Newsmakers
October 23, 2009 1:27 PM
A Selection From The Teen and Transgender Comparative Study, a solo exhibition by Charlie White, USC Roski School of Fine Arts associate professor and director of the MFA program, will be on display at 80 Washington Square East in New York City through Jan. 27.
Over the course of a year, White worked to identify teen and male-to-female transsexual subjects who, when viewed together, would create a visual bridge between female adolescence and male-to-female sexual transformation.
The exhibition, which was made possible by a Zumberge Faculty Research and Innovation grant, is part of The Girl Studies, a project that includes the film American Minor.
White’s most recent solo exhibitions were Spilling Hot Gossip at the Oslo Kunstforening in Norway and OMG BFF LOL at The Aldrich Contemporary Art Museum in Connecticut.
KEEP THE FAITH
Varun Soni, the dean of religious life at USC, received an award Oct. 11 from the Southern California Committee for a Parliament of World Religions.
The award recognizes Soni’s leadership of student religious life at USC, his efforts to achieve civic harmony in Los Angeles and his commitment to the mission of the parliament.
The parliament will host an international interfaith gathering in Melbourne in December.
DARING DESIGN
The new USC School of Cinematic Arts complex was featured on the cover of the national magazine School Construction News.
According to the article, although the university is not pursuing Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) certification for the $175 million complex, it is designed to meet LEED Gold requirements.
PRIZED PICK
Professor Ada Yonath of the Weizmann Institute in Israel, who won the 2004 Massry Prize from a foundation begun by Shaul Massry, professor emeritus of medicine at the Keck School of Medicine of USC, received the 2009 Nobel Prize in Chemistry.
Yonath won both prizes for her work in mapping the structure of ribosomes, the protein-producing factories within cells at the atomic level.
To date, nine of the Massry Prize laureates have gone on to win the Nobel Prize. Yonath is the fourth woman scientist to win the Nobel Prize in Chemistry and the first since 1964 when Dorothy Crawford Hodgkin of Britain received the honor.
RAPID ASCENT
Alan L. Epstein, professor in the Department of Pathology at the Keck School of Medicine of USC, received an award of $3.5 million for a drug development project through the National Cancer Institute’s Rapid Access to Intervention Development program.
Epstein’s breakthrough discovery is aimed at helping patients with metastatic melanoma and renal cell carcinoma, diseases that affect more than 50,000 people in America every year.
THE EYES HAVE IT
The Doheny Eye Institute at the Keck School of Medicine of USC has won a 2009 R&D Magazine 100 award for its U.S. Department of Energy-funded artificial retina project designed to restore sight to the blind.
The artificial retina, a unique bio-electronic implant, gives those with retinitis pigmentosa - a severe form of retinal degeneration leading to blindness - the ability to recognize objects and navigate in their environment.
The implant is eventually intended to enable patients to read large print and recognize faces. Thirty patients have had artificial retina systems implanted as part of clinical trials to date.
AHN ACCOMPLISHMENT
USC Rossier Ph.D. student June Ahn has received the Humanities, Arts, Science and Technology Advanced Collaboratory Scholars Program Award.
Ahn is currently examining how urban high school students use social networking sites to influence their school engagement, social capital and academic achievement.
FOR THE RECORD
The Oct. 19 front-page story on Jane Goodall should have mentioned that she is an adjunct faculty member in USC's Division of Occupational Science and Occupational Therapy, as well as a distinguished adjunct professor and co-director of the Jane Goodall Research Center at USC College.
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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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