University of Southern California

USC News logo

Newsmakers

April 9, 2009 1:10 PM

Ainsworth Memorial

A memorial service for Diane Ainsworth will be held on April 13 at 3:30 p.m. at the United University Church.

Ainsworth, a science writer for the USC Viterbi School of Engineering, died of an aneurysm on March 29.

Going Forth

On April 18, the University Art Gallery at California State University, Dominguez Hills will be open at a special time from noon to 2 p.m. for visitors to Forth and Back, the current exhibition of Phyllis Green and Karen Koblitz.

Koblitz is a senior lecturer at the USC Roski School of Fine Arts.

A closing reception hosted by Koblitz and Green will be held from 2 p.m to 4 p.m. Light refreshments will be served. A conversation with the artists will begin at 3 p.m.

The exhibition will close on April 22. Cal State Dominguez Hills is located at 1000 East Victoria St. in Carson.

Crash Landing

USC Annenberg School for Communication journalism professor Dan Birman will produce Brace for Impact, a documentary about captain Chesley B. Sullenberger III, who rose to national acclaim when he successfully landed U.S. Airways Flight 1549 in the Hudson River on Jan. 15.
The TLC program will revisit the circumstances of the extraordinary landing and show the flight from the captain’s perspective. The documentary will explore what “Sully” was thinking and doing as he safely landed the crippled aircraft in the midst of one of the world’s most densely populated cities, saving the lives of 155 people.
Joining Birman are two USC Annenberg alumni. David Eisenberg M.A. ’06 will be the show’s associate producer and Adriana Padilla M.A. ’08 will serve as the production coordinator.
“Sully and I spoke shortly after the incident. What impressed me is that his personal story is not about heroism,” Birman said. “Rather, it’s about being the best we can be - no matter what we do.”

International Laurels

At the annual convention of the International Studies Association held in New York City, honorees included Patrick James, USC College professor of international relations and director of the USC Center for International Studies, as well as Politics and International Relations program doctoral student Abigail Ruane, recent program graduate Amy Below and international relations doctoral student Jenifer Whitten-Woodring.

James and Ruane received the Deborah “Misty” Gerner Innovative Teaching in International Studies Award for developing effective new approaches to teaching in the discipline.

Below and Whitten-Woodring won the best paper award from the association’s International Communication section for their paper titled “Climate Change in the News: Media and U.S. Environmental Foreign Policy.”

The International Studies Association was founded in 1959 by a group of scholars and practitioners to pursue mutual interests in international studies. Representing 80 countries, the association has more than 4,000 members worldwide and is the most widely known scholarly association in the field.

Climate Confab

The National Academy of Sciences recently hosted the Summit on America’s Climate Choices to discuss scientific challenges and policy options available to decision-makers as they attempt to advance the U.S. response to climate change.

The event was held at the direction of Congress, in collaboration with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, in hopes that the summit and subsequent studies undertaken by the academy will provide useful recommendations to policymakers as they work on comprehensive climate and energy legislation during the 111th Congress.

Genevieve Giuliano, senior associate dean for research at the USC School of Policy, Planning, and Development was a panelist at the summit.

Economic Rx

The Los Angeles chapter of the USC Marshall Alumni Association and USC Marshall’s Center for Investment Studies will host an event about the recovering economy on Thursday at 5:30 p.m.

Speakers will include Jerrold Green, president and CEO of the Pacific Council on International Policy, and Larry Harris, holder of the Fred V. Keenan Chair in Finance at the USC Marshall School of Business and director of the USC Marshall School Center for Investment Studies.

The event will be held on the second floor of the Radisson Hotel at 3540 S. Figueroa. Complimentary parking is available in structure 2.

Casting a ‘Reflection’

A USC GamePipe team won The Next Great Mobile Game award on March 24 at the annual Games Development Conference in San Francisco.

“Reflection,” the USC entry, was the victor over five other finalists. It is a Nintendo game that was built in the USC GamePipe/Interactive Media final game projects course co-taught by Scott Easley, Chris Swain and Mike Zyda.

Scrip for Success

USC School of Pharmacy Ph.D. candidates Erik Serrao, Tino Sanchez and Ben Xu have won fellowships to support their respective research projects in drug development.

Sanchez received a two-year, $50,000 dissertation fellowship from the California HIV/AIDS Research Program, which provides funding to support HIV/AIDS research in California.

Sanchez, who works in the lab of associate professor Nouri Neamati, is working toward the development of drugs for patients with HIV.

Serrao, another grant winner doing HIV/AIDS research in the lab of Neamati, was awarded a $19,000 Oakley Fellowship, part of the USC Graduate School Endowed Fellowship Competition.

Xu was awarded a Sjögren’s Syndrome Foundation student fellowship, which will help support his research project on an autoimmune disease characterized by tear gland inflammation and dry eye.