‘Solar Soothsayer’ on Fast Company’s Most Creative List
UC San Diego’s director of strategic energy initiatives, Byron Washom, was recognized in the June issue of Fast Company magazine as one of the “100 Most Creative People in Business 2010,” ranking him number two in its green category. Since joining the university in 2008, Washom has teamed with faculty researchers, campus-operations engineers and students to pursue projects related to solar power, smart-grid technology, alternative-energy projects and novel renewable-energy financing. More

UC San Diego Baseball Honored With First Pitch at Padres Game
Cheers rose from a crowd of more than 17,000 as Triton shortstop Vance Albitz, surrounded by his teammates, threw the ceremonial first pitch during a Padres game at PETCO Park last week. It was the biggest crowd Albitz had ever faced during a game—and it felt pretty good, he said.PadresPregame. More

UC San Diego Named to President Obama’s
Community Service Honor Roll with Distinction
The University of California, San Diego has been named to the 2009 President's Community Service Honor Roll with distinction for the contributions UC San Diego’s students make to local, national and global communities on issues ranging from poverty to homelessness and environmental justice. This is the first year the university is on the Distinction List. More

Healthy Meals a Home Run for Padres
If you think that baseball games are all about eating hot dogs and Cracker Jacks, the San Diego Padres and UC San Diego dietician Michelle Zive want you to think again. The Padres Foundation, the California Endowment and UC San Diego have teamed up to develop a slew of healthy options that fans can buy at PETCO Park on game days. The program is called FriarFit and launched last year. “It’s a really exciting project,” said Zive, who works in UCSD’s Child Development and Community Health Division, and is a principal investigator for the Network for a Healthy California San Diego/Imperial County. “To fight the obesity epidemic, everyone has to be on board. And the Padres are.” More

Bees, Biology and Chemistry:
Bringing Graduate Level Research to High School Classrooms
Paula Ezcurra, a senior at Helix Charter High School in La Mesa, is sitting in the hot noonday sun staring intently at a potted plant in full bloom. She is waiting for a honeybee or other flying insect to arrive. Will it set down and suck up the sweet nectar or will it just hover and depart again looking for a different flower? More than a dozen of her classmates are involved in the same activity. They are trying to find out if pollinators prefer introduced plants like the Indian Hawthorn over native plants like the Monkey Flower. More

Alumnus to Receive Cody Award from Scripps
A physical oceanographer specializing in ocean circulation has been selected to receive the 2010 Robert L. and Bettie P. Cody Award in Ocean Sciences from Scripps Institution of Oceanography at UC San Diego. Dudley Chelton, a distinguished professor of physical oceanography at Oregon State University’s College of Oceanic and Atmospheric Sciences and a former student of Scripps research oceanographer Russ Davis, will be awarded the prestigious prize during a private ceremony on the evening of June 10. More

Eleven Commencement Ceremonies
Will Award 7,673 Graduates with Diplomas
An acclaimed science fiction author, the CEO of a center which reveals stories of heroes from the Underground Railroad era, and the co-founder of an organization dedicated to helping children in Uganda, will speak to 7,673 graduating students at the University of California, San Diego.  The students are scheduled to receive diplomas during 11 separate commencement ceremonies May 29 to June 13 on the UC San Diego campus. More than 65,000 family members and guests are expected to attend. Chancellor Marye Anne Fox will be speaking at all 11 ceremonies. More

New Docs Linked to Death Spike in July
Are new medical residents a threat to patient health? According to sociology professor David Phillips and his student Gwendolyn Barker from the University of California, San Diego, fatal medication errors peak in July in counties with teaching hospitals, which coincides with the yearly influx of new medical residents who are given increased responsibility for patient care. Their findings are published in the Journal of General Internal Medicine, the official journal of the Society of General Internal Medicine, published by Springer. More

UCSD Alumni Association to Recognize Outstanding Alumni and Faculty at Annual Awards for Excellence on June 5
The University of California, San Diego – celebrating its 50th anniversary this fall – has produced an enviable group of outstanding alumni, including those who will be honored June 5 for the annual Awards for Excellence, part of the UCSD Alumni Association’s second annual Alumni Weekend. The Awards for Excellence, honoring outstanding alumni and faculty who exemplify the commitment to leadership, advocacy, philanthropy and service to UC San Diego, will recognize the following alumni honorees More

UC San Diego’s Chief Diversity Officer Sandra Daley
to Receive TCWF Champions of Health Professions Diversity Award
Sandra Daley, associate chancellor and chief diversity officer at the University of California, San Diego, will be honored as one of three 2010 Champions of Health Professions Diversity by The California Wellness Foundation (TCWF) June 14, 2010.  Daley will receive an award of $25,000 in recognition of her efforts to reach out to, mentor and support disadvantaged students preparing for health careers. More

Co-founder of ‘Invisible Children’ to Speak at Graduation Celebration
For Laren Poole, the congressional passage of the Lord’s Resistance Army Disarmament and Northern Uganda Recovery (LRA) Act— legislation that will enable the U.S. State Department to help end the conflict in Uganda—is a groundbreaking achievement in a journey that began seven years ago. In 2003, when Poole was a student at the University of California, San Diego, he created the documentary “Invisible Children,” a film that exposed the tragic realities of northern Uganda’s night commuters and child soldiers. More

Rady School of Management Breaks Ground for Campus Expansion
The Rady School of Management at the University of California, San Diego broke ground today on the expansion of the Rady School campus and celebrated this milestone with community stakeholders. A challenge gift from Ernest Rady led to a $5 million gift from Wells Fargo Bank, allowing the expansion of the Rady School campus to commence.  The building will be named Wells Fargo Hall. More

Obesity in Teen Girls May Lead To Depressive Symptoms
Researchers, led by Kerri Boutelle, PhD, associate professor of pediatrics and psychiatry at the University of California, San Diego School of Medicine have found that obesity is a risk factor for depressive symptoms, but not for clinical depression, suggesting that weight status could play a part in the development of depression in some adolescent girls. More

World’s Largest Oceanography Library Goes Digital
Approximately 100,000 volumes from the Scripps Institution of Oceanography Library, the world’s largest oceanography library, have been digitized and are being made publically accessible as part of a partnership between Google, the University of California and the UC San Diego Libraries. More

SDG&E; Recognizes UC San Diego for Changes That Save $900,000 a Year in Energy Costs
San Diego Gas & Electric (SDG&E) on May 18 named UC San Diego and 10 area businesses and institutions Energy Champions during the 5th Annual SDG&E Energy Showcase at the San Diego Convention Center.  The winners’ outstanding energy efficiency efforts in the previous year were made possible with the help of a variety of programs offered by the utility.  More

Navy Awards New Science Ship to Scripps Institution of Oceanography
Ushering in the next era of ocean exploration, the U.S. Office of Naval Research has selected Scripps Institution of Oceanography as the operator of a new scientific research vessel. The yet-to-be-designed and built ocean class ship—a new class of research vessel—will lead a range of ocean expeditions that will advance science and education in the decades ahead. The new ship also will further scientific knowledge imperative to the Navy and national security. More

Stars for One Night—and Maybe More
They performed live for an audience of more than 20 million TV viewers. They rubbed elbows with Olympic figure skating champion Evan Lysacek. A Los Angeles Times columnist praised their dance moves. It was quite a week for UC San Diego’s Dancesport team, after they performed May 11 on ABC’s “Dancing With the Stars,” one of network TV’s most-watched shows. The Tritons went head-to-head with Purdue University’s Boilermakers dance squad in the show’s first-ever collegiate “dance off.” Ten students from UCSD’s team performed the samba, competing against eight students from Purdue, who performed the mambo. Tune in to the show Tuesday night to find out who won. More

San Diego Trolley Expansion Plans Include UC San Diego
In just five years, UC San Diego commuters may be able to ride the San Diego Trolley to campus from all over the county. But first, the San Diego Association of Governments, known as SANDAG, wants input on three different routes the trolley could take. After public comments, SANDAG’s board of directors will pick a route this summer. If all goes well, the trolley would come to campus during the 2015-16 school year. More

Sun God Sells Out with More than 20,000 Attending Music Festival
For 28 years in a row, the Sun God Festival has proven to be one of UC San Diego's most enduring traditions. The all-day music festival was celebrated Friday with more than 20,000 students, alumni and friends attending the sold-out event. For the third year in a row, Sun God was held on the RIMAC Field, allowing the festival to provide 12 hours of continuous programming at a centralized location, according to Alex Bramwell, associate vice president of concerts and events. “We work to improve the setup every year to make Sun God as fun as it can be for students,” he said. “This year, we have streamlined our box office, improved sound and lighting, and I think, aesthetically, we're stronger than ever.” More

Gammaglobulin Treatment May Slow Alzheimer’s Disease
Researchers at UC San Diego's Alzheimer’s program have begun a Phase III clinical trial testing a new approach to slowing down the progression of Alzheimer’s disease using Intravenous Immune Globulin (IVIg), also known as gammaglobulin. IVIg has been used to treat primary immunodeficiency disorders for more than 20 years, but is not currently approved for treating Alzheimer’s, one of the leading forms of dementia. More

Non-Invasive Technology Evaluated to Treat Cardiac Chest Pain
UC San Diego Health System is enrolling a small group of patients in a two-year study to examine the safety of a non-invasive cardiac shock wave procedure for patients with chest pain caused by insufficient blood flow to the heart. Angina pectoris is a debilitating form of pain that affects more than ten million people in the U.S., according to the American Heart Association. Traditional angina treatments include drug therapy, angioplasty and coronary artery bypass graft surgery. Despite these therapies, many patients continue to experience the squeezing pain or pressure of continual angina pectoris. More

UC San Diego Biologists Unravel Mechanisms of How Immune Cells Move
Human white blood cells navigate to and destroy bacteria by following a chemical that bacteria secrete. But less well understood are the biochemical processes within these immune cells that allow them to speed their way to bacteria and the sites of wounds and infections, often causing inflammation.  More

Suppressing Activity of Common Intestinal Bacteria Reduces Tumor Growth
A team of School of Medicine researchers has discovered that common intestinal bacteria appear to promote tumor growths in genetically susceptible mice, but that tumorigenesis can be suppressed if the mice are exposed to an inhibiting protein enzyme. The research, said lead author Dr. Eyal Raz, MD, could portend an eventual new form of treatment for people with familial adenomatous polyposis or FAP, an inherited condition in which numerous initially benign polyps form in the large intestine, eventually transforming into malignant colon cancer. More

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