Renovation of UCSD’s main sewer line will require closing the intersection where Medical Center Drive West crosses Medical Center Drive South. Construction is expected to continue through June 20.
The office of facilities design and construction recommends that hospital deliveries be detoured through Health Sciences Drive. Access to Thornton Hospital and parking lots 751, 752 and 753 are not expected to be affected by the closure.
The intersection will close to allow access for the contractors to tunnel under Interstate 5 to the Veterans Administration Medical Center. Manholes and larger sewer pipes will be installed as part of the project.
American Thoracic Society honors medicine professor
The American Thoracic Society has awarded John West, UCSD professor of medicine, the Edward Livingston Trudeau Medal for his work regarding the control, prevention and treatment of lung disease.
West is an expert in respiratory physiology, a field in which he has done research on pulmonary circulation and gas exchange. Throughout his career, which spans over four decades, West has worked with mountain climbers and astronauts.
West has done research on the effects high altitude has on the lungs with climbers in the Himalayas and at the summit of Mount Everest. More recently his experiments regarding weightlessness have been conducted at the International Space Station.
Throughout his career West has published 20 books and more than 400 articles. Currently, he serves as editor in chief of High Altitude Medicine & Biology.
West’s current project involves alleviating hypoxia in in astronomers who work in the Chilean Andes.
The medal will be presented to West at the International Conference of the American Thoracic Society this May.
UCSD-TV gets money for prenatal health programs
UCSD-TV has announced that it will produce educational programming on preconception and prenatal health in conjunction with the March of Dimes and the state of California.
UCSD-TV received $300,000 from the San Diego Chapter of the March of Dimes to produce the programming, which will appear in broadcast and webcast through the California Distance Learning Health Network.
Doctors from the UCSD School of Medicine will address important preconception and prenatal care concerns with other health care specialists.
Some programming will be in Spanish and will focus on folic acid needs for women of child-bearing age. A folic acid deficit can cause neural tube defects in babies. Such defects occur in Latinas at three times the average rate.
The programming will be completed in March 2003.
Other topics to be addressed in the videos include prenatal substance a prevention and intervention, indications for genetic screening and nutrition.
Associate librarian appointed to oversee technical services
The UCSD Libraries have appointed Luc Declerck as associate university librarian for technology and technical services.
Prior to coming to UCSD, Declerck has served as the systems services and operations manager at the University of Victoria Libraries in British Columbia, Canada.
Declerck has a master’s degree in library science from the University of Western Ontario.
