UCSD neuroscientist and associate professor Dr. Mark Tuszynski received the 2001 C.U. Ariens Kappers Award from the Netherlands Institute for Brain Research.
Tuszynski received the award for his accomplishments in the areas of Alzheimer’s disease, spinal cord injuries and nervous system growth factors. He was recognized for conducting the first human clinical trial of gene therapy on an Alzheimer’s patient.
Director of the Ratner Children’s Eye Center David B. Granet was named the Inaugural Anne Ratner Endowed Chair in Pediatric Ophthalmology.
The chair, endowed by philanthropist Anne Ratner, will support teaching, research and community outreach in pediatric ophthalmology.
Ratner has donated money in the past to establish centers countywide to prevent childhood blindness and vision loss.
Professor of psychiatry and neurosciences Dr. Dilip V. Jeste was appointed to the endowed Estelle and Edgar Levi Memorial Chair in Aging.
The Levi chair was established in 1988 and it was held by professor of medicine Dr. Daniel Steinberg until his retirement in 2000.
Jeste is a specialist in geriatric psychiatry, with a focus on schizophrenia and is chief of UCSD’s Division of Geriatric Psychiatry.
Jeste is the director of UCSD’s National Institute of Mental Health-funded Specialized Mental Health Intervention Research Center on Late-Life Psychosis.
USSA opposes provision of Bush’s anti-terrorist bill
The United States Student Association, a lobbying group that UCSD’s undergraduate body passed a measure to join, has voiced its opposition to a clause of President George W. Bush’s administration’s anti-terrorist legislation.
This bill would, according to the USSA, allow the attorney general or the secretary of education to gain access — without judicial oversight — to all college records of students suspected of involvement in terrorism.
Julia Beatty, the USSA national president, considers this an opportunity for racial profiling of students of Middle Eastern and South Asian descent.
President Bush himself has asked the American public not to discriminate against anyone because of ethnicity or religion. The USSA argues that this bill allows that.
The USSA is launching a telephone campaign Sept. 25 for students to lobby their legislators against the bill.
UCSD fraternity raises over thousands for N.Y. firefighters
UCSD’s Pi Kappa Alpha fraternity raised over $3,100 at its Backdraft event Sept. 22, held at Sports City to aid the New York City firefighters in the relief efforts in the wake of the Sept. 11 attacks on the World Trade Center.
All of the event’s proceeds will go to the Fire Department of New York’s Widows and Children’s Fund.
This money will travel to New York City with members of the Del Mar Fire Department when they go to help the relief efforts next week. The money raised by the fraternity goes with over $20,000 raised by the Del Mar Fire Department.
The Del Mar Fire Department sent three firefighters to the event. Sports City offered donations, and Kinko’s Copies offered a discount for their services to the fraternity.
Alzheimer’s research consortium receives $54 million grant
The National Institute on Aging has awarded $54 million to a consortium of 83 centers continentwide to find improved treatments and assessment tools for Alzheimer’s disease, which affects about 4 million Americans.
The Alzheimer’s Disease Cooperative Study was formed in 1991 as a cooperative agreement between the NIA and UCSD.
The UCSD School of Medicine’s chair of the Department of Neurosciences Dr. Leon Thal is the program’s director.
The ADCS previously had a five-year grant of $27 million.
The 83 ADCS sites in the United States and Canada host clinical trials of new approaches to treating and preventing Alzheimer’s.
In the last 10 years, 13 research protocols have taken place, some with positive results now in practice.
Five new studies are planned for the next five years.
