News Archive

December 15, 2017 — The San Diego Chapter of the ARCS Foundation has awarded a total of $232,500 to 31 graduate students at the University of California San Diego. The annual fellowship awards recognize exceptional students in the natural sciences, engineering and medicine.

November 16, 2017 — Physiologist John B. West, M.D., Ph.D., can claim many firsts during his career at the University of California San Diego. He was one of the first faculty members hired at the School of Medicine, in 1969. He was the first to take physiological measurements at the summit of Mt. Everest—a dataset that has yet to be replicated. He wrote the textbook, now in its 10th edition, used to teach respiratory physiology to medical students around the world. And he was one of the first to study the effects of gravity on the lung, collaborating with NASA on studies of astronauts in space. To continue his legacy and ensure future support for research and teaching in his field, West has made a $2 million gift to establish the John B. West Endowed Chair in Respiratory Physiology, the campus’s first endowed faculty chair in Respiratory Physiology. His gift contributes to the Campaign for UC San Diego.

October 26, 2017 — Using virtual reality to discover new drugs to treat diseases. Surfing the world to learn more about the communities of microbes that inhabit our bodies. Applying design thinking to complex problems like health care and transportation. These are just a few of the forward-thinking projects by UC San Diego researchers and entrepreneurs that were featured during a recent series of bi-coastal events to engage alumni, parents and friends in the Campaign for UC San Diego.

October 26, 2017 — Elisa Quintana didn’t always see herself becoming a NASA scientist. She had a bit of a rocky start at school before transferring to UC San Diego to study physics, where she chose astronaut and physics professor Sally Ride as her advisor. Today, this UC San Diego graduate is searching for exoplanets—planets outside of Earth’s solar system—and inspiring a new generation of students to get interested in science.

September 28, 2017 — The Center for Networked Systems (CNS) at UC San Diego established the Alan Turing Memorial Scholarship in 2015 to encourage a more diverse community in computer science education and research. The award honors the memory of Alan Turing, the mathematician and cryptanalyst who founded the field of computer science. During World War II, he devised the techniques that led to breaking codes produced by Germany’s Enigma machine—a breakthrough credited with accelerating the Allied victory by more than a year. After the war, he was persecuted for being gay. He died by his own hand in 1954.

August 10, 2017 — The University of California San Diego boasts more than 100 graduates who have gone on to work at NASA, including 38 alumni who work at SpaceX. This is the campus where Sally Ride—the first American woman in space—taught physics and where, just recently, scientists contributed to the discovery of the first-known system of seven Earth-sized planets around a single star. This rich tradition of space exploration and commitment to inspiring the next generation of scientists is one of the reasons UC San Diego was selected to send a social media ambassador to the upcoming launch of the SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket. The launch will take place on Monday, August 14 at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida.

July 17, 2017 — With the goal of accelerating research to prevent blindness, the Downtown San Diego Lions Club Welfare Foundation has made a $400,000 gift to support the UC San Diego Shiley Eye Institute’s BioBank—the largest gift the local organization has made to a single project.

June 21, 2017 — UC San Diego’s ArtPower announces its 2017-18 season, featuring more than 20 internationally renowned artists and ensembles. Now entering its 14th year, ArtPower’s robust season will mark the return of audience favorites like David Sedaris, Mecorre String Quartet and Harlem Quartet, as well as San Diego debuts by rising stars Daymé Arocena, Compagnie Hervé Koubi and Ranky Tanky.

May 4, 2017 — With a three-minute talk entitled “Using Geometry to Build Better Birth Control,” engineering graduate student Geoff Hollett took first place at the UC San Diego Grad Slam competition held April 5. Now in its fourth year, the event challenges graduate students across campus to break down their research into bite-sized, jargon-free presentations that can be enjoyed by a broad audience.

May 4, 2017 — How can California better prepare for droughts and floods? Tashiana Osborne, a graduate student at Scripps Institution of Oceanography, is studying atmospheric rivers—the primary source of rainfall in the region. These ribbons of water in the atmosphere make the difference between a prolonged dry spell and an unusually wet winter.