Eight commencement ceremonies will be held to honor graduates June 16 through June 17.
Dr. Hunter “”Patch”” Adams, M.D., is scheduled to speak at the all-campus commencement at 12:30 p.m. on June 17.
Each of the five colleges will also hold its ceremonies on June 17. Speakers include two local authors and a number of graduating seniors.
Marshall and Muir colleges will begin their ceremonies at 8:30 a.m. Roosevelt college’s commencement will begin at 9 a.m., and Warren and Revelle colleges’ will begin at 3 p.m.
The Graduate School of International Relations and Pacific Studies will hold its commencement ceremony at 11 a.m. on June 16 with Lael Brainard, former deputy director of the National Economic Council, delivering the commencement address.
At 2 p.m. on June 16, the Teacher Education Program will hold its commencement ceremony. Mary L. Walshok, dean of the University Extension, will speak at the event.
Davis Announces Grant for New UC Merced Campus
Gov. Gray Davis announced May 30 that a grant of $2 million from the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation for Habitat Preservation for the site of UC Merced.
The grant will provide funds to allow UC Merced to acquire and manage 5,750 acres of vernal pool habitat destined to be preserved as a part of the campus.
UC Merced currently employs almost 65 educators and professionals. The main campus in Merced is scheduled to open in fall 2004 and will enroll 1,000 students. In the coming decades, the campus is expected to serve 25,000 students.
UC Merced contributes to the educational access of the San Joaquin region with special education and outreach centers.
A new UC Merced center will open in Modesto this year.
‘Listening to San Diego’ Conference to Be Presented
The San Diego Regional Studies Network will present “”Listening to San Diego”” on June 9. The program is the second in a series designed to bring together scholars and citizens for discussion and to raise consciousness about a variety of San Diego issues.
The conference, which will be held June 9 at the Price Center Theater from 8:30 a.m. to 1 p.m., will include a panel discussion and break-out workshop sessions led by San Diego researchers and community leaders.
Topics will include neighborhood-oriented policing, animating democracy, the Intergroup Relations Project, civic journalism, the Oral History project, religious groups and civic engagement in San Diego.
The San Diego Historical Society and UCSD’s Civic Collaborative joined forces earlier this year to establish the SDRSN.
On Feb. 20, the group presented a 120-page directory of San Diego County Historical references.
UCSD Researchers Trace Residues of Explosives
Chemists at UCSD have developed a silicon polymer “”nanowire,”” 2,000 times smaller than the diameter of a human hair, which can detect trace amounts of TNT and picric acid, both of which are commonly used in terrorist bombs.
The discovery was detailed in the June 1 issue of the German chemistry journal Angewadte Chemie.
With professor WiIllian C. Trogler’s assistance, Honglae Sohn, a postdoctoral student in Trogler’s laboratory, produced the silicon polymer and discovered that it can detect explosives.
The silicon polymer is a sensitive tool that can be used to combat terrorist attacks and locate unexploded bombs and mines.
The polymer is a long string of silicon atoms surrounded by organic molecules, and it conducts electricity and glows under ultraviolet light due to a property known as bioluminescence.
The polymers might be used to detect TNT leaking from old, unexploded bombs in sea water, such as those now littering the reefs on Kahoolawe in the Hawaiian Islands.
