Newsmakers
March 5, 2009 2:32 PM
Andrea Zittel, assistant professor of sculpture, art and technology and a member of the MFA Core Faculty at the USC Roski School of Fine Arts, is the subject of a solo exhibition currently on display at the Andrea Rosen Gallery in New York.
Comprising crocheted works, drawings and performance, single strand, forward motion examines, in Zittel’s words, the relationship of “mental structures” to “visual or formal structures,” made manifest in “time/space patterns of everyday life.”
Last year, the Schaulager exhibiton space in Basel, Switzerland presented a major retrospective of Zittel's work, covering nearly two decades of her career.
USC Roski adjunct faculty member Mark Wyse has work on view in New York as well, with photographs in two ongoing exhibitions: Reality Check at the Metropolitan Museum of Art and Connections at the Jenkins Johnson Gallery.
Calling All Medics
USC College student Chanel Fischetti was among the 10 winners of the first AspiringDocs.org Video Contest announced by the Association of American Medical Colleges. Each winner will be awarded $1,000 toward his or her medical school application costs.
College students from across the country were asked to submit a two-minute video explaining why they wanted to become a doctor, as part of a contest initiated by the AspiringDocs.org campaign - a Web site and outreach effort created by the association to increase diversity in medicine.
The campaign encourages undergraduate minority students - particularly African-Americans, Native Americans and Latinos - to consider careers in medicine.
“It’s inspiring to see how passionate these students are about becoming doctors, despite the very real obstacles they face in their lives,” said Charles Terrell, the association’s chief diversity officer. “As we begin to deal with a nationwide physician shortage, we are encouraged to see that there are many bright young people who want to serve their communities.”
The winning videos are featured on the association’s YouTube site at www.youtube.com/aamcvideo
Gray Matter
Former USC Viterbi School of Engineering graduate student Robert M. Gray returned to campus on Feb. 26 to deliver the seventh Andrew Viterbi Distinguished Lecture in Communication.
The USC ties of the distinguished senior scientist - now the Alcatel-Lucent Technologies Professor of Communications and Networking in the Stanford University Department of Electrical Engineering - run deep, and Gray devoted at least a third of his time exploring them during his talk.
Gray came to USC from MIT, where one of his oldest friendships was with USC provost emeritus Lloyd Armstrong Jr., who was present in the audience. Gray was recruited by USC engineering legend Zohrab Kaprielian, who hired a group of stellar faculty members in the field of communications and was looking for the best graduate students to work with them.
Gray described his life in Southern California as a transplanted Easterner living at Venice Beach and forming his own rock band.
And he spoke enthusiastically about a new coding paradigm for compression of images. “If you can simulate something, you can compress it,” he said.
Across Campus
Smart Arts
Twenty-three journalists have been chosen from 16 states to participate as fellows in the fifth Arts Journalism Institute in Theatre and Musical Theatre at the USC Annenberg School for Communication.
Through the support of the National Endowment for the Arts, the institute will be conducted by USC Annenberg's School of Journalism from April 14-24.
Participants include critics, reporters and editors, as well as general arts and entertainment journalists. Most of them have shifted from print to online or are in the process of finding the balance between the two. Some also work in radio.
The program is part of a $1 million initiative to offer intensive training for theatre critics and their editors who work outside the country's major media markets.
The 23 journalists will participate in a 10-day program that includes writing workshops and one-on-one master classes.
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The Wall Street Journal highlighted the $200 million naming gift from USC Trustee and alumnus David Dornsife and wife Dana Dornsife to the USC Dornsife College, and the $110 million gift from USC Trustee and USC Viterbi School alumnus John Mork and wife Julie to create the USC Mork Family Scholars Program.
KPCC-FM reported that this fall USC will offer Persian language courses for the first time. A $250,000 grant from the Farhang Foundation helped to establish the program. Bruce Zuckerman of the USC Dornsife College said he has many students interested in the Persian language, culture and region. “The Iranian region is one that has great impact on our lives today and has had great impact going back into ancient times,” he said. The story noted that USC and the Farhang Foundation hope to raise more money to create an Iranian studies minor. Payvand also featured the new courses.
American Songwriter ran a Q&A with Christopher Sampson of the USC Thornton School about the school’s Popular Music program, which Sampson founded. He noted that the program has been available as a major in Songwriting since 2009, and has incorporated a diverse range of musical genres. “We have now established a consistent track record of students having professional success to know that the program gets results,” Sampson said. He also highlighted the achievements of Songwriting faculty members Lamont Dozier, Andrea Stolpe and David Poe of the Thornton School.
The Economist featured research by Valter Longo of the USC Davis School finding that short periods of fasting could help cancer patients better tolerate chemotherapy, and may even make treatment more effective. The Globe and Mail (Canada) reported that cancerous tumors are essentially energy hogs. “They need to burn lots of energy just to stay alive,” Longo said. The study was also covered by Irish Independent (Ireland), Magyar Tavirati Iroda (Hungary), Anadolu Ajansi (Turkey), Son Haber (Netherlands), Vietnam+ (Vietnam), Turkish Radio and Television (Turkey) and Romania Libera (Romania).
L.A. Weekly featured research by USC’s Institute for Creative Technologies, which has developed video games based around physical movement for people recovering from strokes or other injuries. The games develop strength in specific body parts. Traditional video games weren’t right for these patients, said the institute’s Belinda Lange. “Often, the fun parts of the game would only be unlocked after a series of other levels, which our patients often couldn’t achieve,” she said. The games are now being tested with physical therapists in three major clinics.
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