Author: Public Affairs

SANTA CRUZ, CA–Two assistant professors of environmental studies at the University of California, Santa Cruz, have been appointed co-chairs of the Pepper-Giberson Chair in Environmental Studies. Daniel Doak and Daniel Press have been selected to hold the chair for the next six years. Doak and Press are the first appointees to the chair, which was…

Gwendolyn Mink, professor of politics, received the Victoria Schuck Award from the American Political Science Association for her book The Wages of Motherhood: Inequality in the Welfare State, 1917-1942 (Ithaca, N.Y.: Cornell University Press, 1995). The Schuck Award recognizes the best book on women in politics published during the previous calendar year. It was presented…

Construction crews made good use of the summer months to push ahead on UCSC’s building projects. Several projects–providing additional performing arts facilities, disabled access, seismic safety, and new pathways and bike lanes–will be finished before the next quarter begins. The following is a list of the major projects planned or under way this year: Music…

Earth sciences A peculiar type of seismic wave has unveiled a major surprise deep within the earth: The base of the planet’s mantle, long assumed hard as a rock, instead may be partially molten. UCSC researchers studied seismic waves that skim along the sharp boundary between the earth’s outer core and lower mantle. Under the…

Imagine documenting a year’s worth of your household purchases, down to every last vending-machine snack. Not an easy task, right? Now imagine tackling that task for all your friends, with a computer program that you’re still learning how to use–and that’s still being tinkered with. A number of UCSC staff lived such a scenario this…

"Headliners" Highlights Recent Media Coverage Involving Members Of The UCSC Community. It was a busy summer for composer and inventor David Cope. Cope’s EMI was featured in Discover magazine’s special October issue on creativity, and his new book, Experiments in Musical Intelligence, got column space in the Los Angeles Times. Cope also spoke about EMI…

Karen Holl comes to UCSC from Stanford, where she spent two years doing postdoctoral work in southern Costa Rica. Holl, who is interested in understanding how ecosystems function and applying that knowledge to public policy, studied the factors limiting the recovery of land that had been cleared for grazing, and she researched methods for restoring…

See’s candy bars will be for sale in campus offices again this fall to raise money for the Women at Work Retreat. Representatives are needed to manage sales in the various offices. This fund-raiser begins October 15 and replaces the usual fall crafts fair. UCSC’s Ph.D. program in earth sciences ranked 22nd in the country…

SANTA CRUZ, CA–For the third year in a row, a faculty member at the University of California, Santa Cruz, has earned one of the most sought- after awards for young American scientists: a David and Lucile Packard Fellowship for Science and Engineering, worth $100,000 per year for five years. This year’s recipient is assistant professor…

Technology Park Will Occupy The Heart Of A "research Crescent" Around Monterey Bay SANTA CRUZ, CA–Lora Lee Martin of the University of California, Santa Cruz, has become the first full-time director of UC’s Monterey Bay Education, Science, and Technology (MBEST) Center. The MBEST Center, led by UCSC, is a regional economic initiative that includes development…

Susanne Jonas, lecturer in Latin American and Latino studies, is the author of an article titled "Dangerous Liaisons: The U.S. in Guatemala," which appeared in the June 2 issue of the journal Foreign Policy. In the article, Jonas reviews the U.S.’s involvement in the longest and deadliest civil war in Central America. She argues that…

Noë’s area of research is the philosophy of mind. His work combines traditional philosophical methods and concerns with more recent developments in cognitive science and artificial intelligence. He comes to UCSC from Tufts University where he was a research associate at the Center for Cognitive Studies under the direction of Daniel Dennett. During this past…