UC Santa Barbara Public Affairs and Communications

The Featured News Archive contains summaries of press releases about prominent news developments at UCSB. The heading of each item links to the full text of that story. All first appeared on the UCSB Featured News and Campus Topics page.

Library Receives Grant to Catalog Rare Recording Collections With a grant of nearly $240,000 from the Council on Library and Information Resources (CLIR), David Seubert, acting director of the UCSB Library's Department of Special Collections, is overseeing the process of cataloging the roughly 18,000 discs from the Edouard Pecourt and Bruce Bastin holdings, which comprise about 10 percent of the library's sound recording collection. Also to be cataloged are smaller groups, such as the Roberto Eyzaguirre set of Peruvian 78-rpms. The recordings are from Argentina, Brazil, Cuba, France, Mexico, Peru, Portugal, and Spain, and date from 1900 to 1960. 2/19/13

Faculty Member Awarded Sloan Research Fellowship David Weld, an assistant professor of physics at UC Santa Barbara, is among this year's winners of Sloan Research Fellowships from the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation. He is one of 126 fellowship winners announced Thursday, Feb. 14, 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. In the last eight years, Sloan Fellowships have been awarded to 16 UCSB faculty members. 2/15/13

Vaporizing Asteroids: A Reality? On the eve of a recent Earth fly-by courtesy of the asteroid known as 2012 DA14, physics professor Philip M. Lubin and a Cal Poly researcher unveiled their proposal for a system that could eliminate a threat of this size half as large as a football field, with energy equal to a large hydrogen bomb in an hour. The same system could destroy asteroids 10 times larger than 2012 DA14 in about a year, with evaporation starting at a distance as far away as the Sun. 2/14/13

Behavioral Therapy for Children With Autism Can Impact Brain Function Using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) for before-and-after analysis, a team of researchers, including UC Santa Barbara graduate student Avery Voos, discovered positive changes in brain activity in children with autism who received a particular type of behavioral therapy. The researchers used fMRI as the tool for measuring the impact of Pivotal Response Treatment (PRT) — therapy pioneered at UCSB by Lynn Koegel and Robert Koegel, directors of the Koegel Autism Center — on both lower- and higher-functioning children with autism receiving PRT for the first time. fMRI allows researchers to see what areas of the brain are active while processing certain stimuli — in this case human motion. Comparing pre- and post-therapy data from the fMRI scans of their 5-year-old subjects, the researchers saw marked — and remarkable — changes in how the children were processing the stimuli. 2/14/13

Study of Cocaine Addiction Reveals Targets for Treatment Scientists at UC Santa Barbara are researching cocaine addiction, part of a widespread problem, which, along with other addictions, costs billions of dollars in damage to individuals, families, and society. Laboratory studies at UCSB, led by Karen Szumlinski, a professor in the Department of Psychological & Brain Sciences, have revealed that the diminished brain function and learning impairment that result from cocaine addiction can be treated — and that learning can be restored. 2/12/13

UC Santa Barbara Celebrates UCSB, UC Natural Reserve Systems Shorelines, woodlands, streams, and deserts were the stars, as UC Santa Barbara's natural reserves were highlighted at the inaugural Natural Reserve System Day. The full day of presentations and poster sessions was sponsored by the Bren School of Environmental Science & Management, and featured speakers intimate with the thousands of acres that serve as outdoor classrooms and laboratories. "We're here to serve California. The main goals are to enhance teaching, research and public service of our natural lands, to support the economy and the ecosystem of the State of California by doing this work at these sites," said Patricia Holden, director of the UCSB Natural Reserve System (NRS) and a Bren School professor. 2/12/13

Migrant Children and Mental Health In an article published online by JAMA Pediatrics, demographer and migration scholar Elizabeth G. Kennedy, a doctoral candidate in geography at UCSB and San Diego State University, argues that an apparent dearth in mental health services for migrant youth is exacerbating existing problems and creating new ones — for the kids and for the country at large. Sometimes referred to as "the lost boys and girls of the Americas," the numbers of so-called "unaccompanied alien children" are growing, with nearly 14,000 arriving in 2012 alone. Studies have shown that many are not receiving the care to which they're entitled. Making a case for the benefits of early intervention, Kennedy argues that mental health services should be given greater priority to prevent a potential trickle-down effect with major implications. 2/11/13

Researcher Thanks Academy Awards 'For This Great Honor' Theodore Kim, an assistant professor of computer science at UCSB's Media Arts and Technology program, walked the red carpet at the Beverly Hills Hotel on Saturday night, when he picked up his Academy Award for Technical Achievement. Taking to the stage to accept his Oscar — a first for him and UCSB — Kim thanked the campus and its deans for their steadfast support. 2/11/13

'Competition Aversion' Does Not Keep Women Out of the Running for Top Jobs Using a short-distance race as their data source, Rodney J. Garratt and Catherine Weinberger, economists at UC Santa Barbara, are exploring some of the reasons why women comprise a mere 4 percent of the chief executive officer positions at Fortune 500 companies. Their findings appear in the current issue of the journal Economic Inquiry. Participants in Santa Barbara's State Street Mile self-select their placement in individual categories, and the researchers noted that the men's elite group often included runners who some who did not perform at the suggested elite standard pace. That wasn't the case, however, with the women's elite group. Far fewer women ran in the elite race, and none ran slower than the suggested elite standard time. If their work can be extrapolated from this competitive setting to the real labor market, the researchers say, then it suggests that there are other reasons for the underrepresentation of women in CEO positions. 2/7/13

Professor Among Winners in Competition for Audacious Ideas in Vision Research A research idea by Dennis Clegg, co-director of UC Santa Barbara's Center for Stem Cell Biology and Engineering, is one of 10 winning submissions from a pool of nearly 500 entries selected by the National Eye Institute for its Audacious Goals challenge. Audacious Goals is a nationwide competition for compelling, one-page ideas to advance vision science. Each winner will receive a $3,000 prize plus travel expenses to attend the NEI Audacious Goals Development Meeting, Feb. 24-26, 2013. The NEI is part of the National Institutes of Health. Clegg's proposal is for Regenerative Therapy for Retinal Disease: to treat degenerative retinal disease with an off-the-shelf tissue graft that could be implanted in the back of the eye to replace cells lost to disease. 2/7/13

Exhibition Commemorates 150th Anniversary of Emancipation Proclamation "Who Freed the Slaves? Emancipation as a Social Movement," a new exhibition in the Department of Special Collections at the UC Santa Barbara Library, highlights the long history behind the Emancipation Proclamation. The exhibition marks the 150th anniversary of this important document, and takes a look at the circumstances under which it was issued, and its impact on those who opposed and supported slavery as an institution. The co-curators are Maria Federova, a doctoral student in American history, and John Majewski, professor of history at UCSB. 2/7/13

UCSB lands in Peace Corps' Top 10 Ascending six spots over last year, UCSB now ranks number 10 among colleges and universities that send the largest number of volunteers to serve in the Peace Corps. The campus has been producing more volunteers every year, moving up in the rankings from number 16 in 2012, number 22 in 2011, and number 28 in 2010. It is the first time in nine years that UCSB has ranked in the top 10, and the 11th straight year that it has appeared in the top 25. The Peace Corps' 2013 Top Colleges rankings were released today. 2/5/13

Professor David Valentine Awarded Leopold Leadership Fellowship UC Santa Barbara geochemist David Valentine has been awarded a Leopold Leadership Fellowship — a prestigious North American program focused on communicating scientific research to a wide audience. Valentine, a professor in the Department of Earth Science, is one of 20 Leopold Leadership fellows for 2013. "I am honored to be chosen as a Leopold Fellow and I look forward to working with the Leopold Program and other fellows to better relay our scientific understanding of complex environmental issues to the public and other interested parties," Valentine said. 1/30/13

Scientists' Research into Friction Provides Insight Into Mechanics of Arthritis A new method for the early detection and monitoring of osteoarthritis may be on its way, thanks to research by UC Santa Barbara scientists from the Department of Chemical Engineering and the Department of Materials. By studying patterns of friction between cartilage pads, the researchers discovered a different type of friction that is more likely to cause wear and damage. Their work suggests ways to detect this friction, and points to new research directions for getting to the root cause of arthritis. The findings are published in the recent issue of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Science. The research team is led by Jacob Israelachvili, professor of chemical engineering and materials science. 1/29/13

'An MBA for Engineers' After a years-long push, the 1998-launched Technology Management Program has been granted academic-unit status, and will begin offering graduate degrees as soon as 2014. The one-year master's track — UCSB's first such professional program — is described as "akin to an MBA for engineers." TMP is the entrepreneurial education initiative housed at the College of Engineering, but open to students of any major, that includes the campus's popular New Venture Competition. 1/28/13

Certificate of Excellence Awarded to UCSB Writing Program The Writing Program at UC Santa Barbara has been honored for its commitment to excellence by the Conference on College Composition and Communication. It is one of only three programs to receive the award this year. Certificates of Excellence are awarded annually to up to 20 writing programs that imaginatively address the needs of students while using best practices and effective assessment. UCSB's Writing Program was recognized for its innovative curriculum; strong support for faculty; outstanding research benefitting the field; and attention to assessment practices, both inside and outside of program courses. "It's a tremendous honor to receive the CCCC Certificate of Excellence," said Linda Adler-Kassner, director of UCSB's Writing Program. 1/24/13

New Gene Sequencer Boosts Research at UCSB New equipment at UC Santa Barbara is helping the university to do what it does best — collaborate across disciplines. In this case, biologists are working with computer scientists to understand the human genome and the effort is expected to develop into a full-fledged genomics center. The campus has acquired a new gene sequencer, the first of its kind on a UC campus, which allows university scientists to perform cutting-edge genetic research. Kenneth S. Kosik, M.D., Harriman Chair in Neuroscience Research, and co-director of the Neuroscience Research Institute, said he expects the new sequencer to open many doors. 1/23/13

Undergraduate Applications for Fall 2013 Set a Record at 76,026 UC Santa Barbara has received 76,026 applications for undergraduate admission for fall 2013. The total is 7,708 more than last year, an increase of 11.3 percent. Of the total, 62,402 applications are from prospective first-year students and 13,637 were submitted by applicants seeking to transfer to UCSB. Of particular note, freshman applications have increased significantly in engineering, biology, economics, and physics. UCSB has target enrollments of 4,300 first-year students and 1,550 transfer students for the fall. The UC system received a record 174,767 applications — 139,758 from prospective freshmen and 35,009 from transfer applicants. 1/18/13

Santa Barbara Children Learn About Nature through UCSB Program Kids in Nature is an innovative, award-winning outreach program developed at UCSB that helps underrepresented and underserved fifth-grade children in Santa Barbara connect with the natural world, engaging them in scientific and ecological experiences. The program includes seven area field trips to learn about nature, including a visit to UCSB's REEF (Research Experience and Education Facility) where touch tanks are filled with sea creatures. The UCSB undergraduate and graduate students who get involved in teaching and mentoring the children are often profoundly influenced by the experience and turn to teaching and environmental education as a result, according to Jennifer Thorsch, program director, who is also the Katherine Esau Director of UCSB's Cheadle Center for Biodiversity and Ecological Restoration. 1/17/13

Financial Aid Office Rolls Out New Edition of Award-Winning FAFSA Online Tutorial The Office of Financial Aid and Scholarships at UC Santa Barbara is once again offering its online tutorial, "7 Easy Steps to the FAFSA: A Student's Guide to the Free Application for Federal Student Aid." The tutorial, which received a Gold Star award from the National Association of Student Financial Aid Administrators, is designed to assist current and prospective students in completing the Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA). The 2013-14 edition can be found at https://www.finaid.ucsb.edu/Media/FAFSASimplification/index.html. 1/15/13

Recalling 'The Knowledge Box on the Hill' Early alumnus Harvey Schechter, class of '47, attended UCSB when it was still located in Santa Barbara's hillside Riviera neighborhood, riding his horse to campus from the Mission Canyon ranch he called home. He first enrolled before the school was incorporated into the University of California, and graduated three years after it became UC Santa Barbara. A lifetime member of the Alumni Association, longtime trustee of the UC Santa Barbara Foundation, and passionate advocate for the campus he fondly recalls as "the knowledge box on the hill," Schechter is also a devoted donor: he and his wife, Hope, will leave 80 percent of their estate to UCSB. 1/15/13

Marine Scientists Receive Multimillion-Dollar NSF Grants to Fund Long-Term Research Two research groups at UC Santa Barbara's Marine Science Institute have received multimillion-dollar, multi-year grants from the National Science Foundation to fund their continuing long-term research into the ecology of kelp forests and coral reefs. The Santa Barbara Coastal Long Term Ecological Research and the Moorea Coral Reef Long Term Ecological Research programs have each received close to $1 million per year for the next four to six years — money that will fund research opportunities, supplies, and salaries for researchers and interns working at the two UCSB-affiliated ecological research sites that are part of the National Science Foundation's Long Term Ecological Research Network. 1/14/13

Oscar for UCSB Assistant Professor Theodore Kim, an assistant professor in the Media Arts and Technology Program, will receive an 2013 Academy Award for Technical Achievement, making him UCSB's first sitting faculty to earn the accolade. Kim shares the honor for work done at Cornell University with three former collaborators. The quartet designed a special effects technique that has been used in dozens of films since its 2008 introduction, including the blockbusters Avatar, Super 8, and The Amazing Spider-Man. The Academy's Technical Achievement Awards recognize a proven record of contributing significant value to the process of making motion pictures. 1/10/13

Low Extinction Rates Made California a Refuge for Diverse Plant Species The remarkable diversity of California's plant life is largely the result of low extinction rates over the past 45 million years, according to a new study conducted at UC Santa Barbara's National Center for Ecological Analysis and Synthesis. Although many new species have evolved in California, the rate at which plant lineages gave rise to new species has not been notably higher in California than elsewhere, according to the study, which is published in the journal Evolution. 1/9/13

'Universal' Personality Traits May Not Be Universal After All Focusing on the Tsimane, an isolated indigenous society in central Bolivia, a team of anthropologists at UC Santa Barbara have published a study that calls into question the five-factor model of personality structure that psychologists have for decades argued is a universal feature of human psychology. Their findings appear in the current issue of the American Psychological Association's Journal of Personality and Social Psychology. Anthropology professor Michael Gurven and postdoctoral scholar Christopher Von Rueden discovered more evidence of a Tsimane “Big Two,” which combine elements of the traditional five factors, and may represent unique aspects of highly social, subsistence societies. 1/8/13

Four Professors Elected Fellows of Ecological Society of America Four professors at UC Santa Barbara have been elected Fellows of the Ecological Society of America for 2012. They are among a total of 121 ecologists named as Fellows in the society's first cohort of Fellows, and one of two new Fellows programs. The UCSB Fellows are Joseph Connell, emeritus professor in the Department of Ecology Evolution and Marine Biology (EEMB); William Murdoch, emeritus professor of EEMB; Jim Reichman, emeritus professor of EEMB and former director of UCSB's National Center for Ecological Analysis and Synthesis; and David Tilman, professor with UCSB's Bren School of Environmental Science & Management. 1/8/13

Scientists Perform Pioneering Research on Type 2 Diabetes UCSB scientists have published groundbreaking results of a study of Type 2 diabetes that point to changes in cellular metabolism as the triggering factor for the disease, rather than genetic predisposition. Type 2 diabetes is a chronic condition in which blood sugar or glucose levels are high. It affects a large and growing segment of the human population, especially among the obese. The team of scientists expects the discovery to become a basis for efforts to prevent and cure this disease. 1/4/13

Jellyfish Experts Show Blooms Are a Consequence of Periodic Global Oscillations A new international study suggests that there is no robust evidence for proof of a global increase in jellyfish over the past two centuries. The study was conducted at UC Santa Barbara's National Center for Ecological Analysis & Synthesis. The results of the study, led by Rob Condon, marine scientist at the Dauphin Island Sea Lab (DISL) in Alabama, appear in the latest issue of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Science. The study's co-authors are experts from the Global Jellyfish Group, a consortium of approximately 30 researchers of gelatinous organisms, climatology, oceanography, time-series analyses, and socioeconomics from around the globe. 1/2/13

UC Santa Barbara Ranked Among Best Values in Public Universities UCSB has moved up three spots in Kiplinger's Personal Finance 2012-13 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 is ranked number 14, a jump from number 17 in last year's rankings. Other UC campuses in the top 25 include UCLA at number 6; UC Berkeley at number 8; UC San Diego at number 10; UC Irvine at number 17; and UC Davis at number 23. “We are very pleased to once again receive national recognition — and confirmation — of the exceptional value of a UC Santa Barbara education,” said Chancellor Henry T. Yang. 1/2/13

Faculty Member Bring Relief to Refugees in Chad The Chad Relief Foundation (CRF), a non-profit organization with roots in UC Santa Barbara's Masters in Global and International Studies program, has completed its 15th humanitarian project in south Chad. Since its founding in 2007 by UCSB faculty member Richard Appelbaum and former faculty member William Felstiner, CRF has improved the lives of tens of thousands of refugees who have crossed the borders from the war-torn Central African Republic. 12/20/12

Researcher to Study Cognition in Wild Birds Corina Logan, a junior research fellow at UC Santa Barbara's SAGE Center for the Study of the Mind, has received a National Geographic Society/Waitt Grant to study the cognitive abilities of the great-tailed grackle. The grant will allow her to set up a field site in Santa Barbara, which is home to about 100 or so birds from this particular species. According to Logan, grackles constitute the second-most innovative group of birds, despite their diminutive brain size. "Grackles have many different ways of finding food, more than would be expected for their relatively small brain size," she explained. "I will investigate how they solve their foraging problems by testing their knowledge of their physical and social world." 12/18/12

'UCSB Reads' Picks 'Moonwalking With Einstein' The UC Santa Barbara Library has chosen "Moonwalking With Einstein — The Art and Science of Remembering Everything" by Joshua Foer as this year's selection for UCSB Reads. In the book, Foer recounts his yearlong odyssey preparing for a USA Memory Championship in Manhattan. An annual winter quarter event, UCSB Reads engages the campus and the Santa Barbara community in conversations about a key topic while reading the same book. A variety of UCSB Reads events, including faculty panels, book discussions, film screenings, and exhibits, will take place throughout the quarter, both on campus and at local public libraries and partner sites. These will culminate in a free public talk by the author on March 4 in UCSB's Campbell Hall. 12/17/12

UCSB Scientist Involved in Environmental Mapping of Great Lakes A comprehensive map three years in the making is telling the story of humans' impact on the Great Lakes, identifying how "environmental stressors" stretching from Minnesota to Ontario are shaping the future of an ecosystem that contains 20 percent of the world's fresh water. Ben Halpern, a researcher with UC Santa Barbara's National Center for Ecological Analysis and Synthesis, was a co-principal investigator in the expansive and detailed effort to map and cross-compare environmental stresses and the ecological services provided by the five lakes. 12/17/12

Physicists Make Strides in Understanding Quantum Entanglement Theoretical physicists at UCSB's Kavli Institute for Theoretical Physics have made important strides in studying a concept in quantum physics called quantum entanglement, in which electron spins are entangled with each other. Using computers to calculate the extreme version of quantum entanglement — how the spin of every electron in certain electronic materials could be entangled with another electron's spin — the research team found a way to predict this characteristic. Future applications of the research are expected to benefit fields such as information technology. 12/14/12

Communication Course Studies Effects of Chronic Uncertainty on Undocumented Immigrants In a fall quarter senior capstone course taught by communication professor Walid Afifi, a group of 15 UC Santa Barbara students had the rare opportunity to study the impact of chronic uncertainty on the wellbeing of undocumented immigrants in the Santa Barbara area. Through a series of focus groups, the students learned firsthand the ways in which members of this particular community deal with the challenges of daily life while the ever-present threat of deportation looms over them. As part of the course — but separate from the focus groups — the students also participated in events designed to serve the undocumented community in Santa Barbara County. 12/13/12

Students, Alumni Bring Music and Mentorship to Local Schools Just above the happy clamor of children's voices, there rises the lilt of a ukulele. The notes float in fits and starts, bubbles of whimsy breaking the surface. A music lesson is under way. Selena Ross, a second-year student at UC Santa Barbara, is sharing her instrument and her expertise with Jasmine, an Isla Vista Elementary pupil and participant in the afterschool program that brought the pair together. Ross is mentoring Jasmine in music — and tutoring her in math — as a volunteer for a campus-based student organization and nonprofit called The MUSIC Club. More commonly known by its acronym than its full name — Musicians United in Supplemental Instruction for Children — the club, which is run by a UCSB alumnus, sends music-inclined college students into elementary schools, providing homework help and instrument instruction for underprivileged youth. 12/12/12

International Physics Awards Joseph Polchinski, a permanent member of UC Santa Barbara's Kavli Institute for Theoretical Physics and professor of physics at UCSB, has been named one of three recipients of the 2013 Physics Frontier Prize from the Milner Foundation. With the award, Polchinski becomes a nominee for the foundation's $3 million Fundamental Physics Prize. Frontier Prize laureates who do not win the Fundamental Physics Prize receive an award of $300,000. Also honored by the Milner Foundation is Joseph Incandela, professor of physics at UCSB and spokesman for the Compact Muon Solenoid (CMS) experiment at CERN's Large Hadron Collider (LHC) in Europe. He will share a special $3 million Fundamental Physics Prize with six scientists who are being recognized for their leadership role in the scientific endeavor that led to the discovery of the new Higgs-like particle by the CMS and ATLAS collaboration at the LHC. 12/11/12

Book by English Scholar to Receive Prestigious MLA Award Stephanie L. Batiste, associate professor of English and Black Studies at UC Santa Barbara, will receive the Modern Language Association's William Sanders Scarborough Prize for her book, "Darkening Mirrors: Imperial Representation in Depression-Era African American Performance" (Duke University Press, 2011). In its citation, the selection committee described Batiste's work as "richly textured and finely nuanced," adding that it "brings intellectual energy to the well-worked period of the 1930's. She persuades that seemingly nation-focused Depression-era texts reference a wider international world... Batiste has produced a theoretically sophisticated and beautifully-written reading of race in United States literary and cultural production." 12/6/12

Invasive Grass Fuels Fire Activity in the West An invasive grass species may be one reason fires are bigger and more frequent in certain regions of the western United States, according to a team of researchers that includes scientists from UC Santa Barbara. The researchers used satellite imagery to identify cheatgrass, a plant species accidentally introduced by settlers in the west during the 1800's, in a disproportionately high number of fires in the Great Basin, a 600,000-square-kilometer arid area of the west that includes large sections of Nevada, as well as parts of Utah, Colorado, Idaho, California, and Oregon. Carla D'Antonio, Schuyler Professor of Environmental Studies at UCSB, is one of the study's co-authors. 12/5/12

Vice Chancellor Contributes to Report That Calls for Renewed Focus on Basic Research to Sustain Innovation While American ingenuity and commercial vibrancy lead the world, the U.S. position could be eclipsed if the country does not renew its focus on basic research to sustain innovation and create jobs, according to a new report to President Obama by the President's Council of Advisors on Science and Technology (PCAST). Michael Witherell, vice chancellor of research at UCSB contributed to the report as a member of the working group charged with creating the report. 12/4/12

Expert in Financial Math Named to Treasury Department Advisory Committee Jean-Pierre Fouque, professor of statistics and applied probability at UC Santa Barbara and director of the campus's Center for Research in Financial Mathematics and Statistics, has been appointed to an advisory committee of the U.S. treasury department's Office of Financial Research. The 30-member committee includes two Nobel laureates in economics; leaders in the business and non-profit sectors; and prominent researchers from major universities and think tanks, including UC Berkeley, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, London School of Economics, Columbia University, and the Brookings Institution. 12/3/12

Scientists Receive $1.6 Million from DOE to Develop New Hybrid Technology Scientists at UCSB have received $1.6 million from DOE's agency ARPA-E to develop the technology to power an electric hybrid vehicle that charges in only a couple of minutes instead of hours. The energy storage device in this new vehicle would conceivably last longer than the life of the car. This idea started in the lab of Galen Stucky, professor in the Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry, and is being developed with UCSB's Institute for Energy Efficiency. David Auston, Institute director, said: "This ARPA-E award will fund research to develop a new electro-chemical energy storage device that combines the best features of batteries and capacitors and thereby can have a transformative impact on hybrid electric vehicles. It will have higher power capacity, faster charging times, and longer lifetime than lithium ion batteries." 11/29/12

Eight Distinguished Faculty Members Named AAAS Fellows Eight UC Santa Barbara faculty members 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 third consecutive year that eight UCSB faculty members have been named AAAS Fellows. "I am honored and delighted to join with our campus community in congratulating our eight faculty colleagues on their election this year as AAAS Fellows," said Chancellor Henry T. Yang. 11/29/12

New Foundation Trustees Seven new trustees have been elected to the board of The UC Santa Barbara Foundation, an advisory committee that links the university to the community and supports the campus in efforts to raise its profile — and raise private funds. As they encourage private gifts and identify and cultivate potential donors, trustees build interest and support for the campus and communicate to the public an informed understanding of UC Santa Barbara's mission. 11/29/12

Computer Science, Education Scholars to Develop Curriculum for Elementary School Students Computer science instruction at the K-12 level is ad-hoc, and often focuses on how to use computer software, rather than how to create or adapt it. With a grant of nearly $600,000 from the National Science Foundation, two professors at UC Santa Barbara, Danielle Harlow and Diana Franklin, hope to change that by developing computer science curricula geared toward children in grades two through six. The researchers will be working with students and teachers at Peabody and McKinley Elementary Schools in Santa Barbara, and with schools in the Rio School District in Oxnard. 11/28/12

How Climate Change Can Affect Forest Ecosystems Small forests of Bishop pine trees on Santa Cruz Island are influenced by the "fog drip" that occurs when low stratus clouds, or fog, cover the forests. Mariah S. Carbone, a postdoctoral fellow with UCSB's National Center for Ecological Analysis and Synthesis, and her colleagues studied the importance of fog in keeping the entire forest ecosystem alive. The study illustrates the importance of clouds in climate change. "When people think about climate change, they're often thinking about temperature and precipitation," said Carbone. "When you think about precipitation, it's rain and snow, depending on where you are. What this study showed is that you can have really important water inputs coming from clouds that influence the carbon cycle." 11/28/12

Evaluating 'Invaluable Trees' Elizabeth Heckendorn Cook, an associate professor of English at UCSB, co-edited and wrote an essay for the new compilation, "Invaluable trees: cultures of nature, 1660–1830," an exploration of how and why trees, forests, and wood mattered in the time period known as "the long eighteenth century." With contributions from historians of literature, art, and science, Cook and her co-editors are aiming to illuminate the relationship between people and trees in an era of "unimaginable dependence" of human beings on wood as a resource. Such examination is reflective of UCSB's Literature & the Environment research cluster, of which Cook is a part. 11/27/12

To Get the Best Look at a Person's Face, Look Just Below the Eyes They say that the eyes are the windows to the soul. However, to get a real idea of what a person is up to, according to UC Santa Barbara researchers Miguel Eckstein and Matt Peterson, the best place to check is right below the eyes. Their findings are published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Science. Using an eye tracker and more than 100 photos of faces and participants, Eckstein, professor of psychology in the Department of Psychological & Brain Sciences, and graduate research assistant Peterson followed the gaze of the experiment's participants to determine where they look in the first crucial moment of identifying a person's identity, gender, and emotional state. 11/26/12

Anthropologist Studies Reciprocity Among Chimpanzees and Bonobos When your neighbor asks to borrow a cup of sugar and you readily comply, is your positive response a function of the give and take that characterize your longstanding relationship? Or does it represent payment — or prepayment — for the cup of sugar you borrowed last week, or may need to borrow a month from now? Adrian Jaeggi, a postdoctoral researcher in anthropology at UC Santa Barbara, and a junior research fellow at the campus's SAGE Center for the Study of the Mind, is studying this question of reciprocity, using chimpanzees and bonobos as his test subjects. His findings appear in the current online issue of the journal Evolution & Human Behavior. 11/20/12

Nanotech Device Mimics Dog's Nose to Detect Explosives Portable, accurate, and highly sensitive devices that sniff out vapors from explosives and other substances could become as commonplace as smoke detectors in public places, thanks to researchers at UC Santa Barbara. Led by professors Carl Meinhart of mechanical engineering and Martin Moskovits of chemistry, researchers have designed a detector that uses microfluidic nanotechnology to mimic the biological mechanism behind canine scent receptors. The device is both highly sensitive to trace amounts of certain vapor molecules, and able to tell a specific substance apart from similar molecules. 11/20/12

EPA Partners With UCSB in Pledge to Reduce Food Waste UC Santa Barbara is one of 59 colleges and universities nationwide participating in the EPA's Food Recovery Challenge as part of America Recycles Day 2012. The Food Recovery Challenge is a voluntary program that aims to limit the 34 million tons of food wasted nationwide annually by reducing unnecessary consumption and increasing donations to charity and composting. By participating, UCSB and the other schools pledge to reduce food waste by 5 percent in one year. UCSB already diverts 90 percent of its food waste. 11/15/12

Dark Matter Detector Installed Underground and Submerged An experiment to look for one of nature's most elusive subatomic particles is finally under water, in a stainless steel tank nearly a mile underground, and a UC Santa Barbara physicist is among the scientists participating in the project. The Large Underground Xenon experiment, nicknamed LUX, will be the most sensitive device yet to look for dark matter. Thought to comprise more than 80 percent of the mass of the universe, dark matter has so far eluded direct detection. UCSB's Harry Nelson — who helped design, build, and fill the sophisticated water tank that now holds the experiment — says LUX could help solve a vexing mystery. "The nature of the dark matter is one of the top three open questions in particle physics," Nelson said. 11/15/12

Communication Department Ranks Second in Faculty Citations In a recent study of the combined number of citations to academic articles written by faculty members, UC Santa Barbara's Department of Communication ranked second out of 60 departments in universities across the country that offer doctoral degrees in communication. Taking data from the Web of Knowledge, an online academic citation service provided by Thomson Reuters, the study, titled "Evaluating doctoral programs in communication based on citations," ranks UCSB second only to University of Pennsylvania's Annenberg School for Communication in the number of citations per publication for each faculty member. 11/14/12

UCSB Brings New Type of Science Education to Local Schools SciTrek, a new type of science education started by Norbert Reich, a professor with UCSB's Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry, is helping to teach local school children the scientific process. The program began with the assistance of MaryAnn Wright, a second grade teacher at La Patera School in Goleta in 2010. Soon Darby Feldwinn, a UCSB lecturer in education and chemistry, began overseeing the program which is now established in 20 area schools. The program is not about teaching children to become scientists, explained Reich, but rather about educating all children in the scientific process. Teams of UCSB students go into the classrooms and help the children with all of the steps involved in creating scientific experiments and developing poster presentations to explain their work. 11/14/12

Private Giving to UCSB Reaches a Record $112 Million in 2011-12 Following its most exceptional year ever in 2011-12, the Campaign for UC Santa Barbara — a long-range fund-raising push with a $1-billion goal — is now nearly three-quarters of the way to its target. Due in part to a single extraordinary $50-million gift, total donations to UCSB reached $112 million in fiscal year 2012. The Campaign for UC Santa Barbara now stands at $745 million, and has attracted close to 60,000 new donors to the university since it first launched. The campaign is led by co-chairs Jeff Henley and Lady Leslie Ridley-Tree, with Academy Award-winning alumnus Michael Douglas serving as honorary chair. 11/13/12

Financial Aid Assistance Offered to Students Affected by Hurricane Sandy The UC Santa Barbara Office of Financial Aid and Scholarships, in partnership with the UC Santa Barbara Alumni Association, is offering special financial aid assistance to students whose families were affected by Hurricane Sandy. Financial Aid Director Michael Miller has written to undergraduate students who live in areas affected by Hurricane Sandy, informing them that he will review financial aid eligibility for families who have suffered a loss. If it is determined that their eligibility has changed as a result of the hurricane, the Office of Financial Aid and Scholarships will provide students with assistance from the special financial emergencies scholarship fund established by the UC Santa Barbara Alumni Association. 11/9/12

UCSB, Santa Barbara Museum of Art Collaborate on Exhibition From humble beginnings in an undergraduate art history seminar at UC Santa Barbara, a small exhibition of 17th-century Chinese paintings blossomed into a collaboration between UCSB and the Santa Barbara Museum of Art that showcases nearly 60 paintings drawn from private and public collections, including the National Palace Museum in Taiwan. "The Artful Recluse: Paintings, Poetry, and Politics in 17th-Century China" features works from a period that spans the late Ming and the early Qing dynasties — one of the great epic eras for Chinese art, and Chinese painting in particular. It is on display at the museum through January 20, after which it will travel to the Asia Society in New York City. 11/7/12

Intertidal Network Receives National Conservation Award Since 1997, the Multi-Agency Rocky Intertidal Network — or MARINe — has been helping scientists and others understand those narrow ecological ribbons where land and sea meet at the coastline. The intertidal shores are home to unique plant and animal communities that have adapted to alternating exposure to water and air. The Department of the Interior has presented a 2012 Partners in Conservation Award to MARINe. Jack Engle, an associate research scientist at UC Santa Barbara's Marine Science Institute and coordinator of the MARINe program, accepted the award during a ceremony in Washington, D.C. 11/7/12

10 UCSB Faculty Members Named Fellows of American Mathematical Society Ten members of UC Santa Barbara's faculty have been named to the inaugural class of Fellows of the American Mathematical Society (AMS). According to the AMS, the distinction recognizes members of the society "who have made outstanding contributions to the creation, exposition, advancement, communication, and utilization of mathematics." There are 1,119 Fellows in the inaugural class from more than 600 institutions. 11/6/12

Feminist Studies Scholar Wins National Book Prize Eileen Boris, Hull Professor and chair of feminist studies at UC Santa Barbara, is the recipient of the 2012 Sara A. Whaley Prize for her book, "Caring for America: Home Health Workers in the Shadow of the Welfare State." Presented by the National Women's Studies Association, the Whaley Prize recognizes outstanding work that addresses women and labor. It is named for Sara A. Whaley, who, in the 1970's, owned Rush Publishing — one of the first publishing companies to focus on feminist studies — and served as editor of its scholarly journal Women's Studies Abstracts. Co-authored with Jennifer Klein, a professor of history at Yale University, "Caring for America" presents a narrative history of home health care — highlighting issues related to social policy — that covers the period from the Great Depression to present day. 11/6/12

Scientists Report 'New Beginning' in Split-Brain Research UCSB has reported an important discovery in the interdisciplinary study of split-brain research. The findings uncover dynamic changes in brain coordination patterns between left and right hemispheres. The new study shows that healthy test subjects respond less accurately when information is shown only to the right brain. The findings rely on extremely sensitive neuroscience equipment and analysis techniques from network science, a fast-growing field that draws on insights from sociology, mathematics, and physics to understand complex systems composed of many interacting parts. 11/1/12

Scientists Learn How to Unlock the Destiny of a Cell Scientists have discovered that breaking a biological signaling system in an embryo allows them to change the destiny of a cell. The findings could lead to new ways of making replacement organs. The discovery was made in the laboratory of Joel H. Rothman, a professor in the Department of Molecular, Cellular, and Developmental Biology at UC Santa Barbara. The studies were reported in the interdisciplinary journal Genes and Development, and were carried out by Ph.D student Nareg Djabrayan, in collaboration with Rothman and two other members of the laboratory, Ph.D student Erica Sommermann and postdoctoral fellow Nathaniel Dudley. 10/31/12

NSF Grant to Fund Teacher Credential Candidates in the Physical Sciences A team of researchers at UC Santa Barbara has received a $1.19 million grant from the National Science Foundation (NSF) to establish CalTeach: Physical Sciences and Engineering (CTPSE). CTPSE seeks to encourage UCSB undergraduate students in the physical sciences and engineering to consider teaching as a career path, thereby helping to alleviate the state's anticipated need for more than 30,000 new math and science teachers over the next 10 years. The principal investigators include Julie Bianchini, a professor of education; Sandra Seale, project specialist and education and outreach coordinator for the Network for Earthquake Engineering Simulation program; Deborah Fygenson, associate professor of physics; Susannah Scott, professor of chemical engineering and of chemistry and biochemistry; and Michael Gordon, assistant professor of chemical engineering. 10/31/12

Examining Ecological Tipping Points A new research effort led by UCSB scientists will study ecological tipping points, such as overfishing and climate change, and their potential trickle-down effects on species and ecosystems. The goal: to devise a set of early warning indicators and management tools that may help to predict, even prevent, threatened systems from falling off the precipice. The NCEAS-based team and research partners have been awarded $3.1 million to pursue the project. 10/30/12

Lady Ridley-Tree Named Honorary Alumna Prominent Santa Barbara philanthropist Lady Leslie Ridley-Tree, co-chair of the Campaign for UC Santa Barbara, and a trustee of the UC Santa Barbara Foundation, has been named an honorary alumna of UCSB. She is only the 50th individual to be so lauded since the school's 1944 establishment as a University of California campus. Lady Ridley-Tree's longtime generosity to UCSB includes endowed scholarships, as well as support of Arts & Lectures and the Department of Music. 10/29/12

Stem Cell Research at UCSB Soars with New Lab Space Biomedical research at UC Santa Barbara has catapulted to a position of leadership in the arena of stem cell biology, offering progress toward cures for vision diseases such as macular degeneration. Campus leaders, dignitaries, scientists, and engineers gathered at UCSB to celebrate the completion of a dream: 10,000 square feet of renovated laboratory space devoted to stem cell research. This was the grand opening ceremony and ribbon-cutting in celebration of UCSB's Center for Stem Cell Biology and Engineering, part of the Neuroscience Research Institute. The California Institute for Regenerative Medicine contributed to the renovation with a $3.2 million grant that was matched by $3.2 million from UCSB. The top-flight new laboratories are a magnet for attracting new talent. 10/29/12

Two Faculty Members Receive National Communication Awards Two UCSB faculty members will receive prestigious awards from the National Communication Association at its 98th annual convention to be held in Orlando, Fla., in November. The 2012 Samuel L. Becker Distinguished Service Award, presented to a person who is judged to have made the greatest contribution to the association and the profession during his or her career, goes to Linda L. Putnam, professor and chair of the Department of Communication. The 2012 Gerald M. Phillips Award for Distinguished Applied Communication will be presented to Howard Giles, professor in the Department of Communication, for his theoretically driven and cross-cultural research on communication accommodation, police-citizen interaction, and intergenerational communication. 10/25/12

Researchers to Examine Urban Transitions, Land Change in Ghana Hoping to illuminate the driving force behind rapid land change and urban transition in developing African countries, a research team that includes UC Santa Barbara geographers has launched a study of demographic and agricultural shifts in Ghana. Researchers from San Diego State University, UCSB, George Washington University, and the University of Ghana are part of the collaborative effort with a three-year timeline. The project, "The Urban Transition in Ghana and Its Relation to Land Cover and Land Use Change Through Analysis of Multi-scale and Multi-temporal Satellite Image Data," has netted a $993,000 grant from NASA's Interdisciplinary Research in Earth Science program. 10/24/12

Journalist Hector Tobar to Receive Luis Leal Literature Award Novelist and Pulitzer Prize-winning Los Angeles Times journalist Hector Tobar is the recipient of UC Santa Barbara's 2012 Luis Leal Award for Distinction in Chicano/Latino Literature. The award will be presented at a ceremony at 4 p.m. on Wednesday, October 31, in the McCune Conference Room, 6020 Humanities and Social Sciences Building at UCSB. The event is free and open to the public. Tobar, a reporter, columnist, and book reviewer for the L.A. Times, is the author of two highly acclaimed novels — "The Barbarian Nurseries" and "The Tattooed Soldier." 10/24/12

Scientists Retrieve Ocean Acidification Data from Antarctic Waters A research team led by a scientist from UC Santa Barbara has retrieved data from a sensor in Antarctic waters that survived the harsh polar winter. The information it gathered will provide critical baseline data on the changes in chemistry, or acidification, of those remote seas. A team of graduate and undergraduate students and a postdoctoral fellow — led by Gretchen Hofmann, professor of ecology, evolution, and marine biology — retrieved the sensor intact earlier this month near McMurdo Station, the National Science Foundation's logistics hub in Antarctica. The acidification of the oceans is a global concern to scientists, as increasing amounts of atmospheric carbon find their way into the seas, changing the water chemistry. 10/23/12

UCSB Physicist Receives Prestigious Packard Fellowship Award Without a laboratory — using only a blackboard, computer, and his powerful intellect — a young theoretical physicist at UC Santa Barbara is quickly racking up national and international awards honoring his research in quantum physics. Although Cenke Xu works in an abstract realm, his research may have far-reaching practical applications. An assistant professor in the Department of Physics, Xu has emerged on the national and international stage with his pursuit of new states of matter. This month, he was awarded the coveted Packard Fellowship — one of only 16 scientific researchers from across the country to receive this distinction. He will receive an unrestricted research grant of $875,000 over five years. 10/22/12

Achieve UC, Higher Education Week Encourage Students to Follow Their Dreams UC Santa Barbara Chancellor Henry T. Yang addressed an audience of more than 700 students who gathered at Dos Pueblos High School for Achieve UC, a University of California initiative designed to show students across the state that higher education is within their reach. While UC Achieve focused attention on the UC, a Higher Education Week event at Santa Barbara High School highlighted the full range of higher education opportunities. Approximately 250 seniors were on hand to meet with representatives from UC, Cal State, and community college systems, as well as from private colleges and universities. 10/18/12

Literary Scholar Receives PEN Center USA Award for Translation Suzanne Jill Levine, professor of Latin American literature and translation studies at UC Santa Barbara, will receive the renowned PEN Center USA 2012 Literary Award for Translation for "The Lizard's Tale: A Novel." The award will be presented on October 22 in a ceremony at the Beverly Hills Hotel. Originally written — but not completely finished — by Chilean novelist José Donoso, the novel was published posthumously, in Spanish, in 2007. Last year, Northwestern University Press put out the first English-language edition of the book, which was translated by Levine. 10/18/12

Students Swarm Campus Career Fair Some 1,000 students were expected to attend UC Santa Barbara's Fall Career Fair. For the first time in several years, the annual effort of UCSB Career Services is a two-day affair — a byproduct of the growing number of employers asking to participate. Recruiters from 91 companies, including Facebook, Pepsico, Microsoft, and Intel, came to campus hoping to initiate connections that may lead to job offers down the line. 10/16/12

UCSB Hopes Central Coast Sustainability Summit Will Produce 'Action Plan' After bringing together people from sustainability organizations throughout the Santa Barbara area a year ago, UC Santa Barbara sustainability leaders are raising the bar this year for a second Central Coast Sustainability Summit. The summit, to be held October 25, 2012, at UCSB's Loma Pelona Conference Center, will gather representatives from area governments, community organizations, and schools to create action plans that will focus on renewable energy and product stewardship. The event runs from 8 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. 10/16/12

$5 Million Gift from Amgen Founder Funds New Biomedical Initiatives An elite research team at UCSB aims to advance its novel, bioengineering-based therapies for ocular disease out of the lab and into the clinic, thanks to a $5-million gift from Bill Bowes, philanthropist, venture capitalist, and founder of biotechnology giant Amgen. Bowes' pledge also launches EMBODI, a new effort to unite UCSB's myriad biomedical forces under a common goal: to espouse their collective strides to a wider audience. 10/16/12

New Center Aims to Help Shift Chemical Industry Toward Sustainability Plastic in its myriad forms does not have to be manufactured from petroleum products, according to scientists from UC Santa Barbara and three other universities. The team is working to shift the chemical industry toward sustainability and has created a new center, funded by the National Science foundation. The group will focus on finding renewable chemical "feedstocks" as the basis for producing consumer and industrial goods essential to modern society. The scientists have targeted carbon dioxide, as well as plants and wood, from which to develop these new chemical feedstocks. 10/15/12

Anthropologists Find Access to Contraceptives Doesn't Necessarily Mean Smaller Families Anthropologists at UC Santa Barbara have found that for the Tsimane, an indigenous group of forager-horticulturalists who live in the lowlands of Bolivia's Amazon basin, access to education and contraceptives does not necessarily lead to declines in fertility, even among individuals who claim they want fewer children. Their research appears in the current issue of the American Journal of Human Biology. Co-authors Lisa McAllister, a doctoral student in integrative anthropological sciences, and Michael Gurven, professor of anthropology and director of the campus's Integrative Anthropological Sciences Unit and the Broom Center for Demography's Biodemography and Evolution Unit, suggest the disparity has a basis in human capital theory. 10/11/12

Early Academic Outreach Presents Higher Education Week The Early Academic Outreach Program at UC Santa Barbara will hold its fall Higher Education Week, a four-day event beginning October 16. Representatives from universities, colleges, and other institutions of higher education will visit high school campuses in the Santa Maria, Lompoc, Santa Barbara, Carpinteria, Oxnard, and Fillmore school districts to meet with high school seniors to discuss post-secondary education opportunities. In all, more than 4,000 high school seniors will engage representatives from the UC, Cal State, and Community College systems, as well as from private colleges and universities. 10/11/12

UCSB to Commemorate Passage of Title IX With Two-Week Celebration In honor of the 40th anniversary of Title IX, UC Santa Barbara is hosting "Thank You, Title IX — Celebrating 40 Years of Gender Equity Progress at UCSB," a two-week celebration designed to highlight the legislation that has proved to be one of the most significant civil rights laws for women in American history. The celebration begins on Monday, October 15, with a panel discussion titled "40 Years and Counting: Where Are We and Title IX Today?" The discussion will take place at 5:15 p.m. in the McCune Conference Room, 6020 Humanities and Social Sciences Building. More information about the celebration, including a complete schedule of events and locations, is available at http://www.diversity.evc.ucsb.edu. 10/9/12

UCSB Ranked No. 35 in World University Rankings UC Santa Barbara has been ranked number 35 on 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 23. In addition, of the top 50 universities offering degrees in engineering and technology, UCSB is ranked number 17. 10/3/12

UCSB Receives Grant to Study Ocean Acidification UC Santa Barbara is part of a West Coast network of researchers that has received a grant of nearly $1.1 million from the National Science Foundation to analyze the ecological and biological response to ocean acidification in the California Current System. With increasing levels of carbon dioxide accumulating in the atmosphere and moving into marine systems, the world's oceans are becoming more acidic. "The big question is whether species will be able to adapt to future levels of ocean acidification," said Gretchen Hofmann, a marine biologist and professor in UCSB's Department of Ecology, Evolution, and Marine Biology. 9/28/12

Bioengineers Design Rapid Diagnostic Tests Inspired by Nature By mimicking nature's own sensing mechanisms, bioengineers at UCSB and University of Rome Tor Vergata have designed inexpensive medical diagnostic tests that take only a few minutes to perform. Their findings may aid efforts to build point-of-care devices for quick medical diagnosis of sexually transmitted diseases, allergies, autoimmune diseases, and a number of other diseases. The new technology could dramatically impact world health, according to the research team. 9/27/12

Scientists Find New Clues to Sustainability of Fish Populations Thanks to studies of a fish that gives birth to live young and is not fished commercially, scientists at UC Santa Barbara have discovered that food availability is a critical limiting factor in the health of fish populations. They discovered that the availability of enough food can drive up to a 10-fold increase in the per capita birthrate of fish. And, with adequate food, the young are up to 10 times more likely to survive than those without it. The scientists based their findings on a remarkable set of black surfperch population data — collected from 1993 to 2008. 9/27/12

Evolutionary Psychologists Study Purpose of Punishment and Reputation For two decades, evolutionary scientists have been locked in a debate over the evolved functions of three distinctive human behaviors: our readiness to cooperate with new people, our interest in tracking others' reputations in terms of how well they treat others, and the occasional interest we have in punishing people for selfishly mistreating others. In an article published today in the journal PLoS ONE, researchers at UC Santa Barbara's Center for Evolutionary Psychology examine two prominent theories, and report new findings that may help settle the debate and provide answers to the behavioral puzzle. 9/26/12

Raising the Bar for Faculty Philanthropy Putting a capstone on the novel endowment initiative they created for UC Santa Barbara, Emeritus Professor Duncan Mellichamp and his wife, Suzanne, have established a third cluster of four faculty chairs at the coastal campus. The clustered Mellichamp Academic Initiative Professorships now number 12, giving UCSB a total of 13 Mellichamp chairs. Starting with establishment of the first cluster in 2003, the couple to date has made contributions totaling $6 million to support the chairs meant for outstanding mid-career faculty. Together these comprise the largest gift ever by a UCSB faculty member. 9/26/12

New Fuel Cell Technology Generates Electricity on Campus UC Santa Barbara is now host to a unique new energy system that is providing electricity as part of the university's commitment to energy efficiency and sustainability. "Developing next-generation materials and technologies that will power our future is a point of pride for UCSB, and the partnership with Southern California Edison and Bloom Energy to install a 200-kilowatt fuel cell on campus provides an opportunity to evaluate an emerging power generation technology," said David McHale, associate director of Utility and Energy Services in Facilities Management. 9/19/12

Using A Laser to 'See' the Smallest World A multi-university team has employed a high-powered laser at UCSB to dramatically improve one of the tools scientists use to study the world at the atomic level. The team used their amped-up electron paramagnetic resonance (EPR) spectrometer to study the electron spin of free radicals and nitrogen atoms trapped inside a diamond. Mark Sherwin, professor of physics and director of the Institute for Terahertz Science and Technology at UCSB said: "With Free Electron Laser-powered EPR, we have shattered the electromagnetic bottleneck that EPR has faced, enabling electrons to report on faster motions occurring over longer distances than ever before." 9/19/12

Psychologist Studies Effects of Diagram Orientation on Comprehension The orientation of a diagram on the page of a textbook can have a significant impact on a reader's ability to comprehend the information, according to a team of researchers at UC Santa Barbara, Vanderbilt University, and Western Carolina University. Their findings appear in a recent issue of the journal Bioscience. Focusing on variously formatted cladograms — also known as phylogenetic trees — the researchers found that two diagrams may contain the same information, but they aren't necessarily equivalent in terms of how the information is interpreted. "The important point in this research, however, is that how efficiently a student comprehends the information presented in the phylogenetic tree depends on how the tree is angled.," said Andrew T. Stull, a researcher in the Department of Psychological & Brain Sciences at UCSB and an author of the paper. 9/18/12

Physicists Makes Discovery About Temperature in Convection A UC Santa Barbara professor is part of an international team of physicists working to ascertain more about the fundamental physical laws that are at work in a process known as convection, which occurs in a boiling pot of water as well as in the turbulent movement of the liquid outer core of the Earth. The team, led by UCSB's Guenter Ahlers, specified the way that the temperature of a gas or liquid varies with the distance from a heat source during convection. The research is expected to eventually help engineers with applications such as the design of cooling systems, including those in nuclear power plants. 9/17/12

How Fast Can Glaciers Respond to Climate Change? A new Arctic study is helping to unravel an important mystery surrounding climate change: how quickly glaciers can melt and grow in response to shifts in temperature. Dylan Rood, a researcher with UCSB's Earth Research Institute was part of the team that made the discovery. "In the past five years or so, important advances in the ultra-sensitive and high precision measurement of cosmogenic isotopes have revolutionized Earth scientists' ability to image how ice sheets and glaciers have responded to past climate change," said Rood. 9/13/12

UCSB Ranked Among Country's Top 10 Public Universities U.S. News & World Report has ranked UC Santa Barbara number 10 in its annual listing of the "Top 30 Public National Universities" in the country, and number 41 on its list of the "Best National Universities." The undergraduate program in UCSB's College of Engineering is ranked number 39 on the U.S. News & World Report list of "Best Programs at Engineering Schools Whose Highest Degree is a Doctorate." Among engineering schools at public universities, only 18 are ranked higher than UCSB's College of Engineering. Last year, that number was 21. 9/12/12

Two UCSB Professors Receive National Chemistry Awards Peter C. Ford, left, professor in UCSB's Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry, and Craig J. Hawker, also a professor in the Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry, professor of materials, and director of the Materials Research Laboratory, have been named among the 64 award winners from across the country of the American Chemical Society's 2013 national awards for professional advancement. Ford is the recipient of the ACS Award for Distinguished Service in the Advancement of Inorganic Chemistry and Hawker is the recipient of the ACS Award in Polymer Chemistry. 9/11/12

UCSB Is a Leader in 2012 Graduates Selected by Teach for America In the annual ranking of colleges and universities contributing the greatest number of graduates to its teaching corps, Teach for America ranked UC Santa Barbara at number 20. Thirty-five UCSB graduates have been selected this year to work as beginning teachers in public schools in low-income communities across the country. Teach for America corps members are top college graduates and professionals who commit to teach for two years in urban and rural public schools, and become lifelong leaders in the pursuit of educational opportunities for all students. 9/10/12

Fund Supports Interfaith and Cross-Cultural Programs The University Religious Conference (URC) of Santa Barbara dissolved in 2011 after more than 50 years of interfaith service and support to UCSB students. The organization may be gone, but its legacy lives on. The URC's familiar building in Isla Vista was sold to the Santa Barbara Student Housing Cooperative, which is now renovating the site into an interfaith residence — named Thomas Merton House for the Catholic author and interfaith activist — for 18 students. The unique sale arrangement sees the UCSB Foundation receiving mortgage payments that are in turn being gifted to students and campus interfaith programs through the new URC Interfaith Fund. The co-op also will see some of its money returned, earmarked for educational, cultural, and social programs to explore and promote interfaith understanding and social justice. 9/6/12

UCSB Receives $175,000 Grant for Seminar on Comparative Study of Cultures The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation has awarded a $175,000 grant to UC Santa Barbara in support of a Sawyer Seminar on the Comparative Study of Cultures entitled "Sea Change: Integrating the Historical Study of Human Cultures and Marine Environments in Three Pacific Regions." The Sawyer Seminars program supports comparative research on the historical and cultural sources of contemporary developments. The program funds seminars that bring together faculty, visiting scholars, postdoctoral fellows, and graduate students from the humanities, social sciences, and related fields. 9/5/12

Washington Monthly Ranks UCSB Among Top U.S. Universities UC Santa Barbara has been ranked number 14 on a list of the Top 30 National Universities, released by Washington Monthly magazine in its September/October issue. While U.S. News & World Report usually awards its highest ratings to private universities, the editors of Washington Monthly prefer to give public universities more credit, and higher rankings. Thirteen of the top 20 universities in the Washington Monthly rankings are taxpayer-funded. Some of U.S. News & World Report's top private universities are not even ranked among Washington Monthly's top 30. The Washington Monthly 2012 College Rankings can be found at http://www.washingtonmonthly.com/college_guide/toc_2012.php. 8/27/12

New Findings Show Some Type Ia Supernovae Linked to Novae In a new study, astronomers show for the first time that at least some thermonuclear (Type Ia) supernovae come from a recurrent nova. The results of the study, led by Ben Dilday, a postdoctoral researcher in physics at UCSB and at Las Cumbres Observatory Global Telescope Network, are surprising because previous indirect –– but strong –– evidence had pointed to the merger of two white dwarf stars as the originators of other Type Ia supernovae. The authors conclude that there are multiple ways to make a Type Ia supernova –– a finding that could have implications for understanding the differences seen in these "standard candles," that were used to reveal the presence of dark energy. 8/23/12

UCSB Ranks Among Top Universities in Degrees Awarded to Latinos in STEM Fields The nonprofit organization Excelencia in Education has included UC Santa Barbara on its lists of the top 25 colleges and universities in the country in the number of degrees awarded to Latinos in the areas of science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM). Based in Washington, D.C., Excelencia in Education is a national organization that aims to accelerate higher education success for Latino students through promoting education policies and institutional practices that support their academic development. In the category of bachelor degrees awarded in mathematics, UCSB placed 10th. In master's degrees in mathematics, UCSB was ranked number 9; and in doctoral degrees in mathematics, UCSB again came in at number 10. 8/22/12

Scientist Receives National Science Foundation CAREER Award Cenke Xu, an assistant professor of physics at UC Santa Barbara, has been awarded a National Science Foundation (NSF) CAREER award. The Faculty Early Career Development (CAREER) Program offers the NSF's most prestigious awards in support of the early career development activities of those teacher-scholars who are most likely to become the academic leaders of the 21st century. The awards provide a financial stipend to support research activity for a period of five years. Xu's award is for $170,000 and is designated for his research "Quantum Critical Points Around Topological Phases." 8/21/12

Scientists Examine Effects of Manufactured Nanoparticles on Soybean Crops Scientists with UCSB's Bren School of Environmental Science & Management have completed the first major study of soybeans grown in soil contaminated by two manufactured nanomaterials (MNMs), zinc oxide and cerium oxide. "Our society has become more environmentally aware in the last few decades, and that results in our government and scientists asking questions about the safety of new types of chemical ingredients," said senior author Patricia Holden, a professor with the Bren School. The findings showed that soybean crop yield and quality are affected by the addition of MNMs to the soil. 8/20/12

Researchers Demonstrate That 15=3x5 About Half of the Time Computing prime factors may sound like an elementary math problem, but try it with a large number, and the task becomes enormously challenging. Now, a group of researchers at UC Santa Barbara has designed and fabricated a quantum processor capable of factoring a composite number — in this case the number 15 — into its constituent prime factors, 3 and 5. The achievement represents a milestone on the road map to building a quantum computer capable of factoring much larger numbers, with significant implications for cryptography and cybersecurity. "After repeating the experiment 150,000 times, we showed that our quantum processor got the right answer just under half the time," said Erik Lucero, lead author of the study and a doctoral student in physics at UCSB at the time of the study. 8/20/12

Nature Study Highlights Many Paths to Ocean Health Using a new comprehensive index designed to assess the benefits to people of healthy oceans, scientists have evaluated the ecological, social, economic, and political conditions for every coastal country in the world. Their findings show that the global ocean scores 60 out of 100 overall on the Ocean Health Index. More than 30 collaborators worked on the project, which was led by UCSB's National Center for Ecological Analysis and Synthesis and Conservation International. "We recognize the Index is a bit audacious," said Ben Halpern, lead author and an ecologist with UCSB. "With policy-makers and managers needing tools to actually measure ocean health — and with no time to waste — we felt it was audacious by necessity." 8/15/12

Alum Makes Major Gift to Department of English UC Santa Barbara alumnus John Arnhold ('75), with wife Jody, has pledged $1.75 million to the campus's Department of English, providing a generous boost to the discipline he once studied. Their gift will support existing departmental initiatives and establish the Arnhold Endowment for Excellence in English, designed to fund courses, projects, and programs that support the undergraduate research experience, graduate student training, postdoctoral teaching fellows, and curricular advancements. 8/14/12

New UC Santa Barbara-Based Project to Study Contaminants in Urban Water Environment Longtime water industry executive Henry H. Wheeler, Jr. has awarded $1.25 million to the Bren School of Environment Science & Management for Professor Patricia Holden's new initiative, "Urban Water Environment," a research and training program on urban water quality. The dual-thrust endeavor looks to identify and quantify threats to surface waters and groundwater in urban environments — and determine how to mitigate them. Holden will seek answers to questions such as what contaminants lurk in the urban subsurface; whether and how they make their way into storm drains and creeks to reach groundwater, or even oceans; and whether they naturally attenuate as they migrate through soils, somehow allowing them to self-cleanse as they travel. 8/7/12

Seafood, Wild or Farmed? The Answer May Be Both In an article in press with the journal Marine Policy, a working group of UC Santa Barbara's National Center for Ecological Analysis and Synthesis (NCEAS) suggests that national and international organizations and government agencies use the term "hybrid" to describe fish and shellfish brought to market through a combination of production techniques. The article, currently available online, reveals how the strictly traditional categories of seafood production — fisheries and aquaculture — are insufficient to account for the growth potential and environmental impacts of the seafood sector. 8/6/12

Emergency Manager Accepts Governor's Service Group Award The Santa Barbara County Community Emergency Response Team (CERT) Committee has been selected as the recipient of the 2012 Governor's Volunteering and Service award for Service Group of the Year. Jim Caesar, UCSB emergency preparedness manager and chair of the Santa Barbara County CERT Committee, accepted the Governor's award at a ceremony in Los Angeles. "I am honored to be able to accept this award on behalf of all of us who work hard to make CERT a successful program," said Caesar, who collaborates with emergency managers and first responders throughout Santa Barbara County to increase community emergency preparedness. 8/2/12

New Drug Shows Promise for Kidney Disease Scientists in the laboratory of Thomas Weimbs, associate professor in the Department of Molecular, Cellular, and Developmental Biology, have demonstrated that a new drug is effective in treating polycystic kidney disease — although it will be a few years before it becomes available for clinical testing. The findings resulted from a collaboration between UC Santa Barbara and Endocyte, Inc., a biotech firm based in Indiana. More than 600,000 people in the U.S.and 12 million worldwide are affected by PKD. 8/2/12

Focusing on Strengths Improves Social Skills of Adolescents With Autism Spectrum Disorders A study conducted by researchers at the Koegel Autism Center at UC Santa Barbara has found that by taking advantage of their strengths — high intelligence and very specific interests — adolescents with Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASD) are as capable as anyone else of forging friendships with their peers. In addition, the research demonstrates that the area of the brain that controls social behavior is not as damaged in adolescents with ASD as was previously believed. The findings appear in a recent issue of the Journal of Positive Behavior Interventions. 8/1/12

Lars Bildsten Named Director of Kavli Institute for Theoretical Physics After an international search for a new director for the Kavli Institute for Theoretical Physics (KITP) at UC Santa Barbara, the search committee found the best person for the position was already in Santa Barbara: Lars Bildsten, professor of physics and a KITP permanent member. The baton was passed on July 1 from Professor David Gross, a 2004 Nobel laureate, who will remain at KITP as a permanent member. "I am honored to have been selected,"said Bildsten, who joined KITP and UCSB in 1999. "It is also a deep responsibility to maintain the tradition of excellent leadership at the KITP. David Gross very successfully expanded our activities and funding, increased our international prominence, and placed us in a very strong position." 7/31/12

UCSB Ranks Third in U.S. in Gilman International Scholarship Awards With 25 Education Abroad Program students at UC Santa Barbara receiving Benjamin A. Gilman Scholarships for study abroad beginning in fall 2012, the campus ranks third behind UC Berkeley and San Francisco State University in the number of scholarships received by any college or university in the United States for the 2012-13 academic year. 7/26/12

Film & Literary Festival Awards 2012 Loving Prize to G. Reginald Daniel G. Reginald Daniel, a professor of sociology at UC Santa Barbara, has received the 2012 Loving Prize from the Mixed Roots Film & Literary Festival. The award, which recognizes Daniel's scholarship on issues of multiracial identity, was presented in Los Angeles in June. Established in 2008, the Loving Prizes are presented each year to outstanding artists, storytellers, and community leaders who have shown a dedication to celebrating and illuminating the "mixed"experience. Previous recipients include UCSB's Kip Fulbeck and Paul R. Spickard, professors of art and performative studies and of history, respectively. 7/25/12

Beckman Scholars Program Names 2012 Scholarship Recipients One year after the campus was first selected for the prestigious program, UC Santa Barbara has named three additional undergraduates to its inaugural cohort of Beckman Scholars. There are now four UCSB participants in the national initiative meant to aid student researchers in the chemical and biological sciences. Mentored by select faculty, Beckman scholars also partake in career development, including technical writing, publishing, and presenting their research at professional meetings. With an award totaling $115,800, the scholarships will support six undergraduate students over the course of three years. Each scholar receives $19,300 to engage in research and additional career and technical training during one academic year, and over two summers. UCSB's Beckman scholars will present their projects to the campus community on August 9, in a poster colloquium at Elings Hall. 7/25/12

NCEAS'DataONE Streamlines Search and Analysis of Massive Amounts of Ecological Data In response to the growing need for a way to easily access and analyze massive amounts of heterogeneous data in the fields of earth and environmental sciences, UC Santa Barbara's National Center for Ecological Analysis and Synthesis, a core partner in a joint effort to streamline such research, presents DataONE, the Data Observation Network for Earth. DataONE is capable of providing researchers access to globally distributed, networked data from a single point of discovery. 7/24/12

Researchers Receive $1.2M NIH Grant to Design Preschool Health and Biology Curriculum Studies show that many low-income Latino children begin kindergarten at a significant educational disadvantage as compared to their mainstream American classmates. With a $1.2 million Science Education Partnership Award from the National Institutes of Health, researchers at UC Santa Barbara may help level the playing field, and give those preschoolers important lessons in health and biology. The grant has been awarded to principal investigator Laura Romo, an associate professor in the Department of Education at UCSB and director of the campus's Chicano Studies Institute. Co-principal investigators on the project include Professor Yukari Okamoto, and Associate Professors Julia Bianchini and Jin Sook Lee. 7/24/12

Assistant Professor Receives Presidential Science Award Ania Bleszynski Jayich, an assistant professor in physics at UC Santa Barbara, has been awarded the prestigious Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers (PECASE). The award is the highest honor the nation can bestow on a scientist or engineer at the beginning of his or her career. "This is an amazing honor,"Jayich said. 7/23/12

UC Santa Barbara Ranks Among Top U.S. Universities in STARS Sustainability Ratings For decades, UC Santa Barbara has taken pride in its commitment to sustainability. Now the campus has the numbers to support its claim as one the greenest campuses in the country. UCSB has received a Gold rating in the Sustainability Tracking, Assessment & Rating System (STARS) program sponsored by the Association for the Advancement of Sustainability in Higher Education. This is the first time UCSB has been rated in the STARS system, which ranks schools on a scale of Bronze, Silver, Gold, and Platinum. There are only 35 universities in the U.S. and Canada with a Gold rating. No schools have attained the Platinum, or highest, rating. 7/19/12

Discovery of 'Intrasite Hopping' of Bacterial Enzyme on DNA Gives Insight into Epigenetic Gene Expression The discovery of how an enzyme in E. coli manipulates DNA and allows the bacteria to change its physical characteristics and behaviors could shed insight on human gene expression, and gene-related disorders. The results of a study written by UC Santa Barbara researcher Adam Pollak and Norbert Reich, professor of chemistry, are published in the Journal of Biological Chemistry. 7/17/12

Scientists Study How Brain Functions During Visual Searches Despite decades of advancement and increasing ability to perform intricate calculations, the computer is still not as good at performing visual search as humans and other animals. UC Santa Barbara researchers studied a section of the brain involved in these visual searches to find out why, in a study titled paper "Feature-Independent Neural Coding of Target Detection during Search of Natural Scenes,"published in the Journal of Neuroscience. The UCSB research team included Miguel Eckstein, Tim Preston, Koel Das, Barry Giesbrecht, and first author Fei Guo. 7/16/12

Tamarisk Biocontrol Efforts Get Evolutionary Boost UC Santa Barbara scientists trying to control the invasive tamarisk plant have been getting a boost from evolution, in the form of a rapidly evolving beetle that has been changing its life cycle to more efficiently consume the noxious weed. "This is one of the clearest cases of rapid evolution,"said co-author Tom Dudley, who is the principal investigator at UC Santa Barbara's Marine Science Institute Riparian Invasive Research Laboratory. 7/12/12

Police Captain Completes FBI Training, Becomes Campus's Assistant Chief UC Santa Barbara Police Captain Cathy Farley can count herself among a very elite group of law enforcement officers from across the country and around the world. Following 10 weeks of rigorous physical and academic training, Farley graduated last month from the FBI National Academy in Quantico, Va. In addition, Farley has been appointed assistant chief of the UCSB Police Department. The first person in the history of the police department to hold that position, she was sworn in by UCSB Police Chief Dustin Olson in a ceremony on July 2. In May 2008, Farley was diagnosed with high-stage breast cancer. "It was a wake-up call for me,"she said. "But I'm a strong person and I just decided I was going to beat it."Following an aggressive treatment protocol, she has been cancer-free for three years.  7/11/12

Using Universal Love for Soccer, UCSB Students Make a Difference Abroad Everybody loves a game of soccer. That was the idea a couple of UC Santa Barbara students had when they formed the nonprofit Inspire a Child, which uses the virtually universal love for the sport to entice children in poorer parts of the world to choose to go to school, and inspire them to better themselves and their communities. "Soccer is not only a fun and enjoyable pastime, but a developmental tool which can help improve the lives of children, their families, and communities,"said Inspire a Child founder Olivia Wong, who majors in political science and international relations at UCSB. The fledgling organization is currently working on its first project, in a remote village in the Himalayas.  7/11/12

New Grant Benefits Transfer Students in STEM Majors A residential summer program launching later this month at UCSB will bring low-income, potential transfer students to campus for a week's worth of research training and networking with graduate students, faculty, and industry professionals. A new grant from the Jack Kent Cooke Foundation will support the UCSB Cooke Bridges Program, an initiative of the campus's Center for Science and Engineering Partnerships, in collaboration with the Mathematics, Engineering and Science Achievement (MESA) program. UCSB will partner with four regional community colleges — Allan Hancock, Oxnard, Santa Barbara, and Ventura — to recruit financially needy students with high potential in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics.  7/10/12

UCSB Researchers Play Key Role in U.N. Environmental Assessment  Despite the ever-louder drumbeat for sustainability and global efforts to advance environmental initiatives, Earth remains on a collision course with "unprecedented levels of damage and degradation."That's according to a new United Nations assessment that includes UC Santa Barbara researchers among its authors. The U.N. Environment Programme released its fifth Global Environmental Outlook report in June, on the eve of the recent Rio+20 Conference on Sustainable Development in Brazil. Produced over three years, in collaboration with some 600 experts worldwide, the document details global progress, or lack thereof, on a host of internationally agreed-upon goals to protect the planet. David López-Carr, professor of geography at UCSB, and director of the Human-Environment Dynamics (HED) lab, was lead author on two of the report's 17 chapters.  7/9/12

'Observation of New Particle'Presented at Historic CERN Seminar The observation of a new particle that appears to be the long sought-after Higgs boson was presented at a seminar at the European Organization for Nuclear Research (CERN) on July 4 by UC Santa Barbara physics professor Joe Incandela. "We have observed a new boson,"Incandela said, to the applause of hundreds of scientists and students attending the seminar, which was broadcast live via a webcast around the world. 7/5/12

New Endowed Chair to Further Energy-Efficiency Research UC Santa Barbara's Solid State Lighting & Energy Center, a hub for leading-edge research in energy–efficient lighting, power electronics, and solar energy technology, has received a $500,000 endowment from Seoul Optodevice Company to further its research on gallium nitride (GaN) for use in electronics and solid state lighting. James Speck, a professor of materials at UCSB who is said to be the world's leading expert in GaN materials and crystal growth, has been named the campus's first Seoul Optodevice Chair in Solid State Lighting.  7/3/12

Physicist to Give Update on Higgs Boson Search in CERN Seminar The status of the search for the Higgs boson will be presented at a seminar at CERN on July 4 by Joe Incandela, professor of physics at UC Santa Barbara and spokesperson for the Compact Muon Solenoid (CMS) experiment. CERN, the European Laboratory for Particle Physics in Geneva, is the location of the Large Hadron Collider (LHC), the world's largest particle accelerator. The CMS experiment is one of two general-purpose experiments, which operate like giant cameras that record images of the particles produced in high-energy proton-proton collisions.  7/2/12

Geographer Charts the 'Next-Generation Digital Earth' The world has gotten smaller and more accessible since applications like Google Earth became mainstream, says UC Santa Barbara Professor of Geography Michael Goodchild. However, there is still a long way to go, and there are important steps to take to get there. His perspective, shared with many co-authors around the world, has been published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences in a paper titled, "Next-generation Digital Earth."  7/2/12