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UCLA College celebrates Earth Day

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Image of Farwiza Farhan with baby elephant

Farwiza Farhan, winner of UCLA’s 2021 Pritzker Emerging Environmental Genius Award. Farhan works to protect the Leuser Ecosystem, the last place on Earth where tigers, elephants, rhinos and orangutans live together in the wild. 

Every year, Earth Day provides an opportunity to celebrate and renew a shared commitment to protecting the planet. Across UCLA, initiatives such as the Sustainable LA Grand Challenge are making strides toward conservation goals, both locally and globally. And in the UCLA College of Letters and Science, renowned scholars are joining forces across disciplines to advance knowledge and research, educate, advocate and lead the way to a more sustainable future. Here are just a few highlights from the 2021–22 academic year:

Championing leaders

The UCLA Institute of the Environment and Sustainability (IoES) hosted “Celebration of Environmental Heroes,” an event highlighting progress such as Ph.D. student Dani Hoague’s work with the Better Watts Initiative, discussed here with actor, writer and producer Issa Rae. Meanwhile, the annual Pritzker Emerging Environmental Genius Award supports young leaders from around the world — most recently Farwiza Farhan, a conservationist working in Indonesia to protect one of the planet’s most biodiverse regions.

Issa Rae introduces UCLA graduate student Dani Hoague, who discusses her work with the Better Watts Initiative (BWI). The BWI team believes that a single action can make a difference in the community, and that collective action can greatly impact the world.

Community engagement

Besides providing a tranquil oasis on campus, the UCLA Mildred E. Mathias Botanical Garden inspires conservation through education, research and public outreach. Many events are open to the public, including monthly guided tours, the 2021–22 lecture series “Transplanted: Examining Contexts of Plants, People and Place,” and the Festival of Trees coming up on April 29. You can also listen to a carefully curated audio tour of the garden, featuring renowned experts highlighting its unique collections.

Environmental storytelling

At the IoES’s Laboratory for Environmental Narrative Strategies (LENS), scholars come together across areas of study from English to anthropology to collaborate on media and communications that advance the cause of environmental science, policy and advocacy. LENS has received awards for outstanding environmental journalism and most recently partnered on the Labyrinth Project, a podcast that explores L.A.’s urban ecosystems and was created by Christopher Kelty, a member of the UCLA Institute for Society and Genetics.

Images from the four episodes of Earth Focus

Images from the series “Earth Focus.” One episode earned the UCLA Laboratory for Environmental Narrative Strategies an award from the Los Angeles Press Club. | Courtesy of KCET, LENS and Thomson Reuters Foundation

Global reach

The Congo Basin Institute, a joint initiative between UCLA and the nonprofit International Institute of Tropical Agriculture, is conducting the vitally important work of preserving the world’s second-largest rainforest. The institute recently received a major gift from the co-founder of Taylor Guitars and his wife to further ebony conservation research and restoration efforts in Cameroon. The project will support local communities, grow and plant trees, conduct ecological research and build a road map for rainforest reforestation.

Interdisciplinary research

At the newly launched UCLA Rothman Family Institute for Food Studies, scholars will conduct research to improve both human and planetary health. “Food is central to the human experience, and this new institute will play a leading role in examining aspects of our relationship with food as well as the ways in which food systems tie into larger issues like public health, sustainability and economic well-being,” said UCLA Chancellor Gene Block in a UCLA press release.

Learn more about the work of the UCLA College here.

Image of Marilyn Raphael, director of the UCLA Institute of the Environment and Sustainability.Image credit: Ashley Kruythoff/UCLA

Talking environmental solutions with Marilyn Raphael

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Image of Marilyn Raphael, director of the UCLA Institute of the Environment and Sustainability.

Marilyn Raphael, director of the UCLA Institute of the Environment and Sustainability. Image credit: Ashley Kruythoff/UCLA

By David Colgan | 

Environmental news often focuses on the scariest problems, from climate disasters to extinctions.

While it’s important to understand these concerns, there are reasons for hope at UCLA, where faculty, researchers and students are finding solutions — technology to reduce environmental harms, ways of adapting to new climate realities, and strategies for battling environmental racism and injustice.

Marilyn Raphael, world-renowned environmental leader, climate scientist and director of the UCLA Institute of the Environment and Sustainability, shared some environmental good news as we celebrate the planet we all depend on this Earth Day.

Over the past few decades, we’ve witnessed a growing number of localized problems from worsening storms to urban heat islands, due to climate change. How are UCLA researchers and students addressing these problems?

The ways we’re working to mitigate climate change are too many to list. But I’ll start in our own backyard — Los Angeles and California. We’re doing an enormous amount of research to understand and respond to wildfires, droughts and extreme flooding. Our faculty partner with state and local agencies so disaster prevention and response can be informed by good data and robust projections. It is difficult to conceive of flooding during a megadrought, but research shows that climate change is increasing the likelihood of flooding, and California must be ready for it. Cities like Sacramento, Stockton and huge parts of Los Angeles could be flooded during these extreme events. We need a plan for how we’ll react when that happens.

Looking globally, we’re working in places such as the Congo Basin, where we help local populations learn sustainable agriculture practices that can sustain their communities while protecting the environments they depend on. Small island nations are another focus. These places are the worst hit by hurricanes, depleted fisheries and sea level rise.

As a climate leader, how do we deal with the seemingly insurmountable problem of global climate change? What are the most promising ways that we can address this crisis in a meaningful way? And to what extent can we stop or slow it?

From the start, I think it’s important to understand we now have unavoidable change. We do have a chance to slow it and make it less severe, but only if we act now. Globally, we have done nothing sufficient enough to reduce emissions to a level that will change our trajectory.

One of the most important things we’re trying to do is to mobilize people with information and the means with which to engage with these issues in creative ways, from film to art installations. Few people get as excited about data as we researchers do. So we’re working on understanding and improving how people interact with their realities.

Sustainable cities have got to be another part of our response. More and more people (55% of the world’s population live in urban areas – headed for 68% by 2050) are living in cities, which makes them one of our best chances at getting more sustainable. How people get water, power, food — cities can become more efficient at all of it, and we have researchers laying a strong foundation for them to do so.

Can you share a couple of examples of new things being done to protect ecosystems and species?

UCLA researchers are using genetics in new ways that make conservation more efficient and effective. The California Conservation Genomics Project is sequencing the genomes of thousands of organisms across the state to create the most comprehensive multispecies genomic dataset. That can then be used to identify local and regional conservation concerns and protect biodiversity.

Genomic research is also being used to understand things like how climate change is affecting migratory birds, how animals disperse seeds in tropical regions and in numerous other ways. And that’s just genomics. We’re also combining field research with remote sensing data from NASA to look at the health of our forests, and we are engaging the indigenous groups who manage 25% of the world’s natural lands and have intimate knowledge of their environments stretching back millennia.

Mental health professionals are seeing more and more people having trouble dealing with the realities and their perceptions about environmental threats. What would you tell someone who is having such feelings?

Please, don’t just sit with your fears. Get out there and spend some time in nature — see what’s worth protecting. Spending time among oceans, mountains, forests or parklands is a salve for mental well-being, and there’s a growing body of psychological research to support this.

Another way to deal with climate stress and anxiety is to think of one thing that you as an individual can do to help. This does not have to be a big thing; it can be a small thing. Then do that and engage your friends. Don’t focus continuously on the whole problem — it is impossible for a single person to do anything reasonable to solve it. We are part of a vast, interconnected system. Because of that connection, what we do as individuals has an effect. Just do what you can and have faith that someone else is doing what they can too.

This article originally appeared in the UCLA Newsroom. For more news and updates from the UCLA College, visit college.ucla.edu/news.

Image of Jessica Watkins, NASA astronaut and UCLA alumnaImage credit: NASA/Bill Ingalls

Ready for mission to International Space Station, alumna Jessica Watkins reflects on her journey so far

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Image credit: NASA/Bill Ingalls

Watkins’ advice to future astronauts and space scientists: “Find mentors who can help encourage and support you along the way. Don’t be afraid to takes risks; they will certainly pay off.” Image credit: NASA/Bill Ingalls

By Elizabeth Kivowitz and Stuart Wolpert | April 7, 2022

Jessica Watkins, who earned a doctorate in geology from UCLA in 2015, will spend six months on the International Space Station as part of NASA’s SpaceX Crew-4 mission. The launch is scheduled for April 20 at Kennedy Space Center in Florida.

It will be the first trip into space for Watkins, who, as a mission specialist, will monitor the spacecraft during the flight’s launch and re-entry and serve as a flight engineer once she arrives at the space station.

The ISS is a modular research laboratory that orbits the Earth at an average altitude of 248 miles and a speed of about 17,500 miles per hour, completing 15 1/2 orbits per day. The space station’s initial module was launched in 1998 — it has expanded repeatedly since then — and the craft has been continuously occupied since 2000; Watkins will be the first Black woman to complete a long-term mission on board.

At a NASA news conference March 31, she called her role in the mission “an important milestone for NASA and the country.”

“I think it’s really just a tribute to the legacy of the Black women astronauts who have come before me, as well as to the exciting future ahead,” Watkins said at the NASA event. “Mentors have always been a force that have helped me determine my pathway. I have had many science teachers, starting in elementary school and later working in the lab, that have fueled my fire. I’m grateful for all those people in my life. I’m honored to return the favor.”

Watkins spoke more about the importance of mentors — to girls and women, especially — in an interview with UCLA Newsroom. “I would say to young girls of color, and to all young girls, dream big and continue to pursue what you are interested in,” she said. “Find mentors who can help encourage and support you along the way. Don’t be afraid to takes risks; they will certainly pay off.”

She also said she would encourage students to dive deeply into the subjects and pursuits that most excite them.

“Whatever it is that students are interested in or passionate about — whatever gets you out of bed in the morning — participate in that, study that, pursue it relentlessly,” she said. “If you want to be an astronaut, keep pursuing your studies in STEM fields, but find what it is that you are best suited for.”

Watkins earned her bachelor’s degree in geological and environmental sciences at Stanford University. She also played rugby, both as a member of Stanford’s team and on the USA Rugby women’s sevens national team. Watkins said she drew on those experiences in competitive sports throughout her journey to becoming an astronaut — and will continue to do so on her upcoming mission.

“A big part of being successful as an applicant and as an astronaut is the teamwork,” she said. “We’re headed up to ISS to live and work as a crew, and functioning as a team is a big part of what we will do up there. Being a team player, working together well, is so important.

“Also, rugby involves people of different body types and strengths. Every player has different things that are brought to the table, and all the different strengths are needed for a successful rugby team. The same is true in space. All my classmates and colleagues come from different backgrounds and have different expertise that needs to come together for a successful mission. We bring out the best in each other.”

The crew of which Watkins is a part will conduct research on how to grow edible plants and crops in space and how to improve astronauts’ health on longer space missions — reducing bone loss and maintaining muscle health, for example.

Both upcoming missions will see Watkins continue a journey that began when she first fell in love with space and science as a 9-year-old and eventually included her time at UCLA. As a doctoral candidate in the department of Earth, planetary and space sciences, Watkins studied Earth as a laboratory for understanding the geology of other planets.

“I was looking at land forms, features on the surface of Earth, doing field work, understanding the processes and then applying this knowledge to planetary surfaces, working with images and inferring what is occurring on other planets,” she said.

After her voyage to the space station, Watkins’ next mission will enable her to put that knowledge into practice in ways she could have only imagined at the time. She already has been selected for NASA’s Artemis program, which plans to return explorers to the moon by 2024. The program is one of the next steps toward NASA’s goal of establishing a sustainable human presence on the moon that will prepare the agency to some day send astronauts to Mars.

For future astronauts

UCLA’s department of Earth, planetary and space sciences, Jessica Watkins’ home base when she was a doctoral candidate in the 2010s, has played a key role in space science for decades. Faculty members and researchers play prominent roles in multiple NASA missions, including as principal investigators and deputy principal investigators.

In fall 2021, the department introduced a new graduate program for future astronauts and space research experts, offering master’s and doctoral degrees in planetary science.

This article originally appeared in the UCLA Newsroom. For more news and updates from the UCLA College, visit college.ucla.edu/news.

Image of Alex SternImage credit: University of Michigan

UCLA names Alex Stern dean of humanities

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Image of Alex Stern

Alex Stern | Image credit: University of Michigan

By Sean Brenner | April 14, 2022

Alexandra Minna Stern, currently the associate dean for the humanities at the University of Michigan’s College of Literature, Science, and the Arts, will be the new dean of humanities at the UCLA College. Her appointment is effective Nov. 1.

Stern is the Carroll Smith-Rosenberg Collegiate Professor of American Culture at Michigan, where she also holds appointments in history, women’s and gender studies, and obstetrics and gynecology. Her research has focused on modern and contemporary histories of science, medicine and society in the U.S. and Latin America, and, most recently, on the cultures and ideologies of the far right and white nationalism.

She is the founder and co-director of the Sterilization and Social Justice Lab, an interdisciplinary research team that explores the history of eugenic sterilization in the U.S.

Stern has two prior connections to the University of California: She earned her master’s degree in Latin American studies from UC San Diego, and later, from 2000 to 2002, she was a faculty member at UC Santa Cruz.

Stern said she looks forward to providing creative and responsive leadership in her new role.

“I am thrilled to be the incoming humanities dean at UCLA and eager to partner with the excellent and diverse units and communities that comprise the division,” she said. “I am honored to be joining a world-class public research university that recognizes the centrality of humanities to liberal arts and the mission of higher education.”

As associate dean at Michigan, Stern enhanced humanities research, promoted curricular and funding opportunities in experimental humanities, and supported languages and global studies. Prior to that role, she held a series of other leadership positions at the Ann Arbor campus: chair of the department of American culture (2017–19), director of the Latin American and Caribbean Studies Center/Brazil Initiative (2014–17) and associate director of the Center for the History of Medicine (2002–12). She has been a faculty member at Michigan since 2002.

Among the numerous grants and fellowships she has received are awards from the National Endowment for the Humanities, the Ford Foundation, the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and the National Institutes of Health. She is frequently quoted in prominent media outlets, from the Los Angeles Times to the Atlantic.

In a message to the campus community, Interim Executive Vice Chancellor and Provost Michael Levine wrote, “Chancellor [Gene] Block and I are confident that UCLA Humanities will continue to thrive and fulfill its vital role on campus under Alex’s capable leadership and that she will be an extraordinary addition to our campus leadership team.”

In addition to her master’s from UC San Diego, Stern earned a bachelor’s degree from San Francisco State University and a doctorate in history from the University of Chicago.

Stern will succeed David Schaberg, who has led the humanities division since 2011. Schaberg will return to teaching and research full time after a sabbatical.

This article originally appeared in the UCLA Newsroom. For more news and updates from the UCLA College, visit college.ucla.edu/news.

Image of Gymnast Katelyn Ohashi on the balance beam.Image credit: Emily Howell-Forbes

Gymnast, activist Katelyn Ohashi to deliver UCLA College commencement address

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The UCLA alumna will speak at all three ceremonies June 10 in Pauley Pavilion
Image of gymnast Katelyn Ohashi on the balance beam.

Gymnast Katelyn Ohashi on the balance beam. | Image credit: Emily Howell-Forbes

By Jonathan Riggs | April 13, 2022

Award-winning gymnast, activist and UCLA alumna Katelyn Ohashi will deliver the keynote address at all three UCLA College commencement ceremonies on Friday, June 10. Three separate ceremonies will be held, at 11 a.m., 3 p.m. and 7 p.m., in Pauley Pavilion. The program will also include remarks by UCLA Chancellor Gene Block and student speakers from the graduating class.

“Katelyn Ohashi epitomizes Bruin values with her strength of character, compassion and leadership in the face of challenges,” said David Schaberg, senior dean of the UCLA College. “She will inspire our graduating seniors and UCLA community to approach the next chapter of their lives with open hearts and limitless courage.”

Image of Katelyn Ohashi

Katelyn Ohashi. | Image credit: Wasserman

From childhood, Ohashi was an avid gymnast, making her debut at the 2009 junior olympic national championships at age 12. She went on to become the 2011 junior national champion and defeated Simone Biles to win the 2013 American Cup. Despite suffering a back injury the next year and being told by doctors she might not be able to compete again, Ohashi persisted — earning a full gymnastics scholarship to UCLA.

“I am so proud to address my fellow Bruins and help celebrate this wonderful accomplishment in their lives,” said Ohashi, who graduated in 2019 with a degree in gender studies. “I hope to inspire them to embrace challenges, love themselves and find their voices.”

An eight-time All-American and four-time member of USA Gymnastics’ junior national team, Ohashi became one of the most decorated gymnasts in UCLA history. During her Bruin career, she earned 11 perfect 10s — including for a 2019 floor routine that became an internet sensation. She was named Pac-12 specialist of the year in 2018 and 2019, and was 2018 NCAA and Pac-12 co-champion in the floor exercise as well as 2019 Pac-12 co-champion in the floor exercise and balance beam. During her senior year, Ohashi took first place for each of her first seven routines.

In addition to her studies and gymnastics achievements while at UCLA, Ohashi led fundraisers to help individuals struggling with homelessness. She also volunteered for Project Heal, a nonprofit focused on helping people recover from eating disorders. As a motivational speaker and activist, she continues to advocate for body positivity. When Ohashi was honored at the 2019 ESPY Awards, she delivered a spoken-word poem denouncing body shaming, sexual assault and cyberbullying.

Ohashi was chosen to be the class of 2022 commencement speaker by a committee of students, faculty and administrators.

This article originally appeared in the UCLA Newsroom. For more of Our Stories at the College, click here.

Image of Richard and Linda TurcoCourtesy of the Turcos

UCLA Institute of the Environment and Sustainability receives $1.5 million pledge from founding director

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The gift from Richard and Linda Turco will support students engaged in environmental research

Image of Richard and Linda Turco

Richard and Linda Turco | Image courtesy of the Turcos

By Margaret MacDonald | 

Richard Turco, the founding director of the UCLA Institute of the Environment and Sustainability, and his wife, Linda Turco, have pledged $1.5 million to the institute to establish an endowment for the support of undergraduate and graduate students.

The couple’s gift commitment has been augmented by $750,000 from the UCLA dean of physical sciences’ gift matching program, bringing the total to $2.25 million.

“Thanks in large part to the dedication and pioneering efforts of Richard Turco, the Institute of the Environment and Sustainability has evolved to become a real force for environmental truth and equity,” said the institute’s current director, Marilyn Raphael. “And now we add our deep gratitude for the Turcos’ generous gift commitment, which will provide the resources to effectively recruit, retain and empower generations of students eager to become change agents in the service of a sustainable environment.”

The initial gift funds will be contributed over the next five years, with the deferred balance coming from the couple’s estate. When fully funded, the endowment will support an annual lecture, publication awards and fellowships for graduate students, and research awards for undergraduates, with priority given to first-generation students and those with demonstrated financial need.

Richard Turco is a distinguished professor emeritus at UCLA and former chair of the university’s department of atmospheric and oceanic sciences. An atmospheric chemist, he joined UCLA’s faculty in 1988 and built a multidisciplinary research group focused on pressing environmental problems, including ozone depletion, urban air pollution and the impact of aerosols on climate. Those efforts eventually led to the establishment of the Institute of the Environment and Sustainability in 1997, which Turco oversaw until 2003. He retired from UCLA in 2011.

The recipient of a MacArthur Fellowship in 1986, Turco has also been awarded NASA’s H. Julian Allen Award for outstanding research, the American Physical Society’s Leo Szilard Prize and a UCLA Distinguished Faculty Research Lectureship.

The Turcos’ pledge is the latest major donation the couple has made to UCLA. In 2017, they established an endowment to fund fellowships for outstanding graduate students in their third and fourth years of study in the department of atmospheric and oceanic studies — vitally important years in a doctoral student’s academic career. A portion of that endowment also supports an award for research papers published in scientific journals by graduate students or postdoctoral scholars. A 2019 gift from the couple established the first endowed faculty chair in the department’s history.

“The future of human civilization will best be served by education — at all levels, in all places — and the world’s great universities will be called on to provide an unshakable foundation for global progress, equity and prosperity,” Richard Turco said. “With this in mind, those, like myself, who have benefited most from past access to education should be among the most willing to support future access for others, with generosity and hope.”

Miguel García-Garibay, dean of the UCLA Division of Physical Sciences, which houses the Institute of the Environment and Sustainability, lauded the Turcos’ ongoing support for students and faculty in the environmental sciences.

“Richard and Linda Turco have set a shining example of giving back, for which we are immensely grateful,” García-Garibay said. “Not only has Richard been instrumental in building UCLA’s excellence in researching environmental solutions, but he and Linda have chosen to establish a lasting legacy of financial support for this area, helping to ensure the institute’s impact for years to come.”

The building blocks of the Institute of the Environment and Sustainability

Aerial view of La Kretz Hall

La Kretz Hall, home of the institute. | Image credit: UCLA

As the head of the department of atmospheric and oceanic sciences and a member of UCLA’s Institute of Geophysics and Planetary Physics in the 1990s, Richard Turco was well placed to tackle the challenges of what at the time was called “global change” — the planetary-scale environmental issues beginning to take center stage internationally.

Together with a group of like-minded faculty members from academic departments across campus, he organized a multidisciplinary research program to study the growing risks posed by ozone depletion, climate warming and other hazards. Turco and his colleagues felt strongly that a top research university like UCLA could — and should — take a lead role in the quest to understand and mitigate such existential threats to civilization.

Turco spearheaded several early projects, including a large-scale research study of the Los Angeles Basin watershed and the establishment of a geographic information system, or GIS, data processing lab. In 1997, the program officially became the UCLA Institute of the Environment and Sustainability, which has since grown into broad and powerful agent in the service of a sustainable environment.

During Turco’s tenure as director (1997–2003), the institute moved into the newly built La Kretz Hall (above). The building, funded by a donation from UCLA alumnus and longtime sustainability supporter Morton La Kretz, was the first on campus to receive LEED, or Leadership in Energy and Design, certification by the U.S. Green Building Council.

This article originally appeared in the UCLA Newsroom. For more news and updates from the UCLA College, visit college.ucla.edu/news.

Image of Judith Baca, UCLA professor emeritus of Chicana and Chicano and Central American studies and of world arts and cultures, at the unveiling of her mural “La Memoria de la Tierra: UCLA.” Image credit: Don Liebig/ASUCLAImage credit: Don Liebig/ASUCLA

New mural captures campus history and UCLA’s future

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Renowned artist and professor Judith Baca created the nearly 80-foot artwork
Image of Judith Baca, UCLA professor emeritus of Chicana and Chicano and Central American studies and of world arts and cultures, at the unveiling of her mural “La Memoria de la Tierra: UCLA.” Image credit: Don Liebig/ASUCLA

Judith Baca, UCLA professor emeritus of Chicana and Chicano and Central American studies and of world arts and cultures, at the unveiling of her mural “La Memoria de la Tierra: UCLA.” Image credit: Don Liebig/ASUCLA

By Mike Fricano |

The ask was bold and befitting a Bruin like professor and artist Judith Baca: depict the history, present and future of UCLA and the land where it resides, in a mural.

In a special evening ceremony on Friday, April 1, several hundred people gathered to celebrate the culmination of nearly three years of work, as Baca unveiled “La Memoria de la Tierra: UCLA.” The nearly 80-foot mural is on the north side of Ackerman Union as part of the Wescom Student Terrace.

The mural, which translates into English as “The Memory of Earth: UCLA,” is made up of three 26-foot-long glass panels. The left panel portrays Westwood — long before UCLA — with a shimmering light-blue outline of Royce Hall where it sits today. In the center, a circle of dozens of people including faculty, alumni, civil rights and social justice leaders whom Baca called her heroes and said represent the diverse and lesser-known history of campus and the land.

The middle panel is built around a trinity of women: Toypurina, a Tongva woman who opposed the colonial rule by Spanish missionaries in California in the late 1700s; Angela Davis, civil rights activist and former UCLA faculty member, who was fired by the University of California Board of Regents for her association with communism; and Dolores Huerta, the iconic labor leader who worked with César Chávez on behalf of farmworkers.

Image of The central panel of “La Memoria de la Tierra: UCLA.”

The central panel of “La Memoria de la Tierra: UCLA.” Image credit: Don Liebig/ASUCLA

“We hope in the future that students will be able to sit here [in this courtyard] and be able to find out who these people are and what did they do,” said Baca, who retired last year, after years as a professor of Chicana and Chicano and Central American studies and a professor of world arts and cultures.

To situate the people in their proper historical context, the mural captures scenes from events such as the Black Lives Matter student demonstrations in 2020, protests against the Vietnam War in 1976 and also a depiction of the Manzanar War Relocation Center.

The future of the campus is on the right, with rhizomes (long, narrow channel-like roots) filled with the faces of other significant people — many of them faculty — who are doing the work to bring UCLA into the future and ensuring that UCLA remains in harmony with the land.

Baca told the audience that the third panel was designed “to take the knowledge that comes from the university and [spread] it widely.”

Image of Desirae Barragan, who is a registered member of the Gabrieleño Band of Mission Indians, Kizh Nation, at the unveiling of the mural “La Memoria de la Tierra: UCLA.”

Desirae Barragan, who is a registered member of the Gabrieleño Band of Mission Indians, Kizh Nation, at the unveiling of the mural “La Memoria de la Tierra: UCLA.” Barragan is a descendent of the person depicted in the center, Toypurina, a Tongva/Kizh woman who helped lead an uprising against Spanish missionaries. Image credit: Don Liebig/ASUCLA

The mural is the result of a partnership among the UCLA Centennial Committee; Associated Students UCLA, or ASUCLA, a nonprofit association that drives student services and activities throughout campus; and the Digital Mural Lab from the Social and Public Art Resource Center, or SPARC. It was in 1976 that Baca and two other artists founded SPARC, a Venice-based arts center that creates, preserves and hosts programs about community-based public artwork. The mural was created with financial support from Wescom Credit Union.

This article originally appeared in the UCLA Newsroom. For more news and updates from the UCLA College, visit college.ucla.edu/news.

Image of electrons in a Van Allen radiation belt (blue) encountering whistler waves (purple) and being sent raining toward the north pole (red). THEMIS satellites are seen near the radiation belt, while UCLA’s ELFIN hovers above Earth.Image source: Zhang, et al., Nature Communications, 2022

UCLA researchers discover source of super-fast ‘electron rain’

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The downpours, which can affect satellites and space travel, are caused by electromagnetic whistler waves, scientists say
Image of electrons in a Van Allen radiation belt (blue) encountering whistler waves (purple) and being sent raining toward the north pole (red). THEMIS satellites are seen near the radiation belt, while UCLA’s ELFIN hovers above Earth.

Electrons in a Van Allen radiation belt (blue) encounter whistler waves (purple) and are sent raining toward the north pole (red). THEMIS satellites are seen near the radiation belt, while UCLA’s ELFIN hovers above Earth. Image source: Zhang, et al., Nature Communications, 2022

By Emmanuel Masongsong and UCLA Newsroom

UCLA scientists have discovered a new source of super-fast, energetic electrons raining down on Earth, a phenomenon that contributes to the colorful aurora borealis but also poses hazards to satellites, spacecraft and astronauts.

The researchers observed unexpected, rapid “electron precipitation” from low-Earth orbit using the ELFIN mission, a pair of tiny satellites built and operated on the UCLA campus by undergraduate and graduate students guided by a small team of staff mentors.

By combining the ELFIN data with more distant observations from NASA’s THEMIS spacecraft, the scientists determined that the sudden downpour was caused by whistler waves, a type of electromagnetic wave that ripples through plasma in space and affects electrons in the Earth’s magnetosphere, causing them to “spill over” into the atmosphere.

Their findings, published March 25 in the journal Nature Communications, demonstrate that whistler waves are responsible for far more electron rain than current theories and space weather models predict.

“ELFIN is the first satellite to measure these super-fast electrons,” said Xiaojia Zhang, lead author and a researcher in UCLA’s department of Earth, planetary and space sciences. “The mission is yielding new insights due to its unique vantage point in the chain of events that produces them.”

Central to that chain of events is the near-Earth space environment, which is filled with charged particles orbiting in giant rings around the planet, called Van Allen radiation belts. Electrons in these belts travel in Slinky-like spirals that literally bounce between the Earth’s north and south poles. Under certain conditions, whistler waves are generated within the radiation belts, energizing and speeding up the electrons. This effectively stretches out the electrons’ travel path so much that they fall out of the belts and precipitate into the atmosphere, creating the electron rain.

► Curious about how whistler waves got their name? Have a listen.

One can imagine the Van Allen belts as a large reservoir filled with water — or, in this case, electrons, said Vassilis Angelopoulos, a UCLA professor of space physics and ELFIN’s principal investigator. As the reservoir fills, water periodically spirals down into a relief drain to keep the basin from overflowing. But when large waves occur in the reservoir, the sloshing water spills over the edge, faster and in greater volume than the relief drainage. ELFIN, which is downstream of both flows, is able to properly measure the contributions from each.

An artist’s rendering of one of UCLA’s bread loaf–sized ELFIN satellites in low-Earth orbit.

An artist’s rendering of one of UCLA’s bread loaf–sized ELFIN satellites in low-Earth orbit. Image credit: Emmanuel Masongsong/UCLA

The low-altitude electron rain measurements by ELFIN, combined with the THEMIS observations of whistler waves in space and sophisticated computer modeling, allowed the team to understand in detail the process by which the waves cause rapid torrents of electrons to flow into the atmosphere.

The findings are particularly important because current theories and space weather models, while accounting for other sources of electrons entering the atmosphere, do not predict this extra whistler wave–induced electron flow, which can affect Earth’s atmospheric chemistry, pose risks to spacecraft and damage low-orbiting satellites.

The researchers further showed that this type of radiation-belt electron loss to the atmosphere can increase significantly during geomagnetic storms, disturbances caused by enhanced solar activity that can affect near-Earth space and Earth’s magnetic environment.

“Although space is commonly thought to be separate from our upper atmosphere, the two are inextricably linked,” Angelopoulos said. “Understanding how they’re linked can benefit satellites and astronauts passing through the region, which are increasingly important for commerce, telecommunications and space tourism.”

Since its inception in 2013, more than 300 UCLA students have worked on ELFIN (Electron Losses and Fields investigation), which is funded by NASA and the National Science Foundation. The two microsatellites, each about the size of a loaf of bread and weighing roughly 8 pounds, were launched into orbit in 2018, and since then have been observing the activity of energetic electrons and helping scientists to better understand the effect of magnetic storms in near-Earth space. The satellites are operated from the UCLA Mission Operations Center on campus.

“It’s so rewarding to have increased our knowledge of space science using data from the hardware we built ourselves,” said Colin Wilkins, a co-author of the current research who is the instrument lead on ELFIN and a space physics doctoral student in the department of Earth, planetary and space sciences.

Image of members of the current ELFIN UCLA student team responsible for the daily satellite operations at the mission operations center, which is housed in the Geology Building on campus.

Members of the current ELFIN UCLA student team responsible for the daily satellite operations at the mission operations center, which is housed in the Geology Building on campus. Image credit: Ethan Tsai/UCLA

Read more about UCLA’s ELFIN Mission on Newsroom:

► We have liftoff: UCLA’s student-built ELFIN satellites

► UCLA students launch project that’s out of this world

► Undergrads are first to build an entire satellite on campus

This article originally appeared in the UCLA Newsroom. For more news and updates from the UCLA College, visit college.ucla.edu/news.

Image of Angela Deaver Campbell with three 2019 graduates who benefited from the Scholarship Resource Center’s support, Wesley Armstrong, Sereena Nand and Austin Lee.Image credit: Alyssa Bierce/UCLA College

25 years of helping UCLA students graduate with less debt

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Scholarship Resource Center celebrates a quarter-century of connecting Bruins with financial support, mentorship, community
Image of Angela Deaver Campbell with three 2019 graduates who benefited from the Scholarship Resource Center’s support, Wesley Armstrong, Sereena Nand and Austin Lee.

Angela Deaver Campbell with three 2019 graduates who benefited from the Scholarship Resource Center’s support, Wesley Armstrong, Sereena Nand and Austin Lee. Image credit: Alyssa Bierce/UCLA College

By Jonathan Riggs | April 5, 2022

Ask Angela Deaver Campbell how she envisioned the work of the UCLA Scholarship Resource Center, which she launched in 1996, and you’ll get a fairly understated answer: “I saw us as ambassadors of goodwill helping students to graduate with less debt.”

Ask any of the hundreds of students she and her team have helped over the past 25 years, however, and their responses speak to the center’s profound impact.

“I absolutely would not be where I am today without Angela’s and the SRC’s support,” said Aleksandr Katsnelson, a 2009 graduate who went on to earn a law degree from Harvard University. “Angela wore many hats during our interactions: role model, emotional support provider and hero.”

Helping students compete for and win scholarships is the most visible aspect of their mission, but the resource center’s staff also brings a compassionate, high-touch approach to aiding students in other critical ways, including presentation skills, goal-setting and navigating complicated institutional structures.

Constantly evolving with the times, the center proved a beacon for students whose financial situations became unpredictable during the COVID-19 pandemic.

“I was really lost as to how to navigate my financial situation, and the SRC addressed all of my questions and concerns,” said Alice Yanovsky, a 2021 graduate who, with guidance from the center, earned a Mandel and Winick Undergraduate Scholarship. “They helped me pay for my last year of school during the peak of the pandemic, which was a really scary time.”

The center’s legacy keeps growing thanks to Deaver Campbell, who still serves as director, and assistant director Rebecca Blustein, student affairs officer Mac Harris and a group of graduate students who act as student affairs advisors. And while its scope has expanded, the center’s core mission remains unchanged: to provide scholarship information, resources, mentoring and support to all UCLA students.

“Most colleges and universities do not have a center like this — we were way ahead of the curve in 1996 in reimagining the 20th century model of having students sink or swim on their own in the private scholarship process,” Deaver Campbell said. “The SRC is unique in that we provide students with high-touch, holistic service and counseling, regardless of their financial aid eligibility.”

The center’s emphasis on treating students as unique individuals, as opposed to a one-size-fits-all approach, hasn’t gone unnoticed.

“Starting from day one, I knew that I could go to Angela and her team with questions about my scholarship, academics or even job searches,” said Max Harrell, a 2021 graduate whose education was supported by a Thelma L. Culverson Scholarship, which covers California resident tuition and room and board. “The fact that everyone at the SRC knows your name, your goals on campus and even what classes you’re taking, demonstrates how much they want you to succeed.”

When the center opened in 1996, its sole focus was to help students locate and apply for scholarships from off-campus sources. But in 1998, staff began working with development officers at the UCLA College to support students applying for 18 private donor-funded scholarships. Today, the number of scholarships overseen by the resource center has grown to around 100; and of the approximately $5 million in donor-funded scholarships overseen by UCLA’s Division of Undergraduate Education, the center administers about half.

Key to the center’s success are the UCLA graduate students who provide writing and counseling support, and run workshops on how to secure scholarships. Over the years, more than 50 graduate students have served in that role, and many have gone on to use their skills in faculty, administrative and student support positions at other institutions — at East Los Angeles College, the University of Chicago, Brown University and the University of Oregon, to name a few.

One of the center’s current priorities is empowering more students to vie for the world’s most competitive scholarships — including the Rhodes, Marshall, Mitchell, Truman and Churchill — while coordinating the campus process for them. Leading that charge is Blustein, the assistant director, who can draw on her experience not only as a former student affairs advisor, but also as a past winner of a Mitchell scholarship.

Herman Luis Chavez, who expects to graduate from UCLA in June, is just one of the students benefiting from that approach. “Dr. Blustein was there for me every step of the way, from editing my application essays to providing mock interviews,” said Chavez, who received support from the center on his way to winning a Marshall scholarship and becoming a finalist for a Rhodes scholarship.

But beyond its ability to help students win scholarships, Blustein said, the center aims to empower all students who walk through its doors, no matter where they go or what they do after UCLA.

“The process of applying for scholarships — win or lose — was crucial to help me visualize my career goals and instrumental to prepare me for where I am today,” said Nathan Mallipeddi, a 2020 graduate who earned both Strauss and Fulbright scholarships and is now a first-year medical student at Harvard.

As the center begins its second quarter-century, Deaver Campbell has identified another important goal: securing independent support to help ensure it can continue to thrive regardless of statewide budget cuts.

“We would love for a donor to make the SRC’s funding permanent, so that no economic downturn could ever affect our ability to help change lives,” Deaver Campbell said. “Every year, more students and families come to us for solutions. Our work is too important to be vulnerable.”

Many students who have been helped by the Scholarship Resource Center have learned to appreciate the importance of philanthropy and some, like Darnel Grant, hope to become future donors themselves.

“The SRC provided me with constant support and encouragement throughout my undergraduate journey. They made me feel I was not going through my educational process alone,” said Grant, a recipient of the Eugene and Maxine Rosenfeld Scholarship who expects to graduate in June. “Now, my life’s goal is to help others to the same degree that the SRC helped me.”

This article originally appeared in the UCLA Newsroom. For more of Our Stories at the College, click here.

Image credit: UCLA

UCLA poised to become a world leader in hip-hop studies

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Building on decades of scholarship, the campus’s new Hip Hop Initiative will highlight the local and global impact of this Black art form
Collage image of the covers of books on hip-hop and Black culture by UCLA faculty members who will play an integral role in the new Hip Hop Initiative.

A sampling of books on hip-hop and Black culture by UCLA faculty members who will play an integral role in the new Hip Hop Initiative. Image credit: UCLA

By Jessica Wolf

UCLA’s Ralph J. Bunche Center for African American Studies today launched its wide-ranging Hip Hop Initiative, which will establish UCLA as a leading center for hip-hop studies globally by way of artist residencies, community engagement programs, a book series, an oral history and digital archive project, postdoctoral fellowships and more.

Chuck D, the longtime leader of the politically and socially conscious rap group Public Enemy, is the program’s first artist-in-residence.

The initiative focuses on hip-hop as one of modern history’s most powerful cultural movements and most visible symbols of contemporary Black performance and protest.

“As we celebrate 50 years of hip-hop music and cultural history, the rigorous study of the culture offers us a wealth of intellectual insight into the massive social and political impact of Black music, Black history and Black people on global culture — from language, dance, visual art and fashion to electoral politics, political activism and more,” said anthropology professor H. Samy Alim, who is spearheading the initiative.

Co-leading the initiative with Alim are Bunche Center assistant director Tabia Shawel and Samuel Lamontagne, a doctoral candidate in the department of ethnomusicology.

The initiative is something Alim and his colleagues have been working toward for decades. It builds on the wealth of hip-hop scholarship produced at UCLA and across institutes of higher education since the 1990s and comes at a “convergence moment” when hip-hop music and culture have become dominant in the public sphere, as evidenced by the recent Super Bowl halftime show and the addition of break dancing to the 2024 Olympic Games.

“We’re also in a historical moment of hip-hop culture entering its ‘museum phase,’” said dream hampton, a writer and filmmaker who serves on the group’s advisory board.

Indeed, the Smithsonian Institution recently released a comprehensive hip-hop anthology, and museums like the Universal Hip Hop Museum in the Bronx and the South African Hip Hop Museum in Johannesburg are solely dedicated to the music and culture.

Shining a light on the West Coast and Los Angeles

With the launch of the initiative, UCLA becomes the first major West Coast destination for scholarly explorations of hip-hop culture, which allows for a deeper focus on hip-hop’s local development and impact, said Lamontagne, whose dissertation reexamines Los Angeles hip-hop history.

“Our goal,” he said, “is also to advance the legacy of UCLA by producing original, creative, public-facing, social justice–oriented work and building bridges between academia and the community by discussing the implications of scholarly research and how it can serve Black and brown communities in Los Angeles.”

The concentration of world-renowned scholars of hip-hop at UCLA makes the campus uniquely suited to lead hip-hop studies, both locally and globally, into the future, Shawel noted.

“At this moment, the UCLA Bunche Center has a critical mass of highly regarded, innovative faculty who, in some instances, have been writing about hip-hop culture for over four decades, exploring its musical, social and political impact around the world, from South Central to South Africa,” she said.

The Hip Hop Initiative’s advisory board includes some of the nation’s leading hip-hop artists and thinkers, like hampton, Chuck D, Joan Morgan, Davey D and UCLA alumni Jeff Chang and Ben Caldwell, who will serve alongside UCLA professors Cheryl Keyes, Bryonn Bain, Adam Bradley, Scot Brown, Gaye Theresa Johnson, Robin Kelley, Kyle Mays and Shana Redmond.

Image of Hip-hop legends Chuck D, Rakim and Talib Kweli, curator and journalist Tyree Boyd-Pates, and UCLA’s H. Samy Alim at an event at the California African American Museum co-sponsored by the Hip Hop Studies Working Group at UCLA.

Left to right: Hip-hop legends Chuck D, Rakim and Talib Kweli, curator and journalist Tyree Boyd-Pates, and UCLA’s H. Samy Alim at an event at the California African American Museum co-sponsored by the Hip Hop Studies Working Group at UCLA. (March 11, 2020) Image credit: HRDWRKER/Courtesy of California African American Museum

Hip-hop studies: Growing from UCLA roots

One of the pioneering academics in the field, Keyes is a professor at the UCLA Herb Alpert School of Music and chair of the department of African American studies. Nearly two decades ago, a group of graduate students set up an informal hip-hop research group with Keyes as their guide. In 2005, Alim organized their efforts into the formal Hip Hop Studies Working Group at UCLA, which has become a space for graduate students, postdoctoral scholars and advanced undergraduates to explore methodological and theoretical issues in the study of hip-hop culture.

“It’s been incredible to witness and mentor so many students as they reach into the histories and experiences of the communities that gave rise to hip-hop,” Keyes said. “There’s a richness and depth and context that are yet to be discovered and revealed, and this initiative will support much more of that.”

Students have also benefited from the working group’s ongoing speaker and event series, which has recently featured hip-hop icons Rakim, Chuck D and Talib Kweli at the California African American Museum and a film screening and discussion with rapper and filmmaker Boots Riley at the Fowler Museum at UCLA.

In addition to supporting the efforts of the Hip Hop Studies Working Group, the Hip Hop Initiative will include a wide variety of programs, including:

  • Artists-in-residence
    UCLA will host hip-hop artists whose work foregrounds issues of community engagement and social justice. Chuck D, who begins his UCLA residency this week, will participate in a series of on-campus events that bring together artists and members of the community.
  • Global community engagement
    Community-based projects include the Hip Hop High School–to–Higher Education Pipeline, the Hip Hop Disability Justice Project (with the Krip-Hop movement) and a long-standing project exploring hip-hop as culturally sustaining pedagogy in Spain and South Africa.
  • Book series and publications
    The initiative will expand the University of California Press Hip Hop Studies Series, which is edited by Alim and Chang along with leading hip-hop intellectuals Tricia Rose, Mark Anthony Neal, Marc Lamont Hill and others. The second book from this series, “Rebel Speak: A Justice Movement Mixtape” by Bryonn Bain, hits bookstores this spring. The initiative will also support the work of emerging scholars through manuscript-development workshops.
  • Postdoctoral fellowships
    The initiative will support a research position intended for hip-hop studies scholars whose work seeks to improve the conditions of Black life. Scholars will be housed in the Bunche Center.
  • Hip-hop lecture series
    Public-facing lectures will feature cutting-edge hip-hop scholarship presented by international scholars.
  • Oral history and digital archive
    UCLA is the first institution on the West Coast to develop an archive dedicated to the study of hip-hop in Los Angeles, which has long been a major hub for hip-hop cultural production and the hip-hop industry. Faculty and staff involved in the initiative have begun a community-based oral history and digital archive focused on preserving the history of West Coast hip-hop.

Read more on UCLA Newsroom and UCLA Magazine about hip-hop studies at UCLA:

► Teaching rap lyrics as literature

► Cheryl Keyes hits the right notes with Smithsonian anthology

► Are major labels passing up profits by playing to racial stereotypes?

► Bryonn Bain: ‘Lyrics from lockdown’

► Beat scholars

This article originally appeared in the UCLA Newsroom. For more news and updates from the UCLA College, visit college.ucla.edu.