Currents (May 1, 2007; Vol. 17, No. 7)

              currents
Vol. 17, No. 7
PUBLISHED MONTHLY BY UNIVERSITY RELATIONS FOR THE CAMPUS COMMUNITY
May 1, 2007
Climate change may
make species more
prone to extinction
Student's research
leads to key victory
for environment
Page 3
Students monitoring
peregrine falcons
following release
Page 6
Staff Appreciation
Breakfast is May 15
at Cowell Dining Hall
Staff members are invited to attend the Staff
Appreciation Breakfast on
Tuesday, May 15, from
7:30 to 9:30 a.m.
The popular annual
Bbreakfasr, featuring a bountiful breakfast
buffet, frequent
prize drawings,
and music, will
be at Cowell Dining Hall.
The event is cospon-
sored by the Staff Advisory
Board and the Chancellor's
Office.
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At the 2006 Graduate Research Symposium, Michelle Antolos Kappes shared her work on albatrosses as ocean sensors.
Annual symposium puts
graduate students'
research in spotlight /
Top presentation to earn first Denton Prize
By Louise Donahue
n May 22, the University Center's tablecloths and
silver will be swept aside to make way for a mind-
%S: boggling array of graduate students' posters and
oral presentations.
It's all part of the Graduate Research Symposium,
an annual event that packs the dining room and spills
onto the lanai and any other space large enough for a
presentation.
Members of the local and campus community are
invited to drop by from 2 to 4 p.m. to look over the
posters, listen to talks, and ask students questions
about their projects.
The event showcases the variety of research under way throughout campus. This year, visitots will
have the chance to check out presentations on everything from the galaxy dance to Janus particles to
"Drumpants," which enable the wearer to produce
n
Graduate student research projects are presented in many
media at the symposium, including posters.
drum sounds by striking various parts of the special
pants.
"We are very excited to host the Third Annual
Graduate Research Symposium, and we are particularly pleased to announce that this year we will begin
awarding the Denton Prize for most outstanding re-
See Research, back page
'Confronting
deadly epidemics'
topic of May 22 talk
By Tim Stephens
-ij r. Donald R Francis, executive director and chief medi-
ISP cal officer of Global Solutions
for Infectious Diseases, will discuss
"Confronting Deadly Epidemics
Around the World" in a free public lecture on Tuesday, May 22.
Part of the Distinguished
Lecture Series marking the 10th
anniversary of UCSC's Baskin
School of Engineering, the talk
will take place at 3 p.m. in the
Current Periodicals Room of
the Science & Engineering
Library.
In his talk, Dr. Francis will
discuss the approaches used to understand and control outbreaks of
deadly infectious diseases.
The tools available for control
vary widely depending on the
disease.
Ebola is one of the most dangerous infections of humans, yet
there are few tools available to
control it other than simple isolation of infectious patients.
At the other extreme are diseases such as smallpox and polio,
for which safe and effective vaccines are available.
A pediarrician and epidemiologist specializing in infectious
diseases, Dr. Francis has more than
30 years' experience in epidemic
control and vaccines.
He spent 21 years working
for the U.S. Centeis for Disease
Control and Prevention (CDC),
focusing on vaccine-preventable
diseases such as measles, cholera,
smallpox, and hepatitis B.
He directed the World
Health Organization's Smallpox
Eradication Program in Sudan
and Northern India and was a
member of the WHO team
See Epidemics, back page
Conference
explores issues
of genomics, justice
By Scott Rappaport
I CSC will present Genomics
& Justice: Promises, Perils
& Paradoxes—a panel discussion and series of workshops
exploring social or political goals
to consider in the field of genetics—May 17-18 at the University
Center.
The event was conceived by
Jennifer Reardon, a UCSC
assistant professor of sociology who
recently established the Science and
Justice Working Group on campus.
Her aim is to bring together faculty
and graduate students across five
academic divisions—physical and
biological sciences, engineering,
See Conference, back page
Humanities professors receive Guggenheim Fellowships
By Scott Rappaport
Two UCSC humanities professors have been
selected to receive 2007 Guggenheim
Fellowship awards.
History professor Gail Hershatter and history of
consciousness professor James Clifford were among
the 189 artists, scholars, and scientists selected this
year from 2,800 applicants for awards totaling $7.6
million.
Guggenheim Fellows are appointed on the
basis of distinguished achievement in the past and
exceptional promise for future accomplishment.
The program considers applications in 78 different fields, ranging from the natutal sciences to the
creative arts.
Hershatter has been director of UCSC's Institute
for Humanities Research since 2002 and codirector
of the Center for Cultural Studies for the past 11
years. An expert on Chinese history, Hershatter has
focused her research since 1996 on rural Chinese
women during the period of early socialism. She
Gail Hershatter
James Clifford
will use rhe fellowship, in conjunction with an
award from the Center for Advanced Study in the
Behavioral Sciences at Stanford, to write a book
based on this research, "The Gender of Memory:
Rural Women and China's Collective Past."
Hershatter's previous book credits include
Dangerous Pleasures: Prostitution and Modernity in
Twentieth-Century Shanghai (1997), which received
See Fellowships, back page