UCUC SANTA SANTA CRUZ CRUZ Winter 2000 R E V I E W AS A NEW MILLENNIUM Dawns UC Santa Cruz is Artistic Expression uniquely poised to Biotechnology Communications make a difference Environment Frontiers of Space Global Economics R K-12 Education Race Relations CONTENTS UC Santa Cruz Features A plant for the ages Review Botanists wanting to study the world’s most primitive Chancellor M.R.C. Greenwood As a New Millennium Dawns 6 living flowering plant, Amborella trichopoda, Vice Chancellor, University Relations contact Brett Hall, manager Ronald P. Suduiko of the UCSC Arboretum, Departments Director, Public Affairs which is the only place in the Elizabeth Irwin U.S. that can provide Editor tim stephens specimen material. 3 From the Chancellor 1 Jim Burns Millennium ready Art Director/Designer Computer engineers Jim MacKenzie J. J. García-Luna and Campus Update 2 Associate Editors Anujan Varma are two of Mary Ann Dewey the many UCSC scholars Jeanne Lance making significant contribu- Alumni News 24 Writers tions to the fields that will Barbara McKenna shape society’s development Jennifer McNulty in the early years of Doreen Schack Alumni Notes 26 jones r. r. the new millennium. Tim Stephens 6 Francine Tyler A special spring fair Karin Wanless The Y2K edition of the Office of University Relations Alumni Profile 27 campus’s annual open Carriage House house, the Banana Slug University of California Spring Fair, will draw 1156 High Street Santa Cruz, CA 95064-1077 thousands of prospective and current students, voice: 831.459.2501 their families, and fax: 831.459.5795 e-mail: [email protected] alumni to UCSC web: review.ucsc.edu shmuel thaler on April 15. 24 Produced by UCSC Public Information Her road to success and Publications. Printed on recycled paper; recyclable. 2/00(00-045/60.3M) UC Santa Cruz alumna Camryn Manheim is riding UC Santa Cruz (USPS 650940) Vol. 37, No. 3 / Winter 2000 high as the Emmy Award– UC Santa Cruz is a series of admini- winning actress on the strative publications published quarterly by University Relations at UC Santa Cruz. hit TV series The Practice Periodicals postage paid at Santa Cruz, CA and as the author of her 95060. Postmaster: Send address changes much-publicized auto- to the University of California, Santa Cruz, University Relations, 1156 High Street, biographical book, Santa Cruz, CA 95064-1077. james sorensen Wake Up, I’m Fat! 27 FROM THE CHANCELLOR By M.R.C. Greenwood or people around the world, time survey measuring the quality of the arrival of Year 2000 on undergraduate instruction, published January 1 represented a milestone in 1995 by U.S. News & World Report, FFin human history. As chancellor of which ranked UCSC 13th among U.S. UC Santa Cruz, it provided me universities. with a special opportunity to reflect on But the more revealing answer to the state of the campus, its people, and my Year 2000 question is found by its programs as we move from one taking a closer look at the UCSC millennium to the next. people behind these impressive More specifically, this transition statistics—and at the important prompted me to reflect on one simple contributions they are making in a but important question: To what large number of academic fields. extent is our campus, through its In this issue of the Review, we focus teaching, research, and public service, don harris on some of the fields that, in the early prepared to help society tackle the years of the new millennium, will tremendous challenges it will face in The fields to which UCSC makes challenge our resolve and stimulate the early years of the new millennium? our imagination: the environment, One way for campuses like ours to biotechnology, race relations, K–12 answer that question is by participating significant contributions are education, communications, global in cross-institutional measurements economics, artistic expression, and that gauge quality. By these statistical the frontiers of space. assessments alone, it’s clear that diverse indeed. But the people In the process, we turn the spotlight UCSC—in its relatively short 35-year on only a few of the many UCSC history—has become a campus of great behind those achievements have scholars whose work is helping shape distinction. In the most recent survey these critical areas of inquiry. to come to my attention, a 1999 The fields to which UCSC makes assessment of Association of American much in common. Their scholarship significant contributions are diverse Universities schools, UCSC is ranked indeed. But the people behind those 15th for the rate at which recipients of achievements have much in common. its bachelor’s degrees go on to achieve is innovative, collaborative, and Their scholarship is innovative, doctorates. collaborative, and distinguished by Numerous other statistical com- distinguished by the difference the difference it will make in our parisons also speak to UCSC’s quality: knowledge and quality of life. The 1997 analysis of more than 200 top American universities that ranked it will make in our knowledge UCSC 11th in the nation among public campuses in the overall quality M.R.C. Greenwood of its research productivity; or the one- and quality of life. Chancellor UC Santa Cruz Review / Winter 2000 1 CCAMPUSAMPUS UUPDATEPDATE ning committee that will develop Adaptive optics center a framework for the academic ac- lynette cook lynette will be based at UCSC © tivities associated with the center. Plans for the new UCSC facility have progressed since csc has been selected to the idea was first proposed by lead a multi-institutional members of the Millennium Upartnership to advance Committee. Since then, a task the field of adaptive optics, force has assessed UCSC activi- which promises to revolutionize ties in the region with an eye astronomy and vision science. toward building on strengths and The National Science Astronomer Steven Vogt and his collaborators, including alumnus Geoffrey Marcy, satisfying unmet needs. Foundation’s governing body, have discovered six new planets outside our solar system. In addition, the researchers have A regional center would aug- the National Science Board, has uncovered evidence suggesting that two previously discovered planets (depicted in the ment and enhance the offerings approved a proposal to establish illustrations, above) have companions orbiting the same star. of the main campus by provid- a Center for Adaptive Optics ing research, teaching, and at UCSC. The multi-institu- Astronomers discover both funding and telescope community service opportuni- tional center will coordinate the time, and by the National ties for UCSC faculty, students, efforts of researchers across the six new planets Science Foundation. and staff, while also raising country involved in the field of The six new planets increase UCSC’s profile in the region. adaptive optics. he world’s most prolific by about 25 percent the number A site analysis is under way. The Center for Adaptive team of planet hunters of known “extrasolar” planets, “In Silicon Valley, what we Optics is one of five National T has found six new planets giving astronomers a substantial have to offer complements Science Foundation science and orbiting nearby stars, bringing amount of additional informa- alliances and affiliations that technology centers approved the total number of planets tion about planetary systems, will be valuable for faculty, this past year. NSF guidelines astronomers have detected Vogt said. One of the planets, researchers, and students,” said allow for commitments of up outside the solar system to 29. HD 192263, was also recently Chancellor M.R.C. Greenwood. to $20 million over five years. The researchers also found detected by Nuno Santos and evidence suggesting that two collaborators in Geneva, previously discovered planets Switzerland, who reported it have additional companions, said while Vogt and his colleagues Steven Vogt, UCSC professor of were preparing their paper. barbara mckenna astronomy and astrophysics. Vogt and his colleagues, UCSC alumnus Geoffrey Marcy, Plans moving ahead on now of UC Berkeley, Paul Butler of the Department of Terrestrial UCSC regional center Magnetism at the Carnegie Institution of Washington, s the academic planning D.C., and Kevin Apps of the process gets under way to University of Sussex, England, Aestablish a UCSC regional made the discoveries using the center in the Santa Clara Valley, “HIRES” spectrometer on the faculty and administrators are Keck I Telescope in Hawaii. working together to embrace the Town and Gown Chancellor Greenwood and representatives from the city Their findings will be published opportunities and address the of Santa Cruz came together in November to dedicate the University in the Astrophysical Journal. challenges that face the campus Town Center, above. The new five-story building is located in the heart The researchers have been as it seeks to become the “UC of of downtown Santa Cruz on the site of the former Ford’s Department using the facilities at the W. M. Silicon Valley.” Store, which was destroyed in the 1989 Loma Prieta earthquake. The Keck Observatory for the past During an Academic Senate new building provides space for UCSC programs as well as for private three years to conduct a survey forum on the regional center in retailers and other businesses. Those from UCSC using the building of 500 nearby sunlike stars in November, Executive Vice include UCSC Extension. The top two floors provide 54 residential search of planets. The project is Chancellor and Campus Provost apartments for regularly enrolled UCSC students and students in exten- supported by the NASA Origins John Simpson announced the sion’s English Language International Program. Program, which has provided formation of an academic plan- 2 UC Santa Cruz Review / Winter 2000 Primitive flowering tim stephens covello & covello plants live at UCSC t the international Botanical Congress in A St.