In response to dramatic changes in California’s economy and demographics, UCSD recently established an academic initiative called California Cultures in Comparative Perspective.
The new program, which will be led by sociologist and award-winning scholar David Pellow, is designed to explore the range of implications emerging from the new demographic realities in California. The program will also compare cultural perspectives in terms of race and ethnicity, culture, nation, space and time.
CCCP will organize seminars and symposia, produce working papers and seek funding for research and teaching. In addition, CCCP will develop a series of community-university collaborative initiatives, which will conduct groundbreaking research between lay and academic experts on issues confronting California’s older and emerging communities.
Pellow also plans to build on UCSD’s Academic Internship Program by including a California Cultures component that links students with paid and volunteer opportunities in community-based, non-profit organizations in immigrant communities.
UC grant to examine border AIDS epidemic
The UC’s system-wide AIDS research program has awarded a three-year, $425,000 grant to Entre Fronteras, the center for Latino HIV/AIDS research located at San Diego State University.
Entre Fronteras is an emerging research center dedicated to the study of HIV and AIDS among Latino populations along the California-Mexico border.
The goals of Entre Fronteras include strengthening research in understudied Latino populations by building community partnership. The project will also work to promote research training and provide mentoring opportunities for minority investigators.
The project also aims to improve research and prevention activities, as well as to collaboratively develop research efforts designed to help policymakers and health care professionals advance the prevention and control of HIV/AIDS in Latino populations along the California-Mexico border.
SIO professor wins award for diving achievements
Scripps Institution of Oceanography professor Paul Dayton has been awarded the 2002 American Academy of Underwater Sciences Scientific Diving Lifetime Achievement Award.
Dayton is receiving the award for more than 30 years of scientific contributions to biological oceanography and marine ecology.
As a biological oceanographer at Scripps, Dayton researches coastal and estuarine habitats, including seafloor, or benthic, and kelp communities, as well as global fisheries. He has conducted investigations in several parts of the world, including spending more than 50 months in McMurdo Sound, Antarctica and performing research during more than 500 dives under the ice.
The scientific papers that resulted from these research projects are thought to have set the standard for Antarctic undersea ecology.
The Aquarium of the Pacific in Long Beach, Calif., also recently honored Dayton with an Award for Merit for outstanding scientific research and for his work in management and policy. Dayton is a member of the Ecological Society of America and the American Society of Naturalists, and he is both a member and a fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science. In 1990, President George H.W. Bush appointed him a member of the U.S. Marine Mammal Commission.
Roosevelt squad wins annual College Bowl
The top two teams from every UCSD college fought to win the College Title and Trophy as part of UCSD’s College Bowl on Nov. 20 in Price Center Theater.
Eleanor Roosevelt College’s Pre-med team of Tyrone Tallie, Dean Hu, Eric Chan and Jonathan Yee won first place at the event.
In second place was “”Las Candelas de Jesus”” of John Muir College. The team consisted of Nick Lieberknecht, Paul Zank, David Hughes and Sean Powell.
The overall top individual scorers from the all-campus competition will form the UCSD team and compete at the regionals at Cal State Fresno from Feb. 21 to Feb. 23. The members of that team will be Tallie, Kimberly Kondratieff, Chris Parsons, Matthew Gardner and Powell.