Summer 2012 | Volume Eighteen

UCLA COLLEGE OF LETTERS AND SCIENCE From the Deans of the College of Letters and Science 6

10 Dear Friends,

This June marks the College of Letters and Science’s 88th Commencement ceremony, as always a celebration of our 14 28 extraordinary graduates and the equally impressive faculty who guide and mentor them. It’s a time when we look ahead to the opportunities before us.

It seems an appropriate moment, therefore, to introduce an entirely new look for the College Report. We have redesigned it to reflect the optimism and forward outlook that distinguishes the College and UCLA as a whole. By 18 using brighter colors and a more open design, we enhance the feature stories from each of the five divisions as well as College news and development. UCLA College of The College’s spirit is evident in the new Luskin Thought Leadership lecture series, made possible by the vision and Letters and Science generosity of Meyer Luskin and whose inaugural speaker was President Bill Clinton. It is visible in the remarkable breadth DEPARTMENTS FEATURES and diversity of accomplishment of our Commencement speakers and alumni, whose degrees span the College’s five divisions. And it is demonstrated by the groundbreaking research and world-class scholarship that the College 2 College News: Sloan, 4 The Science of Food: Recipe for a Alessandro Duranti produces every day. Dean of Social Sciences Charles Dickens and Social Delicious Course Media, AAAS, Startup UCLA Joseph Rudnick As we look forward to commemorating UCLA’s Centennial celebration, the College Report remains dedicated to 6 Bloodwork: Utpal Banerjee Wins Dean of Physical Sciences chronicling the ongoing impact of our students, faculty and those who support the College so generously, and their NIH Pioneer Award Judith L. Smith commitment to leading lives of scholarship and service. 26 Great Futures: The Luskin Dean and Vice Provost for Lecture 8 On Its Face: Primate Study Undergraduate Education Breaks New Ground Victoria Sork 28 Great Futures: The 2012 Sincerely, Dean of Life Sciences Commencement Speakers 10 Royal Pair: New Honors for Ghez David Schaberg and Tao David Schaberg Interim Dean of Humanities Interim Dean of Humanities 12 Alcohol and Aging: Intriguing College Development [email protected] Megan Kissinger New Findings Assistant Vice Chancellor, College Development Judith L. Smith 14 A Beautiful Mind: Teofilo Ruiz Dean and Vice Provost for College Report Christine Miller Undergraduate Education 16 Africa Speaks, America Answers Creative Director [email protected] Jack Feuer 18 Perséphone: Inside Stravinsky’s Editor Joseph Rudnick Star-Crossed Opera Dean of Physical Sciences Jose Angel Montoya Art Direction and Design [email protected] 20 Back to School: Mellon New Directions Fellowships Development Writer Alessandro Duranti On the cover Margaret MacDonald Dean of Social Sciences 22 American Sign Language Media Relations A soaring shot of [email protected] Comes to UCLA Meg Sullivan Franz Hall reaching Stuart Wolpert for the sky on a Victoria Sork beautiful day during 24 Increasing the Diversity Pipeline: Dean of Life Sciences spring break, shot Mellon McNair and Mays [email protected] by UCLA Senior Please address comments to Designer Bryan [email protected] Mandelbaum Regents UC 2012

Unless otherwise indicated, all original photos by Reed Hutchinson. COLLEGE NEWS AN UPDATE OF EVENTS AND PROGRESS IN THE UCLA COLLEGE OF LETTERS AND SCIENCE College faculty named AAAS fellows

THREE UCLA COLLEGE SCHOLARS Institute for Pure and Applied Mathematics, J. David Neelin, professor and chair HAVE BEEN SELECTED AS FELLOWS a national research institute funded by the of UCLA’s Department of Atmospheric BY THE AMERICAN ASSOCIATION National Science Foundation that fosters in- and Oceanic Sciences, was honored for UCLA ranks second in nation in number @Charles Dickens: FOR THE ADVANCEMENT OF SCIENCE terdisciplinary collaborations among math- “distinguished contributions to the fields of of 2012 Alfred P. Sloan fellows The Social Media (AAAS), THE WORLD’S LARGEST ematical scientists and physical scientists, theoretical climate dynamics and climate GENERAL SCIENTIFIC SOCIETY AND engineers, biologists, medical researchers, modeling, particularly for insights into the and researchers in the humanities and social dynamical mechanisms underlying the SIX OUTSTANDING YOUNG PROFESSORS FROM UCLA ARE AMONG 126 World of a Victorian THE PUBLISHER OF THE JOURNAL SCIENCE. sciences. behavior of the El Niño/Southern Oscillation SCIENTISTS AND SCHOLARS FROM 51 COLLEGES AND UNIVERSITIES IN Icon Robert Modlin, professor of microbiology, phenomenon.” Neelin conducts research THE UNITED STATES AND CANADA TO RECEIVE 2012 SLOAN RESEARCH immunology and molecular genetics, and involving interactions among different FELLOWSHIPS FROM THE ALFRED P. SLOAN FOUNDATION. Members are chosen for their distinguished HE LOOKED AT THE TECHNOLOGICAL efforts to advance science or its applica- the Klein Professor of Dermatology and pieces of the climate system, starting chief of the Division of Dermatology. He was with ocean-atmosphere interaction and UCLA and Yale University each had six faculty members selected, second only to Stanford REVOLUTION UNFOLDING AROUND tions. The selection of fellows has been an honored for “distinguished contributions spreading to other interactions. University, which had seven. The fellowships are awarded to exceptional young researchers HIM, RECOGNIZED THE POSSIBILITY AAAS tradition since 1874. The new fellows, toward understanding human antimicrobial AAAS, founded in 1848, is a nonprofit “whose achievements and potential identify them as rising stars, the next generation of FOR NEW KINDS OF SOCIAL honored in February at the AAAS annual pathways, including Th1/Th2 cytokines, TLR organization that includes 261 affiliated scientific leaders,” according to the New York-based foundation. Five of UCLA’s recipients NETWORKS—AND CHANGED meeting in Vancouver, are: 2 recognition of microbial lipoproteins and societies and science academies, and serves are in the College: POPULAR CULTURE FOREVER. Mark L. Green, professor of mathemat- the role of vitamin D in immunity.” His labo- 10 million people. The association’s mission Leah Platt Boustan is an assistant professor of economics whose research interests are at ics, who has worked in several branches of Facebook? Twitter? Think further back. Way ratory has made fundamental insights into is to “advance science and serve society” the intersection of economic history, modern labor and urban economics. Her research mathematics, including several complex back. T-cell subsets, cytokine patterns, antigen through initiatives in science policy, inter- focuses on the “Great Black Migration” from the rural South during and after World War variables, commutative algebra, Hodge In a new book from Oxford Univer- presentation, innate immunity and antimi- national programs and science education, II and the mass migration from Europe to the United States in the late 19th and early 20th theory and algebraic geometry. He was sity Press, Jonathan Grossman, a UCLA crobial mechanisms in the human immune including its website devoted to science centuries. She is a research associate with the California Center for Population Research co-founder and longtime director of UCLA’s authority on the life and work of Charles response to infection. news, EurekAlert! at www.eurekalert.org. and a faculty research fellow with the National Bureau of Economic Research, and is writing Dickens, ascribes a book titled Competition in the Promised Land: Black Migrants in Northern Cities and key characteristics Labor Markets. of Dickens’s work Neil Garg is an assistant professor of chemistry whose remarkable total synthesis of a to the 19th-century natural product created a stir last August at the American Chemical Society’s national Good Beginnings: Budding Digital author’s appreciation meeting. Garg’s laboratory develops synthetic strategies and methods to enable the of the implications of synthesis of complex bioactive molecules. He also employs innovative techniques in his Entrepreneurs Flock to Startup UCLA Victorian innovations teaching, including assigning his undergraduates an extra credit project in which they in high-speed, global produce music videos about organic chemistry. He joined UCLA in 2007, and has won you could either get a job or go to graduate passenger trans- MORE THAN 500 STUDENTS AND numerous awards and honors for his research. school. Increasingly, our graduates are port, including new ENTREPRENEURS PACKED UCLA’S John Novembre, an assistant professor of ecology and evolutionary biology, and of interested in a third path: to start their perceptions of time, SCHOENBERG HALL IN MARCH TO bioinformatics, is a population geneticist. The central area of interest of his laboratory is own ventures and get their ideas out in space and commu- HEAR A TALK BY STARTUP GURU the development of theory and statistical methods for analyzing genomic-scale population the world,” said Jim Stigler, professor of nity. ERIC RIES AT AN EVENT HOSTED BY genetic data. Much of his National Science Foundation-funded research investigates psychology and associate dean for Research “More than a STARTUP UCLA, A NEW CAMPUS- questions in evolutionary genetics, focusing on human evolutionary history and using data & Innovation in the Social Sciences. century before the advent of eHarmony and WIDE INITIATIVE, AND LEANLA, from emerging genotyping and sequencing technologies. He has won numerous awards Tim Groeling, chair of the Department Match.com, Dickens shows how new social A GROUP OF L.A.-BASED TECH and honors for his research. of Communication Studies agreed. “It was networks made possible by technologi- ENTREPRENEURS. Sebastien Roch is an assistant professor of mathematics who conducts research at the an alumna from Communication Studies, cal advances were facilitating connections intersection of applied probability, mathematical statistics and theoretical computer Julia Lam, who first encouraged us to Eric Ries that would not have occurred at an earlier Ries is a blogger and the author of the science, with an emphasis on applications in bioinformatics. His research, which is launch Startup UCLA. Lots of talented and time,” noted the UCLA associate profes- best-seller The Lean Startup. Businessweek management science that employs supported by the National Science Foundation, uses models and techniques from experienced alumni want to mentor our sor of English. Through such novels as The named him one of the “Best Young quantitative methods and experiments probability theory to develop new methods for solving large-scale statistical and students.” Old Curiosity Shop, A Tale of Two Cities and Entrepreneurs of Tech” in 2007, and he to prove a company’s sustainability. He computational problems—for instance, in evolutionary genomics. UCLA alumnus and L.A. entrepreneur Great Expectations, Dickens helped readers became an entrepreneur-in-residence at noted that unlike its Hollywood portrayals, Marcus Roper is an assistant professor in mathematics whose expertise includes Robert Jadon is leading the first Startup understand the historic shift engulfing them, Harvard Business School in 2010. the startup world can be filled with mathematical modeling, fluid dynamics, physical biology and asymptotic methods. He UCLA Summer Accelerator, which will Grossman contends in Charles Dickens’s Launched in February, Startup UCLA is embarrassment and failure. But he said that focuses on studying the physical constraints on organisms that must disperse, grow provide workspace, guidance and mentors Networks: Public Transport and the Novel. aimed at strengthening entrepreneurship struggles over funding, strategic mistakes or propel themselves in challenging environments, including how spores disperse and to early-stage companies comprised of “Dickens grasped the promise that the all over campus in Web and digital media and last-resort changes in direction create bacteria spread, and how fungi shuttle nuclei around during growth. teams of student-founders with bright ideas. public transport revolution held in network- companies. It includes a physical space learning opportunities. “Today’s Sloan Research Fellows are tomorrow’s Nobel Prize winners,” said Paul At the end of the summer, the students will ing people together,” said Grossman. “He where student entrepreneurs can gather, “There are more entrepreneurs L. Joskow, president of the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation. Sloan Research Fellowships are pitch their companies to local entrepreneurs helped us to imagine and understand a opportunities for networking, a guest practicing right now than in any time in intended to enhance the careers of exceptional young scientists and scholars in chemistry, and investors. networked world.” speaker series and a summer accelerator history,” said Ries, “and right here in this computer science, economics, mathematics, evolutionary and computational molecular At the March event, Ries portrayed program. room, there are people who will advance the biology, neuroscience, ocean sciences and physics. For more information, visit entrepreneurship as an evolving “It used to be when you graduated ‘state of the art’ of entrepreneurship.” www.sloan.org. 2

2 UCLA COLLEGE REPORT 3 UCLA COLLEGE REPORT LIFE SCIENCES

Serving Students “Science and Food”

THE 50 LUCKY UNDERGRADUATES WHO TOOK AMY ROWAT’S “PHYSIOLOGICAL SCIENCES 7” COURSE THIS SPRING WILL PROBABLY NEVER BE ABLE TO GO TO A RESTAURANT AND LOOK AT FOOD THE SAME WAY AGAIN. AND THAT’S NOT AN UNAPPETIZING THING.

By Wendy Soderburg

“Science and Food: The Physical and members of the public, who snapped up heard from several other big-name chefs, Molecular Origins of What We Eat” taught tickets to a four-lecture series that Rowat, including Jordan Kahn of Red Medicine in those students the hows and whys behind an assistant professor of integrative biology Beverly Hills; David Kinch of Manresa in Los plant and animal texture, and flavor—why and physiology, organized in conjunction Gatos, Calif., and Cynthia Sandberg of Love lettuce is crispy or why different cuts of with her undergraduate course. Ticket sales Apple Farms, the exclusive kitchen garden meat have different textures. So when they exploded as soon as word of the lectures got for Manresa; Barbara Spencer of Windrose go into restaurants now, they don’t just out, and the first three talks sold out almost Farm in San Luis Obispo County; Gary Menes enjoy that juicy steak; they know how to immediately. of Le Comptoir in Los Angeles; Jon Shook determine its overall mechanical properties The public lectures were given by and Vinny Dotolo of Animal/Son of a Gun as well. such kitchen luminaries as René Redzepi of in Los Angeles; and Adam Fleischman of Restaurant Noma and Lars Williams of Nordic Umami Burger in Los Angeles. Science Is Delicious Food Lab, both located in Copenhagen, Lecture topics included “The It’s not just undergrads taking Rowat’s Denmark; Nathan Myhrvold, author of the Molecules of Food and the Exploration course who received a taste of food book Modernist Cuisine; David Chang, of Deliciousness,” “Why Do Carrots Taste science, however. What set L.A. foodies owner/chef of the Momofuku restaurant Sweeter in the Winter?,” “Milk, From Breast a focus on haute cuisine, and Adrià himself mechanical properties.” had their bottle of water and their little buzzing louder than a boiling teakettle was group in New York City, Sydney and Toronto, to Cheese and the Many Forms of Sugar,” helped by inviting fellow chefs who were Rowat settled on a conference room bag of flour,” she said. “It’s a new era of DIY the blue-ribbon list of celebrated chefs and Peter Meehan, food writer for The New “Perfecting Mouthfeel in Mexican Cuisine: experts in modernist cuisine. Students in the Life Sciences Building suitable for kitchen experiments that and food authors from around the world York Times; and chefs Jimmy Shaw of Lotería How to Tune Viscosity Using Tortilla Chips” learned about “spherification”—a process class needs. She and her TAs provided pots, really make the connection who came to share their knowledge with Grill in Los Angeles, Sherry Yard of Spago and “A Microbe in My Ramen? Altering Food that turns a liquid into a gel, typically with pans, an induction burner and a microscope between science and in Beverly Hills Texture and Flavor Using Microbes.” the addition of alginate—used by chefs to to inspect the small-scale structure of everyday life.” and Bill Yosses, “All the chefs were super enthusiastic create mozzarella balls, “fake” caviar and foods made in class, such as cheese and executive pastry about this,” Rowat said. “They really wanted other delicacies. pickled vegetables. She also received food chef at the White us to learn more about their food and the When Rowat was preparing her course donations from companies such as Whole House. science underlying what they make in the at UCLA, she decided that the emphasis Foods and Hershey’s. For the kitchen. They were excited to share their wouldn’t be on spherification, but rather on Since there wasn’t enough students enrolled approach to food with the students as well.” the role of gels in physiology and in food. space in the classroom in Rowat’s course “In the context of meat, for example, we’re for individual (which is geared Recipe for an Academic Feast trying to understand why different cuts workstations, Rowat toward non- Rowat co-created the first annual science of meat have different textures and why provided the students science majors), and cooking class at Harvard University, you need to cook them differently—why with ingredients to conduct there was an where she was a postdoctoral fellow in the you need to slow roast a pork shoulder, experiments in their dorms or added treat: Not School of Engineering & Applied Sciences. but a pork chop is much better if you apartments. “In some cases, only did they The course was instigated, she said, by sear it,” she said. “There are different they needed a ruler and a get to hear the celebrated Spanish chef Ferran Adrià, who amounts of collagen in these meats, and weight, so we provided lecture experts had come to Harvard to deliver a lecture. collagen provides a network that provides them with these little speak in their Inspired, Rowat and her colleagues decided structure for tissues. The extent to which kits of the ingredients to make, for class, but they also to develop a general education course with it’s cross-linked helps determine its overall example, a sourdough starter. They Amy Rowat

4 UCLA COLLEGE REPORT 5 UCLA COLLEGE REPORT BLOOD WORK: UCLA’s Utpal Banerjee Receives NIH Pioneer Award

THE COMPLEX SIGNALS THAT GOVERN BLOOD PROGENITOR CELLS— WHAT LEADS THEM TO PROLIFERATE AND DIFFERENTIATE, WHAT HELPS THEM MAINTAIN THEIR “STEMNESS”—HOLD A TREASURE TROVE OF INFORMATION ABOUT HUMAN DEVELOPMENT, WITH SUBSTANTIAL IMPLICATIONS FOR THE UNDERSTANDING AND TREATMENT OF DISEASE.

By Dan Gordon

Like hematopoietic stem cells, blood have shed critical insight into the workings talk was already known to involve two-way progenitor cells have the potential to of these processes in the common fruit fly. signaling between the progenitor cells and differentiate into all blood cell types and the The first, appearing in the Dec. 23, 2011 issue other cells that occupy a nearby niche in ability to replenish the blood supply. Among of Cell, reported on a previously unknown the bone marrow. These signals keep the the leaders in unraveling these important aspect of blood cell production in which progenitors in a stem-cell-like state so that, mysteries is the group headed by Utpal the stem-cell-like blood progenitor cells when needed, they can begin differentiating Banerjee, Ph.D., the Irving and Jean Stone receive signals from the very cells they into blood cells. Previous studies have Professor and chairman of the Molecular, create, “telling” them when to stop. Then, shown that when niche cells are removed, Cell and Developmental Biology Department reporting in the March 11, 2012 edition blood progenitor cells differentiate at the UCLA College of Letters and Science. of Nature Cell Biology, Banerjee and his unchecked—and ultimately, the fruit fly runs Banerjee was recently recognized with the colleagues further showed that systemic out of progenitor cells and is unable to make National Institutes of Health’s prestigious signals in the form of insulin and nutrition new cells to mount an immune response to Pioneer Award, providing $2.5 million over help to prevent blood progenitor cells from infection or injury. five years to further his group’s endeavors. differentiating into mature blood cells—a quiescent. The reason, they discovered, blood cells. Keeping the progenitors from Only 13 researchers nationwide received finding with implications for the study A Surprising Finding was a second signal being sent from the differentiating into mature blood cells is the award, designed to support “individual of the inflammatory response and blood But the group headed by Banerjee and co- daughter cells the progenitors had created, important, since progenitor cells are needed scientists of exceptional creativity who development in response to dietary changes senior author Julian A. Martinez-Agosto, telling them it was time to stop multiplying to create the blood supply for the adult fruit propose pioneering—and possibly in humans. M.D., assistant professor of human genetics and differentiating. fly. transforming—approaches to major A complex cellular “conversation” is and pediatrics at UCLA, found, to its “It was a very surprising finding Banerjee, the study’s senior author, challenges in biomedical and behavioral critical to keeping the body’s blood supply surprise, a second key conversation playing because there was no reason to suspect that noted that in their normal state, Drosophila’s research.” in balance, whether it’s ensuring that a role in keeping the progenitors in check. the differentiating cells had any role at all progenitor cells receive systemic signals enough blood cells are produced to respond They noted in their research that once the in the process,” Banerjee says. “It’s always from insulin and nutritional factors—in this Critical Insights to injury and infection or seeing to it that progenitor cells had begun differentiating been the paradigm in stem cell biology that case, essential amino acids—that keep them Using the fruit fly Drosophila—a classic blood progenitor cells remain available to and the blood cells they were creating all that was needed was the signaling from from differentiating. Insulin is secreted from model for biological studies in which genes produce future cellular offspring. The cross became mature, the progenitors turned the niche cells to maintain the progenitor cells within the fly’s brain that are similar to can be easily manipulated and their effects population. Now we’ve shown that you also the beta cells of the human pancreatic islets on cells monitored—Banerjee’s group has need the signals from the differentiated (which secrete insulin). been making major strides as they seek cells to help maintain the progenitor cell Utpal Banerjee to identify basic molecular processes that population. There are hints suggesting that A New Path Toward Fighting Disease are conserved in development across the same ‘back talk’ signals take place in The discovery puts researchers on a path “We expect this study will promote species. Banerjee’s particular interest is in mammals, and this shows the mechanism by toward a better understanding of Type 2 further investigation of possible direct the regulation of blood progenitors. These which such a thing could occur.” diabetes and related chronic conditions signal-sensing mechanisms by mammalian cells exist within a microenvironment in For the Nature Cell Biology study, the that fall under the category of metabolic blood progenitor cells,” says Banerjee, which signals from a safe zone, or “niche,” flies were studied while in the larval stage of syndrome, which affects as much as 25 whose team is pursuing other system- help to maintain their quiescence. Lack of development. Ji Won Shim, a postdoctoral percent of the U.S. population. In the fruit signaling molecules that may control fruit the niche-derived signal triggers the loss of fellow in Banerjee’s lab and first author of fly, the only mature blood cells present are fly blood progenitor cells. This could yield the progenitor cells’ “stemness,” resulting the study, placed the larvae into a jar with myeloid cells; diabetic patients have many insights into chronic inflammation and the in undesirable levels of proliferation and no food and left them for 24 hours. In the activated myeloid cells that could be causing myeloid cell accumulation seen in patients differentiation. absence of insulin and nutritional signaling, disease symptoms. It could be that abnormal with Type 2 diabetes and other disorders. Two recent studies published in major all of the blood progenitor cells were activation of myeloid cells and abnormal peer-reviewed journals by Banerjee’s group gone, leaving only differentiated mature metabolism play a major role in diabetes.

6 UCLA COLLEGE REPORT 7 UCLA COLLEGE REPORT ON ITS FACE: UCLA Primate Study Breaks New Ground in Evolutionary Science ON ITS FACE:

A TEAM OF THREE PROMINENT UCLA BIOLOGICAL the patterns and anatomy of the faces; and gave each face a animals, agrees. “We know that as social complexity increases, the DETECTIVES HAS PEERED INTO THE MYSTERIES HIDDEN “complexity” score. They explored how the complexity of primate complexity of vocalizations increases, and this study implies that the IN THE FACES OF WILD MONKEYS—MUSTACHED AND faces evolved over time in relation to their social systems. ability to produced nuanced and variable facial signals also increases BEARDED, LION-MANED AND BANDED IN WHITE, To determine how facial colors are related to physical with social complexity.” HOWLING AND RESPLENDENTLY RED-FACED FACES—AND environments, environmental variables were precisely analyzed, using the longitude and latitude of primates’ habitats as a proxy for The Bare Truth About Human Faces DISCOVERED HERETOFORE UNKNOWN CONNECTIONS sun exposure as well as temperature. The team also used statistical The evolutionary biologists also found that when primates live in LINKING THE ASTONISHING FACIAL DIVERSITY OF THESE methods to analyze the evolutionary history of the primate species environments with more species that are closely related, their faces ANIMALS’ FACES TO THEIR SOCIAL AND ECOLOGICAL and when they diverged from one another. are more complex, regardless of their group size. This finding is WORLDS. “We found very strong support for the idea that as species consistent with pressures to recognize individuals of other closely live in larger groups, their faces evolved to be more simple, more related species that live in the same habitat to avoid interbreeding, By Robin Keats plain,” said Santana. “We think that is related to their ability to Santana said. communicate using facial expressions.” In species that live closer to the equator, the skin and hair Michael Alfaro, Sharlene Santana and Jessica Lynch-Alfaro “I grew up in Venezuela,” she said, “and was exposed from around their eyes have evolved to be darker, the biologists report. uncovered these new insights in their study of the resplendent mug a young age to the extraordinary diversity of tropical species, They also found that regions around the nose and mouth evolved shots of 129 New World primates. including primates such as capuchin, howler and spider monkeys. to be darker in species that live in humid environments and denser “Although faces are conspicuous parts of primate bodies, we As a college student, I spent a lot of my time working in tropical forests, and facial hair is longer in species that live farther from really lacked a good explanation for this diversity,” said Alfaro, the forests, which enhanced my appreciation and interest in biodiversity. the equator, where the climate is colder. This may be related to study’s senior author and UCLA associate professor of ecology and Therefore, I was very excited to lead one of the first studies to regulating body temperature. evolutionary biology. “What does it signify? How did it evolve? Our investigate how the variety of facial colors evolved in Neotropical Alfaro points out that the study could have implications for study provides the first real quantitative evidence of the linking.” primates.” the evolution of human faces; an Alfaro, Santana and Lynch-Alfaro had the results of their study The researchers’ finding that important factor in shaping human published online in the prestigious journal Proceedings of The Royal faces are simpler in larger groups faces is the premium on making Society B this past January. Santana, who served as lead author, is came as a surprise to them. unambiguous facial expressions. a post-doctoral fellow at UCLA’s Institute for Society and Genetics “Initially, we thought it might According to Santana, “A face that and the Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, and also be the opposite,” Santana said. “You is more plain could allow primates a Faculty Institutes for Reforming Science Teaching Postdoctoral might expect that in larger groups, to convey expressions more easily. Scholar. Lynch-Alfaro, associate director of the UCLA Institute for faces would vary more and have Humans have pretty bare faces, which Society and Genetics, co-authored the study. Their revelations about more parts that would allow one may allow us to see facial expressions the evolution of primate faces was funded by fellowships from the individual to identify any member more easily than if, for example, we National Science Foundation and UCLA’s Institute for Society and Michael Alfaro of that group. That is not what we Sharlene Santana had many colors in our faces.” Jessica Lynch-Alfaro Genetics. found. Species that live in larger So is there an interspecies/ The project “illustrates the transformative elements of cross- groups live in closer proximity to one another and tend to use facial scientific eye-to-eye correlation between the evolution of human disciplinary research,” said Life Sciences Dean Victoria Sork, adding expressions more than species in smaller groups, which tend to and primate faces? “Humans don’t have all these elaborate facial “the work of this research team is a good illustration of the creative, be more spread out. Being in closer proximity may put stronger ornamentations [that primates do], but we do have the ability to sophisticated, state-of-the-science research in UCLA’s Life Sciences.” pressures on using facial expressions.” communicate visually with facial expressions,” Lynch-Alfaro said. Daniel T. Blumstein, professor and chair of the Department of “Does reduced coloration complexity create a blank palate for visual What Does Your Face Say? Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, and an expert on the relationship expressions that can be conveyed more easily? That is an idea we are The UCLA scientists divided the faces they studied into 14 regions; between social complexity and communicative complexity in testing.” coded the color of each part, including the hair and skin; studied

9 UCLA COLLEGE REPORT PHYSICAL SCIENCES

Royal Pair New Honors for Ghez and Tao

ASTRONOMER ANDREA GHEZ AND Mathematics with Princeton University’s to UCLA and why I stay at UCLA. The most In 1998, Ghez answered one of for the first time that stars accelerate around for example, to find a Web page, there is a MATHEMATICIAN TERENCE TAO Jean Bourgain for what the Academy recent technology of adaptive optics is astronomy’s most important questions, a supermassive black hole. lot of powerful mathematics that we take for SHARE AT LEAST A FEW THINGS IN described as “brilliant and groundbreaking allowing us to learn even more about this showing that a monstrous black hole resides “We are actually seeing stars begin to granted occurring behind the scenes.” COMMON: THEY ARE TWO OF UCLA’S work in harmonic analysis, partial differential black hole at the center of our galaxy—how at the center of our Milky Way galaxy, some curve in their orbits,” she said at the time. About his approach, Tao said, “If I don’t MOST EXCEPTIONAL SCHOLARS AND equations, ergodic theory, number theory, it formed, how it grows and how to describe 26,000 light-years away from Earth, with a “One of these stars may complete its orbit understand something properly, every INTERNATIONALLY RENOWNED IN combinatorics, functional analysis and the properties of space and time in the mass more than 3 million times that of the around the supermassive black hole in as component, it really bugs me. I don’t like THEIR FIELDS. THEY BOTH HAVE theoretical computer science.” Tao, who has vicinity of such an exotic object.” sun. little as 15 years.” accepting things at face value.” BEEN SELECTED AS MACARTHUR received major support for his research from Since 1995, Ghez has used the Keck The Earth’s atmosphere distorts the In 2003, Ghez reported that the case One of Tao’s most well-known research FELLOWS AND ELECTED TO THE philanthropists Betty and S.L. Huang, and Observatory, which sits atop Hawaii’s images of stars. Ghez used a technique she for the Milky Way’s black hole had been discoveries involves prime numbers, AMERICAN PHILOSOPHICAL SOCIETY. Bourgain also worked independently of each dormant Mauna Kea volcano, to study the refined known as speckle interferometry, strengthened substantially and that all of the research he conducted with Ben Green, THEY BOTH HAVE CHILDREN WHO other. rotational center of the Milky Way and the which involves taking thousands of very proposed alternatives could be excluded. In professor of mathematics at England’s ATTEND THE INNOVATIVE UCLA “Andrea Ghez and Terry Tao are two movement of hundreds of stars close to quick, high-resolution snapshots that 2005, she and her colleagues took the first University of Bristol. A number is prime if it is LAB SCHOOL. AND NOW, THEY of UCLA’s true superstars—indeed, two of this galactic center. She and her research correct for these distortions. She has clear picture of the center of the Milky Way. larger than 1 and divisible by itself and 1. The SHARE A NEW DISTINCTION: ROYAL the world’s intellectual superstars,” noted team have benefited significantly from developed algorithms and software for With the technology at the Keck primes begin with 2, 3, 5, 7, 11, 13 and 17. RECOGNITION. Joseph Rudnick, dean of the UCLA Division the Preston Family Endowed Graduate analyzing the data; her technique improves Observatory, Ghez and her colleagues Euclid proved that the number of of Physical Sciences. “Of course, we knew Fellowship in Astrophysics, supported by the resolution dramatically. have revealed many surprises about the primes is infinite. Tao and Green proved that By Stuart Wolpert this long before, but we are delighted to Howard and Astrid Preston. In 2000, Ghez and colleagues reported environment surrounding supermassive the set of prime numbers contains infinitely see that they have both been DIBBLE OF ANDREA GHEZ CHRISTOPHER BY PHOTO black holes, discovering many progressions of all finite lengths. An The king and queen awarded the Crafoord Prize on young stars where none were example of an equally spaced progression of Sweden attended the same day.” expected and seeing a lack of primes, of length three and space four, a ceremony in Lund, of old stars where many were is 3, 7, 11; the largest known progression of Sweden, on May 15, Journey to the Center anticipated. prime numbers is length 23, with each of where Ghez and Tao Ghez, a professor of physics the numbers containing 16 digits. Green and were awarded the and astronomy who holds Trailblazing in a Golden Age Tao’s discovery reveals that somewhere in prestigious Crafoord UCLA’s Lauren B. Leichtman of Mathematics the prime numbers, there is a progression of Prize by the Royal and Arthur E. Levine Chair Tao, considered one length 100, one of length 1,000 and one of Swedish Academy of in Astrophysics, expressed of the world’s leading every other finite length, and that there are Sciences. The prize her gratitude to the Royal mathematicians, holds the an infinite number of such progressions in recognizes extraordinary achievements and Academy and the W. M. Keck James and Carol Collins Chair the primes. is among the most prestigious honors in Observatory, which houses in the UCLA College of Letters To prove this, Tao and Green spent two science. Ghez is the first woman to ever be the two largest telescopes in and Science. He believes we years analyzing all four proofs of a theorem awarded this prize. the world. are living in a “golden age named for Hungarian mathematician Endre Ghez and Germany’s Reinhard Genzel “This research was for mathematics” and that Szemerédi. Few understand all four proofs. share the 2012 Crafoord Prize in Astronomy possible thanks to the mathematics has become “We took Szemerédi’s theorem and for their research on stars orbiting the Observatory; they enabled us much more collaborative and goosed it so that it handles primes,” Tao center of the Milky Way galaxy, where the to achieve the tremendous interdisciplinary. said. “Every time Ben and I got stuck, there two astronomers, working independently, progress that we have made “We use math all the was always an idea from one of the four have discovered “the most reliable evidence in correcting the distorting time without even knowing proofs that we could somehow shoehorn to date that supermassive black holes effects of the Earth’s it,” said Tao, the first faculty into our argument.” really exist,” the Academy announced. atmosphere with high- member in UCLA’s history Tao shares the 2012 Crafoord Prize in angular resolution imaging,” to win the prestigious Fields said Ghez. “It is why I came Medal. “When we use Google,

Andrea Ghez Terence Tao PHOTO OF TERENCE TAO BY REED HUTCHINSON BY OF TERENCE TAO PHOTO 10 UCLA COLLEGE REPORT 11 UCLA COLLEGE REPORT Why Do Tiny Amounts of Alcohol Dramatically Extend a Worm’s Life?

WHEN A TINY WORM USED made any difference, nothing to eat for roughly 10 to 12 days. FREQUENTLY AS A MODEL IN but it turns out it can “Our finding is that tiny amounts of AGING STUDIES MORE THAN be so beneficial.” ethanol can make them survive 20 to 40 DOUBLED ITS LIFE SPAN, UCLA How little days,” Clarke said. BIOCHEMISTS INITIALLY THOUGHT ethanol is that? “The Why would such little ethanol have THE LIFE EXTENSION WAS DUE concentrations such an effect on longevity? TO CHOLESTEROL. THEY WERE ASTONISHED TO FIND THE REASON Steven Clarke correspond to a “We don’t know all the answers,” Clarke ACTUALLY SEEMS TO BE RELATED tablespoon of ethanol acknowledged. “It’s possible there is a trivial TO ALCOHOL. in a bathtub full of water or the alcohol in explanation, but I don’t think that’s the case. one beer diluted into a hundred gallons of We know that if we increase the ethanol know that such a low concentration of the day, results in a reduction in cardiovascular in determining how human physiology is widely used solvent ethanol can have such disease and increased longevity,” said co- altered to induce cardio-protective and By Stuart Wolpert water,” Clarke said. concentration, they do not live longer. This The biochemists said they find extremely low level is the maximum that is a big effect in C. elegans,” said lead author author Shilpi Khare, a former Ph.D. student other beneficial effects in response to low Paola Castro, who conducted the research in UCLA’s biochemistry and molecular alcohol consumption.” “This finding floored us—it’s shocking,” their discovery in the worm known as beneficial for them.” as an undergraduate in Clarke’s laboratory biology program and now a postdoctoral Clarke’s laboratory identified the first said Steven Clarke, UCLA professor of Caenorhabditis elegans difficult to explain. The scientists found that when they before earning a bachelor’s degree in fellow at the Genomics Institute of the protein-repair enzyme in the early 1980s, chemistry and biochemistry and the senior Why would minuscule amounts of ethanol, raised the ethanol level by a factor of 80, it biochemistry from UCLA in 2010 and joining Novartis Research Foundation in San Diego. and his research has shown that repairing author of the study, published Jan. 18 in the the type of alcohol found in alcoholic did not increase the life span of the worms. the Ph.D. program in bioengineering at UC “While these benefits are fascinating, proteins is important to cells. In the current online journal PLoS ONE, a publication of the beverages, more than double the worm’s The research raises but does not Santa Cruz. “What is even more interesting our understanding of the underlying study, the biochemists reported that life Public Library of Science. life span? In humans, of course, alcohol answer the question of whether tiny is the fact that the worms are in a stressed biochemistry involved remains in its infancy. span is significantly reduced under stress Initially, Clarke’s laboratory intended to consumption is generally harmful, Clarke amounts of ethanol can be helpful for developmental stage. At high magnifications We show that very low doses of ethanol conditions in larval worms that lack this test the effect of cholesterol on the worms. said, and if the worms are given much higher human health. Whether this mechanism has under the microscope, it was amazing to see can be a worm ‘lifesaver’ under starvation repair enzyme. (More than 150 enzymes “Cholesterol is crucial for humans,” concentrations of ethanol, they experience something in common with findings that how the worms given a little ethanol looked stress conditions,” Khare added. “While are involved in repairing DNA damage, and Clarke said. “We need it in our membranes, harmful neurological effects and die, other moderate alcohol consumption in humans more robust than worms not given ethanol.” the mechanism of action is still not clearly about a dozen protein-repair enzymes have but it can be dangerous in our bloodstream.” research has shown. may have a cardiovascular health benefit is “While the physiological effects of high understood, our evidence indicates that been identified.) The scientists fed the worms “We used far lower levels, where it may unknown, but Clarke said the possibilities alcohol consumption have been established these worms could be utilizing ethanol “Our molecules live for only weeks or cholesterol, and the worms lived longer, be beneficial,” said Clarke, who studies the are intriguing. to be detrimental in humans, current directly as a precursor for biosynthesis of months,” Clarke said. “If we want to live long apparently due to the cholesterol. They biochemistry of aging. In follow-up research, Clarke’s research shows high-energy lives, we have to outlive our molecules. The had dissolved the cholesterol in ethanol, The worms, which grow from an egg laboratory is trying to identify the that low to metabolic way we do that is with enzymes that repair often used as a solvent, which they diluted a to an adult in just a few days, are found mechanism that extends the worms’ life moderate intermediates our DNA—and with proteins, a combination thousandfold. throughout the world in soil, where they span. alcohol or indirectly of replacement and repair.” “It’s just a solvent, but it turns out the eat bacteria. Clarke’s research team—Paola About half the genes in the worms consumption, as a signal to Researcher Brian Young, now an M.D./ solvent was having the longevity effect,” Castro, Shilpi Khare and Brian Young— have human counterparts, he said, so if the equivalent to extend life Ph.D. student at the David Geffen School Clarke said. “The cholesterol did nothing. studied thousands of these worms during researchers can identify a gene that extends one or two span. These of Medicine at UCLA, is co-author on the We found that not only does ethanol work the first hours of their lives, while they were the life of the worm, it may have implications glasses of findings could research, which was funded by the National at a 1-to-1,000 dilution, it works at a 1-to- still in a larval stage. The worms normally for human aging. wine or beer a aid researchers Institute of General Medical Sciences. 20,000 dilution. That tiny bit shouldn’t have live for about 15 days and can survive with “It is important for other scientists to

From left to right, Paola Castro and Shilpi Khare 12 UCLA COLLEGE REPORT 13 UCLA COLLEGE REPORT SOCIAL SCIENCES “I, who do not cry for the dead, cried at the shimmering beauty of the place that had once been my home gh and was, finally, home again.” A BEAUTIFUL MIND: NATIONAL HUMANITIES MEDAL WINNER

TEOFILOTEOFILO RUIZRUIZ gh

THE PROFESSOR STARTS HIS FIRST Colleges Professor of the Year by the A Cuban Returns to Cuba DAY OF A CLASS ON THE HISTORY OF Carnegie Foundation, been given the It has taken a half-century for Ruiz to return THE IBERIAN PENINSULA WITH AN American Historical Association Biennial to his homeland. But he finally did go back UNFORGETTABLE FLOURISH BY SIGNING Award for the best book on Spanish history; to Cuba, traveling there on a UCLA Alumni HIS NAME ON THE BOARD AS “STEPHEN was the 250th Anniversary Visiting Professor excursion this past winter. “I had two sets DEDALUS” AND INITIATING A LECTURE for Distinguished Teaching at Princeton, of memories, what was and what is,” he said ON JAMES JOYCE’S ULYSSES. WHEN been honored by The Institute for Advanced of the trip. “Walking though my hometown THE STUDENTS TELL HIM THAT IT IS A Study, received a NEH Fellowship and was (just outside of Havana) was depressing. HISTORY CLASS, HE GATHERS HIS THINGS a Guggenheim Fellow. Articles and books And it was also exhilarating.” AND LEAVES. AND RETURNS SHORTLY (published in America and Europe)— In a personal account of his journey for AFTERWARD. THAT, AND SIMILAR including his latest, A King Travels—Festive friends, Ruiz wrote, “I could not or would not OPENING-DAY-AT-SCHOOL GAMBITS, Traditions in Late Medieval and Early return in the early years because of threats ARE ONLY ONE SMALL PART OF WHAT Modern Spain—flow from his pen in rapid to my freedom. Then, the restrictions MAKES TEOFILO F. RUIZ SUCH AN progression. imposed by the Cuban government on INSPIRATIONAL SCHOLAR. those Cubans wishing to visit the island kept An Academic in Revolution me away. Finally, already old, I continuously By Robin Keats Born into a middle-class family, Ruiz grew reminded myself of how much I needed— up in Cuba in an environment that fostered for a whole series of complex issues—to A Man of Honors a love of learning. Nine of his aunts were take this sojourn ... If I resisted my return, In February, the internationally recognized teachers, and his father was an attorney it was because I fully understood and historian traveled to Washington, D.C., to in whose library the young scholar found feared the psychological impact of such be awarded the National Humanities Medal Alexandre Dumas, Victor Hugo and Sir a re-encounter with my lost youth, of the from President Obama at a White House Walter Scott. Across the street from Ruiz’s probable erasure that may occur of my ceremony. The prestigious annual award boyhood home was Ernest Hemingway’s carefully nurtured memories of my early life, honors individuals or groups whose work farm, Finca Vigia, which had an outdoor of places, people and events.” has deepened the nation’s understanding of stone table where Ruiz would sit and read His boyhood home did seem much the humanities, broadened the engagement those iconic authors’ complete works. smaller to him now, as it does for all those of American citizens with the humanities, At the age of 17, he was hired to help who brave going home again. But the great or helped preserve and expand access to generate anti-Batista propaganda. As the historian came to terms with his own history. important resources in the humanities. Cuban Revolution gained momentum, Ruiz “I had not cried at the sight of my Previous medalists have included Nobel put down the books and took to painting hometown’s ruins,” Ruiz wrote. Still, “I, Prize-winning author Toni Morrison, novelist revolutionary messages on walls. “I was who do not cry for the dead, cried at the John Updike, Nobel Peace Prize laureate swept [up] by the Revolution,” he said. “It shimmering beauty of the place that had and author Elie Wiesel and filmmaker Steven had a tremendous impact on my life and my once been my home and was, finally, home Spielberg. point of view, and it still does.” again.” According to a White House But Ruiz found himself disaffected announcement, Ruiz’s “erudite studies in the swirl of revolutionary events, was have deepened our understanding of arrested for a short while and then released medieval Spain and Europe, while his long to make room for prisoners captured examination of how society has coped at the abortive Bay of Pigs invasion. He with terror has taught important lessons immigrated to the U.S., ending up in about the dark side of Western progress.” New York City, where he drove a cab and Princeton University Press published Ruiz’s worked at Continental Can Company before new book, The Terror of History—On the matriculating from Brooklyn College. In Uncertainties of Life In Western Civilization 1974, Ruiz received his Ph.D. from Princeton last year. University. Since then, he taught at both The National Humanities Medal is Brooklyn and Princeton, the CUNY Graduate only the latest in a series of honors that Center, the University of Michigan and highlight Ruiz’s career. He’s been chosen the École des Hautes Études en Sciences as Outstanding Master’s Universities and Sociales. He’s been at UCLA since 1998.

14 UCLA COLLEGE REPORT 15 UCLA COLLEGE REPORT Drumbeat of Change such names as Exotic Music of Belly Dancing Music Manifesto The newfound enthusiasm for all things that featured scantily clad women as cover Of the four artists, New York native Randy African proved a double-edged sword for art. Even against such competition, Abdul- Weston, who has recorded more than the era’s performers. Take Guy Warren. Malik managed to cut the first Arab-jazz 40 albums and still performs, enjoyed By the time of his arrival in the U.S. in fusion recording, Jazz Sahara, in 1958. He the greatest success. “He had no grand 1955, the Ghanaian was an accomplished ended up serving as the leader on six albums ambitions to bring jazz to the continent drummer, having helped found The Tempos, through 1964 before devoting himself to or to launch a musical revolution,” Kelley considered one of the best bands in West teaching until his 1993 death. said. “He simply wanted to connect with his Africa. In 1956, he recorded what Kelley ancestor’s people.” argues is the first LP in history to fuse jazz The Music of Liberation The son of a Jamaican father loyal to and African music. The album drew on Sathima Bea Benjamin’s black nationalist Marcus Garvey, sacred rituals from West and Central Africa music also did not strike Weston saw African music as a as well as highlife, a fast-paced musical recording executives manifestation of Garvey’s pan- genre that swept through urban African in as “African enough”— African philosophy. Weston grew the first half of the 20th century. even though she was up with Abdul-Malik and was Warren went on to record three born in Johannesburg influenced by his interest in North more albums in the U.S., but his career was and raised in Cape African music. The pianist really eclipsed by Nigerian Michael Babatunde Town. An interpreter hit his stride while working in the Olatunji. Embraced by Radio City Music Hall of jazz standards and 1950s at a summer music institute and American television, Olatunji played American and British in the Berkshires that traced jazz’s africa speaks, more directly than Warren into American ballads, Benjamin has heritage back to West African stereotypes of African music with such been compared to Sarah slaves. Weston immersed himself pieces as “African Drum Fantasy.” Vaughn, Ella Fitzgerald in music from a range of African “None of (Warren’s) songs fit easily and Billie Holiday for her countries through association with america into the then dominant stereotype of exotic, poignant, uncluttered musicians who had emigrated from ecstatic, highly sexualized African rhythms phrasing. Africa, recordings of African music and dance,” Kelley writes. “They do not Kelley portrays Benjamin as part of and a jazz group at the United Nations. evoke the jungle or savagery.” a vibrant apartheid-era community of Weston poured these influences into answers: Warren returned in 1960 to Ghana. In musicians devoted to modern jazz, which the four-part suite Uhuru Afrika, Swahili for 1974, he changed his name to Kofi Ghanaba she saw as “the most liberating music on “Freedom Africa,” with lyrics by the African- and recorded several albums outside the the planet.” But the choice cost Benjamin American poet Langston Hughes. Recorded robin kelley U.S. before his 2008 death. the success enjoyed by such South African in 1960 with an all-star band, including contemporaries as Miriam Makeba or male guitarist Kenny Burrell, the jazz icon and Arab Jazz South African musicians like Masekela and UCLA professor of ethnomusicology, the on afro-jazz American taste for popularized versions Benjamin’s pianist husband Abdullah Ibrahim piece became the period’s “manifesto, a of ethnic music also haunted the career of (also known as Dollar Brand). declaration of independence for Africa AT A TIME WHEN THE MUSIC OF SOUTH AFRICAN JAZZ GREAT native New Yorker Ahmed Abdul-Malik. The “In an era when modernists sought and mutual interdependence between pioneers HUGH MASEKELA IS MORE LIKELY TO BE HEARD IN AN ELEVATOR bassist mastered the oud, a pear-shaped ways to express the cry of freedom and the the continent and its descendants,” Kelley THAN A BOOTLEG RECORDING, IT’S HARD TO IMAGINE AN ERA North African string instrument, and cadences of mass resistance, Benjamin’s writes. WHEN COMBINING JAZZ AND AFRICAN MUSIC WOULD HAVE BEEN launched a career as a solo artist fusing jazz sensitive love songs were often drowned In 1961, Weston went to Africa as part of CONSIDERED REVOLUTIONARY. and the music of the Muslim world. out,” Kelley writes. a U.S. cultural delegation to Lagos, Nigeria. Abdul-Malik experimented with the In 1959, Benjamin recorded what would The experience inspired the 1963 recording By Meg Sullivan music’s complex time signatures and modes have been the first South African jazz album, Music from the New African Nations that extend beyond Western diatonic or but it was never released. A recording Featuring the Highlife, which Kelley argues A new book by a prominent UCLA historian revisits the period in the late 1950s chromatic scales. But he also was upstaged session arranged four years later by Duke is a masterpiece on par with Uhuru, and the and early 1960s when African musicians began to swing and American jazz artists by a musician whose music played more Ellington met the same fate. However, a 1964 recording of The “African Cookbook turned to Africa in an attempt to nudge the art form beyond bebop. In Africa directly into stereotypes. Lebanese movie tape of the session was rediscovered in 1994 Suite”, one of Weston’s most requested Speaks, America Answers: Modern Jazz in Revolutionary Times, Robin D. G. Kelley star, singer and oudist Mohammed El-Bakkar and released to critical success as A Morning pieces. documents the struggles faced by four trailblazers who dared to mix African produced six albums beginning in 1957 with in Paris. She enjoyed the most success while Weston moved to Morocco in 1967 for influences and jazz: the late Ghanaian drummer Guy Warren; the American pianist living in New York, releasing five years, studying with the Gnawa, mystics Randy Weston, now 86; the late American bassist and oud player Ahmed Abdul- eight discs between 1979 known for the healing power of their music. Malik; and South African vocalist Sathima Bea Benjamin, now 75. and 2006. Benjamin recently The experience culminated in a string of The holder of the Gary B. Nash Professorship of American History at UCLA, returned to live in South jazz standards and a style that “makes one Kelley is a prominent historian of African-American culture and jazz in particular. Africa. want to dance and pray all at the same time,” He is the author of seven books, including the critically acclaimed 2009 biography Kelley said. Thelonious Monk: The Life and Times of an American Original. The performers featured in Africa Speaks in one way or another crossed Monk’s path and influenced a long string of jazz greats, including Cannonball Adderley, John Coltrane and Herbie Mann. They also shared a pattern of volleying between the United States and Africa at a time when more than 20 newly independent nations in Africa brimmed with possibility.

16 UCLA COLLEGE REPORT Robin Kelley 17 UCLA COLLEGE REPORT HUMANITIES

“You go into a moment that nobody cares about, and you realize that the whole world is in that little moment.”

downturn. Stravinsky’s desire to infuse the myth with Moving Out of the Center “You go into a moment that nobody sacred Christian rituals, but he wanted to Not surprisingly, reviewers skewered the cares about, and you realize that the whole celebrate the Catholic—not the Russian muddled results: “It is embarrassing to watch world is in that little moment,” Levitz said. Orthodox—faith. Jooss, a secular and the burlesque scenic parody to which Mme. literal modernist, sought to communicate Rubinstein condemns this work,” one wrote, Performing Below the Barre the message of the ancient myth through summarizing sentiments. The ingredients certainly weren’t to blame gestures imitated from ancient art and Levitz is the descendent of Russian for the soufflé’s collapse, Levitz found. Since everyday movements. and Polish Jews as well as Irish and English antiquity, writers have successfully mined For her part, Rubinstein, an icon and immigrants whose children ultimately the myth about the abduction and descent muse in Paris’s lesbian community for her settled in Quebec. So she was drawn to the Star-Crossed into Hades of the daughter of harvest sinuous physique and the opulence of her story by its wealth of émigré characters: UNEARTHING THE STORY BEHIND STRAVINSKY’S FAILED PERSÉPHONE BALLET goddess Demeter. As a result of Demeter’s ballet productions, had long identified with Rubinstein and Stravinsky could not return grief in losing her daughter, living things Perséphone, even posing in portraits that to Russia after the Bolshevik Revolution, cease to grow. To quell Demeter’s grief, Zeus portrayed her as the mythical figure. In and Jooss had fled Germany after the Nazis sends Hermes to the underworld to fetch staging the production that fused singing, insisted that he fire Jews from his dance Perséphone, who returns to earth, but only pantomime and spoken word with dance, company. for two-thirds of the year. When Perséphone the performer, by then almost 50, was trying “That’s always my fascination—people goes back to Hades, Demeter’s grief returns, to keep alive not just her career but also who have moved out of their center and are and living things again die, thus making Symbolist theater, an aesthetic approach working in a transnational setting,” she said. her responsible for the cyclic nature of the that was then about 20 years out of date But it was the melodrama’s tentacles growing season. but was favored by members of her lesbian that ultimately ensnared her. A Buenos Ida Rubinstein, a former star performer circle. Aires performance in 1936 influenced with the famed Ballets Russes who It also didn’t help that she cast herself the development of literary modernism bankrolled the production with her own vast as Perséphone and put a 26-year-old in in Argentina. The influential teacher of inheritance, managed to assemble a dream the role of Perséphone’s mother—or composition Nadia Boulanger, a friend team of collaborators: well-known author that she independently choreographed of Rubinstein who performed portions André Gide as the librettist, Stravinsky as her own parts and kept the details from of Perséphone in concert days after its composer and conductor, influential French her collaborators until the day before the premiere in the Opéra, went on to teach the COMPOSER IGOR STRAVINSKY IS The Rite’s debut is such a red-letter closing to negative reviews and the theatre director Jacques Copeau as director; performance. score to generations of composers. Avant- REVERED FOR HIS DAZZLING SCORES date in music history that its 2012-2013 performance’s collaborators at odds with and choreography by German expressionist garde American theater director and UCLA TO SUCH BALLETS AS THE FIREBIRD, centennial is being marked with no less one another. choreographer Kurt Jooss. professor Peter Sellars recently revived the PETRUSHKA AND, ESPECIALLY, than three scholarly conferences and over In the failed collaboration, Levitz Unfortunately, however, each ballet in Spain, citing a longtime fascination THE RITE OF SPRING—A BALLET 11 performances of either the score—which believes she has found a window on a collaborator saw a different reflection with the piece. SO REVOLUTIONARY THAT ITS 1913 will be performed in September by the Los little known and contradictory time that in the myth’s mirror, Levitz found. Gide, As a result of her work, Levitz has OPENING FAMOUSLY SPARKED A Angeles Philharmonic—or the entire ballet. shares key elements with our own. In her already an activist for homosexual rights, been invited to serve as the coordinator RIOT. But what most Stravinsky lovers don’t realize forthcoming book, Modernist Mysteries: had been rewriting the myth for decades for “Stravinsky and His World,” a two-week is that the Russian émigré, who eventually Perséphone, Levitz shows how the folly in different forms as a metaphor for what festival being planned for next summer By Meg Sullivan landed in Los Angeles in 1940, also was was largely the result of a tug of war Levitz describes as his “pédérastie, or love at Bard College in New York. A revival of associated with a far less celebrated debut. between the first glimmerings of a gay of young men in the Greek tradition.” Perséphone at Bard is a possibility—not that UCLA Professor of Musicology Tamara rights movement and the rise of a religious Stravinsky, who had returned to the Russian Levitz is holding her breath. Levitz, one of the world’s preeminent right. In the opulent performance staged Orthodox church of his St. Petersburg “It’s not one of those revive-it-please Stravinsky authorities, has spent a decade in France during The Great Depression, youth, twisted Gide’s celebration of the pieces,” she said. unearthing the star-crossed story of she also finds parallels to extravagances pleasures of the flesh into a manifestation Tamara Levitz Perséphone, a 1934 ballet that played just that she has witnessed in America’s—and of religious ceremony. Copeau also shared three nights at the Paris Opéra before Los Angeles’s—art scene since the 2008

18 UCLA COLLEGE REPORT 19 UCLA COLLEGE REPORT “It felt like such an enormous freedom to be one of the students who had the most to BACK TO SCHOOL learn instead of the person expected to be the What Three UCLA Professors Learned From the authority. ” Mellon New Directions Fellowship

WHAT HAPPENS WHEN PROFESSORS GO BACK TO SCHOOL? WHAT PRESSURES DO THEY FACE? WHAT EPIPHANIES DO THEY HAVE? WHAT KIND OF STUDENTS DO THEY MAKE? AND, MOST IMPORTANTLY, HOW DO THEIR TEACHING AND SCHOLARSHIP CHANGE AS A RESULT OF BEING BACK ON THE spoken word is really important. My sense is in Arabic, “with an eye toward reading miss tremendously from my student days. OTHER SIDE OF THE LECTERN? that in order to get a profound and deeper medieval Islamic interpretive texts, learning And the material I was studying, with its understanding of the contemporary culture about the field of the Qur’an and early very particular form of logic, is so difficult By Jack Feuer of a people so torn apart and in struggle, Islam and Qur’anic exegesis, and becoming (at least for me) that it was like living in Los you have to have the language that people familiar with the secondary sources as well Angeles—there was the feeling of being use to talk to each other.” as the primary sources.” And she plans to able to explore it infinitely with the sure For three UCLA Humanities professors, scholars grow and improve while protecting For Hochberg, going back to school continue that study because “it’s unrealistic knowledge you wouldn’t cover it all.” the idea is anything but academic. The the teaching strength of the Humanities has even larger implications. She hopes it to think that you can fully master an area Kaufman’s fellowship was an extension three have each received a New Directions Division,” said David Schaberg, acting dean may help her make one small but significant of study—in a year. The Mellon Fellowship of something she’s done all along. She Fellowship from the Andrew W. Mellon of UCLA’s Humanities Division. “We’re also contribution toward a future of coexistence, provides scholars with an opportunity explains: “I have tried in the years that I’ve Foundation, an honor that allows mid-career proud of Gil for taking on such an arduous mutual respect and true equality between to build, or reinforce, a foundation in a been a professor to keep taking classes faculty to go back and receive systematic course of study in the interest of promoting Palestinians and Israeli Jews in Israel and subfield or a related area of study.” Her and learning new things—mostly foreign training outside of their discipline. understanding in such a conflict-ridden area Palestine. monograph on Jewish, Christian and Islamic languages and different forms of emergency Designed to promote interdisciplinary of the world.” “I strongly believe things don’t have to interpretations of the family of Abraham is preparedness training, subjects I have less research in the humanities, the fellowship be as they are,” she said. “I am profoundly expected out in the spring of 2013. aptitude for than medieval philosophy—so pays for up to 15 mid-career professors Two Languages, One Hope attached to Israel. It pains me that Israel is As for what kind of student she was, those experiences were good preparation nationwide to return to school for formal Hochberg, whose research up to this point what it is. I want it to be a better place and Bakhos said, “I had the luxury of not needing for my Mellon adventure, which has training in a discipline other than the one has explored contemporary Israeli and the only and most important place to start is to take the finals, and yet because I was such certainly been the greatest windfall of my in which they are expert. By also covering Palestinian literature, is a native speaker of Palestine.” a nerd, I took them anyway. It reminded me professional career.” a recipient’s salaries and benefits over the Hebrew, and she reads but doesn’t speak to appreciate the anxiety that students have In sum, Kaufman’s fellowship had direct program’s 18-month term, the fellowship Arabic. At least, not yet. The Eternal Student around exams and just how much they have positive impact on her own work. leaves the scholar’s home institution with She said she will use the 18-month Carol Bakhos, associate professor of late to juggle.” “I did what I set out to do, which was enough resources to hire a temporary fellowship first to study the Palestinian antique Judaism and Jewish Studies, points to study Aquinas in the hope of linking replacement. dialect of Arabic for one year at Al-Quds out that “as scholars, we’re always students” Enormous Freedom his thought to the 20th-century French In March, Gil Z. Hochberg, an associate University in East Jerusalem and secondly to but admits the experience of returning to During the 2009-2010 school year, Eleanor philosophy I work on,” she said, “which professor of comparative literature and study Palestinian culture in its relationship to school in 2006 “reignited all those juices Kaufman, professor of comparative tends, if it addresses Scholastic philosophy women’s studies, became the latest UCLA Islam. that flow when you’re embarking on a new literature, English, and French and at all, to dismiss it entirely. I think my initial professor to be awarded a Mellon New “I can read Arabic but I don’t have the journey ... it was an immensely rewarding, Francophone Studies, used her Mellon New hypothesis, that there are in fact some Directions grant. Having written about vernacular, so I don’t have a valid speaking joyful experience to be a student again, Directions fellowship to study medieval very profound connections between these Israeli and Palestinian literature, Hochberg capacity,” Hochberg explained, noting that as well as fascinating, because you’re philosophy at St. Louis University, attending disparate philosophical domains, was will enroll in an immersion program in the Palestinian dialect is distinct among looking at your instructor from a different graduate seminars. She observed that “at even more on target than I envisioned, as Palestinian Arabic dialect and study cultural Arabic speakers. perspective and SLU, there were also quite a few seminary I have found many additional connections heritage at Al-Quds University in East That’s critical for making assessments students present from different (Catholic) alongside the ones I set out to focus Jerusalem. In 2009, fellow comparative her scholarship about how you might orders, and these graduate students were on. My studies of medieval philosophy literature scholar Eleanor Kaufman used the because “I’ve be a more effective on the whole much more knowledgeable in fact allowed me to write a much more grant to study medieval philosophy. Three moved into visual instructor.” than I was about the material, so I learned a ambitious introduction to a book on the years earlier, Carol Bakhos, a Jewish Studies materials, including Her 18 months great deal from the other students as well as French philosopher Gilles Deleuze that I was professor, received a fellowship to study films, experimental as a Mellon New the professors. It felt like such an enormous finishing (Deleuze, the Dark Precursor).” interpretations of the Qur’an at Princeton. documentary Directions student freedom to be one of the students who —With Meg Sullivan and Alison Hewitt “We’re so grateful to the Mellon and performance allowed Bakhos had the most to learn instead of the person Foundation because this program helps realms in which the Gil Z. Hochberg Carol Bakhos to hone her skills expected to be the authority, something I

20 UCLA COLLEGE REPORT 21 UCLA COLLEGE REPORT UNDERGRADUATE EDUCATION

“There’s no debate among linguists. [Sign language] is as rich and complex as any other Weaving Words: American Sign Language human language.” Instruction Comes to UCLA

AS A REGULAR CONTRIBUTOR TO Spanish, German and expectations. (Humans Expanding Awareness Regarding THE DAILY BRUIN, ASAD RAMZANALI French as the most Supporters hope the Deafness) with the goal of studying the WAS INTRIGUED WHEN A FELLOW frequently studied pilot program will be culture and language of deaf Americans. STUDENT MENTIONED AN APPETITE language. the first step toward Some 200 students have signed up to ON CAMPUS FOR INSTRUCTION IN Ramzanali also establishing a minor in be on the group’s email list, and more AMERICAN SIGN LANGUAGE (ASL). compiled a page-long deaf studies at UCLA. than 40 students attended the first list of email addresses UCLA already offers meeting, according to Moses Sumney, the By Meg Sullivan for UCLA students a minor in disability organization’s president. who had expressed an studies. Additionally, students with hearing “It was something I never thought of, but interest in studying difficulties have recently risen to leadership I thought it might make for a good piece,” ASL. He even enlisted A Movement with positions in the student body. Nick recalled the economics major. Indeed it friends to survey Momentum Matthews, the senior who is captain would: American Sign Language has risen to fellow undergraduates U C L A In introducing sign of UCLA’s debate team, has a hearing become the fourth most frequently studied via Facebook, an Padden, a noted authority on deaf studies The Linguistics Department plans to begin language, UCLA joined impediment. Derrick Coleman, a senior foreign language taught on U.S. college undertaking that showed that 82% of a growing trend. Enrollment in ASL courses running back on UCLA’s football team, also campuses. and a MacArthur grant winner who has offering ASL as early as this summer after responders felt UCLA should offer ASL, written extensively on topics dealing with receiving seed funding from Vice Provost nationwide has jumped 800% since 1998. wears hearing aids. So in October 2010, Ramzanali wrote and 56% said they would take ASL if it were ASL instruction and deaf studies are offered As for the determined student a passionate Daily Bruin column urging deaf culture and sign language. for Faculty Development and Diversity offered. Buoyed by Blackmar’s and McJunkin’s Christine Littleton, Dean and Vice Provost at many universities around the country, journalist who began the ASL movement on university administrators to offer ASL and “He did this amazing research project,” with major programs at the universities campus, Ramzanali, now employed by Intuit to allow the instruction to count toward the findings, UCLA’s linguistics faculty voted in of Undergraduate Education Judith Smith recalled Stowell, who has since returned early October to unanimously support plans and Interim Humanities Dean David of Washington, Arizona, Iowa, Texas, in Northern California, said via email that he university’s foreign language requirement to his faculty position in linguistics. “He Minnesota and UC San Diego. At UCSD and modeled his appeal to Stowell on business for undergraduates. He elaborated on his to institute ASL instruction, and they filed a Schaberg, who succeeded Stowell last basically assembled all kinds of arguments formal proposal with the College’s Faculty September. As with all foreign language the University of Washington, beginning ASL plans that he learned to develop while idea in a 13-page report, complete with based on MLA (Modern Language courses are so popular that demand often active in the UCLA Global Business Brigade, tables and pie charts, which he emailed to Executive Committee (FEC), citing a number programs on campus, ASL coursework can Association) statistics. Did you know that of points made by Ramzanali. count toward the three quarters of foreign outstrips capacity. More than 200 students a nonprofit group that mobilizes student Tim Stowell, who at the time was dean of ASL is the fourth most popular non-English each year join wait lists for the courses at and professional volunteers to improve the the Humanities Division within the College The FEC approved the proposal on language instruction required of most UCLA language instruction in terms of enrollments Nov. 18 and forwarded it to the Curriculum undergraduates. A symposium on ASL is these schools. Yet ASL has not enjoyed the quality of life for communities in developing of Letters and Science. Foreign language nationwide? I didn’t know that before I read same stature as foreign languages, possibly countries. And something else: Ramzanali instruction falls under the division. Committee of the Undergraduate Council being planned for sometime next year. (Ramzanali’s report).” of the Academic Senate, which approved The Linguistics Department, under due to the misconception that it cannot also learned something about the university. convey the subtleties and complex meaning “A lot of people get the perception that Doing His Homework the proposal Nov. 22. The Undergraduate the direction of department chair Anoop Show of Hands Council, which is the final authority on the Mahajan, has hired ASL instructor Ben Lewis, that spoken languages do. But scholars UCLA is too bureaucratic and that it can’t Ramzanali pointed out in his report that Over the summer of 2011, Lucy Blackmar, increasingly challenge this point of view. change. But I don’t believe it’s true,” he said. an estimated 100,000 to 500,000 people matter, approved the proposal at its Dec. 9 a recent graduate of Gallaudet University assistant vice provost of undergraduate meeting. who has taught ASL in three countries, “There’s no debate among linguists,” “The bureaucracy can be frustrating, but are fluent users of ASL, though the precise initiatives, and Kyle McJunkin, the College’s Stowell said. “It’s as rich and complex as any (administrators are) willing to talk to you, to number is not known. He also provided as a lecturer to teach ASL courses and an director of curriculum coordination and Signing Up upper division course on issues of deaf other human language.” respond to you.” nationwide totals for student enrollment for operations, visited UC San Diego (UCSD) to Among UCLA undergraduates, interest A very good sign indeed. In any the 14 most commonly taught languages in Beginning in January 2012, undergraduates communities next year. study its ASL program. They also met with were allowed to satisfy the College’s After two years, the program will in deaf culture appears to be growing. In language. U.S. institutions of higher learning between UCSD Communications Professor Carol 2010, a group of students formed HEARD 1968 and 2009. ASL ranked fourth behind foreign language requirement with ASL. be evaluated to see if interest has met

22 UCLA COLLEGE REPORT 23 UCLA COLLEGE REPORT A Commitment to Social Change adolescents whose parents had been the program, which began in 2008. When Ali Valenzuela transferred to UCLA deported.” She credits McNair with teaching The value of MMUF is manifest in from Rio Hondo Community College, he her that research was not just about adding Yvette Martinez-Vu, who came to UCLA as thought he’d go to law school after earning to her CV but about “bringing awareness a freshman from an under-resourced high his bachelor’s degree. But that changed to an issue that contributed to the school in the San Fernando Valley and had when he learned about the UCLA McNair marginalization of communities of color.” not considered graduate school. An English Research Scholars Program. McNair scholar Cori Tucker, now a literature major, she found her studies The two-year program prepares graduate student at Harvard, says her life difficult. Yet when she describes those early undergraduates from groups traditionally changed after she saw a poster for the years, she often mentions wanting to “push underrepresented in academic careers to McNair program in Campbell Hall. She forward” toward the next challenge. attend top graduate schools and become credits McNair with “cultivating the scholar” Today, thanks to MMUF, she is a professors in the humanities and social within her. second-year Ph.D. student in theater sciences. It attracts students who use The McNair program admits only and performance studies at UCLA. She scholarship and research to achieve social 26 first-generation, low-income and also serves as a graduate mentor for the justice. The program enables them to think underrepresented juniors and seniors a program. about and discuss what it means to be year. It is named for Ronald E. McNair, who MMUF serves not only minority underrepresented in the academy, said Dr. was the second African American astronaut students but also others who have Alice Ho, program director. to join NASA and one of the seven aboard demonstrated a commitment to eradicating Today, after earning a Ph.D. at Stanford, the Challenger shuttle when it exploded in racial disparities. Mellon Mays fellows pursue Valenzuela is completing a postdoc at January 1986. UCLA’s program, one of 200 Ph.D. degrees but must choose from among Princeton University. And he is set to nationwide, began in 2003 and is one of only specific academic fields in the arts and become an assistant professor on a tenure a few programs devoted exclusively to the sciences. Both programs seek to diversify

She credits McNair with teaching her that the research was not just about adding to her CV but about “being a responsible and socially conscious citizen and bringing awareness to an issue that contributed to the marginalization of communities of color.”

track in August, one of only two Hispanic humanities and social sciences. university faculties so that students can learn junior faculty members in the social sciences UCLA McNair scholars follow a from a range of perspectives. at Princeton. rigorous program under the supervision of McNair and MMUF operate in “McNair set the tone and direction for faculty members and graduate mentors. collaboration with each other and with the all of my academic pursuits since I got to Each scholar has a teaching or tutoring Graduate Mentoring and Research Programs UCLA,” he said. opportunity and may receive more than unit of UCLA’s Academic Advancement A political scientist, Valenzuela $8,000 in research stipends. Program. They share outreach efforts and specializes in American electoral politics research conference opportunities, as well with an emphasis on Latino political Supporting Scholars Beyond Graduation as tutorial preparation for the Graduate behavior. Next fall, he will teach identity Another program with a similar mission is Record Exam (GRE). The directors work politics and Latino politics. And, as he has the Mellon Mays Undergraduate Fellowship together to ensure that the two programs since his days at Stanford, he will mentor Program (MMUF), funded through five- don’t compete. undergraduates, hoping to pass on to them year grants from the Andrew W. Mellon Like McNair, MMUF includes intensive some aspects of what the McNair program Foundation. The program is named for Dr. undergrad research, completion of a senior did for him. Benjamin E. Mays, the African American thesis and preparation for graduate school. Another McNair graduate, Elizabeth educator, statesman and minister who was Of the 10 fellows who have completed INCREASING THE DIVERSITY PIPELINE Gonzalez, is a third-year Ph.D. student in president of Morehouse College and a MMUF at UCLA so far, two are beginning THE MCNAIR AND MELLON MAYS PROGRAMS developmental psychology at the University mentor to Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. their second year in Ph.D. programs, several of California, Santa Cruz. She noted, “The Unlike McNair, MMUF provides are in Masters programs, and all others are McNair program has been the single most benefits beyond graduation that include applying to graduate school. influential program in shaping me as a social assistance with student loan repayment and “The experience has solidified my SINCE ITS FOUNDING, UCLA HAS BEEN A BEACON TO ALL THE PEOPLE OF CALIFORNIA, THE MOST justice research scholar.” opportunities for graduate school funding pursuit to become a professor,” Martinez- DIVERSE STATE IN THE COUNTRY. THIS VALUE HAS PAVED THE WAY FOR COUNTLESS YOUNG MEN AND She points to her undergraduate and funding during the early years of a Vu said, “so I can help students access WOMEN TO REALIZE THEIR DREAMS IN MANY WAYS—AND TO MAKE THE GOLDEN STATE BETTER FOR research project that examined “the tenure-track faculty appointment, said Dr. resources they might not otherwise have.” IT. HERE ARE TWO OF THE MOST POWERFUL COLLEGE PROGRAMS PROMOTING DIVERSITY. ambiguous loss experienced by Latino Reed Wilson, administrative coordinator of

By Mary Daily

24 UCLA COLLEGE REPORT 25 UCLA COLLEGE REPORT GREAT FUTURES

A Powerful Catalyst for Sharing Knowledge The Luskin Endowment for Thought Leadership in the College

By Margaret MacDonald

AS A UCLA UNDERGRADUATE, provost for undergraduate education. “It MEYER LUSKIN COMMUTED TO enables resource-challenged academic CAMPUS FROM THE WORKING- departments and research centers, in CLASS COMMUNITY OF BOYLE particular those in the humanities and social HEIGHTS. WORLD WAR II ACTIVE sciences, to organize and stage academic DUTY INTERVENED, AND LUSKIN conferences. This funding helps broaden RETURNED TO UCLA WITH A $30 SCHOLARSHIP THAT ALLOWED HIM and strengthen not only our faculty’s TO COMPLETE HIS ECONOMICS collaboration with other top scholars in DEGREE. A FEW YEARS LATER, HE their fields but also their engagement with MET HIS FUTURE WIFE, RENEE, civic leaders and the general public on many WHILE SHE WAS A SOCIOLOGY issues.” UNDERGRADUATE AT UCLA—AND A portion of the Luskin Thought THE COUPLE IS NOW IN THEIR Leadership endowment supports the Luskin SEVENTH DECADE OF GIVING BACK Lecture for Thought Leadership, presented TO THE UNIVERSITY. annually by a major international leader or public figure. In May, the inaugural lecture, A Southern California business leader, Luskin delivered by President Bill Clinton at UCLA’s has long been a passionate advocate for Royce Hall, drew hundreds of students and UCLA’s role as a public resource and agent members of the public. for social mobility. In 2011, the Luskins Prior to the start of the Luskin Lecture, donated $100 million to the campus, the Chancellor Gene Block presented the second largest gift ever received. They first Fiat Lux Award to Meyer Luskin in directed a portion of this transformative recognition of his extraordinary service to Left to right: Renee Luskin, Meyer Luskin, Gene Block gift to the College of Letters and Science: UCLA. This new award honors distinguished the Luskin Endowment for Thought people or organizations whose Leadership, which contributions to the university enables the College have had a transformational to present a broad impact on the campus. range of research “The multidisciplinary and scholarship to education I received at UCLA campus and public has helped me immeasurably audiences, thus in business, whether it’s serving as a powerful organizational, management catalyst for sharing or philosophical issues,” said knowledge. Luskin, a history enthusiast. “This pivotal “The Luskin Lecture is a way for endowment is of us to give back in a creative and immense importance unique way that helps UCLA to to College faculty,” continue its important work said Judith L. Smith, with the broader community.” dean and vice PHOTOS BY ANN JOHANSSON BY PHOTOS 26 UCLA COLLEGE REPORT 27 UCLA COLLEGE REPORT BACK ON CAMPUS: PROMINENT ALUMNI TO DELIVER COMMENCEMENT ADDRESSES

HIGHLY ACCOMPLISHED ALUMNI Chester (“Chet”) J. Pipkin—History House Office of Public Engagement. He RETURN TO CAMPUS TO DELIVER Chet Pipkin founded Belkin International, has also served as an adjunct lecturer in COMMENCEMENT ADDRESSES an award-winning global technology and sociology, film and Asian American studies FOR THEIR HOME DEPARTMENTS consumer electronics at the University of Pennsylvania. He holds a IN THE COLLEGE OF LETTERS AND brand leader, in his B.A. in sociology from UCLA. SCIENCE, WHICH IS AWARDING parents’ garage while BACHELOR’S DEGREES TO MORE THAN 6,000 STUDENTS FOR THE 2011- majoring in history at Sadiqa Stelzner—Ecology and Evolutionary 12 ACADEMIC YEAR. UCLA. He has been Biology an advisor and board Dr. Sadiqa Stelzner is chief of member for many non- Ophthalmology at Santa Monica-UCLA Mary Rose Brusewitz—Anthropology profit local and state Medical Center and Mary Rose Brusewitz is partner-in-charge organizations, and is an active civic leader Orthopedic Hospital, of the New York office and co-head of the in public policy for education, resource director of Eye Care international practice of the law firm of management and technology. He also at the Greater Los Strasburger & Price serves on the UCLA History Department’s Angeles Veteran’s LLP. She specializes Board of Advisors. Hospital, and assistant in transactions for clinical professor at the Latin American Gary Knell—Political Science David Geffen School of for Birtcher Real Estate and a senior tax companies, particularly Gary E. Knell is President and CEO of NPR, Medicine/Jules Stein Eye Institute at UCLA. Anna Lee Fisher—Chemistry Glen Whitney—Mathematics consultant with Deloitte & Touche. He is a in emerging markets. overseeing worldwide media operations She specializes in cataract, laser and eyelid Dr. Anna Fisher became the first mother in Glen Whitney is executive director of the Certified Public Accountant and a member Brusewitz is also an and partnerships surgeries, and has worked with humanitarian space when she embarked on mission STS- Museum of Mathematics (MoMath) in of the State Bar of California. He received his adjunct professor of with 900 public radio organizations in Mexico and El Salvador. She 51A on the space shuttle Manhattan, America’s B.A. from UCLA, his J.D. from Pepperdine the International Transactions Clinic of the stations. In addition to holds a B.A. in biochemistry and an M.A. in Discovery. Currently, only museum of University School of Law and his Master of University of Michigan Law School. She a three-decade public biology from UCLA; she earned her M.D. she works technical mathematics. He Laws (Taxation) from George Washington received a B.A. in anthropology and a J.D. media career, Knell from Boston University. assignments at NASA’s seeks to change University. from UCLA. was counsel to the shuttle branch while public perceptions U.S. Senate Judiciary Mikel Elliott—English awaiting assignment of mathematics and Howard Preston—Physics & Astronomy Michael J. Burry—Economics and Governmental Mikel Elliott is CEO of Quixote Studios LLC, as either a space improve the way we Howard Preston is president of Preston Dr. Michael Burry, former head of Scion Affairs committees, and the market leader in high-end studio and shuttle crewmember educate youth in the Cinema Systems, a Capital Group LLC, was the first to foresee worked in the California State Legislature production services. on a space station assembly mission or as a U.S. Previously, he taught math at the Santa Monica-based America’s financial collapse, and he and governor’s office. Currently a member Elliott started out by crewmember aboard the International Space University of Michigan and then joined motion picture camera predicted that the of the Council on Foreign Relations, Knell using his stepfather’s Station. She holds bachelor’s and master’s Renaissance Technologies as a hedge-fund equipment company housing bubble would received a B.A. in political science and motor home to degrees in chemistry as well as an M.D. from quantitative analyst. He earned a B.S. from that creates and sells burst as early as 2007. journalism from UCLA and a J.D. from Loyola drive commercial UCLA. Dr. Fisher is a member of the Board Harvard and a Ph.D. in mathematical logic products to control He was profiled in The University School of Law. photographers to photo of Visitors for the UCLA Division of Physical from UCLA. camera zoom speed, Big Short, by Michael shoots. He soon bought Sciences. and lens and camera Lewis. Dr. Burry earned Kal Penn—Sociology a second motor home Stephen P. Milner—Humanities products for special camera effects. In a B.A. in economics Actor/producer Kalpen S. Modi (aka Kal and enlisted fellow UCLA English major Stephen Milner is managing partner of 1984, the Academy of Motion Picture from UCLA and his M.D. Penn) is best known for his work on The Jordan Kitaen. Since 1995, they’ve led the Squar Milner, one of Arts & Sciences awarded him a Technical at Vanderbilt, but he left medicine after Namesake, House, way in luxury production vehicles with the California’s largest CPA Achievement Award, and in 2006, he his third year of residency in neurology to the Harold and Kumar recent introduction of an environmentally and financial advisory received a Scientific and Engineering Award. become a full-time investor. franchise and How I friendly fleet. He holds a B.A. in English from firms. He was previously Preston earned his B.A. and Ph.D. in physics Met Your Mother. From UCLA. vice president and from UCLA, and is on the Board of Visitors 2009 to 2011, Modi corporate controller for the UCLA Division of Physical Sciences. served as associate director in the White

28 UCLA COLLEGE REPORT 29 UCLA COLLEGE REPORT UCLA NON-PROFIT ORG. U.S. POSTAGE COLLEGE PAID REPORT UCLA

405 Hilgard Avenue 2300 Murphy Hall Los Angeles, California 90095 Illustration by Stephen Nash by Stephen Illustration

UCLA evolutionary biologists studied the faces of adult male primates from Central and South America to determine why the faces of primates are so dramatically different from one another. Their research produced the first quantitative evidence linking social behavior to the evolution of facial diversity and complexity in primates. Find out more about what our faces say about our evolution on page 8.