Berkeleyan

News Briefs

28 February 2007

Faculty forum on Energy Biosciences Institute slated for March 8

The Berkeley Division of the Academic Senate has scheduled a faculty forum to discuss issues relating to the selection of UC Berkeley and Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory to share $500 million in research funding to create an Energy Biosciences Institute. The forum will be held Thursday, March 8, from 4 to 6 p.m. in Sibley Auditorium, Bechtel Engineering Center. A real-time webcast of the forum will be available at webcast.berkeley.edu/events.

A faculty panel will speak about academic freedom, shared governance, and corporate responsibility, as well as the specifics of the scientific issues in the venture. A question-and-answer and open-discussion period will follow.

Invited panelists include Beth Burnside, vice chancellor for research; CITRIS director S. Shankar Sastry; Goldman School of Public Policy professor Robert Reich; Professor of Chemical Engineering and Bioengineering Jay Keasling; David Vogel, professor of business; and Associate Professor of Environmental Science, Policy, and Management Ignacio Chapela. The panel will be moderated by the Graduate School of Journalism's Linda Schacht.

Additional information is available on the Senate website (academic-senate.berkeley.edu) or by contacting Division Chair William Drummond (aschair@berkeley.edu).

Wheeler Hall classes on the move

This semester, as part of a project to improve 29 general-assignment classrooms in Wheeler Hall, two classrooms at a time will be taken out of service while instructional-technology equipment is installed. Classes that normally meet in those classrooms will meet in "surge" space within Wheeler instead, for a period of two weeks each.

A schedule of renovations is online at ets.berkeley.edu/ClassroomTechnology/Wheeler2007.htm. The site includes an overview of the project, and contact information for staff within the Office of the Registrar and Educational Technology Services who are available to answer questions.

March 7 panel explores torture, human rights, and terrorism

At an event set for 4 p.m., Wednesday, March 7, in Booth Auditorium, Boalt Hall, a distinguished panel will discuss "Torture, Human Rights, and Terrorism." Discussants include Aryeh Neier, founder of Human Rights Watch; Stanford faculty member Jenny Martinez, who defended alleged "dirty bomb" suspect José Padilla before the U.S. Supreme Court in 2004; Jose Zalaquett, president of the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights and co-director of the Human Rights Center at the University of Chile's Law School; and Philip Zimbardo, former president of the American Psychological Association and author of a forthcoming book on Abu Ghraib. For details, see the website of the Center for Latin American Studies, www.clas.berkeley.edu.

Evening 'Science Café' to feature bats March 8

The Berkeley Natural History Museums will host their third East Bay Science Café at 7 p.m., Thursday, March 8. Joe Szewczak of Humboldt State University will offer a scientific perspective on bats - their life history, physiology, ecology, and bioacoustics. The event will be held at Spud's Pizza, 290 Adeline St., Berkeley. For information, visit bnhm.berkeley.edu.

School of Public Health will host 'Spring Research Symposium'

A March 8 symposium sponsored by the School of Public Health will bring together experts from the school and nearby institutions to provide a snapshot of the wide range of projects under way at SPH. Speakers will include Bruce Ames, professor in the graduate school of biochemistry and molecular biology and senior scientist, Children's Hospital Research Institute, Oakland; Michael Bates, adjunct professor of epidemiology; Gertrude Buehring, associate professor of virology; Ray Catalano, professor of public health; William Dow, associate professor of health economics; Stephen Rappaport, adjunct professor of environmental health sciences; and Michael Rosenblum, a lecturer in biostatistics.

The symposium will be held Thursday, March 8, from 1 to 4:30 p.m. in the Toll Room of Alumni House. For information, contact Kristina Staros, chpps@berkeley.edu.

Campus conference to consider justice and healing for immigrant youth

Activists, policymakers, and legal and social-science scholars will gather Thursday and Friday, March 8 and 9, for a conference on "Law's Violence, Ruptured Community: Justice and Healing for Immigrant Youth." The conversation will focus on Latino and Asian Pacific Islander immigrant youth and the violence in these communities. The conference gets under way at 2 p.m. Thursday with a panel discussion in Boalt Hall's Goldberg Room, followed by a Raven Lecture at 4 p.m. by Luis Rodriguez, author of Always Running: La Vida Loca, Gang Days in L.A.

The conference is free and open to the public; pre-registration is encouraged. For the conference schedule or to register, see issc.Berkeley.edu/yvp_march07.html; for additional information, contact Deborah Lustig at the Institute for the Study of Social Change, 643-7238 or dlustig@berkeley.edu.

Legal scholar to speak on middle-class economic vulnerabilities

Elizabeth Warren, an outspoken critic of America's credit economy, will speak on Thursday, March 8, in a Jefferson Memorial Lecture titled "The Coming Collapse of the Middle Class: Higher Risks, Lower Rewards, and a Shrinking Safety Net." Her talk, rescheduled from last spring, is at 4:10 p.m. in the Chevron Auditorium of International House, 2299 Piedmont Ave.

Warren, a professor of contract law, bankruptcy, and commercial law at Harvard, is a frequent commentator on public radio and TV and a contributing blogger to The Huffington Post.

Campus blood drive set for March 12

The American Red Cross and UC San Francisco Medical Center are co-sponsoring a UC Berkeley Blood Drive on Monday, March 12, from noon to 6 p.m. in Pauley Ballroom, Martin Luther King Jr. Student Union. Faculty, staff, and students are encouraged to walk in or make an appointment through the Red Cross appointment system (www.beadonor.com/index.cfm?Group=Registration). First-time donors will be asked to register; use the sponsor code "UCB" to find the March 12 campus drive.

Greater Good magazine to celebrate milestones

The magazine Greater Good will hold a reception and panel discussion Monday, March 12, to celebrate publication of its Fall/Winter 2006-07 issue and plans to expand from a semi-annual to a quarterly magazine. The free event is from 5:30 to 6:30 p.m., in 105 North Gate.

The panel will feature the magazine's editors and contributors, who will discuss the new issue's contents and explain how local writers can contribute to Greater Good's unique blend of science reporting and storytelling. For information on Greater Good, visit www.greatergoodmag.org.