Visionaries of the Visual
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UC SANTA CRUZ Winter 2001 R E V I E W Visionaries ofthe Visual Ada Takahashi is one of the many UCSC alumni working as museum and gallery curators and directors Plus: Filling the teacher gap; Measuring mercury contamination CONTENTS FROM THE CHANCELLOR By M.R.C. Greenwood UC Santa Cruz Features Visionaries of the visual n my position as chancellor, challenge, launching a 15-month Review As curators or directors at I am fortunate indeed to come in program that provides our students Chancellor some of the country’s most contact with many of the people with both a teaching credential and M.R.C. Greenwood Visionaries of the Visual 8 respected art museums that make the UC Santa Cruz master’s degree in education. and galleries, a number of II Vice Chancellor, University Relations community so special: our students, Our faculty and students are Ronald P. Suduiko UCSC graduates are helping whose thirst for knowledge is only achieving distinction in a variety of decide which works their Associate Vice Chancellor, Meeting the Need 14 exceeded by their commitment to other ways. Research that is revealing Communications institutions buy or borrow— improve society; our faculty and staff, important information about mercury Elizabeth Irwin and ultimately bring to who diligently see to it that our students contamination in San Francisco Bay Editor freidman/losgary angeles times the public’s attention. 8 receive a world-class education at the waters is one example of that excel- Mercury: A Toxic Legacy 18 Jim Burns Meeting the need same time that UCSC produces impres- lence (page 18). In fieldwork involving Art Director/Designer UC Santa Cruz is helping sive research; and our alumni, whose faculty from UCSC’s newly formed Jim MacKenzie years on campus very often foreshadow Department of Environmental Departments prepare tomorrow’s K–12 Associate Editors teachers, desperately needed important postcollegiate careers. Toxicology, UCSC graduates, and Mary Ann Dewey This issue of the Review underscores don harris in California, through a current students, the extent of contam- Jeanne Lance the important contributions of just a ination from the New Almaden and unique new program that Writers From the Chancellor 1 few members of the UCSC family, New Idria mine sites is coming to provides students with a People from UC Santa Cruz’s Louise Donahue people whose work is making a real light. Their efforts could prevent Barbara McKenna teaching credential and difference in our world. additional contamination of San Jennifer McNulty master’s degree—in Doreen Schack The cover story (page 8) shines the Francisco Bay Area waters. Campus Update 2 jones r. r. just 15 months. 14 Education Department are helping Tim Stephens spotlight on a half-dozen of our gradu- In closing, I would like to call Francine Tyler A toxic legacy ates who hold prominent positions on your attention to another achievement: Cover photography Mercury is beginning to the national art scene. Through their UCSC has been selected to participate Alumni News 22 to address one of California’s R. R. Jones surpass lead as a major work as curators and directors, these in one of three new California Office of University Relations environmental concern, half-dozen alumni are making the Institutes for Science and Innovation. Carriage House and UCSC faculty, decisions that determine which works Established this past December by the University of California most daunting challenges: Alumni Notes 24 students, and alumni are 1156 High Street are displayed in many of this country’s governor (page 4), the Institute for Santa Cruz, CA 95064-1077 assessing the extent to leading galleries and museums. Bioengineering, Biotechnology and which old mine sites are voice: 831.459.2501 UCSC people are also leading the the preparation of a new Quantitative Biomedical Research, fax: 831.459.5795 Alumni Profile 25 contaminating the way in helping to address one of otherwise known as “QB3,” promises e-mail: [email protected] jones r.r. San Francisco Bay. 18 California’s most daunting challenges: to lead the next revolution in biomed- web: review.ucsc.edu Lost and found sound the preparation of a new generation generation of K–12 teachers— ical research. It is obviously too soon Produced by UCSC Public Information of K–12 teachers—educators who will to report on QB3 findings in this issue and Publications. 1/01(01-045/72M) We’ve had the ability to record sound for just over be desperately needed in the state’s of the Review, but stay tuned. UC Santa Cruz (USPS 650940) classrooms in the new decade. Two Vol. 38, No. 3 / Winter 2001 100 years, and UCSC educators who will be desperately UC Santa Cruz is a series of administrative alumnae Davia Nelson and years ago, Governor Gray Davis asked publications published quarterly by the University of California to do more University Relations at UC Santa Cruz. Nikki Silva have brought a Periodicals postage paid at Santa Cruz, CA century’s worth of recordings in the area of teacher preparation. needed in the state’s classrooms 95060. Postmaster: Send address changes to life in an award-winning As you will see in this issue of the to the University of California, Santa Cruz, University Relations, 1156 High Street, series for National Review (page 14), UCSC’s Education M.R.C. Greenwood Santa Cruz, CA 95064-1077. james sorensen Public Radio. 25 Department has responded to the in the new decade. Chancellor UC Santa Cruz Review / Winter 2001 1 CCAMPUSAMPUS UUPDATEPDATE jones r.r. Extinct rhino behaved like modern hippo The mystery behind Koch, an associate professor of mong the large Earth sciences, have teamed up mammals that roamed al forster the vanishing fur seal to determine why the distribu- prehistoric North A museum university of nebraska state tion of marine mammals around America was a type of rhinoc- or years, anthropologist the Monterey Bay Area has un- eros that seems to have lived An artist’s rendering of the Teleoceras habitat in Miocene Nebraska. Diane Gifford-Gonzalez was dergone such dramatic changes in the water, much like a Fpestered by nagging ques- in the past 2,000 years. modern hippopotamus. The and we now have evidence oxygen atoms), but their tions about some marine mam- Northern fur seals are per- extinct rhinoceros, known as from isotope analysis that they greater mass has interesting mal bones that were part of haps best known for their fur, Teleoceras, ranged from Florida were semi-aquatic like hip- consequences. Evaporation, UCSC’s extensive archaeological which was prized by hunters in to the West Coast from about pos,” said Mark Clementz, a for example, acts preferentially archive. Why, she wondered, the 1800s. 17 million years ago until graduate student in Earth sci- to remove water molecules did the collection contain the Long before the coming of about 4.5 million years ago. ences, who presented his find- containing the common, light remains of so many northern fur the fur trade, however, some- Its semi-aquatic lifestyle, first ings at a recent meeting of the isotope of oxygen. seals, a species that today is thing made the seals vanish suggested by its body shape, Geological Society of America. The water left behind, found primarily off Siberia and from mainland beaches along has been disputed by some Clementz and Paul Koch, whether in a puddle or in the Numerous construction the Aleutian Islands in Alaska? the Central Coast. Gifford- Talat (seated) and Kamil Hasan researchers. But evidence an associate professor of Earth body of an animal, ends up Building for the future projects are about to The northern fur seal, one of Gonzalez and Koch have ruled preserved in fossil teeth now sciences, analyzed oxygen with a higher proportion of commence, already under way, or nearly completed on campus. the smallest of the eared seals, out the usual suspects: bears, Endowment boosts indicates that in some areas, isotopes in fossil Teleoceras heavy oxygen isotopes. The major projects, which will result in new housing, classrooms, accounts for fewer than 1 per- coyotes, and other carnivores. at least, Teleoceras did spend teeth for clues to the animals’ The Teleoceras study grew office, and research space, include the following: the Physical cent of all pinniped strandings More likely, they believe, Indian classical music much of its life in the water. habits. Oxygen occurs in nature out of work Koch had done Sciences Building (depicted in an artist’s rendering, above), to be along the Central Coast today. would be human overpredation “Morphologically, as three different isotopes. on modern mammals in East completed in fall 2003; the Core West Parking Structure, providing But the presence of its bones or climate change—or a combi- awab hamid ali khan, ruler Teleoceras looked a lot like The two heavy isotopes are Africa comparing different space for approximately 500 vehicles in the Science Hill area; the accounted for about one-third nation of the two. of the state of Rampur, Interdisciplinary Sciences Building, to be completed this fall; the modern hippos, with large, very rare (together they make species within the same of all sea mammals in local A small-scale pilot study they JIndia, in the early 1900s, squat bodies and short legs, up less than 0.5 percent of all ecosystem. Center for Adaptive Optics, to be completed this fall; Bay Tree archaeological sites. have conducted into the mystery was well known for his love and Bookstore and Graduate Student Commons, ready for occupancy this Gifford-Gonzalez and Paul has attracted support from the patronage of the arts. spring; and residence halls for Colleges Nine and Ten, which will National Science Foundation.