Media Highlights
April 2009
This summary highlights media placements members of the UCSC community have garnered during the month of April 2009.
National and international
Economist Rob Fairlie's work on self-employment during recessions was featured on the New York Times' economix blog. . . . Forbes.com cited research by Fairlie on a surge in the number of new business start-ups, between 1996 and 2007. Fairlie was also quoted in an article about an increase in Summit County business license applications that appeared in Utah's Park Record.
Ongoing coverage of chemist Jin Zhang's research on gold nanospheres for cancer therapy included ABC Science (from the Australian Broadcasting Corporation), UPI, and Discovery News.
Biochemists Roger Linington and Scott Lokey were featured in a CNBC TV news story about their work at the UCSC Chemical Screening Center to evaluate compounds from marine microbes as potential treatments for cancer and other diseases.
Craig Haney of psychology remains in demand after being featured in a New Yorker magazine article about solitary confinement. He was interviewed by USC's Annenberg Radio News, and the New Yorker article was described in a lengthy Atlantic Free Press article. Most recently, he fielded media interview requests from wired.com about the psychological effects of solitary confinement, the PBS documentary program "Now" about supermax prisons and the effects of long-term isolation, and a call from the Los Angeles Times about learned helplessness. The Charlotte Observer also quoted Haney in an article about a prison inmate who suffered brain damage and paralysis while being held in solitary confinement.
A New York Times article about the shuttle mission to service the Hubble Space Telescope included quotes from astronomer and vice chancellor for research Bruce Margon.
Computer scientist Don Chamberlin was quoted on the subject of careers in science and technical fields in a New York Times article about the fallen status of careers in finance.
Development of the UCSC Cancer Genomics Browser by a team led by biomolecular engineer David Haussler was reported by the Silicon Valley Business Journal, MSN Money, Medical News Today, Genetic Engineering News, Genome Web, Medical News Net, BioSpace, and others.
Environmental toxicologist Myra Finkelstein was quoted in a story about plastic trash in the oceans in the Observer (U.K.) and New Zealand Herald.
Marine ecologist Peter Raimondi was quoted in a Scientific American article about the influence of tides on the evolution of life.
Research on prion diseases led by biochemist Glenn Millhauser was covered by the Santa Cruz Sentinel, Science Daily, BioSpace, PhysOrg, Red Orbit, Innovations Report, and Medical News Net.
Astronomer Greg Laughlin was quoted in a story about extrasolar planets in Science Daily and Red Orbit.
The Saipan Tribune quoted linguistics professor Sandra Chung, citing her work to help preserve the endangered Chamorro language, funded by a collaborative project grant from the National Science Foundation.
The Hindustan Times noted the role of UCSC's Satyajit Ray Film and Study archive in preserving and promoting the work of India's renowned filmmaker Satyajit Ray in a story about the Film Society of Lincoln Center's special series honoring Ray in New York.
Daniel Press's op-ed in the San Jose Mercury News about "green-energy scammers" peddling renewable energy certificates caught the eye of Baltimore Sun financial columnist Jay Hancock, who wrote about the topic in a recent column.
The Associated Press reported the news that professor emeritus Michael Soule was among the recipients of the first E.O. Wilson Biodiversity Technology Pioneer Awards from Montana State University.
The Philadelphia Inquirer and Copely News Service picked up stories about history alumnus Cary Fukunaga's new film, Sin Nombre.
Assistant professor of theater arts Patty Gallagher received rave reviews from the Arizona Daily Star and Tuscon Weekly for her role in the Rogue Theater's production of Virginia Woolf's Orlando.
A Science Now article about an unusual extrasolar planet included quotes from astronomers Peter Bodenheimer and Jonathan Fortney.
Environmental studies professor Steve Gliessman's work pioneering the field of agroecology was featured in an article in Vision magazine.
USAToday.com reported that humanities lecturer Gary Young received the 2009 Shelley Memorial Award from the Poetry Society of America.
Inside Higher Ed picked up the news that UCSC's veterans' programs have received a major funding boost.
State and regional
A front page story in the San Jose Mercury News focused on astronomer Steve Vogt and the new Automated Planet Finder telescope being installed at Lick Observatory. Astronomer Elinor Gates was also quoted, and UCO/Lick director Michael Bolte was interviewed about the telescope on KCBS Radio news.
Daniel Press of environmental studies published an op-ed in the San Jose Mercury News that revealed the "green-energy scam" behind renewable energy certificates.
The Los Angeles Times reviewed history alumnus Cary Fukunaga's new film, Sin Nombre, noting "there is bitter and breathtaking truth in the story and in the storytelling, which won Fukunaga--who went to college at UC Santa Cruz--the directing and cinematography award in the dramatic competition at the Sundance Film Festival." The San Diego Union-Tribune, Washington Times, East Bay Express, Contra Costa Times, and San Jose Mercury News also ran stories on Fukunaga and the film.
The San Francisco Chronicle ran a story about peregrine falcons in downtown S.F. and their fans, with quotes from Glenn Stewart of the Santa Cruz Predatory Bird Research Group.
The San Francisco Chronicle interviewed history lecturer Matthew Lasar, author of the book Uneasy Listening: Pacifica Radio's Civil War, for an article about changes and internal struggles at the Bay Area's public radio institution, KPFA.
The San Luis Obispo Tribune ran a story about alumna Reyna Grande, who won the American Book Award in 2007 for her novel Across A Hundred Mountains, which drew upon her childhood experience of being left behind in Mexico while her parents immigrated to the U.S.
San Francisco Chronicle theater critic Robert Hurwitt described the upcoming Shakespeare Santa Cruz summer season in a column on the back page of the "Datebook" arts section.
The Los Angeles Times featured an article about 1974 Cowell College graduate Lawrence Weschler and his new books on conversations with David Hockney and Robert Irwin about the creative process and the nature of art.
Local
This month in the Santa Cruz Sentinel:
Patty Gallagher, assistant professor of theater arts, was interviewed for a story about Mark Twain's The Diaries of Adam & Eve. . . . SSC artistic director Marco Barricelli and assistant theater arts professor Patty Gallagher were quoted in a review of their collaboration for a pre-season dramatic event, which was hailed as "a ribtickling success."
. . .
A community columnist noted that humanities lecturer Gary Young received the 2009 Shelley Memorial Award from the Poetry Society of America, honoring "a living American poet selected with reference to genius and need."
. . . The Cancer Genomics Browser developed by David Haussler, Ting Wang, and other researchers in the Center for Biomolecular Science and Engineering was the subject of a story. . . . There was a story about an upcoming math and science conference for middle and high school girls organized by ACE Program coordinator Nancy Cox-Konopelski. . . . A story ran on a competition to compose an "Ode to Santa Cruz," with the prize of Garrison Keillor reading the winning poem onstage at his Santa Cruz Civic performance presented by UCSC Arts & Lectures.
Computer engineer Brad Smith was featured in coverage of the Cisco-funded Network Management and Operations Lab at Baskin Engineering in the Santa Cruz Sentinel, IT World, and Internet News.
A Monterey County Herald article about the Monterey Bay National Marine Sanctuary Symposium included quotes from biologist John Pearse.
KSBSW-TV ran a feature segment on the digital arts and new media (DANM) graduate program's "Mechatronics" class, where students spent months building small robots from scratch to complete specific tasks.