Highlander Highlights UCR Alumni Association July 2003 UCR Home Page Update Your Information Calendar Free Lifetime E-Mail Contact Us

In this issue:
The Press Room
Current Research Highlighted
All-UC Alumni Career Networking Event
Fifty Years of UCR Memories!
UCR Athletics
Did You Know?

The Press Room
New Research Center to Be Named for UCR Alumnus Ed Blakely
Ali Sahabi, a real estate developer and philanthropist, has signed a gift agreement to provide the University of California, Riverside with $2,050,000 to create a Center for Sustainable Suburban Development. The center will be named in honor of Edward Blakely ('60), Sahabi’s mentor and current dean of the Milano Graduate School of Management and Urban Policy at the New School University in New York City. 

The Edward Blakely Center for Sustainable Suburban Development will bring together the university’s intellectual resources and the experience of developers, city officials and environmental and community groups to focus on the social, ecological and economic issues of suburban growth. These have become national issues. Read the full story.

UC Riverside is Part of New Initiative to Share Patented Research on Agriculture
UC Riverside is joining 13 other institutions and foundations in an effort aimed to simplify the management and sharing of their intellectual property and facilitate access to each other’s current and future patented agricultural technologies. A paper outlining the new initiative appears in the July 11, 2003, issue of Science and is coauthored by the chancellors or presidents of the universities or foundations. 

Named PIPRA or the Public-Sector Intellectual Property Resource for Agriculture, the initiative also aims to achieve food security for the poor and excluded of the world, and has long-term goals for coordinating research-based technology packages and know-how for projects that will directly address critical global agricultural needs.  Read the full story.

Grant Pushes Federal TRIO Program Outreach Funding Over $1 million at UC Riverside
A new $220,000 outreach grant from the U.S. Department of Education will allow the University of California, Riverside to expand its Upward Bound program, which provides comprehensive help and enrichment activities for low-income high school students who show promise for college success. 

The Upward Bound program at UC Riverside currently serves the following high schools: Banning, Moreno Valley, North and Norte Vista in Riverside, Perris, Rubidoux and Hemet West Valley. It is one of three programs, known as TRIO programs, funded under Title IV of the federal Higher Education Act of 1965, which include Upward Bound, Educational Talent Search and Student Support Services. Their focus is to help low-income and disabled students enter and succeed in college.  Read the full story.

CE-CERT’s Joe Norbeck Receives Chancellor’s Faculty Mentor Award
Professor Joseph Norbeck was honored this month with the 2002-2003 Chancellor's Award to the Faculty Mentor for Excellence in Fostering Undergraduate Research. The award was established in 1994 to recognize faculty members who have distinguished themselves through their excellence in fostering undergraduate research or creative activity. 

Besides being the Yeager Families Professor of Environmental Engineering in the Marlan and Rosemary Bourns College of Engineering, Norbeck is the director of CE-CERT (College of Engineering-Center for Environmental Research & Technology), not only the largest research enterprise underway at UC Riverside, but also the largest employer of undergraduate research students on the campus.  Read the full story.

Current Research Highlighted
UC Riverside’s Derek Roff Says Global Warming May Threaten Endangered Species
In a perspective article entitled “Evolutionary Danger for Rainforest Species” in the July 4, 2003, issue of the journal Science, UC Riverside’s Derek Roff explains new findings that show that a population of rainforest fruit flies had no genetic variation in an ecologically important trait: ‘desiccation resistance’ or the protective strategy used by cells against drought stress in order to prevent water loss. In the perspective, Roff also discusses the implications of the study for the adaptation of species to global warming.  Read the full story. 

All-UC Alumni Career Networking Event
Career Revolutions: Build Your Networking Matrix
The next all-UC alumni career networking event will be held on Wednesday, November 12, 2003 at the Oakland Marriott City Center.  The schedule is as follows: 

6:00 p.m. Reception and Networking
7:00 p.m. Panel Presentations by speakers — Hear about strategies for career development in a changing economy and trends in the Bay Area job market
8:00 p.m. Breakout Sessions

For more information, visit www.ucalumni.net in mid August, or contact David Chang at (909) 787-4511 or (800) 426-ALUM.

Fifty Years of UCR Memories!
Highlanders! As the campus approaches its 50th anniversary, we want to hear from you about what makes UCR special. What did you enjoy most during your years here with us? Share your fond memories of UCR with the campus community and add to the collection of memories of our special time. We will use your memories in our monthly e-newsletter or in an upcoming issue of Fiat Lux, depending on space availability. Send your memory via email to ucralum@citrus.ucr.edu or mail to the UCR Alumni Association, 100 A Highlander Hall, Riverside, CA 92521.

UCR Athletics
As UCR faces the 2003-04 academic year, the Athletics Association is ending a successful year and busily strengthening their program for the coming year.  Click here to view pictures from the 2003 Braveheart Auction and Food Festival, read student-athlete diary entries, and view upcoming sports schedules.

Other Headlines...
UCR Head Athletic Trainer Bill Brewer Resigns
UC Riverside Head Athletic Trainer Bill Brewer has announced he is leaving the university, effective July 31.  Brewer, who has worked at UCR since 1988 and has served as head athletic trainer since 1990, is moving with his family to Nashville, TN, where he and his wife, Sandra intend to open a physical therapy practice. 

Softball:  Connie Miner Hired as Head Softball Coach
“Her experience and understanding of the nuances of coaching, both on and off the field are exceptional. I have been a real fan of Connie’s for a number of years, and we are delighted to have her joining the Highlanders after her outstanding season at the University of North Carolina,” said Athletics Director Stan Morrison.

Baseball:  Highlanders Have Four Named to All-West Region Team
Four members of the UC Riverside baseball team, Randy Blood, Ryan Harvey, Brian Wahlbrink, and Jaymie Torres, were named Second Team All-West Region, the American Baseball Coaches Association/Rawlings announced Wednesday, July 2.

Did You Know?
University of California Cooperative Extension: Money Talks!
The University of California Cooperative Extension (UCCE) provides non-formal educational opportunities to rural and urban youth and adults of all economic levels and ethnic backgrounds.  Part of UCCE’s mission has always been to develop culturally-sensitive outreach programs in family and consumer sciences, specifically targeted toward lower- and moderate-income families and toward those who are first- and second-generation Americans. 

A broad spectrum of financial topics has traditionally been an essential component of UCCE programs designed to improve the economic well-being and quality of living for all Californians, and the Money Talks website is no exception.  Click here to view this exceptional, interactive tool on money management developed for today's youth.