UC SANTA CRUZREVIEW Spring 2011
cultivating thought, harvesting ideas From the Chancellor
Dear Friends, UC SANTA CRUZ As you read this issue of Review magazine, you’ll see that UC Santa Cruz remains REVIEW | review.ucsc.edu | Spring 2011 fertile ground for innovation and creativity. The people behind our programs are thought leaders who take the initiative, ask bold questions, and change the world. Fertile Ground I feel great pride reading these articles and seeing every day the vibrancy of our campus. Yet I must acknowledge the budgetary challenges facing the campus this UCSC provides a rich environment for far more than spring. I have real concerns about how we will retain our distinctive programs flora and fauna. It’s also a place where animated films, and nurture this unique ecosystem that encourages people to question, explore, prize-winning novels, tomorrow’s computer games— discern, and discover. and more—grow roots, emerge, and thrive. We face threats that are unprecedented in the 50-year history of California’s Master Plan for Higher Education. As you likely know, California is wrestling with a $26 billion budget deficit. The best-case scenario for the University of California will be a $500 million cut in the fiscal year that begins July 1; the Brain farm worst-case would be a cut of $1 billion. This will be the third major cut to the UCSC’s fertile environment university in the past four years. has nurtured an impressive crop If you want to learn more, I encourage you to read our campus’s coverage of a of creatives and thinkers. recent UC Regents meeting, during which I discussed the impacts on UC Santa 8 Cruz of the state’s ongoing disinvestment in the university (go to www.ucsc.edu/ budget-update and see updates from March 16). photo this page: paul schraub 45 + 5 These are serious cuts. Our challenge is to implement these budget reductions without sacrificing what matters most: the distinctive experience we offer In celebration of UCSC’s 45th anniversary, we introduce 45 successful undergraduates, the top-flight research conducted by extraordinary faculty, and and distinguished alumni—plus five more our commitment to access and diversity. recent “up-and-coming” graduates. 12 Although I am hopeful that the state of California will overcome its persistent budget problems, I do not expect the state to return to previous levels of investment in the university anytime soon. I believe the only way to maintain Phage hunters quality and access is to take our destiny into our own hands and build a long-term A unique genomics class offers vision for the future based on diminished state support. To that end, faculty and motivated freshmen the opportunity to do first-hand research. staff are joining campus leaders in an internal campus discussion beginning this 20 spring that will chart our course for the future. As we begin the five-year countdown to our 50th anniversary, we must work Sprouting harder than ever to ensure that future generations will have access to what we offer entrepreneurs at UC Santa Cruz. We owe it to our founders, our alumni, and our current and future students. OnUCSC has spawned a number of innovators with the help of world-class faculty and an environment that gives students space to follow their muses. 24
Happenings/News 3 | uncommon people 29 | alumni notes 32
UC Santa Cruz Review / Spring 2011 1 Your turn From the Editor HOT dates
What makes a place different from anywhere else? UNIVERSITY A sampling of reader reaction to recent issues of the UC Santa Cruz Review. Reunion Weekend OF CALIFORNIA E-mail us at [email protected]. You know the feeling when you’re in one of these spots: There’s a quality to SANTA CRUZ the air, an energy in the atmosphere, an aesthetic, a magnetic something that ucsc.edu/daybythebay Chancellor pulls you in. Think of a novel with a sense of place so strong that the setting Including Day by the Bay George R. Blumenthal I was so happy to see the ar- Gerald Grant and David becomes a character in its own right. ticle about art at UCSC and Riesman, in your offices and April 29–May 1, 2011 UC Santa Cruz is one of those places. Your weakness may be the redwood Vice Chancellor, have often wondered what make it required reading for Campus University Relations had become of some of the your writers and editors. groves, the rolling meadows at the base of campus, the marine layer over the Donna Murphy teachers I dealt with. Universities are subject to hills. Perhaps it’s the bustling plaza, a brilliant professor, a laboratory, a secret UC SANTA CRUZ REVIEW I was there in 1973, when I “regression toward the mean,” spot, a classroom, or some other place where youthful idealism and good ideas A Writer’s Life Spring 2011 transferred as a junior work- and radical institutions like rise to the surface. A Celebration of Writing at UCSC ing toward a B.A., mainly in the early Santa Cruz gradually Editor Maybe it’s a combination of all these ingredients. Anyone who’s spent time on writerslife.ucsc.edu Gwen Mickelson painting. At the time I was lose their distinctiveness over campus knows the feeling. just over 40 years old, so I was the years. The early Santa May 1, 2011 Creative Director close in age to the professors Cruz atmosphere cannot be It’s a place that supports an exceptionally large number of flora species, from Feedback on Lisa Nielsen in the article. recaptured, and that’s prob- native wildflowers to Douglas firs—and, of course, an organic farm and gar- Humanities 1, campus ‘Oh brother, where art Don Weygandt was my ably just as well. But it should den. But this place also encourages a strong diversity of thought. Just being up Art Director/Designer thou?’ Linda Knudson (Cowell ’76) favorite of the bunch. He had be honored. To quote Michael here encourages the mind to wander outside boundaries and across disciplines. Ed. note: We received numer- a way of making you feel as S. Brown’s letter (fall, p. 2, Something about the place encourages adventure and risk. It’s fertile ground Founders Celebration 2011 Associate Editors ous letters expressing an emo- though you were special and “Your turn”), this is “UCSC’s for the imagination. ucsc.edu/founders Robert deFreitas tional response to our story on Dan White that you had promise in what heritage and soul.” UCSC’s pioneering art professors, you were doing. —Winslow Rogers, To illustrate, we present stories about the ways UCSC has attracted and nur- October 21, 2011 Contributors “Oh brother, where art thou?,” in The whole experience at parent of current student, tured some of the most gifted creative thinkers over the years (page 8), how Founders Day Gala Dinner Vicki Bolam the fall 2010 Review (page 16), UCSC was great, and it gave me Grass Valley, Calif. it’s enriching bright young minds (page 20), and how it’s recently cultivated a Matt King including the ones below. the feeling that my need to ex- growing crop of entrepreneurs (page 24). Cocoanut Grove, Santa Cruz Guy Lasnier (Merrill ’78) press my art was a true one. Make evals Jane Liaw I especially enjoyed the fall UCSC’s founders dreamed of the campus as an experimental institution of I have long since thought student optional Scott Rappaport 2010 issue of UC Santa Cruz learning—marked by progressive, cross-disciplinary undergraduate education Scholarship Benefit Dinner Tim Stephens Review, in particular the ar- that UCSC has moved away Regarding “Narrative evalu- and innovative teaching methods. Some of the fruits of their labor— Peggy Townsend ticle about past art instructors from art, as I knew it then; it ations become instructor op- ucsc.edu/sbd Dan White evidenced in profiles of 50 of our alums—can be seen on pages 12–19. with whom I studied—in is good to know that it still tional” (spring 2010, p. 25), I February 25, 2012 Cover Photographer particular Don Weygandt. I exists there. consider this an unfortunate We can’t wait to see what blooms at UC Santa Cruz next. Matt LaFleur (Merrill ’09) am still painting and etching, — Gerald Avenmarg move, and would rather see the Fairmont Hotel, San Jose —Gwen Mickelson, exhibiting, and teaching a (Porter ’68, art) Academic Senate make narrative Produced by evaluations student optional. editor UC Santa Cruz kids’ arts and crafts workshop at the Activities Center at The article on Don, Doug, Even looking back after 28 Communications and Jack moved me to tears & Marketing Park La Brea, Calif., and I years, I can read my narrative also published an illustrated on the train this morning. evaluations and see why grad- 1156 High Street —Susan Stauber Santa Cruz, CA 95064-1077 children’s book. uate schools, and later medi- Voice: 831.459.2495 —Debora Gillman (Porter ’76, art) cal schools, recognized that I Fax: 831.459.5795 was an optimal candidate for Eye on alumni: (Porter ’74, French literature, Has UCSC lost its edge? E-mail: [email protected] art minor) their programs. Web: review.ucsc.edu In the 45th anniversary issue of 4/11 (1011-392/38M) My narrative evaluations Thank you for bringing back the Review (fall 2010), I looked would have translated into a Celebrating 45, looking forward to 50 some very fond memories of in vain for celebration of the 4.0 GPA virtually anywhere if Don Weygandt and his art unique educational experiment graded, but they would say next In celebration of the 45th anniversary of UCSC’s first class, which arrived on classes. While I did not make that UCSC represented from to nothing about me other than campus in fall 1965, we’ve produced profiles of 45 alums who are having an im- its inception. You discuss the art a career, it has remained about my academic prowess. pact on our world. In addition, we highlight five young up-and-coming alums in a very important part of my university’s founding solely in I urge the Academic Senate to anticipation of the campus’s 50th anniversary. See page 12 for the profiles. Also, life, in part due to lessons terms of the local climate, and reconsider this misguided sub- longer versions are online at 45years.ucsc.edu/plus5. learned from Prof. Weygandt’s you highlight every milestone version of UCSC’s core mission. palette. of enrollment growth. I sug- —Mark Gary Help us commemorate this important milestone! —Tom Fr ady, pioneer class gest you keep a copy of The Blumenthal (College Eight We hope you’ll feel a sense of Slug pride when you read of ’69 (psychology) Perpetual Dream (1978), by ’81, independent major) about these outstanding individuals.
2 UC Santa Cruz Review / Spring 2011 UC Santa Cruz Review / Spring 2011 3 Green and his coauthors of Prof helps the landmark paper describing Research on thin-film in major the Neanderthal genome went solar cells heats up on to receive the prestigious discovery, Newcomb Cleveland Prize Sue Carter, a UCSC professor of physics, is pursuing a vari- from the American Association ety of strategies to develop cheaper and more efficient solar wins multiple for the Advancement of Science cells. She was awarded five new grants last year totaling awards in February. Also in February, more than $1 million to fund her research on new materi- Green received a Sloan als and technologies for solar energy. This is UCSC Research Fellowship from the Carter’s research focuses on lowering the cost of solar cells Alfred P. Sloan Foundation. and reducing the energy “payback time”—how long it takes a solar cell to generate the amount of energy that was used to manufacture it. Her lab uses thin-film technolo- Lit prof’s novel gies and printable semiconductor materials that enable the gains notice production of solar cells using less material and less energy compared to standard manufacturing processes. Karen Tei Yamashita, professor of literature and co-director of the Creative Writing Program, was nominated for a 2010 National Book Award. Yamashita was one of five final- Richard E. (“Ed”) Green Six small ists in the fiction category for her novel I Hotel. planets orbiting A 30,000-year-old finger bone found in a cave in southern One of the most significant a Sun-like star Siberia came from a young girl honors in American literary amaze astronomers who was neither an early mod- life, the National Book Awards ern human nor a Neanderthal, are presented annually by the but belonged to a previously National Book Foundation. A remarkable planetary system dynamics of the system, determined “Not only is this an amazing planetary unknown group of human For more on Yamashita, Sue Carter discovered by NASA’s Kepler mission the sizes and masses of the planets, and system, it also validates a powerful new relatives who may have lived see page 10. has six planets around a Sun-like star, figured out their likely compositions— method to measure the masses of plan- throughout much of Asia dur- including five small planets in tightly all based on Kepler’s measurements of ets,” said Daniel Fabrycky, a Hubble ing the late Pleistocene epoch. Time’s White House packed orbits. the changing brightness of the host star postdoctoral fellow at UC Santa Cruz, DNA extracted from the bone A Writer’s Life (called Kepler-11) as the planets passed who led the orbital dynamics analysis. correspondent returns Astronomers at UC Santa Cruz and has yielded a draft genome se- in front of it. As part of UCSC’s 2011 Day to campus their coauthors analyzed the orbital quence, enabling scientists to by the Bay weekend, the
image left: nasa/tim pyle; photo, far right: r. r. jones reach some startling conclusions Humanities Division will host a Michael Scherer, the White House correspondent for Above: Artist’s conception of the newly discovered planetary system about this extinct branch of writing symposium on Sunday, Time magazine and a UC Santa Cruz alumnus (Oakes ’98, the human family tree, called May 1. The symposium will creative writing), returned to campus in November to It’s one thing to grouse about food So far the group has set aside $100,000 “Denisovans” after the cave feature UCSC alumni writ- describe his journey from UCSC to riding Air Force One Student-run waste, water consumption, and in- for this purpose. where the fossils were found. ers—novelists, journalists, and with the president. efficient energy use on campus. screenwriters—coming together carbon fund The Carbon Fund uses money raised The findings were reported by an Scherer had good news for the creative writing majors who for a community event to focus It’s another thing to reach into your by Measure 44, a student-approved bal- international team of scientists, attended his informal talk at Kresge College. “It’s not as fights waste, on the joys and challenges of own pocket, raise a pool of money and lot initiative that raises money through including many of the same gloomy as people tell you,” he said. Opportunities are there writing for a living, the busi- encourages help UC Santa Cruz solve the problem. a $3-per-quarter student fee. The fee researchers who earlier pub- “if you are willing to work cheap and really hard.” An enterprising group of UCSC stu- itself is not new; it has been in place lished the Neanderthal genome. ness of writing, and trends for He worked for a small New Hampshire daily newspaper green dents is doing just that with the newly since 2006, when students imposed a Coauthor Richard Green, as- the future. The event is called for a couple of years, then Mother Jones magazine in a job instituted Carbon Fund, founded last previous renewable energy ballot mea- sistant professor of biomolecular A Writer’s Life: A Celebration that didn’t pay enough to live on. A masters in journalism spring to diminish the campus’s carbon sure. Measure 44 simply redirects that engineering in the Baskin School of Writing at UCSC. from Columbia University followed, then another stint at footprint with environmentally friendly money to the Carbon Fund. of Engineering, played a lead role For information and registra- Mother Jones, a jump to Salon.com, and finally during the projects undertaken by staff, faculty, in the analysis of the genome tion, visit writerslife.ucsc.edu. 2008 presidential campaign a call to join Time in covering and students. sequence data, for which a spe- cial portal was designed on the Republican candidates. UCSC Genome Browser.
4 UC Santa Cruz Review / Spring 2011 UC Santa Cruz Review / Spring 2011 5 This is UCSC
for 2008. He is also a former Santa Cruz Friends and colleagues remembered John Laird named mayor, city councilmember, and member Zimmerman as a seasoned community or- to key post of the Cabrillo College board of trustees. ganizer with a strong sense of social justice and conflict resolution. John Laird (Stevenson ’72, politics) is “People have to engage,” said sociology the new secretary of the California Distinquished professor Paul Lubeck, who vividly re- Natural Resources Agency, which is members Zimmerman’s eager presence in charged with protecting the state’s natu- history graduate three of his classes. “They have to get out ral, historical, and cultural resources. It wins prestigious there on the ground, get out into the com- is a key position overseeing the state’s munity, go out and get their hands dirty. environment. He was appointed by scholarship He exemplified that.” Gov. Jerry Brown. Recent graduate Cynthia Thickpenny Laird is a former three-term member of won a Marshall Scholarship—one of the The Gabriel Zimmerman Scholarship Fund the state Assembly, where he served as most prestigious awards that American Moved by Zimmerman’s death, UCSC chair of the Budget Committee. The undergraduates can receive—to study at alumnus Jonathan Klein established a Alumni Associations of UC named him the University of Glasgow in Scotland. Possibly the most distant galaxy ever seen scholarship fund in the young congressio- Legislator of the Year in the Assembly “I pretty much had to pick myself up nal aide’s honor and offered an initial gift. Shakespeare off the floor when the phone call came Astronomers find from the British Consulate,” recalled In March, the fund exceeded the $50,000 Santa Cruz Thickpenny, who studied history. level needed to endow it. most distant announces Thickpenny is only the second student The Gabe Zimmerman Scholarship will galaxy candidate in the 45-year history of UC Santa Cruz provide funds for outstanding students in 30th anniversary to be honored with a Marshall; the first the Division of Social Sciences who wish yet seen to pursue public service. season was in 1969. The two-year award covers Astronomers studying ultra-deep imag- living expenses, tuition, and research For information on contributing, contact ing data from the Hubble Space Telescope Shakespeare Santa Cruz is preparing to travel expenses that come to about Marcus Frost at [email protected] or have found what may be the most distant perform its 2011 lineup as the company $36,000 per year. She plans to specialize (831) 502-7274. You may also donate galaxy ever seen, about 13.2 billion light- heads into its 30th anniversary season. in early medieval Scottish history. online; visit giving.ucsc.edu and designate years away. The study pushed the limits of The season will open with an updated ver- Gabriel Zimmerman Scholarship Fund. Hubble’s capabilities, extending its reach sion of Shakespeare’s The Comedy of Errors. Kent Nagano back to about 480 million years after the Above: Gabriel Zimmerman, enjoying a walk in Big Bang, when the universe was just 4 per- Playing in the outdoor Festival Glen will Grand Teton National Park in 2009. Rod Ogawa wins be The Three Musketeers. wins Best Opera cent of its current age. Also playing in the Glen will be Grammy lifetime achieve- “We’re getting back very close to the first
Shakespeare’s Henry IV, Part One. This will photo right: ross zimmerman; far right: nasa, esa, garth illingworth (ucsc), rychard bouwens (ucsc and leiden university) and the hudf09 team Alum who died in galaxies, which we think formed around Renowned conductor and UC Santa ment award mark the beginning of a three-year cycle of 200 to 300 million years after the Big Cruz alumnus Kent Nagano received Tucson rampage Shakespeare’s history plays known as the Rodney Ogawa, professor of education, Bang,” said Garth Illingworth, UCSC a Grammy Award for Best Opera Re- “Henriad,” which will continue in 2012 honored with was named winner of one of the most professor of astronomy and astrophysics. cording: “Saariaho: L’Amour De Loin” with Henry IV, Part Two, and conclude in prestigious awards in the field of educa- Illingworth and UCSC astronomer at the 53rd Grammy Awards. scholarship 2013 with Henry V. tion research. Ogawa is the 2010 winner of Rychard Bouwens (now at Leiden Gabriel Zimmerman, community out- the Roald F. Campbell award for lifetime The holiday show returns in 2011 after The recording with the Deutsches University in the Netherlands) led the reach director for Rep. Gabrielle Giffords, achievement by the University Council for a two-year break with A Year with Frog Symphonie-Orchester Berlin and the study. Using infrared data gathered by D-Ariz., was one of six people fatally Educational Administration. It is “probably and Toad. Rundfunkchor Berlin features sing- Hubble’s Wide Field Planetary Camera 3 ers Ekaterina Lekhina, Marie-Ange wounded in January in Tucson, Ariz., in the most prestigious award we give in our (WFC3), they were able to see dramatic For more information about the 2011 Todorovitch, and Daniel Belcher. the shooting rampage that left Giffords field,” said Alan Shoho, UCEA president. changes in galaxies over a period from Above: John Laird Shakespeare Santa Cruz season, go to critically wounded. Ogawa is a former secondary teacher who about 480 to 650 million years Below: Cynthia Thickpenny Nagano graduated with degrees in mu- shakespearesantacruz.org, or call the taught at UC Riverside before joining UC after the Big Bang. sic and sociology in 1974. This is his Zimmerman, 30, graduated from UC Santa UCSC Ticket Office at (831) 459-2159. Cruz in 2002 with a degree in sociology. Santa Cruz in 2002. He is a previous chair third Grammy Award. of UCSC’s education department.
6 UC Santa Cruz Review / Spring 2011 UC Santa Cruz Review / Spring 2011 7 by Dan White
BRAIN FARM be Prom King. In one scenario, he impresses UCSC’s fertile environment has nurtured an a classmate, Naomi, by flexing his biceps, only to blow his chances by showing off an ill-timed impressive crop of creative projects and thinkers light saber trick. “Yer weird!” Naomi declares.
UC Santa Cruz is a rich environment Or it could be the sheer beauty of who will work with players to shape In doing so, the player changes the social dy- for growing things. Coastal live oak, the campus, and the way the setting the storyline. Perhaps we’ll get closer namic of the school, but only to a point. giant slugs, raccoons, and redwoods inspires creativity. to the “holodeck,” the interactive room “You can’t make these characters do anything flourish. The campus is home to deer Here’s a quick look at some of that sent Captain Jean-Luc Picard and they don’t want to do,” Mateas says. so tame, they might come up and nip a his crew into the Wild West in Star the talents, projects, and creative Like Façade, Prom Week will be released free tortilla chip from your fingers. Organic Trek: The Next Generation. expression that have prospered at of charge. vegetables do well up here, too. UCSC. But first, a disclaimer: In 2005, a year before his arrival at But UCSC is fertile ground for far This is by no means an exhaustive list; UCSC, Mateas—along with co-creator Roots of greatness more than flora and fauna. It’s also consider it a crop sampler. Andrew Stern—solidified his reputation a place where animated films, prize- with a quirky interactive drama called American short story writer and poet Raymond winning novels, and tomorrow’s Growing games Façade. Challenging design clichés, it Carver (May 25, 1938–August 2, 1988) is considered a major American writer of the late computer games germinate and UCSC is known for an atmosphere rebelled against the idea of an “open 20th century and a force in the revitalization of thrive. Sometimes, the projects that allows creative work to happen world” game in which characters the short story in the 1980s. begin on campus. Other times, the and prosper. That’s what lured innova- range across vast spaces. Instead, university inspires projects that flourish tive game designer Michael Mateas to the action unfolds at an awkward When Carver arrived as a lecturer in 1971, elsewhere. campus. party hosted by the unhappily married the writing scene was thriving. George Grace and Trip. The player is the third Hitchcock, influential editor and founder of the These people and projects may not Now the director for UCSC’s Center wheel in their nasty disputes. literary magazine Kayak, was here. So were seem to have much in common. But for Games and Playable Media, he is authors Jim Houston and Page Stegner. all of them are connected in one planting seeds for a new generation The New York Times and Atlantic important way: of games. Instead of just preparing Monthly hailed the game’s innova- A master of dialogue, Carver turned conver- tion, including the unusual depth of Each flourished because the UCSC students for today’s gaming, he wants sations into games of misdirection. Dialogue its artificial intelligence and the fluent Above: Michael Mateas (center), associate professor of computer science, with graduate campus gave them the necessary them to look beyond the realm of zom- should be “non-sequiturs,” he told his students. language of its characters. It has much students studying computer game design in the Expressive Intelligence Studio. nutrients to thrive. bie shooters and rescue missions. Many early stories of this celebrated writer are more in common with an Edward photo, top: airphoto/david sievert; right: robinson kuntz/santa cruz sentinel “I want innovation and new experi- sad and bruising, but his brief period at UCSC Perhaps it was the presence of other Albee play than a Sylvester Stallone the campus as a place that was flexible enough Now Mateas is creating rich soil for students ences,” Mateas says. “And I want to was productive and enjoyable for him, bolster- colleagues offering inspiration and movie. to put itself at the forefront of a new field of and colleagues to grow ideas of their own, critical insight. It might have been the get those experiences into the hands study. In return, UCSC gave him the resources including a soon-to-be-released game called ing his confidence, starting lifelong friendships, “The game was a contrarian stance,” way the campus encourages people of as many people as possible.” to recruit strong faculty and establish the Prom Week, which was designed entirely and inspiring some of his early works. His Mateas says. friend and colleague, David Swanger, says to question assumptions, recognize But what does that future look like? Center for Games and Playable Media—one of by UCSC game design graduate students. Carver’s outgoing, low-key personality melded a rising talent, and draw outside Mateas believes it will be a time for Mateas was drawn to UCSC because the largest technical game research groups in Mateas and Noah Wardrip-Fruin are the de- with the writing scene on campus. disciplinary lines. “interactive dramas,” self-contained, it was creating an innovative under- the world. The campus also has fostered col- sign team’s advisors. graduate degree program—the first of social network-driven projects featur- laborations with the Art and Digital Arts and In Prom Week, players try to manipulate char- its kind in the UC system—and he saw ing fully conversational characters, New Media departments. acters including the nerdy Zack, who wants to
8 UC Santa Cruz Review / Spring 2011 UC Santa Cruz Review / Spring 2011 9 BRAIN FARM
Michael Mateas Raymond Carver Karen Yamashita Jonathan Franzen Mark Henne Shelley Stamp
“Working relationships were not bu- were neglected in film studies, in spite reaucratic, official, or competitive,” of the astonishing amount of influence says Swanger, now a UCSC profes- and creative control they had in the sor emeritus of education and creative industry. writing. “We were all starting out and But the idea took off. Since then the we were all in it together, and he was a conference, designed as an open man whose friendships counted.” and friendly place to share research Carver and Swanger frequented a and ideas, spread from Santa Cruz Santa Cruz restaurant that provided to Montreal, Guadalajara, Stockholm, free dinners to poets who read their This campus turned out to be the ideal ideals that informed the creation of the cam- Cold War era—turned his back on his career could reason about where they were and and Bologna. Another Women and the work out loud. place for her creative expression to thrive; pus can also be found in her work. and later became a UCSC math lecturer the obstacles in front of them.” Silent Screen conference is already planned while collaborating on campus musical for Melbourne, Australia, in 2013. “It was big deal for Ray and me,” Swanger UCSC’s world of ideas, and its think- “The founding history of UCSC is embed- Her ideas influenced Henne, who still thinks productions. The late Spalding Gray, actor recalls. “Reading was not something we ers from various disciplines on campus, ded in this time period. Those ghosts of about crowd dynamics when animating UCSC’s long-standing, pioneering support and comic monologist, took part in a per- took for granted. It was celebratory.” helped inform and grow her work. change must also be present.” groups of characters. To show crowd move- for feminist scholarship made it a logical formance group workshop on the UCSC In 1997, the year she was hired to teach ment, he says, you must start with the indi- launching pad for the series of conferences, “Life spread before Ray like a buffet in Santa campus in 1978 and performed here well at UCSC, she began work on her book I vidual and build outward. said Stamp. Cruz,” writes Carol Sklenicka in her Carver Incubating Freedom into the ’90s. Hotel, which was shortlisted last year for the biography. “His letters, typed on university Some plants require agitated soil. Others The classic example is a flock of birds. The “And although my current research takes letterhead … convey the excitement of a kid National Book Award. flock doesn’t have a thought process, he me to archives in New York, D.C., and Los grow best with little disturbance. Put best- Seeds of magic in a candy shop.” “It is a small miracle that the long work of selling author Jonathan Franzen in the latter says. The amalgamation of individual behav- Angeles, the community of feminist scholars Pixar animator Mark Henne adds weight, here provides me with a sustaining and in- This excitement included Quarry West, the this book and the stories of these people category. He famously wore noise-blocking iors creates the crowd’s behavior: “Follow impact, and movement to digital characters— spiring home base,” she says. literary magazine Carver launched here. and this history were honored by the NBA,” headphones while creating his 2001 my neighbor but don’t let them get too and his years at UCSC led to a creative part- says Yamashita, who believes the book National Book Award–winning novel The close.” “If a gull has a fish, let’s try to take it.” Aside from helping to grow a conference, “This guy who became the American nership that continues to inspire his work “would not have happened” without her Corrections. Henne, who wrote his UCSC master’s Stamp helps her young UCSC students Chekhov was so thrilled about this small more than 20 years later. UCSC job. grow future careers by encouraging them to university literary magazine that he ran into Franzen craves quiet while at work, and he thesis about flexible digital skin for human Consider the robots swarming through the look into filmmaking’s distant past. the cafeteria during lunchtime to show me UCSC gave her access to the Bay Area found that space at UCSC, where he fre- characters, does not believe in technology Axiom starliner, and the overweight human a review that had been written about it,” and the diverse Asian American com- quently used offices at Cowell College dur- for its own sake. But by showing him the “Students come into the program with an in- “guests” zipping around in self-propelled Swanger recalls. munity that populates her book, which ing the years he was working on his critically possibilities of animation, UCSC taught credible level of media literacy,” Stamp con- lounge chairs in the computer-animated concerns a standoff over evictions at San acclaimed 2010 best-seller, Freedom. The him how to captivate a movie audience. tinues. “But several of them confessed to me Soon after his UCSC stint, Carver became movie Wall-E. Francisco’s International Hotel. secluded, forested campus turned out to that they’d never seen a black-and-white film, a much-lauded writer, but he stayed in be an ideal spot for him to create. (Franzen In 1990, Henne graduated from UCSC’s and some have never seen a film more than contact with Swanger. Artifacts from that Wisdom gleaned from UCSC lectures, Sound of silents does not teach at UCSC, but he lives in computer science masters program, where 10 years old. It is my job and also my great friendship—26 letters, notes, and cards conferences, and graduate seminars made The UCSC campus helped film and digital Santa Cruz part-time.) the seedlings of his Pixar career were pleasure to get them excited about the older that Carver penned to Swanger—now have its way into her work. So did the scholar- media professor Shelley Stamp—an expert planted. Much of his current work grows films. Their socks are blown off by the rich a permanent home in UCSC’s Special ship of colleagues like Daniel Linger in “UCSC is a great place to write fiction, on silent movies and early women filmmak- out of his mentorship with Jane Wilhelms, cinema culture that existed before 1928.” Collections. anthropology, who shared research about especially in the summer months, when ers—start a small project that grew into an the UCSC professor who stretched his un- Brazilian migrant workers in Japan, and the campus is very quiet and the days international franchise. Clearly, the students are paying attention. professor emerita of American studies often start out very foggy,” writes Franzen derstanding of animation’s potential. Cross-disciplinary Along with her former colleague Amelie One former student is the archivist at Judy Yung, who helped her re-create the via e-mail. “I can go from the fog of sleep He remembers Wilhelms investigating the currents Hastie, now an associate professor at Francis Ford Coppola’s American Zoetrope culture of San Francisco’s Chinatown in and up the foggy drives to a dark office, possibilities of movement during a summer Amherst College, she coordinated a confer- Films. Another is vice president for develop- Acclaimed writer and UCSC literature pro- the 1960s. put in a good morning in the dream state conference he attended. She had animated ence that would draw 60 film scholars to ment at Warner Bros. Pictures. fessor Karen Tei Yamashita refuses to squir- of fiction-writing, and then emerge to a gymnast characters twirling on parallel Yamashita found it striking that the book explore and celebrate the remarkable—but rel herself away when creating fiction. She beautiful blue sky in the early afternoon.” bars, and boxy, bug-like beings swarming “The best students recognize that you can’t covers the same time period when UCSC often overlooked—contributions of women to puts herself in the world, allowing life and through an environment. move forward without seeing what came began to take shape in the 1960s. Franzen is not the only creative mind to find the silent films of the early 20th century. learning to inform her work. before you,” Stamp says. safe haven at UCSC. For example, Tom “She wasn’t directing their path,” Henne The time correlation is perhaps “not a coin- The conference was the first of its kind. For Lehrer—the fearless musical satirist of the says. “It was kind of an AI (artificial intel- cidence,” she speculates now. Some of the years, women’s early contributions to film Contact Dan White at [email protected] ligence) approach where they somehow photos: mateas, knight foundation; carver, marion ettlinger/vintage contemporaries; yamashita, c. lagattuta; franzen, greg martin; henne, pixar 10 UC Santa Cruz Review / Spring 2011 UC Santa Cruz Review / Spring 2011 11 In celebration of UCSC’s 45th anniversary, we are pleased to introduce you to 45 successful and distinguished alumni— plus 5 more recent “up-and-coming” graduates in anticipation of our 50th.
These 50 alumni are leaders in public service, the arts, scientific research, literature, journalism, innovation, and much more. Says UCSC Chancellor George Blumenthal: “Across the spectrum, they credit UCSC with offering them the tools to get where they are today. And their success is one of the strongest measures of our success.” View longer versions—as well as selection criteria—online at 45+5 45years.ucsc.edu/plus5
12 UC Santa Cruz Review / Spring 2011 UC Santa Cruz Review / Spring 2011 13 14 UCSanta Cruz Review /Spring2011 LEADERS steering the course Silicon Valley (HFSV). Silicon of Foundation CEO, Hispanic presidentCurrently and Calif.,José, from 1999–2006. mayor of San including years, for 35 more than service philanthropy, public and business, in Leader studies community 1973—B.A. College Kresge 3. RonaldR.Gonzales employees. 100,000 than budget that includes more billion a$23 managing nation, in the county the largest County, Angeles of Los CEO sociology 1974—B.A. College Crown 2. WilliamTFujioka University. Bucknell presidentpreviously of Maine); (Waterville, College Colby President, consciousness of history 1982—Ph.D. Adams 1. WilliamD.“Bro” LEADERS 1. 2.
Trustees. of Board of its chair vice and in 1984 opened it since director of theaquarium executive Aquarium; Bay found the MontereyHelped biology 1978—M.A. biology 1974—B.A. College Crown 5. JuliePackard legislators. gaystate openly of thefirst Calif.),Cruz, one also and (Santa in theU.S. mayors gay openly ofone thefirst District); (27th to 2008 2002 from assemblymember Astate Resources. Natural for Secretary California politics 1972—B.A. College Stevenson 4. JohnLaird 3. 5. 4. Medicine. for Regenerative Institute California chair,vice Currently to 2009. from 1996 chair Party Democratic California as and 1974 to 1982; from assembly in the 1994; to from 1982 state senate in the served who politician California Prominent politics 1968—B.A. College Stevenson 7. Art Torres native state. native in his university the first Roo, of Quintana University presidentpreviously of the Mexico; Roo, of Quintana Intercultural University Maya founderof and President the biology 1991—Ph.D. Rosado-May 6. Francisco J. 6. 7.
HEALERS finding the cure University. Commonwealth Virginia at Genetics Molecular and Human and of Psychiatry Professor Distinguished Brown Banks Rachel of his generation.” Currently psychiatrist influential most “the called been has who researcher and Psychiatrist religious studies and biology 1972—B.A. College Cowell 9. Kenneth S.Kendler Permanente. Kaiser with surgery) (neurological aphysician Currently epilepsy. and disorders, for movement chronic pain, atreatment as Stimulation Brain Deep develop helped researcher who and Neurosurgeon (psychology) major individual 1977—B.A. College Oakes 8. GaryHeit H 9. 8. EALERS 12. 11. 10. developed programs programs developed has who epidemiologist medical Award-winning biology 1974—B.A. College Oakes 11. CherylScott Everyone. Vegetarian for Cooking Greens and Cookbook including Thecookbooks, of nine author winning award- and Francisco in San Restaurant Greens legendary chef of the Founding sociology 1968—B.A. College Cowell Madison 10. Deborah
and in theU.S. and internationally tuberculosis and toHIV/AIDS fight Women’s Festival. Theater founder, Angeles Los writer, co- producer; and actor, Award-winning major individual 1972—B.A. College Cowell 13. Adilah Barnes EXPRESSION Green Chemistry. Berkeleyformed Center for ofStudies thenewly Systems and Sciences director for Integrative Berkeley,UC associate and Health, of Public School Environmentaland Health, Center for Occupational research scientist at the a Currently development. environmentaland policy in green chemistry Leader biology 1984—B.A. College Stevenson 12. Michael Wilson 14. 13. ISTS Symphony. laureate, Berkeley in Munich; conductor and State Opera the Bavarian music director of general Montréal; de Symphonique of theOrchestre currently music director symphony conductor; and opera Acclaimed sociology music, 1974—B.A. College Porter 15. Kent Nagano Women and Feminism. Ain’t IaWoman: Black including books, 20 than more published has She gender. and class, of race, other thepolitics topics) critic addressing (among author, cultural and activist, recognized Internationally literature 1983—Ph.D. 14. bellhooks 16. 15. 45 17. Carter Journalism Institute. Journalism Carter at the in residence writer distinguished and at NYU Institute for theHumanities director of York theNew The Yorker. New Currently (1981 workedand for years 20 numerous books published has who writer Acclaimed Western civilization philosophy, 1974—B.A. College Cowell 17. LawrenceWeschler museum. teaching university oldest America’sYale Gallery, Art of Director J. II Heinz the currently theHenry arts; in the leader a national and artist Noted visual psychology 1969—B.A. College Stevenson 16. Jock Reynolds UC Santa Cruz Review /Spring2011 –2002) on the staff of thestaff on –2002) +5
15 expressionists DREAM AND VISION EXPLORERS 25. Victor crucial role in sequencing Davis Hanson the human genome, creating the UCSC 24. Joseph Cowell College Genome Browser. eers rs Lyman DeRisi 1975—B.A. literature Currently a research on gs
scientist at UCSC. r Crown College Noted historian, scholar, ers on o i 1992—B.A. and best-selling author. Currently Martin and Illie 28. Geoffrey W. Marcy w
p biochemistry & molecular biology Anderson Senior Fellow d 1982—Ph.D. astronomy in Residence in Classics and astrophysics n g n Pioneering medical
18. 20. 22. and Military History, 31. 33. ti
vat researcher and a 2004 An internationally a Hoover Institution, MacArthur Fellow. h Stanford University. respected astronomer, Currently professor (and Marcy and his team Gordon Tomkins Chair) have discovered more see k ers 26. Steven A. Hawley of Biochemistry & extrasolar planets than , rig k Biophysics at UC 1977—Ph.D. astronomy anyone else. Currently San Francisco and and astrophysics professor of astronomy, nno a Howard Hughes Leading U.S. astronaut UC Berkeley, and adjunct ess i k ta Medical Institute who logged a total of professor, San Francisco n Investigator. State University. more than 770 hours it ris 19. 21. 23. in space. Currently a 32. 34. w
INNOVATORS 20. Drew D. Goodman 22. Drummond Pike Policy at the University of 32. Teri L. Jackson Ohio’s John Glenn School of n g College Eight Stevenson College Stevenson College Public Affairs.
18. Malcolm 1983—B.A. environmental 1970—B.A. politics 1977—B.A. politics justice studies/environmental Blanchard Founder (in 1976) and 30. Richard White Prominent attorney and the design CEO of Tides, which has first African American woman Crown College Cowell College beari Innovator in organic administered well over appointed to the Superior 1972—B.A. information 1969—B.A. history and computer science farming; co-owner of $1 billion in grants and Court bench in San Francisco, Earthbound Farm, the programmatic activity Leading scholar in three a position she still holds. She Pioneer in computer largest grower of organic over the past decade. He 24. 27. 29. related fields: the American is also on the faculty of the graphics; currently chief produce in the world. retired as Tides West, Native American UC Hastings School of Law. software engineer, Pixar CEO in 2010 and history, and environmental Animation Studios. 21. Randall P. Grahm is pursuing other history. A MacArthur Fellow 33. Roberto Nájera projects. (1995) and currently Margaret Porter College Merrill College 19. Brent R. tier Byrne Professor of American 1974—studied philosophy, 1979—B.A. sociology Constantz 23. Daniel History, Stanford University. literature, and pre-med Precedent-setting public Roam on 1984—M.S. Earth sciences Founder and “president defender and 2004 recipient 1986—Ph.D. Earth sciences for life” of Bonny Doon Merrill College JUSTICE SEEKERS of the Kutak-Dodds Prize Developer of high- Vineyard; a legend in 1988—B.A. art/ (2004) from the National biology performance medical the U.S. wine industry w f r 31. Laurie Garrett Legal Aid and Defenders 25. 28. 30. cements and devices with for his adventurous, e Association. Recently retired Author of the Merrill College more than 70 U.S. patents. biodynamically produced as deputy public defender, international 1975—B.A. biology n
Founder and currently wines and irreverent rers Contra Costa County. bestseller The professor of physics and chairman of Calera marketing. e 29. Kathy D. Best-selling author of The Back of the astronomy, University of Corporation (capturing h Coming Plague: Emerging Napkin: Solving Kansas. Sullivan 34. George Robert power plant emissions to Diseases in a World Out of Problems and t Perkovich Cowell College Balance. The only writer to make “green cement”), Selling Ideas with l o 27. William 1973—B.S. Earth Cowell College and consulting professor, Pictures. He is receive all three “Big P’s” of n g sciences
i 1981—B.A. politics Stanford University. a management James Kent journalism—the Peabody, consultant and Kresge College Scientist, astronaut, Polk (twice), and Pulitzer Leading expert in nuclear
pp award-winning prizes. Currently senior fellow
president of xp 1981—B.A. mathematics arms strategy and nonpro- Digital Roam, Inc. 26. 1986—M.A. educator—and the first for Global Health, Council on liferation; currently vice U.S. woman to walk in Foreign Relations.
e ma mathematics president for studies/director 2002—Ph.D. biology space. Currently founding of the Nuclear Policy Program, director of the Battelle Carnegie Endowment for As a UCSC graduate Center for Mathematics International Peace. student, he played a and Science Education 4516 UC Santa Cruz Review / Spring+5 2011 UC Santa Cruz Review / Spring 2011 17 STORYTELLERS Award-winning National 41. Jayne Ann Krentz Public Radio science Stevenson College correspondent and past 1970—B.A. history 38. Shannon M. president of the National
on gs Brownlee Association of Science Prolific author of an
r College Eight Writers. impressive string of New ers 1979—B.S. biology York Times fiction best
w 1983—M.S. marine 40. Laurie R. King sellers, Jayne Ann Krentz sciences also writes under the pen Kresge College
n g names Amanda Quick and Prominent writer and 1977—B.A. religious Jayne Castle. ti 35. 36. essayist; currently senior studies 46. 48. research fellow, New h America Foundation and Best-selling mystery novelist 42. Steven P. Martini known for her historical JUSTICE SEEKERS instructor, Dartmouth Cowell College ow series about Mary Russell see k Institute for Health Policy 1968—B.A. politics , rig and Sherlock Holmes. Her and Clinical Practice. n g 35. Jason Rao books have won the Edgar, Best-selling mystery novelist who brings his Porter College 39. Richard Harris Creasey, Wolfe, Lambda, ess 1993—B.A. chemistry and Macavity awards. experience as a journalist o m rr n Crown College and attorney to his popular Has pioneered new 1980—B.A. biology series featuring fictional t it programs in international attorney Paul Madriani. o mi science diplomacy, bringing 37. 47. 49. 50. w
thousands of scientists n g together to meet challenges 37. Julia E. Sweig 44. Dana Priest 47. Marla C. Geha 49. Maya K. Rudolph c n g in health, energy, security, and the environment. Porter College Merrill College 2003—Ph.D. astronomy Porter College d
justice Currently senior policy 1986—B.A. Latin American 1981—B.A. politics and astrophysics 1995—B.A. art
studies buildi advisor for global science Author and Pulitzer Prize– Dubbed “The Star Actor, singer, and engagement in the White Leading expert on U.S. winning investigative Chaser” by comedian known for her n
beari Popular House Office of Science policy relating to Latin journalist. She has worked Science magazine, she work on Saturday Night and Technology Policy. America, especially over 20 years for the explores the formation, Live (2000–2007). Recent Cuba; currently Washington Post. evolution, and destruction films includeGrown Ups a 36. M. Sanjayan Nelson and David 38. 41. 44. of dwarf galaxies. and MacGruber (both 1997—Ph.D. biology Rockefeller Senior 45. Katy Roberts Currently assistant 2010). Fellow for Latin professor of astronomy Lead scientist for The Kresge College America Studies, and astrophysics, Yale U P Nature Conservancy, 1974—B.A. politics 50. Danielle L. Soto Council on Foreign University. College Ten specializing in human Relations. A top editor at the New well-being, conservation, York Times, where she 2008—B.A. environmental Africa, and wildlife ecology. 48. Azadeh Moaveni studies ers has worked since 1982. He also holds a research Oakes College
rds Currently commentary In 2008 (while still a UCSC faculty appointment with editor for nytimes.com. 1998—B.A. politics undergraduate), she ran for the Wildlife Program at the Author of Lipstick Jihad and won a seat on the City University of Montana. UP AND COMING and Honeymoon in Tehran, Council of Pomona, Calif., 39. 42. 45. and co-author, with Nobel her hometown. h wo Peace Prize winner Shirin it 43. Joe Palca 46. Cary Joji Ebadi, of Iran Awakening. Edited by Vicki Bolam Fukunaga Currently a Time magazine w 1982—Ph.D. psychology contributing writer on Iran
g College Eight Award-winning science and the Middle East. 1999—B.A. history correspondent for RYTELL
ti n National Public Radio; in Award-winning film
p 2009, the first science director; awards for his O writer in residence at the recent filmSin Nombre View longer versions—as well as selection Huntington Library in San included best director at criteria—online at 45years.ucsc.edu/plus5 Marino, Calif. the 2009 Sundance Film For photo credits, see page 34. 40. 43.
ST scul Festival.
18 UC Santa Cruz Review / Spring 2011 45UC Santa+5 Cruz Review / Spring 2011 19 by Jane Liaw | Photography by Jim MacKenzie
A unique genomics class offers motivated freshmen the opportunity to do first-hand research
After shaking out small strips of paper from test On this day in mid-February, the students have just Left: Professor tubes, the phage hunters bend over the table in received data from a DNA sequencing center and are Manuel Ares concentration, moving pieces around until the about to start analyzing their phage DNA sequence. works with strings of A’s, C’s, G’s, and T’s that form DNA start The exercise using paper strips with letter strings— students Georgia matching and overlapping. Under the fluorescent representing bases, the building blocks of DNA— Pollard (on his lights of the laboratory, the phage hunters are solv- gives them a chance to work through the process left), and Hilary ing this puzzle on their path to tackling greater computers undertake to combine the many DNA Hoffman (to his right), during a mysteries in the biomedical world. fragments obtained by the sequencing center into an class. Class size This is the Phage Genomics class, and the phage entire phage genome sequence. The class is studying for the course is hunters—freshmen just beginning their college ca- mycobacteriophages, viruses that infect mycobacte- kept small, with reers—are already conducting original investigations. ria. An infecting phage can kill the bacteria or it can only fourteen “Phage hunting” is the art, science, and adventure integrate its DNA into the host chromosome. Once students. Inset: of finding phages (viruses that infect bacteria) in the integrated, the phage can stay inside the bacteria Students analyze wild, breaking down and studying their DNA, and without causing harm; in this way, phages can be their phage DNA sequence. figuring out what genes they hold. used to manipulate bacteria. Although the students are studying a harmless mycobacterium that lives Along with 11 other universities, UC Santa Cruz has in soil, it is related to a mycobacterium that causes offered the three-quarter Phage Genomics course for tuberculosis; understanding mycobacteriophages three years as part of the Science Education Alliance, has been a key to understanding tuberculosis genet- developed and funded by the Howard Hughes ics. Phages are abundant in nature, but their genetic Medical Institute (HHMI). Molecular, cell and devel- diversity and complexity have only recently been opmental (MCD) biology professors Grant Hartzog recognized. The contributions of this class of phage and Manuel Ares lead the lab, where freshmen learn hunters will add to the growing bank of phage, my- laboratory skills, independence, and critical thinking, cobacteria, and possibly tuberculosis knowledge. but most of all, a love of meaningful research. “This helps people understand the genome of the “It’s hard for motivated undergrads to find research bacteria, and has applications in bacterial infections,” opportunities,” Hartzog says. Phage genomics is a says student Julia Froud, 19, of Cowell College. “I good entry into research because the technical ma- like the idea of finding out something no one in the nipulations at the beginning are quite simple, he says, scientific community has ever seen.” but as students get deeper into the project, the tech- niques and questions grow in sophistication.
UC Santa Cruz Review / Spring 2011 21 Gene finding Ares believes research universities provide Foundation) funding. From next year, a different flavor of education than schools it will be a two-quarter class offered to Phage Genomics gives freshmen the focused solely on teaching: professors at re- sophomores, reaching out to students chance to go out into the field and col- search universities are practitioners of their early in their college education, but after lect soil samples, use powerful lab tools field, and can expose students to the roots they have taken basic biology and writ- such as electron microscopes to view of how we know what we know. ing courses. Phage Genomics will add a their samples magnified many thousands scientific writing component, a must- of times, and analyze phage DNA to find “If we produce students who know fixed have skill in the research world. genes and their possible functions. facts, their knowledge is static and stag- nant. But if we incorporate an experimen- Phage expert William Jacobs of HHMI “Gene finding is a bit of an art,” says tal basis of understanding, now we’ve pro- developed the original phage class for Hartzog. “Just because a student sees duced students who can continue to learn young students (“Phage Phinders”) their gene prediction matches that for a and teach themselves,” Ares says. when he worked with his local high related gene in a database doesn’t mean school. Phage hunting, he says, is “a life- either prediction is necessarily valid. Such self-directed learning can be chal- changing experience even if you don’t go They need to critically evaluate the data, lenging. For enterprising phage hunters, into research. You learn that you, a high and not just trust [the database].” when the going gets tough, the tough use the Phage Hat. A wearable talis- school kid, can discover something new The students man Hartzog made to inspire stymied and unique.” and profes- students, the Phage Hat is an impressive In his pioneering research, Jacobs used sors from the contraption of foil, cardboard, and good phages as tools to genetically manipulate inaugural vibes. No one has failed to isolate a phage mycobacteria, a technique that enabled class of the 12 yet, so the Phage Hat must be working. a greater understanding of tuberculosis participating On the other hand, perhaps it is simply and other bacterial diseases. schools co- dedication and hard work at play. authored a pa- Of the UCSC phage hunters, Jacobs per published Draw for the says, “Anybody sequencing a phage is this January science-minded freshman fine in my book. Just by using phages, Professor Grant Hartzog lectures a class; at right is the “Phage Hat,” an inspirational charm constructed of foil, cardboard, and good vibes. in academic we’re developing all the tools we need to Victoria McElroy collected more than 45 Student Adrian Ruiz works journal PloS manipulate TB. The trick to overcoming soil samples before finding success, even on his DNA sequence. ONE, pre- every obstacle, I found in a phage.” driving off campus with her mother on her senting the 18 Two years after taking Phage Genomics, search. At the beginning of the course, she new mycobac- junior Kimberly Davis, 20 (Cowell, bio- hadn’t known what to expect and found Helping minority MARC every year. MARC awardees alumni. In the last five years, for example, teriophages chemistry and molecular biology), looks it rather nerve-wracking. She jumped on students pursue research receive a monthly stipend, while IMSD 50 percent of MARC students have gone isolated by back on the experience as giving her a leg the learning curve from day one, picking students are given an hourly salary. on to Ph.D. programs. Together, the pro- freshmen. up in her science education. “For once Two programs that support minority up basic lab techniques such as pipetting. MARC and IMSD are not simply finan- grams are about to celebrate their 100th Their work I felt that what I was learning was im- students pursuing biomedical research Now such skills are second nature, and cial aid. Programs staff director Malika Ph.D. awarded. indicated portant,” she says. Without the class, careers are active and thriving on the she’s found herself in the lab at midnight, Bell and assistant Yulianna Ortega offer Juan Noveron (Ph.D. ’00, bioinorganic that, among “I wouldn’t be where I am now, doing UCSC campus. putting in hours for her favorite class. both academic and personal support. The chemistry) benefited from both programs other things, mycobacteriophages are my second year of research.” Launched nationally by the National programs provide everything from equip- as a student, and calls them critical to his still under-sampled, since the students “I can’t wait for Tuesdays and Hartzog and Ares guide their students Institutes of Health, the Minority ment for printing conference posters to success. “As an undergraduate student, it had found phages with genomes com- Thursdays,” says McElroy, 19, a Crown even after the course has ended, help- Access to Research Careers (MARC) tutoring. The program staff know each allowed me to network with people in re- pletely unrelated to known phages. College MCD biology major. ing them find research opportunities on and Initiative for Maximizing Student student personally, and have even had search careers and inspired me to pursue a Every year, Hartzog and Ares invite in- Courses like Phage Genomics are a draw campus and hoping they go on to pro- Diversity (IMSD) programs have been a students stay with them on occasion. college-level teaching career. As a gradu- coming freshmen who have done well in for future UCSC science-minded appli- ductive scientific careers. part of campus life for several decades. Shewit Tekeste (Oakes ’08, MCD biology), ate student, the MARC-IMSD program high school biology to apply for the class. cants. “Most other colleges don’t have the Molecular, cell and developmental pro- “It’s fun to do science!” Ares says. “We now a third-year doctoral student at UCLA provided the financial support to focus on There is a written application, then an opportunity for freshmen to do research,” fessors Alan Zahler and Barry Bowman do it because we like it. And we want to studying HIV proteins, credits her love of my research projects.” interview, during which the professors says Froud. The chance to conduct un- helm MARC and IMSD, respectively. give them the same feeling.” research to the program. The friendly envi- Now, as associate professor of chemistry look out for the spark that tells them that dergraduate research was a large factor in MARC is exclusively an undergraduate ronment, regular seminars, opportunities to at University of Texas at El Paso, Noveron student will succeed. Froud’s decision to come to UCSC. Jane Liaw is a freelance writer and UC honors program, focusing on students attend national conferences, tutoring, and works with his local MARC-IMSD pro- Berkeley research scientist. She graduated “All the applicants are smart, but the inter- The UCSC course has been so success- who have an early commitment to gradu- private meetings with Bell helped build her gram and young students just starting from the UCSC science communication views help us see who’s motivated, who’s ful that, although the three-year HHMI ate research. IMSD accepts undergrad confidence as a young scientist, she says. their scientific careers, paying forward the program in 2008 and is now based in San interested in the world,” Hartzog says. grant is ending, it will continue under and graduate students. Though separate, support he received at UCSC. UCSC (and possibly National Science Francisco. the programs share many resources, and The success of these programs is reflected a few students transfer from IMSD to in the impressive achievements of their 22 UC Santa Cruz Review / Spring 2011 UC Santa Cruz Review / Spring 2011 23 by Matt King
From farming to pharmaceuticals, entrepreneurs sprout at UCSC Over the decades, UCSC has spawned a number of innovators with the help of a world-class faculty and an emphasis on an interdisciplinary education that gives students space to follow their muses.
And eight years after the university created Silicon Valley For Silicon Valley Initiatives, Ringold is focused on Initiatives, a true culture of entrepreneurial spirit has the big industries on the peninsula and the South Bay: gripped the campus—thanks to an intentional focus on computer science, computer engineering, and material innovation, a growing crop of young entrepreneurs, and sciences. Of course, if Silicon Valley Initiatives is to be a the stewardship of Silicon Valley veterans. nexus of innovation between the Valley and the campus, “It’s an opportune time to build our network and form there has to be something to connect. the alliances that will really help boost our reputation Enter the Center for Entrepreneurship, a campus outfit and presence in the Valley,” said Gordon Ringold, head born last fall (see page 28) and, just as important, a grow- of Silicon Valley Initiatives, a set of educational and ing cadre of UCSC grads gaining influence in Silicon research activities that increase the presence of UC in Valley, the Bay Area, and beyond. Silicon Valley. “There’s a lot of intellectual capital we can “The cohort of UC Santa Cruz alums who are entrepre- tap into to bolster our resources in a challenged neurs in the Valley has really started to grow,” Ringold economic environment.” said. “Because of that, we can tap into a network that Ringold, who earned his bachelor’s in biology from even five or 10 years ago would have been harder to ac- UCSC in 1972, became director last summer. A former complish. There aren’t many of us who have been around professor at Stanford University, he has started a hand- for a long time.” ful of companies in genetics and biofuels, including But alumni with fewer gray hairs than Ringold are Codexis, which manipulates enzymes to improve the making names for themselves in a broad array of fields, conversion of sugar cane into fuel. It’s based on tech- everything from farming to pharmaceutical to bikes and nology—also created by a Ringold company—used to Internet mapping. heighten drug performance.
24 UC Santa Cruz Review / Spring 2011 UC Santa Cruz Review / Spring 2011 25 sprout at UCSC
We feature four of them: Bernt Wahl, Factle Forbes now has “a mission to bring And a little raspberry patch they Anyone who’s ever obsessed over ZIP the same level of intensity, education, tended in exchange for free rent Brandon Allgood and value to our public spaces and is now the second-biggest organic and Nigel Duffy, code prestige has a friend in Bernt Wahl. So do real estate agents. cities as DWR has brought to our vegetable brand in the country. Numerate personal and private environments.” It’s a development Goodman Wahl (Crown ’86, mathematics Brandon Allgood and Nigel Duffy and physics) lives in Berkeley and As the web site for his urban bike (College Eight ’83, environmental radiate confidence. According to teaches entrepreneurship to engi- design company PUBLIC (pub- studies and environmental design) Allgood, who earned a master’s de- neers at UC Berkeley. He’s also licbikes.com) makes clear, the attributes to their innate tenacity gree in physics from UCSC in 2001 CEO of Factle (factle.com), which people at the company don’t hate and the values he absorbed on the and a Ph.D. in 2005, their use of specializes in hyperlocal mapping cars—they just want bikes to over- UCSC campus. the cloud—a network of computers and location intelligence. take cars as the preferred American “As an entrepreneur, you need to linked in cyberspace—is “a funda- way of getting around. think through where you’re going, mental paradigm shift” in pharma- “I was involved in search engines,” They aim to take back public spaces but at some point you need to take ceutical design. Wahl said by way of explaining Bernt Wahl the germination of Factle and his with bikes affordable enough to the plunge and know you’re going In traditional drug development, failed attempt to take over the fit middle-class budgets and cool to be able to navigate,” he said. “For researchers make incremental enough to be used on the Google those with the appetite, it’s fall science in 2001 at former search engine Infoseek. “I changes to chemical compounds Rob Forbes and Apple campuses. It’s exactly down seven times and pick UCSC. “We partner noticed that things were getting and wait to see if the effects are the kind of company that would be yourself up eight. You have with people with insight more hyperlocal. I consulted with a good, bad, or indifferent. How valuable can operated by someone who graduated to feel like you’re into what a therapeutic should real estate company, breaking down Wahl be to UCSC’s with a degree in aesthetic studies going to figure it out.” Numerate (www.numerate.com), do to treat a disease, and we deliver regions into smaller units. based in San Mateo, uses a network efforts to promote innova- from Porter College (1974). And to to them molecules that implement “The cities were fine, but nobody And as UCSC of up to 2,000 computers to tion on campus? Well, earlier hear Forbes tell it, every bike he sells their biological insight.” had aggregated the neighborhood evolves into an conduct simultaneous virtual this year he was one of 350 entre- is a consumer good and a purchase entrepreneur- Allgood and Duffy work with boundary data. We pioneered it.” screenings of chemical com- preneurs from around the world for the public good. minded institu- some big pharmaceutical compa- Factle’s technology allows searches binations to find what invited to an event at the United “We believe the quality and usage tion, Goodman nies they can’t name publicly and so granular they take a lot of works, much faster and Nations in New York, and he of our public spaces is the measure thinks it’s the universities including Stanford guesswork, and legwork, out of the cheaper than the old scored an invite to dinner with the of the success of our democracy,” logical leader and Cornell. They’re excited at the home-buying process. For example, ways, the com- Rockefellers along with his college he said. of “do good prospect of more technology licens- pany says. a house hunter who loses out on a buddies, one of whom created a and do well” ing and development at UCSC, home in a particular San Francisco search algorithm Microsoft bought “We’ve solved Drew Goodman, business. and Allgood will use his new neighborhood can get an e-mail and named Bing. the problem position on the UC Santa Cruz alert the moment another house in Earthbound Farm “There’s a great of getting a “It was pretty interesting,” he said Foundation board to fan the entre- the same area goes on the market. Drew Goodman and his wife Myra opportunity for computer of the dinner. “I learned that the preneurial flames. The technology is malleable enough didn’t start Earthbound Farm entrepreneurs to to design a pool room isn’t the billiards room. to do foreclosure or public health (www.ebfarm.com) in Carmel finance businesses small mol- “There’s an overall creativity you It actually has a pool in it.” analysis, and track damages and Valley on a whim, but it was close. that can help push us Drew Goodman ecule,” said find at UCSC you don’t find at repairs house by house after a catas- to a more sustainable way Duffy, who other places,” he said. “It lends “We started the farm based on the trophe like last summer’s San Bruno Rob Forbes, of doing things and making obtained itself to thinking outside the box, romantic notion of living on a farm,” pipeline explosion or the March PUBLIC money in the process,” Goodman his doctorate in which is an absolute necessity for the New York City native said. “That earthquake and tsunami in Japan. said. “It would be nice to see UCSC an innovator.” photos: goodman, r.r. jones Already known for starting Design computer it would be fun before we got on with take the lead in that.” Within Reach, the avant-garde-gone- our career thing. We ended up stay- mainstream furniture store launched ing and pursuing it.” as a web-direct business in 1999, Rob Brandon Allgood
26 UC Santa Cruz Review / Spring 2011 UC Santa Cruz Review / Spring 2011 27 sprout at UCSC Uncommon people Alan Richards | Edmund Burke: A revolt against humiliation Two UCSC faculty members provide a perspective on the generational revolution sweeping the Arab world.
He finally hadhad enough. In today’s world, everyone knows Like millions of other what is going on, everywhere. young Arabs, Mohammad Some say that today’s Arab revo- Bouazizi, age 26, had been lution confronts Americans with repeatedly humiliated. a choice between our values and He could not find a decent our interests. Our values are, of job. course, democratic. But Arab democracy does not threaten our To survive, he sold “interests,” if “our interests” are vegetables on the street of the interests of the vast majority the Tunisian town of Sidi of Americans, rather than those Bouzid. FPO of the (very well-heeled) minori- The authorities repeatedly ties that profit from an Empire harassed and abused him. of foreign bases, pretensions to Finally, he immolated him- “control oil,” and mindless sup- self in protest on December port of unsustainable Israeli oc- 17, 2010. cupation policies.
photos: jim mackenzie And thus the match was lit From conflating Arab national- and touched to the tinder of ists with friends of the USSR Dan Heller and Rebecca Braslau hope the Center for Entrepreneurship a young, savvy, and enraged during the Cold War to positing at the Baskin School of Engineering will help bring novel ideas to the market. generation. The fire spread, non-existent WMD in Iraq, the as other youth in the town U.S. record of interventions in the Center cultivates innovation to protested against penury region is one of countering threats propagate home-grown businesses and oppression, corruption that did not in fact exist. Arab Alan Richards, left and Edmund Burke and humiliation. The re- democracy is no threat. On the Dan Heller looks into the future and sees The City of Santa Cruz is watching the Rebecca Braslau, who invented a spray gime resorted to violence— contrary, the revolt of Arab youth creativity, innovation, and enough money to center’s activities with interest. that, in conjunction with a basic fluores- but the rebels were undeterred. The revolt over fear—when an illegitimate, widely against humiliation should make anyone stop fretting about state budget cuts. cent light, will detect the presence of poi- “It’s essential to the local economy for us to spread to the capital, Tunis, and after despised regime resorts to violence, and pledging allegiance to the principles of 1776 son oak and ivy oils on tools or clothing. “If we start building companies, we can re- support the commercialization of research weeks of demonstrations, the dictator Ben the protestors refuse to back down, the very proud, indeed. plenish some of that lost revenue,” he said. as well as empower the entrepreneurial “The methodology is patented to UCSC, but regime is doomed. Ali fled to Saudi Arabia in February. Moments such as the present where many “If the school can rewrite its perception in potential of the UCSC faculty,” said Peter the development of the product to a level that Structural causes are numerous. They the world as a place of innovation and en- Koht (Stevenson ’05, music and history), it can be licensed or produced by a start-up Critically, this generational revolt spread vectors of change come together in un- include the fact that some 60 percent of trepreneurship, we will attract even better economic development coordinator for the company has not been pursued due to lack next to Egypt, home of one-third of all predictable ways are fraught with peril. Arabs today are younger than 30. They are students and even better faculty.” City of Santa Cruz. “By creating the space of funding, and lack of connections by the Arabs. Years of struggle and organiz- This is no time for ill-conceived U.S. for entrepreneurship, you create opportunity by far the most educated generation in the Heller (College Eight ’85, computer and inventor—me,” Braslau said. ing by opposition movements, liberal, interventions, which can seriously harm for resilience and innovation in an economy region’s history. Millions are unemployed, information sciences) was a member of the There are many researchers at UCSC with socialist, and Islamist, culminated in the our long-term interests. In the face of this undergoing rapid transformation.” and food prices are rising. In both Tunisia e-mail vanguard (remember Zmail?) and great ideas who are not interested or ex- dramatic 18 days in which the corrupt, massive uncertainty and unpredictability, and Egypt, the revolutions of 2011 were is the executive director of the Center for The center is so young there’s not yet any perienced in the business world, Braslau brutal regime of Hosni Mubarak was we should recall the Hippocratic Oath: Entrepreneurship at the Baskin School of tie between it and the school’s Silicon continued. toppled. Similar revolts have spread (as of preceded—and accompanied by—wide- “First do no harm.” Engineering. His job and the program are Valley Initiatives. spread labor protests. With the center’s help, Braslau hopes the this writing) to Bahrain, Oman, Yemen, Alan Richards, professor emeritus of envi- less than a year old, but he’s aiming high: In the early stages, Heller is focused on many novel ideas germinating on campus will and Libya, as well as to Morocco, Algeria, Most fundamentally, however, most Arabs ronmental studies, is an economist and an A focused academic program to incubate professionalizing the school’s business plan lead to great innovations in the market. Jordan, Iraq, and Iran. despise their regimes—for their corrup- business and technology development, and expert on energy politics. In 1989–91, he design contest and working with Why did this happen? What are its im- tion, nepotism, violence, and complicity was an Education Abroad Program director technology licensing to attract cash and faculty with innovative ideas. Matt King is a freelance writer based in plications for Americans? Two kinds of in American and Israeli abuses of power. in Cairo. prestige to the campus. San Jose. One idea that’s already been patented is Arab dictators have humiliated their peo- causes may be identified—immediate Edmund Burke III is research professor of the brainchild of chemistry professor (“sparks”) and structural (“tinder”). The ples for decades. Finally, when the spark was struck, the tinder ignited. Modern history, emeritus, and director of the Center sparks are sketched above—and a key for World History. component, in each case, is the triumph social media facilitated the spread of revolt.
28 UC Santa Cruz Review / Spring 2011 UC Santa Cruz Review / Spring 2011 29 Uncommon people Steve Gliessman: Planting the roots of agroecology deep in Santa Cruz Azadeh Moaveni: The seeds of a writer were sown at UCSC
The term dates back to the late He continues to be editor-in-chief of When I enrolled at UC Santa Cruz as an me. In his classroom I learned what a 1920s, but when Steve Gliessman the Journal of Sustainable Agriculture, ambitious 18-year-old from Cupertino, potent tool writing could be in narrat- and two Mexican colleagues began and his Agroecology publisher is lob- I imagined many career paths for my- ing, and thus owning, my experience in using “agroecology” nearly 35 years bying hard for a third edition because self, all of them deeply glamorous to America. I also learned to value humil- ago they pronounced it in Spanish: the book is selling better than ever. my adolescent, suburban mind: human ity, and in the process, how to avoid the “agroecología.” Gliessman’s dream of establishing rights law, public policy, diplomacy at the navel-gazing and self-righteousness that Gliessman was teaching at the a “green kitchen” at the Program United Nations. I was intensely ambitious would get in the way of people wanting to Colegio Superior de Agricultura in Community and Agroecology and had some lofty ideas about changing hear my story. Tropical in Tabasco, Mexico, and (PICA), where he has focused his the world, and yet, becoming a writer If at Oakes I was inspired with the politi- studying the traditional Mayan attention since 2002, is nearing never occurred to me. This is partly cal power of a tale, then it was at City on techniques that form the founda- fruition. Located at the Sustainable because I grew up in an Iranian family, a Hill Press, under the tutelage of writing tion of sustainable small-scale farm- Living Center in UCSC’s lower and Iranians, generally, don’t believe in instructor Conn “Ringo” Hallinan, my ing that respects the land, farmers, quarry, PICA brings students from “just writing,” unless the kind of writing adviser at the paper, where I learned how and their culture. diverse disciplines to live in a com- in question is poetry, and you happen to to craft a story. By the time I arrived at have the talent of Rumi. Ordinary mor- Three years later, in 1980, Gliessman munity where they learn firsthand the newspaper, I had already endured the principles of sustainable agri- tals who wished to write should become the kind of rigorous editing in literature joined the UC Santa Cruz environ- something else first—perhaps a nuclear mental studies faculty and founded culture through classroom learning classes that had beaten out all the high- and community gardens. physicist or a heart surgeon—and then do school laziness in my writing. I learned the UCSC Agroecology Program. their writing on the side. In 1997, he wrote the textbook The modular kitchen building will in those literature classes the painstak- Agroecology: The Ecology of Sustainable demonstrate the latest in green This rather stern view rested on the be- ing, sentence-by-sentence crafting of a Food Systems and published a second building, alternative energy, and lief, not altogether mistaken, that society polished piece of a work. It was under edition 10 years later. Today, agro- reducing the carbon footprint, needed us to contribute much more than Ringo that I learned to love the genre ecology is an interdisciplinary concept Gliessman says. He envisions it as our thoughts on paper, and that in the that would become my life’s work: literary that extends beyond organic farming, a sustainable living laboratory for process of learning and practicing a craft, journalism. A news story, Ringo taught and is widely known and taught in students from multiple majors to we would be accumulating the insight us, is a formula anyone can learn. It’s the universities (often using Gliessman’s experience, learn about, and even and experience that would enrich our long form journalism that is intellectu- textbook) across the nation and research sustainable technologies. writing. ally vibrant, that makes a contribution to history, that elevates reporters to writers. around the world. photos: gliessman, jim mackenzie; moaveni, mehrdad daftari I chafed at that cultural logic at the time, Sustainability, as Gliessman defines This belief inspired me to become a jour- ”Social change doesn’t happen overnight. The goal but it turned out to be not so particularly “Iranians, generally, don’t believe in “Steve is one of the pioneers and it, is an approach to life based on nalist and to write books “on the side,” founders of agroecology world- is to create transformative action and a whole new treating the land in an ecologically or tediously Iranian as I thought. The ‘just writing,’ unless the kind of writing literature I encountered for the first time a career that has managed to fulfill both wide,” said professor Miguel Altieri way of thinking about the entire food system.” sound way. It must also encompass in question is poetry, and you happen me and that pesky Iranian dictum. at UC Berkeley’s Department of a just system socially and eco- at UCSC, in the core course of Oakes to have the talent of Rumi.” College, reflected a similarly demanding —By Azadeh Moaveni Environmental Science, Policy and Today, Gliessman, holder of the first nomically that treats people, land, and activist view of the writer’s place in Management. “His influence has been endowed chair at UC Santa Cruz, the animals, and water in “a way that lasts I suddenly had an intellectual language to the world. It was first at Oakes, and later Azadeh Moaveni (Oakes ’98 ) is author enormous.” Ruth and Alfred E. Heller Chair in forever.” consider all that had befallen my family in other classes, that I recognized and of Lipstick Jihad and Honeymoon in Agroecology, is scaling back ever so and my country; I was able to articulate Said another colleague, Professor Charles “It’s about healthy food, healthy land, and began to understand all the inchoate feel- Tehran and co-author, with Shirin Ebadi, slightly. After all, he is supposed to be in a terse, 200-word paragraph why I A. Francis, director of the Center for healthy people,” he says, “and it’s going to ings that had underpinned my growing of Iran Awakening. She has reported from retired as of last July. But that hasn’t grew up despising Sally Field (she had Sustainable Agricultural Systems at the require some social changes. up Iranian in America. The fashionable throughout the Middle East for Time, seemed to slow him down. starred in the crudely anti-Iranian film University of Nebraska-Lincoln: “Three “Social change doesn’t happen overnight,” shorthand for this process was “con- the New York Times Book Review, the Not Without My Daughter). My core decades ago, agroecology was a little He spent two weeks teaching in Spain Gliessman notes. The goal, he says, “is to sciousness raising” and its effect on me Washington Post, and the Los Angeles course instructor, Dave Dodson, was the known idea in the minds of a few aca- this winter. He’s organizing the 12th create transformative action and a whole was profound and electric. Times. She is currently a Time magazine mentor whose approach helped ground demics in Latin America, the U.S., and annual International Agroecology new way of thinking about the entire contributing writer on Iran and the Middle me as I took this new awareness out into Germany. Through his writing and teach- Shortcourse that will bring 35 to 40 par- food system.” East and lives in Cambridge. ing, Steve became one of the most prolific ticipants from around the world to UCSC the disciplines that had always attracted and articulate advocates of this confluence in July for two weeks of intensive instruc- —By Guy Lasnier (Merrill ’78) of agriculture and ecology.” tion and practice in transforming food systems from field to table.
30 UC Santa Cruz Review / Spring 2011 UC Santa Cruz Review / Spring 2011 31 To receive invitations and e-newsletters technical support. His UCSC third place and received San Jose State University, company in North America. about alumni activities, send your e-mail education has given him the two other awards for five where he helped plan the Amrit KULKARNI was named address to [email protected]. tools necessary “to live a pieces of calligraphic art 40th anniversary celebration one of California’s top 20 Alumni Notes wonderful life.” He lives in that she entered at the of the Planning Program in lawyers of 2010 by the Daily We’d like to hear from you. R Send an e-mail to [email protected] Longmont, Colo., with his Orange County Fair last November. Journal in recognition of his R submit a note via the web at alumni.ucsc.edu (go to Online Community/Class Notes) wife and two children. summer. Judy SILK married ’80 Tom RIBE has published many successful land-use fellow alumnus Dan COGAN litigations. R or get social on Facebook: facebook.com/ucsantacruz Inferno by Committee, the Merrill College (Porter ’83); they each have natural and human history ’98 Andres MARTIN, a ’92 Wendy FLAPPAN a daughter who is beginning of the Cerro Grande (Los counselor at Ramona Cowell College global health at the College ‘83 Maggie KRAFT left for Group, a nonprofit is a board-certified college—sadly not at UCSC. Alamos) fire, the worst High School in California, Botswana in early April for ’75 Susan MORGENSTERN of Public Health of the organization focused on physical medicine and Judy is a writer and Dan’s an prescribed fire disaster in received the Cesar Chavez two years as a Peace Corps directed The Psychic at the University of Chile, Santiago, chemical-human health rehabilitation specialist attorney; they live in Pacific U.S. history; he received a “Si Se Puede” Human Rights volunteer; she is working at Falcon Theatre in Toluca in January 2010 and later policy, as its director of with the Department of Palisades. UCSC graduate certificate in Award from the California participated in a medical the community level there to governmental affairs for Lake, The Socialization of help address the HIV/AIDS Neurosurgery at Stanford ’91 Lynn POTTER Stapleton science writing in 1983. Teachers Association; he mission in Constitución, the California. He reports that Ruthie Shapiro at the Theatre epidemic. Hospital and Clinics in Los currently is assigned to ’81 Kevin VOLKAN appeared was recognized for helping West in Los Angeles, and epicenter of the earthquake his five-year-old daughter is Gatos; she is a graduate of the Refugee and Migration create equal opportunity ’89 Kay WOLVERTON three times on Animal Happy Days, A New Musical and tsunami. learning to ski. UC Davis Medical Center. Affairs section of the U.S. within the Hispanic Ito works both as the Planet’s “Lost Tapes” as an at the Cabrillo Music Theater ’73 Carol-Joy HARRIS ’78 Peter HILSENRATH is Michelle GOLDEN and Alex Mission to the United community. Andes also administrative director of expert on cryptozoology in Thousand Oaks. graduated from court- the Joseph M. Long chair in Jay Hoyden were married Nations in Geneva, is active in the San Diego the California Literary Arts and testified before the reporting school in 2007 Health Care Management in Tuscon last October; Switzerland; prior to this Chapter of the UCSC Alumni ’91 Susan SILBER has Society and as a substitute Senate Judiciary Committee and provides one-on-one and professor of economics although Arizona does not assignment, she served two Association. Mica VALDEZ worked for 20 years as an teacher. She organizes on animal abuse. Kevin’s captioning for deaf and at the University of the recognize the union because years in Stockholm, Sweden. received an M.F.A. in English environmental educator, an annual toy drive for wife, Panda KROLL (Kresge hard-of-hearing students Pacific in Stockton; he both are women, it “is a and creative writing from introducing children to homeless shelters and foster ’94 Robin LOW’s restaurant, ’82), made a presentation at UC Berkeley, Sonoma is married and has two marriage in the deepest Mills College in Oakland; the importance of caring agencies. She and her family Post Meridian in Kensington, on medical marijuana to State University, and other children. sense.” she is teaching English and for the environment; she live in Ventura County. Calif., is celebrating its lawyers and judges in operates a consulting colleges—a “perfect job for ’82 James BATEK ran ’00 Jennifer SMYTHE fourth autumn; farmer’s Ventura County. indigenous studies at the a life-long learner.” Charles ’97 Katy BIGELOW is College of Alameda and business for environmental unsuccessfully for the Illinois works as an immigration market produce shapes its ’84 Hilary CLAGGETT is a A. PERRONE was a visiting the second woman in editing a book of poetry by and educational nonprofit General Assembly in 2006; attorney with Gali, Schaham, seasonal menu; the business senior acquisitions editor professor at Stanford the state of Washington women of Native and Latin organizations. in July 2009, he began Gordon in San Francisco. supports local artists, at Potomac Books where University in 2004. His latest to become a registered American descent. ’09 Teague TUBACH is selling art based on his code She focuses on U.S. cultural organizations, and she specializes in topics book is Brazil, Lyric and consulting arborist through pursuing a master’s in system, Batek Binary. employment and family- schools through in-kind such as war and peace, the Americas, which was the American Society of College Eight education and a multiple- ’84 David CRAGO has based immigration, and donations. environmental security, published last year; he is a Consulting Arborists; she subject teaching credential completed 20 years of active represents individuals who ’07 Matthew JOHNSTONE human rights, and domestic ’78 Donna MAURILLO professor of Spanish and lives on Bainbridge Island. at the University of Phoenix; commissioned service want to become naturalized published his first book of politics; she practices yoga, is director of ITT and Portuguese Studies at the ’10 Harmony LAMBERT he currently teaches second- with the U.S. Public Health citizens. poems, Let’s be close / Rope reads, and runs marathons communications for the University of Florida. works for the Washington, grade reading and writing. Service, where he holds the to mast, you / Old light, with in her spare time. Mineta Transportation D.C., headquarters of ’79 Pamela REVLING is about rank of captain; he and his Porter College Blue and Yellow Dog Press Institute and is writing a Greenpeace as a grassroots- Stevenson College to receive a master’s degree wife, Ann, adopted a 2-year- ’74 Debora GILLMAN in 2010; while at UCSC, he Oakes College research paper on security in public health from San organizing fellow in major policies for high-speed rail. ’68 Raymond STEINER is old girl and are the biological published an illustrated studied with Rob Wilson and ’87 Larry O’HANLON Diego State University. Her East Coast cities. She credits teaching philosophy online parents of four additional children’s book, The Painter’s Nathaniel Mackey, among (Graduate Studies ’93) ’79 George P. BROWN is a daughter, Emily, graduated her UCSC education with at a community college after children. Dream; she teaches a others. began work in February professor of political science from San Francisco State making her career possible. being semiretired for a few ’89 Dije NDREU and her children’s arts-and-crafts ’08 Perry RADFORD works in as communications and at Slippery Rock University last year and her son is years. husband, James Dulla, workshop and continues the Office of Annual Giving public programs officer at of Pennsylvania, where he transferring to San Marcos Crown College welcomed their first child, to exhibit her paintings at Harvey Mudd College. For the W. M. Keck Observatory chairs the Political Science ’69 Joan FITTING Scott State this fall to study ’72 Bob LORENTZEN owns daughter Deshira, on and etchings. Stephen two years, she served as a in Kamuela, Hawaii, department and serves as published Skinning the Cat: A history. and operates Bored Feet December 16, 2010. GREENBERG has been volunteer in the campaign of after 12 years as science director of Asian studies. He Baby Boomer’s Guide to the Press, which has published ’81 Donna GRAVES moved to digitizing the past, including Kamala Harris, California’s correspondent and online and his wife, Naomi, have a New Retiree Lifestyles, and more than 200 books and 150 ‘96 Jeremy MARLEY was Berkeley last summer after named Environmental his psychedelic/satirical attorney general. producer for Discovery 15-year-old daughter. then took her own advice recreation maps, including a a year at Harvard’s Graduate Educator of the Year for graduation speech. Jim News. ’81 Karen FRIETSCH and retired. She divides her dozen trail guides for regions School of Design as a Loeb 2010 by the Environmental HAIR moved to Richmond, time between Fort Worth, Kresge College ’94 Ernie BRAY and his wife Cornelius recently joined the Fellow; she works as a within California, six of Education Association of Ind.—“the cradle of recorded Tex., and the San Francisco ’79 Art HENRIQUES recently Peggy, cofounders of Auto Gulf Coast Bird Observatory consultant in public history which he has written. New Mexico. jazz”—four years ago and is Bay Area. retired after 31 years in Claims Direct, were honored as a development associate; and community planning, ’73 Bill ALLAYAUD now running for mayor. ’99 Cory NAKAJI works urban planning. He received by Deloitte’s Fast-500, which she lives in Houston, Tex. ’70 Jonathan GREEN is married, and has two is employed by the for Xilinx as a product ’79 Deanna Jay Chu NIM a master’s degree in urban ranked the firm as the 215th attended a course on children. Environmental Working applications engineer in took first, second, and and regional planning from fastest-growing technology
32 UC Santa Cruz Review / Spring 2011 UC Santa Cruz Review / Spring 2011 33 ’87 Nina HANSEN Machotka in Fort Lauderdale, Fla. Certificate in lives in Italy with her He conducts research in Science Illustration husband, Pavel Machotka, marine-mammal biology, ’86 Val KELLS works as a UCSC professor emeritus. ecology, and management, marine-science illustrator She has written two books, and has projects under way and has published A Field The Field Stones of Umbria in Mexico and Ecuador. Guide to Coastal Fishes— and How NOT to Kill the ‘03 Roopali PHADKE (Ph.D.) from Maine to Texas with Woman You Love: Your Guide has received tenure as an Johns Hopkins University to Surviving Her Menopause. associate professor in the Press; the book includes her Environmental Studies 1,079 full-color illustrations. Graduate Studies Department at Macalester 1. 2. 3. 4. College in St. Paul, Minn.; ’69 Stephen KESSLER (M.A. In Memoriam her current research focuses literature) is the editor on water- and energy- ’76 John Leighton Another Successful and principal translator of resources development. CHASE (Stevenson) died The Sonnets by Jorge Luis ’10 Monica LYNN (Ph.D. unexpectedly at his home on Borges, which has received musical arts) received August 13, 2010. He held a Scholarship critical praise in The Nation, a Porter Graduate Arts master’s in architecture from the London Review of Books, Research Grant, did fieldwork UCLA and worked as an and the Times Literary in Zimbabwe, and was a urban designer for the city of Benefit Dinner Supplement. West Hollywood; he was 57. finalist for the International More than 350 people turned out for the eighth annual ’84 Edward O. KEITH (Ph.D. Music Prize for Excellence UC Santa Cruz Scholarship Benefit Dinner that took place biology) is an associate in Composition (National professor of biology at Nova Academy of Music, 2011). in February at the Fairmont Hotel in San Jose. Southeastern University For the second year in a row, the gala was held in Silicon 6. Valley, where UCSC faculty and alumni continue to con- By Gwen Mickelson tribute to the innovative research, educational programs, and cutting-edge technologies that define the Valley. UCSC Alumni Regent sought Attendees and sponsors raised over $160,000 for un- dergraduate scholarships at the dinner—one of UCSC’s If you’d like to help shape UCSC alum to represent member of the Board of the future of the University the campus on the Board Regents. premier fundraising events—which sold out several weeks in advance. of California, now is your of Regents. Deadline to apply is chance. The first year, the July 1, 2011. 1. UC Santa Cruz Campus Provost/Executive Vice Chancellor UC Santa Cruz alumni are appointee will serve as an For information or to Alison Galloway (right) and sister Isobel Belvoir; 2. UC Santa Cruz being sought to fill a spot alumni regent designate get an application, email Foundation member Michael Graydon (center), spouse Sally Graydon, as a voting member of the and secretary of the Carolyn Christopherson, and Smith Renaissance Society founder Bill Dickinson; 3. California UC Board of Regents. Alumni Association of the executive director of UCSC 5. Secretary for Natural Resources John Laird (Stevenson ‘72) and These alumni regents University of California Alumni Association, at major campus philanthropist Jack Baskin; 4. Alumni Councilor and are selected for two-year (AAUC). [email protected] or visit 7. Volunteer Committee member Jerry Ruiz (Crown ‘77) and UC Santa terms on a rotating basis The second year, the ucsc.edu/alumni-regents. Cruz Foundation President Gary Novack (Kresge ‘73); 5. Student from the system’s 10 regent will serve as singers Natalie Erskine (Porter ‘12) and Allie Jessing (Stevenson campuses. The successful president of the AAUC ‘12), performing the “Flower Duet” from the opera Lakmé; 6. Former applicant will be the fourth and become a full voting San Jose mayor and event co-chair Susan Hammer, UC Santa Cruz Chancellor George Blumenthal, and co-chair Mary Doyle; 7. Volunteer Committee member Paul Simpson (Kresge ‘02) with mother Rosalind Image credits for 45+5, from pages 12-19: 5, 27. r.r. jones; 6. Jose A. Granados; 8, 11, 23, Simpson (left), UC Santa Cruz Vice Chancellor for Student Affairs 24, 32, 40, 50. Red Bat Photography; 10. Laurie Smith; 13. Coleman Photography; 14. John Felicia McGinty, and evening emcee Stephen Abreu (Kresge ‘99); Pinderhughes; 17. Drawing by David Hockney; 20. Tom O’Neal; 25, 45. Terry Way; 26. Jim 8. Assistant Secretary of Commerce nominee and event keynote MacKenzie; 28. C. Rose; 41. Marc Von Borstel; 42. Brian Smale; 43. Doby Photography; 44. speaker Kathryn Sullivan (Cowell ‘73) and campus supporter Nancy Whitney Shefte, Washington Post; 46. Laurie Sparham; 48. Mehrdad Daftari. Austin; 9. World-renowned nature photographer and UC Santa Cruz Foundation Trustee Frans Lanting (right) with partner Chris Eckstrom; Images this page and opposite by Steve Kurtz. at left, Larry Minden (Crown ‘79) and Linda Ponzini 8. 9. Scholarships matter now more than ever. To contribute, go to giving.ucsc.edu
34 UC Santa Cruz Review / Spring 2011 UC Santa Cruz Review / Spring 2011 35 A gift is a powerful thing. Take the Seymour Center of future leaders—those who will become scientists, at Long Marine Lab. Every year, thousands of people entrepreneurs, and visionaries. Their impact will visit the center, home to approximately 400 marine extend globally for decades to come. animals. Children can hold a sea star, marvel at the Philanthropy Focus Begin your legacy with a planned gift to UCSC. world’s largest whale skeleton—and learn to think Shape and improve our world. Our planet. Our home. like a scientist. The next generation will become the UCSC Planned Giving professionals can help. Stephen Bruce gives back by looking to the future stewards of our coastal regions. To get started, visit giving.ucsc.edu/plannedgiving. For the past two years, Bruce (Cowell Trade Center attacks on 9/11. His sup- Their values start here. How did the Seymour Center ’79, economics) has brought international port includes the purchase of classroom begin? With a planned gift. scholars to UCSC to discuss the global supplies in under-resourced schools in People like you support UCSC research teams as they economic crisis as part of the Bruce Initia- Watsonville and Salinas. How will you build develop solutions to critical environmental and social tive on Rethinking Capitalism. The confer- Bruce also established the Robert Meister problems. People like you contribute to the education ence returned to campus April 7–9. Scholars Fund to support graduate stu- your legacy? It makes perfect sense that the campus that dents in politics and bring the “best and inspired him is now “neutral territory” where the brightest” to UCSC. His $250,000 gift professors from different universities are in 2006 funds a $50,000 fellowship that happy to put aside rivalries, shake hands, has been awarded three times so far. and talk. The multidisciplinary approach To date, Bruce has given more than $1 of the campus’s curriculum also makes it million to UCSC. the perfect place to host an eclectic mix of scholars whose disciplines include eco- Along the way, Bruce has contributed yet nomics, accounting, finance, and political another valuable resource: his time and ex- science as well as anthropology, geology, pertise. For three years he served as chair literature, art, and public policy. of the Board of Councilors, an advisory group to Division of Social Sciences Dean “We could have easily done it in San Jose, Sheldon Kamieniecki. but we wanted to have it in Santa Cruz,” Bruce said. “We wanted to have Now Bruce is help- the students involved.” ing to guide the “Hunt down campus’s The conference is only the comprehensive latest in Bruce’s collabora- old professors, campaign tions with his alma mater. photo: carolyn lagatutta talk to students, effort while Bruce increased his serving on involvement with UC fund a scholarship, the advi- In the 1970s, Stephen Bruce was study- Santa Cruz after he sold ing economics at UC Santa Cruz, and he or fund a speaker sory board his successful asset for the was pondering some financial riddles even management firm five then that now seem prophetic: series. It’s so easy Santa Cruz years ago. to get engaged.” Institute for How can a robust global economy fail? His contributions have in- International And what are the factors that can bring it cluded initiatives as diverse as —Stephen Bruce Economics, the crashing down? helping the Center for Integrated South Asia Studies Three decades later, the political and eco- Water Research bring a reverse Initiative, and the Sury nomic landscape of the world had changed osmosis water treatment unit to the city Initiative for Global Finance dramatically. The global economy had of Watsonville to sponsoring a two-year and International Risk Management. expanded beyond Bruce’s wildest imagina- lecture series as part of the South Asia His advice for other alumni: Re-establish tion. Meanwhile, intangible securities known Studies Initiative and supporting aspiring your old links to the campus. Rekindle old as derivatives were playing a much more math and science teachers along with mentorships. If possible, show up there in decisive role in economic expansion. The promising graduate students in politics. He person. Get involved. Contribute in a way excesses of communism had been dealt is even working with the Center for Games that will drive and inspire future genera- with, and Bruce realized it was time to deal and Playable Media to create a video game tions. with the excesses of capitalism and the focusing on environmental issues and the challenges of fairness and justice. ocean. “They should hunt down old professors, talk to students, fund a scholarship, or fund With these factors in mind, Bruce posed Bruce’s first creation was the establish- a speaker series,” Bruce said. “It’s so easy his most ambitious question to date: How ment of the Mark Bruce Fellowship for to get engaged.” can the latest economic crisis challenge Math and Science Teachers at UCSC in Julie Barrett Heffington our assumptions about capitalism? honor of his brother, who died in the World —by Amy Ettinger Director of UC Santa Cruz’s Seymour Marine Discovery Center 36 UC Santa Cruz Review / Spring 2011 185 University Relations University of California 1156 High Street Santa Cruz, CA 95064-1077
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