CONTENTS UC Santa Cruz Features A world of experience Review Students like Christine Lee, center, have discovered that Chancellor “service learning” placements M.R.C. Greenwood The World is Their Classroom .............6 outside their classrooms greatly enhance their UCSC Director of Public Information education—and enable Elizabeth Irwin them to make valuable Editor From the Lab to the Newsroom ..........12 contributions to society. 6 Jim Burns Making sense of science Art Director/Designer Graduates of John Wilkes’s Jim MacKenzie EE at UCSC.......................................16 Science Communication Program at UC Santa Cruz Associate Editors acquire skills in writing or Mary Ann Dewey illustration that allow them Jeanne Lance Jazzed..................................................18 to make complicated subjects Writers understandable to Barbara McKenna the general public. 12 Jennifer McNulty Doreen Schack The Facts of Death.............................20 Electricity in the air Tim Stephens Having recruited a core Francine Tyler of faculty, UCSC’s program in electrical engineering Cover & principal photography Departments is concentrating on opto- R. R. Jones electronics and other areas Office of University Advancement of research that will be key Carriage House to the growth of the University of California From the Chancellor.............................1 high-tech industry. 16 1156 High Street Music to our ears Santa Cruz, CA 95064-1077 During a visit to Santa voice: 831.459.2501 Campus Update ...................................2 Cruz coordinated by fax: 831.459.5795 UCSC’s Arts & Lectures, e-mail: [email protected] Wynton Marsalis helped web: www.ucsc.edu/public/review/ the young—and young Alumni News .....................................22 at heart—celebrate Produced by UCSC Public Information and Publications. Printed on recycled the timeless music paper; recyclable. 6/99(99-046/60.5M) of Duke Ellington. 18 UC Santa Cruz (USPS 650940) Alumni Notes.....................................24 A sleuth for the truth Vol. 36, No. 4 / Spring 1999 Alison Galloway’s work as UC Santa Cruz is a series of admini- strative publications published quarter- a highly trained forensic ly by University Advancement at UC anthropologist often takes Santa Cruz. Periodicals postage paid Alumni Profile ....................................25 her to the scenes of major at Santa Cruz, CA 95060. Postmaster: accidents and crimes, where Send address changes to the University she uncovers vital evidence of California, Santa Cruz, University Advancement, 1156 High Street, Santa that helps reveal the Cruz, CA 95064-1077. truth about death. 20 FFROMROM THE THE CCHANCELLORHANCELLOR By M.R.C. Greenwood ndergraduates at ucsc benefit students: Service learning aren’t shy when it comes to deepens students’ understanding telling me what they like about of theoretical material, increases UUtheir educational experience: retention, motivates students, and access to distinguished faculty, sharpens the focus of their studies. unparalleled research opportunities, Janet Eyler, a Vanderbilt University state-of-the-art facilities. education professor and a leading For many of our students, researcher in the field of service however, UCSC’s commitment to learning, recently compared the ways undergraduate education is also students learn about the legislative defined by the campus’s emphasis on process. She found that students whose service learning, or what I like to call work included internships with their “hands-on” education. UCSC has a state legislature knew more about the strong track record of fostering field- real forces that shape public policy— study programs, internships, and don harris including interest groups and the independent-study placements that informal power structure of the legisla- give our students a chance to apply Service learning deepens students’ ture—than those whose studies were what they are learning in the classroom confined to the classroom. to the “real world.” In other words, it is one thing to More of our students than ever understanding of theoretical material, memorize the steps it takes to get are taking advantage of these opportu- a bill passed into law, and it is quite nities. Last year, UCSC students increases retention, motivates another to see the political process in contributed more than 200,000 hours action. of service to the community through In this issue of the Review, service-learning placements. students, and sharpens the focus we make the case for this kind of Some of these students work far “hands-on” education. Our cover story from Santa Cruz—either elsewhere in of their studies. Our students describes how UCSC’s field-study, the state, in other parts of the country, internship, and independent-study or even overseas. But the majority programs are integrated into the devote hours of service right here in are the primary beneficiaries of curriculum. Our students are the the Monterey Bay Area. Our schools, primary beneficiaries of this approach businesses, nonprofit organizations, this approach to education, but to education, but service learning is an and other agencies wouldn’t be the outstanding example of an educational same without the talent offered by initiative that benefits everyone. UCSC students. service learning is an outstanding Students are pleased to get the kinds of hands-on work experience example of an educational initiative that service learning offers, and educa- tional researchers have documented the M.R.C. Greenwood ways in which high-quality programs that benefits everyone. Chancellor UC Santa Cruz Review / Summer 1999 1 CCAMPUSAMPUS UUPDATEPDATE UCSC purchases is discussion of the development of a science park for children Terrace Point property that would augment the educa- tional programs slated for the c santa cruz has Seymour center. acquired approximately “This is a very positive courtesy ucsc special collections ucsc special courtesy U55 acres adjacent to the decision for everyone,” noted campus’s Joseph M. Long Chancellor Greenwood. “UC Marine Laboratory and the new Santa Cruz welcomes the oppor- Seymour Marine Discovery tunity to enhance our existing Center. The property was coastal research and teaching purchased from Wells Fargo resources, and at the same time, Bank for $4 million. we take seriously the responsi- It is expected that UCSC will bility for careful stewardship of permanently protect the wet- this unique property. This ac- lands and some other portions quisition advances our prospects The recently discovered horoscope, authored by Kepler four centuries ago of the site, possibly as a natural for new research partnerships.” reserve. Although Found at UCSC: for his discovery of the laws UCSC has not devel- of orbital motion. He was also oped plans for the shmuel thaler Horoscope written a phenomenal mathematician remainder of the site, by Johannes Kepler and was responsible for major other potential uses of breakthroughs in telescope the land include devel- 400-year-old manuscript optics. He is considered to be, opment of ocean and penned by one of history’s along with Copernicus and coastal research A greatest astronomers was Galileo, among the most facilities and some recently discovered at UCSC. important astronomers of the complementary hous- The manuscript is a horo- modern era. ing. In addition, there Chancellor Greenwood, on the Terrace Point site scope authored by 16th-century astronomer Johannes Kepler $17.7 million grant to conduct coordinated studies sometime in the late 1500s or of coastal ecosystems on an early 1600s. The discovery was for marine research unprecedented scale. made by Anthony Misch, an The five-year project astronomer at Lick Observatory. consortium of marine will involve researchers from Misch was researching scientists from UCSC and diverse fields working toward solar eclipse expeditions in Athree other major univer- an integrated picture of the the University Library archives sities has received a grant of coastal environment and when he discovered the un- $17.7 million from the David ecosystems. assuming six- by eight-inch The grant will fund research into and Lucile Packard Foundation A major focus of the group’s framed paper in a drawer of the interactions of marine organisms to conduct ecological research efforts will be to study the miscellanea. The horoscope was such as rockfish (above) and rock aimed at improving the conser- movements and interactions of annotated in German. lobster (below). vation of marine ecosystems. fish and other marine organ- Misch, a book collector who The Partnership for isms over a 1,200-mile stretch speaks German, had an immedi- Interdisciplinary Studies of of ocean from Oregon to ate sense of the significance of Coastal Oceans (PISCO) southern California, said Peter what he held in his hand. brings together four leading Raimondi and Mark Carr, “It was a pretty thrilling centers of marine science biology professors at UCSC moment,” Misch said. “I knew research: UC Santa Cruz, and two of the project’s princi- right away this had potential to UC Santa Barbara, Stanford pal investigators. “This part- be a pretty spectacular discovery. University, and Oregon State nership allows us to look at As I looked the document over University. By combining their marine ecological processes at my hand was shaking.” strengths, PISCO will enable the scales at which things really Kepler, who lived from central library noaa courtesy photos researchers at these institutions happen,” Raimondi said. 1571 to 1630, is best known 2 UC Santa