In the northern fjords of Iceland, during the darkest days of the year, Rachel Beetz set out to capture the movement of the stars. Every night for 30 days—one moon cycle—she positioned her camera to take a long exposure photograph. The patterns of movement, or “star trails,” would become her launching point for composing a new piece of music.
Universities have used endowed faculty chairs for more than 500 years to recognize, recruit and retain the world’s top scholars. Faculty fellowships, similarly, honor junior faculty who show capacity for great distinction in their research. Both honors provide a perpetual source of funds to support scholarly work, and they can play an important role in attracting and retaining academic leaders. To help the campus stay competitive, Chancellor Pradeep K. Khosla recently launched the UC San Diego Chancellor’s Endowed Chair and Faculty Fellowship Challenge.
UC San Diego Division of Social Sciences alumna Helen Griffith had little interest in a career in education when she came to campus as a transfer student. There was no way, she said, she would work around the clock like her mother did as a teacher and principal, but one thing stuck: a passion for reading and, hand-in-hand, libraries. She grew up loving the iconic Geisel library at UC San Diego.
On February 24, the University of California, San Diego Library will sponsor Correcting the Course on Climate Change Negotiations: the Road from Paris COP21, featuring climate change policy expert David Victor and students Joaquin Vallejo and Shayla Ragimov, who attended COP21, and will provide their insights on the process and the outcome. The event is free and open to the public and will be held at 5:30 p.m. in the Seuss Room in Geisel Library.
The University of California, San Diego is not short on big ideas. Just ask Craig Callender, chair of the Department of Philosophy, who was recently featured in San Diego Magazine’s “Big Ideas” feature for his vision to establish the Institute of Practical Ethics on campus. Callender conceptualizes UC San Diego as a leading center for ethical science; to realize that vision, the philosophy department now offers a new minor program in bioethics, with its first students enrolled this winter quarter.
A 2013 University of California, San Diego M.F.A. graduate in acting, Ngozi Anyanwu, has won the inaugural Humanitas Prize for “Good Grief,” a play about a first-generation Nigerian girl dealing with love and loss in a small Pennsylvania town. Chosen from more than 230 submissions, “Good Grief” will be presented in staged readings Feb. 12-14 at the Humanitas Play Festival in Culver City.
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