CAMPUS NOTES

Backpacks for More Kids
More than 275 backpacks with supplies were prepared this fall for elementary school children by volunteers organized by Associated Students Community Affairs Board and the Professional Women’s Association of UCSB. Ranging from Oxnard to Santa Maria, five schools and four youth agencies placed the gifts with the most needy. “Last year we distributed 200 backpacks,” said James To, CAB’s associate director. “We far exceeded what I expected this year.”

Theoretical physicist
David J. Gross, director of the Kavli Institute for Theoretical Physics, will be honored next month in Paris with the Grande Medaille d’Or, France’s highest scientific honor, for his contributions to understanding fundamental physical reality.

Song-I Han, assistant professor of chemistry and biochemistry, has received an unrestricted $50,000 research grant as part of her New Faculty Award from the Camille and Henry Dreyfus Foundation. She was one of nine selected in a nationwide competition among nominees in chemistry and chemical engineering.

Cynthia Hudley, professor of education and Graduate Division acting associate dean, has recently been named for her research in youth violence prevention as one of 12 recipients of an award from the National Institutes of Health’s Substance Abuse and Mental Health Administration.

Kent Jennings, professor of political science, has received the infrequently bestowed Warren E. Miller Prize from the American Political Science Association’s Section on Elections, Public Opinion, and Voting Behavior. It is for career achievement and service to the profession.

Leonard Tourney, lecturer in the Writing Program, has published the novel “Time’s Fool” (Forge, 2004), which uses William Shakespeare to narrate the tale of his own victimization in a plot of murder and attempted blackmail.

Tamotsu “Tom” Shibutani, professor emeritus of sociology, died on Aug. 8 at his home in Santa Barbara from complications due to Alzheimer’s Disease. The Stockton, Calif.-native was 83. He and his then-wife, Tomi, were interned at Tule Lake in 1942; then he was drafted into the U.S. Army, serving as an infantryman, intelligence officer, and interpreter in the war crimes trials in Yokohama, Japan. He was a faculty member at the University of Chicago and UC Berkeley before starting his UCSB career in 1965. Five of his six books were written here before he retired in 1991. He is survived by Sandra Uyeunten, his third wife, and three stepchildren.