NOVEMBER 2007 VOLUME 4 NO. 3

STRATEGIC ACADEMIC PLANNING

SAP Committee Announced; Kick-off Meeting Jump-Starts Process  

Two more major steps in UC Merced’s campus-wide academic-planning exercise have been taken in the last month with the announcement of a 16-member Strategic Academic Planning Committee (SAPC) on Oct. 15 and the delivery of its formal charge at the Nov. 1 kick-off meeting... [more]

UC Merced was part of the “coolest schools” ranking in the November/December issue of Sierra Magazine.

UC Merced received a mention as part of the UC system in a recent honor from Sierra, the magazine of the Sierra Club. The system was named No. 4 nationwide in a list of the “coolest” schools – schools that “get it” on environmental sustainability. UC Merced’s recognized accomplishment was the LEED Gold certification of the Central Plant. LEED certification of additional buildings is expected in the next several months, and multiple efforts toward sustainability continue in many divisions of the campus.

Sierra Magazine is available at selected newsstands, including Barnes & Noble in Merced.

Sustainability Day Celebrated With Outreach, Planning

UC Merced celebrated Sustainability Day on Oct. 24 with a compact fluorescent light bulb giveaway, a PG&E bus demonstrating energy-efficient applications, and the first-ever meeting of the Chancellor’s Advisory Committee on Sustainability. The committee includes representatives from all areas of campus and will help define goals and activities to continue UC Merced’s trajectory toward environmental sustainability. The meeting was open to the campus, and several people came to observe. Many of the committee members and other interested parties also took part in a Campus Sustainable Planning Workshop in the afternoon.

Fire Fact Sheet Sets the Record Straight

Professor Anthony Westerling of the School of Engineering cooperated with colleagues at the University of Arizona to create and distribute a fact sheet about the relationship – or, as it turns out, the lack thereof – of the recent Southern California wildfires to global climate change.

“No clear associations between temperature and wildfire occurrence in Southern California's coastal chaparral ecosystems have been demonstrated,” said Westerling and his fellow researchers in the fact sheet. “The recent and tragic Southern California fires in chaparral-dominated landscapes cannot yet be unambiguously related to climate change, given our current understanding of climate science.”

McNair Grant Supports Undergraduate Research Opportunities

The U.S. Department of Education has awarded University of California, Merced, with a Ronald E. McNair Postbaccalaureate Achievement Program grant, which should give the university at least $220,000 each year for the next five years... [more]

History in the Making: 5 Years Since UC Merced’s Founding

Where were you five years ago? A significant number of UC Merced employees were already here, celebrating the inauguration of Chancellor Carol Tomlinson-Keasey and the groundbreaking for the UC Merced campus on Oct. 25, 2002. For a trip back in time, visit the press release and photographs from that day... [more]

CAMPUS VIEWS

UC Merced’s efforts at sustainability are bringing increasing attention to the campus. View photos

About Panorama UC Merced

Panorama UC Merced is a faculty-staff publication for the University of California, Merced, that delivers news about the campus each month, during the academic year, with breaks for the holidays.

Written and edited by the UC Merced Office of Communications, the publication delivers news about campus issues and events, research highlights, UC-wide news, and people.

The deadline for submissions for each issue is 9 a.m. on the 15th of each month prior to the month of publication. For more information or to submit ideas, contact Editor Ana Nelson Shaw by e-mail at ashaw@ucmerced.edu or by phone at (209) 228-4406.

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NEWS

Campus Prepared to Celebrate Inauguration

Kang

Pomp and circumstance, prestigious researchers, collegiality among co-workers, and student performances will all play a part in the formal inauguration of Chancellor Steve Kang at 10 a.m. Tuesday, Nov. 6, in the academic quad.

The keynote speaker for the inauguration is Arno Penzias, Ph.D., the 1978 Nobel laureate in physics. Penzias is known for his research in radio communication and related areas, and he helped to pioneer a number of technological advances. He was the first to detect the cosmic microwave background radiation, which is considered important evidence for the Big Bang theory of the origin of the universe and earned Penzias the Nobel.

The inauguration program will also include addresses from UC President Robert C. Dynes and from Chancellor Kang. Musical selections will be provided by student and professional entertainers.

Faculty, staff and students are invited to the ceremony but must pick up tickets in advance at the Students First Center... [more]

PROFILE

Cars, Cows, Crops – Tracing Valley Air Pollution to its Sources

Air pollution specialist Wolfgang Rogge is tracking the sources of Valley air polution.

A particle of dust might not seem particularly special when you wipe it off your windshield or breathe it in. But a new UC Merced professor can analyze particulate pollution for distinct chemicals that show where it originated – on a cattle feed lot, from a tomato field or almond orchard, from your car or even from the exhaust of a fast-food restaurant or the burning end of a cigarette.

Professor Wolfgang Rogge joined the faculty of the School of Engineering this fall after spending 14 years at Florida International University in Miami.

Returning to California, where he earned his Ph.D. at Caltech, was particularly appropriate because two of Rogge’s recent studies address air pollution in the San Joaquin Valley... [more]

ACCOLADES

Forman to Deliver Keynote to Free Radical Researchers in Israel

Forman

Professor Henry Jay Forman of the School of Natural Sciences will travel to Jerusalem to deliver the keynote lecture at the 23rd annual meeting of the Israel Society for Oxygen and Free Radical Research at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. His lecture, “Chemical mechanisms underlying redox and electrophilic signaling,” will be delivered Dec. 9.

Newsam Wins Presidential
Early Career Award

Newsam

Professor Shawn Newsam of the School of Engineering traveled to Washington, D.C., to accept the Presidential Early Career Award in Science and Engineering at the White House on Nov. 1. Newsam was nominated for the award by the United States Department of Energy in recognition of his research work and his efforts in helping to found UC Merced. The award carries a $250,000 research stipend to be delivered over the next five years.

Computer Science and Engineering Researchers Receive Robotics Funding

Carpin

Kallman

Two members of the Computer Science and Engineering faculty, professors Stefano Carpin and Marcelo Kallman recently received $75,000 in funding from the California Institute for Technology Research in the Interest of Society (CITRIS) for their project, Robotic and Virtual Assistive Agents for Establishing the Center on Autonomous and Interactive Systems, at UC Merced. They are working on how to make robots move more like real humans and how teams of robots can cooperate with each other in complex situations like urban search and rescue.

EVENTS

Wyan’s Portraits of UC Merced Students on Display Through Dec. 22

Roger Wyan’s photos of UC Merced students on display at the Merced Multicultural Arts Center include this portrait of Bushra Islam.

An exhibition of photography by Roger J. Wyan is on display at the Merced Multicultural Arts Center through Dec. 22. The photographs depict many members of UC Merced’s inaugural class. The text accompanying each photo includes responses from the subjects about their dreams for the future.

Visit the exhibit at 646 W. Main St., in downtown Merced. It is free and open to the public.

UnityFest Celebrates Culture
with Music, Food & Fun

More than 2,000 people of all shapes, colors and sizes will take over the UC Merced campus Nov. 3 for the first-ever UnityFest. UnityFest is a joint university- community festival that aims to celebrate the diverse cultures of the Merced area with a full day of ethnic cuisine, performances, educational presentations and kid-friendly activities... [more]

Open Enrollment and Wellness Fair Nov. 5

Join Human Resources from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. Monday, Nov. 5. in the first-floor Lantern for the annual Open Enrollment and Wellness Fair. Representatives from different insurance carriers will be available to answer questions about their plans, and representatives from the Insight Employee Assistance Program will also be present. All employees are encouraged to attend.

November Frontiers Lecture on Computer Simulations vs. Reality

Sprague

The next installment in the Frontiers of Science and Engineering Lecture Series will be delivered by Professor Mike Sprague of the School of Natural Sciences on Saturday, Nov. 17. His talk, “Computer Simulations vs. the Real World,” will address the basic ideas behind the use of computers to solve mathematical models of real-world problems in engineering, physics, weather, and biology – including questions such as, “Why can't they predict the weather better?” Sprague said he will explain the need for both computer simulations and physical observations to help us understand the world we live in.

The lecture will be at 10 a.m. in the Challenger Learning Center, 3460 Challenger Way, in Atwater. It is free and open to the public.

MTS Lecture Series Continues
Through the Semester

The Mind, Technology, and Society Talk lecture series will continue at 6 p.m. Thursdays in COB 116. Topics to be covered include motion perception, motor control, motion path planning, navigation, hand movement, motion sensing, virtual characters and video games... [more]

CITRIS Research Exchange Seminar Series

The School of Engineering has been pleased to present the CITRIS Fall 2007 Speaker Series to all faculty and students at UC Merced. The Research Exchange series is a weekly roundtable of presentations and discussions that highlight ways to frame and tackle societal-scale research issues... [more]

Academic Senate Members:
Save This Date

The fall meeting of the Merced Division of the Academic Senate will take place the afternoon of Thursday, Dec. 6. In addition to routine Senate business, Senate Chairman Shawn Kantor, Chancellor Steve Kang and Systemwide Academic Senate Chairman Michael Brown will offer reports... [more]