The Chancellor’s Office has announced the 2000-2001 UCSD Equal Opportunity/Affirmative Action and Diversity Award Program recipients, who are recognized for contributing to greater diversity in UCSD’s workforce.
Individual campuswide recipients include Edward Abeyta, Bill Brophy, Marianne Clark, Davell Jackson-Brown, Kathy McKinney-Leach, Christine Moran, Rudolph Morgan, Margaret Nagase, Berry Niman, David Norros, Earlene Roper, Anthony Singleton and Jeffrey Steindorf.
Campuswide group and department recipients include the department of orthopedics, the Disability Awareness Week Planning Committee, the Early Academic Outreach Program, the Small Business Vendor Fair Team, the UCSD Early Childhood Education Center Teaching Staff and the Women’s Center.
The Vice Chancellor recipients were the Jacobs School of Engineering Dean’s Office, Rogers Davis, the External Relations Core Values Task Force, Ellen Beck and the Medical Students Team. The Medical Students Team consisted of Delia Talamantez, Patricia Jordan and Loren Thompson.
The awards will be presented during a ceremony Nov. 29 at 2 p.m. in the Price Center Ballroom.
Ability of peptides to prevent infection discovered at UCSD
Peptides known for 20 years to possess anti-microbial properties have finally been proven to serve as a natural defense against bacteria by researchers from UCSD and the Veteran Affairs San Diego Healthcare System.
The findings may lead to the creation of better treatments and drugs to fight bacterial infections.
The researchers studied the growth of microbes in relation to the presence of cathelicidins: peptides that are located in various mammal tissues, including white blood cells.
Richard Gallo, UCSD associate professor of medicine and pediatrics and chief of the dermatology section at the VA hospital at UCSD, served as senior author of the research, which appears in the Nov. 22, 2001 issue of Nature.
Funding for the research was provided by the National Institutes for Health and the Department of Veterans Affairs.
Takaaki Ohtake, Xavier Lauth, Janet Trowbridge, Vasumati Pestonjamasp, Jennifer Rudisill, Robert A. Dorschner, Joseph Piraino and Kenneth Huttner contributed to the research and article.
UCSD researchers photograph brain nerve cells in action
For the first time, images showing the formation of temporary and permanent memory connections in human brain cells have been produced by scientists from UCSD’s divisions of biology and physical sciences. The images show structural changes in neurons that occur when both short- and long-term memory information is stored.
The experiments focused on the hippocampus, which is the portion of the brain that stores memory. Electrical impulses were sent to this region to cause nerve cells to make connections, which were then filmed.The findings of the experiments appear in the Nov. 30 issue of Cell.
Michael A. Colicos served as the paper’s lead author. Yukiko Goda led the research team comprised of Michael J. Salior and Boyce E. Collins. Grants from the National Science Foundation and the National Institute of Health partially financed the research.
UC Alumni Network to honor San Joaquin civic leaders
The contributions to higher education made by Hubett and Susan Walsh and State Sen. Jim Costa will be recognized Nov. 30 at the fourth annual Fall Banquet of the San Joaquin Valley University of California Alumni Network in Atwater, Calif.
Hubett Walsh, a graduate of UC Berkeley, was selected for his work as a civic leader in Madera County. He is currently the mayor of Merced, Calif., and the director of Madera County Social Services. Walsh has served as chair of Merced’s Affordable Housing Task Force and as president of the United Way Board of Directors.
Susan Walsh, a UC Davis graduate, is the director of the Learning Resources Council and director of the Title V, Activity II grant. She has continuously supported the development of Merced College, where she is an adjunct faculty member.
Costa has served as the state senator from the 16th District since 1994. In that time, he has been an advocate for the creation of UC Merced. Costa also led the effort to build the UC San Francisco Medical Education and Research Center located in Fresno, Calif.
