Several years ago, municipal law attorney Michael Estrada, ’79, would never have guessed that he would be digging ditches in Appalachia with a group of 18 to 23 year olds, but sometimes life takes you where you least expect it.
George Mandler – founding chair of the University of California San Diego’s Department of Psychology and one of the central figures in psychology’s cognitive revolution – died in his Hampstead, London home on May 6, 2016. He was 91.
The unorthodox historian and journalist, Tom Segev, has been intrepid in exploring and illuminating the tortured history of Israel and the Holocaust, often exposing painful truths that many would rather not have to grapple with. Born in Jerusalem to parents who fled Nazi Germany, Segev is a leading figure among the so-called “New Historians” of Israel, who have continued to challenge many of the nation’s traditional narratives or “founding myths.”
The University of California San Diego’s Division of Arts and Humanities significantly increased its presence on the recently released list of 2016 – 2017 Hellman Fellowships, a university program designed to provide financial support to promising faculty for activities that enhance progress toward tenure. Last year’s divisional recipients included an associate professor from the Department of History, but this year four junior faculty earned recognition. Making up one-third of the 12 awardees, they are: Amy Marie Cimini, Department of Music; Deborah Isobel Stein, Department of Theatre and Dance; Matthew Werner Vitz, Department of History; and Alena Williams, Department of Visual Arts.
Researchers at the Kavli Institute for Brain and Mind at UC San Diego have developed a technique for imaging brain activity in a freely walking fruit fly. Working with one of the most common model organisms in science, the team shows for the first time what goes on in the brain of the fly during courtship – when it’s unrestrained.
The Pacific island country Palau has released a Monitoring, Control and Surveillance (MCS) Plan to combat illegal activity and manage emergency responses in its ocean waters, which are protected by a recently established national marine sanctuary. Researchers at Scripps Institution of Oceanography at the University of California San Diego were key contributors to the plan.