Dateline archive:

Global climate summit, holiday closures — 11.5.10

UC Davis FRIDAY UPDATE

11.5.2010

News and information for faculty and staff


Friday Update holiday schedule: Because of next week's Veterans Day holiday, Friday Update plans to publish two days early, Nov. 10. During the Thanksgiving and winter holidays, no issues are planned for Nov. 26, Dec. 24 or Dec. 31.

—The Friday Update staff

Spotlight on…

Musical bridge to peacePhoto: Musician

The Hate-Free Campus Initiative is among the sponsors of a free evening concert Nov. 15 by a West-Eastern Divan Orchestra ensemble featuring Israeli and Arab musicians. "This is an opportunity to listen to beautiful music and the harmonies that emerge when we work across our political and cultural divides," said Carolyn de la Peña, professor of American studies and director of the UC Davis Humanities Institute. [ More… ]

NEWS SUMMARY

More stories at Dateline UC Davis and UC Davis News and Information

UC Davis hosts Governors' Global Climate Summit 3 — and faculty, staff receive registration discount

Prominent leaders from around the world will gather at the Mondavi Center and nearby campus venues on Nov. 15 and 16, for the Governors' Global Climate Summit 3: Building the Green Economy. A discounted fee of $150 is available for faculty and staff, while eligible students can get free tickets. Presummit activities on Nov. 14 include a presentation of UC Davis research on scientific and policy challenges, followed by a networking reception and a tour of some of the campus's many sustainable elements. The fee for this presummit event is $75. Registration and more information, including more tours on Nov. 16. Read more about UC Davis' involvement. [ More… ]

Faculty online course ideas sought

The University of California invites faculty to participate in a pilot project designed to test whether undergraduate online courses can deliver UC-quality instruction. The project will involve as many as 25 for-credit courses offered in a wide array of disciplines, and faculty will have until Dec. 13 to submit proposals. [ More… ]

Gallathea characters want to be your Facebook friends

"It's complicated," Gallathea says of her relationship status, part of her Facebook profile. A Facebook profile for a character in a play written in the 16th century? Yes, indeed. This is just one way in which UC Davis is updating John Lyly's Gallathea, a gender-bending Elizabethan comedy, set to open Nov. 11 and run through Nov. 20. [ More… ]

Large Hadron Collider hurls lead

The Large Hadron Collider at the European Organization for Nuclear Research (CERN) near Geneva, Switzerland, entered a new phase of operations Nov. 4, running lead atoms, stripped of their electrons, around the ring so that they smash into each other. Physicists from the Heavy Ion Group at the UC Davis physics department are part of the team for the lead ion experiments. [ More… ]

Meditation is good for your cells

Positive psychological changes that occur during meditation training are associated with greater telomerase activity, according to researchers at UC Davis and UCSF. The study is the first to link positive well-being to higher telomerase, an enzyme important for the long-term health of cells in the body. [ More… ]

Book project film: From Swastika to Jim Crow

The Campus Community Book Project started out by asking, "Why are all the black kids sitting together in the cafeteria?," based on the book of the same name. Next week's follow-up question dates back to the early 1930s: "What's with all those formal, heavily accented European scholars in America's black colleges?" The answer is told in a documentary film, From Swastika to Jim Crow, due to be presented Nov. 8, about Jewish academics who fled Nazi Germany and landed amid the Jim Crow laws of the South — where the professors and their students enriched each other's lives in ways still being felt today. [ More… ]

Davis, Harvard continue salt debate

A new study showing that sodium consumption in the United States has remained unchanged for more than 40 years provides further evidence that federal efforts to reduce salt intake are both futile and unnecessary, three health researchers argue in the November issue of the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition. The authors, including David McCarron, a physician and UC Davis adjunct professor in nutrition, commented on a study published in the same issue by the Harvard School of Public Health. [ More… ]

Nearly $7 million in USDA grants support specialty crop research

Three UC Davis researchers have been awarded grants totaling $6.6 million by the U.S. Department of Agriculture's National Institute of Food and Agriculture to solve issues in the nation's $50 billion specialty-crop industry. The newly funded research projects focus on precision management of water and plant canopies, developing improved lettuce varieties, and preventing soilborne fungal diseases. [ More… ]

DIRECTIVES

Holiday office closures and union notice

This year, the seasonal administrative holidays fall on Friday, Dec. 24; Monday, Dec. 27; Thursday, Dec. 30; and Friday, Dec. 31. Winter quarter begins on Monday, Jan. 3. Unit heads who wish to close their offices or reduce office hours on additional days surrounding the holiday dates may do so, with the approval of their dean or vice chancellor. [ More… ]

EVENTS

At the Mondavi — Imago Theatre: ZooZoo

Sunday, Nov. 7, 3 p.m., Jackson Hall, Mondavi Center

A Children's Stage program featuring larger-than-life rabbits, hippos, penguins and more. ZooZoo is a greatest hits collection of acrobatics, dance and theatrical imagination from Imago's fun and frolicsome FROGZ and Biglittlethings. [ More… ]

Walk With Warren returns to the arboretum

Wednesday, Nov. 10, noon, gazebo, Garrod Drive

The arboretum's retired superintendent returns to lead one of his popular walking tours. [ More… ]

MIND Institute Distinguished Lecture Series

Wednesday, Nov. 10, 4:30 p.m., MIND Institute Auditorium, 2825 50th St. Sacramento

Mark F. Bear from Massachusetts Institute of Technology will speak on "Fulfilling the Promise of Molecular Medicine in a Developmental Brain Disorder." Free and open to the public. [ More… ]

More calendar listings…