UCSD sponsors events in honor of César E. Chávez

In celebration of César E. Chávez, UCSD will sponsor several events throughout the month, and events are free to the UCSD community. On April 8, there will be exhibits of grassroots art and music at Cross-Cultural Center at 6 p.m.

Chicano Visual Culture seminars will explore different topics such as “Male Crisis: Masculinity, Power, & Chicana/o Art,” and “Native Body in Chicana/o Art.”

Throughout the month, there will also be discussion panels and other events featuring poets and writers. On April 16, there will be a discussion called “Higher Education, Access and Equity for Students from Immigrant/Migrant Workers’ Families.” The event, which takes place from 11:30 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. at Cross-Cultural Center, features attorneys specializing in immigration laws and education advocacy issues. On April 20, poet and writer Jimmy Santiago Baca will perform at Mandeville Recital Hall at 7 p.m.

The month of celebration will end with UCSD Raza Awareness Week, starting May 3.

A complete list of the events is available at http://blink.ucsd.edu/Blink/External/Topics.

Jane Goodall to receive award at Scripps on April 30

The Scripps Nierenberg Prize for Science in the Public Interest will be awarded to primatologist Jane Goodall in a ceremony in front of Scripps Institution of Oceanography on April 30 at 7:15 p.m. Goodall will be awarded $25,000 and a medal in recognition of her work studying chimpanzees and raising awareness on the relationships between animals and humans. The ceremony will be followed by a free public presentation called “Reasons for Hope” and a book signing with Goodall.

Goodall’s research in East Africa explores the evolutionary past of humans. She has worked under the mentorship of anthropologist and paleontologist Dr. Louis Leaky, and has traveled to Tanzania, Africa, to study wild chimpanzees in the Gombe Stream Reserve. Goodall found that chimps, who were previously thought to be vegetarians, were actually meat eaters. She also observed the chimpanzees’ abilities to make tools and documented the social organization of the animals in the wild.

Goodall earned a doctorate in ethnology from Cambridge University. She created the Jane Goodall Institute in 1977, a non-profit organization that helped establish a worldwide network of individuals working on preserving ecosystems through education and conservation programs.

Past winners of the Nierenberg Prize for Science in the Public Interest include Walter Cronkite and Jan Lubchenco. The award is named for William Nierenberg, a renowned scientist who was the director of the Scripps Institution of Oceanography from 1965 to 1986.

Dynes will introduce new UCSD chancellor on April 12

UC President Robert C. Dynes will formally introduce Marye Anne Fox to the public as the person he has chosen to serve as the next UCSD chancellor at a press conference on April 12. The press conference, which will begin at 4 p.m., will also be a Webcast.

The announcement will take place after the UC Board of Regents meeting on the same day to take action on Dynes’ recommendation. Dynes first announced his decision to recommend Fox on April 2. Fox currently serves as the chancellor of North Carolina State University.

Program allows undergrad research in international labs

UCSD undergraduate students will be given the opportunity to live and research during the summer at leading technology laboratories in Japan, Taiwan and Australia as part of a three-year program, Collaborative Undergraduate Experiences. Funded by the National Science Foundation, the program will receive $156,000 to help prepare U.S. engineers and scientists by working in international projects.

Students in the program will work with two mentors, one from UCSD and one from another country. Participants will spend the summer at an international institution and participate in meetings and presentations of the projects. The institutions will allow the students to work in various fields including cyberinfrastructure, earthquake engineering, and structural biology.

Recruitment for the program begins April 8 starting with an orientation session from 5 p.m. to 6:30 p.m. at the Provost’s Conference Room in Sixth College. Applicants must be full-time UCSD undergraduate students with U.S. citizenship and a minimum 3.0 grade point average. Deadline for the applications is April 30 and students accepted to the program will be notified by mid-May.