UC Riverside named nationally recognized astrophysicist France A. Cordova as its chancellor April 9.
Cordova, who currently serves as vice chancellor for research at UC Santa Barbara, was appointed by the UC Board of Regents, who convened a special meeting via telephone conference call. The regents acted on a recommendation from UC President Richard C. Atkinson. The appointment is effective July 1, 2002.
The appointment makes Cordova the seventh chancellor of UC Riverside. She will succeed Raymond L. Orbach as chancellor and will earn $265,200 per year, the same salary as Orbach received.
Prior to coming to UCSB in 1996, Cordova worked as NASA’s chief scientist. She has also headed the department of astronomy and astrophysics at Pennsylvania State University and has served as the deputy group leader of the Space Astronomy and Astrophysics Group at Los Alamos National Laboratory.
Cordova was selected for the position after a national search that included more than 200 candidates.
Literature student receives grant for women’s studies
Liberty Smith, a Ph.D. candidate at UCSD in literature, is one of 15 Ph.D. candidates to receive the Woodrow Wilson Dissertation Grant in Women’s Studies for 2002.
Smith, whose proposed dissertation title is “”Relations of Power: Femme/Butch Articulations with the Political,”” will receive a $3,000 grant to cover travel and research expenses connected to the dissertation.
In addition to this award, Smith has also received the Humanities Research Assistantship in both 1998 and 1999, the Tinker Field Research Grant in 2000 and the Harvey Milk/Tom Honann Scholarship in 2001.
The Woodrow Wilson National Fellowship Foundation is funded by the Ford Foundation. The Women’s Studies Dissertation Grants look for topics regarding original and significant research about women that crosses disciplinary, regional or cultural boundaries. The funded dissertations are both national and international in scope.
The women’s studies dissertation grants have funded more than 450 dissertations since its inception in 1974. The program was the first in the nation to support doctoral work in women’s studies.
24th annual cultural celebration to be held April 13
The 24th annual Cultural Kaleidoscope celebration will be held from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. on April 13 at Thurgood Marshall College. Admission is free and open to the public.
The event will include music, dance, art, crafts, ethnic cuisine and games from around the world. The Cultural Kaleidoscope will also feature a children’s village with clowns, llama rides, face painting, storytelling and other activities for children.
The TMC scholarship fund will benefit from a raffle that will give people a chance to win a television, DVD player, mountain bike, dinner for two, Padres tickets and other prizes.
Cultural Kaleidoscope is presented by the ASUCSD and the TMC dean of student affairs.
For more information, call (858) 534-4390 or visit the Web site at http://marshall.ucsd.edu/celebration12.html.
Paper tests show evidence of Alzheimer’s before it develops
Researchers at UCSD’s Alzheimer’s disease Research Center have found that “”paper-and-pencil”” neuropsychological tests administered to subjects averaging 75 years of age showed signs of cognitive decline in those subjects who later developed Alzheimer’s disease.
The research looked at results from 40 participants in a long-term study and found that the tests contained subtle evidence of the onset of cognitive decline.
While all subjects were symptom-free at the time of testing, 20 of them were diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease within two years of testing, while the other 20 remained symptom free. The researchers used the 20 symptom free subjects as a control for the experiment.
The study was funded with support from the Veterans Administration, Veterans Medical Research Foundation and the National Institute on Aging.
