| The 2007-08 Featured News Archive contains
summaries of press releases about prominent news developments
at UCSB from July 2007 to June 2008. The heading of each
item links to the full text of that story. All first appeared
on the
UCSB Featured
News page.
UCSB Awarded $3.2 M. Stem Cell Facility Grant UC Santa Barbara has been awarded $3.2 million from the California Institute for Regenerative Medicine (CIRM) in support of the development of a state-of-the-art facility in the newly established Center for Stem Cell Biology and Engineering at UCSB. The renovation project has a total budget of $6.3 million. The long-term goal of the center is the development of stem cell-based therapeutics for a range of human diseases.
5/7/08
UCSB
Faculty Members Elected to National Academy of Sciences Two
prominent UC Santa Barbara professors have been
elected to the National Academy of Sciences, as
has a leading stem cell researcher who is an adjunct
professor at UCSB. They are among a total of 72
new members elected to the prestigious academy today
in recognition of their distinguished and continuing
achievements in original research. Evelyn Hu, a
professor of electrical and computer engineering
and of materials, and William Murdoch, a professor
of biology, ecology, evolution, and marine biology,
were among those elected, as was James Thomson,
a renowned University of Wisconsin stem cell researcher
who also holds a UCSB appointment as adjunct professor
of molecular, cellular, and developmental biology.
4/29/08
Scientists Try to Predict Infectious Disease Crossovers Between Wild Animals and Humans (PDF) Many of the most deadly infectious diseases affecting humans are caused by pathogens that originate among wild animals and then cross species. A study published in Proceedings of the Royal Society B examines how these "host shifts" occur, and provides a critical first step in predicting when and where future host shifts may take place. Jonathan Davies, a scientist at UCSB's National Center for Ecological Analysis and Synthesis, is the lead author of the study.
4/29/08
Institute to Play Key Role in Major Diabetes Research Program UC Santa Barbara's Institute for Collaborative Biotechnologies has joined a research consortium with Pfizer, three other major research universities––Caltech, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and the University of Massachusetts––and Entelos, a physiological modeling company, to seek out new targets for drugs to treat diabetes. Pfizer is funding the three-year, $14 million Insulin Resistance Pathway (IRP) Project to look at insulin signaling in adipose (fat) cells to increase understanding of diabetes and obesity, inextricably linked conditions that affect 7 percent of the US population.
4/28/08
Historian Examines Citizen-Scientists and the Dawn of the Space Age When
the Soviets launched the satellite Sputnik in 1957, thousands of people around
the world seized the opportunity to become citizen-scientists and take an active
part in the dawning space age. Known as Moonwatchers, these amateur astronomers
provided professionals with critical information about the satellite's movement.
In a new book, "Keep Watching the Skies!: The Story of Operation Moonwatch and
the Dawn of the Space Age," W. Patrick McCray, a professor of history, tells
the story of this network of pioneers who participated in what is perhaps the
greatest science endeavor of the 20th century. 4/22/08
UCSB
Adopts Comprehensive Sustainability Plan UC
Santa Barbara has adopted a comprehensive Campus
Sustainability Plan designed to make significant
contributions to energy conservation, resource management,
and environmental awareness as well as to education
and research on the UCSB campus and beyond. Chancellor
Henry Yang, who approved the plan, said it "will
serve as both the long-term vision and a blueprint
for our campus's sustainability efforts."
4/21/08
New Books by Faculty Members Examine Aspects of Art and Life in Asia Four faculty members have recently published new books that examine various aspects of art and life in Asia. The books include a memoir focused on the period of Chiang-Kai-shek's Nationalist regime, a social history of artisans in early China, a study of how American literature is enmeshed with that of China and other Asian countries, and the translation of a novel by Chinese author Wang Anyi.
4/2/08
U.S. News Ranks UCSB Graduate Programs in Physics, Engineering Among Best In its annual ranking of leading graduate and professional programs at American universities, U.S. News & World Report magazine has rated UC Santa Barbara's Ph.D. program in physics among the top 10 in the nation while the graduate program of UCSB's College of Engineering is ranked in the top 20.
4/8/08
Scientists Discover 10 New Planets Outside Solar System An international team of astronomers has found 10 new “extra solar” planets, planets that orbit stars other than our sun. The team used a system of robotic cameras that yield a great deal of information about these other worlds, some of which are quite exotic. The system is expected to revolutionize scientific understanding of how planets form.
4/1/08
Issues of Media Ownership is the Subject of New Book A new book edited by Ronald Rice, the Arthur N. Rupe Professor of the social effects of mass communication and co-director of UCSB's Carsey-Wolf Center for Film, Television, and New Media, takes an interdisciplinary approach in analyzing the historical, legal, cultural policy, research, professional, oppositional, and ethical perspectives on media ownership.
3/31/08
Hard and Soft Squid Beak Is a Material Engineers Seek To Copy How did nature make the squid's beak super hard and sharp –– allowing it, without harm to its soft body –– to capture its prey? The question has captivated those interested in creating new materials that mimic biological materials. The sharp beak of the Humboldt squid is one of the hardest and stiffest organic materials known. Engineers, biologists, and marine scientists at UCSB have joined forces to discover how the soft, gelatinous squid can operate its knife-like beak without tearing itself to pieces.
3/27/08
UCSB Offers Admission to 23,140 for Fall UC Santa Barbara has offered a place in its fall 2008 entering class to a total of 23,140 high school seniors. The prospective UCSB freshmen were selected from a total of 47,025 applicants the most in UCSB history. The campus expects its fall 2008 entering class to number approximately 4,200. Both the academic qualifications and the diversity of the class of applicants accepted by UCSB are at record high levels. Average high-school grades and scores on standardized tests are all higher than last year, and half of all admitted students are members of a racial or ethnic minority group, more than ever before.
4/14/08
UCSB Releases Draft Long Range Development Plan The draft Long Range Development Plan (LRDP) that will help UC Santa Barbara plan its future to the year 2025 has been released and is available for public review. The release of the draft follows presentations to 40 area neighborhood, civic and community organizations about UCSB's future plans. The UCSB Vision2025 LRDP will be a companion document to the campus's Strategic Academic Plan. A public hearing on the LRDP will be held Tuesday, April 29, at Embarcadero Hall in Isla Vista.
3/24/08
 A Scholar Looks Back on His Four-Decade Relationship With Japan When the President of the United States becomes physically or mentally ill or incapacitated, his condition impacts not just his immediate family and circle of advisors, but the country as a whole. In her new book, "Presidential Leadership, Illness, and Decision Making," Rose McDermott, a professor of political science, examines the ways in which processes related to aging, physical and psychological illness, and addiction influence a chief executive's decision making.
3/19/08
A Scholar Looks Back on His Four-Decade Relationship With Japan In his new book, "Living Carelessly in Tokyo and Elsewhere: A Memoir," John Nathan, the Takashima Professor of Japanese Cultural Studies, surveys his four-decade relationship with Japan. During that time he became the first American admitted as a regular student to the University of Tokyo, translated the work of celebrated Japanese writers Yukio Mishima and Kenzaburo Oe, and wrote, directed, and produced documentary and feature films.
3/18/08
UCSB Team of Physicists Make Quantum Discovery A team of physicists at UCSB led by David Awschalom has made a leap forward in understanding quantum mechanics that helps resolve a longstanding problem. These results, reported online in Science Express and presented at the American Physical Society's annual meeting, are promising because of the hope for such eventual applications as quantum computing, which could lead to lightning-fast database searches and code-cracking ability.
3/13/08
Physicist David Awschalom Named 2008 Faculty Research Lecturer A
new The UC Santa Barbara faculty has bestowed its highest honor on David Awschalom,
an internationally recognized researcher who is a professor of physics and of
electrical and computer engineering. Awschalom has been named Faculty Research
Lecturer for 2008. In announcing the award, the UCSB Academic Senate said Awschalom "has
made remarkable contributions to our campus in the fields of physics and engineering." Awschalom
is director of the Center for Spintronics and Quantum Computation and associate
director of the California NanoSystems Institute, a collaborative endeavor between
UCSB and UCLA. His fundamental discoveries are opening the door to new opportunities
for research and technology in the emerging fields of semiconductor spintronics
and quantum computation.
3/12/08
New Institute for Energy Efficiency Established A new Institute for Energy Efficiency has been formed at UC Santa Barbara. The institute is under the direction of John Bowers, a professor of electrical and computer engineering, and will involve some 50 faculty members from many disciplines. He said the new institute "will provide a unifying and very synergistic environment" for as much as $10 million a year in research now being conducted in various departments and centers. 2/28/08
Endowed Chair Established for UCSB Dean of Social Sciences UCSB has received a $500,000 gift from Sara Miller
McCune and SAGE Publications Inc., the company she founded, to establish an
endowed chair for the dean of social sciences in the College of Letters and
Science. The recent gift from McCune, the publisher and founder of SAGE, will
support the teaching, research, and special activities of Melvin Oliver, a distinguished
UCSB professor of sociology and dean of social sciences. 2/27/08
Mathematician
Wins Sloan Fellowship Paolo Cascini,
an assistant professor of mathematics,
has won a prestigious Sloan Research Fellowship from the Alfred
P. Sloan Foundation. He is one of 118 young scientists, mathematicians,
and economists to be awarded the fellowship this year. Cascini
won the award for his research in algebraic geometry, in particular
the minimal model program. In the past two decades algebraic
geometry has played a central role in mathematics due to its
many applications in different fields. 2/25/08
U.S. Experiment Retakes the Lead in Race To Find Dark Matter Scientists of the Cryogenic Dark Matter Search experiment have announced that they have regained the lead in the worldwide race to find the particles that make up dark matter. The CDMS experiment, conducted a half-mile underground in a mine in Soudan, Minn., again sets the world's best constraints on the properties of dark matter candidates. Teams searching for dark matter have quadrupled in the past few years and now number 20. UC Santa Barbara is among 16 institutions involved in the CDMS experiment. UCSB emeritus professor David Caldwell, a physicist, was one of the originators of the experiment.
2/25/08
 Alumnus
Gives $500,000 for Fellowships in
Chemistry and Biochemistry UCSB has received a $500,000 gift from alumnus M. Ross Johnson and his wife, Charlotte, to establish an endowed fellowship fund to recruit and support outstanding graduate students in the Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry. The Johnsons established the graduate fellowship to honor his doctoral advisor, UCSB Professor Emeritus Bruce Rickborn (pictured), a renowned organic chemist and a devoted teacher. During Rickborn's 39-year career at UCSB, more than 30 graduate students obtained doctorates under his direction.
2/21/08
Dropout Project Finds Small Number of Schools Produce Big Share of Dropouts The California Dropout Research Project, based at UC Santa Barbara and directed by education professor Russell W. Rumberger, has issued a new report analyzing data on high school dropout rates. It has found that a relatively small group of California schools account for a significant proportion of dropouts.
2/21/08
Sea
Creatures May Be Harbingers of Climate
Change As
oceans warm and become more acidic,
ocean creatures are undergoing severe
stress and entire food webs are
at risk, according to new research
by a UCSB biologist. 2/19/08
Scientists Reveal Global Map of Total Human Impact on Oceans More than 40 percent of the world's oceans are
heavily affected by human activities, and few if any areas remain untouched,
according to the first global-scale study of human influence on marine ecosystems.
By overlaying maps of 17 different activities such as fishing, climate change,
and pollution, the researchers have produced a composite map of the toll that
humans have exacted on the seas.
2/14/08
 Spiny Lobster Focus of Collaborative Research Unique, collaborative ways to manage fisheries are emerging in Southern California. Currently the California spiny lobster (pictured) is being scrutinized as Californians evaluate the first five years of marine reserves in the Channel Islands area. An innovative collaboration has developed between local trap fishermen and scientists at UCSB's Bren School of Environmental Science and Management.
2/7/08
Library Wins National Award for 'UCSB Reads' The UCSB Library has received a prestigious national award from the American Library Association (ALA) recognizing outstanding achievement in library public relations for "UCSB Reads for Earth Day," a 2007 community-wide effort to raise awareness about global environmental issues.
2/7/08
Campus
Awarded $2 Million for Alzheimer's
Research UC
Santa Barbara has been awarded nearly
$2 million by the Larry L. Hillblom
Foundation for innovative research
in Alzheimer's disease. The grant
will support research on the neurofibrillary tangles that,
in addition to amyloid plaque, are a hallmark of the disease.
The research effort will be led by Kenneth Kosik, co-director
of UCSB's Neuroscience Research Institute and Harriman Professor
of molecular, cellular, and developmental biology. The new
research is highly interdisciplinary in its approach, and a
team with a wide range of specialties will carry out the research.
2/5/08
Four Communication Scholars Win National Recognition The The National Communication Association awarded special recognition to four faculty members in the Department of Communication at UC Santa Barbara. The awards were presented at the organization's recent annual convention in Chicago.
1/31/08
UCSB
Receives Record Number of Undergraduate Applications for Fall
2008 UC Santa Barbara has received
a record number of applications for undergraduate admission
to the campus for fall 2008. The total is 7,143 more than last
year— the largest one-year increase the campus has ever
recorded. 1/29/08
 Scientists
Find That Tough Early Life Helps
Fish Develop A
tough early life is a good thing
for a fish, preparing it for the
rigors of life on the reef, report
UCSB biologists. Fish like the bluehead
Wrasse (pictured) that have made
a long, difficult journey are more
equipped to live on the reef as
compared to fish that were spawned
near the reef. Scientists and natural
resources managers are interested
in the data because it helps in
planning marine protected areas.
1/28/08
 Psychologist Wins National Academy of Sciences Award Miguel Eckstein, a professor of psychology who is affiliated with the Vision and Image Understanding Laboratory, has been named one of two winners of the National Academy of Science's $50,000 Troland Research Award. He is one of the 12 winners of the academy's top awards for extraordinary achievements in biology, chemistry, solar physics, ecology, mathematics, oceanography, paleontology, social sciences, and psychology.
1/22/08
UCSB
Composer Receives Major Commission Joel
Feigin, a professor of music, has
received a $10,000 commission from
the prestigious Fromm Music Foundation
to compose a concerto for piano
and chamber orchestra for Israeli-American pianist Yael Weiss.
Founded by the late Paul Fromm and located at Harvard University,
the Fromm Foundation has commissioned over 300 new compositions
and their performances, and has sponsored hundreds of new music
concerts and concert series. 1/14/08
 UCSB
Scientist Proposes New Hypothesis for Origin of Life Using the Hubble Space Telescope, UCSB scientists have discovered a never-before-seen optical alignment in space: a pair of glowing rings, one nestled inside the other like a bull's-eye pattern. The phenomenon is called a "double Einstein ring" and is a rare phenomenon that can offer insight into dark matter, dark energy, the nature of distant galaxies, and even the curvature of the universe.
1/10/08
 Chemist Wins Prestigious Plous Award Thuc-Quyen Nguyen, assistant professor in the Department of Chemistry and
Biochemistry, has won UC Santa Barbara's 2007-08 Harold J. Plous Award, one
of the university's two most prestigious faculty honors. The honor is given
annually by UCSB's Academic Senate, on behalf of the faculty, to an
assistant professor from the humanities, social sciences, or natural
sciences, who has shown exceptional achievement in research, teaching, and
service to the university. Nguyen, who joined the faculty in 2004, will have
an opportunity to showcase her research when she delivers the annual Plous
Lecture this spring. The date has not yet been set.
1/08/08
 UCSB
Scientist Proposes New Hypothesis for Origin of Life Methane, a potent greenhouse gas, is emitted in great quantities as bubbles
from seeps on the ocean floor near Santa Barbara (see photo). About half of
these bubbles dissolve into the ocean, but the fate of this dissolved
methane remains uncertain. Researchers at UC Santa Barbara have now
discovered that only one percent of this dissolved methane escapes into the
air good news for the Earth's atmosphere. 12/20/07
New Books Published by Five UCSB Faculty Members Five faculty members at the University of California, Santa Barbara have recently published new books on topics ranging from Buffy the Vampire Slayer to the Japanese Ground Self Defense Force.
12/19/07
Keck Foundation Awards $1.75 Million Grant to UCSB The W. M. Keck Foundation has awarded UC Santa Barbara a $1.75 million grant
to support a pioneering multidisciplinary research initiative to understand
the motion of proteins, the molecular machines that enable life.
12/10/07
Thoreau Edition at UCSB Publishes 15th Volume The Writings of Henry D. Thoreau, a projected 30-volume series of the work of the 19th-century American naturalist and social philosopher, has reached the halfway mark with the publication of its most recent volume. The Thoreau Edition, which has been headquartered at several universities across the country since its inception in 1966, is now based at the University of California, Santa Barbara. 12/5/07
 UCSB
Scientist Proposes New Hypothesis for Origin of Life Life
may have begun in the protected spaces inside of
layers of the mineral mica, in ancient oceans, according
to a new hypothesis by a UCSB research scientist.
The hypothesis proposes that the narrow confined
spaces between the thin layers of mica could have
provided exactly the right conditions for the rise
of the first biomolecules-effectively creating cells
without membranes. 12/4/07
UCSB
Awards Environmental Science Fellowships Twenty
doctoral students at UC Santa Barbara have been
awarded fellowships designed to help them identify
and begin to solve environmental problems. The
Luce Environmental Science to Solutions Fellowship
Program, supported by The Henry Luce Foundation,
is designed to educate Ph.D. students on the
full scope of environmental issues, from the
identification of important environmental problems
to the implementation of solutions. 12/3/07
Endowed
Chair in Jewish Studies Established UC
Santa Barbara has received a $1 million gift from
Marsha and Jay Glazer to establish an endowed chair
in Jewish Studies and help launch a major new educational
initiative in the interdisciplinary field. 12/3/07
UCSB Among So. California Institutions to Collaborate on Stem Cell Research Research institutions across Southern California have joined forces to advance stem cell research by establishing the Southern California Stem Cell Scientific Collaboration (SC3). Members of the collaboration include UC Santa Barbara, the University of Southern California (USC), Childrens Hospital Los Angeles, City of Hope, the California Institute of Technology, and the House Ear Institute. 11/28/07
UCSB
Physicist Awarded Distinguished Professorship UCSB
Physicist Awarded Distinguished Professorship Daniel
Hone, a professor emeritus of physics at the UC Santa
Barbara, has been awarded the prestigious Edward
A. Dickson Emeriti Professorship for 2007-08. A condensed
matter theorist, Hone currently serves as the director
of outreach and education at UCSB's Kavli Institute
for Theoretical Physics. Previously, he has served
as KITP's deputy director, acting and associate dean
in the College of Letters and Science, and chair
of the UCSB physics department. 11/27/07
UCSB Children's Education Program Receives Prestigious Governor's Award Kids in Nature, an innovative children's education program at UC Santa Barbara, is one of two recipients of the prestigious Governor's Environmental and Economic Leadership Award in the category of Children's Environmental Education. A highly regarded program of UCSB's Cheadle Center for Biodiversity and Ecological Restoration and the Sedgwick Reserve, Kids in Nature is designed to enrich the learning experiences of underrepresented and underserved youth in the community. 11/20/07
 National Program in Health Games Research To Be Based at UC Santa Barbara The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation has announced the selection of UC Santa
Barbara as the home for a new $8.25-million national research program to
examine how interactive games can be used to improve health. The Health
Games Research program will make grants to support outstanding research at
institutions and organizations across the country as well as conduct
studies, disseminate research findings, and work to bring new knowledge of
the subject to a much broader audience. The project will be directed by Debra Lieberman, a communication researcher
at UCSB's Institute for Social, Behavioral, and Economic Research, where the
program will be based.
11/13/07
 Kemmerer Named to Leadership Chair in Computer Science Richard Kemmerer, a renowned professor of computer science at UCSB, is the
first scholar appointed to the Leadership Endowed Chair in Computer Science.
The Leadership Chair was established in 2006 with a $500,000 gift from an
anonymous donor. A principal investigator on many government and private
sector projects, Kemmerer leads the Computer Security Group at UCSB. "Dick
Kemmerer is one of the most innovative, productive people in the entire
field of computer security," said Matthew Tirrell, dean of the College of
Engineering. 11/8/07
National
Survey Explores Race and Gender in 21st Century Politics A
team of political scientists from UC Santa Barbara
and three other universities has completed a groundbreaking
survey that explores how race and gender is changing
the political landscape of the United States. The
Gender and Multicultural Leadership Project is, to date, the most
comprehensive multiracial, multi-office national survey of its kind. 11/7/07
 Geographer Recognized for Advancing the Discipline Michael F. Goodchild, a professor of geography, has been awarded the
prestigious Prix Vautrin Lud. Named for the 16th-century French mapmaker who
was the first to label the New World as "America," the award recognizes a
scientist who has significantly advanced the field of geography. It was
recently presented to Goodchild at the annual International Festival of
Geography in St-Dié-des-Vosges, where Vautrin Lud was born. 11/6/07
Species
Extinction Could Reduce Productivity of Plants An
international team of scientists that includes Bradley
Cardinale of UCSB has published a new analysis showing
that as plant species around the world go extinct,
natural habitats become less productive and contain
fewer total plants a situation that could ultimately
compromise important benefits that humans get from
nature. 11/5/07
Five UCSB Faculty Members Named AAAS Fellows Five faculty members have been awarded the distinction of Fellow by the
American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS). Election as a
Fellow is a high honor bestowed upon AAAS members by their peers. 10/25/07
Packard Fellowship Awarded to UCSB Physicist Tommaso Treu, an assistant professor of physics, has been awarded a
prestigious Packard Foundation Fellowship for Science and Engineering. 10/24/07
UCSB Affiliates Award $66,313 in Scholarships The UCSB Affiliates awarded a total of $66,313 in scholarships and
fellowships to 28 graduate and undergraduate students in a special ceremony
at the Mosher Alumni House. 10/23/07
Math Professor Wins National Science Foundation Career Award Carlos Garcia-Cervera, an assistant professor of mathematics, has been
awarded a National Science Foundation CAREER award. He is the sixth UCSB
faculty member to receive the award this year, and this is the first CAREER
award to a faculty member in UCSB's Department of Mathematics. 10/23/07
Scholar Honored for Service to the Social Sciences The Inter-University Consortium for Political and Social Research (ICPSR)
has honored M. Kent Jennings, professor of political science at UCSB, with
the Warren E. Miller Award for Meritorious Service to the Social Sciences. 10/22/07
Research Funding From External Sources Reaches Record Level Research support from external sources reached a record level at UC Santa
Barbara during the last fiscal year, when a total of $176 million was
received from federal and state agencies, corporations, and foundations, an
increase of 11 percent or $17 million over the previous year. 10/22/07
 UCSB Researchers Discover The Dawn of Animal Vision By peering deep into evolutionary history, scientists at UC Santa Barbara
have discovered the origins of photosensitivity in animals. The scientists
studied the aquatic animal Hydra, a member of Cnidaria, animals that have
existed for hundreds of millions of years. The research establishes a time
frame for the evolution of light sensitivity in animals, placing it at
roughly 600 million years ago.10/16/07
University Art Museum Wins Grants for Architecture Collection The University Art Museum has received grants of $250,000 from the Getty
Foundation and $150,000 from the Institute of Museum and Library Services to
begin the process of cataloging and digitizing its vast Architecture and
Design Collection.10/16/07
UCSB Scholars Aided Nobel Peace Prize Work Three members of the UCSB community were involved in research and writing
for the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC),
which shares the 2007 Peace Prize with former U.S. Vice President Al Gore. 10/16/07
Chair Established for Stem Cell Project UC Santa Barbara has received a $3 million gift from William K. Bowes, Jr.
to establish an endowed chair for the director of the campus's planned
Center for Stem Cell Biology and Engineering. The professorship will be
named in memory of Bowes's mother, Ruth Garland, a distinguished physician
who was one of the first women to graduate from the Stanford School of
Medicine, where she later taught. Garland was born in Santa Barbara and
raised in Ojai. 10/11/07
Professor Studies Depictions of Asian American Women in Film and Theater In her new book "The Hypersexuality of Race: Performing Asian American Women
on Screen and Scene" (Duke University Press, 2007), Celine Shimizu, an
associate professor of film and video in the Department of Asian American
Studies, proposes a more nuanced approach to the mysterious mix of pleasure,
pain, and power in performances of sexuality in film and theater. Examining
the most popular articulations of Asian American women as hypersexual beings
in Western cinema, she suggests that these images may actually represent
women taking charge of their own sexuality as actors, producers, critics,
and viewers. 10/3/07
 UCSB to Lead MacArthur Foundation Project on Neuroscience and the Law The MacArthur Foundation has announced a $10 million grant to establish a
new national program on the law and neuroscience that will be based at UC
Santa Barbara and involve two-dozen leading universities across the country.
The effort will seek to integrate new developments in neuroscience into the
U.S. legal system. Former Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O'Connor is the
honorary chair of the Law and Neuroscience Project, which will be directed
by Michael S. Gazzaniga (pictured), a professor of psychology at UCSB and
director of the SAGE Center for the Study of the Mind. 10/9/07
 Scientists Identify and 'Weigh' Distant, Tiny Galaxy A tiny galaxy, nearly halfway across the universe and the smallest in size
and
mass known to exist at that distance, has been identified by an
international team of scientists led by two from UCSB. This galaxy is about
half the size, and approximately one-tenth the "weight" of the smallest
distant galaxies typically observed, and it is 100 times lighter than our
own Milky Way.
10/4/07
 Researchers Discover New Tropical Kelp Forests Researchers from UCSB's Marine Science Institute and San Jose State University have discovered forests of a species of kelp previously thought endangered or extinct in deep waters near the Galapagos Islands. The discovery has important implications for biodiversity and the resilience of tropical marine systems to climate change.
9/26/07
Fulbright Fellowships Go to 2 on Faculty and 10 Visiting Scholars Two faculty members have been awarded Fulbright Fellowships for the 2007-08
academic year. Douglas H. Daniels, a professor of history and black studies,
will teach and study in Japan, while Michael V. McGinnis, a lecturer at the
Bren School of Environmental Science and Management, will teach in
Montenegro. In addition, the Fulbright Scholar Program has awarded grants to
10 professors from seven countries to conduct research at UCSB this year.
9/26/07
Private Support in 2006-07 Reached $70.8 Million The Campaign for UC Santa Barbara, the campus's first comprehensive private fund-raising effort, has generated more than $430 million toward a goal of $500 million for priority projects and initiatives across the academic disciplines. Of that total, UCSB alumni and friends contributed $70.8 million in gifts and pledges during the 2006-07 fiscal year for student support, teaching, research, and capital projects—an increase of nearly 30 percent over the previous year.
9/25/07
National
Academy Highlights UCSB Study on Visual Attention A
team of UCSB researchers has determined that
the visual attention system our hunter-gather
ancestors relied on to protect themselves from
wild animals still exists in the human brain. 9/24/07
Bren School Given $1 Million by Deckers Outdoor Corporation for Fellowships, Program Support The Donald Bren School of Environmental Science and Management at UC Santa Barbara has received two gifts totaling more than $1 million from Deckers Outdoor Corporation, of Goleta, and an anonymous alumnus to establish endowments for graduate fellowships and program support.
9/10/07
California High School Dropouts Cost State $46.4 Billion Annually California's high school dropouts cost state taxpayers approximately $46.4 billion annually, according to a recent study by the California Dropout Research Project at the UC Linguistic Minority Research Institute located at UCSB. In addition, the authors estimate that the economic benefit from effective dropout intervention programs would be $392,000 per high school graduate. 8/22/07
Students in Film and Media Studies Produce Videos for Harley-Davidson An innovative pilot course offered through a partnership between the Harley-Davidson Motor Company and the Department of Film and Media Studies has resulted in a collection of 10 short videos and a $5,000 prize for two UCSB students. 7/30/07
Winner Named in $10,000 Competition for Play About Science and Technology Playwright Elyse Singer has been awarded first prize in the second annual
Scientists, Technologists, and Artists Generating Exploration (STAGE)
competition conducted by the Professional Artists Lab and the California
NanoSystems Institute (CNSI) at UCSB. Nearly 175 plays from around the world
were entered in the competition. Singer will receive $10,000 for her winning
play, "Frequency Hopping." 7/30/07
 Writer
Alejandro Morales to Receive Luis Leal Literature
Award Alejandro Morales,
a novelist and professor of Chicano/Latino studies
at the University of California, Irvine, is the recipient
of this year's Luis Leal Award for Distinction in
Chicano/Latino Literature. The award is presented
annually by UC Santa Barbara, Santa Barbara City
College, and the Santa Barbara Book Council. The
author of seven books, Morales is considered one
of the country's premier Latino writers of fiction.
7/26/07
 Heeger-Led Team Creates New 'Tandem' Solar Energy Cells Using plastics to harvest the energy of the sun just got a significant boost in efficiency thanks to a discovery made at UCSB's Center for Polymers and Organic Solids. Nobel laureate Alan Heeger and a team of scientists created "tandem" cells made up of two multilayered parts that work together to gather a wider range of the spectrum of solar radiation - at both shorter and longer wavelengths.
7/12/07
Researcher Examines the Effectiveness of Tailored Health Messages In an article published in the Journal of Experimental Social Psychology,
David K. Sherman, assistant professor of psychology, and his colleagues
examine how messages regarding health-related behaviors—such as dental
flossing—can be crafted so that people receiving them are more likely to pay
attention and respond favorably. 7/11/07
Scholars Explore the Concept of Gender in Africa For scholars in Africa, the concept of gender as a discursive term and an
area of research within the field of African Studies is relatively new,
according to two UCSB professors. Working with a colleague from the
University of Ghana, they have compiled a collection of essays that examine
how the topic of gender has taken root in Africa and how it has impacted the
daily lives of the people who live there. 7/10/07
Communication Group Honors UCSB Scholars Four faculty members in the Department of Communication have received awards from the prestigious International Communication Association. 7/5/07
International Scholars at UCSB to Examine Religious Pluralism Eighteen scholars from around the world have gathered at UCSB this summer to
study the religious diversity of the United States and to learn first hand
how people with widely differing beliefs can coexist. 7/5/07
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