A-Z Index | Find People

Media Highlights

June 2008

This summary highlights media placements members of the UCSC community have garnered during the month of June 2008.

National and international

Grabbing headlines around the world, planetary scientist Francis Nimmo was featured in coverage of new evidence for a giant impact that shaped the surface of Mars: Nimmo was interviewed on NPR's All Things Considered and quoted in stories in the New York Times, San Francisco Chronicle, USA Today, Santa Cruz Sentinel, Seattle Times, Arizona Republic, and Vancouver Sun, as well as U.K. papers the Times, Guardian, Herald, Daily Mail, and Telegraph, and online news from the BBC, CBC, Reuters, Scientific American, National Geographic, Science News, Sky & Telescope, and Discovery Channel.

Professor of humanities Jerome Neu was spotlighted in The Chronicle of Higher Education, which featured an interview with him about his latest book, Sticks and Stones: The Philosophy of Insults. Neu also received a favorable review in the London-based Times Higher Education magazine.

Biologists Peter Raimondi and Mark Carr were quoted in a Christian Science Monitor story about protected areas for marine life.

Assistant professor of film and digital media L. S. Kim appeared on Canada's highest-rated national morning TV news program -- CTV's Canada-AM -- to discuss the social impact of the pop culture phenomenon Sex and the City.

CBS News anchor Katie Couric featured psychology professor Campbell Leaper's study of sexual harassment among teen girls on her nightly newscast.

Adina Paytan of the Institute of Marine Sciences were featured on the NPR radio series Pulse of the Planet in a story about her work with Santa Cruz middle school students on bacteria in beach sand.

An article in New Scientist magazine about the discovery of new Earth-like planets in our galaxy included quotes from astronomer Gregory Laughlin.

Anthony Pratkanis of psychology was featured in an Associated Press article about legislative attempts to prohibit the military from using propaganda to advance its objectives -- something that has been tried before and, Pratkanis said, is difficult to implement.

Craig Reinarman was quoted in a Boston Globe article about the rising potency of marijuana, which is prompting a new round of debate about the safety of the drug.

Astronomer Douglas Lin was quoted in a New York Times article about the search for planets outside the solar system that could support life, and in a Science News article about planet formation theories.

An article in Discover magazine about ocean acidification includes quotes from James Zachos, professor of Earth and planetary sciences.

Ocean scientist Mary Silver was featured in a New Scientist article about the idea of fertilizing the ocean with iron to combat global warming.

State and regional

UCSC's popularity among prospective students was the subject of a San Jose Mercury News article, which included this sentence: "The 10 percent increase in future freshmen affirms that UCSC is being recognized for top-quality teaching and unparalleled opportunities for undergraduates to participate in cutting-edge UC research. . ."

Physicists William Atwood, Robert Johnson, and Joel Primack were featured in coverage of the launch of the GLAST space telescope in the San Jose Mercury News, Columbus Dispatch, Santa Cruz Sentinel, KSCO Radio, and KSBW TV.

Biologists with the UCSC Predatory Bird Research Group were prominent in the news again: Brian Latta in a San Diego Union-Tribune story about a proposal to remove the peregrine falcon from California's endangered species list, and Glenn Stewart in ongoing Mercury News coverage of the falcons that fledged from a nest on San Jose City Hall, one of which died; Stewart also wrote an opinion piece about that for the Mercury News.

The Sacramento Bee interviewed economist Rob Fairlie about Latino access to computers.

Physicist Alan Litke was quoted in a Voice of San Diego article about a project to study the electrical signals that send visual input from the retina to the brain.

The Los Angeles Times, The Californian, and US Fed News reported that UCSC received a National Endowment for the Arts grant to present a symposium on the work of the late poet Robinson Jeffers.

Stories in the Mercury News and Santa Cruz Sentinel about the effects of the wildfires on native vegetation quoted the Arboretum's Brett Hall. . . . A Mercury News story about the work of avant-garde theater icon Robert Lepage quoted assistant professor of theater arts Patty Gallagher. . . . And the Mercury News noted that theater arts professor Danny Scheie played three roles in the California Shakespeare Theater's season-opening production of Pericles.

Local

A Monterey County Herald columnist penned a lighthearted piece about feeling conversationally "challenged," and she had some fun with the topic of psychology professor Jean Fox Tree's research, which explores the conversational role of mutterings such as "uh" and "um."

A Good Times cover story about local scientists making a difference for ocean conservation features geologist Gary Griggs and biologist Bernie Tershy.

In the Santa Cruz Sentinel this month:
Chancellor Blumenthal was called "right for UCSC" in a very positive editorial published the morning of his inauguration. . . . Phillip Berman, professor and chair of biomolecular engineering, was quoted in a story about his work on an HIV database. . . . Sesnon Gallery curator Shelby Graham and art lecturer Don Fritz were named among the top visual artists participating in a show to support the city's Tannery Arts Center Project. . . . A story about UCSC linguistic students presenting a demo of spoken dialog systems at NASA Ames Research Center quoted adjunct associate linguistics professor Beth Ann Hockey and student Heather Mahan. . . . Economist Lori Kletzer was interviewed for a story about high levels of overtime being worked by deputies in the sheriff's office. . . . . And the paper noted that dean of humanities Georges Van Den Abbeele was awarded the 2008 Blaise Pascal Medal for Social Sciences by the European Academy of Sciences.

Back to Media Highlights index