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Art Professor Presents 'Tattoo Portraits' Once an art form restricted to sailors, soldiers, and people on the fringe
of society, tattooing has become a cultural phenomenon. In his new book,
"Permanence: Tattoo Portraits," Kip Fulbeck, a professor of art, combines
photographic tattoo portraits with stories about these images told in the
subjects' own words and handwriting. Says Fulbeck: "It's a book about
identity that uses tattoos as the starting point."
5/13/08 PRESS RELEASE
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 PRESS RELEASE
Sociologist Receives Career Achievement Awards Verta Taylor, department chair and professor of sociology at UCSB, has
recently received career achievement awards from the American Sociological
Association and the Center for the Study of Social Movements and Social
Change at the University of Notre Dame.
5/15/08 PRESS RELEASE
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 PRESS RELEASE
Scientists Try to Predict Infectious Disease Crossovers Between Wild Animals and Humans 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 PRESS RELEASE (PDF)
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 PRESS RELEASE
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 PRESS RELEASE
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 PRESS RELEASE
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 PRESS RELEASE
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 PRESS RELEASE
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 PRESS RELEASE
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 PRESS RELEASE
Book
Examines Presidential Illness and Decision Making 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 PRESS RELEASE
Physicist David Awschalom Named 2008 Faculty Research Lecturer 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 PRESS RELEASE
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 PRESS RELEASE
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 MORE INFO
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 PRESS RELEASE
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 PRESS RELEASE
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