Campus News

SANTA CRUZ, CA–When thoughts turn to dramatic leaps forward in the history of astronomy, the names Copernicus and Galileo come to mind. But Freeman Dyson would like us to remember Bradley and Zwicky as well. Dyson, a visionary author and one of the world’s leading theoretical astrophysicists, will discuss advances inspired by these and other…

Winning Themes Are California’s Wild Plants, Gay Male Fiction, And Iran SANTA CRUZ–Winners of the 28th Annual Book Collection Contest at the University of California, Santa Cruz, were announced at an awards ceremony held on Thursday, April 21, at McHenry Library. The annual contest, which awards cash prizes to the top three collections, is sponsored…

SANTA CRUZ, CA–Renee Firestone survived Auschwitz. For 50 years she has remembered the final words of those who did not. "The last words when someone was taken away were always ‘Remember us if you survive,’" says Firestone, who was eighteen years old when she was imprisoned. On Wednesday, May 11, at 8 p.m., Firestone will…

SANTA CRUZ, CA–Cultural diversity has become such a buzz phrase that when Dr. Judy B. Rosener gives talks on the subject, she often feels compelled to ask her audience to think about why it is important to value diversity. "The reason to value diversity is not because it’s politically correct but because diversity makes for…

SANTA CRUZ, CA–Seismologist John Vidale, a research associate at the Institute of Tectonics at the University of California, Santa Cruz, has received one of the nation’s leading awards for young geophysicists. The American Geophysical Union (AGU) honored Vidale and two other researchers with the 1994 James B. Macelwane Medal, given annually to scientists of outstanding…

SANTA CRUZ, CA–City on a Hill Press, a weekly newspaper produced by students at the University of California, Santa Cruz, received 23 awards in recent national and statewide journalism competitions, including honors for overall design, photography, news and feature writing, and advertising design. The paper received twenty Gold Circle Awards from the Columbia Scholastic Press…

SANTA CRUZ, CA–Chancellor Karl S. Pister and astronomer Joseph S. Miller of the University of California, Santa Cruz, have been elected fellows of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. Membership in the academy, an international honorary society based in Cambridge, Massachusetts, is one of the highest honors there is for scientists, artists, public figures,…

SANTA CRUZ, CA–Frank Talamantes, professor of biology at the University of California, Santa Cruz, has received the 1993 "SSR Research Award" from the Society for the Study of Reproduction. The award, which recognizes outstanding research during the past six years, is one of the top honors for scientists who study the hormones involved in the…

SANTA CRUZ, CA–Particles with only one magnetic pole, massive but ghostly particles called "WIMPs," and high-energy blasts from supernovas and the Big Bang itself–these are among the quarries of MACRO, a huge detector 3,000 feet beneath the Gran Sasso mountain in Italy. California Institute of Technology physicist Barry Barish, U.S. spokesman for this international project,…

SANTA CRUZ, CA–The Alias (America) Corporation of Los Angeles has donated ten packages of software for state-of-the-art computer graphics to the University of California, Santa Cruz, for use in teaching and research. The donation is valued at $450,000. The software, named Alias PowerAnimator, will be used in five courses in computer graphics at UCSC. They…

PASADENA, CA–Southern Californians have long lived in fear of "The Big One." In recent years, however, scientific focus has shifted from that one huge earthquake on the San Andreas Fault, as seismologists have realized that smaller but potentially more hazardous faults crisscross virtually the entire L.A. basin. The latest example ripped Northridge in January: a…

SANTA CRUZ, CA–For fifteen years, Shirley Malcom has striven to find ways to increase public support for science education and to encourage students, especially young women and minorities, to pursue careers in science. She will share her thoughts on these ongoing challenges in a free public lecture at UC Santa Cruz at 4 p.m. Tuesday,…