UC SANTA CRUZFall 2012 UC SANTA CRUZREVIEW

At UCSC, THE SKY IS NOT THE LIMIT...

Also: THE CAMPUS AS A NATURAL CLASSROOM STUDENTS BRIDGE DIGITAL DIVIDE MARS LANDING photo: jim mackenzie photo: vester dick From the Chancellor The road to ’65 UC Santa Cruz earns high marks—again 50 years ago: Countdown to UCSC’s Young, smart, and beautiful. 50th anniversary There are many ways to describe UC Santa Cruz, but those three words sum us up remarkably well—particularly in light of our re- cent ranking as one of the best universities under the age of 50. We won’t celebrate our 50th anniversary until 2015—but we’ve Fifty years ago, in the fall of 1962, the Cuban already accomplished so much. This issue of Review is packed Missile Crisis was escalating, and the United with stories of exploration and discovery, from astronomer Connie States and the Soviet Union came as close as they Rockosi mapping the outer range of our galaxy to historian Gail ever would to global nuclear war. Hershatter capturing the experiences of women in rural China. Against that backdrop of worldwide disaster, a Two issues ago, our cover story focused on UCSC’s role in the emerg- University of California campus was being born ing field of personalized medicine. That effort took a major stride in Santa Cruz, getting ready for its opening three forward this spring, when UCSC partnered with the National Cancer years later. Institute to establish the Cancer Genomics Hub (CGHub), a national repository that will help scientists around the globe make progress in Preparations for the new campus were beginning their pursuit of genomics-based approaches to understanding cancer to roll. In September 1962, the campus’s first as a disease—and develop new options for treatment. librarian arrived, ready to start a university library from scratch. Our good news extends to graduate programs. I’m delighted to announce our new Ph.D. programs in feminist studies and Latin His name was Donald Clark (1911–1993), and American and Latino studies, and a new master’s program in the- he was the first of Chancellor Dean E. McHenry’s ater arts. academic appointments at UCSC. As we approach our 50th anniversary, UCSC has achieved a level of Before his appointment at Santa Cruz, Clark had research excellence in fields as diverse as linguistics, engineering, been at Baker Library at the Harvard Graduate economics, and marine science. We’ve outpaced peer institutions School of Business for more than 20 years. that have been around twice as long. Chancellor McHenry’s invitation to participate in The backdrop to all this is, of course, our stunning location. the Santa Cruz experiment in public higher edu- Anyone who has ever set foot on campus will appreciate the story cation was a rare opportunity that Clark felt he in this issue about the ways in which our setting inspires teachers couldn’t pass up. He was also excited by the pros- and students, and even shapes the experience of learning itself. pect of building a new library. Here’s to being young, smart, and beautiful! “Can you imagine the opportunity that would be given a librarian to start from zero?” Clark Sincerely, asked his interviewer in his oral history, Donald

George Blumenthal

Cover image: M51 (also known as the Whirlpool galaxy, or NGC 5194,5195) in the constellation Canes Venatici. This galaxy, at a distance of roughly 40 million light years, is a favorite target of amateur astronomers, and was the first galaxy in which spiral structure was recognized (by William Parsons, Third Earl of Rosse, in 1850). UC REVIEWSANTA | review.ucsc.edu CRUZ | Fall 2012

Where’s Sammy? Sammy the Banana Slug is hidden somewhere in this issue. Can you find him? He’ll look like the Sammy above. Email review@ ucsc.edu with his location in the magazine. The first reader to send us Sammy’s hiding spot will get a shout-out in the next issue. Happy hunting, and Fiat Slug!

Editor’s note: UCSC is turning 50 in 2015! How A UCSC astronomy professor and time flies. We’re starting the celebration by the Sloan Digital Sky Survey point a The UCSC campus is a ‘living presenting stories in each issue of Review telescope toward our galaxy’s birth. laboratory’—and a natural lecture hall. of what was happening on campus 50 years ago. First up: In 1962, the founding University Librarian arrives on campus and begins creating McHenry Library.

T. Clark: Early UCSC history and the founding of the University Library. “Clark was a book man first and foremost, but he looked beyond the titles,” said Hal Hyde, UCSC’s first vice chancellor of business and finance. “He was broadly interested in the com- munity and in geography.” In late October 1962, President John F. Mapping Classrooms Kennedy negotiated with Soviet Premier Nikita Khrushchev to settle the Cuban Missile Crisis. The world breathed easier, and work on the the sky 8 12 without walls UCSC campus could continue without the threat of nuclear disaster. 16 28 Clark proceeded with making plans for the building of McHenry Library. He became a pio- Bridging Ocean neer in the area of library automation, working to create a computerized book catalog at UC the digital divide Investment Santa Cruz in the 1960s—the first such effort in the UC system. Today’s library—recently renovated—includes a café, collaborative study areas, a large informa- tion commons containing more than 60 com- puter stations, a “laptop bar” with stools for optimum studying, and full wireless coverage. Though McHenry Library has embraced the digital information age, it remains, as it began, a place for study, contemplation, and discov- ery—just as its founders envisioned it. An ambitious program combines IT Alums’ $1 million gift will further training with student-driven social efforts in ocean health. justice ventures.

Happenings/News 4 | uncommon people 20 | alumni Profiles and notes 22

UC Santa Cruz Review / Fall 2012 1 UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA SANTA CRUZ Your Turn and “best of” social media Chancellor George Blumenthal

Vice Chancellor, University Relations Our feature on the hands-on learning opportunities at KZSC Donna Murphy in the spring ’12 issue provoked an outpouring of warm memories

UC SANTA CRUZ REVIEW from alums. We share a few of their letters here. Live long, Great 88! Fall 2012 Share your story at facebook.com/kzscradio Editor Gwen Mickelson Daily and stringing for Rolling programming and airing what Creative Director Stone (one of the first women I called then “Alternative Music Lisa Nielsen to do so); doing investigative in Spanish.” I was not aware at Art Director/Designer reporting about United Way the time that an actual move- Linda Knudson (Cowell ’76) at a Sacramento rock-and-roll ment of what was referred to as radio station (one of the first Latin Alternative or Rock en Associate Editor reporters to do so); getting fed Español existed outside of the Dan White up with lying weasels and go- Santa Cruz County borders. Cover Photo ing to law school to level the Gracias, and que viva Sloan Digital Sky Collaboration, playing field when reporting— KZSC! sdss.org and then spending 27 years — Gerardo Sandoval Photography (and counting) as a legal jour- Eric Arvizu nalist/lawyer at New York– My main show was Mystic Scott Karoly based media company ALM Maneuvers, playing progressive, Carolyn Lagattuta Radio radio (I still love rock and roll). indie, and trance-oriented rock Elena Zhukova I smiled and tapped some —Monica Bay à la Dead Can Dance, Smiths, Contributors old memories spurred by your Cowell 1967–69, Peter Gabriel, etc. Amy Ettinger stories and history, having been College Five, 1969–71 I was also a founder of Night Jane Liaw (SciCom ’08) one of the pioneering (and of the Living Dead and the Dana Mackenzie (SciCom ’97) pretty bewildered) disc jockeys I was the station manager Jazztronauts, and I filled in Guy Lasnier (Merrill ’78) back in the late ’60s. I had of KZSC for four years from on the Celtic music show on Scott Rappaport Tim Stephens a show on KRUZ on Friday 1975–79, and I led the sta- occasion. I was co-music direc- Peggy Townsend nights with another Stevenson tion’s first renovation and tor from 1987–89 and helped Dan White student, Bob Sloan. We called power increase in 1980 men- bring our album intake from 5 Produced by the show “SOS” (“Schnaidt or tioned in your article. or 10 albums a month to more UC Santa Cruz Sloan”), and we really did need After working as a commer- than 100. Communications help. We played the music we cial radio jock, in TV news, and —Rennie Saunders & Marketing liked, partied, and reached an as a video editor following my 1156 High Street audience in the dozens. tenure at KZSC, today I head I was station manager at Santa Cruz, CA 95064-1077 I know the station has gone a Los Angeles–based media KZSC from 2000–02. I Voice: 831.459.2495 Fax: 831.459.5795 on to better and more legitimate production company that serves was on the panel that hired E-mail: [email protected] things, but its beginnings were Fortune 500 companies. There [broadcast advisor] Michael Web: review.ucsc.edu part of our discovery processes is no doubt that my UCSC Bryant, and I spearheaded the 9/12 (1213-409/55M) and coming of age. We had a degrees in communications and Measure 4 initiative to student great time being on the radio. music, anchored by my years at parliament back in ’02 [which We did no harm, we think. KZSC, were fundamental to provided KZSC with funding —Steve Schnaidt my life and career path. for renovations]. It serves me Stevenson ’70 —Robin Lewin great bittersweet joy to see not Kresge ’79 only the article in the spring Your article brought back Review, but to see all the im- warm memories. I was one My nombre is “Dr. G.” I provements! The mic for one! of the early crop of DJs at was one of the many Latino or Anyway, I wanted to applaud KRUZ. Little did I know that Spanish-language programmers KZSC 88.1. It was one of the my days spinning vinyl would of KZSC. I moved back into the best times of my life thus far. lead me to a journalism career area about five-and-a-half years Keep it left of the dial! that included covering rock ago and have since been dream- —Maruja Clensay music at the Minnesota ing of returning to KZSC. I had Kresge ’02 the most amazing adventure

2 UC Santa Cruz Review / Fall 2012 Get social Our 26,000+ Facebook friends share their memo- ries, thoughts, complaints, and compliments with HOT dates us. Check out some of the best comments from our Facebook page in the past few months.

University of California, Santa Cruz Founders Celebration 2012 ucsc.edu/founders October 12, 2012 Are you still connected to your first roommate? What life lesson did you take Founders Celebration away from the experience? 2012 Honorees Tracie Burruel: My first roommate is one Foundation Medal of my closest friends. Life lessons . . . time helps you remember the good things. Martin Rees, Stay in touch with the ones you like, you England’s Astronomer Royal may never see them again. If you come home to spaghetti on the ceiling, get new Intel Corporation cofounder Gordon roommates. Look out for each other. Moore and wife Betty Moore, founders of the Gordon and Betty Moore What wisdom did you gain from the Foundation wildlife during your time on campus? Fiat Lux Award Andrea Wagman-Christian: It’s what the George Ow & Gail Michaelis Ow, wildlife did for my son. He is a more whole renowned community philanthropists person . . . between the redwoods, ferns Being 100% Banana Slug and raccoons, the pine needles underfoot Means … Alumni Achievement Award and the sweet smell in the air, I know he Being 100 percent Banana has a deeper spirit than if he had stayed Shannon M. Brownlee, Slug means that I’m suffi- in the city for college. He will always long writer and essayist ciently sentimental and nerdy to reproduce that his whole life. to have traveled to the campus Faculty Research Lecturer in the fall of 2006, on the 30th Welcome to all the new Banana Slugs! Gail Hershatter, UCSC professor anniversary of my first month and History Department chair as an undergraduate, and taken Steve Raphael: one of the best days of the above photograph. Of all my life . . . being dropped off at my dorm the good fortune I’ve had in in august of 1990. a new chapter started . my life—at this point 34 years . . and UCSC was just perfect. Martin Luther King Jr. after graduating—nothing sur- Convocation passes the transformative expe- events.ucsc.edu/mlk riences I had at UCSC. I don’t What’s your best memory of graduation visit very often anymore, but weekend? February 6, 2013 it was like a dream, in all its messiness, fondly remembered. Kate Grimes: 1980—Oakes, Patrick and I counting down the days to our wedding, — Rob Briner Scholarship Benefit Dinner 1982, my Oakes graduation, and going events.ucsc.edu/sbd Merrill ’78 out for chocolate madness at the Saturn Cafe. We came back in 2010 for our son’s February 23, 2013 What does Being 100% Banana graduation from Kresge. good times all. Slug mean to you? Tell us at: bananaslugs.ucsc.edu Ryn Schneider: leaving our house on Alumni Reunion Weekend 2013 Archer Dr. and walking to take the shuttle to Porter College wearing our cap and events.ucsc.edu/reunion gowns as a solid group of friends that April 26–28, 2013 stuck together for 4 years through it all. Class of 2004, thanks for the memories! For more events, visit: events.ucsc.edu Like us, and join the fun!

www.facebook.com/ucsantacruz UC Santa Cruz Review / Fall 2012 3 ThisNews and people of note is UCSC

The night sky 4 billion years from now would look something like this as the Andromeda galaxy begins to collide and merge with the Milky Way. The image is based on dynamical computer modeling of the future collision between the two galaxies. Milky Way destined for head-on collision with Andromeda galaxy Our galactic neighbor the Andromeda Way. Painstaking measurements of its Puragra Guhathakurta, professor of as- galaxy is on a collision course with our motion show that it will collide with the tronomy and astrophysics at UC Santa own Milky Way galaxy, according to Milky Way about 4 billion years from Cruz, said astronomers have long specu- new observations by a team of astrono- now. M31 is now 2.5 million light-years lated that the two galaxies would even- mers using the Hubble Space Telescope. away, but inexorably drifting ever nearer tually collide. “Now we’ve shown that a Also called M31, the Andromeda galaxy to us under the mutual pull of gravity collision is inevitable,” he said. is the closest spiral galaxy to the Milky between the two galaxies.

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4 UC Santa Cruz Review / Fall 2012 UCSC nabs ‘young’ award UC Santa Cruz is ranked seventh in the world among the 100 best universi- ties less than 50 years old, according to an analysis by Times Higher Education. UCSC ranked first in the world in the key citation index (30 percent of the Grateful Dead final score) that measures the influence of an institution’s research. Archive Online UCSC and UC Irvine, both founded in goes live 1965, were the only American universi- ties to rank in the top 10. Irvine was In June, the UCSC Library launched fourth. Pohang University of Science the Grateful Dead Archive Online and Technology in South Korea was (GDAO) at www.gdao.org. ranked first. Several years in the making, GDAO features nearly 25,000 items and more ‘Personalized’ than 50,000 scans selected from the Archive at UC Santa Cruz, document- medicine gets ing the Grateful Dead’s 30-year history closer from 1965–1995. Students, scholars, and anyone seek- photo: c. waters The emerging field of “personalized” ing to learn about the Grateful Dead or “precision” medicine holds great will be able to access digital surrogates The new wine label (bottom), created by UCSC art major Louise Leong (top), in- promise in the fight against cancer. of a broad range of historical artifacts If scientists can identify the genetic cludes references to taste, style, and the including photographs, fanzines, fan- winemaker’s car. changes that drive each patient’s cancer decorated envelopes, and more. cells, they can use that information to develop targeted treatments. But Zimmerman Arts Division achieving this goal will require massive gets creative amounts of genomic and clinical data winner to and a sophisticated infrastructure to Arts Dean David Yager recently partnered manage and analyze the data. continue legacy with Bonny Doon Vineyard winemaker and UCSC has completed a first step in “I plan to continue Gabe Zimmerman’s alumnus Randall Grahm (Porter preferred illustration: nasa, esa, z. levay (stsci), and o. mellinger. building this infrastructure, according legacy by pursuing issues I’m passionate year ’74, philosophy, literature, pre-med) to to UC Santa Cruz bioinformatics ex- about,” said Yethzéll Díaz, a senior with develop specially bottled wines with cus- pert David Haussler. a double major in Latin American and tom-designed labels by UCSC art students. Haussler’s team has established the Latino studies and sociology, as she was Part of the proceeds from these wines will Cancer Genomics Hub (CGHub), a awarded the first Gabriel Zimmerman go to supporting UCSC arts scholarships. large-scale data repository and user portal Memorial Scholarship. Art major Louise Leong created the win- for the National Cancer Institute’s cancer Zimmerman (Stevenson ’02, sociol- ning image for the 2010 Banana Slug genome research programs. CGHub is ogy), who was an aide to U.S. Rep. Roussanne white wine. She is also a staff providing cancer researchers with effi- Gabby Giffords, D-Ariz., was killed in illustrator for the campus’s student news- cient access to a large and rapidly growing the January 2011 shooting in Tucson paper, City on a Hill Press. store of valuable biomedical data. that wounded Giffords. Leong’s brightly colored label includes The project is funded by the National Díaz received the $2,500 scholarship images of honey bees, plus the winemaker’s Cancer Institute through a $10.3 mil- in an April ceremony at Stevenson signature red Citroen automobile. lion subcontract with SAIC-Frederick that brought together her family and The partnership is part of renewed efforts Inc., the prime contractor for the Zimmerman’s parents. by Yager to reconnect with alumni and Frederick National Laboratory for communities near and far. Cancer Research.

UC Santa Cruz Review / Fall 2012 5 The team led by Pradip Mascharak, History prof professor of chemistry and bio- pens cover story chemistry, and graduate student Brandon Heilman published for The Nation their results in the Journal of the The June 11 issue of The Nation maga- American Chemical Society. zine featured a cover story by UC Santa Cruz history professor Dana Frank. Turning trash Titled Honduras: Which Side is the U.S. to slash On?, the article examines the impact of the 2009 military coup in Honduras and In February, UCSC U.S. policy supporting the new regime, Environmental Health & Safety describing a corrupt drug war that Frank put on polystyrene foam recycling says has been used as the pretext for in- collection day for the laboratories creased U.S. militarization of the area. on Science Hill. One of the top academic experts on Physical Plant teamed up with a Honduras in the United States, Frank program called Waste to Waves has been commenting on the volatile (wastetowaves.org) based out of situation in the region for media includ- southern California, which col- ing National Public Radio, the Chicago lected all the polystyrene foam Tribune, and the Associated Press. products and will use them to make surfboard blanks. Drug-resistant The event was hailed as a major success, with nearly 150 pounds of bacteria tackled Styrofoam and other polystyrene products winding up in the recy- with new method cling containers instead of going to Researchers at UC Santa Cruz have de- a landfill. veloped a novel approach for eradicating Organizers say the event went so drug-resistant bacteria from wounds and well, they will host follow-ups on a skin infections, using light to trigger the regular basis. controlled release of nitric oxide. The UCSC team developed a photoactive “Campus laboratories have been compound that releases nitric oxide saving their (foam products), wait- when exposed to light, and loaded it into ing for an opportunity to sustain- a porous, biocompatible material that ably recycle the problematic waste,” could be applied as a sprayable powder. said April Anstey, Hazardous Waste Manager for UCSC Environmental In laboratory tests, the light-triggered ni- Health & Safety.

tric oxide treatment eradicated a highly photos: (surfer) courtesy john oda, (haney) jay mallin, illustration: courtesy mascharak of p. drug-resistant strain of Acinetobacter (top): Dana Frank reporting from Honduras. baumannii, a type of gram-negative Book details bacteria that causes hard-to-treat and po- (middle): This figure shows the porous, biocompatible material (left) containing a photoactive compound (cen- efforts to tentially lethal infections throughout the ter), which releases nitric oxide to eradicate bacteria world, including serious infections in sol- (right). save seals diers wounded in Iraq and Afghanistan. (bottom): Nearly 150 pounds of polystyrene foam In 2009, federal officials monitoring waste products were diverted from landfills—and slated the endangered Hawaiian monk seal to be turned into surfboards—at a recent foam recycling population asked marine biologist event on campus.

6 UC Santa Cruz Review / Fall 2012 This is UCSC

Terrie Williams if she could care (top): Marine biologist Terrie for an orphaned pup at her lab Williams with KP2 during an eye at UCSC. Williams, a professor exam at UCSC. (NMFS Permit #13602-01) (middle): Film and of ecology and evolutionary biol- digital media professor B. Ruby ogy, jumped at the opportunity Rich on the cover of the San to study one of these rare tropi- Francisco Chronicle’s Sunday cal seals in her marine mammal Datebook arts section. (below): physiology program. Psychology professor Craig Haney delivers his testimony to a Senate She had little idea at the time subcommittee. just what it would mean to get involved in the life of Kauai Since 1986, the Frameline Award Pup 2, or KP2. has been given every year to a per- Her new book, The Odyssey of son who has made a major contri- KP2: An Orphan Seal, a Marine bution to LGBT representation in Biologist, and the Fight to Save a film, television, or the media arts. Species, is the story of this boister- Past honorees have included film ous seal pup, the special bond historian and author Vito Russo, Williams formed with him, and Hong Kong director Stanley the scientific insights that could Kwan, avant-garde lesbian film- help to save an endangered species. maker Barbara Hammer, pro- ducer Christine Vachon, and pro- Prison expert ducer/distributor Marcus Hu. testifies on In memoriam: solitary M. Brewster confinement Smith UC Santa Cruz psychology pro- M. Brewster Smith, professor fessor Craig Haney, the nation’s emeritus of psychology at UC Santa leading expert on inmate mental Cruz, whose research and testimony health, was called to testify before contributed to the landmark 1954 a U.S. Senate subcommittee inves- U.S. Supreme Court decision that tigating solitary confinement. banned school segregation, died in For many inmates, Haney told August in Santa Cruz. senators, “solitary confinement He was 93. precipitates a descent into mad- Smith joined UC Santa Cruz as ness.” Prisoners in long-term vice chancellor for social sciences solitary confinement suffer psychological in 1970, five years after the campus opened. breakdowns from the lack of human con- Film professor He served in that capacity until 1975, then tact that can lead to psychosis, mutilations, honored at SF continued as a professor of psychology until and suicide, Haney said. he retired in 1988. Even after retirement, Haney has been named to a National LGBT Film Fest Smith was an active teacher and researcher. Academy of Science panel of leading schol- UC Santa Cruz professor of Film and “Psychology has lost a major contribu- ars and experts on corrections to study the Digital Media B. Ruby Rich received the tor and statesman,” said longtime UCSC causes and consequences of high rates of 2012 Frameline Award at the 36th annual colleague psychology professor Thomas incarceration in the United States. San Francisco International LGBT Film Pettigrew. Festival, which ran June 14–24.

UCUC Santa Santa Cruz Cruz Review Review / Spring / Fall 20122011 77 MAPPING THE SKY The background image is a figure showing the region of sky imaged by the Sloan Digital Sky Survey, centered on the north galactic cap. (below) UCSC Professor of Astronomy Connie Rockosi, a member of the multi-institutional team that built the digital scanning camera for the Sloan Digital Sky Survey.

Astronomy professor Connie Rockosi is a bright light in the Sloan Digital Sky Survey, which aims to discover how our galaxy was born

8 UC Santa Cruz Review / Fall 2012 by Dana Mackenzie MAPPING THE SKY

On Friday nights,while her high school classmates were going to parties, Connie Rockosi enjoyed a different kind of celebration: star parties at her local astronomy club in Cranford, New Jersey.

One night, she saw a star disap- Rockosi has already found enough pear as it passed behind the rings of clues to completely change astrono- Saturn and then wink at her through a mers’ view of the Milky Way. Instead gap in the rings. Even if she couldn’t of a relatively placid whirlpool of gas see the gap directly, the reappear- that condensed and formed a spiral ance of the star proved that it was of stars, we now know that the Milky there. Way has been a voracious feeder on “It was a neat experience,” she says. smaller, nearby galaxies. Rockosi and “It’s the kind of detective work that we her colleagues have identified several have to do as astronomers, because streams of stars that are moving at a we can’t go out and poke at the things different velocity from the surrounding we observe. We have to tell a story stars. These streams are the torn-apart based on very limited and indirect ob- shreds of a devoured galaxy. Though servations. This was my first taste of the stars have been assimilated by the what it’s like to do science.” Milky Way, their anomalous motion is a relic of the galaxy that they grew up in. Now, as an astronomy professor at UC Santa Cruz, Rockosi, 40, has The discovery would not have been the opportunity to practice this kind possible without the Sloan Digital Sky of deduction on a regular basis. She Survey (SDSS), a huge collaborative studies the history and structure of our project funded by the Alfred P. Sloan Milky Way galaxy. But you can’t see Foundation that has assembled a vir- what the Milky Way looked like 5 or tual encyclopedia of stars and galaxies. background image: courtesy the sdss collaboration, sdss.org/photo: courtesy fermilab visual media services 10 billion years ago through any tele- continued next page scope. You have to piece together the

clues and tell a story. UC Santa Cruz Review / Fall 2012 9 To find a stream of stars moving at the “wrong” ve- locity, as Rockosi did, you have to look at lots of stars, and you have to survey a vast area, because the Milky Way is all around us. In other words, you need an archive just like the one that SDSS has compiled. Birth of a survey It’s no accident that the Sloan Digital Sky Survey came along just in time for Rockosi’s research, be- cause she helped build the equipment in the first place. She began working on the project in 1992, when she was still an undergraduate at Princeton University and the telescope existed only on the drawing board of her professor, James Gunn. She has continued to work for (top): A map of stars in the outer regions of the Milky Way Galaxy, derived from the SDSS images of the north- the Sloan survey ever since. ern sky. (bottom): Apache Point Observatory in the Sacramento Mountains of New Mexico. The Sloan Digital Gunn, the project’s chief Sky Survey’s 2.5-meter telescope is on the left. White Sands National Monument is visible in the distance, scientist, envisioned a new above the telescope. The monitor telescope, used for calibrations, is inside the small dome to the right of cen- kind of telescope with a ter. Optical fibers for spectroscopy are pre-positioned each day in the building on the right (behind the trees). huge field of view, which The building in the center rolls on rails to cover the 2.5-meter telescope when it is not in use. could simultaneously mea- sure the spectra of 640 different stars or out to be every bit as good, if not better, than Rockosi received a 2006 Packard Fellowship galaxies, like a fly with 640 eyes. everyone said.” for Science and Engineering—one of the na- tion’s most prestigious honors for young fac- The “eyes”—or detectors—that would make Her first project was building circuit boards ulty members. or break the project, a new generation of for the detectors, which she did so well that devices, weren’t even available yet. When Gunn asked her to keep working on the they finally did arrive, they were beyond Sloan camera while she was in graduate Technical talent finicky. Each one was a precision instru- school at the University of Chicago. Although To her colleagues on the Sloan project, ment that differed from all the others, and it meant putting her dissertation on hold, she Rockosi’s technical skills became legendary. needed an engineer who knew exactly shepherded the camera from the drawing “My first time at Apache Point Observatory how that particular detector behaved. board to its installation at Apache Point, New was in August 1999, just when they were That engineer turned out to be Connie Mexico, in 1998. bringing the spectrographs out,” says David Rockosi. As the rest of the telescope came on line, Schlegel of Lawrence Berkeley National “She started in the spring of her junior she took on more and more responsibility for Laboratory. “Everything was already broken. year,” Gunn says. “I knew that she was running it. By the time Rockosi joined the UC I kept hearing people say, ‘Connie will be considered the star student of the electri- Santa Cruz Astronomy Department in 2004, out here soon, she’ll fix it.’ So one day I’m cal engineering department. She turned “she knew more about the nitty-gritty of that chitchatting at a meal with a person named telescope than I did,” says Gunn. Connie, who looked about 16 years old.

10 UC Santa Cruz Review / Fall 2012 About halfway into the conversation I had Sloan-I was essentially a survey of galaxies termine how common these mergers have this epiphany: Connie! You must be the and quasars, which collected data on the been, and how many mergers it takes to person everyone is talking about! In my stars in our own galaxy only as a byproduct. form a Milky Way. mind she was such a towering figure, I had They were like bugs on the windshield that “Although we’re looking at our own galaxy, thought she must be much older.” the telescope had to look through. we’re doing cosmology too,” Rockosi says. It isn’t just machines that Rockosi has learned But a funny thing happened: the bugs on “We’re trying to understand whether our to handle. In the current funding cycle, called the windshield turned out to form interesting galaxy fits the picture of how we think gal- Sloan-III, she coordinated the Milky Way part patterns. The telescope was seeing mostly axies form. We just get to do it up close of the survey, which meant managing people. stars that are in the Milky Way but lie outside and personal, on smaller scales.” the main disk, in the so-called halo. “She understands politics like no one her Weighing the galaxy age I’ve ever met,” says Heather Morrison “The cartoon picture we all learned in grad- of Case Western Reserve University. ”She uate school was that the halo was pretty One of the projects Rockosi has in mind doesn’t have an ego that needs to be uniform,” Rockosi said. for the future sounds deceptively easy: to weigh the galaxy. In fact, nobody quite stroked or coddled. She understands when However, Brian Yanny of Fermilab and knows how much mass there is in the Milky people might be getting peeved about Heidi Newberg of Rensselaer Polytechnic Way. To figure that out, you need to study something, and she is ahead of you in wor- Institute found clumps and streams of stars the orbits of stars that are as far away as rying about that. And she is very protective in the halo. of the needs of graduate students.” possible from the center. “That fits well with the theory that galax- “The problem is that the galaxy is not made The increased focus on the Milky Way is ies form from smaller dwarf galaxies that up just of stars, but mostly out of dark mat- itself a major evolution of the Sloan Digital merge together to form a larger one,” ter,” Rockosi says. “The stars are all con- Sky Survey, which was originally intended Rockosi says. She is now continuing their centrated at the center. The most interest- to answer large-scale cosmological ques- work with her own students, trying to de- tions about the structure of the universe. ing places to look at are far out, and that’s where the fewest stars are. That’s why you photo: dan long and the astrophysical research consortium /image: belokurov v. and the sdss collaboration; sdss.org. need a big survey and a big view of the sky, to pick out these very rare objects.” At present, Sloan-III is funded through the summer of 2014. Beyond that, everybody Private funding changes paradigms on the team hopes for continued support Thanks to the Sloan Digital Sky Survey, astronomers now have a catalogue of images from the Sloan Foundation, and the science and spectra for hundreds of thousands of stars in the Milky Way, as well as hundreds projects for a prospective fourth round of thousands of galaxies beyond the Milky Way. It is one of the greatest success sto- have already been selected. ries ever for privately funded science. One other change will also take effect. About a third of the original $75 million to get the telescope built, and to organize a Gunn, Rockosi’s mentor, is planning to team of several hundred people, came from the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation, based in retire from his position as operations coor- New York City. The rest came from government sources and individual universities. dinator for the survey. Beginning in 2014, The foundation has continued to support the operation of the telescope through two Rockosi will take over his duties. more cycles, called Sloan-II and Sloan-III. “I can’t imagine Sloan-IV happening with- The value of the Sloan survey, Gunn says, resides not so much in any great discover- out her,” Gunn says. ies as in the vast amount of information that it places at every astronomer’s fingertips. Dana Mackenzie is a freelance mathemat- “It’s like building a pyramid,” Gunn says. “Rather than one huge brick, you need thou- ics and science writer based in Santa sands of small ones.” Cruz. He is a 1997 graduate of the UCSC science communication program. The Sloan Survey has changed the way that astronomy is done, Gunn adds. Astronomers used to spend two nights on the telescope to observe something, he said. (Or not—astronomers would often wait months to get two nights on a telescope, only to have their plans ruined by cloudy weather.) “Now you learn to do database queries,” Gunn says. “The whole paradigm has changed because of the Sloan Survey.”

UC Santa Cruz Review / Fall 2012 11 Classrooms withoutwalls

“Do you have the flashlight?” Martha Mendoza asked as she made her way through the forest, eucalyptus leaves crackling beneath her shoes. Her destination, a damp cave, was not far from the road. Mendoza (Kresge ‘89, journalism/education), a Pulitzer Prize–winning reporter for the Associated Press, teaches an investigative reporting class at UC Santa Cruz for graduate students in the Science Communication Program. | Most lessons take place in a Science Communications Program instructor Martha Mendoza teaches the art of observation using UCSC’s natural landscape. classroom. | “But there comes a day in our semester when I tell them, ‘Tomorrow, wear sturdy boots and be prepared to get muddy.’ Usually they are mystified and excited,”

12 UC Santa Cruz Review / Fall 2012 by Dan White Classrooms From the grasses of the meadows withoutwalls to the tips of towering redwoods, the UCSC campus is a ‘living laboratory’ and a natural lecture hall

Mendoza said. | For professors to mention their pant legs—dirty. countries, students volunteer across the disciplines, the | The setting and learning are and pursue internships. Over redwood-lined, rugged, and inextricably linked. At the Center the years, student interns have occasionally spooky campus is a for Agroecology & Sustainable conducted archaeological vast resource. | Taking advantage Food Systems, apprentices learn excavations within the Cowell of the university’s extremely organic gardening and farming. Limeworks Historic District. unusual location, teachers are At the UCSC Arboretum, which not afraid to have students houses the largest collection cross creeks, dig through sticky of Australian and South African continued next page

photo: elena zhukova/inset: dan white mud, and get their hands—not plants outside their native

UC Santa Cruz Review / Fall 2012 13 myself and say, ‘What are these people wear- ing, and is it hot or cold out? What’s going on?’ Even if I had beautiful photos and video, it’s just not the same as getting it down on pa- per in the moment.”

Insects, chaparral, and scientific processes Erika Zavaleta, associate professor of en- vironmental studies, uses outdoor oppor- tunities in every course she teaches—even 350-person lecture classes. “UCSC has a huge diversity of ecosystems right on campus: mixed conifer forest, chapar- ral, grassland, redwood forest, riparian forest, streams, and of course agricultural lands,” she said. “Where I grew up in the Northeast you would need to drive for hours to cross through this many kinds of ecosystems.” Zavaleta takes an inquiry-based approach, giving students the chance to explore an area and wrestle with such questions as, “Are there more kinds of insects in the forest

photo: carolyn lagattuta or the chaparral?” Alex Chacon, 19 (College Nine ’15, plant science), working at the Forest Ecology Students haul field guides, compasses, Reseach Plot (FERP), part of the UCSC Campus Natural Reserve transect tapes, and nets into the field. Soon they’ve made graphs and drawn up posters The land also inspires reflection and creativ- Mendoza’s experiential slogs are meant to to present to the class. ity; when College Eight lecturer Candace help students learn to capture telling details “I hear them talk about what an exciting thing Calsoyas teaches freshman seminars on on paper, even when they find themselves in it is to think and problem-solve for themselves, “Environment and Society,” she leads stu- unnerving places. and get out and actually do science rather than dents across the wooded campus while “Part of the lesson is being in an uncomfort- just hearing about it,” Zavaleta said. they walk, talk, and learn—a model that dates able situation and still being observant,” she back to Aristotle, who founded the peripa- “Just the simple experience of looking in the said. tetic school. right places for salamanders and finding Gingerly, Mendoza lowered herself into the them, or of trying to figure out why the for- “Though UCSC is exceptionally beautiful throat of the limestone cave, using a sturdy est ends and the grassland starts right at a with its mountain perch, majestic redwoods, ladder. There were no sounds but Mendoza’s particular place, lights up so many students,” and textured seascape below, still every breathing, the “droop-droop-droop” of an Zavaleta continued. “They connect places landscape and cityscape suits the ‘walk unseen water source, and the “smack” of her with intellectual ideas and practical skills.” and talk,’” Calsoyas said. “Unlike being in sunglasses, which fell off her face and landed the classroom, students don’t feel put on in some dark corner of the cave. the spot and are more liberated by being Stalking the elusive outside.” Several of the campus caves provide habitat for rare cave invertebrates, some of which are microphage Over the years, UCSC’s unique location has believed to occur only on campus. These spe- The students of Grant Hartzog, professor of informed, enriched, and expanded the cur- cies are likely sensitive to disturbance, and molecular, cell, and developmental (MCD) riculum while allowing students to test their educational users are informed about ways biology, take to the forest in search of bacte- hunches and perfect their skills outdoors. to minimize impacts while taking advantage riophages, viruses that attack bacteria. of the opportunity to teach amidst and about So many exist in nature that they are thought Spelunking with these unique and rare organisms. to kill off a large proportion of bacteria on a skilled reporter “A reporter has to be out of the comfort zone,” planet Earth every day. Still, students must “Oh, look,” Martha Mendoza said as she Mendoza said as she turned on her flashlight, prowl around in search of them. which only poked a hole in the dark. “If I’m in paused in a clearing. “It’s a deer. And oh, First they isolate the virus from the soil, photo- Haiti, reporting on exploratory drilling at a gold there’s a fawn. And another! Last time we graph it with help from an electron microscope, mine, and there’s all this noise and people were out here, a lizard ran right over a stu- and extract its DNA. Then a laboratory takes a walking by with weapons, I have to really settle dent’s foot. It scared her.” close look at the DNA sequence.

14 UC Santa Cruz Review / Fall 2012 When it comes to phage hunting and genetic with the FERP research project, spending eight The huckleberries are of the same genus documentation, “you don’t need an abundance hours a day, five days a week, in the forest. as blueberries, explained Alex Chacon, 19 of technical skills to be successful right away,” “There’s nothing else like this in the UC sys- (College Nine ‘15, plant science). “They’re the Hartzog said. “You need to be enthusiastic, cu- tem,” said Gage Dayton, director of UCSC worst plants to measure because of how bushy rious, and willing to learn.” Natural Reserves. “You can learn a lot in the they are and how many stems they have.” The result is original findings. lecture hall or lab. But if you want to get a feel They insist that a visitor sniff a sprig of spicy for what poison oak looks like, bang a hammer wild mint and feel the contours of asmooth “Every student is doing the same kind of on a rock, dig a pitfall to trap and catch an ani- hazelnut leaf. They express sympathy for a technical manipulations, but each is col- mal, measure light penetration in a real forest, western fence lizard that someone, perhaps a lecting a unique virus,” Hartzog said. “This and capture and analyze water from a creek, speeding bicyclist, has squished on the trail, means that although these beginning stu- you just can’t get that in the classroom or a and marvel at a strewn-about deer carcass. dents are working together on similar proj- laboratory. And this is right outside our door.” ects, they are doing authentic research and In the process, they grow their scientific skills making a real contribution. They take a proj- Getting students out to natural areas would hour by hour, day by day. have been logistically difficult and expensive “if ect and have total ownership of it.” “When you work on someone else’s project you had to find buses for all of them,” Dayton They even get to name the newly discov- you start seeing how scientists think,” said said. “But this is five minutes from the door of ered phages. So far, undergraduates have Kathlyn Franco, 22 (Cowell ‘12, environmental traditional classrooms. All students should be dubbed them Darth, FlowerChild, Haze, studies), who wants to be a mammalogist. getting out here and using it.” Jeffabunny, TreeBaby, Zigzag, Rage, Lugosi, “You start seeing how they find and fix mistakes Along the way, the students get an intimate DomoArigato, and Firecracker, among other and how to find a better way,” Franco continued. knowledge of how science works and best names. “You start building all these ways of seeing and practices in research. They also have fun, One of Hartzog’s students, Daniel McKernan doing. Gage [Dayton] will often answer my making deliberately geeky jokes about “liking (Oakes ’14, human biology), quickly learned questions with questions: ‘What are the draw- lichens” and sampling huckleberries straight that some areas on campus are better than backs and benefits of doing this?’’’ off the vine. others for finding phages. To trek with these bright students through “It is best to collect soil samples in damper the reserves, past thick stands of chaparral, shaded areas,” he said. “I collected about 15 Douglas-fir, and madrones with peeling bark, is soil samples here on campus at UCSC in the Cave care to see the campus landscape in a completely dirtiest, muddiest, smelliest areas I could find. different light. At last they arrived at the FERP, UCSC’s caves are sensitive habitats where every single shrub and tree of a certain “The search was fun,” McKernan said. that require careful stewardship by all. height and diameter is being studied. “It took hiking in creek beds and digging Appropriate use of the campus caves through mud. It was interesting to go out in Considering this whole place is a living labo- is limited to research and occasional search of stagnant, wet soil.” ratory, it makes sense that the students sud- guided visits for university classes, denly stopped and put on what appeared to The next step was examining the phage us- during which students are informed be lab coats. Actually, they were lightweight ing an electron microscope. about ways to minimize impacts while all-white Tyvek suits, designed to protect taking advantage of the opportunity to “If the phage that I have isolated is novel, them from one of the plants they’re study- learn about the area’s unique geology meaning that it has never before been dis- ing—native poison oak. covered, I think I will name it after my dog, and its rare subterranean organisms, “Poison oak is very interesting,” observed Broseph,” McKernan said. according to Alex Jones, Campus Natural Reserve steward. Catherine Scheid, 20 (Cowell ‘14, environ- mental studies), who has no fear of the nasty Jones urges visitors to be sensitive Reading a forest, leaf by leaf stuff. She may be immune. “It takes different to flora and fauna throughout the forms. It can grow like a shrub. Sometimes it In late summer, five student interns ventured campus’s natural areas, including looks like a little tree.” out into the UCSC Campus Natural Reserve, its caves. 400 acres of protected natural lands on the The students were accompanied by Alex “Caves on and around the UCSC 2,000-acre campus. Jones, UCSC Campus Natural Reserve stew- campus provide habitat for rare cave ard. Student interns spend so much time out They were heading out toward the 15-acre invertebrates, including the Dollof here with him that they’ve started to know the Forest Ecology Reseach Plot (FERP), a re- cave spider and the Empire Cave forest intimately. search and teaching site established by envi- pseudoscorpion, which are believed ronmental studies professor Greg Gilbert five to occur only within these caves,” “A Cooper’s Hawk nested here in the years ago. There, students and scientists have Jones said. “These species and the spring,” Jones observed. “The female used catalogued and tagged more than 10,000 caves’ geologic features are vulner- to dive-bomb the interns. Now they’re at the individual plants, including Douglas-fir, coast able to disturbances caused by recre- stage when we can hear three chicks beg- live oak, Shreve oak, and tanoak. ational use. Substantial degradation ging for food.” These students—mostly undergrads, but also a of cave features has been docu- couple of newly minted UCSC graduates—are mented within the past few decades Contact Dan White at [email protected]. all paid interns, advancing science by helping since their discovery.”

UC Santa Cruz Review / Fall 2012 15 An ambitious program at UCSC combines practical training in information technology with student-driven social justice ventures Building BRIDGES Over the digital divide Guadalupe Guerrero picks raspberries for a living in the fields of Watsonville. Until recently, she could not use a computer. | For many of us who do use computers, our digital lives have become almost as vivid and important as our real-world ones. In our intricately connected society, being shut out from the online world is greatly limiting, and the space between those with access and without is a growing divide. | “Technology has been revolutionary in every aspect of our lives,” UCSC sociology professor Paul Lubeck says. “Economic opportunity is increasingly dependent on using these technologies.”

16 UC Santa Cruz Review / Fall 2012 by Jane Liaw

Guerrero has now leaped the divide. can’t take advantage of existing tech- “People come out of GIIP knowing how Today she has a website for her bur- nology that could greatly improve their to run a nonprofit—it’s the equivalent of geoning bakery side business. She uses efficiency. GIIP interns identify causes two to three years’ experience of high- YouTube to learn new baking techniques close to their hearts—environmental, level nonprofit work,” says GIIP Global and Facebook to post photos of her educational, or otherwise—and seek out Advisory Board member Mark Headley cakes and communicate with family nonprofit partners in those areas that (Stevenson ‘83, politics and econom- in Mexico. She checks her daughter’s need their information and communica- ics). “It’s very much in the founding spirit grades online. tions technology services. The interns of UCSC: students are given a certain “She’s comfortable with the computer essentially act as tech consultants amount of freedom to explore.” now,” says daughter Ebelin Mata, 14, a to their nonprofit partners, be they in Headley has been a long-time supporter Watsonville High School sophomore. Watsonville or Nigeria. of what he calls the “unique and inspir- Ebelin and Guerrero are both clients of “It’s an amazing thing to take someone ing GIIP experience”; he recently made the UCSC Global Information Internship in Africa where books are unknown, and a gift to the program that will establish Program (GIIP), a unique undergradu- put them on the Internet where they can the Dorothy E. Everett Endowed Chair ate social justice venture: GIIP guided see all the libraries available to them,” and fulfill other program needs. says Lubeck, GIIP founder and director. Guerrero into the digital world, and they Field experiences in Ethiopia recently organized a technology camp GIIP interns help partner nonprofits on the UCSC campus, where Ebelin wherever technology would improve When then-GIIP intern Jyesha Wren and other Watsonville-area Latino high operations: interns might teach courses (College Ten ’11, intensive sociology) ar- school students learned to develop mo- on basic computer programming, set up rived in Ethiopia to work with grassroots bile apps and navigate the ins and outs databases and websites for small orga- reproductive health organizations, her of college applications. nizations, or create digital videos. partners on the ground were surprised to see a young woman traveling across Tech consultants Meanwhile, UCSC undergraduates who the world alone. They wondered how join GIIP gain skills they cannot attain to nonprofits her husband (for surely a woman at the in a lecture hall, such as “the ability to ripe old age of 25 would be married) GIIP’s project in Watsonville is just one analyze problems facing a community could possibly allow this. of many the program has developed and address them,” says GIIP Fellow around the world. Nonprofit organiza- Yethzéll Díaz (College Nine ’12, Latin Wren went with a keen interest in learn- tions have limited resources and often American and Latino studies/sociology). ing about gender-based violence. The

(Left to right): Nadya Tannous in the Balkans working on peace and conflict resolution with Serbian orphans; Dmitry Kogen working with children in India; Katie Roper doing film work in Kenya; Shelley McCoy doing women’s health work in Nigeria.

UC Santa Cruz Review / Fall 2012 17 girls in one community she assisted on grants for funding. It is, she con- project that was ambitious and mean- had called for an office of women’s af- cedes, a “huge vision,” but GIIP has ingful.” She is now an Executive Fellow fairs to be added to their local police given her the confidence—and entrepre- and GIIP’s managing director. station, where records of violations neurial acumen—to aim high. With so much demanded of interns, against women could be kept. With the The basics of GIIP Lubeck realized formal recognition was handwritten forms the station was using, necessary to credit those who had it was impossible to create a database; In 1998, when Professor Lubeck taken on especially time-consuming Wren developed a Microsoft Access launched GIIP as an informal working enterprises; thus was the “intensive electronic form for reporting violations group to explore how technology could sociology” (a.k.a. Global Information and trained staff to use the program. be used for public good, he had no in- and Social Enterprise Studies [GISES]) Wren saw firsthand the ingenuity re- kling how that small group would grow. major/minor born, with support from the quired to go against practices ingrained Now GIIP is an established curriculum sociology department. GISES majors in culture. The director of one organiza- anchored by a three-course series, dur- complete an honors-quality information tion working to eradicate female genital ing which interns come up with an idea, technology project and document in mutilation deployed many strategies write a business plan, learn to design detail their experiences. Fifteen GISES simultaneously, recognizing that change and implement a project, and apply for majors and minors graduated last year. would only come when the tides of grant funding. They take technologi- public opinion shifted. He pushed for cal workshops tailored to their project Flexibility in the real world schools to open in places where there needs and skill levels. Interns who do The city of Cairo, Egypt, has no formal were none, since schools could teach re- well during their first year are invited to recycling program. Instead, there are productive health and messages of non- become Fellows, tasked with managing “garbage villages,” whole communities violence. He promoted public weddings GIIP, teaching technology workshops, that make their living from selling the of brides who were “uncut,” showing that handling program publicity, and doing recyclables they find among the gar- brides who hadn’t been mutilated were anything else needed. “What makes bage of Cairo residents. Men from the still marriageable. GIIP work is Fellows have power,” garbage villages roam around the city Wren’s field experience led to her deci- Lubeck says. collecting trash and bring it back to the sion to go beyond research and policy Even after launching into the world, village, where women and children sort work and become a midwife. Now a UC some alumni are later compelled to through the piles, picking valuables San Francisco Masters Entry Program return as Executive Fellows, overseeing from rotting organic waste. in Nursing student, Wren plans to cre- operations. Katie Roper (Stevenson One woman, Lydia Marcos, started ate a birth and wellness center incor- ‘07, environmental studies and eco- an NGO to help a small garbage vil- porating a pharmacy and shop that will nomics), credits GIIP as her “first lage bring in infrastructure like water make it self-sustaining, not dependent taste of having total responsibility for a pipes. Marcos got to chatting with her

(left to right): Rebecca Wage in Washington, D.C., working for the Center for International Policy; Lucas Healy in Ghanaworking on mobile apps for voter rights; Jyesha Wren with the Dukum Town Police Department in Ethiopia.

18 UC Santa Cruz Review / Fall 2012 friend, GIIP Fellow Sarah quietly gaze at the water. Today Shokair (College Nine ‘13, they will walk through forested environmental studies/Earth paths, the main library, and other sciences), one day. Shokair “GIIP is a lot of work, UCSC landmarks while Díaz had just learned to create but as with all the and Gelder cheerfully lay out the donor databases using Excel, world available to them if they exactly what Marcos needed. best things in life, become UCSC undergraduates They decided Shokair would you get out of it what themselves. set up databases, donor you put into it.” Later that day, the students will newsletters, and a web pres- start a week’s course on mobile ence for Marcos’s organiza- — GIIP Fellows coordinator app development. They’ll also tion, and put together a train- Thomas Gelder learn how to apply and pay for col- ing packet so interns could lege, and the benefits of federal take over later. student aid, something Gelder Shokair researched inten- says he didn’t discover until well sively for several months; her venture on a smaller scale when into his college career. He doesn’t meanwhile, things were suddenly mov- things settle. When she told Roper want them to make the same mistake. ing for the garbage village: the govern- about the experience, Roper assured Gelder is tying the two camp themes ment finally approved a water pipe into her it was OK: things change all the time together by teaching the students to the village. Residents were too busy when you go into the field, and you have build a “personalized college mentor” to provide updates for the newsletter to be flexible. app that will keep track of their college and website. Shokair suggested she application process, reminding them of obtain a computer for the village so Tech camp important details such as deadlines and they could upload updates themselves. At the recent technology camp on the extra-curricular activities they should There again she was stymied, as there campus, Ebelin and the other high list in their applications. Many of these were no public facilities in which to school students toured UCSC on a students will be the first in their family place a computer. sunny August afternoon. GIIP Fellows to attend college; perhaps some will go The ability to roll with punches is impos- coordinator Thomas Gelder, a senior into technology fields, where Latinos are sible to learn in class. After investing GISES major (College Ten), brings underrepresented. Gelder wants to give much energy into her project, Shokair them to a high point overlooking ath- them whatever advantages he can. recognized perhaps this was not the letic facilities, a soccer field and, fur- “GIIP is a lot of work, but as with all ideal moment to pursue it. She moved ther in the distance, the Pacific Ocean. the best things in life, you get out of it on to other work, but wants to resume The students stop for a minute and what you put into it,” Gelder says. Young people at university are ex- posed to giant, insurmountable prob- lems, Gelder says, and they can feel helpless to make a difference beyond “’liking’ something on Facebook.” GIIP puts many more powerful tools than Facebook into the hands of those who truly yearn to better the world. Jane Liaw is a freelance writer and UC Berkeley research scientist. She graduated from the UCSC science com- munication program in 2008 and is now based in San Francisco.

UC Santa Cruz Review / Fall 2012 19 photo: carolyn lagattuta Kevin “Skippy” Givens: Good sport

Search as you may, you won’t find a leadership. Thirdly, these programs started the intramural, sports club, and hulking sports stadium at UCSC, nor create lifelong friendships. recreation program as a student back in will you find a football team hiding out “A common theme in the UCSC sports the 1980s. behind a redwood. clubs is the grassroots, student-initiated “I had no idea what I was doing, but I But you will find plenty of sporting spirit, love of a particular sport,” Givens said. had the guts to try it, and as I made mis- and a student community built around Students come from every educational takes, I learned from them and moved athletic activities. Since 1988, Kevin discipline. “I try to inspire the student the programs forward,” he said. “One of “Skippy” Givens, 58, has been a key leaders of these teams to be inclusive the things I did toward the end of my ten- player in the UCSC athletics in nature,” he said. “There have been ure at SSU was to come and visit UCSC arena. so many interests and academic suc- and observe how a ‘real’ program was He’s been the intramural cesses among our team members.” run. I knew many of the OPERS folks sports supervisor on campus from attending the big annual Frisbee For example, he points with pride to stu- tournaments that would happen during for the past 25 years, and dents such as Brooke Miller, a Division I the sports club supervisor summer on the East Field. That connec- volleyball athlete at UC Berkeley who tion paid off handsomely.” for the past 12 years. During came to UCSC to work on her Ph.D. in bi- that time, he introduced “fut- ology. A friend in the Biology Department Givens has also been influential off cam- sal”—indoor soccer—to the convinced her to try out cycle racing pus, having sparked a strong interest in intramural sports program, as and join the UCSC cycling team. She freestyle Frisbee in Santa Cruz County. well as self-officiated sports ended up winning the Collegiate National Givens, who held the course record of such as co-ed volleyball. Championship shortly after that. 12 under par at DeLaveaga Disc Golf Course for about eight years back in The point of these sports “I haven’t tracked the graduation rates for clubs and teams is not to the early 1990s, and has won 14 world sports club athletes, but it’s remarkably titles in freestyle, calls Santa Cruz “a rack up the big wins. The high,” Givens continued. “Many of my clubs are designed to en- slice of Frisbee heaven. I love helping to students have been Regents Scholars put on the annual ultimate tournaments, hance the student experi- and straight-A students. They owed ence on campus. I love playing the local disc golf courses, much of their focus and academic enthu- and my favorite is still freestyling on the “Most notably they help cre- siasm to the balance and quality of life beaches with a firm wind in my face.” ate communities,” Givens that sports brought them.” —by Dan White said. “Secondly, they create Givens came to UCSC by way of

Uncommon people profound opportunities for Sonoma State University, where he Contact Dan White at [email protected].

20 UC Santa Cruz Review / Fall 2012 photo: carolyn lagattuta

Gail Hershatter: Bringing women’s stories to light

Gail Hershatter built a career by talking to 1997 and later translated into Chinese. She and the way they conduct their research. people left out of history. She has traveled brought a suppressed world to life by draw- More academics in Asia are starting to write to rural parts of China uncovering stories ing from an unusual variety of sources— down the oral history of underrepresented that would otherwise have been lost. She from gossip columns, guidebooks, and people before it’s lost for good. interviews to medical records. listened to the tales of 8-year-old girls sold “If you look at my work and the work by as child brides, and the stories of women Her methods sometimes resemble those of historians in China, we’re having diverse but who survived famine and became political an anthropologist rather than a typical his- overlapping conversations,” said Hershatter. activists during the Communist Revolution. torian. Her grass-roots approach to recov- Hershatter holds the title of distinguished ering oral histories shows a side of China Hershatter grew up in the 1950s, during professor, having climbed to the top of that has seldom been explored by scholars a time when the United States had an the ladder in academia with her impres- before. She is one of the few Western “oversimplified view of China,” she said. sive teaching and publishing record, said women to travel to some of these far-flung Like many in her generation, she learned Bill Ladusaw, dean of humanities, who areas. She teamed up with her research about the country from news reports describes her as “one of the most distin- about the U.S. table tennis team’s visit to partner, Gao Xiaoxian, and spent more than guished faculty members on campus” and China and Nixon’s attempts at diplomacy. 10 years making her way through the rural one of the world’s most expert scholars on She became curious about Asia during Shaanxi province. She spoke to 72 elderly Chinese women’s history. the turbulent 1960s. women—and a few surviving men—about their lives before and after the Revolution. Last year, Hershatter served as president of “I’m of the generation very much in- the Association for Asian Studies. Her rec- fluenced by the Vietnam War,” said Last year, she published The Gender ognition in the fields of history and women’s Hershatter, who is a professor of history of Memory: Rural Women and China’s studies helps boost UCSC’s academic and and History Department chair. “The other Collective Past (University of California teaching reputation, said Ladusaw. major influence on me was the second Press, 2011). The book is filled with stories wave of feminism in the United States.” of the poor, rural women who were left out Hershatter has been selected to give of history books. Many of these women the Faculty Research Lecture, the top In 1979, Hershatter moved to China for two never had an opportunity to share their life honor bestowed by the UCSC Academic years to work on her Ph.D. dissertation for stories before. Senate. She will be honored at the Stanford, about workers in the north China Founders Day gala dinner in October and city of Tianjin. She became part of the first “My work is really looking at the connec- will deliver her talk on February 12, 2013. generation of U.S.- based scholars allowed tions between ‘Big History’ and the daily to do field research in China. A subse- life and local consciousness of these rural —by Amy Ettinger quent project led her to uncover details women,” Hershatter said. about prostitutes in Shanghai. Her book, Amy Ettinger is a freelance writer based Hershatter’s groundbreaking work has in Santa Cruz. Dangerous Pleasures, was published in helped to influence some Chinese historians UC Santa Cruz Review / Fall 2012 21 To get alumni news delivered to your inbox, subscribe to the UCSC Alumni Notes e-newsletter: news.ucsc.edu/newsletter We’d like to hear from you. R Send an e-mail to [email protected] R submit a note via the web at alumni.ucsc.edu (go to Alumni Notes) R and get social on Facebook: facebook.com/ucsantacruz

COWELL COLLEGE Mark SCHACK is a longtime climbing and skiing Mount St. School at Rutgers University, Helens in May. Greg MCPHEE ‘69 Patricia Zylius recently middle-school math teacher Newark, in April. Shiffrar joined (Crown ‘93) was also on the trip. self-published Dear Sweeties: who is beginning his third year the psychology department at Tom Cuthbertson on His as president of the California ‘99 Amber Strong MAKAIAU Rutgers-Newark in 1991. Dance with Cancer. The book Teachers Association. With won the 2011 Teacher Tolerance ‘93 Greg MCPHEE helped Jeff is a collection of email letters an empty nest at home, he is Award for excellence in Culturally MORSMAN (Porter ‘92), David that Tom CUTHBERTSON continuing his journey into the Responsible Teaching. She SCHROEDER (Cowell ‘92), and (Cowell ‘67) wrote about his life mandolin world, playing with teaches at Kailua High School Toby NEGRIN (Cowell ‘96), with pancreatic cancer, from bluegrass musicians in the area. and in April gave a talk at a UCSC celebrate their 20th college diagnosis, through following ‘79 Kathleen (Kathy) ADAMS Admissions event in Honolulu for anniversary by climbing and an alternative treatment that was selected by the Princeton prospective students. skiing Mt. St. Helens together in seemed promising for some time, Review as one of the 300 May. “Best Professors” teaching at and ending with his preparation STEVENSON COLLEGE ‘94 Terran Elizabeth McGinnis for death. The book includes a universities and colleges in (née ROSENBERG) is the ‘71 Charles STREETMAN starred wonderful introduction by Paul the United States, Canada, and education supervisor at Dolphin in It Ain’t Nothin’ But the Blues SCHOELLHAMER (‘69), a small England. She is appreciative Connection in the Florida Keys. on the Main Stage at Portland selection of the 2,200 replies of her undergraduate UCSC She was formerly the education Center Stage in Portland, Ore., in Tom received, a few short stories mentors for their modeling of director at Marineland in St. May and June. about Tom at different times in his great teaching. She is a professor Augustine, Fla., which is the life, and a final letter from his wife of sociocultural anthropology ‘87 Lance BERNARD recently world’s oldest oceanarium. She about his passing. and Southeast Asian studies at left Reno (for the final time) and co-authored a book about the ‘76 David KAHN recently joined Loyola University Chicago. moved to Cloverdale, which he history of that facility that was Renne Sloan Holtzman Sakai LLP ‘92 Ethan O. BRYSON, MD, has enjoys immensely. published by Arcadia Publishing in San Francisco as a partner, released his new book Addicted in May 2011. where he will continue to practice Healers: 5 Key Signs Your CROWN COLLEGE ‘11 Forrest PHILLIPS graduated government and land use law Healthcare Professional May as a film and digital media major after 32 years in the public sector. Be Drug Impaired from New ‘69 Barbara THORNTON got an MCP at Yale, finishing at MIT. with honors and is associate He said he is looking forward to Horizon Press. He is an award- producer on the cultural/political the new challenges and rewards winning associate professor in In 1977, she married Ron Alex, an architect. She worked with radio show In Deep with Angie of private vs. public practice. His the departments of anesthesia Coiro. sailboat at South Beach Harbor and psychiatry at the Mount the state of Massachusetts to will be a place to stay after a long Sinai School of Medicine in New implement deinstitutionalization, day at the office. York. He and his family live in escaped for six months to Mexico MERRILL COLLEGE and South America, returned to Bridgewater, N.J. ‘73 Bob CAREY received the ‘77 Ron BENSON, AIA, NCARB, work with local government and 2012 Presidential Jefferson LEED AP, was hired in August by ‘95 Neal ROGERS is editor- public policy issues and have Award for public service. He is HGA Architects and Engineers as in-chief of Velo magazine, the children, Rucker and Byron. She founder and executive director senior associate in its Los Angeles leading cycling magazine in the returned to school and in 1995 of Sarah’s Kitchen, an interfaith office. A licensed senior project U.S. An interest in all things received an MBA from HBS. She group that runs five soup kitchens manager with more than 25 years rock ‘n’ roll led Neal into music worked in investment banking, in St. Lucie County, Fla., where of international and domestic journalism while attending management consulting and in the unemployment rate has experience, Benson joined the UCSC. After several post-grad 1997 started the e-commerce been as high as 16 percent. Bob firm’s higher education and years spent waiting tables, company, www.DesignerShoes. coordinates over 600 volunteers healthcare practice groups. surfing, and mountain biking, com, where she is now who served more than 38,000 ‘77 Bob LOMBARDI is a Neal moved to San Francisco employed, while plotting a next hot meals last year. Sarah’s motorcycle safety instructor at a where he worked stints as a bike career in public policy, then Kitchen does not have any paid Bay Area Harley Davidson dealer. messenger and at a software science fiction writing. staff. Everyone who serves is a He continues to be active in the startup. He moved to Colorado in 2001, taking an editorial ‘77 Michael PAPARIAN recently volunteer, including Bob. Modesto Tea Party, Madison started his sixth year as executive internship at VeloNews, and ‘86 Kris PERRY was appointed Society, and other Bill of Rights director of the California Pollution never left. When not traveling the executive director of the First support organizations. Control Financing Authority in world covering races, Neal can Five Years Fund in August. ‘78 Jean ROSS recently moved the State Treasurer’s Office. He be found riding his bike, skiing, Perry, a nationally recognized to New York to take a position is implementing new programs cooking, or attending a concert. early childhood advocate, has as the U.S. Program Officer to help small businesses get Follow him on Twitter at @ been instrumental in driving for Transparent, Effective, and financing, especially those nealrogers. effective early learning policy Accountable Government at seeking to assist or implement at local, state, and national the Ford Foundation. She looks ‘92 David SCHROEDER, strategies for energy efficiency levels. As executive director, forward to linking up with other Toby NEGRIN (‘96), and Jeff and environmental improvement. Perry will oversee policy Slugs-in-exile in the big city. MORSMAN (Porter) celebrated their 20th college anniversary by ‘85 Maggie SHIFFRAR was and communication efforts appointed dean of the Graduate nationwide for the First Five

22 UC Santa Cruz Review / Fall 2012 Years Fund, one of the country’s ‘88 Carma SPENCE announced in phase II testing to be an FBI created the continent’s first Bike- leading organizations focused the publication of her fourth Special Agent. The professors and Friendly Business District (BFBD) on improving federal policy book, 57 Secrets for Branding classes in UCSC’s Legal Studies program for the City of Long regarding quality birth-to-5 Yourself Online, which is due out Department and Psychology Beach to increase bicycling trips education programs for at-risk from Logical Expressions Inc. this Department, as well as the year to local businesses. Its success children. fall. An author and speaker, she she spent in Perth, Australia garners significant national media ’91 Carl ZIMRING is associate is an award-winning editor with (through UCSC’s EAP), inspired her coverage and has inspired other professor of Sustainability Studies more than 20 years of experience life journey. She looks forward to cities to follow suit. She’s hired at the Pratt Institute in Brooklyn, in marketing, public relations, and returning to Santa Cruz to visit her to speak around the U.S. and where he talks trash and recycles science communication. She also family’s local farm. Canada about the business case a lot of material. His most recent has written two cookbooks and a for bicycling and is helping San book about homepage design. Diego launch a BFBD program this publication is the two-volume KRESGE COLLEGE Encyclopedia of Consumption ‘92 Andrew FENTON, MD, was summer. She was recently named ‘79 Julie HUTCHINSON earned and Waste: The Social Science of elected president of the California one of Long Beach’s “40 Under a BA in theater and is now senior Garbage (SAGE, 2012). chapter of the American College 40,” was featured in Long Beach vice president of casting at of Emergency Physicians (ACEP). magazine for her green, car-free Universal Pictures. She lives in Representing nearly 3,000 lifestyle, and serves on the host PORTER COLLEGE Los Angeles with her 11-year-old physicians, California ACEP committee for TEDxSoCal. daughter. ‘72 John COFFEY was awarded advocates for ER doctors and the ‘00 Amber TURPIN ended a Fellowship in the Academy of rights of all patients to emergency ‘84 William BERGER was featured up staying in Santa Cruz after General Dentistry. The award is health care 24/7. Andrew works in in the documentary Wagner’s graduating from the Community presented to dentists who seek Napa and lives in Sonoma with his Dream. The film tracks the staging Studies Department and works to provide the highest quality of wife, Elizabeth, and daughter, Lucy. of Robert Lepage’s production of at Life Lab at the UCSC Farm, dental care by remaining current The family is also expecting twin Wagner’s Ring of the Nibelung at promoting garden-based in their profession. He completed sons in September. the Metropolitan Opera in New education. She is also a freelance 500 hours of continuing dental York City where Berger works ‘92 Jeff MORSMAN, David food writer, regularly contributing education within three years and as a writer, producer, and radio SCHROEDER (Cowell ‘92), and to Civil Eats and Edible Monterey passed a comprehensive exam commentator. Toby NEGRIN (Cowell ‘96), Bay. In 2008, Amber was a staff in order to earn the honor. He celebrated their 20th college ‘98 Christopher BROUGHTON member for Slow Food Nation, has practiced dentistry in Santa anniversary by climbing and has been selected as a Term a groundbreaking event in San Cruz since 1982 after earning his skiing Mt. St. Helens in May. Greg Member of the Council on Francisco, prior to which she dental degree at UCLA. MCPHEE (Crown ‘93) was also on Foreign Relations. The Term owned and operated the Sweet ‘75 Lori HIGA is development the trip. Member Program provides Pea Cookie Company for five director for Asian Neighborhood promising young leaders with years. She now lives with her ‘00 Nick SALICK operates Design, a SoMa-based an opportunity to deepen their husband on their small farm in the the Salick Family Law Group architecture, community knowledge and experience Santa Cruz Mountains, and they in Beverly Hills. He attended planning, green construction, and with international affairs and are expecting their first child. the University of La Verne Law solar PV installation training non- U.S. foreign policy through School, graduated on the Dean’s profit in San Franciso. Gregory interactions with high profile List in 2004, and passed the COLLEGE EIGHT MEHRTEN played the part of leaders from government and the California bar exam on the first Pandarus in the Wooster Group/ private sector, both from the U.S. ‘76 Henri Bensussen (née try, obtaining his law license in Royal Shakespeare Company co- and abroad. FINGOLD) serves as secretary on 2005. After working at four law production of Troilus and Cressida, the Mendocino Coast Botanical firms, he started his own practice ‘99 Reyna GRANDE is the author which started August 3 at the Gardens board, and is on the and has more than 37 clients and of the new memoir, The Distance Swan Theatre in Stratford-upon- board of the Mendocino Coast is considered a “Rising Star Super Between Us, hailed by Kirkus Avon. Writers Conference. Recent Lawyer,” which, he noted, is quite Reviews as a “standout immigrant publications are in Bridges: A ‘77 Laura MARELLO published a recognition considering his coming-of-age story.” It received Jewish Feminist Journal and The Tenants of the Hotel Biron, a age (33) and his years in practice a starred review from Publishers Drash: Northwest Mosaic. A novel that takes the historical facts (6). His sister, Adrienne SALICK, Weekly. Her two previous books member of Audubon, A.R.S., of a string of famous artists living graduated from Stevenson include Dancing with Butterflies Mendocino Coast Writers Club, in the Hotel Biron in Paris at the College (‘92). (2009) and Across a Hundred and Ft. Bragg Garden Club, she is turn of the 20th century to create a Mountains (2006), which was ‘01 Joe DEPAGE is a reformed the usual ardent birder, smitten fictional universe. the recipient of a 2007 American man. Forest F. WHITE has gardener, and blocked writer who Book Award. Visit her at www. ‘86 Mary LOCKWOOD was published a book of poetry, manages to keep upright most of reynagrande.com. an honored guest of the 11th Gospels of Rage, which will the time. gathering of the International benefit the Combat Paper Project, ‘96 John HERNANDEZ is Indigenous Grandmother’s an art program for veterans. OAKES COLLEGE married to Karla Hernandez Council held in mid-July, in He lives in Verona, N.J., and is ‘94 Ernie BRAY has led his (née HERRERA) (‘97). They have Lame Deer, Mont. Hosted by married to the artist Ashli Sisk. company to a fourth consecutive three children. John is a workers’ Cheyenne-Arapaho Grandmother He writes software manuals and year ranking on Inc. Magazine’s compensation judge; Karla is a Margret Behan in the Cheyenne leads training courses in his day prestigious list of Fastest Growing project director for the East Valley Reservation with the theme of job. Private Companies in America. As Community Health Center in West healing intergenerational trauma, ‘05 Angilee WRIGHT, J.D., is a founder and CEO, Bray has also Covina. the gathering was an intensive patent attorney at the intellectual become known as a respected effort of prayer and ceremony. property law firm of Thorpe North national business leader having Near the site of Custer’s Last COLLEGE NINE & Western in Salt Lake City, UT. been named 2012 Executive of the Stand, the historic battle of Little She moonlights as a court-rostered Year in Insurance at the American ‘06 Lindsay FLESHMAN pursued Big Horn, the intention of healing domestic mediator, and teaches ski Business Awards this past June. a career in health care and won historic trauma was indeed lessons to individuals with special the Robert Wood Johnson appropriate. ‘97 April ECONOMIDES, founder needs. She is also a candidate of Green Octopus Consulting, continued on page 26

UC Santa Cruz Review / Fall 2012 23 Alumni Profiles

Hal Aronson: Shining a light on women’s health —by Peggy Townsend

Hal Aronson toils in a backyard workshop in her life because doctors could not see well to install solar panels for units, he said one Berkeley in order to save lives in Africa. enough to aid her. of the project’s goals is also to train people to maintain them. Not only does that training What he’s doing seems wildly simple: He She asked Aronson if he could help. is refining a portable solar system that can keep the mini power plants running, but it also “Designing a solution was pretty basic for power LED lights in hospitals and clinics. provides experience that can lead to better me,” said Aronson. Within a few weeks, he jobs for locals. But giving doctors the ability to see and built a suitcase-sized solar power system, treat patients in places where electricity is This kind of work touches Aronson’s soul.

which Stachel could carry on a plane when photo: courtesy hal aronson It’s a value he said he learned while at spotty or nonexistent comes close to a mir- she returned to Africa. acle. Listen to Aronson and his obstetrician- UC Santa Cruz. “There was a great spirit Four years later, 200 “solar suitcases” have gynecologist wife, Laura Stachel, describe among the students then to create a posi- been mounted in clinics and hospitals in scenes of desperate need, and the impor- tive experience in the world,” he said. 20 countries, with 200 more slated to be tance of their work becomes clear. Aronson’s UCSC roots run deep: His father installed thanks to a recent grant. For instance, they recall the story of a pregnant is emeritus professor of psychology Elliot And while statistics on the project’s suc- woman whose uterus had ruptured during la- Aronson. In addition, his son, stepdaughter, cess are not yet available, the first hospital bor and was turned away from an African hos- and three siblings also attended UCSC. to receive solar electricity from the couple’s pital because it was night and doctors could Sitting in his cluttered workshop, Aronson efforts reported its maternal death rate had not see well enough to treat her. told of a doctor who took one of the cou- dropped 70 percent, according to Stachel. “Light is life,” said Aronson simply. ple’s power systems to a small village in DR The suitcases, which cost $1,500 each and Congo. Aronson, who earned a bachelor’s degree can power not only lights but also simple The doctor arrived in the middle of a chol- in politics (Cowell ’79) and a Ph.D. in so- medical equipment, have gone through six era outbreak, which usually would have left ciology from UCSC in 1997, is co-founder iterations as Aronson worked to make them 50 to 80 percent of his patients dead. But, with Stachel of a nonprofit called We Care more durable and easier to use. Solar (wecaresolar.org). because he had light, the physician was “Make it simple, make it plug-and-play, and able to monitor patients and administer IVs Its roots go back to 2008 when Aronson, a make it easy to maintain,” Aronson said. throughout the dark African nights. self-taught solar engineer, got an email from Without those specifications, he said, We All 126 of his patients lived. Stachel, who was part of a public-health Care Solar’s portable energy system might research program in Nigeria. end up like other well-intentioned technology When Aronson heard the story, he cried. Stachel described having to stand by help- brought to Africa: broken and discarded. Peggy Townsend is a freelance writer based lessly while a pregnant woman with a con- Just back from a trip to Uganda, where in Santa Cruz. dition readily treatable in the U.S. fought for Aronson scaled rickety hand-built ladders

24 UC Santa Cruz Review / Fall 2012 Steve Collins: A “real” rocket man —by Peggy Townsend

As the one-ton rover, Curiosity, rushed to- He chose UC Santa Cruz because of its as- that problem too. Heaters on the propellant ward the surface of Mars for a landing that trophysics and theater arts programs. tanks caused the shimmy, he said. It didn’t was part dance, part crazy science, some- “It was a place where the physics people interfere with the mission. one snapped a picture of Steve Collins. wouldn’t freak out when I put on tights to take During his career, Collins has helped deliver His long hair clouding around him, his hands modern dance,” he said. twin rovers to the surface of Mars, capture photo: getty images posed prayer-like, Collins was captured in His advisor, Physics Professor Emeritus spectacular photos of Jupiter and its moons, the moment of wondering whether the proj- Peter Scott, allowed him to do a rather send a spacecraft on a flyby of the Hartley-2 ect on which he had worked for close to five unorthodox senior thesis on orbital rendez- comet, and pilot the rover, Curiosity, to Mars years would be a spectacular success or a vous, which required him to learn computer with an innovative “sky-crane” landing system humiliating disaster. programming. “He was very self-motivated that allows spacecraft to settle in smaller and more discovery-rich areas. That photo of Collins (Porter ’85, physics and to do unusual things, and to do them well,” theater arts) became a national symbol after Scott said of Collins. Besides rocket science, Collins also regu- the August 5 touchdown, not only of remark- The skills Collins acquired at UCSC landed larly hits the stage as part of TACIT, Caltech’s able accomplishment, but also of the new him a job after graduation with a “mom-and- resident theater company. He has done face of aerospace. No more men with crew pop” aerospace company. In 1992, he was Shakespeare and musicals. In 2009, he cuts and ties à la Apollo 13. This group had hired at the Jet Propulsion Lab. played Galileo in Life of Galileo. He also is women, and guys with mohawks and long hair. fullback for the JPL Cosmics soccer team, They were cool and adventurous—they were His job as an “attitude control” engineer is to races his Mazda Miata through tricky au- mavericks, just as Collins is in real life. keep spacecraft pointed in the right direction, tocross courses, plays the eerie-sounding perform trajectory corrections, and figure out theremin in a band called Artichoke, and cho- Besides his work at the Jet Propulsion Lab, “what the heck just happened,” he said. reographs dance routines. which nestles in the foothills of the San Gabriel Mountains near Los Angeles, the On the Deep Space One project, for It was the openness of UCSC, he said, that 53-year-old polymath is also an actor who has instance, Collins helped fly the revolution- allowed him to explore his varied interests, appeared in numerous plays. He is a dancer/ ary, ion-propelled spacecraft toward the and eventually land his “dream job.” comet Borrelly. On the way, however, the choreographer, a soccer player, an autocross “At other, more structured schools, I think racer and a musician in an indie-rock band. spacecraft’s star-tracker instrument failed, basically blinding those guiding it. Over the I could have gotten sideways with their “I’m curious about things in a cross-disciplin- next months, Collins and five others cobbled expectations,” he said in a telephone in- ary way,” he said simply. together a way to successfully fly the craft terview. “Plus, Santa Cruz was a glorious place to live.” The son of an Emmy-winning cinematographer without the crucial sensor. and a music industry professional, Collins was When Curiosity developed a strange “wig- Peggy Townsend is a freelance writer based fascinated both by space and entertainment. gle” as it flew toward Mars, Collins solved in Santa Cruz.

UC Santa Cruz Review / Fall 2012 25 continued from page 23 scholarship for future nurse leaders at New York University. After graduating with her bachelors of UC Santa Cruz: A dream preferred science in nursing, she became certified as a trauma nurse in the emergency department. She recently Promoting the sciences among minority students left the ER to work in the field of rheumatology, and at the newly founded Oakes College she started a nurse practitioner program at UCLA in By J. Herman Blake September to advance her skills and assist with the primary care provider shortage. ‘12 Paul CRACIUNOIU worked full-time at the Ed. note: As part of this year’s Alumni Reunion Weekend in April, emeritus writing lecturer nonprofit tech company Mozilla after graduation. Don Rothman and Oakes College founding provost J. Herman Blake sat down to talk about the In February 2011, together with his brother and a transformative power of education. Their talk, which covered the importance of empathy and friend from college, he started a company aimed at the enduring multicultural vision that guided the creation and growth of Oakes, moved many in connecting people. They hired great UCSC computer the audience to tears. The following is an essay by Blake re-creating the talk. science interns, grew to a few thousand users in the When I joined the There were about 20 or so Bay Area, and then met with difficulty. Eventually faculty of Cowell minority students among they ended their project, but Craciunoiu learned a lot College in 1966, I that first group. Eventually about what it takes to build a product, assemble a thought my future we had a faculty that was team, drive a vision and build company culture. path was clear about 30 percent women and certain. My and 50 percent minority, GRADUATE STUDIES colleagues were many of them in the ‘99 Philip Choi was promoted to Associate Professor young, hopeful, sciences. at Pomona College. He joined the faculty in 2007 intelligent, and Our goal of promoting and teaches Physics, Introductory Astronomy, intellectual. They the sciences among Observational Astronomy, Life in the Universe welcomed me into minority students began Laboratory, and Stellar Structure and Evolution. His their company, and I to take shape—and it was primary research interests are observational studies felt privileged. successful. of galaxy evolution, including both detailed studies I could have stayed The doubts and fears that of nearby galaxies as well as large infrared and at Cowell forever. But kept me awake at night, optical surveys of distant galaxy samples. deep inside me there and often troubled my ‘02 William YARYAN is a lecturer in English, was restiveness. days, were eventually linguistics, and translation at Mahachulalongkorn- Given my humble stilled by the visions, rajavidyalaya University in Thailand and presented a beginnings and the hopes, and dreams paper June 1, 2012, at a conference there on “’Big racial limits I had that soared into the Tent Buddhism’: Searching for Common Ground experienced in the J. Herman Blake stratosphere. Students Among Western and Asian ‘buddhisms.’” years before UCSC, who arrived with limited I felt ill at ease enjoying the boundless ‘05 Tonya CLAYTON published How to Read a preparation responded well—they not freedom of the present. I wanted to only overcame, they prevailed. Florida Gulf Coast Beach: A Guide to Shadow extend opportunity to many in the Dunes, Ghost Forests, and Other Telltale Clues general community who would love to be They are now attorneys, teachers, social from an Ever-Changing Coast. where I was. workers, physicians, entrepreneurs, and college professors. ‘08 Sean BURNS received the CLR James Award for When Chancellor Dean McHenry Best Book of 2011 for his biography Archie Green: asked me to partner with politics and In 2012 I was invited to spend a week The Making of a Working Class Hero. The Working community studies professor Ralph at Oakes College in celebration of its Class Studies Association granted Burns the award Guzman in planning a new college, I 40th anniversary. I went to classes and for his study of the influential, San Francisco-based, had my doubts. I had been on campus seminars throughout the campus; met historian and folklorist of workers’ culture Archie for just three years. My courses were with faculty members, students, staff, Green (1917–2009). just beginning to come together; while and community members; and attended my research plans were dormant, my gatherings at the homes of the provosts of Oakes and Cowell colleges. IN MEMORIAM trajectory was academic scholarship, not administrative leadership. However, Having left UCSC in 1984 to assume ‘71 Sandra J. (CHASE) Horlick (Stevenson) died after counsel with Berkeley mentors, I the presidency of Tougaloo College in March 1, 2012, after a long battle with cancer. She accepted the invitation. Mississippi, I had little understanding graduated with a BA in psychology from UCSC Ralph Guzman’s dreams for the Latino of the extraordinary changes in and worked as a self-employed bookkeeper and the college and the university. The investment consultant. She was 63. Robert George community paralleled mine for the African American community. We both chancellor, George Blumenthal, had TANIGUCHI (Crown) died in Campbell, Calif., on been one of the original faculty in Oakes April 10, 2012. agreed our plans should be wholly inclusive in spite of some community College. An astrophysicist, he was an ‘87 Chuck L. PETERSON (Cowell) died May 25, pressures to limit our focus. outstanding teacher with a sensitive 2012. Chuck was well-known to the UCSC computer soul, and all students—particularly subculture of the 1980s as author of “tforum” and the We needed a core group of faculty to do minority students—flourished in his popular “mtrek” real-time multiplayer game, both of the initial planning, so we carefully listed classes. It was a huge change from 1972. which ran on the campus network. After graduation those on campus we knew shared our Intellectual understandings we anxiously he worked as a software engineer and entrepreneur. values and goals and sought them out. sought then were now intuitively He was 47. When Oakes College opened in 1972, understood. ‘91 Randy JUDGE (Crown) died unexpectedly we still did not have a name, but I was Everywhere I went, it was like stepping at his home on April 7, 2011. He held a BA in satisfied with College VII. We had a into the middle of a dream. Earth sciences from UCSC and worked as an small contingent of faculty and about 250 students. The faculty was a source There is no limit to what UCSC can environmental consultant in Hawai’i and Nevada. become. He also worked as a regulator for the California of great comfort—incredible minds, Water Quality Control Board in Redding, Calif. great teachers, and totally committed To view the full talk between Blake and He was 52. to the university as well as the college. Rothman, visit youtu.be/bsDW_M-NdtY

26 UC Santa Cruz Review / Fall 2012 CELEBRATIONS More than 700 alumni gathered on campus in April for this year’s ALUMNI REUNION WEEKEND. Alums laughed over long-dormant memories, reconnected with professors, and attended lectures and events.

Go to your happy place … Mark your calendars for Alumni Reunion Weekend 2013 — Friday, Saturday, and Sunday, April 26, 27, and 28. Reminisce with friends old and new, meet current students, and revisit your favorite haunts on campus as we celebrate UC Santa Cruz’s dynamic network of 80,000-plus alumni. | More information will be forthcoming at the Alumni Weekend website: events.ucsc.edu/reunion If you are interested in being a reunion volunteer or helping plan a reunion event, contact Shayna Kent at [email protected] or (831) 459-3966.

UC Santa Cruz Review / Fall 2012 27 Philanthropy Focus

Alums’ $1 million gift will further UCSC’s efforts in ocean health Christine and Rob Holo live far above the The Holos met as undergraduates at UCSC in The Center for Ocean Health expansion will ground in a Manhattan high-rise, but they play 1987, and have maintained a strong connec- provide 16,000 square feet of additional in the ocean waves every chance they get. tion to the Santa Cruz area. They credit their facilities for interdisciplinary research and time at UCSC with their success in life as well The snow doesn’t hold much interest for education focused on marine conservation as their environmental consciousness. them. During vacation time, they would science and policy. The total cost of the much rather lie out on a beach. Christine “We received a world-class education at a planned expansion is $12 million. likes to look at the waves, while Rob enjoys bargain price,” says Rob Holo (Crown ’87, Despite living 3,000 miles from their alma diving into the depths. history), who is a partner in the law firm of mater, the Holos have maintained strong ties Simpson Thacher & Bartlett. “We feel a It’s a beautiful world down there, but its to UCSC, and have recently “reconnected” sense of wanting to give back to a place future is far from guaranteed. During their with the university. They have taken numer- that gave so much to us.” repeated visits to ocean waters across the ous family trips to Santa Cruz, and even globe, the Holos have learned about the The Holos are raising their two children with celebrated their 20th anniversary in the problems facing marine habitats, including an appreciation and passion for science town where they met. They plan to return in the dangers of plastics and overfishing. and the environment. Their son is attending March to visit the Center for Ocean Health. CalTech in the fall. Their daughter is a junior After observing the situation firsthand, Rob Christine Holo says she hopes the gift will in high school and has attended summer and Christine Holo decided to take action, inspire other alumni to support the univer- science camps in the U.S. and around the giving $1 million to support the Center for sity. They are helping to fund a project that world. Ocean Health at UCSC’s Long Marine Lab, will expand an existing classroom into a a premier research facility for coastal con- They credit their daughter for deepening lecture room that can accommodate larger servation, policy, and research. their environmental consciousness. classes and seminars. Built entirely with private support, the center “Our daughter is really interested in the The new lecture room will be named the opened in 2001 with 23,000 square feet ocean—she’s truly the environmentalist in the Holo Family Lecture Room. of labs, offices, and classrooms, providing family,” says Christine Holo (Oakes ’90, “We very much wanted to contribute to much-needed facilities for faculty, research- biology). education, especially to UC,” says Christine ers, and students. When the Holos started researching the Holo. “We hope it will serve an entire gen- A growing number of researchers and stu- needs of UCSC and found an opportunity to eration of students.” dents have been attracted to the center, lead- contribute to the Center for Ocean Health, — by Amy Ettinger ing to a pressing need for additional space. they decided it was a perfect fit. Amy Ettinger is a freelance writer based in Santa Cruz.

28 UC Santa Cruz Review / Fall 2012 How will you build your legacy?

Our community is passionate about their Ways to give: commitment to students and to society. Leaving a legacy that Designate UCSC as the beneficiary stands for inquiry, understanding, and experimentation provides of all or a percentage of your IRA. a vital and important link to these values for the next generation. Make UCSC a beneficiary of a per- Planned gifts can help create this legacy. A planned gift is a strategic centage of your estate or a specific way to leave a meaningful legacy by bypassing capital gains, asset. increasing income, and providing a charitable deduction. After your loved ones are cared for, Share your passion. Help create your legacy and make a critical link leave the remainder of your estate to the next generation. to UCSC.

plannedgifts.ucsc.edu 185 University Relations University of California 1156 High Street Santa Cruz, CA 95064-1077

You don’t have to break any bones to make someone’s wish come true. (Especially since, you know, Banana Slugs are invertebrates.)

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Make that wish come true at giving.ucsc.edu