Mining Big Data - Department of Mathematics - University of ...

THE MAGAZINE OF UC RIVERSIDESPRING 2012 VOL.7 NO. 2MiningBig DataThe Rise of Mathematicsin Nearly EveryDisciplinePage 8Can We Laugh OurWay to World Peace?Page 16California’s Water WoesWhat UCR is Doing to HelpPage 18UCR Spring 2012 | 1

CHANCELLORTimothy P. WhiteVICE CHANCELLOR, ADVANCEMENTPeter HayashidaPUBLISHERJames GrantWRITERSRoss FrenchCindy GiorgioKris LovekinLitty MathewBettye MillerSean NealonPhil PitchfordIqbal PittalwalaShan-Wen TsaiSENIOR DESIGNERBrad RowePRODUCTION MANAGERDaniel ChavezCONTRIBUTORSOlivia RiveraKristin SeilerEDITORIAL ASSISTANTKonrad NagyILLUSTRATIONSBrad RoweZach TrenholmPHOTOGRAPHERSLonnie DukaCarlos PumaMartial Trezzini/AP ImagesDISTRIBUTIONBonnie MedianoVirginia OdienUCR Magazine is published by the Office of Strategic Communications, Universityof California, Riverside, and it is distributed free to the University community.Editorial offices: 900 University Ave., 1156 Hinderaker Hall, University ofCalifornia, Riverside, Riverside, CA 92521, telephone (951) 827-6397. Unlessotherwise indicated, text may be reprinted without permission. Please creditUniversity of California, Riverside.UCR ISSN (1056-4276) is published four times a year: winter, spring, summerand fall by the University of California, Riverside, Riverside, CA 92521-0155.Periodicals postage rates paid at Riverside, CA.POSTMASTER: Send address changes to UCR, Subscription Services (0063),900 University Ave., 1156 Hinderaker Hall, Riverside, CA 92521.In accordance with applicable federal laws and University policy, the Universityof California does not discriminate in any of its policies, procedures or practiceson the basis of race, color, national origin, sex, sexual orientation, age orhandicap. Inquiries regarding the University’s equal opportunity policies may bedirected to the Affirmative Action Office, (951) 827-5604.Questions? Concerns? Comments?Contact Kris Lovekin at kris.lovekin@ucr.edu

EVENTSHAPPENINGSwww.nasp.ucr.edu31st Annual UCRPow Wow5.25-5.26www.culvercenter.ucr.edu/filmVideo Festival 2012: Universityof California Student Videos5.31The 31st annual UCR Pow Wow – with the theme “Honoring OurWarriors” – is an intertribal social gathering celebrating NativeAmerican culture and traditions through singing, drumming anddancing. Musicians and other artists will be present, and vendorswill sell food, arts and crafts, and other merchandise.The 2012 Video Festival showcases exceptional videos fromtalented film students at UCR. A selection of videos has beencurated by students to showcase their visual and narrative styles.The festival is open to the public. Tickets are free, but an RSVPis required.www.music.ucr.eduUCR Chamber Singerswith the UCR Orchestra6.2-6.3www.music.ucr.eduMusic of Indonesia: UCRGamelan Ensemble6.8The UCR Chamber Singers are joined by the UCR Orchestrafor a night of choral music on the theme of “Sustainability” –this year’s theme for the College of the Humanities, Arts andSocial Sciences – with performances, films and talks occurringthroughout the year.A gamelan is a group of instruments that includes a set of tunedbronze gongs suspended from a carved serpentine dragon, metalkeyedinstruments, xylophones and drums. Experience a varietyof traditional and contemporary Indonesian gamelan music, fromprofound to lighthearted, serious to sentimental.www.culvercenter.ucr.edu/film“Cafe Coexistence”6.14This film focuses on a trust-fund 20-something activist and proudmalcontent who believes himself to be one-quarter Navajo. Afterhe opens a Native American-themed coffee shop on tribal land, hislife is thrown into turmoil when he discovers he is white.www.commencement.ucr.eduCommencement 20126.15-6.18www.artsblock.ucr.edu“The Loneliest Planet”6.29-6.30The annual ceremonies will be held on the Pierce Lawn, near theBell Tower. More than 3,000 students are expected to take partin seven ceremonies.This film finds Alex and Nica, a young engaged couple,backpacking through the Caucasus mountain range in theRepublic of Georgia. The trip is pleasant at first, but a particularmoment seems to drive a wedge between the two. “The LoneliestPlanet” explores love, youth and betrayal.www.artsblock.ucr.edu“Roots Against the Sky”: Photographsby David Whitmire Hearst Jr.7.13“Roots Against the Sky” is a presentation of David WhitmireHearst Jr.’s recent explorations of the natural world. In thesephotographs, Hearst utilizes the tools available in the digitalprocess to produce highly expressive prints that depict theexquisite color, forms and patterns found in the natural world.2 | UCR Spring 2012www.emp.ucr.eduChancellor’s Dinner toBenefit UCR Students10.13The fourth annual Chancellor’s Dinner to benefit UCR studentswill be held at the Highlander Union Building. Dinner will be inthe For third more floor on UCR ballroom events, and visit will feature www.ucr.edu/happeningsUCR performing groups,guest speakers and the presentation of the 2012 Alumni Awards ofDistinction and the UCR Medallion.

R VIEWThe Morrill Act as Game-ChangerIn April, the University of Californiacelebrated the 150th anniversary of theMorrill Act. This long-ago piece oflegislation had a profound, in facttransformative, effect on public highereducation in this country.The Morrill Act of 1862 gave everystate a grant of public land with which tofund public colleges. Two years later,California legislators seized theopportunity and by 1868 the firstUniversity of California buildings werecompleted.These so-called “land-grant” institutionswere designed to provide ordinary citizenswith a liberal higher education; to carryout basic and applied research in suchareas as agriculture, technical andindustrial disciplines; and to disseminatethat knowledge to the public. The MorrillAct addressed the growing demand forimprovements in agricultural and technicaleducation as the American West openedup, and the need for a technologicallysavvy work force to serve the spread ofindustry and the expansion of thetelegraph.In the first few years of the 20th century,UC instituted two research facilities thatwould become the foundations of UCDavis and UC Riverside. The Riversidefacility addressed such issues as waterdistribution, pests and disease, and itbecame a world leader in citrus andsubtropical horticulture research,contributing substantially to thedevelopment of today’s $2 billion-a-yearstate citrus industry. The CitrusExperiment Station evolved into UCR’sCollege of Natural and AgriculturalSciences, which remains in the forefront ofcrop-saving discoveries and agriculturalimprovement.Beyond that, our land-grant rootsimbued the entire UCR campus with thetradition of providing accessible education,problem-solving research and communityengagement.In the current issue of theUC journal California Agriculturecaliforniaagriculture.ucanr.edu, UCPresident Mark G. Yudof describes theMorrill Act as “a game-changer in socialmobility and economic prosperity.” Thatremains true today.And this issue of UCR Magazineillustrates that evolution perfectly.Through the Water Science and PolicyCenter, UCR researchers connect scienceand policy as it relates to California, thecountry and the globe. Recognizing themultifaceted aspect of water supply issues,UCR faculty from three colleges arecollaborating to teach students how todraw on multiple resources to addressproblems of scarcity.The lead story in this issue demonstrateshow far UCR has traveled from itsagricultural focus to address new areas ofknowledge. Our researchers have beenmaking headlines with the discoveriesmade possible by analyzing huge amountsof data from myriad sources. So-called“Big Data” is an emerging field, but it hasalready begun to change the way wefunction as a society. It affects the kinds ofads that target us on sites like Facebookand Amazon. It is changing the way thatpatient medical notes are stored and linkedto the latest applicable research data. Ituncovers trends from voting patterns tostock-market movements.One researcher recently received anational award for a cell-phone applicationthat uses data mining to pinpoint thedistribution of pests, which inflict $40billion a year in damage to food crops inthis country.Fifty years ago, President John F.Kennedy told a UC group, “The people ofCalifornia ... have supported their collegesand universities and their schools becausethey recognize how important it is to themaintenance of a free society that itscitizens be well-educated.”I would add that they support aneducation open to all and an educatedcitizenry that energizes the economy forthe good of all.When I hear talk of privatization ofpublic higher education because of currentbudget woes, I’m reminded that AbrahamLincoln signed the Morrill Act during theearly months of the Civil War, whennothing was assured, certainly not funding.And yet we continue to profit from thatone action today. I trust that in another150 years, we will still be lauding theMorrill Act.Timothy P. WhiteChancellorUCR Spring 2012 | 3

R SPACE4 | UCR Spring 2012Campus Lands UC CenterThat Will Employ HundredsOn May 3, the University of Californiaannounced it would be centralizingall routine personnel services in its 10campuses in office space near the UCRiverside campus. The city and universitycelebrated the announcement, whichwill result in the addition of up to 600knowledge-sector jobs for the InlandEmpire.The center, called UCPath, will handleroutine payroll, benefits, leave managementand workforce administration.The project is a key element of UC’sWorking Smarter initiative, part of anambitious effort to convert the entire UCsystem to a single payroll and humanresources system. Savings are expected tototal as much as $100 million annuallyonce it is fully deployed, as well asimprove service to employees.Working Smarter, developed tohelp preserve academic qualityin the face of deep budget cutsfrom the state, accrued $157million in new revenue andcost savings in its first year.Six UC campuses hadsubmitted bids to host the sharedservice center.“UC Riverside emerged as the bestchoice, particularly when we factoredin our desire to attract UC staff,” saidUC Executive Vice President NathanBrostrom. “We hope to draw job applicantsfrom across the University, but thiscentral location will make it an especiallyconvenient choice for staff at our fourSouthern California campuses.”The UCPath Center will open itsdoors in July 2013, initially serving fivelocations: UCLA, Ronald Reagan UCLA– Medical Center, UC Santa Cruz, UCMerced, and UC Office of the President.All other campuses and medical centerswill make the transition by October2014.New Poet Laureate Isfrom UCRProfessor Juan Felipe Herrera —known for chronicling the bittersweetlives, travails and contributionsof Mexican Americans — wasnamed California Poet Laureate byGov. Jerry Brown in March. Theappointment is for two years.Herrera, the son of migrant farmworkers, holds the Tomás RiveraChair in Creative Writing atUC Riverside. He joined theUCR faculty in 2005.The award-winningpoet said he wastouched by the honorand acknowledged theinfluence of Tomás Rivera,a noted Chicano author, poetand educator who served as UCR’schancellor from 1979 until his deathin 1984.UCR is “extraordinarily proudof Juan Felipe Herrera, who is notonly a poet but an author and writerof children’s books,” ChancellorTimothy P. White said. “Herrera isthe epitome of living the promise ofa California public education. Thisson of farm laborers was the first inhis family to attend college. Today heis a revered, award-winning poet andwriter who speaks to the young andthe old through his depictions of thelives of ordinary people.”For a Q and A with Herrera, turnto Pages 14-15.Master’s Degreein Accounting andAuditing LaunchedUCR is now offering a master’sdegree in accounting and auditing,and is recruiting students forSeptember’s inaugural class.“This will make graduates muchbetter able to handle accountingand auditing work from day oneand that’s critical,” saidMichael Moore,an accountingprofessor whohelped designthe Master ofProfessionalAccountancy(MPAc) program.Beginning Jan.1, 2014, a fifth year ofaccounting, auditing, ethics andbusiness-related courses will berequired in California to become acertified public accountant.“The new fifth-year Californiarequirement, which mirrors thosein 47 other states, is long overdue,”said Moore, who has been a CPA andaccounting professor for more than40 years and helped draft the newCalifornia requirements.UC Riverside and UC Davis, whichis also launching a master’s degree inaccounting this fall, will be the onlyUC campuses to offer the degree.The UC Riverside program willoffer several new courses, includingcourses on professional accountingresearch and information technologyauditing. Demand for accountantsand auditors is expected tocontinue to grow by up to 22percent by 2018, a rate muchfaster than other occupations.For information about theprogram, visit agsm.ucr.edu/mpac, call 951-827-6200 ore-mail mpac@ucr.edu.

Next Stop, Mount EverestYoung Hoon Oh staggered down thetreacherous slopes of Mount Everesttoward base camp at 28,000 feet, hisbody starving for oxygen after anequipment failure near the summit.Recalling that 2006 expedition, theUC Riverside doctoral candidate saidhe felt no pain or fear. “I was reallydying at the time, but it didn’t registerthat I was dying,” he said.Oh will attempt to summit the 29,035-foot peak, the tallest in the world, againthis month as part of the fieldwork for hisanthropology dissertation.His research will focus on the typesof communities that mountaineerscreate — both philosophicallyand experientially — and thetransformation of Sherpa society afternearly a century of aiding hundreds ofinternational climbers.He will write about his experiencesIntroducing BirthControl in MosquitoesA research team led by AlexanderRaikhel, a distinguished professor ofentomology, has received a five-year$2.8 million grant from the NationalInstitute of Health to study themolecular basis of hormonal regulationof mosquito reproduction.The researchers will focus ondeciphering the genes involved inin a blog, Anthropologist inHimalaya, at 7mmrope.blogspot.com.When the Mount Everestexpedition is finished, Oh will spendmore than a year living with Sherpafamilies to document the impact ofmountaineering on their culture.Oh said he also wants toexplore the discovery, resultingfrom his near-death experience sixyears ago, “that extreme physicalconditions provide a good space inwhich to observe that gap betweenexperience and understanding of thatexperience.”“I’ve studied the biographies ofmountaineers who wrote about thisas a religious or spiritual experience,”he said. “I’m trying to talk aboutthat kind of experience from asocial science perspective and how itinfluences mountaineering communityrelations.”mediating the action of hormonesinvolved during egg production inmosquitoes — specifically, Aedesaegypti, the mosquito that spreadsdengue and yellow fever.Nearly 2.5 billion people areat risk for contracting denguefever. Each year, there are 100million cases of dengue in theworld. Yellow fever results in 30,000deaths per year; about 200,000 casesare reported each year.UCR Libraries Celebrate3 Millionth VolumeUCR Libraries celebrated theacquisition of its 3 millionth volumeApril 18 at the Tomás Rivera Library.The ceremonial 3 millionth volume wasa 2004 facsimile of the Gutenberg Bibledonated by bibliophile Edward Petko.Achieving a collection size of 3 millionvolumes is a milestone for UCR, saidUniversity Librarian Ruth M. Jackson.The library celebrated its 1 millionthvolume in March 1981, and its 2millionth volume in November 2001.With this achievement, UCR ranks81st for the number of volumes heldamong the 115 academic researchlibraries in the United States andCanada that are members of theAssociation of Research Libraries.That places UC Riverside just belowUC Irvine, which ranks 77th, and justabove UC Santa Barbara, which ranks84th.Of the 3 million-plus volumes heldby the libraries, more than 404,000are e-books. “The digital transition isoccurring at a steady pace,” Jacksonsaid, and will ultimately transformlibraries in much the same waythe printing press revolutionizedbookmaking and distribution in the15th century.Printed books will continue tocoexist with e-books and other formatsand will remain a staple of universityand research libraries for some time, shesaid. Currently, only 20 percent of allin-copyright scholarly books publishedin the U.S. and worldwide are fullyavailable in digital form, she said.UCR Spring 2012 | 5

R SPACEMaking Motors MoreEnergy EfficientEnergy efficiency efforts tend tofocus on improving lighting andinsulation. But, in fact, motors thatrun heating, ventilation and air conditioning(HVAC) systems are the largestuser of energy in buildings.Sadrul Ula, who is a member ofthe research faculty at UCR’s BournsCollege of Engineering Centerfor Environmental Research andTechnology (CE-CERT), is trying tochange that. He recently received a$385,000 grant from the CaliforniaEnergy Commission to evaluate theefficiency of HVAC motors.“Everyone turns off lightsor bathroom fans,” saidUla, “but, no one turnsoff motors. Theawareness is notthere.”In California, nearly 47percent of electrical energyconsumption was used by commercialbuildings. Motors that create thatenergy tend to operate at 5 to 10percent below optimum efficiency,Ula said. Increasing that efficiency canhave enormous implications.With the grant, Ula and co-principalinvestigators Matthew Barth andAlfredo Martinez Morales plan to:• measure energy use of large HVACmotors on-site under actualoperating conditions in office, institutionaland commercial buildings.• set up a large-motor testing facilityat CE-CERT. The new independenttest facility will be the first of itskind in California and the third inthe United States.• evaluate commercial and in-housesoftware used by architectural andengineering firms designing HVACsystems.UCR: ABestValueUCR has beennamed one ofthe top 75 bestvalue publicundergraduateschools in the nation, accordingto a list published recently by ThePrinceton Review.The list, part of “The Best ValueColleges: 2012 Edition,” also listedUCR as one of the top 150 bestvalue colleges in the nation — publicor private — based on its excellentacademics, generous financial aidand/or relatively low cost of attendance.UCR was described as an “underrated”and “research-oriented”school with an “extensive library”and heaps of “very up-to-date”technology. Cutting-edge researchopportunities for undergraduates areample “in virtually any area.”Also, according to The PrincetonReview, UCR boasts one of thebest entomology departments inthe nation, is a leader in agriculturalresearch and has “some veryexcellent teachers” who “go out oftheir way to help students learn bothinside and outside the classroom.”In another national survey, UCRplaced 29th among more than 400state universities ranked in the2011-12 PayScale College SalaryReport.The report stated that the averagestarting salary for a UC Riversidegraduate is $43,900, and the averagemid career salary for a graduate is$88,800.Tuskegee AirmenArchive Consulted forFeature Film“Red Tails,” a feature filmreleased in January, depicts theheroism and skill of the African-American pilots and crew memberswho battled segregation onthe ground as they challengedGermany’s aces in the air duringWorld War II. Those aviators,known as the Tuskegee Airmen,went on to become judges,university presidents, teachers,architects, engineers, physicians,actors, scientists and musicians.Documents andartifacts illuminatingthe careers of manyof those pilots andcrews are preservedin the TuskegeeAirmen Archiveat UCR.Beforeshooting onthe LucasfilmLtd. production started inEurope, several actors auditioningfor parts visited the UCR archiveto learn more about the originalTuskegee Airmen they hoped toportray, according to UniversityLibrarian Ruth Jackson. Photographsfrom the archive were usedin preparing for the production’srelease activities, and the archivehelped with a DVD documentaryabout the Tuskegee Airmen thatwas released with the feature film.The UCR archive, established in2005, is the largest archive in a U.S.public university chronicling thehistory of the Tuskegee Airmen andWomen.6 | UCR Spring 2012

Powering ElectricVehicles with SunlightThe Riverside area will becomea leader in using solar energy topower electric vehicles with a$2 million award to the Centerfor Environmental Research andTechnology at UCR’s Bourns Collegeof Engineering.The two-year project, supportedby the South Coast Air QualityManagement District, will buildsolar arrays, advanced batterystorage, vehicle charging stations,an electric trolley and a gridmanagementsystem to provide cleanenergy to clean vehicles efficiently.The funding will allow theuniversity to install up to 2megawatts of solar arrays andtwo megawatt hours of lithiumbattery storage systems at threelocations on and near campus. Thesolar energy will be used to chargevehicles at several sites on campusand additional sites throughoutRiverside.In partnership with the city ofRiverside and Riverside PublicUtilities, UC Riverside engineerswill design methods to direct thesolar energy to electric vehiclecharging in a way thatminimizes loadson the gridand demandsfor electricitygenerated fromnon-renewableresources.Additionally, UCRiverside plans toconvert a trolley fromdiesel to electric powerto shuttle students andarea residents around UCRiverside.Highlanders Volunteerthe MostUniversity of California,Riverside, undergraduate studentsaveraged 3.5 hours of volunteeror community service work perweek, the most in the UC system,according to data drawn fromthe 2010 UC UndergraduateExperiences Survey.The report showed thesystemwide average was 2.7 hoursper week.“UCR students are very deeplycommitted to service and betteringthe society they live in,” saidTonantzin Osegura, assistant deanof students. “Our students don’tjust talk about it. They let theiractions speak for themselves.”In recognition of this, UCR wasnamed to the President’s HigherEducation Community ServiceHonor Roll with Distinction bythe Corporation for National andCommunity Service and the U.S.Department of Education.UC Riverside was also named tothe honor roll in 2010.Astronomers DiscoverRare Galaxy at Dawnof TimeAstronomers, includingUCR’s Bahram Mobasher andgraduate student HooshangNayyeri, have discovered that oneof the most distant galaxies knownis churning out stars at a shockinglyhigh rate. The blob-shapedgalaxy, called GN-108036, isthe brightest galaxy found todate at such great distances.The galaxy, which wasdiscovered and confirmedusing ground-basedtelescopes, is 12.9 billionlight-years away. Data fromNASA’s Spitzer and Hubbletelescopes were used tomeasure the galaxy’s high starproduction rate, equivalent to about100 suns per year. For reference,our Milky Way galaxy is about fivetimes larger and 100 times moremassive than GN-108036, butmakes roughly 30 times fewer starsper year.The discovery is surprisingbecause previous surveys had notfound galaxies this bright so earlyin the history of the universe.The international team of astronomers,led by Masami Ouchi of theUniversity of Tokyo, Japan, firstidentified the remote galaxy afterscanning a large patch of sky withthe Subaru Telescope atop MaunaKea in Hawaii.GN-108036 lies near the verybeginning of time itself, a mere750 million years after ouruniverse was created 13.7 billionyears ago in an explosive “BigBang.”UCR Spring 2012 | 7

FEATUREBigMiningDataBy Sean NealonThe explosion of digital information from socialmedia and consumer tracking is creating a newkind of scientist. Data analysts and mathematiciansfind themselves in demand as number crunching isbeing used in unexpected ways, such as identifyinginsects and classifying Stone Age tools.Twenty years ago, Sue Wessler wassearching computer databases to furtherunderstand transposable elements, whichare an abundant component of genomesthat may help plants and animals adaptto a changing environment.Wessler, then a professor at theUniversity of Georgia, was met withresistance when she tried to publish herlaboratory’s findings. Reviewers of the8 | UCR Spring 2012

Eamonn Keoghanalyzes fluctuations in everything frompresidential popularity to heartbeatsUCR Spring 2012 | 9

Sue Wesslermanuscripts weren’t comfortable with thework because it was based strictly onexisting data.“They called me a database predator,”says Wessler, who is now a distinguishedprofessor of genetics in the Department ofBotany and Plant Sciences at UC Riverside.Things have changed.Today, Wessler, along with professorsacross the UCR campus in fields includingpolitical science, marketing, education,anthropology and computer science, isamong those focused on an emerging fieldknown as “big data,” a term that refers toan early adapter of data mining for plant geneticsmining databases of information to uncovernew trends.As the amount of digital informationcontinues to grow exponentially, researchersat UCR and elsewhere are able to tap thatdata in ways that were unimaginable 10years ago.Geneticists, including Wessler, are focusedon such things as the impact of globalwarming on plants. A political scientist andeducation professor at UCR are creatingdatabases, and slicing them up to createvaluable tools for policy makers. A computerscience professor is mining Twitter data tohelp understand the stock market. Anothercomputer scientist worked with ananthropology professor to understand howthe Americas came to be populated.But this emerging field also is creatingproblems. These include ever-expandingand costly supercomputer systems to storethe data, and security and privacy issues,particularly involving websites and socialmedia sites. For example, UCR marketingprofessors are studying privacy as it relatesto retail stores using personal data drawnfrom customers.Meanwhile, government money is beingpoured into this type of research, in part tohelp meet the demand for employees withdata analysis skills.In March, the federal governmentannounced a $200 million research effortfocused on big data computing. Thisincludes many agencies, ranging from theNational Science Foundation to the UnitedStates Geological Society to the Departmentof Defense.The United States faces a shortage of140,000 to 190,000 people with deepanalytical skills and 1.5 million managersand analysts to analyze big data and makedecisions based on their findings, accordingto a 2011 report by McKinsey GlobalInstitute, the research arm of consultingfirm McKinsey & Co.That need has filtered down to UCR.A scan of the more than 1,000 jobpostings in the UCR Career Center databaseshowed titles such as “critical thinkingsoftware engineer,” with CityGrid, an onlinemedia company; “emerging technologyanalyst,” with the IRS; “senior and technicalwriter for social and economic analysisproposal team,” with Gallup.“I don’t think this is a wave of thefuture,” says Linda Latendresse, assistantdirector of employer relations and recruitingat the UCR Career Center. “It’s here now.And I don’t think it’s going to go away.”Political NumbersKarthick Ramakrishnan, an associateprofessor of political science, is interested inthe politics of race, ethnicity and10 | UCR Spring 2012

immigration in the United States,particularly relating to Asian Americans.The problem with focusing on AsianAmericans: lack of data. Ramakrishnan setout to change that.With three colleagues, Ramakrishnanconducted the 2008 National Asian AmericanSurvey, the first study of its kind conducted atthe national level. They surveyed more than5,000 Chinese, Indian, Vietnamese, Korean,Filipino and Japanese Americans.The data formed the basis for the 2011book, “Asian American PoliticalParticipation: Emerging Constituents andTheir Political Identities.”The survey and book are importanttools for community advocates, politiciansand policymakers. For example, votermobilization groups such as APIA Vote!have used the survey’s findings to identifythe places and ethnic groups where civicparticipation could use the mostimprovement. Also, the DemocraticNational Committee has focused on thefindings that most Asian Americans stillhave not made up their minds on whichparty to identify with, and is seeking toimprove its outreach efforts.The survey also has generated interestamong organizations serving the AsianAmerican community, and Ramakrishnan israising money from foundations to conductin-depth research on issue preferences in2012. (The 2008 survey focused largely oncivic participation.)Ramakrishnan and his co-authors havealso deposited the data on the Inter-University Consortium for Political andSocial Research (ICPSR), a data archive ofmore than 500,000 files of research in thesocial sciences that is housed at theUniversity of Michigan.“In some ways having our data availableat ICPSR is even more rewarding thanpublishing,” Ramakrishnan says. “Byreleasing data so others can access it we arehaving a really big impact.”Meanwhile, Luciana Dar, an assistantprofessor of education, is also interested inpolitics, specifically its intersection withhigher education. She focuses on howpolitical dynamics, ideology and politicalinstitutions affect government decisions onhigher education spending, regulation andpolicy.She prepared to conduct that researchby spending about two years in themid-2000s as a graduate student compilinga database of information.The database includes information fromall 50 states and spans from 1976 to 2010.It includes more than 50 variables – rangingfrom unemployment to college agepopulation to indicators of legislativepartisanship – that she can study.That database forms the basis of muchof her research, which focuses on topicssuch as how best to award financial aid andthe impact of state higher educationcentralization/decentralization on the pricestudents pay to go to college.Gaming the MarketIn the business school, Donna Hoffmanand Tom Novak, marketing professors formore than 20 years and co-directors of theSloan Center for Internet Retailing at UCR,have focused on social media, online consumerbehavior and digital marketing trends.The biggest change Hoffman has seen inrecent years has been the availability of moresophisticated data that can be used to targetconsumers through a wider range of channels.Hoffman says billboards like those seenin the movie “Minority Report,” in whichJohn Anderton, the character played by TomCruise, is bombarded with personalizedadvertisements as he walks through ashopping mall, are not too far away frombeing a reality. Using wireless technologyand data stored in a person’s cell phone,advertisers could target consumers inreal-time based on their shopping habits.“I think we’re kind of entering a bravenew world where retail and Internetknowledge of consumers are beingcombined in interesting ways people don’tunderstand yet,” says Hoffman, who hasbeen a digital marketing consultant withcompanies including Procter & Gamble,Microsoft and Walmart.com.With that in mind, Hoffman and Novakhave started a new line of research they arecalling the gamification of marketing. It“I think we’re kindof entering a bravenew world whereretail and Internetknowledge ofconsumers arebeing combinedin interestingways people don’tunderstand yet.”focused on adding game play elements – suchas Facebook “likes” and being the “mayor”of a store on Foursquare – into marketing.“This has the potential to get pretty outof control,” Hoffman says. “Marketers arestarting to treat customers like monkeys.They are dangling large bananas. You walkin a store: ‘Here’s your banana. Now buysomething.’ It’s important to step back andstudy the implications of this.”Stock TweetsDonna HoffmanUCR marketingprofessorAlso focused on social media, butcoming from a different angle is VagelisHristidis, an associate professor ofcomputer science and engineering.Hristidis specializes in data mining,which focuses on discovering patterns and/or irregularities in large data sets. The fieldbecame recognized as a major disciplineabout 10 years ago after growing out ofresearch in statistics, databases and artificialintelligence.Hristidis and several other researchersrecently developed a model that uses datafrom Twitter to help correlate and predictUCR Spring 2012 | 11

the traded volume and value of a stock thefollowing day.A trading strategy based on the modelcreated by the team outperformed otherbaseline strategies by between 1.4 percent andnearly 11 percent and also did better than theDow Jones Industrial Average during afour-month simulation. In that simulation,they analyzed nearly 27 million tweets.Hristidis is also conducting research onthe health care industry. This includesattempting to build a tool to enter clinicalnotes using standardized medicalterminology so notes can be searched moreeffectively. Further, he is studying ways to12 | UCR Spring 2012Luciana Dar researches how political dynamics affect higher educationlink patient medical records with medicalpublications and ongoing medical research.He was attracted to the medicalinformatics industry because for variousreasons it has not benefited much fromadvances in information technology. Hecompared it to where the financial industrywas 30 years ago.The work could have a significanteconomic impact. In the U.S. health careindustry, if big data is used creatively andeffectively to drive efficiency and quality,the sector could save more than $300billion per year, the report from theMcKinsey Global Institute found.Data Renaissance ManEamonn Keogh, who sits in the office nextdoor to Hristidis, is also a data miner. ButKeogh doesn’t focus on social media orfinance, two of the hottest areas in datamining.Instead, he has collaborated witheveryone from anthropologists andcardiologists to astronomers andentomologists and worked with data asdiverse as 15th century manuscripts, primateskulls, graffiti and medical records.“I’m attracted to things that others arenot working on,” Keogh says.That makes sense when Keogh’sbackground is considered.He grew up in Dublin, Ireland, where hisfather worked for Guinness, the beercompany. At 15, he dropped out of highschool and worked painting cars. Fouryears later, he won a visa lottery and cameto the United States.While working full time doing everythingfrom building and designing mountain bikes,restoring vintage cars, and painting carouselhorses, he worked his way through college.He arrived at UCR in 2001. Early on, hedeveloped Symbolic AggregateApproximation, or SAX, a method toanalyze time-series data, which includeseverything from presidential popularity to aheartbeat. The method can allow previouslyunseen fluctuations to be seen.The SAX work, which has been citedfrequently in academic papers, also hasprovided Keogh an opportunity to showcasehis sense of humor. Paper titles focused onSAX research include “SAXually ExplicitImages: Finding Unusual Shapes” and “HotSAX: Efficiently Finding the Most UnusualTime Series Subsequence.”Now, his primary focus is insects,specifically the $40 billion per year indamage they do to food crops.He is trying to build models to track themovement of insects in a space and over time.He has devised devices using, among otherthings, modified laser pointers purchased at a99-cent store and Legos, to measure insectwing-beat frequency from a distance.The idea is to identify the type of insectsbased on wing frequency data. The data

could be valuable to farmers, who would beable avoid “blanket spraying” pesticidesbecause they would know the type andlocation of insects.Stone Age DataAmong Keogh’s collaborators is Sang-HeeLee, an associate professor of anthropology.She met Keogh in 2001, when they botharrived at UCR. He talked to her aboutcollaborating by using data miningalgorithms to classify objects, such asarrowheads and petroglyphs.She was hesitant.“I never thought in my life that I’d betalking about big data because I do fossils,”Lee says.But he was persuasive. She opted in. Itwas a good move.In 2008, they were awarded a grant ofmore than $800,000 from the NationalScience Foundation.Currently, Lee and one of her Ph.D.students, Jessica Cade, are using Keogh’salgorithms to examine Clovis flutedprojectile points, which resemblearrowheads. They were found throughoutNorth America and are believed to be12,000 to 14,000 years old.With help from Keogh’s algorithms, theyare looking to decipher subtle differences in theshape of the stone tools. This is done byturning the outline of each tool into a set of150,000 data points, which are represented bya line graph. Studying series of these linegraphs can show slight variations in the shapes.By studying differences in the shapes,they are trying to determine whether theClovis tool technology was spread by apopulation of people migrating or by agroup of previous settlers coming intocontact with a group of Clovis people,seeing the Clovis design and bringing itback to their home base.This is significant question inanthropology. If their hypothesis thatvariation in stone tools would be high in thecase of cultural transmission is true, it couldhelp answer a longtime debate about whenand how the Americas were first settled.Faster ObsolescenceWessler, the professor who early in hercareer was called a “database predator,”says today the people in her lab spend 80percent of their time on computers and 20percent in a traditional “wet” lab. Twentyyears ago, those numbers were flipped.That flip has occurred because geneticsis rapidly changing due to advancingtechnology.For example, in 2000, after 10 years ofwork, scientists announced they hadsequenced the more than 3 billion basepairs of the human genome. Today, Wesslersays, that project would take one week.At UCR, in 2008, the campus receivedits first so-called next generation DNAsequencer, says Glenn Hicks, the academicadministrator of the Institute for IntegrativeGenome Biology and an associate researchplant cell biologist.In 2010, when the university upgradedto a newer instrument, that originalsequencer was essentially obsolete. The newrefrigerator-size machine, which is used bymore than 35 labs on campus, ranging frompsychology to bioengineering toentomology, can process nearly 10 times asmuch data up to 25 percent faster than theoriginal one, Hicks said.“It really is revolutionary,” Hicks says.“And the revolution is technology driven.”For Wessler, the impact is being felt withher research on transposable elements, thatabundant component of genomes that mayhelp plants and animals adapt to achanging environment.Scientists now recognize thattransposable elements, once thought of as“junk DNA,” play vital roles, from guidingdevelopmental processes to contributing tocorrect gene regulation. This is largely due tothe ability to identify and characterizetransposable elements through genomesequencing.Wessler focuses on active transposableelements, also known as “jumping genes,”because they can move from one location inthe genome to another. Active transposableelements generate genetic diversity, the rawWessler, theprofessor who earlyon was called a“database predator,”says today theresearchers inher lab spend 80percent of theirtime on computersand 20 percent in atraditional “wet” lab.Twenty years ago,those numbers wereflipped.material for evolution and adaption, whichcould allow some members of a populationto survive, for example, with less water or ina colder region.“This could guarantee, in the case of acatastrophe, the survival of an organism,”Wessler says.Excitement about the possibilities ofharnessing big data is being felt acrosscampus.As papers are published and wordspreads about the mysteries to be unlockedby data mining, researchers in disciplinesthat were rarely considered data-driven areusing this tool to consider problems withfresh eyes. As anthropologist Sang-Hee Leeput it: “This is opening new horizons foranthropology research. We think we havenothing to do with big data, but look, fromone stone tool, there’s big data. Now it’stime to apply that big data into answeringreally interesting questions.“That work is just starting,” she says.To read more about Sue Wessler, Eamonn Keoghand other UCR technology innovators, visitPROMISE.UCR.EDUUCR Spring 2012 | 13

POETRYMANJUAN FELIPE HERRERA, PROFESSOR OF CREATIVE WRITING,WAS RECENTLY NAMED CALIFORNIA’S NEW POET LAUREATE.HE TALKS TO UCR MAGAZINE ABOUT IMPROMPTU READINGS, HIS FARM WORKER CHILDHOOD ANDHOW HIS ENDOWED CHAIR HELPED HIM UNCOVER A LOST DECADE IN LATINO CREATIVE HISTORY.What areyour plansfor yourtwo-yearterm as poetlaureate?14 | UCR Spring 2012The most importantthing is to acknowledgeeveryone who’s workingso hard in the world ofwords and language,which is all of us. Youngpeople, writers, peoplethat want to learn howto write, those in alternative schools-seniorcenters, gyms, clubs, the story-tellers,folk singers, people in hospices, prisons,continuation high schools, gifted classrooms,poets and artists doing their bitwith string basses and electric guitars,people in workshops who are working atit. Acknowledging lives and landscapes isreally what a poet does. We address what’sgoing on in whatever way we can withthese little things called letters and scripts,cuneiforms and codes. They are crystals ofour voice. They crystallize our voice.How did youreact to thecall in Marchgiving youthe news?When I got theactual lightning bolt,my first reaction waswordless. Then I thinkI said ‘wow.’ I did a’60s ‘wow.’ For me, it’sa very big thing. Thisis what I’ve been doing since 1962, sincemiddle school, when I first forced myselfto be on stage because I was so afraid ofspeaking.Have youalwaysdone thingsbecause theyscared you?I’ve either done thator I’ve launched myselfinto an impossible thingthat everyone said Icouldn’t do. An examplewould be when I was atUCLA in the 1970s in aclass with Dr. Nicholson, a renowned anthropologist.He mentioned that there were 250Lacandon Maya left in the rainforest inChiapas, Mexico. He said it kind of casually,as part of his lecture. I was in the back row,kind of daydreaming. I turned to my friendand said, ‘Did you hear that? There’s 250Lancandon left. We gotta go save them.’ Iwrote a proposal to get funded for a filmdocumentary from the brand-new ChicanoResearch Center. We got $8,500 and Irecruited a graduate filmmaker, and ourswashbuckling crew of four went throughMexico to Maya country to the morerobust Indian populations of the Totonac inVeracruz and the Huichol in central Mexico.Everywhere we went the doors were wideopen. That was the first launching of myselfinto the unknown on a dream.Whathappened tothe LacandonMaya?Their numbers haveincreased. Now thereare about 500 or 600 ofthem. And they are stilldealing with resourceexploitation by oilexploration and timber industries, as wellas the onslaught of Central America’s andMexico’s dispossessed.Last June,you walkedthrough theHub, readingpoetry, on avideo that’sgone viral.What’s theattraction ofimpromptureadings?How havetheseexperiencesaffectedyour poetry?Impromptu readings— that’s my middlename. I enjoy thefeeling of being amongpeople and movingthrough them and doingpoetry. I want to catchstudents off guard andin the open and – bang– there’s a poem. I’vebeen doing impromptuand improv performancesof poetry sincethe 1970s.They’ve openedup my vision of whatpoetry is and made itsuperpublic. That’s whyI say it’s so importantto acknowledgeeveryone in all areasand all places and all generations andall spaces. Because that’s how I’d grownup, traveling as a child as a farmworkerwith my parents. It was kind of anopen space life. Tents and on the roadand having breakfast outside. A verymakeshift, simplified life. And you’removing around in a little truck and alittle homemade house my dad built ontop of a car chassis he found. That wasmy home. A runaway home.

How did youget startedwritingpoems?My mother alwaysplayed with words withme. My home libraryreally was sayings,stories, riddles and somejokes, but not like ha-hajokes, just kind of funny. That’s a greatway to get the verbal mind nourished. Mychildhood was filled with verbal rhyminggames.The TomásRiveraEndowedChair inCreativeWritingbrought youto UCR in2005. Whathas the chairmeant toyou?It’s like opening adoor as big as the sky.Before I got here, theTomás Rivera committeehad been working for18 years to promotethe legacy of TomásRivera as a writer, as athinker, as a chancellor,as a pioneer in the artsand in education, as anessayist, a storyteller, apoet, a novelist. It startedthe year after he died.The group, under theleadership of ConchaRivera, his wife, brought in a numberof well-known speakers on a variety oftopics, and a lot of people donated to theendowment.What has thechair allowedyou to do?The chair has allowedme to be more mobile.I’ve visited a lot ofschools, cultural and artmuseums and galleries,working with them to put together anumber of things, including the studentVerbal Coliseum show with bleachersdowntown at UCRARTSblock, in this casein conjunction with Shane Shukis fromthe Sweeney Art Gallery. There’s a littlemoney for travel, so I also visit libraries,tiny libraries like Highgrove, and speakat elementary school assemblies. In theeyes of the schools, the chair ushers me in.It means something to them to have theTomás Rivera Chair at their school.Has the chairaffected yourscholarship?It’s allowed meto bring innovativewriters to campus. Andit’s allowed me to travelto El Paso the last twoyears on a very amazing project. I thinkthere is a lost decade of Latino literaryand performance history from Juarez andEl Paso that was like the Harlem Renaissance.In the 1930s, Juarez and El Pasowere like rockets. There was radio, therewas poetry, there was dance, there weresongs, there was theater, and there wascircus and jazz and visiting artists fromthe United States and Mexico City, all inthat little borderland.This periodhasn’t beendocumented?No. Perhaps it wasperceived as a wild andred light and low-classand speak-easy world.The cabarets closeddown in the mid-’30s because of Prohibition.By 1942, the era was over becauseof the war. There was documentation, butit was at the household level, the familylevel. My uncle was part of that ’30scadre of artists, and I had some photographs.He was in a radio show in Juarezcalled “El Barco del Illusión” (the ship ofillusion). It was a radio play with comedyand music. His radio partner was this guynamed Germán Valdez, who became aninternationally known comedian calledTin-Tan. Tin-Tan popularized the zootsuit in Mexico and Latin America. I knewabout Tin-Tan because my uncle workedwith him. I knew about the radio show.But that was about it: a floating squarein a blank checkerboard without anysquares in it. But then someone called mefrom El Paso and said, ‘I understand youknow about “El Barco del Illusión.”’ Theyasked, ‘Do you have any photographs?Because our mother who is going to be 92was a singer for that show.’ I’ve gone tointerview her for the last two years. WhatI discovered then was this lost decade.Are thereany taperecordingsof the radioprograms?What will dowith yourresearch?I am looking for those.I want to remount theradio show as a musicalso we can see the actorsand see the songs. I’mreally excited aboutit. And it turns out that Cuca Aguirre,the women I interviewed, has a sister inRiverside, Eva Amezcua, who was also onthe radio program. She’s 96. They bothstill sing and recite poetry. They joined thiswhole renaissance in their teens.How wouldyou describeyour UCRstudents?The students hereare amazing. Thewriters, whether undergraduateor graduate,are charting newground. For a writingor poetry professor, it’s exciting becausethey are really charging ahead. I say,‘Wow, I wish I was at the level they arewhen I was an undergraduate.’ Some ofthem I wish I was just at their level now!They have different cultural experiencesand languages and they are talented, verytalented. You walk into a creative writingclass and you are not going to see onestyle of creative writing. You are not goingto see one style of writing poems. They’reall charting-new-ground styles. It waslike me when I first started writing, eventhough they’re better than me. I startedwriting whatever I could, with whatever Icould and any way that I could. And thenlater, 20 years later, I picked up books andtools to shape and work the poem andread and talk about the poem. But first itwas just lighting the fire of poetry. That’swhat students are doing here. They arelighting the fire of poetry.To view videos of Juan Felipe Herrera,visit bit.ly/GSBU2aUCR Spring 2012 | 15

TO CREATE A MIDDLE EASTERN STUDENT CENTER,LAUGHTER HELPSBy Ross FrenchRabbi Bob Alper looked out on adiverse audience of about 500 UCRiverside students, staff and faculty whohad come to an aptly named Laugh inPeace comedy show and reminded them ofwhy they were there. “When you laughtogether you can’t hate each other,” hesaid. “You learn to love each other.”Alper’s mantra is one that a group offorward-thinking UC Riverside studentsare taking to heart as they work togetherto create the first Middle Eastern StudentCenter in the University of California.Shadi Matar, a sophomore politicalscience major whose family is fromPalestine, says: “The concept of a centerfor Middle Eastern students has beenaround since 2003, but the previousattempts were not inclusive enough. We’vereworked it to include anyone whoassociates with the Middle East,religiously, culturally or in any other way.”UC Riverside, the most-diverse campusin the University of California system andthe fourth most-diverse research universityin the nation, has four centers dedicated tostudents from specific regions or ethnicbackgrounds: African Student Programs,Chicano Student Programs, NativeAmerican Student Programs and AsianPacific Student Programs. Two othercenters focus on gender issues: theWomen’s Resource Center and the LesbianGay Bisexual Transgender ResourceCenter. The centers provide cultural, socialand educational support to students, staff,faculty and friends of the UCRcommunity; promote scholarship andinternship opportunities; help provideaccess to campus resources for clubs; andhost social and cultural events.Heba Diab, a sophomore biologicalsciences major, says that the proposedMiddle Eastern center’s role as aneducational outlet is important.“People from the Middle East –Muslim, Christian, Jewish, atheist,agnostic, anything – have the sameproblems, the same challenges, the samehopes, the same fears,” she says. “Thecenter would give all of us a voice here oncampus, and give people a differentperspective of us.”The students working on creating acenter share a Middle Eastern heritage,but come from a wide variety of religious,political and social groups, some of whichhave a history of tense interactions.16 | UCR Spring 2012

According to Joe Virata, director of theDiversity Initiatives Program at UCR, itwas Middle Eastern students who had theidea to work together. He says that yearsof tension, particularly between somePalestinian and Israeli student groups, hadbegun to take a toll.“Some students recognized thatconstant bickering is not what a universityought to be about. They have theirdifferences, but they should be able toengage with each other about them in acivil way,” Virata says. “They decided tocome together to work on a project and,in doing so, to work on their relationshipswith one other. They opened conversationsthat lead to collaborations, which canthen lead to a community.”The Laugh in Peace show on Feb. 22 wasa perfect opportunity for cross-culturalinteractions. It features Alper, a practicingrabbi who bills himself as “the world’s onlypracticing clergyman doing stand-upcomedy ... intentionally.” The ecumenicalpartners for his shows vary, but for the UCRperformance they were the Rev. SusanSparks, a Baptist minister, and AhmedAhmed, a Muslim born in Egypt who grewup in Riverside,A broad range of campus organizationsparticipated in planning the show andlaying the groundwork for a center,including the Armenian StudentAssociation, Pakistani Student Association,Lebanese Social Club, Hillel, MuslimStudents Association, Highlanders forIsrael, Coptic Club and the Students forJustice in Palestine. And while meetings hadtense moments with many voices anddiffering opinions, in time the studentsbegan honestly engaging with one another.Diab says that one of the biggestlessons the students learned was that theyare more alike than different. It is adynamic on display at the end of everymeeting, no matter how stressful orcontentious it becomes.“Somehow we forget everything andwe just talk to each other. It’s amazing,”she says. “Maybe it is that as students, wehave a connection to one another. We areall the same generation. We know whatthe other person is going through, whatclasses they are taking, how hard they are.These are the little things that bring ustogether and push us forward.”In mid-January, the group was faced achallenge when Students for Justice inPalestine sponsored an appearance of “TheWall,” a symbolic presentation designed toraise awareness of the Israeli/Palestinianconflict. Several Jewish students felt slightedby the event, which they felt promotedmisconceptions about Israel.But to their credit, many of thestudents were prepared for conflict toarise, and, rather than take sides, theyused it as an opportunity for discussion.“It was the elephant in the room, and itgot to be a very tense moment,” Viratarecalls. “But because of the work that hadbeen done earlier, we were able to reconnectwith those early conversations about ourpurpose, about why we were doing this.”The Laugh in Peace show went offwithout a hitch and received rave reviews,much to the delight of the organizers.“I can’t even express how amazing itwas when the night ended,” Diab says.“Everyone was just hugging each other.All the tensions, every problem justevaporated. It was magical.”But just days later, the groups’ bondwas tested again by a pair of on-campusincidents. On March 1, UC RiversideHillel was a co-sponsor of “Israel SoldiersSpeak Out,” which featured a pair ofreserve-duty Israeli Defense Forces soldiersspeaking about their experiences. Someindividuals protested the soldiers’appearance by walking out during theevent. Two days later, a vandal scrawledthe word “terrorists” on an Israeli flagoutside the Hillel offices.The incidents brought the scrutiny ofthe media and the public, with a focus onthe perceived feud between groups likeHillel and Students for Justice in Palestine.But the students working toward theMiddle Eastern center, many of whom aremembers of those groups, would not letthe incidents derail the cause. Instead, theyprovided another opportunity fordiscussion, which in turn gave their causemore momentum. All involved realize thatestablishing a permanent center will taketime, but the group is moving ahead byplanning events: a concert at the Barn anda screening of the film “A Separation.”“We were able to talk to each otherafterward and get honest opinions fromeverybody,” says Danny Leserman, a juniorapplied physics and engineering major andmember of Hillel. “If we hadn’t beenworking together, we never would havebeen comfortable opening up and talkingabout how we felt about what happened.”Diab says that both incidents furtherunderscored the need for morecommunication and for the center.“Perhaps if the person who defaced theflag had been given the same opportunitythat we have been given, they wouldn’thave done that,” she says. “They mighthave considered how the action wouldaffect the people they had been workingwith and talking to — their friends.”Leserman says that while he wasdisappointed by both the protest and theflag graffiti, he refuses to look at theincidents as a step backward.“Dissent is something you have toaccept,” he says, acknowledging thatindividuals from many groups haveexpressed concerns. “It seems that a lotof people believe that if you try to makesomething better and something badstill happens, then all is for nothing. Butthat is just not correct. We are movingtoward our goal of creating a space forrespectful, non-livid dialogue — theMiddle Eastern Student Center. It is notgoing to be easy, but I can see ithappening.”UCR Spring 2012 | 17

18 | UCR Spring 2012wetRESEARCH THAT’S ALL

FROM HELPING LAND MANAGERS COPE WITHINCREASINGLY SCARCE WATER SUPPLIES TOIMPROVING TAP WATER TO TEACHING UNDER-GRADUATES THE COMPLEXITIES OF WATERPOLICIES, UC RIVERSIDE HAS RESEARCHERSALL OVER CAMPUS HELPING CALIFORNIA —AND THE WORLD — DEAL WITH WATER WOES.Ariel UCR Spring Dinar 2012 | 19studies groundwater and wastewater

By Phil PitchfordResearch being done at UC Riverside reflects the reality that water shortagesare a long-term, global problem. On the positive side, the research also reflectsthe belief that science can get in front of the problem and provide solutions. The workbeing done here is critically important to a state where water shortages are commonand where the effects of climate change could be especially devastating.“California is still in a comfort zone,because there are certainly countries thatare living with far less available water,”says Ariel Dinar, a professor ofenvironmental economics and policy whois studying how utilities can best utilizegroundwater supplies and capturewastewater for re-use. “But California isgoing to be one of the areas that is hardesthit by climate change, affecting supplyvariability. Connecting researchers andresearch on water science and policy inCalifornia, the United States andinternationally is especially importantunder conditions of water scarcity andrisk to its quality.”One critical area of UCR research ishow a decline in water availability mayreshape our vast public lands by themigration and death of plant species thatnow dot the landscape. Louis Santiago, anassistant professor of physiologicalecology, works with land managers tostudy which plants species will survive inan altered climate, because changes in theplant species that are present ultimatelyaffect the water cycle. Similar research isunderway at other institutions in Utah,Spain and Australia.“People around the world are startingto ask these questions,” Santiago says.“Water is something thateveryone can relate to.”Santiago is studyingchanges to 17 species ofshrubs at a field site on theeastern side of the SanBernardino Mountains,where chaparral gives wayto the Mojave Desert. Hestudies transpirationalwater loss – the amount ofwater plants lose to theatmosphere via theirleaves – and how thattranspiration affects thelocal ecosystem.Determining whichplants are resistant todrought, and why, willhelp determine how theplant makeup of public“WHAT’S REALLYIMPORTANT FORTHESE PLANTS ISTHE FREQUENCY OFEXTREME DROUGHTS,AND WE HAVE SEENA REAL SPIKE INEXTREME DROUGHTSIN CALIFORNIA.”LOUIS SANTIAGOASSISTANT PROFESSOR OFPHYSIOLOGICAL ECOLOGYlands might change in the coming years ifwater becomes drastically more scarce.“There are certain areas that will sufferdrought more than other areas, and thesecan be used as test cases to see howdrought will affect otherplaces, like an early warningsystem,” Santiago says.“What’s really important forthese plants is the frequencyof extreme droughts, and wehave seen a real spike inextreme droughts inCalifornia.”Not all the plants thatSantiago is studying reactthe same way when facedwith drought conditions.Some lose their leaves, whileothers survive because theyhave deep roots. Still othersbenefit from having woodthat is resistant to drought.“Predicting which specieswill survive a droughtrequires evaluating their20 | UCR Spring 2012

Louis Santiagoresearches which plants will survive droughtdrought resistance on multipleaxes,” Santiago says. “There are alot of different ways that plants canresist drought.”Some plant species migrate, whileothers go locally extinct, Santiagoexplains. Santiago expects toeventually create a computer modelthat will be able to predict underwhat specific conditions certainspecies will drop out of theecosystem.In June, he will begin a one-yearstudy that is being funded by thefederal Bureau of LandManagement. “The Bureau hasbeen really, really supportive ofwhat we are trying to do and isexcited about what we are finding,”Santiago says.While water is primarily knownfor supporting life, it also can serveas a vector to transmit deadlydiseases. Marylynn Yates, the newdean of the College of Natural andAgricultural Sciences, researches thetransmission of pathogens throughwater and wastewater. She is doingone of the first long-term studies onwhat factors determine how longviruses can survive in groundwater.Yates also is at the forefront oftrying to determine how to controlmicroorganisms that causediarrhea, which annually kills morethan 1.5 million childrenUCR Spring 2012 | 21

worldwide. Theresearch hasimplications for theUnited States, giventhe number of caseseach year of peoplebeing sickened bydisease carried inwater or food.“Most people inthe U.S. don’t thinkof diarrhea as aproblem, becauserelatively few peoplein developedcountries die fromdiarrhea,” she says.“What many peopledon’t realize is theburden that diarrheaplaces on society— even in adeveloped countrylike the U.S. There are millions of cases offood-waterborne disease in the U.S. everyyear, but because we are generally sick fora few days, we don’t consider it a bigproblem. However, the costs due to losttime in school, lost time at work, doctorvisits, etc., are huge.”As water supplies dwindle, wateragencies face increasingly difficultmanagement issues. UCR researchers arestepping up to help state water agenciesmake wise choices about how to manageand replenish their water supplies.Much of this work takes place at UCR’sWater Science and Policy Center, a researchcenter directed by professor Dinar thataddresses the interactions among waterpolicy, water quality and water scarcity, andcreates opportunities for interactions onthese issues among scientists, economists“WASTEWATER IS ARESOURCE THAT ISBEING VASTLY UNDER-UTILIZED IN CALIFORNIA,COMPARED TO OTHERCOUNTRIES IN THEWORLD WITH SIMILARSCARCITY PROBLEMS,CALIFORNIA RE-USESVERY LITTLE OF ITSTREATED WASTEWATER.”ARIEL DINAR, PROFESSOROF ENVIRONMENTALECONOMICS AND POLICYand the community. Dinar’s ownresearch examines how climatechange may affect the amount ofwater available to Californiansand the increasingly importantrole that local groundwater willplay in meeting water needs.As water supplies get tighterin coming years, SouthernCalifornia may struggle toobtain the amount of importedwater it needs from theColorado River and othersources that are coveted by otherWestern areas. In such ascenario, it will be moreimportant than ever to locate,maintain and protect local watersupplies.“In cases like that,groundwater can step in andmake a difference,” Dinar says.“The question is how to managegroundwater so that in times of crisis, itwill be available.”Dinar’s research has drawn the attentionof local water districts and the mammothMetropolitan Water District, which overseeswater delivery to millions of Californians.He also is working with the CaliforniaAvocado Commission to study how growerswill be able to continue to maintainproduction even as water supplies becomemarginal.One tool Dinar studies is the use ofhighly treated wastewater to meetlong-term water needs. Other parts of theworld already are proving that highlytreated wastewater can be a usefulresource for water managers.“Wastewater is a resource that is beingvastly underutilized in California,” Dinarsays. “Compared to other countries in theworld with similar scarcityproblems, California reuses verylittle of its treated wastewater.There is still too much of that waterflowing out to the ocean.”The process of recycling theeffluent from sewage treatment plantshas in the past been derided with theunappetizing description of “toilet totap.” But not reusing that water afterspending millions of dollars to treat itand remove harmful bacteria is nolonger an option, Dinar contends.“The problem is reallypsychological,” he says. “We can seearound the world that wastewater canbe brought to drinking water quality,but California has not yet reached thepoint of real scarcity, where the waterdoesn’t come out of the faucet. Whenthat happens, perhaps they will changetheir perceptions and priorities.”Before that dire future arrives, thenext generation of problem-solvers isin college. Some of them will betaking an interdisciplinary course onwater issues offered next fall that willincorporate faculty from the BournsCollege of Engineering, the Collegeof Natural and Agricultural Sciencesand the College of Humanities, Artsand Social Sciences.Interested parties from eachdiscipline have been working togetherfor more than four years to make thecourse a reality, says Mary Gauvain, apsychology professor and one of thecourse organizers. (The other twoprimary organizers are DeanMarylynn Yates and Sharon Walker,an associate professor of chemical/environmental engineering.) The classis designed to teach students how to22 | UCR Spring 2012 To read more about Ariel Dinar, Louis Santiago, Marylynn Yatesand other UCR innovators in sustainability and policy, visitPROMISE.UCR.EDU

Marylynn Yateslooks at the transmission of pathogens through waterengage in problem-based inquiry thatdraws on multiple resources because“these problems are not divided up bydiscipline,” Gauvain says.“Too often, our structure at theuniversity is focused on developingmajors, but our students also need tounderstand how the discipline theychoose can be integrated with otherdisciplines to solve problems,”Gauvain says. “It isn’t enough to havestudents thinking about this only ingraduate school.”The course will be designed for about100 students, likely freshmen andsophomores, from any major. Ideally, theclass will represent a cross-section of thestudent body. Gauvain says she expectsto see future sociologists sitting next tobudding engineers, learning how to solveproblems by bringing out the best ineach other.The course material will span awide range of topics, from howhigh-level engineering makes waterdelivery possible across the state, tohow water is used as a metaphor inliterature, and how standing water cancontribute to the spread of malaria.The economics of water will share timewith gender issues related to water andwater access around the globe.“We expect that the students herewill be good teachers for each other,conveying not only information, but alsorespect for each other’s knowledge,”Gauvain says. “A problem-based classcan be really exciting. The goal is to givestudents a sense of the future becausetheir future will be what is created out oftheir work on these problems.”UCR Spring 2012 | 23

CONFESSIONS OF A SECRETSCIENCEGEEKPhoto courtesy of CERNAssistant UCR Chancellor CindyGiorgio visited CERN near Geneva,Switzerland, in March. She issecond to left in this image taken inthe CERN control center, along withDistinguished Professor GailHanson, far left, Chancellor TimothyP. White and Paul Collier, BeamsDepartment head.24 | UCR Spring 2012By Cindy GiorgioI have to figure out how to tell my bossthat I want to run off and become aphysicist.It’s going to come as a surprise. First,because I am a 31-year UCR staff memberwithout a Ph.D., and second, because mymajor was journalism and I never took ascience course in my life if I could avoid it.Then again, maybe he’ll understand.After all, my boss is Chancellor Tim Whiteand he’s the reason I went to CERN – theEuropean Center for Nuclear Research –where I discovered my inner science geek.To say I was awestruck is a seriousunderstatement. My friends say I’ve beenlevitating ever since I returned. Quarks!Muons! Gluons! Neutrinos! The visitsparked a realization in me. I might havemissed my calling.What is so extraordinary aboutCERN? To tell you, I first have to explainwhat it is.CERN is a complex comprising someof the world’s largest and mostsophisticated scientific instruments.Straddling the Swiss-French border, CERN

uses particle accelerators and detectors tore-create the first moments after the BigBang, 13.7 billion years ago. Theseinstruments allow scientists to study theparticles that form the very foundation ofthe universe.That alone is mind-boggling. Butthere’s more.To accomplish this work, theaccelerator hurls two beams of particles inopposite directions at almost the speed oflight. The magnets continually narrow thefield through which the particles pass,forcing them to collide, as many as 600million times per second! (Yes, you readcorrectly.) This feat is something likefiring two needles from 10 kilometersapart so that they connect in the middle.If CERN is a place of precision, it isalso a place of extremes.Extremes of size and scope. The LargeHadron Collider (LHC) is a26.7-kilometer ring of superconductingmagnets buried 100 meters underground.It holds 9,300 magnets, many 50-70 feetlong. Yet the circuitry inside is as fine andprecise as the inside of a smart phone.And the particles it produces are thetiniest in the universe.We visited the hall where theseleviathans are constructed and tested. Butparts are built elsewhere and shipped toCERN. UCR scientists played a pivotalrole in the assembly and testing of themuon detectors, a critical part of theinstrumentation.Extremes of temperature. At fulloperation, the magnets are lowered tominus 456 degrees Fahrenheit. (Yes, I saidminus.) Yet, when two beams of lead ionscollide, they generate temperatures100,000 times hotter than the sun.Extremes of appearance. Some ofCERN’s buildings date back to itsfounding in 1954 (the same year as UCR),and have seen better days. But theconfigurations formed by the LHC are sobeautiful and multi-hued that CERN hasits own artist-in-residence. Photographerscome from all over to capture the images.And did I mention the computers? Wetoured two vibrant control rooms, eachequipped with hundreds of monitors. Westood, fascinated, in front of a monitorshowing more than 200,000 data transferstaking place at that very moment – anilluminated globe with lighted strands ofcolor running from locations all over theworld to CERN’s computer grid.CERN is a model for internationalresearch collaboration. With 20 memberstates, CERN has nearly 10,000 visitingscientists, representing 608 universitiesacross 133 countries. Currently amongthem are six UCR faculty members (seebelow), three postdoctoral researchers and14 graduate students.Distinguished Professor of Physics GailHanson led us on the tour. Later we metwith her research team: one graduatestudent, three postdoctoral researchersand a recent Ph.D. student. They areamong many teams worldwide engaged inthe search for the elusive Higgs boson, theelementary particle that is believed to giveother particles mass – which they lackedin the first moments after the Big Bang. Itis the final piece of the puzzle that formsthe standard model of physics.Those at CERN are so confident theywill find the Higgs boson within the nextyear that they are postponing a scheduledshutdown until the discovery is made.The excitement is palpable. And UCR ispart of the global research team. If theyfind it soon, I can say, “I was there!” Andif it takes longer, maybe I’ll have time togo back to graduate school.The UCR Physicistsat CERNRobert Clare – Researches electroweak andHiggs physics. His team helped commissionthe Compact Muon Solenoid facility atCERN, and he is deputy chair of the U.S.contingent at the solenoid facility.John Ellison – Works on searches for newparticles, including supersymmetric particlesand heavy neutrinos. He’s also helpingdesign a new pixel and tracking system to beinstalled when the Large Hadron Collider isupgraded, starting around 2018.J. William Gary – A member of the CompactMuon Solenoid collaboration, focusing onsearches for supersymmetry in events withbottom quarks, and contributing to operationof the hadronic calorimeter.Gail Hanson – Involved in the search for theHiggs boson and physics beyond thestandard model. She works on the CompactMuon Solenoid Silicon Tracker, as well as onresearch and development toward a futureneutrino factory and muon collider, probablyat Fermilab.Owen Long – Works on physics beyond thestandard model. As part of the CompactMuon Solenoid collaboration, he is searchingfor signs of supersymmetry.Stephen Wimpenny – Involved in LargeHadron Collider physics. He is collaboratingon the Compact Muon Solenoid experiment,with a focus on top quark physics.The Cast of ParticlesQuarks – elementary particles (point-like,with no internal structure) found insideprotons and other hadronsHadrons – any particle made from quarksGluons – force carrier particles that bindquarks inside hadronsTop quark – the heaviest quark, and the heaviestby far of all known elementary particlesBottom quark – the second-heaviest quark,distinguished by a long lifetimeHiggs boson – a hypothetical particle used toexplain how particles acquire mass. It is theonly Standard Model particle that has notyet been observed.Muons – heavier versions of electronsNeutrinos – neutral, nearly massless particlesthat interact only via weak nuclear forcesand so are almost invisibleUCR UCR Spring 2012 | 25 | 25

HOW I SEE ITFACEBOOKFEEDBACKQuestion: What professor made thedeepest impression on you and why?This question was posed on UCR’s Facebook page, at www.facebook.com/UCRiverside. Become our “friend” and look for future questions.Lidia Puga ’07Carlos Vélez Ibanez (professor of anthropology emeritus) wasone of my first professors at UCR and I remember never wanting to missa single one of his classes. His lectures were the most captivating,engaging and inspiring lectures out of all my courses at UCR. I willnever forget his insight, motivation and passion for anthropology. Hisname will always be among the ones embedded in my brain.Angela Lunt ‘04Joseph Childers (professor ofEnglish) and Sensei Edmond Otis. Ilearned so much from their series ofclasses about conflict and how to say“no” to people. And more from karateclass than I will ever be able to explain!Holly Bailey Evans ’90A course taught by sociology professorAlexandra Maryanski inspired me. Herassigned readings and lectures were sointeresting. In her class I figured out that Iwas not a business major destined to bean accountant, but might be convinced topursue an advanced degree and tinker inhuman resources.Angel Rodriguez ‘08Philosophy professor PeterGraham, for shattering my collegefreshman mind with “The LastDays of Socrates” by Plato.Silvia Aburto ‘02I will have to say Gary Dymski (professor ofeconomics). He not only made an impression on mebut ALL of his students. He actually cared about uslearning the material. He made going to lecture funand something we would all look forward to. I had thepleasure of being his student in three differenteconomics classes, and if I could have had it my wayhe would of been my professor for many more. I know Idon’t only speak for myself. Professor Dymski isawesome. I graduated 10 years ago this June and heis probably the only professor whose lessons still cometo mind. By the way, I will also never forget how big ofa Laker fan he is. He constantly used them inexamples for his classes. Thank you, professor Dymski,for being the perfect example of a GREAT professor!Vicki Hill Carrigan ’85Rick Risso (professor of theater emeritus) was anabsolutely amazing theater professor as well as a brilliantartist himself. He saw something special in his students andcreated a safe environment for artistry and exploration.Ryan Alcantara ’95So many wonderful memories andfantastic professors. Having taken coursesin the honors program, I benefited from thesmall, seminar-style courses, but by far mymost memorable professor was the lateJohn Ashe (professor of psychology),whose neurobiology course I took the lastquarter of my senior year. He was a giftedprofessor, passionate in teaching us to becritical in consuming scientific reporting.He made a point of having everyone inclass meet with him in office hours, and Iremember him asking about my futurecareer plans. He left a tremendousimpression on me because he took a realinterest in his students beyond theclassroom. May you rest in peace, Dr. Ashe.Rita Medina ‘09Hands down, associate professor ofEnglish Vorris Nunley. This guy made yousit back and think. It wasn’t long drylectures or notes on a slide show, it wascritical thinking and lots of it. It was popculture and literature at its best. ProfessorNunley has a way of turning the world insideout, making you scratch you head and it isn’tuntil later (the end of the quarter) that youfully understand the impact of hismessages. It’s not just about English andsymbolism, but it is lessons about life!Brian Gray ’06A trio of professors who team-taught a class I took: Richard Cardullo(professor of biology), Kim Hammond (professor of biology) and Tim Paine(professor of entomology). They shook the very foundation of my educationalexperience by challenging me to think not just about what I know, but how Iknow. They reinforced the idea that learning doesn’t occur in a vacuum, andthat learning can be a social activity where everybody benefits. And theytaught, by example, that we learn so much when we help others. Truly, some ofthe finest professors around, not just at UCR, but anywhere.26 | UCR Spring 2012Tracy Phutikanit ‘09Kathleen Mongtomery (professor of organizations and managementemerita) from the School of Business Administration. I only took one class withher but it was the most exciting and thought provoking 10 weeks I had at UCR.Business 157: Managing Workforce Diversity inspired me to pursue mymaster’s degree because she always challenged students to think fromanother perspective than our own to make ourselves more enrichedindividuals. I became a better student, person and leader because of her. Iwish I could have taken more classes with her while I was a student but I stillkeep in touch with her and give her thanks whenever I can. She is FANTASTIC.

WHAT IS IT?ATOMTRONICSBy Shan-Wen TsaiShan-WenTsai,associateprofessor ofphysics andastronomy, researches arelatively new science,atomtronics. She explainsthe basics of this developingfield.Atomtronics: What Is It?Atomtronics is an emerging technologydevoted to creating artificial tailoredmaterials consisting of neutral atoms heldin an array with laser beams, or atomsmoving along a track under electric ormagnetic influence. With such motion,analoges of electronic circuits and devicesmay be created.How are materials made?To create atomtronic circuits, theneutral atoms have to be cooled toextremely low temperatures, on the orderof nano Kelvins. (One nano Kelvincorresponds to 10-9 Kelvin, one billionthof a Kelvin!) After the cooling, the nextstep is the realization of what are knownas “optical lattices.”Optical LatticesIn optical lattices, properties forelectronic materials can be controlled andtuned, and their effects studied in asystematic way. For example, opticallattices do not contain imperfections orimpurities, but these can be introduced ina controlled manner — through laserspeckles or by way of trapped atomsacting as localized impurities.ApplicationsAside from simulators for electronicmaterials, atomtronic systems are nowbeing devised to form circuits and devices.In electronic devices, an external electricfield can be used to tune a material froman insulator state to a metallic state,creating electronic switches. One canenvision similar effects in atomtronics,where external fields can be used to tune asystem between different quantum states.These systems then act as devices and canbe connected through channels. Otherpotential applications are sensors for highprecision measurements and applicationsin quantum information.Much needs to be done before some ofthe envisioned applications can be realized.The idea is not to replace electronics, sinceatomtronics systems cannot be scaled aseasily as electronic circuits and devices.Also, the time scales involved are muchlonger than the incredibly fast processesinvolving electrons. But atomtronicsprovides a unique setting for the study offundamental physics of quantum collectivebehavior and it may help us betterunderstand the properties of materials.Atomtronics at UCRRecently, colleagues and I showed howa simple “joystick” consisting of anadjustable magnetic field can createseveral new phases of atomtronic matter,some of them never seen before. Westudied what happens when ultracoldhighly magnetic atoms are held in anoptical lattice and subjected to an externalmagnetic field, which could be steered invarious directions. We found that the atomsdon’t just stay put, but distort themselvesinto patterns, each of which can beconsidered to be a different phase ofatomtronic matter. This work may provideaccess to new quantum phases of matter.There’s no placelike home.What are they?Illuminated manuscripts are booksThe UCR Home-Based Gift Annuitycreated entirely by hand. The term is mostInvest in UCRstudents whenyou give yourproperty to theuniversity.usually applied to codices — manuscripts ofan ancient text — proo five people mayalso be scheduled by going to library.ucr.edu/?view=collections/spcol.Melissa Conway is head of SpecialCollections and Archives for the UCRLibraries.Enjoy:• Guaranteed life income• The right to live in yourhome for life• Charitable deductionand ongoing taxsavings• The backing of theentire UC systemCall now to turn yourhome into a secureincome stream.(877) 249-0181 giftplanning@ucr.eduUCR Spring 2012 | 27

PAGE TURNERSDirty SecretsInside OurElectronics,FuturisticNovellasand otherPage TurnersGlobal Capitalist Crisis and theSecond Great Depression: EgalitarianSystemic Models for ChangeBy Armando NavarroLexington Books452 pages, December 2011This book delivers a timelyanalysis of the current globalcapitalist crisis under way in theUnited States. Navarro offers awide-ranging historical and politicalanalysis of events that led up to theco-called “Second GreatDepression.” Starting at the end ofWorld War II, he tracks the variouspolitical and economic decisionsthat led to the emergence of theglobal economic crisis in 2006. Hediscusses the Great Depression, theNew Deal, the rise of neo-liberalcapitalism and the collapse of thesubprime mortgage industry.As Navarro critiques theObama administration andlegislation put forth by Democrats,he calls for reform and proposesdramatic, systemic change. Navarroconcludes by blaming U.S. politicalculture—which he contends is themajor obstacle to the rise ofegalitarianism in the UnitedStates—and speculates about thepotentially bleak economic future tocome.Navarro is a UCR professor ofpolitical science.Greening the MediaBy Richard Maxwell andToby MillerOxford University Press256 pages, May 2012“Greening the Media” revealsthe dirty secrets that hide insideour favorite electronic devices, andtakes apart the myths that havepushed these gadgets to the centerof our lives. Marshaling an array ofeconomic, environmental andhistorical facts, Maxwell and Millerdebunk the idea that informationand communication technologiesare clean and ecologically benign.The authors show how making,consuming and discarding thesedevices involve toxic ingredients,poisonous working conditions andhazardous waste. But all is not lost.As the title suggests, Maxwell andMiller dwell critically on theseenvironmental problems in order tothink creatively about ways to solvethem. They enlist a range ofpotential allies to foster greenermedia — from green consumers togreen citizens, with stops along theway to hear from exploited workers,celebrities and assorted bureaucrats.Ultimately, “Greening theMedia” rethinks the status of printand screen technologies, and opensnew lines of analysis of communicationtechnologies, consumerelectronics and media production.Miller is a UCR distinguishedprofessor of media and culturalstudies.Deep Control: Essays on Free Willand ValueBy John FischerOxford University Press256 pages, November 2011In this collection of essays,Fischer defends the contention thatmoral responsibility is associatedwith “deep control,” which hedefines as the middle groundbetween two untenable extremes:“superficial control” and “totalcontrol.”Our freedom consists of thepower to add to the given past.Fischer contends that we must beable to interpret our actions asextensions of a line that representsthe actual past. He argues that inconnecting these dots, we engagein a distinctive sort of selfexpression.Fischer writes that we do notneed genuine access to curativepossibilities in order to be morallyresponsible. Also, he writes, deepcontrol is freedom conditioned onmoral responsibility. Total control,he contends, is too much to ask – itis a form of “metaphysicalmegalomania.”In this collection, the third ina trilogy Fischer has written forOxford University Press, he presentsa new argument that deep control iscompatible not only with causaldeterminism, but also with causalindeterminism.Fischer is a UCR distinguishedprofessor of philosophy.These books are available for purchase at the UCR Campus Storeand online at www.ucrcampusstore.ucr.edu They have beendiscounted up to 30 percent.28 | UCR Spring 2012

Camera Networks: The AcquisitionThree Science Fiction Novellas: FromForecasting for Economics andRose Hill: An Intermarriage Beforeand Analysis of Videos over WideAreasBy Amit K. Roy-Chowdhury and BiSongMorgan & Claypool Publishers134 pages, February 2012As networks of video camerasare installed in ever morenumerous and disparate applicationssuch as security andsurveillance, environmentalmonitoring, disaster response andassisted living facilities, imageunderstanding in camera networksis becoming an important area ofresearch and technology development.This book focuses on thebasic research problems in cameranetworks, reviews the current stateof the art and presents a detaileddescription of recently developedmethodologies. One of thefundamental tasks in the analysisof dynamic scenes is to trackobjects. Since camera networkscover large areas, the systems needto be able to track over such wideareas that there could be bothoverlapping and non-overlappingcamera fields of view.An underlying theme in thework is the need to take anetwork-centric view, wherebydecisions are made at the networklevel. This is sometimes achievedby accumulating all data at acentral server, and at other timesby exchanging decisions made byindividual cameras based on theirlocally sensed data. The bookconcludes by highlighting majordirections for future research.Chowdhury is a UCR associateprofessor of electrical engineering.Prehistory to the End of MankindBy J.-H. Rosny aînéTranslated and introduced byDanièle Châtelain-Slusser andGeorge SlusserWesleyan240 pages, January 2012To the short list that includesJules Verne and H.G. Wells asfounding fathers of science fiction,the name of the Belgian writer J.-H.Rosny aîné must be added. He wasthe first writer to conceive, andattempt to narrate, the workings ofaliens and alternate life forms. Hisfascination with evolutionaryscenarios and long historical vistas,from first man to last man, is animportant precursor to modernscience fiction.Until now, his work has beenvirtually unknown and unavailablein the English-speaking world.Three wonderfully imaginativenovellas are included in thisvolume, translated by GeorgeSlusser, curator emeritus of theEaton Collection of Science Fiction& Fantasy at UCR, and Universityof Redlands associate professor ofFrench Danièle Châtelain-Slusser.“The Xipehuz” is a prehistorictale in which the human speciesbattles geometric alien life forms.“Another World” tells of amysterious being who does not livein the same acoustic and temporalworld as humans. “The Death ofthe Earth” is a scientificallyuncompromising Last Man story.Slusser is a UCR professor ofcomparative literature.BusinessBy Gloria Gonzalez-RiveraPrentice Hall512 pages, January 2012Knowledge of forecastingmethods is among the mostrequested qualifications forprofessional economists andbusinesspeople working in theprivate or public sector. In thistextbook, Gloria Gonzalez-Riveraoffers a reader-friendly approach toforecasting.Geared toward students, thetextbook is written in a conversationalstyle that promotes an activelearning environment. Pictures,graphs and plots engage studentsand are useful tools to motivate anddevelop forecasting intuition inanticipation of formal, moretechnical concepts.All chapters in the bookinclude real-life data. The same datasets that professional forecastersstudy are also provided. Examiningthese data sets provides animmediate immersion in the practiceof forecasting. In all chapters, theintroduction of a new concept,model or procedure is immediatelyfollowed by a real data exercise.Short computer programs alsoare provided to bring a hands-onexperience to the understanding offorecasting. The aim of thetextbook is to develop professionalswho are able to critically analyzetime series data and forecastingreports.Gonzalez-Rivera is a UCRprofessor of economics.Its TimeBy Carlos E. CortésHeyday192 pages, March 2012This memoir by acclaimedmulticultural scholar CarlosCortés is a lovingly examinedportrait of a family at odds withitself. Wedged between loyaltiesand deeply ingrained culturaltraditions, Cortés was raised withYiddish in one ear and Spanish inthe other, studying for his barmitzvah after Mass. With an eye forthe subtleties of conflict andtenderness, Cortés recounts hisdevelopment amid the complexaffections of a family whosemembers remained firmly by eachother’s sides throughout their lives.Cortés is a UCR professor emeritusof history.UCR Spring 2012 | 29

ALUMNI CONNECTIONOffice of Alumni & Constituent RelationsRecognized for Outstanding ProgrammingThe UCR Office of Alumni & Constituent Relations oversees theAlumni Association, the Emeriti Faculty & Staff RetireeAssociation, the Student Alumni Association, and the Office ofEvents Management and Protocol. Recently the Council forAdvancement in Support of Education (CASE) District VIIrecognized several of the programs for outstandingwork in alumni relations. The programs recognizedinclude the UCR Parents Association forProgramming for Special Constituencies, theAlumni Association Alumni Awards ofDistinction for Regular Alumni Programs, andMembership Drive & Grad Fair for StudentAlumni Initiatives.Thank you to all the alumni, parents andstudents whose volunteer work made theseawards possible.Calendar:August 4L.A. Chapter Annual Hollywood BowlEvent: “Pixar in Concert”Alumni and friends are invited to join the L.A. chapter at itsannual Hollywood Bowl outing. Come early for a pre-concertpicnic and meet fellow Highlanders.Program: “Pixar in Concert”From the “Toy Story” trilogy to “The Incredibles” and “Up,”Pixar has forever changed filmmaking and given audiences of allages some of the most beloved characters in cinematic history.Now, for the first time, the Hollywood Bowl presents “Pixar inConcert,” with visually stunning clips and memorable scores fromeach of Pixar’s movies (including its latest release, “Brave”)performed live by the Hollywood Bowl Orchestra. $42 AlumniAssociation members and guests; $47 for nonmembers. Ordertickets online at www.alumni.ucr.edu/hollywoodbowlAugust 5Fifth Annual AlumniDay at the Races –Del Mar, Calif.Join alumni and friends in aprivate skyroom where you canwatch and wager on excitingThoroughbred racing. SpecialGuest: Leonard Duncan,handicapping expert and Thoroughbred trainer.$40 UCRAA members; $45 nonmembers. Space is limited and thisevent has sold out every year! Order tickets online at www.alumni.ucr.edu/delmarHow to contact the UCR Alumni Association:Website: alumni.ucr.eduE-mail: ucralum@ucr.eduPhone: (951) UCR-ALUM or (800) 426-ALUM (2586)Travel the Globeand ExpandYour Horizons“Experience, travel– these are aseducationthemselves.”— EuripidesThe UCR Alumni Association travel program provides manyopportunities for incredible learning experiences. Our carefullyselected destinations allow participants to explore new cultures,peoples and places that bring history to life. Experience one ofour many destinations:• China Connoisseur and Tibet, Sept. 13-28• Ancient Mysteries of the Americas, Jan. 5-23• Pearls of Southeast Asia, Jan. 12-28• The Pride of Southern Africa, Jan. 24-Feb. 5• Asian Wonders, Feb. 2-21Visit the UCR Alumni Association’s website (alumni.ucr.edu) toview pricing and program details. Tour participants, whether UCRalumni or not, must be members of the UCR Alumni Association.Each member may bring one travel companion as a guest.International Education Center Looking toReconnect With Alumni for ReunionCelebration in NovemberThe UC Riverside International Education Center will becelebrating its 50th anniversary in the fall and is looking toreconnect with UCR students who spent time studying abroad aswell as international students who studied here.Center interim director Karen McComb said a reuniongathering is in the planning stages for November.McComb said that while some alumni have stayed in contactover the years, many others have lost touch with the center.Alumni who have studied abroad and international alumni canensure they receive updates and reunion details by updating theirpersonal and contact information at https://advancementservices.ucr.edu/Alumni/.She said that the reunion will be a great opportunity toreconnect with classmates and fellowstudy-abroad students. In addition, thereare plans to honor former programdirector Diane Elton, who retired inOctober 2011 after having workedat the center for 39 years.“We are also interested insuggestions as to what sort ofactivities or events people wouldlike to have,” McComb added.She invites alumni tocontact her via email atkaren.mccomb@ucr.edu orat (951) 827-6145.30 | UCR Spring 2012

Say It Ain’t So, Kyle!As this issue was going topress, Kyle Hoffman, assistantvice chancellor for alumni andconstituent relations, accepteda position of vice chancellor atUC Merced. Read details ofhis more than two decades ofservice to UCR athttp://ucrtoday.ucr.edu/600250s’59 Ron Endeman washonored as one of theworld’s most traveledpersons by the Travelers’Century Club in LosAngeles. Ron, a retired attorneyfrom the San Diego area, hastraveled to all 321 countries andmajor islands of the world. Hestarted in 1956 when he and RayDuncan ’59 spent three monthshitchhiking around Europe. In1961, Ron and wife Judy Endeman’60 spent six months camping inEurope, the former Soviet Union,Eastern Europe and the MiddleEast. Judy is also a member of theclub, and has visited nearly 300destinations.60s’60 Edward Blakely was honored withthe establishment of the EdwardBlakely Award. The Planners ofColor Interest Group, a groupaffiliated with the Association ofCollegiate Schools of Planning,established the award to honorindividuals who have supported thecause of social justice, particularlyin urban planning or developmentfor communities of color. Edwardalso has an extensive collection ofpublished books, including his mostrecent work, “My Storm,” aTAKE FIVEDavid Sides’07, B.A. Music and CultureDavid has received millions of views onYouTube (youtube.com/user/kemlye1) forplaying hip-hop and R&B songs on thepiano by ear, and adding his own twists.1.2.3.4.5.Who is your biggest musical inspiration?I honestly don’t have a particular person, but I can credit a soundtrack and those who had ahand in making it. “The Lion King” soundtrack in the mid-’90s is what gave me that desire toreally get involved with the piano and music.If you could go back and take any class at UCR, which would you take?I would love to go back and take some business classes. Some of the business ventures that I’minvolved with now are giving me a hands-on crash course in the world of business, and althoughI love the firsthand education I’m getting, I do wish I could have fit in some business courseswhen I was in college.Tell us about a shining moment you’ve had.A shining moment that I really value happened at UCR. When I was a senior, I entered anon-campus talent competition called “Apollo Night,” and it was my first time participating in,and winning, a music competition playing the piano. That event was actually what gave me theconfidence to post my videos on YouTube, and it’s because of me posting on YouTube that mymusic career was able to excel as quickly as it did. In the music industry, the biggest challengeis just being noticed. There are thousands of aspiring musicians out there and they all have thesame goal of being heard. The challenge is setting yourself apart from the rest.What is your favorite memory of UCR?My favorite memory of UCR has to be the day I graduated. Being the first in my family tograduate from a university, the look of pride that I saw on the face of my parents as I walkedacross the stage to accept my diploma was priceless. I’ll always remember that day.Any advice for new grads?The best advice I could give is to work hard and believe in yourself. I know it sounds clichéd butI sincerely believe that in order to be successful, it not only takes hard work, but it also takesthe belief that whatever goals are being reached for will be achieved. I live by a simple equation:Belief + Hard Work = Success. I know that life after graduation can be confusing and a littlescary at times, but just hold on to that equation and watch everything in life fall into place.firsthand account of a critical 16months in the post-Katrina recovery.’66 Henri De Roule is in the processof developing the Banning Scienceand Technology Center, which willfocus on developing hands-oneducational experiences in science,technology, engineering and mathin order to educate people on whatthey should know to live and workin the 21 st century. The center’sservice area will be Palm Springs,Palm Desert and a large portion ofthe Inland Empire.’69 Six members of the classmade time this year to catch upand reminisce about good times inLothian Hall during a gathering inSanFrancisco.They areLindaKerkerHoffman,Joan Buchbinder Sommer, DwanFlansburg Taylor, France RiggsFenical, M. Alicyn AbramsonGoughnour, Stephanie Lindsay Lar.… Gerald Edwards is aRegents Professor for theSchool of BiologicalSciences at WashingtonState University. Heworks on photosynthesis,including effects of environmentalstress and potential global climatechange. In December 2011 he wasannounced as a 2012 AmericanAssociation for the Advancement ofScience (AAAS) Fellow. AAAS Fellowsare recognized for meritorious effortsto advance science or its applications.CLASS ACTSNames printed in Blue indicate members of the UCR Alumni Association.To update your membership, visit www.alumni.ucr.eduUCR Spring 2012 | 31

70s’70 Glen Grayman has practiced asan emergency physician in thewestern Coachella Valley for morethan 25 years and was the medicaldirector of the RichardsEmergency/Trauma Center atDesert Regional Medical Center.He currently serves as a districtrepresentative of the center’sgoverning board, and is pastpresident of DRMC’s medical staff.He has served on the boards of theRiverside County MedicalAssociation and the county chapterof the American Heart Association,was the medical adviser to thePalm Springs Fire Department aswell as the medical director of theCathedral City Fire Department …Andrew Smith is pleased to reportthe publication of his 18th, 19thand 20th books: “Potato: A GlobalHistory” (Reaktion Books, 2011)focuses on the culinary history ofthe potato and the impact it hashad on the world; “Starving theSouth: How the North Won theCivil War” (St. Martin’s, 2011)discusses how the Civil Waraffected the way we eat; and “FastFood and Junk Food: AnEncyclopedia of What We Love toEat” (Greenwood, 2012) tellsstories behind the successes ofcommercial food products anddocuments the numerous issuesassociated with them. In additionto writing, Andrew teaches culinaryhistory and professional foodwriting at the New School inManhattan, serves as the generaleditor of the “Food Series” at theUniversity of Illinois Press and isthe general editor for the “EdibleSeries” at Reaktion Press in theUnited Kingdom.’75 Robert Rosenberg recentlyretired from the University of NewMexico Health Sciences Centerafter 25 years and is now aprofessor emeritus. He joined aprivate practice radiology groupand continues to work full timeand do research on breast imaging.He also serves as chairman of theFDA Radiological Devices AdvisoryPanel.’77 Brian McRae Barnes is aprofessor of zoophysiology anddirector of the Institute of ArcticBiology at the University of Alaska,Fairbanks. He researchesphysiological ecology andendocrinology of hibernatingmammals, biologicalrhythms and sleep, andthe overwinteringbiology of animals,including insects. Heworks in both field andlaboratory settings investigatingbehavioral and physiologicalmechanisms by which animalscope with high latitude winter andsummer environments. He waselected as a 2012 AmericanAssociation for the Advancementof Science Fellow.’78 Lewis deSoto is an artist whoseart installation was displayed atthe UCR Culver Center of the Artsin March. The installation, whichfeatured a replicated boulder ofthe Tahquitz peak in the SanJacinto Mountains, was inspired bythe Cahuilla Indian “Tahquitz”creation legend. His public artprojects have been on displaythroughout the U.S. and in manyforeign countries … Michael Huertawas named acting administrator ofthe Federal Aviation Administrationin December 2011. As actingdirector, he is responsible for thesafety and efficiency of the largestaerospace system in theworld. He oversees a$15.9 billion budgetand more than 47,000employees. Huerta alsoJoin the UCR AlumniAssociation for LifeDarin Schemmer ’07 (History, Political Science)Proud UCR Alumni Association Life Member“I have been passionate about politics, government andpublic service since high school. My focus on state and localgovernment took root in Ron Loveridge’s class in my freshmanyear, and I am finding my career very rewarding. Stayingcurrent with UCR was important enough to join UCRAA asa life member right after graduation, and I love returning tocampus each year for the annual fall alumni dinner.”Become a lifetime member. To join, call (951) UCR-ALUM (827-2586)Darin Schemmer serves as communications director forRiverside County Supervisor John J. Benoit. A valedictorianof Norco High School, he graduated cum laude from UCR inthree years. Darin’s career began as a student intern withthen-Assemblyman, and subsequently-Senator, Benoit.Darin works to shape policies and plan for RiversideCounty’s future growth.To view an extended interview with Darin, visitalumni.ucr.edu/darinschemmerwww.alumni.ucr.edu/membership32 | UCR Spring 2012

oversees the FAA’s multi-billiondollarNextGen air traffic controlmodernization program as theUnited States shifts fromground-based radar to the latestsatellite technology. His otherexperiences include beingconfirmed by the U.S. Senate asthe FAA’s official deputy administrator,and managing director ofthe 2002 Olympic Winter games.80sTAKE FIVEOfelia Valdez-Yeager’69, B.A. SpanishOfelia Valdez-Yeager graduated from UCR in1969, married fellow graduate Ley Yeagerand settled in Riverside. They have four grownchildren and four grandchildren, with one moreon the way. Her career has focused on educationand community volunteerism, and she is involvedwith the César Chávez Memorial in Riverside.’84 David Cyril Geary is a Curators’Professor in the Department ofPsychological Sciences at theUniversity of Missouri-Columbia.He is a cognitive developmentaland evolutionary psychologist withinterests in mathematical learningand sex differences, and haspublished more than 200 articlesand chapters across a wide range oftopics. Among his many distinctionsis a MERIT award from theNational Institutes of Health andco-recipient of the 2009 George A.Miller Award, AmericanPsychological Association, foroutstanding journal article ingeneral psychology. Heand fellow alumnusBradford Hawkins ‘84were elected as 2012American Associationfor the Advancementof Science Fellows. Hawkins is aprofessor of Ecology andEvolutionary Biology at the Schoolof Biological Sciences at UC Irvine.His research focuses on whyspecies are distributed nonrandomlyin the environment andwhy diversity gradients exist.’86 Stephan Gallegos and his wife,Loretta, are proud to announce thefinalization of the adoption of theirdaughter Olivia, who was born innorthwest Florida in February 2011and welcomed home to Northern1.2.3.4.5.Tell us about the Chávez Memorial.A group of community members came together several years ago with a dream of buildinga memorial statue to honor the legacy of farmworker labor leader César E. Chávez. Thememorial will be placed on the downtown mall on Main Street and University Avenue. It willbe the last monument placed on the downtown mall. The César Chávez memorial will serve asa focal point for students and community members to visit, learn and remember the sacrificesmade to improve the working and living conditions and human rights of farmworkers. Moreinformation may be found on our website, www.riversidelatinonetwork.org.How did you get involved with the project?I was about to retire from my position with the Riverside County Superintendent of Schoolswhen Mayor Ron Loveridge expressed an interest in supporting our effort to erect thememorial statue. I knew it would be difficult, but I knew I would now have the time to work tobuild the memorial. After my retirement, I became chair of the committee.Who is your biggest inspiration?My inspiration comes from my father, my oldest sister and my husband. My father literallyworked all of his life. During the Depression, his widowed father split the children and tookhim and his two sisters to Mexico from Arizona and worked in the mines. My father married,returned to the U.S. and had eight children. He was also the main support for six halfbrothersand sisters. He worked double shifts at the steel mill to bring in more money. Hecouldn’t spend a lot of time with us, but we knew he expected us to do our best in school. Mysiblings still say, “Pa would have said …” My older sister sacrificed her opportunity to furtherher education after high school to help my father with the large family. She was the smartestof us all and became the first Latina to be appointed to the position of Registrar/Recorder ofL.A. County. My husband has inspired me to do anything I ever wanted to do. He has alwaysrespected my independence and supported it.Can you recommend a book?I would recommend “The Hummingbird’s Daughter,” by Luis Alberto Urrea. It is an exampleof storytelling at its best.Tell us about your favorite memory from UCR.I used to go the library to study and if I went after lunch I would get sleepy. They used tohave a little leather cot off the bathroom and I would go in there and close my eyes for about10 minutes. It felt great!Another special memory was being helped by Eugene Cota-Robles, head of theMicrobiology Department. He was responsible for me getting one of the first EducationOpportunity Program Scholarships to UCR. When I got a C in my biology midterm, he calledme in to meet with him. He asked how I was doing and went through each of the midtermquestions so I would understand. He was always there for me during my time at UCR.UCR Spring 2012 | 33

California in March2011 … Kevin Plaxcois a professor in theDepartment ofChemistry andBiochemistry at UC Santa Barbara.There he oversees the Plaxco lab,an interdisciplinary research groupfocused on building biosensors andinvestigating protein biophysics,among other basic and appliedresearch areas. In December 2011,he was elected a 2012 AmericanAssociation for the Advancement ofScience Fellow.’88 Josefina Canchola wasrecognized as a Woman of the Year2012 by California AssemblymanTony Mendoza. The awardcelebrates the accomplishments ofwomen from each city within the56th Assembly. Josefina, who livesin Cerritos, serves as the associatedirector of partnerships at for theUniversity of California Office ofthe President.’89 Jeff Hone is a unit supervisor insocial work for San BernardinoCounty. He is married with twochildren.90s’91 John Lane recentlyreleased an album, theJohn Lane Project’s“Finding Wilson.” Thealbum is available forpurchase or download at CD Baby,iTunes, Amazon.com, Spotify andSound Cloud.’92 Bill Chapin wasnamed senior vicepresident of businessoperations for theKansas City Chiefs inDecember. He oversees marketing,branding, advertising, marketresearch, marketing strategy andimplementation. Additionally, hedirects corporate communicationsand special events for the Chiefs.He brings experience from all fivemajor professional sports leagues,including serving as vice presidentof business development forSeattle Sounders FC, director ofmarketing and partnershipdevelopment for the SeattleSeahawks, director of ticket salesfor the Anaheim Ducks, anddirector of group and inside salesfor the Los Angeles Kings. He wasalso part of the management teamfor the construction of the StaplesCenter in Los Angeles in 1999.Additionally, Chapin has worked forthe San Diego Padres and the LosAngeles Clippers.’97 Jill Chadroff has practiced andperformed Baroque dancereconstruction for 15 years. She isa member of the Baroque dancetroupe Les Menus Plaisirs, whichhas performed 18 th -century dancesin the United States, Canada andJapan. She was recently part of theLos Angeles Chamber Orchestra’sBaroque Conversations Series. Inaddition to her experience indance, she also teaches English ata middle school in Calabasas, Calif.… Christopher Kellett is a seniorlecturer for the Schoolof ElectricalEngineering andComputer Science atthe University ofNewcastle in Australia.In November, he was awarded agrant from the Australian ResearchCouncil for research into theemerging area of hybrid dynamicalsystems, including next generationelectricity distribution networks. Healso was awarded the prestigiousHumboldt Research Fellowship,which sent him to Germany toresearch the development ofefficient and productive controlsystems. In November 2011 hereceived the Vice-Chancellor’sAward for Teaching Excellence andLearning Support … Keith Metzlerwas appointed to serve as the cityof Victorville’s assistant citymanager in September. Prior to thisappointment, Keith served asVictorville’s director of economicdevelopment for eight years.’98 John al-Amin is thenew vice chancellor ofadministrative servicesfor the Contra CostaCommunity CollegeDistrict. In his new role,he will oversee Finance Services,Facilities and Police Services. Jonhas more than 14 years ofexperience performing managerial/supervisorial duties, includingserving as the vice president ofbusiness services at OxnardCollege, vice president ofadministrative services atGrossmont College, and businessand administrative servicesmanager at Laney College. Johnalso worked at the CaliforniaDepartment of Finance as a financebudget analyst for four years.00s’03 Luis Carazoappears in Casa de MiPadre, a feature filmstarring Will Ferrell.The film is a spoof of1970s-style Mexicansoap operas. Luis plays Ferrell’sfather, Miguel Ernesto, during aflashback sequence. The film’sdialog is in Spanish, with Englishsubtitles. When not acting inmovies, Luis is a lecturer for theTheatre Department at UCR …Todd Miller has opened a newoffice of his business, PasadenaScientific, in Chicago’s loop.Pasadena Scientific is an accidentreconstruction firm that includesexperts with more than 30 years oftrial experience.’04 Adam Powell was recognized asone of the top teachers in afour-county region. He was among10 finalists for educator of the yearin Region 10, which includes SanBernardino, Riverside, Inyo andMono counties. Adam teachesEnglish at University Preparatory inVictorville and serves as chair ofthe English Department … JoelSmith and Liz Casebolt ’07 arebeing hailed by critics for theirbrand of vaudeville-style danceperformance that focuses on theirgay man-straight woman friendship.The duo has performed infestivals and venues throughoutthe country and recently sold outmultiple shows at a 200-seattheater at the Minnesota FringeFestival.’06 Megan Chao is a director ofdevelopment for Daniel H. BirmanProductions in Pasadena, Calif.She recently finished producingand editing “Velocity,” a documentaryfor Discovery Channel aboutthe world’s fastest woman on amotorcycle. The subject, LesliePorterfield, holds several land andspeed records in differentmotorcycle classes for racing at theBonneville Salt Flats. Chao is anadjunct faculty member at theUniversity of Southern California.She works with undergraduate andgraduate students in long formstories at the Annenberg School forCommunication & Journalism, andis the faculty line producer for“Impact,” a student-run televisionnewsmagazine.’08 CassandraGreenawalt will beparticipating in theAIDS/LifeCycle Ride toEnd AIDS this June.The 545-mile bicycleride from San Francisco to LosAngeles involves 2,350 riders whoeach raise a minimum of $3,000in donations. During her time atUCR, Cassandra played catcher for34 | UCR Spring 2012

the UCR Highlander softball team,earning second-team All-Big Westhonors in 2006. After graduating,she worked as a volunteer assistantcoach as well as a part-timeposition with the university’sDepartment of EnvironmentalHealth & Safety. She is now ananalyst in that department andworks part time as a diet clerk atMontclair Hospital.’09 Anirban Banerjee isco-founder ofStopTheHacker, atechnology start-upthat focuses on helpingwebsite ownersprevent, detect and recover fromhacker attacks. The company hasraised $1.1 million to expandoperations. The money will allowStopTheHacker to move solely fromresearch and development intoselling and marketing its productwhile continuing to develop newfeatures … Sean McBride andEric-Chandler Tucker ’10 and JaredBaisley ’11 comprise the musicalgroup Dyles Mavis. The R&B grouprecently recorded a video for itssong “Butterflies” on the UCRcampus … Fionna Wright recentlypublished “Lyrics of a DreamersHeart,” a poetry book focused onlessons in love, pain, healing andgrowth. She is currently studyingfor her master’s degree inmultimedia communications at theAcademy of Art University.10s’11 Stephanie TurnerChen has received theprestigious LarrySandler Memorial Awardgiven by the GeneticsSociety of America to the mostoutstanding doctoral dissertation ofthe year in Drosophila genetics. Shereceived the award at the 53rdAnnual Drosophila ResearchConference in Chicago. While atUCR, she worked on the detectionof carbon dioxide in the fruit fly andthe mosquito. Her work resulted inthe publication of two papers. …Nick DiFilippo is the new communicationsand technology specialist inthe UCR Office of Alumni &Constituent Relations. Nickmanages the development oftechnology initiatives designed toengage and connect alumni,students, parents and otherconstituents. He also manages newand existing web-based communications,and serves as the systemadministrator of the alumni onlinecommunity. In 2010, he co-createda successful website, Twend.it,which tracked and comparedcurrent and historic trending topicson Twitter. Prior to working at UCR,Nick was digital content manager atCBS Radio. While an undergraduate,Nick worked as a digitalmedia assistant for the ARTSblock.… Brenda Martinez became amember of the U.S. track and fieldteam after finishing second in the1,500 meters at the U.S. Open.WE REMEMBERAlumni’74 Charles McCharthy (’80 M.S.),program manager at NorthropGrumman. December 2011.’93 Michael Rank, supervisingprosecuting attorney, Departmentof Justice. January 2012.’09 “Jason” Stephen EdwardMarshall, instructional designer forMidware Software. February 2012.Faculty and StaffJohn “Jack” Charlton Crawford,former chair of the UCR Departmentof Music, died in January. He was 80.Faculty and staff who workedwith Crawford remember him as atalented musician and academic.He came to UCR in 1970 afterteaching at Amherst and WellesleyColleges. He had graduated fromthe Yale School of Music andearned a Ph.D. from HarvardUniversity. He studied compositionin Paris on a Fulbright fellowship,and Harvard awarded him both theBoott Prize in choral composition,and Paine Traveling Fellowshipto study vocal expressionism inVienna.He founded the ContemporaryMusic Festival on campus and isremembered by UCR alumnus andformer Director of Theatre FacilitiesDavid Kellstrand as “a kind,gentle man who was committed tobringing experimental music to alarger audience.”Although he staged many worksby others, his own choral compositionsand instrumental workswere widely performed all over thecountry.He is survived by his wife of 57years, Dorothy; children, Peter andSusan; and grandchild, Venise.The family plans a musicalmemorial later in 2012.Nita Bullock, director of physicaland environmental planning, diedin February. She was 68.A longtime UCR employee,Bullock was known for hercommitment to environmentallysensitive physical planning — andher quick wit.Nita began her tenure at UCRin 1999, as the campus PhysicalPlanner. During that time sheproject-managed several planninginitiatives, including the 2005Long Range Development Planand its second amendment, theEast-Southeast Area Study, theEast Campus Entrance AreaStudy, the Campus AggregateMaster Plan Study, the CampusSignage Program, and theCampus Design Guidelines. By2011, Nita had advanced to theposition of director of Physical andEnvironmental Planning/CampusLandscape Architect.Nita held a master’s degree inlandscape architecture from CalPoly Pomona. She had previousplanning experience working forthe city of Moreno Valley. She wasan avid gardener and often sharedthe bounty of her home gardenwith friends and co-workers.She is survived by her husband,Bob (‘67); children, Robert andKatherine; and two grandchildren.Nancy E. Beckage, professoremerita of entomology and of cellbiology and neuroscience, died inApril.Beckage was born Sept. 10,1950. She attended the Collegeof William and Mary and receivedher B.S. from the University ofWisconsin. She was awarded adoctorate in zoology from theUniversity of Washington in 1980,and remained there for a postdoctoralappointment. Beckage was thena program director at the SeattleBiomedical Research Institute beforebeing named an assistant professorof entomology and USDA assistantentomologist at the University ofWisconsin-Madison.She joined the faculty ofUCR in 1990 and achieved fullprofessor rank in 1997. Sheretired in 2011.Beckage’s research was inthe area of host-parasite interactions.She was known for havingmade the significant discoverythat primary molecular effects ofparasitism on the host are dueto the injection of a polydnavirusby the female wasp parasitoid. In2004 she was elected a Fellowof the American Association forthe Advancement of Science,and in 2008 she received anhonorary doctorate from the SwissFederal Institute of Science andTechnology.Other awards included the 2005UCR Chancellor’s Faculty Awardfor Excellence in Mentorship ofUndergraduate Research and the1996 UCR “Woman Who Makes aDifference” Award.Beckage was known for herexceptional record of professionaland university service and forher devotion to her students. Herfamily requested that memorialgifts be made in Beckage’s nameto whatever charitable organizationthe donor chooses.UCR Spring 2012 | 35

C SCAPEJohn Carlos BaezMathematics to the RescueBy Litty MathewMath solves more than equations forJohn Carlos Baez, professor of mathematicsat UCR. It is the key to finding solutions fortoday’s environmental problems.“I learned that to slow global warming,we need to take actions on far vasterscales that most people are talking about,”says Baez, who is a visiting researcher atthe Centre of Quantum Technologies inSingapore until fall 2012. “We need to cutcarbon emissions by at least 7 gigatonnesper year by 2050. How do we cut it by1 gigatonne? Get everyone in the world todrive half as much or produce 80 times moresolar power than we’re doing now? That’sserious.”It’s also a complex math problem.“Using very basic math to understandhow big different problems are, and whetherproposed solutions do enough to reallymatter, is important. It’s easy to fool peopleif they don’t do the math,” notes Baez, whohas been part of the UCR faculty since 1989.As Baez grasped the breadth and depth ofenvironmental issues, he realized the needto bring the different people interested insolving these problems together. In 2010, hestarted the Azimuth Project, an online internationalcollaboration,to createa focalpoint for scientists and engineers interestedin saving the planet.Its goal was to make accurate informationon the relevant issues easy to find and tohelp people work together on commonproblems. “I started it when I realized therewere lots of people like me with technicalbackgrounds who were eager to do somegood,” says Baez. The Azimuth Projectbuilt a wiki of reliable information and nowis working on online climate simulationsoftware for educational purposes. “Wealways need more people willing to help outand we always need better ideas,” says Baez.Baez, who had spent much of hiscareer on abstract math related tophysics, has shifted his focus tomore practical mathematics,namely network theory — thestudy of complex networkedsystems like cells, organisms orecosystems.“Many of the big problemsfacing us involve complexnetworks,” explains Baez. “Forexample, a power grid is a bigelectrical network, a living cellinvolves a lot of chemical reactionnetworks and ecosystems involve‘food webs’ where different specieseat each other. At the planetarylevel, we have the watercycle, the carbon cycle, thenitrogen cycle and so on.We need to get better atliving in a world made ofnetworks.”36 | UCR Spring 2012Illustration by Zach Trenholm

Health • Sustainability • Policy • TechnologyLIVING THEPROMISEBreakthrough ResearchExplore more sustainability impactspromise.ucr.eduInspired by nature: By studying seaurchins, corals and snails, UCR engineerslearn to synthesize new materials likelightweight armor and flexible ceramics.• Farming and Food Production• Protecting Ecosystems• Air Quality• Invasive SpeciesUCR Spring 2012 | 37

THEA. GARY ANDERSONGRADUATE SCHOOLOF MANAGEMENTARE YOU READYFOR SUCCESS?Become a Qualified CPAThanks to globalization, newtechnologies and tighter accountingregulations, the demand for qualifiedCPAs is strong today and projected tokeep growing.Beginning in 2014, California willrequire a fifth year of accountingand ethics coursework for alllicensed practitioners. Be prepared.Complete your Master of ProfessionalAccountancy (MPAc) degree at UCRiverside in less than one year.Study with top-ranked faculty, earna prestigious UC degree, and tap intoa network of influential alumni inSouthern California and beyond.Get the expertise you need to putyour career on the fast track.Learn more: mpac@ucr.edu ormpac.ucr.eduInformation sessions: mpac.ucr.eduRegistration deadline: September 1, 2012Classes start: September 27, 2012 (Space is limited, act now.)