Former student suspected of string of bank robberies

UCSD graduate Steven Kang was arrested as a suspect in a series of bank robberies on April 17, according to San Diego police.

The 25-year-old economics major was arrested after a bank teller at the San Diego National Bank in Clairemont recognized Kang from wanted posters.

Police notices described the suspect in a string of five San Diego-area holdups as the “Meal Time Bandit” for the times at which he allegedly robbed banks, according to reports.

Kang is suspected of robbing two Mira Mesa banks on March 31. In both cases, the suspect was described as wearing sunglasses and a visor and seen driving away in a black Lexus, according to police. Kang was arrested on April 17 after leaving the Clairemont bank in a black Lexus.

Kang had previously been arrested on April 2 in Las Vegas after a bank employee saw him holding a demand note as he stood in line, police said. He pleaded guilty to a Nevada state charge, according to police, but was sentenced to probation as a first-time offender.

UCAB says student orgs may have to share new offices

In light of the advancing Price Center and Student Center expansion, the allocation of office spaces for various student organizations was discussed at the University Centers Advisory Board meeting on April 19.

The expansion plan called for 84 new office spaces for student organizations, including Student Affirmative Action Committee, Greek organizations,and SRTV, among others.

Due to the limited amount of new space in the expansion plan, UCAB officials are in discussion with various student organizations that may have to double or triple up to share the new office spaces, according to UCAB Chair Justin Williams. The 84 spaces in the plan feature single-space offices approximately 80 square feet and double offices of approximately 120 square feet.

However, the general planning of the expansion space itself remains tentative.

Organizations in SAAC requested substantial storage space be made available in the new offices for storing equipment and supplies for events, rallies and protests, according to SAAC officials. In response to this request, UCAB is considering adding locker spaces to the expansion plan.

Aside from the additional costs of constructing the spaces, UCAB officials noted that the designation of single offices to every organization is not “space-efficient” in terms of accommodating a fair amount of space to all organizations, which vary widely in membership size.

UCSD professors elected to Nat’l Academy of Sciences

The National Academy of Sciences elected two UCSD professors, a biologist and a physicist, for membership in the academy on April 20.

M. Brian Maple, a physics professor and director of UCSD’s Institute for Pure and Applied Physical Sciences, and Charles S. Zuker, professor of biology and neurosciences, were elected into the academy “in recognition of their distinguished and continuing achievements in original research.”

They were elected with 72 new members and 18 foreign associates from 13 countries.

Their election brings the number of current UCSD faculty who are members of the National Academy of Sciences from 69 to 71. UCSD is ranked seventh in the nation in the number of academy members.

The National Academy of Sciences was established by Congress in 1863 to serve as an official adviser to the federal government on matters of science and technology.

Founding dean listed among ‘most important Hispanics’

Eduardo R. Macagno, founding dean of UCSD’s division of biological sciences, has been named one of the nation’s “50 Most Important Hispanics in Business and Technology” by Hispanic Engineer and Information Technology.

The journal’s top-50 list for 2004 was selected from hundreds of submissions from the nation’s highest-achieving Hispanic executives, managers and researchers in industry, government and academia.

Macagno, who emigrated from Argentina in his youth, earned a doctorate in physics from Columbia University, but became interested in neurobiology during his post-doctoral research and switched fields. He taught at Columbia University until 2001, when he came to UCSD. He holds the Richard C. Atkinson Chair in Biology at UCSD. He is renowned for his studies of the mechanisms of growth and development of the nervous system, and he still maintains an active research laboratory.