Muir interim provost will stay on for 2004-05 year

Susan Kirkpatrick, interim provost of John Muir College, agreed to continue to serve in her position for the 2004-05 academic year, Acting Chancellor Marsha A. Chandler announced April 28.

Kirkpatrick, a professor of literature, has worked for UCSD since 1971. She replaced Patrick J. Ledden, who passed away in October 2003, as provost.

Kirkpatrick also served as Chair of the Department of Literature from 1988 to 1991 and as Associate Chancellor from 1996 to 2000.

A campuswide search will be initiated for the next provost of John Muir College in fall 2004.

Impagliazzo wins Guggenheim fellowship

Russell Impagliazzo, a UCSD professor of computer science and engineering, was awarded a Guggenheim Fellowship on April 8 in recognition of his work on heuristics, proof complexity and algorithmic techniques.

Guggenheim fellowships are awarded to scientists, artists and scholars in the United States and Canada. This year, the annual fellowships from the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation totaled $6.9 million and were awarded to 185 out of over 3,200 applicants.

Impagliazzo, who came to UCSD in 1989, specializes in computational complexity theory. His research includes proof complexity, computational randomness, structural complexity and the theory and foundations of cryptography, in which he is focusing on methods to safely use less randomness.

Jane Goodall to be honored at Birch aquarium

Renowned primatologist Jane Goodall will be awarded the Nierenberg Prize for Science in the Public Interest during a ceremony at the Birch Aquarium on April 30.

Goodall will be presented with a medal and $25,000. The ceremony, which will start at 7:15 p.m. in front of the aquarium, will be followed by “Reasons for Hope,” a free public presentation and a book signing with Goodall.

The award honors William A. Nierenberg, who served as director of Scripps Institution of Oceanography from 1965 to 1986.

Goodall began to observe wild chimpanzees in th 1960s when she traveled to Tanzania. She discovered that chimpanzees, who were previously thought to be herbivores, were in fact omnivores. She also witnessed their ability to make tools, which challenged the prior belief that this ability distinguished humans from animals. Documenting the behavior of chimpanzees in the wild, Goodall was able to point out their social hierarchy and later discovered that chimpanzees engage in primitive warfare.

Since then, Goodall has founded the Jane Goodall Institute, a worldwide network of individuals committed to promoting healthy ecosystems and sustainable livelihoods.

Scripps scientist finds one of Earth’s earliest lifeforms

A team of international scientists, including a scientist from Scripps Institution of Oceanography, have identified what is believed to be one of Earth’s earliest forms of life.

The team of scientists from Norway, Canada and South Africa, as well as Hubert Staudigel of Scripps, found microscopic life colonized in ancient volcanic lava dating back nearly 3.5 billion years. The findings were reported in the April 23 edition of Science.

In 2001, Staudigel and his colleagues documented how microscopic organisms smaller than the width of a human hair are able to eat their way into volcanic rock to form long tubes. The new study describes a similar finding in the Barberton Greenstone Belt, a region several hundred miles east of Johannesburg, South Africa. According to the scientists, the discovery proves that microbial processes that can be seen today also occurred during the early stages of the Earth.

Staudigel has argued that the region’s previous geographic position in a submarine environment below the ocean floor may have provided protection from the effects of meteorites on the Earth’s surface billions of years ago.

Comedy improv group will face UCLA, UCI in ‘D-I’ battle

The Foosh, a student comedy improv group at John Muir College, will be competing in a “Division I” tournament against UCLA and UC Irvine at 7:30 p.m. on April 30 at Price Center Ballroom.

The teams will improvise skits and songs, which will be judged by professionals from San Diego TheaterSports. The winning team will be crowned UC Improv Champion.