UCSB Ranks No. 17 Among Nation's Top 100 Best-Value Public Universities Kiplinger's Personal Finance has named UC Santa Barbara to its 2012 list of 100 best values in public colleges and universities. The annual ranking cites four-year schools that combine outstanding education with economic value. UCSB was ranked number 17, a jump from number 34 in last year's rankings. Other UC campuses in the top 25 include UC Berkeley at number 7; UCLA and UC San Diego at numbers 9 and 10, respectively; UC Davis at number 20; and UC Irvine at number 22. Economist Studies Gender and Earnings Growth Among College Graduates A new study by Catherine Weinberger, an economist at UC Santa Barbara, concludes that while a significant salary gap persists between men and women, as salaries among the two groups increase over time, they do so at the same rate. Weinberger’s findings appeared in a recent issue of the journal Industrial & Labor Relations Review. Quantum Physics Research Chosen as a Top Ten Breakthroughs of 2011 Quantum hardware developed by physicists at UC Santa Barbara is among the Top 10 Physics Breakthroughs of 2011, as named by Physics World, the news organization of the Institute of Physics. The experiment was pursued primarily by Matteo Mariantoni, postdoctoral fellow working with Professors Andrew Cleland and John Martinis. “We are very proud of this distinction for the breakthrough work in quantum computing by Dr. Mariantoni and Professors Cleland and Martinis,” said Pierre Wiltzius, the Susan & Bruce Worster Dean of Science. “Demonstrating the feasibility of a quantum chip with processors and memory is a great scientific achievement and a monumental step towards building quantum computers.” English Scholar Studies Global Icons as Symbols of Collective Consciousness In her new book, “Global Icons — Apertures to the Popular,” Bishnupriya Ghosh, a professor of English at UC Santa Barbara, examines the galvanizing — and sometimes catalyzing — effect iconic figures have on social change and transformation. She studies three figures in particular — Mother Teresa; Phoolan Devi, also known as India’s bandit queen, who was elected to India’s parliament in 1996; and Arundhati Roy, the prize-winning author turned environmental activist. Economist Studies Impact of Climate Change on Health and Related Expenditures In an article published in the American Economic Journal: Applied Economics, Olivier Deschênes, an associate professor of economics, estimates the economic impacts of climate change on human health, and on expenditures for self-protection, such as air conditioning. Deschênes considers how households might adapt to extreme weather by using more energy to control their indoor climate, and makes predictions about future impacts based on state-of the-art climate models. Scientists Publish New Findings about the ‘Supernova of a Generation’ Astrophysicists from UC Santa Barbara are part of an international team which has discovered that a supernova that exploded in August –– dubbed the supernova of a generation –– was a “white dwarf” star, and that its companion star could not have been a “red giant,” as previously suspected. White dwarf stars are small but very dense stars, and red giants are stars that swell to massive proportions when they approach middle age. The UCSB team included scientists from the UCSB-affiliated Las Cumbres Observatory Global Telescope Network and UCSB’s Kavli Institute for Theoretical Physics. UCSB Ranked No. 7 in Leiden Ranking of World's Top 500 Universities The Centre for Science and Technologies Studies at Leiden University in the Netherlands has ranked UC Santa Barbara number 7 on its annual list of the top 500 major universities in the world. The Leiden Ranking is based on publications in Thomson Reuters' Web of Science database from 2005-2009. Only six universities ranked higher than UCSB, including MIT, Princeton, Harvard, Rice, Stanford, and Caltech. UC Berkeley and UC San Francisco were ranked eight and 10, respectively. Other UC campuses in the top 40 were UC San Diego at number 19, UCLA at number 20, UC Santa Cruz at number 21, UC Riverside at number 29, and UC Irvine at number 37. Scholarship Established in Honor of Communication Professor The Council for International Education and Exchange (CIEE) has established a $25,000 scholarship in the name of Michael Stohl, a professor of communication at UC Santa Barbara. The scholarship recognizes Stohl’s extraordinary contributions to the field of international education, as well as his contributions to the organization’s Academic Consortium Board, and commemorates his retirement from the CIEE board of directors. Computer Scientists Recognized for Pioneering Technological Advances In recognition of pioneering research “that will sustain competitiveness in the digital age,” UC Santa Barbara faculty members Divyakant Agrawal and Linda Petzold have been named fellows of the prestigious Association for Computing Machinery (ACM). The distinguished professors are among 46 computer scientists from universities, corporations, and research laboratories to be honored by the world’s largest education and computing society. ACM President Alain Chesnais described the 2011 fellows as “international luminaries” responsible for technological advances and solutions that are transforming society for the better in industry, commerce, healthcare, entertainment, and education. Student to Accept White House Award A College of Creative Studies student studying ocean ecology will accept the 2010 Presidential Award for Excellence in Science, Mathematics, and Engineering Mentoring from President Obama next week, on behalf of Ocean Discovery Institute. This is the highest honor bestowed by the U.S. government for efforts that advance those fields of education. Anai Novoa, a senior at UCSB in the College of Creative Studies, will accept the award at a White House ceremony on Monday, Dec. 12. Ocean Discovery Institute is a San Diego-based nonprofit organization that promotes mentoring in science and engineering. Eight Distinguished UCSB Faculty Members Named AAAS Fellows Eight UC Santa Barbara faculty members, including Nobel laureate Alan J. Heeger, have been awarded the distinction of Fellow by the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS). Election as a Fellow is an honor bestowed upon AAAS members by their peers. This is the second consecutive year that eight UCSB faculty members have been named AAAS Fellows. ‘UCSB Reads’ Picks ‘Moby-Duck’ UCSB Reads, the annual winter quarter event that engages the campus and the Santa Barbara community in conversations about a key topic while reading the same book, has selected Donovan Hohn’s “Moby-Duck: The True Story of 28,800 Bath Toys Lost at Sea and of the Beachcombers, Oceanographers, Environmentalists and Fools, Including the Author, Who Went in Search of Them” for this year’s program. The theme for 2012 is “Making an Impact. What’s Yours?” Beginning at 11:30 a.m. on Thursday, January 12, the UCSB Library will distribute 2,500 free copies of the book to registered UCSB students. The book will also be available at the UCSB Bookstore. UC Santa Barbara’s NCEAS: A Model for Enhancing Scientific Understanding In a new study published in the journal Bioscience, Stephanie Hampton, deputy director of UC Santa Barbara’s National Center for Ecological Analysis and Synthesis, and her colleague, ecologist John N. Parker, examine the history of scientific synthesis and provide some insight into the importance of the research undertaken at NCEAS. They also explain the factors that have led to the many successful working groups at NCEAS, including face-to-face, collaborative interaction between scientists from multiple institutions. Frank Davis, pictured at left, is director of NCEAS. Advances in Neuroscience and Vision Research Thanks to a new study of the retina, scientists at UCSB have developed a greater understanding of how the nervous system becomes wired during early development. The research team examined the connectivity of nerve cells, called neurons, in mice. The published findings reflect the expansion of developmental neurobiology and vision research at UCSB, according to senior author Ben Reese, professor in UCSB’s Neuroscience Research Institute and the Department of Psychological & Brain Sciences. Scientist Contributes to Discovery of Fastest-Rotating Massive Star Ever Recorded  An international team of scientists has found the fastest-rotating massive star ever recorded. The star spins around its axis at the speed of 600 kilometers per second at the equator, a rotational velocity so high that the star is nearly tearing apart due to centrifugal forces. This confirms a prediction put forward by astrophysicist Matteo Cantiello, a postdoctoral fellow with UC Santa Barbara’s Kavli Institute for Theoretical Physics, who contributed to the discovery. New Reading of Hieroglyphic Verb Alters Understanding of Maya Ritual Texts In his new book, “Tying Headbands or Venus Appearing: New Translations of k’al, the Dresden Codex Venus Pages and Classic Period Royal ‘Binding’ Rituals” (Archaeopress, 2011), Gerardo Aldana presents a new interpretation of a Maya hieroglyphic verb, and revises the understanding of the Dresden Codex, one of the longest-studied texts in Maya archaeology. Aldana, associate professor of Chicana and Chicano Studies, shows that “k’al,” the main verb referring to Venus events in the Dresden Codex, has been misread. He argues that the verb refers to an “enclosing” of time and space, such as that found throughout the postclassic Mesoamerican ritual activity. Study of Flower Petals Shows Evolution at the Cellular Level A new study of flower petals shows evolution in action, and contradicts more that 60 years of scientific thought. The findings are reported by Scott A. Hodges, professor in the Department of Ecology, Evolution, and Marine Biology at UCSB, and a research team from Harvard University. Columbine flowers, known as Aquilegia, evolved several lengths of petal spurs that match the tongue lengths of their pollinators. The research team discovered that longer spurs result from the lengthening of cells in one direction, called anisotropy, and not from an increased number of cells. ‘Fishy Lawnmowers’ Help Save Pacific Corals Fish may help to save corals, according to a team of researchers led by UCSB scientists. They discovered that the health of coral reefs in the South Pacific island of Moorea, in French Polynesia, may be due to protection by parrotfish and surgeonfish that eat algae, along with the protection of reefs that shelter juvenile fish. The reefs surrounding Moorea experienced large losses of live coral in the past –– most recently in the early 1980’s –– and have returned each time to a system dominated by healthy, live corals. The scientists found that the biomass of herbivores on the reef –– fish and other animals that eat plants like algae –– increased dramatically following the loss of live coral. UCSB Psychology Professors Study Gene-Culture Interaction Heejung Kim and David Sherman, associate professors in the Department of Psychological and Brain Sciences, have provided a new twist on the old adage that people are products of both nature and nurture. The researchers are studying how genotypes (nature) can express themselves differently as a function of culture (nurture). Using the oxytocin receptor polymorphism, Kim and Sherman have demonstrated that individuals can have the same gene, but manifest it differently, depending on their respective cultural experiences. The study involved Korean and American participants. Scientist to Blog From Antarctica As He Studies TransAntarctic Mountains Thanks to John Cottle, people who enjoy reading about science online are about to get a feel for what research is like in Antarctica, as it’s happening. Cottle, an assistant professor of earth science, spends several months each year in the mountains of Asia and Antarctica. On November 17, he and his research team of UCSB graduate students will leave for a two-month expedition in the TransAntarctic Mountains. Only this time, Cottle and the other researchers will be providing information about their scientific explorations via a blog he’s created just for this trip. NCEAS Study Examines Impact of Climate Change A new study carried out at UC Santa Barbara’s National Center for Ecological Analysis and Synthesis (NCEAS) and published this week in the journal Science examines how fast animal and plant populations would need to move to keep up with recent climate change in the ocean and on land. The answer: at similar rates. Physicists Identify Room Temperature Quantum Bits in Widely Used Semiconductor A discovery by physicists at UCSB may earn silicon carbide –– a semiconductor commonly used by the electronics industry –– a role at the center of a new generation of information technologies designed to exploit quantum physics for tasks such as ultrafast computing and nanoscale sensing. The research team discovered that silicon carbide contains crystal imperfections that can be controlled at a quantum mechanical level. The research group of David Awschalom made the finding. Awschalom is director of UCSB’s Center for Spintronics & Quantum Computation, professor of physics, electrical and computer engineering, and the Peter J. Clarke Director of the California NanoSystems Institute. Ocean Walk Faculty Housing Project Receives LEED Certification The first 22 homes of UC Santa Barbara's Ocean Walk faculty housing project have been awarded Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) for Homes certification by the U.S. Green Building Council. Ocean Walk is the first housing project in the University of California system to receive LEED for Homes certification. Ocean Walk at North Campus is UCSB’s newest planned faculty housing community. It was created under the authority of the Board of Regents to provide affordable housing for faculty. Winner of $1 Million X CHALLENGE Has Roots at UCSB’s Bren School An innovative piece of oil-spill recovery equipment –– evolved from a design created at UC Santa Barbara’s Bren School of Environmental Science & Management in 2006 by Victoria Broje, who was a graduate student working in the research group of Bren professor Arturo Keller –– has won the $1 million top prize in the 2011 Wendy Schmidt Oil Cleanup X CHALLENGE. The winning prototype in the X CHALLENGE was entered by Elastec/American Marine and incorporates technology developed at the Bren School. UCSB Scholar Translates a Dozen Medieval — and Bawdy — French Farces In her new book, “ ‘The Farce of the Fart’ and Other Ribaldries — Twelve Medieval French Plays in Modern English,” Jody Enders a professor of French at UC Santa Barbara, translates a dozen theatrical gems that were the sitcoms of their time. More than a study in literary criticism, for entertainment value and a peek into 15th- and 16th-century life and wit, the book is unequaled. Enders captures the colorful characters, coarse humor, and outrageous plot lines of medieval dramas that have, for the most part, been inaccessible to contemporary readers and theater audiences. Scientists Make Strides Toward Drug Therapy for Inherited Kidney Disease Scientists have discovered that patients with an inherited kidney disease may be helped by a drug that is currently available for other uses. The inherited kidney disease known as autosomal-dominant polycystic kidney disease is characterized by the proliferation of thousands of cysts that eventually debilitate the kidneys. The team of scientists led by Thomas Weimbs, associate professor in the Department of Molecular, Cellular and Developmental Biology, and in the Neuroscience Research Institute, found that the drug Leflunomide is highly effective in reducing kidney cyst growth in a mouse model of the disease. UCSB's New Center for BioEngineering Producing Important Scientific Advances A new center at UCSB has the development of an artificial pancreas in its sights, as well as new biomaterials, new tools for the detection and diagnosis of disease, and new mechanisms for drug delivery –– among other cutting-edge scientific developments. The Center for BioEngineering (CBE) is a locus of research and teaching –– at the interface of biology, engineering, and physical sciences –– that is already producing results that benefit industry and medicine. Research at the CBE is yielding important advances in the understanding, diagnosis, and treatment of common and devastating diseases such as cancer, diabetes, Alzheimer's, and macular degeneration. The CEB was proposed by Frank Doyle (left) and its founding director is Samir Mitragotri. Private Giving Reached Nearly $35 Million in 2010-11, Bringing Campus’s Campaign Total to $623 Million The Campaign for UC Santa Barbara continues to attract strong philanthropic support for the campus, thus far generating more than $623 million for priority projects and initiatives to ensure UCSB’s excellence for future generations. Of that total, UCSB received $34.8 million in gifts and pledges from alumni, parents, and friends during 2010-11 for scholarships, research, and pioneering academic programs. UCSB Chancellor Henry T. Yang expressed his deep appreciation for the ongoing generosity and devotion of alumni and friends. “Your visionary gifts have helped us build a brilliant faculty, recruit and support highly motivated students, and enhance our innovative research and education programs,” he said. “Such generous support is especially heartwarming during this economically challenging time.” Author Demetria Martínez to Receive Luis Leal Literature Award Poet, novelist, and journalist Demetria Martínez is the recipient of UC Santa Barbara’s 2011 Luis Leal Award for Distinction in Chicano/Latino Literature. Martínez is best known for her novel, “Mother Tongue,” which received a Western States Book Award for Fiction. The book focuses on Central American refugees entering the United States during the 1980’s, and the role of the sanctuary movement in providing assistance to people the U.S. government refused to recognize as legitimate political refugees. “Demetria Martínez is a voice of liberation against oppression, whether personal or social,” said Mario T. García, professor of Chicana and Chicano studies and of history at UCSB, and the organizer of the annual Leal Award. Nobel Laureate Honored as Centenary Solvay Chair The International Solvay Institutes have created a special “Solvay Centenary Chair,” which has been granted to David J. Gross, Nobel laureate in physics, for his seminal contributions to particle physics and string theory. Gross holds the Frederick W. Gluck Chair in Theoretical Physics at UCSB and is director of UCSB’s Kavli Institute for Theoretical Physics. Gross will chair the 25th Solvay Conference, “The Theory of The Quantum World,” which is being held this week on the 100th anniversary of the first Solvay Conference on Physics. This first international physics conference, which has gained legendary status, marked a profound rupture between classical physics and quantum physics. International Team Crafts Plan for Feeding the World While Protecting the Planet Christian Balzer, a graduate student in UCSB’s Department of Ecology, Evolution, and Marine Biology, contributed to an international effort to create a plan for environmentally sustainable agriculture in the decades ahead –– in the face of high population growth. “Global food security and environmental sustainability are not at odds –– they can and must go hand-in-hand,” said Balzer. The report, published in the journal Nature, presents a recipe for doubling the world’s food production while reducing environmental impacts of agriculture. UCSB Awarded $15 Million by Dow to Establish Institute for Materials Research and Education The Dow Chemical Company has awarded UC Santa Barbara up to $15 million to establish a collaborative research initiative that will help shape the future of technology in areas that will benefit society. The Dow Materials Institute at UCSB will educate future scientists and engineers and advance the discovery of revolutionary new materials with applications that range from novel polymers to next-generation microelectronics. The pioneering institute will be housed in the Materials Research Laboratory, a National Science Foundation Materials Research Science and Engineering Center that is widely recognized as one of the top materials research facilities in the world. UCSB Ranked No. 35 in World University Rankings UC Santa Barbara has been ranked number 35 in a list of the world’s top 200 universities released today by Times Higher Education, a British periodical. Among U.S. universities, UCSB is ranked number 24. The 2011-12 World University Rankings use a methodology developed with data supplied by Thomson Reuters, and give more weight to hard measures of excellence in all three core elements of a university’s mission –– research, teaching, and knowledge transfer. They include 13 separate performance indicators, across five categories: teaching, research, citation impact, industry income, and international mix. Scientists Reveal How Natural Gas, Temperature Controlled Bacterial Response to Deepwater Horizon Spill In a new study, UC Santa Barbara scientists explain how they used DNA to identify microbes present in the Gulf of Mexico following the Deepwater Horizon oil spill, and how they identified the microbes responsible for consuming the large amount of natural gas present immediately after the spill. They also explain how water temperature played a key role in the way bacteria reacted to the spill. The results of their research are published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. The study was led by David Valentine, a geochemist and professor of earth science at UCSB, and Molly Redmond, a postdoctoral scholar in Valentine's laboratory. The research was supported by the National Science Foundation and the Department of Energy. UCSB to Host First-Ever South Coast Sustainability Summit Sustainability decision makers, officials, and representatives from organizations throughout the Santa Barbara area will gather for the inaugural South Coast Sustainability Summit at UC Santa Barbara on Thursday, Oct. 13. The summit, to be held at UCSB's Loma Paloma Conference Center, will bring together officials and staff members from area municipalities and community organizations to discuss common issues in energy, transportation, waste, and water management. The event runs from 8:30 a.m. to 3 p.m. Prominent Stem Cell Scientist to Relocate to UCSB from Britain Pete Coffey, an internationally prominent researcher working on stem cell biology and the prevention of blindness, will begin work as a full-time researcher at UC Santa Barbara in November. The California Institute for Regenerative Medicine provided a grant to recruit Coffey, who is currently the director of the London Project to Cure Blindness at the University College of London. “Pete Coffey is not only a boon to UCSB, but to the entire state of California,” said Kenneth S. Kosik, co-director of UCSB’s Neuroscience Research Institute. Coffey will direct UCSB's Center for the Study of Macular Degeneration, and will also work with the university's Center for Stem Cell Biology and Engineering. Two Faculty Members Will Receive U.S. Presidential Science Awards President Obama named two faculty members as recipients of the Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers. The award is the highest honor the nation can bestow on a scientist or engineer at the beginning of his or her career. Benjamin Mazin, assistant professor in the Department of Physics, and Sumita Pennathur, assistant professor in the Department of Mechanical Engineering, are among 94 individuals across the country to receive the early career awards which recognize recipients’ exceptional potential for leadership at the frontiers of scientific knowledge, and their commitment to community service, as demonstrated through scientific leadership, education, or community outreach. Professors Receive NSF Grant to Bring Wireless Technology to Rural Africa The city of Macha, located in the southern province of Zambia in sub-Saharan Africa, has a population of roughly 130,000. It also has Internet connectivity, but for only a small group of users –– perhaps 300 in all. With a $1.2 million grant from the National Science Foundation, UC Santa Barbara scholars Elizabeth Belding and Lisa Parks are embarking on a project that will bring the information superhighway to the homes and businesses of everyone in the local community. Researcher Receives Grant to Study Impact of Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill Uta Passow, a researcher in UC Santa Barbara’s Marine Science Institute, spent most of the past year in the Gulf of Mexico analyzing the environmental impact of oil spilled as a result of the Deepwater Horizon disaster in April 2010. Thanks to new funding by the Gulf of Mexico Research Initiative (GRI), her scientific studies will continue for the next three years. The GRI, created in part with funds from British Petroleum, recently announced a $112.5 million award to fund eight research consortia in the Gulf for the next three years. Passow is part of a consortium led by Raymond Highsmith of the University of Mississippi. The team's assignment will be “Ecosystem Impacts of Oil and Gas Inputs in the Gulf of Mexico,” with funding of $22.5 million for three years. Assistant Professor to Receive Prestigious NIH New Innovator Award Songi Han, assistant professor of chemistry and biochemistry at UC Santa Barbara, has been selected to receive a coveted 2011 New Innovator Award from the National Institutes of Health. The award, which carries a $1.5 million grant, will enable Han to take the basic instrumental and methodological development of a novel spectroscopic tool to the next level of complexity and relevance in understanding molecular mechanisms of protein aggregation underlying neurodegenerative diseases, such as Alzheimer’s. Studying their interactions with cell membranes may provide clues to their mechanism and disease effects. Archive of Featured News CAMPUS TOPICS Constitution Day The drafting of the United States Constitution, a four-page document that founded a durable nation more than 200 years ago, is commemorated on Constitution Day, September 17. To learn more about the history and institutions of the United States of America, the University of California has created a Constitution Day home page. WEB SITE Current Campus Construction Impacts UC Santa Barbara is in an unprecedented era of construction and campus renewal. Facilities Management now maintains a web site with the latest information on current campus construction and the impact such projects might have on traffic, parking, etc. WEB SITE Scholarship Fund Memorializes Shark Victim Lucas Ransom A scholarship fund has been established in memory of Lucas Ransom, the UCSB student who tragically lost his life in a shark attack off Surf Beach in northern Santa Barbara County. The fund will seek to assist economically disadvantaged students in engineering and in the sciences. Information on the fund and how to donate to it can be found here. Go here for a press release about the Ransom Scholarship Fund. Clery Act Campus Security Report The University of California, Santa Barbara campus safety report is published annually to provide safety policies, information and statistics to its community and to prospective students and employees. FULL REPORT The Campaign for UC Santa Barbara This is the first comprehensive campaign to raise private funds to ensure UCSB's excellence for future generations. The goal was to raise $500 million, and more than $590 million has already been raised—thanks to UCSB's dedicated volunteer leaders and generous supporters. CAMPAIGN WEB SITE Campus Emergency Preparedness Site UC Santa Barbara takes safety seriously, and takes a proactive approach to emergency planning.  UCSB urges students, parents, faculty and staff to become familiar with the campus response procedures and plans already in place. WEB SITE UCSB's Long Range Development Plan In 1990, the University updated its Long Range Development Plan (LRDP) to plan for our next 20 years. It is now time to review the existing LRDP and revise it to address the University's plans to the year 2025. The LRDP is a planning tool that will shape how the campus will change over the next two decades, including changes in our academic programs and the development of additional campus housing for students, faculty, and staff. WEB SITE Register Now for the UCSB Alert Emergency Notification System UCSB Alert is a new campus tool that will be used in the event of a campus emergency. It enables university officials to contact you during an emergency by sending text messages to your e-mail account, cell phone, or smartphone or other handheld device. UCSB Alert is your connection to real-time updates, instructions on where to go, what to do or what not to do, who to contact and other important information. Register on the UCSB Alert WEB SITE. The UCSB Portrait A pdf document with a wide range of background information about the campus for prospective students and parents. The information is presented in a format similar to that used by many colleges and universities, making it easy to compare important characteristics of our educational program. The portrait also provides many live links to campus Web sites and serves as a gateway to deeper understanding of UC Santa Barbara. Communications from the President A new edition of the Our University newsletter from the UC Office of the President has just been released and is available online. OUR UNIVERSITY Regulations Governing the Campus Conduct of Individuals Not Affiliated With the University The Regents of the University of California have adopted regulations addressing the conduct of persons who are not students, officers, or employees of the University of California when that conduct is a threat to persons or property or constitutes interference with functions or activities of the University. These regulations may not be utilized to impinge upon the lawful exercise of constitutionally protected rights of freedom of speech or assembly, or the constitutionally protected right of personal privacy. The full text of these regulations can be found here in a pdf document. Copyright © The Regents of the University of California, All Rights Reserved. UC Santa Barbara, Santa Barbara, CA 93106 • (805) 893-8000 Site Map • About Our Site • Terms of Use • Web Accessibility • Contact Us