Author: Public Affairs

One morning last week, high school sophomore Genevieve Garcia went on a building inspection, saw dolphins and sea urchins at Long Marine Lab, and learned how certain chemicals can affect the environment. It was a busy few hours for Garcia, who trailed Dan Blunk of Environmental Health & Safety through his morning on the job,…

Students with book collections that have a special significance to them are invited to enter the 31st annual Book Collection Contest. The contest, sponsored by the Friends of the UCSC Library, is open to all undergraduate and graduate students at UCSC. Cash prizes of $300, $200, and $100 will be awarded to the winners, and…

SANTA CRUZ, CA–In 1892, wealthy railway magnate Charles T. Yerkes of Chicago set out to "lick the Lick"–the University of California’s Lick Observatory–by financing "the largest and best telescope in the world." Five years later, his ambitions took concrete form in Williams Bay, Wisconsin, when astronomers dedicated Yerkes Observatory, home to a mammoth 40-inch refracting…

SAN FRANCISCO, CA–The University of California Board of Regents voted today (March 21) to approve the initial stages of the master plan for the UC Monterey Bay Education, Science, and Technology (MBEST) Center, a regional economic development initiative based at the former Fort Ord military reservation near Monterey. The action clears the way for UC…

SANTA CRUZ, CA–"Astrobiology," an intriguing new interdisciplinary research field spanning the origins and evolution of life on Earth and elsewhere, will be the focus of a "gathering of minds" at UC Santa Cruz on Saturday, March 22. The daylong workshop will begin at 8:30 a.m. in room B206, Earth and Marine Sciences Building. The meeting…

SANTA CRUZ, CA–Biological oceanographer Bess Ward, a professor of ocean sciences at UC Santa Cruz, has received one of the top awards in her field: the 1997 G. Evelyn Hutchinson Award from the American Society of Limnology and Oceanography. Ward, age 42, is both the youngest recipient and the first woman to receive the prestigious…

To my UC Santa Cruz colleagues: It is with great sadness that I share news of the death of one of the legends of UC Santa Cruz. Siegfried "Sig" Berthold Puknat died March 17, in San Francisco, at age 83. A memorial service to honor his memory will take place at 11 a.m. on Saturday,…

Biological oceanographer Bess Ward, professor of ocean sciences, has received one of the top awards in her field: the 1997 G. Evelyn Hutchinson Award from the American Society of Limnology and Oceanography. Ward, age 42, is both the youngest recipient and the first woman to receive the prestigious honor, which the society has bestowed annually…

Not just your everyday hill of beans When UCSC geologist Robert Anderson and graduate student Alex Densmore () thought up their small experiment, they didn’t figure it would amount to much. Densmore took a plastic box filled with red beans and slowly lowered one wall, watching how they fell out. The two simply wanted to…

Nearly 20 members of the campus community will travel to Los Angeles next week to attend the All University Conference (AUC) on Teaching, Learning, and the New Technologies. Taking place March 25-26 at UCLA, the conference will bring together faculty, administrators, students, as well as library, computing, and instructional development staff from each of UC’s…

New Book Explores Germany’s Struggle To Reconcile Its History With Its Role As A Modern Global Power SANTA CRUZ, CA–As Europe’s most important power, Germany has the economic, military, and political influence to be a major player on the world scene, yet the country’s "burdened history" limits its ability to act. Unification in 1989 removed…

National Public Radio reporter Alan Chadwick devoted a recent "Radio Expeditions" segment to the research of UCSC marine biologist Burney Le Boeuf at Ano Nuevo. Listeners across the country learned about the fascinating and extreme lives of elephant seals, unveiled gradually over the last three decades by Le Boeuf and his students and colleagues. The…