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Image of UCLA Chancellor Gene Block addressing attendees of the UCLA Rothman Family Institute for Food Studies launchImage by Vince Bucci

Celebrating the launch of the UCLA Rothman Family Institute for Food Studies

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Image of UCLA Chancellor Gene Block addressing attendees of the UCLA Rothman Family Institute for Food Studies launch

UCLA Chancellor Gene Block addresses attendees of the UCLA Rothman Family Institute for Food Studies launch | Image by Vince Bucci

Editor’s note: Check out our feature article, “Food for Thought,” in the UCLA College Magazine for additional coverage of the UCLA Rothman Family Institute for Food Studies and its progress.

By Jonathan Riggs | June 6, 2022

Over a fresh farm-to-table meal courtesy of Lulu restaurant’s David Tanis and Alice Waters and the soundtrack of a UCLA student jazz group, members of the Bruin family gathered Monday, April 18 at the Hammer Museum to celebrate the launch of the UCLA Rothman Family Institute for Food Studies.

“Food is one of humanity’s few universally shared experiences, but questions about how to feed the world are some of the most complex and pressing issues of our time,” said UCLA Chancellor Gene Block. “These essential questions will be tackled by the Institute’s scholars and partners, who will take a holistic approach to understanding all there is to know about food and its impact on society.”

Guest of honor Marcie H. Rothman traced the night’s celebration all the way back to her parents, Ray and Shirley, who inspired her and her sister, Rita — all proud Bruins — to view the world with curiosity and to appreciate UCLA for the vast knowledge, impact and community spirit that epitomize its community.

When her own journey as a successful television chef and lifelong learner dovetailed with the opportunity to solidify UCLA’s global leadership in the food studies arena, Rothman was proud to help the Institute take permanent shape.

“Food connects and sustains, and the Institute will represent all of that and more for current and future students and faculty,” she said. “Tonight would have been my dad’s hundredth birthday, and I know both my parents would have considered news of the Institute the greatest gift they could have asked for.”

Highlights from the launch of the UCLA Rothman Family Institute for Food Studies, featuring speakers (in order of appearance) Adriana Galván, Dean of Undergraduate Education; Marcie Rothman, TV and radio personality, food educator and author; Amy Rowat, Marcie H. Rothman Presidential Term Chair for Food Studies; and Evan Kleiman, speaker, chef, author, radio host (KCRW) and restaurant owner.

Dean of the Division of Undergraduate Education Adriana Galván took the opportunity to thank her predecessors, Judi Smith and Pat Turner, for paving the way for the division’s first institute and reflected on why this is such a transformational step for UCLA.

“It is clear to see that the building blocks of the Institute are as dynamic as they are interdisciplinary, and that’s what makes it so special,” she said. “The UCLA Rothman Family Institute for Food Studies will house UCLA’s popular Food Studies minor; provide ongoing funding for research, curriculum and library resources; and will bring together faculty, staff, students, chefs and members of the community.”

Galván went on to discuss how the global-leading work of the Institute will use food as a lens to guide and inform public policy while addressing wide-ranging issues, including food insecurity, climate change and advancing innovations in food systems, that impact us all.

“By providing a means and the resources to explore these concepts, our students will have an unparalleled collaborative opportunity and the experience of a lifetime to enact true change,” she added. “They will get to see how their work in the classroom translates to work in the real world.”

Renowned for pioneering the use of cooking as a medium to engage students and general audiences with science, biophysicist Amy Rowat shared her excitement for the new Institute, as well as her gratitude for being named UCLA’s inaugural Marcie H. Rothman Professor of Food Studies.

“I’m both thrilled and extremely grateful that the Marcie H. Rothman Presidential Chair will support my students’ food-based research to realize our vision of a world where we can produce delicious, nutritious foods to sustainably feed all,” Rowat said. “I’m also excited to expand my education research, using food to engage students in tackling complex societal challenges through interdisciplinary approaches.”

Rowat shared details from a new class she’s developing for the Institute’s Chef in Residence program, which includes studying historical narratives of enslaved Black chefs, learning about diffusion equations by marinating tofu, and exploring how soil pollutants can contribute to systemic health inequities.

“Food is truly such a powerful medium to engage students to become critical thinkers and advocates who will address pressing societal issues,” she said. “The Rothman Family Institute for Food Studies is a beacon of hope and innovation that will fortify this interdisciplinary food-focused approach to solve the challenges of our next generation.”

Famed KCRW “Good Food” host and restaurateur Evan Kleiman also spoke, describing how her life and career have been driven by curiosity focused through food, and how it can bring us into a better understanding of our humanity.

“My extreme focus on food made me kind of an outlier — it’s still hard to convince some people that food is worthy of serious academic study,” she said. “Recently, I asked Yale’s Paul Freedman why he thought that food was so often dismissed as an area of serious study. He replied that ‘materiality, necessity and repetition contribute to the apparent banality of food.’ I would say that this apparent banality is precisely why food is such a powerful holder of identity and culture.”

“The Institute has an exceptional opportunity to become a focus for deep interdisciplinary discussions of culture, community and how our decisions affect personal and planetary health,” Kleiman added. “Our health and wellbeing are linked to worldwide decisions about food production resources, and these decisions have consequences and costs regarding human health, poverty, justice and the natural world.”

As the evening drew to a close, Marcie H. Rothman led a toast honoring Alice Waters for being such a visionary UCLA collaborator while celebrating a bright future of many more efforts to come.

“I can think of nothing more important than connecting education and food,” said Waters. “The Rothman Family Institute has the potential to teach students the values we desperately need in order to live together on this planet: stewardship of the land, equity, community and nourishment. This edible education institute will be a prototype for schools in this country and around the world.”

Guests lingered over their dinners under the party lights in the trees, visibly inspired by discussions of the UCLA Rothman Family Institute for Food Studies and its limitless potential.

“Thank you for joining us to launch an institute that will not only challenge the way we look at our plates, but will also reframe how we see our neighborhood stores, farms, supply chains, restaurants, and more,” Chancellor Block concluded. “This is a spectacular specialty that will really define UCLA and bring about important change.”

For more of Our Stories at the College, click here.

Images of, from left to right, UCLA College transfer students Carina Salazar, Chris Adams, Daniella Efrat and Darnel Grant.

Stories of success: transfer students celebrate their UCLA graduation

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Images of, from left to right, UCLA College transfer students Carina Salazar, Chris Adams, Daniella Efrat and Darnel Grant.

Left to right: Carina Salazar, Chris Adams, Daniella Efrat and Darnel Grant.

By Jonathan Riggs | June 3, 2022

“What I tell everyone I work with,” says Carina Salazar, director of UCLA’s Transfer Student Center, “is that you don’t succeed at UCLA despite being a transfer student. You succeed at UCLA because you’re a transfer student.”

Nearly a quarter of UCLA’s undergraduates are transfer students; what they bring to campus in terms of their richly diverse life experience cannot be overstated. They arrive at UCLA having made intentional choices and even sacrifices that reflect just what it means to them to become Bruins—one current transfer student living in the residence halls, for example, decided it was her turn to get an education after her children graduated from college.

Image of Carina Salazar

Carina Salazar,  Transfer Student Center director

Established in 2009, the UCLA Transfer Student Center is the go-to resource for current and future transfer students with a stated mission “to provide a welcoming environment and create a community that is inclusive of all lived experiences.”

A transfer student herself, Salazar was born in rural Mexico and was the first in her family to graduate from college, so she knows what the experience can mean, especially during commencement season.

“It’s such a powerful, emotional experience to see transfer students graduating from UCLA, because the transformation they have experienced here will change the course of their lives forever,” she says. “When we meet the needs of our transfer students and help them succeed, the experience for all students is better for it.”

“Transfer students are vibrant, essential voices in our shared Bruin community,” says Adriana Galván, dean of undergraduate education. “Together, we are UCLA and our united potential is limitless.”

Here are a few snapshots of success among our newest Bruin alumni who transferred to UCLA.

 

Image of Chris Adams

Chris Adams

Staying Inspired

For a long time, attending college seemed like an impossibility to Chris Adams. He’d dropped out of high school, had a son and was focused on football coaching. But his growing interest in politics and civil rights activism inspired him to get his GED and then complete community college with highest honors.

Transferring via a UCLA College Reentry Scholarship, Adams held a job on campus and fell in love with his coursework. He joined the national civil rights organization People’s Alliance for Justice and traveled to Minneapolis with the group after the murder of George Floyd to offer assistance to community members in need. He graduated last quarter with a B.A. in sociology—again with highest honors—and is now preparing to take the LSAT.

“If it wasn’t for the support I received at UCLA and the encouragement of my mentors, I wouldn’t have believed I could ever start down the path of becoming an attorney,” says Adams. “Sometimes I can’t believe that everything I dreamed of and worked for actually came to fruition.”

Today he finds himself in a unique position, helping inspire two important people in his life to find their way to higher education as well: his high-school-aged son and his mother.

“My son is getting a different type of high school education than I did, and I couldn’t be prouder. As he looks ahead to his own college journey, we talk about the things I learned in sociology and how we can both work to change some of the structures in place,” Adams says. “And I couldn’t be prouder that my mom went back to school and is battling it out now. We definitely laugh about the universal college student desire to procrastinate on writing papers, but she’s the smartest person I know.”

As he looks ahead to his next steps and reaffirms his commitment to public service, Adams says that becoming a Bruin has given him the ability to picture a fuller future for himself, of service and purpose.

“The entire UCLA community, from my classmates to the Scholarship Resource Center to the faculty and alumni have inspired me to want to become a leader,” he says. “I wouldn’t be where I am without my mentors, and I’m eager to do what I can to make it easier for those who come after me.”

 

Image of Darnel Grant

Darnel Grant

Working Hard

Like so many other talented young people, Darnel Grant originally moved to Los Angeles to get into the entertainment industry, armed with more enthusiasm than material resources. Struggling to support himself in an expensive city, Grant faced housing insecurity for a time—an experience that later informed his studies at UCLA after he transferred in from community college.

“I started my undergraduate experience at UCLA thinking I wanted a career in politics, but my focus has changed to housing, finance and urban planning,” says Grant, who worked with faculty on research exploring how to improve housing issues in Los Angeles and across the U.S. Next fall, he will start a master’s program in urban and regional planning at the Luskin School of Public Affairs.

No one will be celebrating his graduation more exuberantly, however, than his big sister, who has always encouraged him to realize his full potential. And joining in the celebration will be his allies in UCLA’s Scholarship Resource Center.

“SRC Director Angela Deaver Campbell reminded me of family: she always had my best interests at heart and helped me believe in myself,” he says. “There were times I’d come to her, overwhelmed, and she’d have me feeling like I was the heavyweight champion of the world.”

Thanks in part to the SRC’s support and encouragement to apply for the aid he so desperately needed, Grant earned the Eugene and Maxine Rosenfeld Scholarship, which allowed him to start saving money for the first time in his life and focus completely on his studies.

“I really hope I can help the SRC in some capacity one day. All in all, I’m so impressed with how much UCLA has molded me,” he says. “I feel prepared for what’s next and so, so happy I got through. There were some really intense moments, but this experience proved to me what I can do.”

That said, Grant is definitely not someone to rest on his laurels—he’s planning to work the entire summer and then pursue an internship to gain experience in the housing finance field.

“I definitely have a lot to prove still,” he says. “When I get to a certain point I can prioritize rest, but until then, I’m focused on work.”

 

Image of Daniella Efrat

Daniella Efrat

Realizing a Dream

Daniella Efrat’s family knew how much she had always wanted to attend UCLA. In fact, after she successfully applied to transfer in from Los Angeles Valley College, they may have celebrated even more than she did.

“My grandparents printed out a picture of my acceptance letter to UCLA, framed it and hung it on the wall,” she says. “Seeing how happy they were for me meant everything.”

A political science major with minors in public affairs and labor studies, Efrat came to UCLA after completing an internship at the California Labor Commissioner’s office. Moved to action by the stories of people she helped there, she began an independent research project at UCLA conducting an archival study of immigration-related, retaliation wage claims in California since 2013—the first of its type.

“I’m really passionate about research and public service, and my professional goal is to help immigrant workers by bolstering their legal protections as well as their awareness of these protections,” she says. “I’m going to do my Ph.D. at Stanford in sociology and then start Yale Law School right after—I would love to become a law professor to focus on these issues.”

As excited as she was to transfer to UCLA, Efrat struggled to find her confidence when she first made the switch. But by reaching out to professors whose work she admired, she began to develop a network of mentors who helped her find the right path for her unique journey.

“The best thing you can do—especially at a big school like UCLA—is to contact people and broaden your circle,” she says. “It can be life-changing to find mentors who can guide you, and that relationship can begin with a single conversation or email where you ask a question. I still talk to Rebecca Blustein in the Scholarship Resource Center about my career plans, and she still goes out of her way to help me—you’d be surprised at how generous people can be with their time.”

As her time as a UCLA undergraduate comes to an end, Efrat is able to look back with pride on all that she accomplished in the time she was here—especially during such a unique time.

“I’m proudest that I was able to engage in everything that UCLA has to offer, even during COVID,” Efrat says. “I always dreamed of coming here and I know I made the most of my Bruin experience.”

For more of Our Stories at the College, click here.

Illustration of a solar sail–propelled spacecraft leaving the solar system after a slingshot maneuver using the sun’s gravity to gain speed.Credit: Artur Davoyan and Ella Maru Studio

Q&A: Space physicist Jacob Bortnik on the new UCLA SPACE Institute

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Illustration of a solar sail–propelled spacecraft leaving the solar system after a slingshot maneuver using the sun’s gravity to gain speed.

Illustration of a solar sail–propelled spacecraft leaving the solar system after a slingshot maneuver using the sun’s gravity to gain speed. The concept was developed by UCLA professor Artur Davoyan. Credit: Artur Davoyan and Ella Maru Studio

Jonathan Riggs |

With the launch this spring of the UCLA SPACE Institute, the campus has a new umbrella organization to unite UCLA’s wide array of space-related research activities.

The institute — whose name is an acronym for Space and Planetary Sciences, Applications, Communication, and Engineering — will facilitate collaboration among faculty, staff and students from the UCLA College Division of Physical Sciences, the UCLA Samueli School of Engineering, the UCLA Anderson School of Management and other campus units.
Image of Jacob Bortnik

Courtesy of Jacob Bortnik

One of the institute’s leaders is Jacob Bortnik, a UCLA professor of space physics whose award-winning research helps predict space weather using artificial intelligence in order to protect people and technological systems, not only in orbit but also on the ground. In an interview, he spoke about why even non-scientists should be intrigued by the study of space and the new opportunities that the institute will create for UCLA scholars.

Why is the new institute so important?

I couldn’t even estimate how many faculty, researchers, technical staff, postdocs and students there are at UCLA whose work touches on space — it’s in the hundreds at least — but we don’t all know each other’s work yet. It’s important that we understand the kinds of problems other researchers are tackling, because very often, innovative approaches and solutions exist in different domains that can be brought into an adjacent discipline with tremendous success.

The institute will gather all of those amazing people, build relationships and move everything forward faster — think about something like the COVID-19 vaccine, where lab work that had been done in parallel for decades was ready to go when we needed it, and how much more progress we made after everyone was in conversation.

Aside from the obvious ones, which UCLA academic disciplines might have interesting links to space research?

It’s thrilling to think about how space research can overlap with other disciplines: space law, space-based biomedical technology, space medicine, sustainable agriculture beyond Earth, or even entertainment industry professionals working with the space environment as their creative medium. Those are just a few of the areas of research we hope to expand at UCLA.

Image of UCLA’s first student-built spacecraft, the ELFIN CubeSat, launched in 2018

UCLA’s first student-built spacecraft, the ELFIN CubeSat, launched in 2018. It is still in orbit and gathering data. Image credit: Ethan Tsai

What new resources will the institute provide?

We are aiming to provide financial and administrative support for the development of innovative scientific experiments and satellite mission concepts, and the novel instruments needed to carry out those experiments.

Missions to Mars, Jupiter or Saturn cost billions of dollars, and gaining NASA approval for those experiments is very competitive — you have to prove there is zero chance of your experiment failing. Other labs and universities have internal development funds to cover the preliminary legwork it takes to demonstrate their projects’ readiness, but UCLA doesn’t.

Also, Southern California is the country’s aerospace hub, and it’s in the industry’s best interest to support UCLA, which is right in its backyard. The SPACE Institute will enable UCLA to spearhead big missions with NASA and give students a lot more opportunities to get involved in various aspects of mission and instrument design and scientific exploration from the ground up.

How else will the institute support students?

You don’t have to study astrophysics to work for NASA or become an astronaut; we want the SPACE Institute to show students how broad that scope of career paths really is. Ultimately, we would also like to offer internships to students from underrepresented groups. There is a huge need in the field for diversity, but it can be hard to climb the ladder with how much sacrifice and time is involved.

We plan to work with graduates in STEM fields who are interested in getting professional master’s degrees so they can enter the rapidly expanding space industry more quickly than by going through the typical pathway for doctoral students and postdocs. And we want to help current UCLA students connect with industry internships.

We will also begin public outreach programs, especially geared to K-12 students.

Image of Professor Richard Wirz with a miniature xenon ion thruster, called MiXI, that was developed at the UCLA Samueli School of Engineering

Professor Richard Wirz with a miniature xenon ion thruster, called MiXI, that was developed at the UCLA Samueli School of Engineering. The device can provide high-precision thrust for small satellite missions. Image credit: Wirz Research Group/UCLA

What current UCLA space-related projects do you find especially exciting?

UCLA students have built CubeSats — micro satellites that help scientists better understand magnetic storms in near-Earth space. UCLA researchers are discovering oceans and volcanoes on planetary moons. Space physicists are understanding the sun and plasma processes that lead to high-energy particles and the majestic aurorae. And UCLA astronomers are discovering exoplanets by the hundreds. It’s quite amazing!

Also, one of our engineering colleagues is working on a solar sail, a super-thin sheet that folds out to the size of an Olympic swimming pool and sends a spacecraft shooting out of the solar system about 300 times the speed of a high-powered rifle bullet. The technology could make vast interplanetary and interstellar distances more traversable.

Why should everyone, even non-scientists, be excited about space research?

It’s important to recognize that we’re on the cusp of something huge. We’re becoming a spacefaring civilization, much like when we became seafaring in the 15th century or aeronautical in the 20th century. People already are going up to the edge of space for tourism, and in the next decade or two, the number of manned spacecraft flights will increase, and we will likely send humans to the Moon — and possibly Mars.

Above all, I hope that elevating humanity’s aspirations will somehow elevate our consciousness, and make us less petty and more expansive and daring. It would do us all good to understand that we‘re all on this “spaceship Earth” together, and it is quite fragile.

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

Image of Zerxes BhadhaImage by Elora Greenwale

Written in the stars

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Graduating with a double major and a sense of wonder

Image of Zerxes Bhadha

Zerxes Bhadha | Image by Elora Greenwale

By Jonathan Riggs

At first, Zerxes Bhadha wasn’t sure about applying to UCLA—their father and brother were graduates, and they wanted to give something new a try. (Their mother, a USC alumna, crossed her fingers and hoped.)

“And then I stepped onto campus for Bruin Day and realized the energy here was unparalleled,” laughs Bhadha, who uses they/them pronouns. “There was something about UCLA I just vibed with, and I realized: this is the right place for me.”

Bhadha entered UCLA as an undeclared physical sciences major with a wise-beyond-their-years approach to college life: attending every office hours session to have actual conversations with professors and teaching assistants to learn about their research and glean their advice.

“My TA for a communications class was an urban planning doctoral student, and I thought what he was describing sounded really cool,” Bhadha says. “And then he told me that UCLA Luskin had literally just started an undergrad program.”

Even so, becoming a Public Affairs major felt like only part of the answer—Bhadha was still deeply drawn to science. After all, one of their earliest memories was their father helping them peer through a telescope to examine the moon’s craters, sparking a lifelong love affair with outer space.

“I knew I wanted to double major, and I knew I wanted it to be something for me, something that I would really enjoy,” they say. “And so I double majored in astrophysics, which I wouldn’t trade for the world.”

Their unique combination of majors has paid off: Bhadha has lined up a three-month post-graduation job doing astronomy outreach work at Joshua Tree National Park. It’s very much in line with their dedication to learning while giving back—Bhadha has been a longtime volunteer for the Prison Education Program, teaching astronomy to people who are incarcerated.

“I have always loved the idea that astronomy is very much an equalizer: no matter who or where you are, we’re all underneath the same night sky,” Bhadha says. “It’s meant so much to me to get our students involved asking questions and rediscovering that sense of wonder we have as children looking up at the stars.”

As excited as they are to graduate, Bhadha looks ahead to all the possibilities of life beyond college with a sense of excitement as well as responsibility.

“I’ve had the best experience at UCLA and have come a long way personally. Four years ago, I wouldn’t have thought to ask the questions I’ve learned to ask since,” they say. “I know who I am so much more than I did, but I’m also looking forward to continuing to grow. I’m stoked about the idea that I don’t have a plan beyond Joshua Tree, because figuring it out will be exciting.”

During this time of looking back to look forward, and of celebrations, decisions and endless potential, Bhadha is eagerly anticipating some moments of peaceful reflection in the desert, and the time and space to start a new chapter completely of their own devising.

“All of us have so much power, and I want to use mine to help build the worlds we want to build and do the work that is so special and important to me,” Bhadha says. “I urge everyone to take a moment to look at the night sky and appreciate how lucky we are to be here.”

For more of Our Stories at the College, click here.

Image of three UCLA College professors who received Public Impact Research Awards

Three UCLA College professors receive Public Impact Research Awards

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UCLA’s Office of Research & Creative Activities is honoring faculty for work that connects campus to local and global communities
Image of three UCLA College professors who received Public Impact Research Awards

Left to right: Thomas Smith, distinguished professor of ecology and evolutionary biology; Kelly Lytle Hernández, professor of history, African American studies and urban planning; Alex Hall, professor of atmospheric and oceanic sciences.

Editor’s note: Congratulations to all six UCLA faculty members who received Public Impact Research Awards, including professors Thomas Smith, Kelly Lytle Hernández and Alex Hall  of the UCLA College!

By Manon Snyder |

Spanning work that could help Los Angeles meet skyrocketing demands for housing to research that uses big data to help build a more just society for communities of color to multiple projects related to climate change, UCLA faculty are doing work that has clear and immediate benefits to local and international communities.

To recognize such work, the Office of Research & Creative Activities is bestowing its inaugural Public Impact Research Awards, which were established in collaboration with the UCLA Centennial Celebration but put on hold because of the pandemic.

Two faculty members from north campus and two from south campus will each receive $10,000, along with two joint transdisciplinary awardees who will split the same prize. The award ceremony will be held on June 1.

Dana Cuff

Dana Cuff is a professor of architecture and urban design at the UCLA School of the Arts and Architecture. Cuff is also founding director of cityLAB, an award-winning research center that studies how urbanism and architecture can contribute to a more just built environment. Based on cityLAB studies, Cuff and her team created the BIHOME — a full-scale demonstration of a compact dwelling unit designed to be located in backyards to meet rising housing demands — and BruinHub, a “home away from home” at the John Wooden Center for commuter and housing-insecure students. Cuff co-authored a 2016 bill to advance the implementation of backyard homes in suburbs, and is working on design and legislation for affordable housing to be co-located with public schools.

“At one of the finest public universities in the world, cityLAB-UCLA and our students at architecture and urban design have the privileged platform to demonstrate how to build a socially just, sustainable future,” Cuff said. “I am committed to design research that brings those new possibilities to the public.”

Kelly Lytle Hernández and the Million Dollar Hoods team

Kelly Lytle Hernández is the Thomas E. Lifka Professor of History, as well as a professor of African American studies and urban planning. Launched in 2016, Million Dollar Hoods is a big-data initiative that uses police and jail records to examine costs and incarceration disparities in Los Angeles neighborhoods. Its research is being used for advocacy and legislative change, such as a report on the Los Angeles School Police Department that helped stop the arrest of children ages 14 and under in the Los Angeles Unified School District. Another report was highly instrumental in the passage of California legislation that ended money bail for nonviolent felonies and misdemeanors. Beyond using data to support new policies, Million Dollar Hoods uncovers and preserves stories from Los Angeles residents who have dealt with the policing system.

Alex Hall

Alex Hall is a professor of atmospheric and oceanic sciences, whose research is focused on producing high-resolution projections for climate modeling, particularly in California. Hall extends his expertise beyond campus, working with Los Angeles water management agencies to help ensure the sustainability of water resources for the region. Hall is also working to understand the future of wildfires in the state. He co-founded the Climate and Wildfire Institute to champion collaboration between scientists, stakeholders and policymakers in the use of quantitative data on wildfires to shape management efforts in the western United States.

“We are in the midst of a sustainability crisis, and everyone must do their part to address it,” Hall said. “Nothing makes me happier than marshaling scientific resources to address some of the deepest sustainability challenges in California.”

Thomas Smith

Thomas Smith is a distinguished professor of ecology and evolutionary biology and founder of the UCLA Congo Basin Institute. As UCLA’s first foreign affiliate branch, the Congo Basin Institute works with organizations and the local government and communities to find solutions to environmental and developmental problems facing Central Africa. Continuing his commitment to conservation efforts in Africa, Smith is the founding president of the Conservation Action Research Network, which has provided more than $500,000 in grants to young African scholars. Smith is also the founding director of UCLA’s Center for Tropical Research, which has conducted research in 45 countries to understand biodiversity in the tropics. He also co-founded the Bird Genoscape Project, which uses genomics to map declining bird populations’ migration patterns and how they can inform where to prioritize conservation efforts.

“With accelerating climate change and loss of biodiversity we are rapidly approaching tipping points for many of the world’s ecosystems,” Smith said. “Our team is making a difference by focusing on science-based solutions to mitigate threats to help save the planet.”

Laura Abrams and Elizabeth Barnert

Laura Abrams is a professor of social welfare at the UCLA Luskin School of Public Affairs, and Elizabeth Barnert is an associate professor of pediatrics at the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA. After a 5-year-old was prosecuted in a California juvenile court in 2015 for a curfew violation, Abrams and Barnert conducted research that helped lead to a higher minimum age law to protect younger children. California Senate Bill 439, passed in 2018, excludes children age 11 and under from juvenile court jurisdiction.

“I consider this project and the social policy impact to be the most important achievement in my career,” Abrams said. “I hope to inspire future scholars to conduct research that they are passionate about and that makes a difference.”

Advocates have since partnered with Abrams and Barnert to lead other states to pass or consider similar legislation. Thanks to their research, professional groups, including the American Academy of Pediatrics, now endorse a minimum age of 12 for juvenile court jurisdiction; their research was also used to draft a congressional bill that would set the minimum age for prosecuting youth in the federal criminal legal system at 12.

“I believe in a healthy and just society where all children have the support they need to thrive,” Barnert said.

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

Image of Members of the quantum innovation hub at the UCLA Center for Quantum Science and Engineering.Marc Roseboro/UCLA California NanoSystems Institute

$5 million from Boeing will support UCLA quantum science and technology research

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Image of Members of UCLA Quantum Innovation Hub at the CNSI Building

Members of the quantum innovation hub at the UCLA Center for Quantum Science and Engineering. Image credit: Marc Roseboro/UCLA California NanoSystems Institute

By Jonathan Riggs |

UCLA has received a $5 million pledge from Boeing Co. to support faculty at the Center for Quantum Science and Engineering.

The center, which is jointly operated by the UCLA College Division of Physical Sciences and the UCLA Samueli School of Engineering, brings together scientists and engineers at the leading edge of quantum information science and technology. Its members have expertise in disciplines spanning physics, materials science, electrical engineering, computer science, chemistry and mathematics.

“We are grateful for Boeing’s significant pledge, which will help drive innovation in quantum science,” said Miguel García-Garibay, UCLA’s dean of physical sciences. “This remarkable investment demonstrates confidence that UCLA’s renowned faculty and researchers will spur progress in this emerging field.”

UCLA faculty and researchers are already working on exciting advances in quantum science and engineering, García-Garibay said. And the division’s new one-year master’s program, which begins this fall, will help meet the huge demand for trained professionals in quantum technologies.

Quantum science explores the laws of nature that apply to matter at the very smallest scales, like atoms and subatomic particles. Scientists and engineers believe that controlling quantum systems has vast potential for advancing fields ranging from medicine to national security.

“Harnessing quantum technologies for the aerospace industry is one of the great challenges we face in the coming years,” said Greg Hyslop, Boeing’s chief engineer and executive vice president of engineering, test and technology. “We are committed to growing this field of study and our relationship with UCLA moves us in that direction.”

In addition to its uses in aerospace, examples of quantum theory already in action include superconducting magnets, lasers and MRI scans. The next generation of quantum technology will enable powerful quantum computers, sensors and communication systems and transform clinical trials, defense systems, clean water systems and a wide range of other technologies.

“Quantum information science and technology promises society-changing capabilities in everything from medicine to computing and beyond,” said Eric Hudson, UCLA’s David S. Saxon Presidential Professor of Physics and co-director of the center. “There is still, however, much work to be done to realize these benefits. This work requires serious partnership between academia and industry, and the Boeing pledge will be an enormous help in both supporting cutting-edge research at UCLA and creating the needed relationships with industry stakeholders.”

The Boeing gift complements recent support from the National Science Foundation, including a $25 million award in 2020 to the multi-university NSF Quantum Leap Challenge Institute for Present and Future Quantum Computation, which Hudson co-directs. And in 2021, the UCLA center received a five-year, $3 million traineeship grant for doctoral students from the NSF.

Founded in 2018, the Center for Quantum Science and Engineering draws from the talents and creativity of dozens of faculty members and students.

“Boeing’s support is a huge boost for quantum science and engineering at UCLA,” said Mark Gyure, executive director of the center and a UCLA adjunct professor of electrical and computer engineering at the UCLA Samueli School of Engineering. “Enhancing the Center for Quantum Science and Engineering will attract additional world-class faculty in this rapidly growing field and, together with Boeing and other companies in the region, establish Los Angeles and Southern California as a major hub in quantum science and technology.”

This article originally appeared in the UCLA Newsroom. 

Image of Daniel Treisman, professor of political science at the UCLA CollegeImage credit: Stephanie Diani

Political scientist Daniel Treisman named 2022 Carnegie Fellow

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The expert on Russia aims to understand how today’s threats to democracies emerged
Image of Daniel Treisman, professor of political science at the UCLA College

Daniel Treisman. Image credit: Stephanie Diani

By Manon Snyder |

Daniel Treisman, a professor of political science at the UCLA College, has been named a 2022 Andrew Carnegie Fellow. He joins 27 other fellows across the nation who will each receive a $200,000 stipend to support their social sciences and humanities work.

Founded in 2015, the Andrew Carnegie Fellows Program has provided a philanthropic endowment of $48.8 million to 244 fellows. The program selection criteria includes originality of the research, its potential impact on the field and the scholar’s plans for reaching a broad audience with the findings. This year’s research proposals addressed U.S. democracy, the environment, polarization and inequality, technological and cultural evolution, international relations and other subjects.

“I’m honored to be part of this amazing cohort of scholars,” Treisman said. “The fellowship will help me explore how the particular historical paths different countries took to democracy explain their current weaknesses and sources of resilience.”

Treisman’s research interests focus on Russian politics and economics, as well as analyzing the rise and fall of autocracy, democracy and corruption within the context of comparative politics. He has authored multiple books in his fields of interest, including “The Return: Russia’s Journey From Gorbachev to Medvedev,” which was named one of the Financial Times’ best political books of 2011, and “Spin Dictators: The Changing Face of Tyranny in the 21st Century,” which he co-authored with Sergei Guriev.

The stipend will aid Treisman with his project, “Diagnosing Democratic Frailty: What the History of Free Government Reveals About Today’s Vulnerabilities.” He aims to understand the political and historical processes through which today’s threats to democracies emerged, with the goal of finding solutions to counter these risks and bolster democracies.

Treisman has been a Guggenheim Fellow, a visiting fellow at the Institute for Human Sciences in Vienna, and a visiting fellow at Stanford University’s Hoover Institution and Center for Advanced Study in the Behavioral Sciences. He was a former interim lead editor of the American Political Science Review and is currently a research associate of the National Bureau of Economic Research. Since 2014, Treisman has been director of the Russia Political Insight Project, which investigates political decision-making in Vladimir Putin’s Russia.

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

Image of UCLA professor Alice ShapleyUCLA

Prepare to go back in cosmic time at 132nd Faculty Research Lecture

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Astronomer Alice Shapley to discuss our galaxy’s origins in virtual event, May 17
Image of UCLA professor Alice Shapley

UCLA professor Alice Shapley

Join the journey: The Faculty Research Lecture is free to attend online, but advance registration is required. Visit the website to register for a link. UCLA will publish a video of the lecture on the event website after the lecture.

By Madeline Adamo |

In just the past few days, observers have marveled at the very first images produced by the James Webb Space Telescope, the powerful orbital observatory launched by NASA in December. The space agency is touting the photos as the sharpest at infrared wavelengths ever taken by a space telescope.

Among the first scientists who will be able to study data from the telescope is UCLA astronomy professor Alice Shapley.

Shapley’s research on how galaxies form and evolve is helping to answer fundamental questions about our galaxy’s very existence. On May 17, she will take her audience back through cosmic time — and peer into the future of her field — as she delivers UCLA’s 132nd Faculty Research Lecture. The talk will be broadcast online through Zoom at 4 p.m., with a live Q&A to follow.

In her work, Shapley uses large ground-based telescopes and space-based facilities to collect optical and infrared images and spectra of distant galaxies observed in the early universe. She has led large observing programs using the Keck Observatory in Hawaii and the Hubble Space Telescope.

In advance of her lecture, Shapley answered questions by email about her lifelong love of astronomy and why she and her peers are at an exciting juncture in understanding how galaxies form.

What attracted you to astronomy?

As early as kindergarten, I remember being fascinated by different kinds of stars, like red giants and white dwarfs. In a fifth grade science class, we watched a film strip about these mysterious objects called quasars that were so far away that it took light billions of years to travel from them to us. I learned then that astronomers were using quasars to look back in time. I thought that this link between time and distance — through the speed of light — was the coolest thing ever.

When I visited graduate schools in California in 1997, it was clear that the field of galaxy formation was one of the most exciting things going on, and that the Keck Observatory would be a unique facility for studying galaxies. After deciding to go to Caltech to study astronomy, I haven’t looked back.

What excites you most about the field?

The study of galaxy formation and evolution touches on the very deepest question possible: “Where did we — meaning the Milky Way galaxy — come from?” I love the fundamental nature of that question.

I also think that there is a lot of beauty in astronomical data, such as the exquisite images of galaxies from the Hubble Space Telescope, and in the spectral features we measure by dispersing light into its constituent wavelengths. Also interesting is the fact that the imaging and spectroscopic data we collect contain important clues about the nature of galaxies but require us to figure out how to decode our measurements into real physical quantities.

What was your reaction to being selected to give the Faculty Research Lecture?

There may have been a few — OK, many — yelps of joy and excitement! I was so thrilled, humbled and honored.

What do you hope the audience takes away from your lecture?

I hope the audience gains an appreciation of how astronomers use light to peer back billions of years through cosmic time.

I hope viewers realize that when you look at a picture of a galaxy, it’s interesting not only to describe what’s here today, but also to try to understand how it came to be and to appreciate the power of astronomical spectroscopy for unlocking the mysteries of how galaxies form and evolve in the universe.

And I hope they realize what an exciting juncture astronomers — and all humans — find ourselves at right now, with the launch of the Webb telescope. It promises a transformational boost in sensitivity, along with the power to collect not only beautiful images but breathtakingly detailed spectra. These spectra will provide an unprecedented window into the physics of how planets, stars and galaxies form in the universe.

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

Image of Royce Hall

UCLA College faculty recognized for outstanding teaching

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The Distinguished Teaching Awards are the campus’s highest honor for instruction
Image of the 2020 honorees from the UCLA College of UCLA’s distinguished teaching awards.

The UCLA College’s 2020 honorees of UCLA’s distinguished teaching awards. Top row from left: David Kim, professor of Germanic languages; Matthew Lieberman, professor of psychology. Middle row from left: John Branstetter, lecturer in political science; Tamara Levitz, professor of comparative literature. Bottom row: Margaret Davis, lecturer in writing programs.

Editor’s note: Congratulations to all 2020 honorees of UCLA’s Distinguished Teaching Awards, including five faculty members from the UCLA College.

By Manon Snyder |

The annual Andrea L. Rich Night to Honor Teaching award ceremony, which is sponsored by the UCLA Academic Senate Committee on Teaching and the Center for the Advancement of Teaching, honors faculty who have gone above and beyond in teaching their students.

The Distinguished Teaching Awards — UCLA’s highest honor for teaching — are usually presented during a special ceremony at the Chancellor’s Residence. But due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the 2020 ceremony could not be held.

Winners are chosen based on a range of criteria:

• Impact on students, specifically playing a key role in students’ success, offering advice and guidance on career plans, or serving as a significant influence in students’ lives

• Efforts to create a learning environment in which diverse students can succeed

• Using innovative teaching methods and/or curriculum

• Involvement in community outreach activities

• Teaching ratings

The awards were given out in three categories: distinguished senate faculty, distinguished lecturer and distinguished teaching assistant.

Distinguished Senate Faculty Award

E. Tendayi Achiume is a professor at UCLA School of Law. Her research focuses on global governance of racism and xenophobia, and the legal and ethical implications of colonialism for contemporary international migration. Achiume guides students through communicating in “a mature and respectful way” and prioritizes all her students’ perspectives, empowering students who may not speak up due to certain class dynamics. In October, she was named the inaugural holder of the Alicia Miñana Chair in Law.

Neveen El-Farra is a professor at the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA. She teaches students medical practice and guides them through the art of interacting with and caring for patients in a hospital setting. “I try to emphasize to students all the time that right now, the patient is your teacher, and it’s important that you do everything that you can to connect with your patients because they will teach you medicine that you will never forget,” said El-Farra, who serves as the associate program director in the UCLA Internal Medicine Residency Program.

MarySue Heilemann is a professor at the UCLA School of Nursing. She pioneered the use of transmedia in mental health interventions, a technique which uses storytelling over multiple digital platforms. Her work is currently focused on using transmedia to help Latinas struggling with anxiety and depression. “I authentically believe that learning is a lot of fun for human beings,” she said. “Every year, I go through the syllabus with the students at the end of the year and make changes and tweaks so that the next time I teach it, it’s improved.”

David Kim is a professor of Germanic languages at the UCLA College. His research interests include postcolonial and global studies, human rights, digital humanities and world literature. Kim believes passion is central to his profession: “I try to pass onto my students the same kind of excitement that one feels when one begins to see oneself and others in a different way, and how all of us are somehow enriched by that kind of a transaction.” His latest research involves graph analytics techniques, big data and network analyses in studies of world literature.

Tamara Levitz is a professor of comparative literature at the UCLA College. Her work explores the roles of artistic intentions, gender, social implications and the interactions between artists, musicians, composers, critics, ethnographers, performers and audiences in historical music performances. Levitz, who is also a professor of musicology at the Herb Alpert School of Music, highlights that each student’s path is different and believes that teaching is all about the students “finding what they like, what they really care about.”

Matthew Lieberman is a professor of psychology at the UCLA College. His research uses functional magnetic resonance imaging to examine the neural bases of social cognition and experiences. His classroom is interactive and on the first day, he has students follow a set of instructions in real time that are meant to showcase social interactions and norms. This way, the students get to “experience many of the big themes of social psychology and they do it not by learning about what somebody found in a study but by looking at their own experience in this moment.”

Distinguished Lecturer Award

John Branstetter is a lecturer in the political science department at the UCLA College. His research interests include comparative political theory, continental political thought and East Asian political philosophy, with a focus on translation and movement of ideas between cultures. Branstetter’s teaching philosophy aims to elevate the individual strengths of his diverse cohort of students. “We all benefit from each others’ experiences when you give people the freedom to do what they’re going to do,” he said.

Margaret Davis is a lecturer for UCLA Writing Programs. Her writing interests include popular culture, technology and gender. She encourages students to explore topics they’re passionate about in class discussions and through different writing mediums. Steering the students away from a grade-focused mentality and empowering them to use their writing for advocacy and change helps them “pursue a full and rich and researched argument that they care deeply about and are excited about,” she said.

Cindy Kratzer is a lecturer in the department of education at the UCLA School of Education and Information Studies. Her research interests include reading comprehension instruction, lesson study and student achievement. Kratzer’s teaching philosophy is rooted in helping each individual student succeed despite possible limitations. “A lot of my students come in as first-generation college students who are now first-generation doctoral students,” Kratzer said. “They’re terrified … and my job is to help them be successful.”

Distinguished teaching assistant awardees were:

Clare Beer — geography

Nina Bjekovic — Italian

Elizabeth Crawford — English

John Kardosh — philosophy

Laura Muñoz — Spanish and Portuguese

View the recipients’ interview clips on the UCLA Center for the Advancement of Teaching website.

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

Image of Legendary journalist Bob Woodward. Image by Lisa BergImage by Lisa Berg

Bob Woodward speaks at UCLA’s Luskin Lecture for Thought Leadership

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Image of legendary journalist Bob Woodward delivering the 2022 Luskin Lecture for Thought Leadership

Legendary journalist Bob Woodward delivers the 2022 Luskin Lecture for Thought Leadership on May 9. Copyright Don Liebig/ASUCLA

By Jonathan Riggs

Distinguished journalist Bob Woodward delivered the Luskin Lecture for Thought Leadership on Monday, May 9, before participating in a conversation with Mario Biagioli, UCLA Distinguished Professor of Law and Communication.

“The Luskin Lecture for Thought Leadership connects our university community to some of the most visionary figures of our time, inspiring all to create a lasting impact on society and change the world for the better,” said David Schaberg, senior dean of the UCLA College. “As a trailblazing truth-seeker, student of history par excellence and someone who embodies the highest ideals of journalism, Bob Woodward was a perfect choice.”

Associate editor of the Washington Post, where he has worked since 1971, Woodward has shared in two Pulitzer Prizes, first in 1973 for coverage of the Watergate scandal with Carl Bernstein, and second in 2003 as the lead reporter for coverage of the 9/11 terrorist attacks. He is the author of 21 best-selling books, including the enduring classic All the President’s Men.

Beginning with two deceptively simple questions (“What is the job of the president?” and “What is the job of the journalist?”), Woodward shared insights he gained from covering 10 commanders-in-chief, from Nixon to Biden. He concluded his talk by sharing some of the best advice he ever got from “one of the all-time great truth-tellers,” Katherine Graham, the legendary owner and publisher of the Washington Post.

“She owned more personalized stationery than anyone else in Washington, but after Nixon resigned, she sent Carl Bernstein and myself a letter on plain paper from a yellow legal pad,” he said. “She wrote, ‘Don’t start thinking too highly of yourselves. Beware the demon pomposity.’ She was right: it stalks the halls of everywhere.”

During the Q&A session, Woodward discussed his front-row seat to more recent world-changing events, from the COVID-19 pandemic to the attack on the U.S. Capitol to the Russian invasion of Ukraine. He also shared his impressions of figures like Amazon’s Jeff Bezos, former president Donald Trump and iconic White House reporter Helen Thomas.

Speaking about his own craft, he let the audience in on his favorite reporting secret—pressing one finger over another to remind him to listen rather than speak during an interview. He also shared lessons from some of his high-profile journalism mistakes; in particular, that a journalist has to completely understand and stand behind any story, no matter the pressure to publish.

“Journalists need to do better, more thorough work, where they really dig—and then dig a little bit more,” Woodward said. “Whether it’s Democrats or Republicans, it is human nature to hide things, and our job to report them.”

Established in 2011 as part of a transformative gift from Meyer and Renee Luskin, the Luskin Lecture for Thought Leadership is an annual collaboration among the UCLA College, the UCLA School of Law, the Luskin School of Public Affairs and the Division of Social Sciences.

The Luskins’ vision in establishing the endowed lecture series gave UCLA an ongoing opportunity to share knowledge and expand the dialogue among scholars, leaders in government and business, and the greater Los Angeles community.