March 19, 2018
March 19, 2018 —
Each year people all over the world die from the flu. To protect against influenza epidemics and their potentially mortal results, medical professionals encourage vaccination. While generally effective for healthy individuals, vaccinations are less effective for the elderly, the immunocompromised and other high-risk groups. For the healthy, getting a shot doesn’t necessarily mean that you won’t get the flu since current vaccinations are not full-proof. But now there’s hope.
February 15, 2018
February 15, 2018 —
Four early-career scientists at UC San Diego have been recognized for their outstanding promise in the fields of physics and computational & evolutionary molecular biology as 2018 Sloan Research Fellows.
February 13, 2018
February 13, 2018 —
Armed with skill, special tools and light, University of California San Diego Associate Professor Neal Devaraj and a group of his chemistry graduate students activated cellular gene expression with unique precision. By modifying messenger RNA (mRNA)—a group of molecules that carries genetic information from DNA to ribosomes where specifications of gene expression occur—the chemists were able to precisely trigger gene expressions at a specific time and place using laser light. This novel technique will ease future studies of individual protein functions in cells or tissues at different stages of biological development.
February 7, 2018
February 7, 2018 —
The University of California San Diego’s American Chemical Society-Student Affiliates (ACS-SA) recently earned both Outstanding Chapter and Green Chapter awards for academic year 2016-2017. The national ACS Committee on Education reviewed chapter reports from across the nation and its territories to determine which programs and activities deserved recognition in three categories: outstanding, commendable and honorable mention. It also recognized chapters that complete green chemistry activities—those that minimize the use and production of hazardous substances. UC San Diego was among the 52 outstanding student chapters and one of 56 green chapters recognized. More than 300 organizations were considered for the awards.
January 9, 2018
January 9, 2018 —
University of California San Diego scientists used ultrafast lasers and supercomputers to develop a new method to probe electron charge transfer at the interface between organic semiconductors and metal surfaces. The UC San Diego research by Department of Chemistry faculty Wei Xiong and Francesco Paesani, plus two graduate students and a postdoctoral fellow, marks the first time that this novel direct charge transfer mechanism was measured in energy systems such as solar cells and photovoltaics—materials that involve the conversion of light into electricity.
December 20, 2017
December 20, 2017 —
University of California San Diego researchers in the Department of Physics have shed light on the formation of supermassive black holes and galaxies. The research by Professor Shelley Wright, graduate student Andrey Vayner and their colleagues outlines the physics surrounding the formation of black holes and galaxies, improving scientific understanding of how the two grow in unison. Their findings, published in the December 2017 issue of Astrophysical Journal directly impact theoretical work on supermassive black holes’ and galaxies’ formation and evolution through cosmic time. Their work also provides important new clues on how black holes impact the star formation history of galaxies.
December 13, 2017
December 13, 2017 —
On behalf of collaborators at institutions world-wide, UC San Diego recently signed a contract for the design and construction of a state-of-the-art millimeter wave telescope for the Simons Observatory. The telescope is the first of several which will be located in the high Atacama Desert of Northern Chile in 2020. At an elevation of 5,200 meters—or 17,000 feet—above sea level, it’s an ideal location to survey the universe. As part of the Simons Observatory team of researchers from 35 member institutions, UC San Diego Department of Physics’ Professor Brian Keating and Assistant Professor Kam Arnold will have access to this instrument to study Cosmic Microwave Background (CMB).
December 4, 2017
December 4, 2017 —
State Governor Edmund G. “Jerry” Brown and First Lady Anne Gust Brown, in partnership with the California Museum, recently announced inductees of the 11th Class of the California Hall of Fame. Among the new members is Mario Molina, the University of California San Diego’s Distinguished Professor in the Department of Chemistry and Biochemisty who won the 1995 Nobel Prize in Chemistry, along with Scripps Institution of Oceanography Emeritus Professor Paul Crutzen, for research on the formation and decomposition of ozone. Molina and eight others will be inducted into the state’s hall of fame during an official ceremony in Sacramento at the California Museum, Tuesday, Dec. 5, at 7 p.m.
December 3, 2017
December 3, 2017 —
Two full-time University of California San Diego faculty members — Don Cleveland, who studies fundamental cellular mechanisms in the search for new treatments for diseases like amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), and James McKernan, a mathematician who investigates algebraic geometry and multivariate polynomials — are recipients of the 2018 Breakthrough Prize, along with Joanne Chory, a plant biologist at Salk Institute for Biological Studies and adjunct professor in the Division of Biological Sciences at UC San Diego.
