UCR Magazine Spring 2014

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T H E M A G A Z I N E O F U C R I V E R S I D E

At UCR, students are encouraged to conduct their own research even before earning a bachelor’s degreePage 10

C H A N C E L L O R

Kim A. Wilcox

V I C E C H A N C E L L O R , A D V A N C E M E N T

Peter Hayashida

P U B L I S H E R

James Grant

E D I T O R

Lilledeshan Bose

W R I T E R S

Vickie ChangTed KissellLitty MathewMichelle Woo

S E N I O R D E S I G N E R

Brad Rowe

P R O D U C T I O N M A N A G E R

Luis Sanz

C O N T R I B U T O R S Alyssa Cotter Ross French Bettye Miller Sean NealonKonrad NagyIqbal Pittalwala

E D I T O R I A L A S S I S TA N T

Bethanie Le

I L L U S T R AT I O N S

Colin Hayes Paolo LimMike Tofanelli

P H O T O G R A P H E R S

Lonnie DukaJohn GilhooleyCarlos PumaCarrie Rosema

D I S T R I B U T I O N

Virginia Odien

UCR Magazine is published by the Office of Strategic Communications, University

of California, Riverside, and it is distributed free to the University community.

Editorial offices: 900 University Ave., 1156 Hinderaker Hall, University of Califor-

nia, Riverside, Riverside, CA 92521, telephone (951) 827-6397. Unless otherwise

indicated, text may be reprinted without permission. Please credit University of

California, Riverside.

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the University of California, Riverside, Riverside, CA 92521-0155.

Periodicals postage rates paid at Riverside, CA.

POSTMASTER: Send address changes to UCR, Subscription Services (0063),

900 University Ave., 1156 Hinderaker Hall, Riverside, CA 92521.

In accordance with applicable federal laws and University policy, the University of

California does not discriminate in any of its policies, procedures or practices on

the basis of race, color, national origin, sex, sexual orientation, age or handicap.

Inquiries regarding the University’s equal opportunity policies may be directed to

the Affirmative Action Office, (951) 827-5604.

Questions? Concerns? Comments? Change of address?Contact Kris Lovekin at [email protected]

UCR Spring 2014 | 1

T H E M A G A Z I N E O F U C R I V E R S I D E S P R I N G 2 0 1 4 V O L U M E 9 N U M B E R 2

Looking to the FutureChancellor Kim A. Wilcox lays out his plans for UCR at his investiture ceremony

Insect-inspiredHow Distinguished Professor of Entomology Ring Cardé’s childhood fascination with bugs turned into a career

From Mind to MarketAaron Seitz’s eye-opening research on vision clearly changes lives

Sick, Twisted and Totally InnovativeSpike and Mike’s Festival of Innovation all started in Riverside

A Traveling Poetry Handshake A look at Juan Felipe Herrera’s past two years as California Poet Laureate

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03 | R ViewA message from Chancellor Kim A. Wilcox

04 | R SpaceCatch up on the latest news at UC Riverside

29 | Page Turners

30 | Alumni Connection

31 | Class Acts

36 | C ScapeStephanie Martinez, a student in the Mariachi Divas, on winning a Grammy

Brain Trust

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By encouraging undergraduate research — in labs, art studios and beyond — UCR is enhancing student skills in every aspect

What’s New? MAGAZINE.UCR.EDU

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You can digitally view the magazine via a Flash and downloadable PDF version; now you can also share your favorite stories on your social networks, watch videos and give us your feedback at magazine.ucr.edu.

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EB Investiture Highlights

A video of Chancellor Wilcox’s ceremony

The Juan Felipe Herrera PlaylistWatch our California Poet Laureate in action through the years

Making Lawnmowers GreenerUndergraduate researchers from BCOE on a lawnmower device they created

The Festival of Animation Comes to UCRCraig “Spike” Decker on why he donated an extensive film archive to UCR

Better Batters Through Brain-trainingHow Aaron Seitz’s research improved the vision of UCR baseball players

2 | UCR Spring 2014

For more on UCR events, visit www.ucr.edu/happenings

Directed by New Zealand Maori choreographer Jack Gray, this show offers dance majors and minors the opportunity to showcase the various choreographic methods they have been working on throughout the quarter.

The UCR Studio for Mexican Music and Dance presents a concert of traditional and popular Mexican music. Dance instructor Johnavalos Rios and students will perform the music and dance “Son Huasteco,” a blending of Indigenous, African and Spanish expressions.

This certificate course is led by James Cornett, ecological consultant at the Palm Springs Desert Museum. Learn the natural history and identification of the common arthropods, amphibians, reptiles, birds and mammals of the San Jacinto Mountains.

This weeklong course examines the birds in southeastern Arizona, one of the premier locations in the United States to observe and study birds that are unlikely to be observed anywhere else in the country.

Gain the hands-on experience and conceptual overview to take full advantage of ArcGIS’s advanced display, analysis and presentation mapping functions.

UC Riverside holds seven commencement ceremonies on Pierce Hall lawn, near the campus bell tower. More than 3,000 students are expected to make their way across the stage during the four days of the 60th annual event.

Participate in a live webcast information session to learn about UCR Extension’s Digital Arts and Design Academy. For serious participants, the full program offers approximately 150 hours of professional-level instruction.

Watch and wager on thoroughbreds with fellow alumni in a private sky room with betting windows, a cocktail bar and a balcony overlooking the track. Leonard Duncan, trainer and handicapping expert, will share his inside knowledge of the horses and his wagering tips.

The L.A. Chapter invites alumni and friends to its annual Hollywood Bowl outing — the 50th anniversary of the Beatles’ first iconic show at the Hollywood Bowl. The event, led by musical director Dave Stewart (Eurythmics), will recreate the historic set and perform many Beatles classics.

HAPPENINGS

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dance.ucr.eduSpring Forward: New Dances by

UCR Student Choreographers6.4-6.5

music.ucr.eduConcert of Mexican

Music and Dance6.5

extension.ucr.eduWildlife of the San Jacinto

Mountains: The Upper Plateau6.6

extension.ucr.eduField Study of Birds:

Southeast Arizona6.7-6.15

extension.ucr.eduIntroduction to ArcGIS

6.7-6.8

commencement.ucr.eduCommencement 2014

6.13-6.16

extension.ucr.edu Digital Arts and Design

Information Session6.21

alumni.ucr.edu/delmarSeventh Annual Alumni Day

at the Races in Del Mar8.3

alumni.ucr.edu/hollywoodbowlL.A. Chapter Annual Hollywood Bowl

Event: “The Beatles’ 50th at the Bowl” 8.23

UCR Spring 2014 | 3

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Whenever I’m out with my mom, she often proudly

shares that I’m a professor.

Which generally prompts the question: “What do

you teach?”

I often reply that “I study speech production

and perception.”

To me, teaching and research are tied so closely

together, one is impossible without the other. I start with

what I study, because what I teach derives from that —

and not the other way around.

Moreover, some of my courses are more closely tied to

what I study than others, and beginning with the end

product — the courses — can be misleading. While many

outside of the university see me as a teacher, I see myself

and my colleagues in the academy as lifelong students.

In the lab or creative studio, professors at UCR are

each day learning side-by-side with students ranging

from excited new freshmen to highly advanced doctoral

candidates and post-doctoral fellows. There’s a magic in

that process and in those spaces, and it’s a magic that

everybody at a research university deserves to experience.

Not only can complex theories learned in the

classroom come to life in the lab or the field or in the

studio, but those students engaged in research learn a

more fundamental lesson: The textbooks don’t have all

the answers. They only contain the best set of answers

available to the authors when they wrote the text.

This edition of UCR Magazine brings that story of

discovery to life in scenes of our wonderful students

participating in the collective advancement of knowledge.

Be it in India, where student My Hua spent part of a

summer helping screen patients for sight-saving cataract

surgery, or in the studio in Riverside with student Danni

Wei, who is using art to help those with autism learn

how to better communicate.

“Not all undergraduate researchers go on to get

Ph.Ds. They may go into business, or professional school,

or law and medicine. So I think the really important

thing about being involved in research is developing an

empirical view of the world,” says UCR Professor of

Psychology Curt Burgess in the article (see p. 10).

Through the opportunity to engage in working

directly with a faculty member, our students are learning

how to engage in the lifelong pursuit of knowledge. By

the time they reach graduation, more than 50 percent of

UCR undergraduates will have participated in research

or creative projects with faculty members.

My wife, Diane Del Buono, and I feel so strongly

about undergraduate research that we recently decided to

endow a new Chancellor’s Research Scholarship with a

long-term gift pledge. It’s our way of trying to help pass

on the magic of the undergraduate experience at UCR to

future generations.

Research and creative projects have an impact on

these students that they’ll never forget. They know that a

university is not just about being taught. That professors

are not just teachers. These students know that

universities are places where we are all studying together.

Fiat lux,

Kim A. Wilcox

Chancellor

Undergraduate Research Matters

Photo: Carrie Rosema

4 | UCR Spring 2014

Katia Silvera was on a field

trip in central Panama eight

years ago with her father when

they stumbled upon an orchid

they had never seen before.

Unable to identify it, they

contacted German Carnevali,

a world authority on

orchids. The orchid turned

out to be an unnamed

species. So Carnevali

recently named it after the

Silveras: Lophiaris silverarum.

Now a postdoctoral researcher

in the Department of Botany and

Plant Sciences at UCR, Katia says

Orchids are a difficult and confusing

taxonomic group. “Sometimes plants

can look alike morphologically,

but DNA informs us that they are

very different species, which makes

naming the species difficult.”

Currently, Lophiaris silverarum

is known to grow only in central

Panama. The plant blooms only in

November, the flowers lasting about

a month. It is not sold in the U.S.

because it is very rare and it repro-

duces very slowly.

The UCR Center for Biblio-

graphical Studies and Research has

partnered with Ancestry.com, the

world’s largest online family history

resource, to digitize millions of pages

of historical California newspapers.

This partnership will speed up the

processing of more than 100,000

reels of newspaper microfilm.

More than 1 million pages of the

San Bernardino Sun and Santa Cruz

Sentinel dating to the late 1880s

have been scanned from the center’s

California Newspaper Microfilm

Archive (CNMA) and digitized since

the agreement was signed in

spring 2013.

Ancestry.com will host the data

at Newspapers.com for three years,

Orchid Named After UCR Researcher

“Lophiaris silverarum” is known to grow only in central Panama

UCR to Digitize Historical Newspapers with Ancestry.com

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after which the Center for Biblio-

graphical Studies and Research will

also host it at the California Digital

Newspaper Collection (CDNC),

which is publicly accessible at cdnc.

ucr.edu. Access to the data will be

free during the three-year embargo

period to researchers at UCR and

at partnering institutions that help

obtain permissions from partici-

pating newspapers.

“This project will double the size

of the California Digital Newspaper

Collection,” said Brian Geiger,

director of the Center for Biblio-

graphical Studies and Research. “We

were never going to get to 40 million

pages in the next decade, so this

arrangement is very beneficial.”

UCR Spring 2014 | 5

Susan Straight, a Riverside native

and professor of creative writing,

received the Kirsch Award for lifetime

achievement at the awards ceremony

for the 34th Annual Los Angeles Times

Book Prizes.

Straight is the author of eight novels

and two books for children, an essayist,

short story writer and reviewer. Many

of her books are set in a fictional

version of Riverside, called “Rio Seco.”

The UCR Botanic Gardens received

a bequest of $1.3 million from Victor

Goodman, who helped found the

gardens, and his wife, Marjorie.

“The idea for what eventually became

the UCR Botanic Gardens was Victor

Goodman’s,” said J. Giles Waines, the

director of the gardens. “He saw the

need for them and proposed that UCR

establish the gardens. He and Marjorie

lived close to campus and cherished this

museum. It comes as no surprise to me

that they left their estate to the gardens.”

Maintenance of the gardens costs

about $100,000 annually. Plans are

underway to place the major part of the

funds received from the Goodman estate

into the Victor and Marjorie Goodman

Endowment for the Botanic Gardens,

which will help maintain the much-loved

gardens in perpetuity.

Jodie Holt, the divisional dean of

agriculture and natural resources in

UC Riverside’s College of Natural and

Agricultural Sciences, said the gift will

enable UCR to complete key projects

and invest in additional maintenance of

important plant collections.

Susan Straight Receives Lifetime Achievement Award

Longtime Supporters Leave $1.3 Million to Botanic Gardens

“Susan Straight is a Southern

California original and a tireless

supporter, and creator, of our literary

culture,” said Times book critic David

L. Ulin. “Her novels opened up not

just California literature but American

literature to the Inland Empire and to

the often-neglected voices of the people

there. Through her work as a teacher,

she has inspired a new generation of

California writers.”

A year ago, Eric Barr, a longtime

professor and chair of the

Department of Theatre suffered

from devastating strokes after

heart surgery. The strokes left

him paralyzed, unable to speak or

swallow, and confused. “I was alive

but I ceased to be the person I knew,”

he said. “I became a patient and a

stroke survivor.”

The experience inspired his

one-man show, “A Piece of my

Mind,” performed before a full

house of Department of Theatre

alumni, colleagues,

family, friends

and physical

therapists at the

University Theatre

last April. It also

Stroke Survivor Eric Barr’s Play Inspires Acting Scholarship

became the impetus for the new

Eric Barr Acting Award scholarship

for acting students (advancement-

services.ucr.edu/AdvanceOnline-

Giving/search?key=eric+barr#).

The one-hour show grew out of

emails and Facebook postings that

chronicled his fight to survive, his

struggle with grueling and frustrating

rehabilitation sessions, and his grate-

fulness for the support of family and

friends.

“I told my therapists from the

beginning that I would write a show

about this,” he said

in an interview.

“As a theater guy I

process something

by writing about it

and performing it.”

6 | UCR Spring 2014

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UCR will begin offering free

parking for guests as part of a new

parking initiative that campus

leadership hopes will encourage more

community members to participate

in on-campus academic, cultural and

student programs and gatherings.

“UC Riverside is a hub of

education, arts and culture, and

we want the community to feel

welcome to engage in these activ-

ities,” Chancellor Kim Wilcox said

in a statement. “This new program

responds to requests from both the

community and event organizers by

providing easier, affordable access to

the campus.”

In July, Barnes & Noble College

will become the operator of UCR’s

campus store. Previously operated by

the campus, the store will continue

to reflect UCR’s brand, including

school spirit wear, gifts and other

merchandise. UCR reassigned the

Campus Store staff and avoided any

layoffs as part of the transition.

Officials say the move was spurred

by changing market conditions for

textbooks and books in

general, as well as

growing Internet

sales of branded

merchandise

and

computers.

“We looked

at several options

and Barnes & Noble

College best met our need

for services to support our

campus community,” said

Jim Sandoval, vice chancellor

for student affairs.

Campus Store to be Operated by Barnes & Noble College

UCR to Offer Free Parking for Visitors at Selected Events

In the series “The First 50,” we

folow members of the inaugural

class of the UCR School of Medicine

through the challenges they face.

With four blocks completed and their first year drawing to an end, both Janel Gracia and Rafael Ornelas have surpassed the shock of transitioning into medical school and are now more comfortable to the demands of being medical students.

“I wouldn’t say the blocks have gotten easier, but I have definitely learned how to manage [my studies] a lot better than I did when I first started,” said Gracia.

Ornelas adds, “It’s not just studying anymore. Now I’m trying to focus on managing the activities that I want to get involved in.”

Ornelas holds leadership positions in the Medical Spanish Selective and in Latino Medical Student Association. Gracia is involved in the Health Sciences Partnership and volunteers at the Student Run Health Clinic.

Looking ahead to their second year, Gracia says, “I’m looking forward to developing my skills with patients and adding to what I learned in my first year so I can use that at the clinic.”

Ornelas is looking forward to interaction with the incoming first-year medical students.

“I really want to see if some of our ideas in how to develop a self-sustaining program at the UCR School of Medicine will work. I want to see the progress on whatever we started and create that path for the road ahead for the rest of the students.”

Our Med Students are Sophomores!

UCR Spring 2014 | 7

UCRB Y T H E NUMBERS

1

4,443

73$47,744.10

5441623

40,000

UCR’s national rank, if you weigh graduation rates, access and affordability equally, according to Time Magazine. Read the whole story on ucrtoday.ucr.edu/22354.

The anniversary that is being celebrated this year. On Feb. 15, 1954, UCR opened its doors for the first day of classes.

The number of surveys submitted from the UCR community for the first-ever UC systemwide Campus Climate Survey.

The percentage of the UCR population that said that they were comfortable or very comfortable at UCR, according to the same survey.

The record-breaking amount of money that UCR Dance Marathon raised on Feb. 22 for the Guardian Scholars Program. The event had more than 400 dancers in attendance and an anonymous donor chipped in a $20,000 matching gift.

The number of cigarette butts collected at the Tobacco-free Butt Bash 2 Clean-up, held during the first week of March. The first Butt Bash Clean-up in October found 1,388 cigarette butts on campus. Since the implementation of the tobacco ban in January, there has been a significant drop in butt litter.

The publication year of Tommaso Campanella’s “Civitas Solis,” a rare volume of utopian literature that the UCR Eaton Collection acquired. This was made possible through a $54,000 grant from the B.H. Breslauer Foundation.

The number of visitors that the UCR Botanic Gardens receive yearly.

8 | UCR Spring 2014

“UCR plays a critical role in our region and has

developed thousands of great minds. It has long been

a vehicle of upward mobility for Riverside County.”

- Mark Takano M.F.A. ’10, congressional representative, 41st District

Read the story behindthis Investiture selfie on

magazine.ucr.edu

Lookingto the

Future

With his booming laugh and great big heart, Kim A. Wilcox was officially invested as the ninth chancellor of UC Riverside on April 24.

“I bring greetings from the bears, mustangs, anteaters, bruins, bobcats, tritons, gauchos and lastly but most importantly — banana slugs. As you can see, we’re an accomplished and fun group.”

- George R. Blumenthal, chancellor, UC Santa Cruz

B Y L I L L E D E S H A N B O S E

UCR Spring 2014 | 9

First came the bagpipes. The high-pitched drone of the march “Major George Morrison” wafted into the Student Recreation Center as the UCR Pipe Band led the Academic Procession. The student marshals, bearing their colleges’ flags, followed.

Then a rainbow of regalia worn by UCR faculty members made its way up the aisle, led by Ameae Walker, the faculty marshal. By the time the official party walked in — the vice chancellors, the administrative officers, the honored speakers, the members of the UC Board of Regents, and even UC President Janet Napolitano — there was somewhat of a traffic jam leading up to the podium.

It was April 24, and the whole campus was celebrating the investiture of Kim A. Wilcox, the ninth chancellor of the University of California, Riverside. More than 650 members of the UCR and UC community were in attendance at the investiture, which was followed by a large public reception near the campus’ iconic bell tower.

As Wilcox waited for his turn to walk up on stage, a student jumped out of her seat and asked to take his picture. No, wait — could she also take a selfie with the chancellor? Moments before he was to be invested into office?

Of course, Chancellor Wilcox said yes. To many, that gracious gesture says so

much about the kind of chancellor Wilcox is. There is his vision, of course; an intention to expand UCR’s faculty by 300 ladder-rank scholars, provide for the addition of new facilities, and take new measures to achieve increased globalization.

There is his heart. As Wilcox spoke about how his life paralleled UCR’s growth (both were born in 1954, so to speak), he choked up as he recalled his path to the chancellorship. He was a first-generation college student. His grandfather had only a third-grade education. His father made it through the sixth grade, and eventually graduated from high school the year before Wilcox’s sister.

INV

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Read more on the chancellor’s vision for UCR

in the next issue, or go toucrtoday.ucr.edu

And always, there is his Highlander pride and knowledge that he is in charge of leading UCR into a bright future. “UCR has emerged as a model for higher education in the 21st century,” Wilcox said in his closing remarks. “I look forward to working with each and every one of you to ensure that we remain a model for others to emulate for generations to come.”

“What distinguishes Chancellor Wilcox as the perfect leader for UC Riverside is his deep commitment to diversity, inclusion and student success.”

- Janet Napolitano, president,

University of California

“[When we met Chancellor Wilcox for the first time] he illustrated his genuine curiosity and receptiveness about student issues, concerns and hopes. We, as students, felt very connected and excited about the future of UCR.”

- Sahil Patadia, president, Associated Students of UCR

“UCR is setting a university standard for other UC campuses in both the admission and graduation rates.”

- Bruce Varner, chairman, UC Board of Regents

“Be bold and lead UCR into a bright future. Make this a special place where young men and women of every race, creed, religion and sexual orientation and identity will grow and flourish.”

- Mary Schuler ’70, president, UCR Alumni Association

10 | UCR Spring 2014

B Y P H I L P I T C H F O R D

BRAIN TRUSTWITH CAMPUS-SPONSORED PROGRAMS AND VALUABLE FACULTY MENTORSHIP, UCR IS NURTURING UNDERGRADUATES BY ENCOURAGING THEM TO DO RESEARCH — IN LABS, ART STUDIOS AND BEYOND

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B Y V I C K I E C H A N G

UCR Spring 2014 | 11

In Chennai, India, temperatures soar to their highest at a time that locals call Agni Nakshatram, which translates

literally to “fiery star.” In these months, it’s not rare for temperatures to reach upwards of 108 degrees.

The summer of 2010, My Hua, then a 19-year-old sophomore at UC Riverside, plunged into the sweltering heat and

unrelenting humidity of the southern Indian city. The English and biology double major was there with Unite For Sight,

a nonprofit organization dedicated to delivering eye care to impoverished villages around the world. With doctors and

volunteers such as Hua, the organization screened for operable cataracts and other treatable eye diseases.

what makes UC Riverside unique is the large variety of campus-sponsored programs that help students embark on their own research even before they have earned a bachelor’s degree.

Just a few of these programs include the Bourns College of Engineering Undergraduate Research Opportunities, Minority Access to Research Careers, Mentoring Summer Research Internship Program, Medical Scholars Program, UC Leadership Excellence through Advanced Degrees, College of Natural and Agricultural Sciences Dean’s Fellowship, Gluck Fellows Program, California Alliance for Minority Participation, University Honors Program, and Undergraduate Education Quarterly Research/Creative-Activity Mini Grants.

Research Develops Student Skills“Undergraduate research is one of the

most important ways that students have to really develop their thinking, their writing, their data analysis skills,” explains Vice Provost for Undergraduate Education Steven Brint. “All of these types of skills are important later in life, whether people become researchers or not.” Undergrads also gain guidance from being in touch with faculty; the mentored experiences

are positive in most cases, Brint says. “It’s become more common at UCR.”

The most extraordinary aspect may be the sheer percentage of students participating in some type of research program. In the 2012-2013 academic year, 4,053 students — that’s 21.8 percent of 18,536 total undergraduates — participated in research under faculty mentorship, with 248 participating in more than one activity.

By the time they reach graduation, more than 50 percent of UCR undergraduates will have participated in research or creative projects. Chancellor Kim A. Wilcox would like to see even more participation: so much so that he and his wife, Diane Del Buono, recently created an additional scholarship for the Chancellor’s Research Fellowship program, bringing the total to 13.

“Diane and I have felt such a warm welcome from the UCR community, including from our fantastic students, and we noted that about 60 percent of undergraduates are first in their families to seek a degree,” said Wilcox, who himself is a first-generation college graduate. “Diane and I want to make sure that we leave a legacy here, and that all of our undergraduate students have access to research opportunities that can transform their personal and professional aspirations.”

“Science is not about the known, it’s about what we don’t know,” says Susan Wessler, distinguished professor of genetics. Wessler is a pioneer in introducing actual hands-on experimental research to first-year students. In her Dynamic Genome course, first-year students use cutting-edge technology to conduct genomics research. Aside from attending biology lectures, her students design experiments, parse data, debate results, master concepts and nurture their own passion for discovery.

“The focus is for students to experience the excitement of scientific research early in their careers,” she explains. “If you have a group of students and you want to tell them about baseball, you don’t sit in a lecture hall and map out the field. You give them a bat and ball and you have them play! What is exciting about science is participating in scientific experiments.”

Not long after Hua was back stateside, her mother lost vision in one eye. “My trip to India and my mother are the reasons for appreciating what I have — and are also the reasons that I started thinking of what I can do [in the realm of] health care,” Hua said. That thirst to do more made her question what she could personally do. The answer? “It was research, unexpectedly.”

Now 23, Hua has been mentored by Professor Prue Talbot of the Department of Cell Biology and Neuroscience for the past four years, studying potential harm from e-cigarettes. She has published two of her research papers in peer-reviewed scientific journals as a first author, which is no small feat for an undergraduate. She’s also received the Chancellor’s Research Fellowship — twice.

The Chancellor’s Research FellowshipBegun in 2012, the Chancellor’s Research

Fellowship (CRF) is a competitive program that supports undergraduates who take part in faculty-mentored research and creative projects. The program selects 12 participants who are expected to participate in various events throughout the academic year. Each recipient is awarded $5,000 for materials, supplies and travel expenses to study a topic of their choosing. At the end of the year, the students present their topics at the Annual UCR Undergraduate Research & Creative Activity Symposium.

After Hua graduates in June, she wants to go back to school to become a physician-scientist by getting a combined M.D.-Ph.D. “I went back on the plane from India thinking, when I go back to the lab, I really want to put in 150 percent because I don’t want to live my life regretting something I didn’t do,” she continues. “Since I have all these opportunities, I must take advantage of everything that I can.”

Hua is just one slice of this year’s remarkable crop of CRF recipients, but she’s also a part of a larger, outstanding group of undergraduate students at UC Riverside participating in research at large.

Of course, there are many available research opportunities on campus for students pursuing advanced degrees. But

“YOU REALLY DEVELOP

SKILLS LIKE PATIENCE

AND HUMOR BECAUSE

OF THE WAY RESEARCH

WORKS — OR DOESN’T,

NO MATTER HOW WELL

YOU PLAN IT.”

— Veronique Rorive

Phot

o: Jo

hn G

ilhoo

ley

12 | UCR Spring 2014 MAGAZINE.UCR.EDUMeet all 12 of the Chancellor’s Research Fellows on


Hua has been mentored by Professor Prue Talbot of the Department of Cell Biology

and Neuroscience for the past four years, studying potential harm from e-cigarettes.

The benefits of undergraduate research go beyond academia. Students who decide not to continue with careers in research walk away from experiences that can take them well beyond the pages of a textbook or the boundaries of a lecture hall.

“Not all undergraduate researchers go on to get Ph.Ds. They may go into business, or professional school, or law and medicine. So I think the really important thing about it is developing an empirical view of the world,” says psychology Professor Curt Burgess, a CRF mentor. “You should come to conclusions based on actual data — that’s just a way of thinking about things and, in general, just a very important thing to learn.”

Veronique Rorive, director of the Undergraduate Office of Undergraduate Research, says that the true impact of

programs such as CRF is in how it affects these young researchers’ way of thinking. There are monthly meetings between recipients, workshops that help with presentation skills, and multidisciplinary discussion. The interaction among the 12 awardees also develops into a support system.

“You really develop skills like patience and humor because of the way research works — or doesn’t — no matter how well you plan it,” explains Rorive. She pauses and lets out a warm laugh. Rorive herself participated in undergraduate research as a student at UC Riverside. “When things fail or when things don’t go right, it gives you character development.”

Faculty Mentorship and FriendshipFrom the range and diapause of face flies

(that’s musca autumnalis) to the linguistic patterns of some of the world’s greatest leaders, the topics chosen by undergraduate researchers truly are diverse. But the one common thread through all these students and projects is the utmost sense of respect and gratitude for UC Riverside’s supportive faculty and staff standing in as mentors.

“Any faculty member who says yes to a

“UNDERGRADUATE

RESEARCH IS ONE OF THE

BEST WAYS FOR STUDENTS

TO REALLY FIND A

FOOTHOLD AND TO FIND

SOMETHING THAT MAKES

THEM STAND OUT AS AN

UNDERGRADUATE.”

— Christopher Miller

student to work with them, whether they’re funded through the CRF or through any other venue — or not funded at all — is awesome just for the fact that they’re giving their time to mentor a student,” Rorive says. “A lot of faculty are doing it without any recognition whatsoever.”

This was the case for Christopher Miller. A senior, he first met his mentor, Huinan Liu, assistant professor of bioengineering, via email. “I wrote her a nine-paragraph letter saying that I wanted to do research, and would she mind taking me on,” he says. “She met with me over winter break just to see if


“I wrote her a nine-paragraph letter saying that I wanted to do research, and would she mind taking me on. “She met with me over winter break just to see if I was serious, and I was part of her lab by spring.“”- Christopher Miller

I was serious, and I was part of her lab by spring.”

At Liu’s materials lab, Miller developed his CRF project: finding a way to make magnesium a viable biodegradable implant material to help heal bones.

Apart from learning the science of materials (which was interesting) and developing diligence (which is what research is all about), Miller says working in Liu’s lab also provided opportunities that wouldn’t have been available to him otherwise. “Dr. Liu nominated me for the Student Editorial Board last year and supported my application for grants and the CRF. Without her support, I definitely wouldn’t be where I am.”

In fact, Miller says that while Liu kept him on the right path with research and theoretical issues, one of his favorite aspects

of working with Liu involved something bigger: happiness.

“Dr. Liu very much values finding happiness and joy in what you do. There are times when she noticed that I’d been stressed out or not working as well as I normally do and instead of berating me for that, she’d always first sit me down and kind of have a chat with me and make sure everything was OK,” Miller explains.

The same goes for the staff involved with the CRF, he says. “One thing that I do appreciate about this university — especially with Chancellor Wilcox’s recent efforts — is the expansion of undergraduate research. It’s one of the best ways for students to really find a foothold and to find something that makes them stand out as an undergraduate.”

Art is Research, TooThe number of applicants that the

Chancellor’s Research Fellowship attracts is robust. Yet in the CRF’s two years of existence the majority of students have been from life sciences, with just a handful from the humanities and arts.

“We’re out there hustling,” says Brint, the vice provost for undergraduate education. “As [CRF] becomes more institutionalized as important recognition on campus, we’ll have more and more people from all throughout the campus who will apply.”

In the CRF program, research is a catch-all term, an encompassing

expression for undergraduate research, scholarly or creative activity.

Danni Wei, 21, is one example of how research isn’t just limited to lab work and numbers. Wei was born in Tianjin, China, and immigrated to the United States when she was just 8. A soft-spoken but expressive junior majoring in art with a minor in

“IF YOU HAVE A GROUP

OF STUDENTS AND YOU

WANT TO TELL THEM

ABOUT BASEBALL, YOU

DON’T SIT IN A LECTURE

HALL AND MAP OUT THE

FIELD.”

— Sue Wessler


Danni Wei, 21, is one example of how research

isn,t just limited to lab work and numbers.

statistics, she’s quick to answer why she selected two such seemingly dissimilar fields of study.

“They’re two different ways to explore any questions you have. With statistics, you go out and gather data to get answers,” Wei explains. “In art, you can make it about anything you want to explore, and it’s on very broad terms.”

Wei’s CRF project explores art as a means of expression for people with autism. It’s a subject that’s deeply personal to the self-described introvert Wei. “I had a difficult

time bringing myself out to others; I was in my own world for a while,” Wei explains. “So I wanted to learn about alternative means of communication. What ways can we communicate with other human beings that is not verbal, or focused on verbal aspects?”

Wei’s curiosity was piqued by gestures and body language, but it wasn’t until she read an article about American autistic savant artist Jonathan Lerman that she fine-tuned her CRF topic.

“Lerman’s voice was in his art,” Wei says. “It was his way of reaching out to the world.” That profound discovery led her to speak to other autistic artists and to communicate with doctors, professionals and authors working in the field of autism.

At the 2014 Annual UCR Undergraduate Research & Creative Activity Symposium, Wei set up two projectors pointing out and overlapping in the middle. People entered the space by walking into the projections to be a part of the experience. “I wanted to capture the shared experiences I have with the artists,” Wei says.

Wei says her CRF project was a means of self-examination. “If you start with an open mind and heart, anything is possible. Your

thoughts are not just empty — they can turn into something great.”

From Zero to 60As one of the most diverse public

research universities in the country, UCR takes students with almost no lab exposure and turns them into scientists at the end of four years. (Or, as Brint says, “Going from zero to 60.”)

It has resulted in a different class of students — ones that Rorive says really blow you away. “These students are the ones who want to take an extra step outside of the classroom, who take it to the next step and challenge themselves in that way. They really are awesome.”

For 22-year-old psychology major Insia Hirawala, the opportunity for research was a challenge she gladly took on. “I was a community college student, so when I transferred to UC Riverside, I realized I wanted to apply to grad school. That made me want to take advantage of what UCR has to offer.”

Today she encourages students — no matter what they do — to apply to the program. “When I applied for the CRF, I thought it’d be a long shot. I put a lot of effort into it and when I received it, I realized hard work really does eventually pay off.”

Hirawala had previously worked as a research assistant under Professor Rebekah Richert in the UCR Child Cognition Lab and was hoping to expand on her faculty


For 22-year-old psychology major Insia

Hirawala, the opportunity for research

was a challenge she gladly took on.

New FellowshipChancellor Wilcox and his wife, Diane Del Buono, have created the 13th Chancellor’s Research Fellowship to support first-generation undergraduate students

In February, Chancellor Kim A. Wilcox and his

wife, Diane Del Buono, announced that they will

endow a new Chancellor’s Research Fellowship at

UC Riverside with a personal gift of $100,000.

In 2014-2015, a 13th research fellowship will

provide financial support to one more of an elite set

of undergraduate scholars at UCR. Wilcox and Del

Buono want to prioritize first-generation college

students when selecting the 13th recipient.

Wilcox himself was among the first in his family

to earn a college degree. He grew up in Northern

Michigan and, after undergraduate years at

Michigan State University, earned master’s and

doctoral degrees from Purdue University in speech

and hearing science. Wilcox has held academic

leadership positions at Michigan State University,

the University of Kansas, the Kansas Board of

Regents and the University of Missouri. He became

UCR’s ninth chancellor in August 2013.

Del Buono earned a master’s degree from

Purdue University and a law degree from the

University of Kansas, where she also served as

director of financial aid.

“Kim Wilcox and Diane Del Buono have a deep

and personal understanding of the transformative

effect on students of collaborative contact with

faculty members,” said UCR Foundation Chair S.

Sue Johnson. “On behalf of the UCR Foundation, I

am grateful to them not only for their leadership,

but for this gift that will create an enduring impact

on campus for generations to come.”

mentor’s work with children’s cognitive development.

In her research, Hirawala has spent many hours driving back and forth from San Bernardino to her home in Fullerton to conduct 48 interviews with children, ages 3 to 5, and their families.

Her CRF topic, “Muslim Children’s Conceptualization of Allah and Prayer,” is built upon Richert’s continuing research that focuses largely on Christian and Jewish populations in order to compare the three predominant monotheistic religions.

“I’d ask questions about Allah (God) — if he was happy, or if he was real — and then ask the same question about their mothers. I wanted to see if children could understand that there is a difference between the two,” Hirawala explains.

The daughter of a hairdresser and a car salesman, Hirawala is a first-generation college student. “My parents may not know a lot about research, but my work ethic is something I learned from them, and I couldn’t have achieved my results or success without their love and support.” Hirawala plans on attending grad school and going into marriage and family therapy and counseling in the future.

“Research is being able to put together something so complex,” Hirawala remarks. “As an undergrad I learned a lot—being independent, meeting deadlines. It’s also really rewarding to see results come out of

what you initially collected data for. It’s truly fascinating to see all that come together.”

Brint says CRF is hoping to grow and continue the enrichment of students, as well as increase the number of applicants and make sure all major disciplinary areas are represented.

“It’s certainly not the case that every university is ignoring undergraduate research, but there are a lot of places where the focus is really on the graduate students and the notion that undergraduates are there to read, learn the literature and be well prepared when they go to grad school to participate in research,” Brint says. “We don’t believe that here. We believe that the students are very able and that you learn as much or more by being involved in doing the work than by just reading in the library.”

And look no further than the students who emerge from the Chancellor’s Research Fellowship with new sets of skills, knowledge and a re-evaluated, readjusted and refreshed sense of their own self-regard.

“The fact that we produce so many students who go on to graduate and attend professional school and who have careers,” says Brint. “I think it’s a testimony to the campus culture and faculty that promotes it.”

“IT’S CERTAINLY NOT THE CASE THAT EVERY UNIVERSITY IS

IGNORING UNDERGRADUATE RESEARCH, BUT THERE ARE A LOT OF

PLACES WHERE THE FOCUS IS REALLY ON THE GRADUATE

STUDENTS AND THE NOTION THAT UNDERGRADUATES ARE THERE

TO READ, LEARN THE LITERATURE AND BE WELL PREPARED WHEN

THEY GO TO GRAD SCHOOL TO PARTICIPATE IN RESEARCH.”

— Steve Brint



Insect-inspired

How Ring Carde’’s childhood fascination with insects led to a highly decorated career

Distinguished Professor of Entomology Ring Cardé has worked at UC

Riverside for almost two decades. During that time, he has expanded

on his research on moth pheromones. He has also collaborated with

researchers from various fields of study, from entomology to

engineering. These days, when he’s not trying to keep up with the

ever-increasing volume of scientific literature, Cardé and his wife,

Anja, enjoy travelling. “Travel has given us an appreciation of our own

diverse country and also a window onto the rest of the world,” he says.

B Y L I L L E D E S H A N B O S E


invaluable resource for our group. One of our most

productive projects was a joint endeavor modeling

insect navigation in a virtual world with Jay Farrell in

electrical engineering, sponsored by the Office of

Naval Research. That in turn led to new ways to

program search strategies of underwater robots

seeking out leaking sources of chemicals.

What is your research focused on now?Our lab is split between studying mechanisms of

moth orientation to pheromones and understanding

which compounds are used, while the other half of our

lab concentrates on female mosquito orientation to

host odors and how repellents alter that response. The

mosquito work is a great collaboration with

entomology colleague Anand

Ray, with the support of the

National Institutes of Health.

Much of what our lab does

involves observing insects flying

in a wind tunnel and analyzing

their trajectories in 3-D.

How has the A.M. Boyce endowment helped you and your research?

The flexibility of endowed

funds is key. The Boyce

endowment allows me to send

students and postdocs to

scientific meetings and to explore

speculative areas of research that

fall outside of the range of those

funded by my current grants.

These pilot projects in turn can

jumpstart entirely new areas of

research.

How did you end up studying chemistry and entomology? Like many other entomologists, my fascination with

insects dates back to my early childhood and I never

lost that interest. So to me it seemed natural to go on

to graduate work in entomology. Initially my thesis

work at Cornell concentrated on trying to figure what

was a “good” species among a complex of moths that

had long defied clear-cut classification with traditional

morphological traits. This in turn led me to wonder

how these very similar, co-existing species managed to

avoid hybridization. Moths use chemical messages

(pheromones) for mate-finding, and at that time we

were finding out that each moth species often had its

own unique scent. Fortunately for me, I was able to

work on the chemistry of these pheromones with

Wendell Roelofs, who was later elected to the National

Academy of Sciences. Roelofs had just begun his career

at Cornell’s New York State Agricultural Experiment

Station in Geneva. Moth pheromones became a major

focus of my thesis and in 1970 we identified the

pheromones that these moths use. My conversion

from taxonomist to chemical ecologist was completed

by a postdoc in Roelofs’ lab.

What led you to UCR?In 1996 I was a distinguished university professor

and department head of entomology at the University

of Massachusetts in Amherst, but the entomology

department here at UCR has long been considered

world-class, and when an opportunity to join its ranks

became available, the opportunity was irresistible.

What do you like best about working on this campus?We can tap into an extraordinary breadth of

expertise — within entomology and across campus.

Jocelyn Millar in our department is one of the world’s

premier insect chemical ecologists and he’s an

“The entomology department here at UCR has long been

considered world-class, and when an opportunity to join its

ranks became available, the opportunity was irresistible.”

What is an Endowed Chair and Why is it Important?

An endowed chair is one of

the most important gifts to

higher education; it’s an honor

that fosters academic

excellence and recognizes

superior faculty. Established

with sizeable donor gifts to an

academic area, the endowed

chair provides invaluable

financial support above and

beyond salary that the

professor uses in research,

teaching or service activities.


One of Seitz’s key discoveries was the importance of rewards in perceptual learning. “We used food- and water-deprived human subjects, and they came and sat in front of split-screen computer display, with one eye seeing a visual stimulus, while the other eye was presented with a dim, subtle, noisy pattern. Then, whenever the stimulus appeared to an eye, we gave them a drop of water as a reward.” After training for a period of time, the subjects learned to distinguish between the patterns that came with a reward and those that didn’t — without actually noticing the difference. “This proved that learning could take place without attention,” Seitz says.

UltimEyesAaron Seitz’s video game can help you see bigger, better, faster, more

“At the same time, there were other published papers showing that you could train people to improve their perceptual abilities by playing action video games. There’s evidence that people learn from those games, even if they’re not specifically designed for perceptual learning. I wanted to take the knowledge I’d gained from my basic research, get together with people who create video games and make a custom game.”

Seitz started a company with Adam Goldberg and Simon Mathew, who were both in the video game industry. They developed a prototype of a game that came to be called UltimEyes and started testing it out. He brought the concept to the athletics department at UCR, and the baseball team (whose game involves a really small ball moving really fast) volunteered. “With the baseball team, we trained all position players for about 30 days. They came in for 25-minute sessions four days a week. After 30 sessions, we tested them and found that their vision had improved by 31 percent. That is, they could read the letters from 31 percent farther away from the eye chart.”

The word “visionary” gets tossed about freely when speaking about inventors. In the case of Aaron Seitz, professor of psychology at UCR, his work has less to do with his own vision than it does with everyone else’s. His pioneering research in perceptual learning — essentially, training the brain to better perceive sensory input — has led to real-world applications that improve eyesight. The eye-and-brain-training software Seitz has developed has worked well on those who already have excellent vision — notably the hitters on the UCR baseball team. The National Institutes of Health (NIH) recently awarded Seitz a five-year, $1.7 million grant to research potential therapies for low vision, including such conditions as lazy eye, cataracts and dry macular degeneration. He has also founded a company called Carrot Neurotechnology, which creates vision-training video games.

BY TED B. KISSELL

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1 2 3

FROM MIND TO MARKET


In a paper published in February, Seitz and his co-authors — including his longtime collaborator, UCR postdoc Jenni Deveau — estimated that the Highlanders won five extra games as a result of their sharper vision. “They had fewer strikeouts, scored more runs and showed improvement across some more esoteric statistics,” Seitz says. The paper makes it clear that the improved play was directly attributable to the UltimEyes training, he adds.

The potential applications of this software extend far beyond the sports world. The company is starting a large study with the Riverside Police Department looking at how UltimEyes can impact police skills including shooting, driving and reading license plates. “We can also do studies with helicopter pilots or with people who suffer from schizophrenia,” Seitz says. “We’ve had success in a normal lab approach, but when you’re using some specialized software that only some computers run, you’re restricted in how far your studies can go. Once you’ve got something in an application that anyone can download, that makes that many more studies that you can do — under real-world conditions.”

UltimEyes is now available for download at both ultimeyesvision.com and for mobile devices at the iTunes Store. The two primary exercises in the game are “static search,” in which targets appear across the screen, and the player must simply click on them; and “dynamic search,” in which the targets fade into view — with a sound cue — rather than appearing all of a sudden. “It’s not as fun a game as I’d like it to be,” Seitz allows, “but it has all the key components, and it has been demonstrated to give rise to perceptual learning. Even still, it has an addictive element to it, and I find that when I start that I keep playing.”

Watch Seitz’s vision training research in action on magazine.ucr.edu

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Sick,Twisted

and Totally InnovativeBY MICHELLE WOO


Spike and Mike’s Festival of Animation became the breeding ground

of the D.I.Y. animation movement, and it all started in Riverside

Saturday-morning cartoons, these weren’t.

Before YouTube, folks bored with the overload of saccharine television programming would slip into art houses and college auditoriums after dark to watch short animated films that were too edgy, avant garde or politically incorrect for the mainstream airwaves. (Deer-squashing and clown pimps, anyone?)

Spike and Mike’s Festival of Animation became the vibrant breeding ground of the D.I.Y. animation movement, helping launch the careers of industry heavyweights such as Nick Park and Peter Lord (“Wallace & Gromit,”

“Chicken Run”), John Lasseter (“Toy Story,” “Monsters, Inc.”), Pete Docter (“Up,” “Monsters, Inc.,” “WALL-E”), Craig McCracken (“Powerpuff Girls”) and Mike Judge (“Beavis and Butt-Head”). In his book “Outlaw Animation,” cartoon historian Jerry Beck writes, “Spike and Mike came from nowhere with nothing and created a market where none existed.”

Now the films are making their way back to the city where it all began. Riverside native Craig “Spike” Decker, who co-founded the festival with the late Mike Gribble, has gifted UC Riverside with original reels of more than 800 different titles spanning the event’s 37-year history.


The collection ranges from the poignant, Oscar-winning “Bunny” by Chris Wedge to Eric Fogel’s “Mutilator,” a satirical story about a post-apocalyptic superhero.

Derek Burrill, associate professor of media and cultural studies, says he “freaked out” when he heard about Decker’s gesture. A longtime animation fan, he attended the festival in 1990 as a freshman at UC San Diego. “To see something pushing the boundaries was awesome,” says Burrill, who facilitated the donation with Toni Lawrence, director of development for the School of Public Policy. “Animators are people who tend to see the world differently. They point out what’s wrong in our society and culture and make fun of it, making fun of ourselves. This sort of self-policing is a very healthy thing for a society to do.”

The animation mayhem started inside a Victorian house on Magnolia Avenue, where Decker and Gribble lived while attending Riverside City College in the 1970s. “It was a total ‘Animal House’ atmosphere with all types of characters and antics,” Decker says of the commune. It was called the Mellow Manor, which would eventually become the namesake of Spike and Mike’s production company, Mellow Manor Productions.

When Decker’s ‘50s-style greaser band broke up, the duo began hosting midnight screenings of rock & roll movies, which opened with animated clips such as Max Fleischer’s “Betty Boop,” “Popeye” and “Superman,” all shown on 16mm film. People loved the cartoons and asked to see more, so the two young men decided to put together an entire show made of animated shorts.

Borrowing $1,000 from a friend, Decker and Gribble held the first Spike and Mike screening in 1977 at Landis

Auditorium at Riverside City College. “We were sweating,” Decker says. “We didn’t know if anyone would show up. There was a stigma. People would say, ‘Oh, cartoons? Like Bugs Bunny?’ We were like, ‘No, these are epic pieces of work.’”

Despite his anxiety, the event sold out and soon spiraled into college towns across the nation. They teamed up with notable animators—Will Vinton (The California Raisins), Marv Newland (“Bambi Meets Godzilla”), Paul Driessen (“The Yellow Submarine”), Bill Plympton (“Your Face”), Danny Antonucci (“Ed, Edd n Eddy”)—and delved into the world of computer animation when it was just a wild new experiment. Spike and Mike’s Festival of Animation branched into two categories—the classic show, which featured more artistic, intellectual films, and the lewder, cruder, 18-and-over “sick and twisted” show, in which audience members were sometimes handed barf bags. Over the years, the independent festival has toured everywhere from the Cannes Film Festival to Sundance to Comic-Con. “We did it first and we did right,” Decker says of the underground movement he and Gribble created. “We wanted to show that animation isn’t just for children — it’s unlimited.”

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Watch it: Spike on why he donated an extensive film archive to UCR MAGAZINE.UCR.EDU24 | UCR Spring 2014

According to Burrill, the Spike and Mike collection at UCR can be used as an academic resource for those who want to study the early works of legendary animators. A goal, he says, is to transfer the film to digital video and have it archived for generations to come.

For Decker, the gift is a way to celebrate the festival’s Riverside history. “We’re going back to our roots,” he says.

“We wanted to show that animation isn’t just for children — it’s unlimited.”

Spike Decker

Mike Gribble

“Bambi Meets Godzilla” (originally created in 1969)By Marv Newland

This blink-and-you’ll-miss-it tale of a monster crushing a poor, innocent fawn helped set off the Spike and Mike explosion. The classic, black-and-white student film is an early example of remix culture, creating something original with pre-existing, often well-known works. “Marv’s irreverent use of animation was a turning point,” Decker says. “It was something that wasn’t just for the kiddies and wasn’t Warner Bros. or Disney.”

“The Adventures of André and Wally B.” (1984)Animation by John Lasseter (CEO of Pixar and Walt Disney Animation Studios)

Computer animation was in an experimental phase when this film from the Lucasfilm Computer Graphics Project (which later spun off Pixar Animation Studios) premiered. Telling the story of an android named André being awakened by a pesky bee named Wally B., it was the first piece to use motion blur and manipulatable shapes in CG animation, making the characters look more natural.

“A Story” (1987) By Andrew Stanton (“Toy Story,” “Finding Nemo,” “WALL-E,” “Monsters, Inc.,”

“A Bug’s Life”)

Before becoming a Pixar legend, a talented CalArts student named Andrew Stanton made a short film that broke all the rules. “A Story” is an anti-fairytale about a loner kid named Melvin who meets a dinosaur and a killer clown. “[Spike and Mike] did all the production, the ink-and-paint,” Decker says. “The film helped get Andrew a job at Pixar.”

“Spirit of Christmas” (1995) By Matt Stone and Trey Parker (“South Park,” “The Book of Mormon”)

For the “South Park” pilot, Matt Stone and Trey Parker used thousands of construction paper cut-outs and glue, filming each action frame by frame. The result was “The Spirit of Christmas” starring foul-mouthed 8-year-olds Stan Marsh, Kyle Broflovski, Kenny McCormick and Eric Cartman. The Colorado youngsters build a snowman, which comes to life and kills Kenny. “Audiences loved it,” Decker says.

“Frog Baseball” (1992) By Mike Judge (“Beavis and Butt-Head,” “King of the Hill,” “Office Space”)

It was this 10-minute cartoon that introduced the world to Beavis and Butt-Head, two moronic metalheads from Texas who became the voice of a generation for their inane-yet-honest commentary on what’s cool and what sucks. In the show’s pilot episode, the boys come across a frog and decide to play frog baseball. Yes, it is exactly what it sounds like.

Spike (left) with John Lasseter

Trey Parker (left) and Matt Stone

FilmsLaunched at Spike and Mike’s

Five The Festival of Animation was the

starting point for many of today’s

big-name animators. Here are five

notable ones.

1.

2.

3.

4.

5.UCR Spring 2014 | 25

California Poet Laureate Juan Felipe Herreralooks back at ve of the best momentsof his tenure


Herrera’s term ends this year, but it has been lauded as one of the most active laureateships in California’s history. From the beginning, his goal was to visit as many communities as possible and spread the word of poetry.

The son of migrant farm workers, Herrera was first in his family to attend college. This made the introduction of poetry to students who have little exposure to the literary form even more important for the award-winning Chicano poet.

“People already have the poetry; they just need a reminder that ‘Yes, this is the time to express yourself,’” he explained. “So my main goal was to shake hands with as many people as possible, of all ages, and to reshake them into poetry.”

It was his unique ability to connect with everyone, regardless of cultural or educational background, that made Herrera such a great advocate of poetry, said Andrew Winer, chair of the UCR Department of Creative Writing.

By the time his appointment ends in September, Herrera will have created numerous projects to spark inspiration throughout the state. He launched the i-Promise Joanna bullying project; he commemorated the Bay Bridge reopening with poetry; and he helped communities heal from tragedies such as the Boston Marathon bombing and the mass shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School.

Throughout his two years as poet laureate, unity has been a common theme and inspiration. “Believe it or not, one poem, one phrase, one word, one voice can be magical. We need unity in these times, and most of all, we need your call for unity to be heard,” he said.

In October, Herrera will present “The Most Incredible & Biggest Poem on Unity in the World” at the California Unity Poem Fiesta. Herrera is making a call for contributions of original poetry related to the theme “unity”; he will compile them into one poem that will be read at the California Unity Poem Fiesta at UC River-side on Oct. 9.

BY: Lilledeshan Bose

WO YEARS AGO, poetry Professor Juan Felipe Herrera — already well-known for chronicling the bittersweet lives, travails and contributions of Mexican Americans — was named California Poet Laureate by Gov. Jerry Brown.



to shake hands with as many people as possible, of all ages, and to reshake them into poetry.”California Poet Laureate Juan Felipe Herreralooks back at ve of the best moments

of his tenure


UCR Spring 2014 | 27ILLUSTRATION: Paolo Lim


Five of the best moments from Juan Felipe Herrera’s poet laureateship:

1. “THE MOST INCREDIBLE & BIGGEST POEM ON UNITY IN THE WORLD”The Unity poem project — Herrera’s biggest as poet laureate — has been soliciting submissions of poetry in the form of words, phrases or stanzas for two years. This “rolling wave of poetry” will be be assembled and read at the California Unity Poem Fiesta on Oct. 9. Submissions to “The Most Incredible & Biggest Poem on Unity in the World” may be sent as a Word document to Herrera at [email protected].

2. I-PROMISE JOANNAInspired by Herrera’s own experiences as the Spanish-speaking child of immigrants, i-Promise Joanna is a bullying-awareness effort. It is named for 10-year-old Joanna Ramos, who died of injuries suffered in the Long Beach fight in 2012. Herrera launched the effort with fifth-graders from Moreno Valley’s Towngate Elementary School at UCR’s Gluck Day of the Arts in 2013.

The effort was made possible with the UCR Gluck Fellows Program of the Arts. Graduate fellows introduced the project with a brief video of Herrera and a classroom poetry activity that invited students to talk about the impact of bullying in their lives and elicited a promise to seek peaceful solutions to disagreements.

3. CREATING POETRY IN SOLIDARITYIn the past two years Herrera and many of his students at UCR have sent poems of sympathy and solidarity to communities that have been struck by tragedy. There were poems for Newton, Conn., after the mass shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School; poems for Boston after the bombing at the Boston Marathon; and to the Philippines after a super-typhoon decimated the island of Leyte.

“Hawak Kamay: Poems for the Philippines After Haiyan” was especially touching; after Herrera started the disaster relief project, more than 1,620 members took part in the Facebook group for comfort and inspiration.

“In a time of crisis, poetry from people’s hearts finds a way to calm the storm,” Herrera says.“As a writer, it’s important to send a message that’s a positive. And every positive action has a positive outcome. So it does make a difference.”

5. “STARS OF JUAREZ: CUCA & EVA” Herrera wrote this performance piece about three women who were part of the Juarez/El Paso Border Arts Renaissance of the 1930s. Cuca and Eva Aguirre and Elvira Macías are major influences on today’s Latino and Latina performance arts. The poetic variety-show, performed at UCR early in Herrera’s appointment, came up in his interviews for the laureateship. “I told the California Senate that this was one of the earliest post-Mexican Revolution pivots of Latino art, and I wanted to bring this woman’s story to the public. … I was so happy of all the families that came to the performance at the dance studio and that people wanted to come and see it. Our students performed the roles, sang and danced — everyone was very pleased. I wrote the lyrics and the music was by Bruno Louchouarn.That was definitely a highlight.”

5. BAY BRIDGE OPENINGLast year, Herrera participated in a traditional chain-cutting ceremony to celebrate the completion of the San Francisco-Oak-land Bay Bridge’s eastern span. He read a poem commissioned

for the event, “Bay Bridge Inauguration Poem, Labor Day 2013, for all bridge dreamers, bridge builders & bridge crossers.” His poem is displayed in a state facility near the bridge.

Having crossed the Bay Bridge as a child, the event was special to Herrera. “In a way, I came back to that bridge which I crossed as a child. And it is now rebuilt and transformed, as I have been transformed. I came back to it by contributing a poem for everybody — for kids, workers, designers, planners, hard laborers, the ocean, the bridge itself.”

Bay Bridge Inauguration PoemSan Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge East Span, September 2, 2013

for all bridge dreamers, bridge builders & bridge crossers

Self anchored self-sustaining a light onto itselfThis arc that lifts us this arc that sings us as we passBay Bridge – I see you now your new design risenAbove star-waters a new galaxy appears a new trillionMay we live in your safety in your carriage in your heartMay all your hours and all your lights embrace us once againMay we curl across your shoulders as bird-fish singersMay we be the bridge for a new time of beauty and peaceLet us thank the workers – artists of space and matterOne sound one tree one knitted rebozo shawl for our motherAloft she turns she protects renewed waves of childrenToday we are born to wind-sky steel and turquoise choirsWe are filled with light-strength height-gratitude and violetOcean stillness we open our arms our bridge of many bridgesEverything is different now melodic silver harmoniousEverything is open now spiritual inhalation of the Pacific RimVoyages migrations the conversations of generations Viva!The workers applaud now iron-workers painters welders plannersArchitects engineers laborers drivers Viva!Lifters callers crane operators Viva!Cement mixers cable threaders Viva!After the earthquakeWe shall live – yesWe shall round dance and honorSpider buggies comin’ up! Light poles hold ‘em steady steady Saddle template fit-up North mainspan cable ready ready Motion sensors booster pump expansion tank

Spider buggies comin’ up! Spider buggies comin’ up! Spider buggies comin’ up!We shall live in our luminescent loom of lights and cosmos yesWe shall hula dance in expansive unity once again today yesHand to hand shoulder to shoulder woven and winged dancerBumper to bumper cable rider to cable flyer call it out nowWe shall swivel alive golden silver dark sequenced with joyWe shall live crossing into the other from one to the secondFrom the second to the linked infinity today the chain is cut and weAre released again Oakland San Francisco earth to all earthOcean to sky-wind to star nebulae once again you and me – weThe people the people El Pueblo it is the people Bay BridgeHold on to each other move now rise now for the world to see

— Juan Felipe Herrera, Poet Laureate of California

Listen to Juan Felipe Herrera read his poems on magazine.ucr.edu

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These books are available for purchase at the UCR Campus

Store and online at www.ucrcampusstore.ucr.edu. They have been discounted up to 30

percent

A living multicultural

encyclopedia, essays on

“win-win-win” solutions

and other Page Turners

The Mason Gaffney Reader: Essays on Solving the “Unsolvable” By Mason GaffneyHenry George Institute October 2013, 244 pages

Mason Gaffney has devoted his career to demonstrating the viability of reconciliation and synthesis in economic policy. In these 21 wide-ranging essays, Gaffney shows how we can find “win-win-win” solutions to many of society’s seemingly “unsolvable” problems, such as preventing inflation and motivating workers.

Mason Gaffney is a professor emeritus of economics at UCR.

A Multicultural America: A Multimedia Encyclopedia By Carlos E. Cortés SAGE PublicationsSeptember 2013, 2,528 pages

This comprehensive “living” encyclopedia, among the first to extensively use newly released 2010 U.S. Census data to examine multiculturalism in America, explores the changing landscape of the nation with more than 900 signed entries on specific ethnic groups, their histories and a full spectrum of issues flowing from the increasingly multicultural canvas that is America today.

Carlos E. Cortés is a professor emeritus of history at UCR.

Determinants of FDI Flows Within Emerging Economies: A Case Study of Poland By Arkadiusz Mironko Palgrave Macmillan May 2014, 288 pages

This book provides a detailed examination of foreign direct investment in Poland and explores the impact this has on foreign investment policy. It also analyzes and identifies the location patterns of foreign direct investments across different regions in Poland, and strives to determine foreign companies’ motives behind these choices.

Arkadiusz Mironko is the executive director of graduate programs at UCR’s A. Gary Anderson Graduate School of Management.

The Character of Democracy: How Institutions Shape Politics By Richard Clucas and Melody Valdini ’99Oxford University PressJanuary 2014, 312 pages

Xylotheque: Essays by Yelizaveta P. Renfro ’00University of New Mexico PressApril 2014, 168 pages

Trees are guiding symbols for Yelizaveta P. Renfro in her life and in her work. Combining memoir and nature writing, this book is made up of nine essays that represent different seasons and slices of time, not unlike the rings of a tree. No two rings are alike, but each accretes to the next, creating, section by section, a life.

Yelizaveta P. Renfro received her bachelor’s degree in compar-ative science from UCR.

This book offers a uniquely comprehensive overview of the major democratic institutions found around the world, including electoral systems, party systems, presidential and parliamentary governments, legislatures, federalism and constitutional courts. Case studies of the political structures found in Brazil, Germany, Japan, South Africa, the United Kingdom and the United States illustrate how differences in institutional design affect democratic government.

Melody Valdini received her bachelor’s degree from UCR in political science.



The third annual Dance Marathon was held on Feb. 22 at the Aberdeen-Inverness dining hall. The student-led effort, which benefits the Guardian Scholars Program at UCR, was co-sponsored by the Student Alumni

Association and Golden Key International Honour Society, Riverside. Guardian Scholars is a vital program that provides assistance to former foster youth who have beaten the odds and are working toward getting their degree.

Aided by a $20,000 matching gift and additional donations after the event, participants raised more than $50,000 to support emancipated foster youth. The Alumni Association would like to thank all donors who assisted in making this possible.

The UCR Alumni Association travel program offers a mix of exploration, education and adventure in partnership with reputable, prescreened tour operators. These are just two of the many trips we have available this year. Visit www.alumni.ucr.edu/travel for more details about the trips being offered in 2014.

• China Connoisseur & Tibet, a 16-day deluxe journey offering the most splendid highlights of China and Tibet, Oct. 16-31.

• Pearls of the Mediterranean, cruising from Monaco to Spain, Nov. 7-15.

Tour participants, whether UCR alumni or not, must be members of the UCR Alumni Association. Each member may bring up to three travel companions as guests.

Looking for ways to connect with alumni in your region? The Alumni Association is always looking for volunteer leaders to help organize events to connect Highlanders! We have clubs and chapters in the following regions:

Inland Empire

Orange County

Los Angeles

San Francisco Bay Area

Washington, D.C. (now forming)We also have special interest groups.

For a full list of clubs and chapters, please visit the Alumni Association website.

For information on how to get involved with any of our clubs and chapters, please contact Bill Cole at [email protected].

The Student Alumni Mentorship Program (SAM) is looking for volunteer alumni to mentor students. Through SAM, students are paired with alumni in their field of interest. Time commitment is minimal, and communication between

the mentor and protégé is determined by the two participants and can be done via email, phone or face-to-face meetings.

To sign up to participate, please visit www.alumni.ucr.edu and click on “Get involved.”

Students Raise More Than $50,000

Travel the Globe and Expand Your Horizons

Get Involved with Clubs and Chapters

Mentor Students!

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Students hold up the total donation amount on the night of the Dance Marathon.


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Names printed in blue indicate members of the UCR Alumni Association.To update your membership, visit www.alumni.ucr.edu

60sClaude Phene ’66

received the 2014

Person of the Year

Award from the

California Irrigation

Institute where he has served as

director, president (1984-85) and

member for over 20 years.

Starnes Walker ’68,

M.S. ’70, Ph.D. ’73

was hired as the

founding director for

the new University of

Delaware cybersecurity initiative.

In his new role, Starnes will focus

on issues facing corporate

America.

Anne ’69 and James ’71 Weatherill

co-authored and published “The

Blades Carry Me: Inside the

Helicopter War in Vietnam,” a

memoir of the year from 1967 to

1968 when James served as a

helicopter pilot in Vietnam and

Anne attended UCR as a pregnant

military spouse.

70sMarsi Steirer ’78 is the deputy

director at the City of San Diego,

Public Utilities Department. In

2013, she received a number of

awards, including the Association

of California Water Agency 2013

Award for Excellence in Water

Leadership and the 2013

American Water Resources

Association Mary H. Marsh Medal

for Exemplary Contributions to the

T A K E F I V E

Cory Butner ‘05

STATISTICS

Butner became the

third Olympian in UCR

history, finishing in

12th place in the two-

man bobsled at the

Winter Games in Sochi,

Russia. The Yucaipa

native recently moved

to North Carolina with

his girlfriend, Danielle

Logano.

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You spent a lot of time at the Student Recreation Center during your time at UCR.

I worked there, and when I wasn’t working, I was working out once or twice a day there. I’m not going to lie; I might have missed one or two classes to go get a workout in (laughs). It was definitely a second home. I went to UCR at 165 pounds and, after learning about weightlifting, graduated at 230 pounds.

How did you get involved with the sport?I just graduated and still living with Mom and Dad, trying

to get things going. My sister, Charity ’00, was visiting and I overheard her talking about trying out for bobsledding. The more I thought about it, the better it sounded. I went on the U.S. Federation website and filled out a form to try out for the team.

A few weeks later I got an email inviting me to come to Lake Placid for a test.

It is kind of funny how well everything worked out. I didn’t get a chance to play college sports because of my size, but I found weightlifting and built my size and strength to go along with my quickness. I found a sport, through pure chance, that incorporated all those things.

You have been competing internationally for several years. What is that like?

The season starts in October in Lake Placid with team trials, then the World Cup will start in November. Typically we will do four races in America, then fly out to Europe and do four races there, and then World Championships.

We definitely get a lot more recognition in Europe. Especially in Germany – they love sliding. At every race, even in practice, people are walking the track, taking pictures, asking for autographs. It will be 20 degrees and the stands are just packed watching the race.

What are some your favorite memories of your time in Sochi?

We got there three days before the opening ceremonies; we were the first athletes in. We stayed in the main village and watched speed skating, figure skating, some of the earlier events that were going on. My favorite moment was the Opening Ceremonies. You are walking with 260 other athletes who have put in the same amount of work and effort over the last four, eight or 12 years — as one team. Then they announce “The United States” and you hear the crowd cheering. That was one of the coolest things.

What is next for you?I am planning on taking the next year off to get healthy.

I had shoulder surgery on April 11 to fix a couple of bones that were pinching on something in there. I had competed with it all season and at the Olympics it started getting worse. I also have a bulging disc in my neck that I would like to avoid having to have surgery for.

As far as the future, it all comes down to money. At some point I have to start a career. I’ll probably look for a “real job” in marketing or sales; I’d like to stay around sports. I like the competition, but reality has to kick in at some point if I want to have a family and a future.

Of course, I’d love to drive a race car (laughs).

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Protection and Wise Use of our

Nation’s Resources.

Michael Haro ’79 has

been promoted to

principal environ-

mental engineer for

Lockheed Martin

Aeronautics Co. (also known as

the Skunk Works) in Palmdale,

Calif. He is responsible for Skunk

Works’ environmental protection

program and directs a staff of

nine environmental specialists.

Michael also helps set strategic

sustainability policy for all of

Lockheed Martin and has been

with the company for 25 years.

His environmental programs have

won numerous awards from the

U.S. EPA, CalEPA and local

regulatory agencies. Michael has

been an environmental education

advocate for more than 20 years,

raising environmental literacy of

K-12 students in the Antelope

Valley and Santa Clarita commu-

nites. He recently founded a

nonprofit organization called the

Santa Clarita Environmental

Education Consortium (www.

sceec.org) in partnership with

College of the Canyons (COC),

Castaic Lake Water Agency,

Newhall Land and other stake-

holders. Michael is an adjunct

faculty member in the Earth,

Space and Environmental

Sciences department at COC,

teaching environmental studies.

80sJudyth E. Reed, M.A. ’80 was

elected president of the Wyoming

Archaeological Foundation. The

foundation manages the Hell Gap

archaeological site near Douglas,

Wyo. Judyth lives in Cheyenne

most of the year.

Josefina Canchola ’88

was honored by

Assemblymember Ian

Calderon as the 2014

57th District Woman

of the Year. Josefina was

recognized for her dedication to

the Chicano Latino Youth

Leadership Project and commit-

ment to the advancement of

women.

90sMichael Battin ’90 was voted as a

2014 Southern California Super

Lawyer, an honor reserved for

lawyers who have attained high

peer recognition, meet ethical

standards and have demonstrated

achievement in their field. He was

also elected president of the

Legal Aid Society of San Diego.

Matthew McMurtrey ’93 has been

appointed as a managing partner

at the law firm Sacks, Glazier,

Franklin, Lodise LLP. He joined

the firm in 2001 and became a

partner in January 2012.

Matthew obtained his J.D. from

the UCLA School of Law after

receiving his bachelor’s degree at

UC Riverside.

Margo Wilson ’97 recently

published a novel, “The Main

Ingredient,” with Ramsfield Press.

She is the chair of the English

department at California

University of Pennsylvania and

teaches journalism and English.

Before her stint at higher

education, Margo worked for 20

years as a reporter and editor at

various newspapers, from the

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M E E T

M I N G L EN E T W O R KCONNECT

Join UCR alumni in your area for

a fun evening of casual

conversation and refreshments, and welcome

the new Class of 2014 alumni!

UCR Alumni Association members at select receptions* will have a chance to win two tickets to the Hollywood Bowl or Del Mar Races alumni events.

Save the date for the event in your area!

Korean Alumni (Pasadena) . . . . . . 6/21Los Angeles* . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6/26Inland Empire* . . . . . . . . . . . . 7/16Orange County* . . . . . . . . . . . . 7/23San Francisco . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7/29

The event is free for all alumni to attend.Registration required. Sign up at

alumni.ucr.edu/newgrad or call 951-827-2586.


Spruce Grove Star near Edmonton,

Alberta, Canada, to the LA Times.

00sShalon Hopkins ’01 and spouse

Brian welcomed a baby boy,

Cooper Joaquin Hopkins, in

October 2013.

Cory Butner ’05 and his teammate

Christopher Fogt competed in the

2014 Winter Olympics in the

two-man bobsled. Cory, the third

Olympian in UCR’s history, piloted

the No. 2 bobsled for the United

States. (Read an interview with

Cory on page 31.)

Christina Jin ’06

recently founded the

startup SpaceHitch, a

platform that

connects travelers to

people who need

items elsewhere in the world.

Christina came up with the idea

after spending the past four years

working abroad.

Deepak Sharma ’06

transitioned from his

position as student

affairs officer at UC

Riverside to program

coordinator at the newly devel-

oped Leadership, Engagement,

Advising, and Development

(LEAD) Center at UC Berkeley.

Helen Lovejoy, M.A.

’06, Ph.D. ’11 is the

co-director of the

Foothill Writers Series

and Magic of Cinema

at Peninsula College. Helen, who

teaches English at the college,

was granted tenure on March 11

in Port Angeles.

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T A K E F I V E

Katherine Djernes, Ph.D. ’13

ORGANIC CHEMISTRY

Katherine Djernes, a Ph.D. graduate in organic chemistry, completed her UCR research

on hydrocarbon oxidation under Richard Hooley, associate professor of chemistry. She

was the first graduate student on the research team and is

working in the same field of her research topic today. Currently,

Djernes is a staff scientist at Regenesis Remediation

Technologies, working with soil and groundwater remediation to

develop new products.

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What is the best part of being a staff scientist?

The best part of my job is the challenge. We are

working to solve practical environmental problems

and I think it’s fun! And since my title is a “scientist”

instead of a “chemist,” which was originally what I

was trained in, it allows me to see science as a whole.

It’s not just chemistry, but also geology, engineering

and more.

Out of all the Ph.D programs for chemistry, why did you

choose to go to UCR?

I chose UCR because I really like the resources

that the school has to offer. It has all the benefits

of a UC school, but it is still small enough to where

you get to personally know your classmates and

professors. UCR has the best of everything!

Would you say that the research that you completed at

UCR helped you in your position today?

The research that I do now is a similar,

commercialized version of my research back at

UCR. My graduate research focused on hydrocarbon

oxidation and now I develop products to remove

hydrocarbon contaminates like diesel fuel from the

environment. As a graduate student, I learned a lot

of other critical skills like problem-solving, public

speaking, writing clearly that I use daily in my current

position.

Do you have any advice to current UCR graduate

students?

There are incredible opportunities at UCR and

through professional organizations that are geared

specifically toward students. The Ph.D. program is all

research, and research tends to consume your time.

So my advice is to work hard in research but do not

be afraid to branch out and diversify your skill set.

What is your favorite UCR memory?

I stayed really good friends with several of the

people at UCR and I really value these friendships.

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Damian Torres ’07 works at ARC

Document Solutions, a global

reprographics company that is

now part of the digital revolution

of the construction industry.

Damian specializes in hyper-

linking services, an innovation

that links construction documents

digitally. He is currently involved

in hyperlinking the construction

contact documents for UCR’s

Glen Mor 2 Student Apartments.

Angelique Weathersby ’07 earned

a master’s degree in nursing at

California State University, San

Bernardino, in December 2013.

She works in the postanesthesia

care unit at Arrowhead Regional

Medical Center and serves as

director of District 1 for the

PeriAnesthesia Nurses of

California Association.

Dennis Jeffrey, Ph.D.

’09 was promoted to

senior software

engineer in test at

Google Inc. He and

his wife, Smruti,

both earned their doctorate

degrees at UCR in 2009 and

2013.

10sMark Broomfield,

Ph.D. ’11 received

a 2013-14 Faculty

Diversity Program

award from the

State University of New York

system. Mark was the first

professor from the Geneseo

campus to receive the award from

SUNY’s Office of Diversity, Equity

and Inclusion since the program’s

inception 15 years ago.

Ryan Rakib ’13 accepted a new

position with the Boeing Corp. as

the procurement cost analyst for

commercial airplanes.

Are you celebrating a milestone event? Maybe you published your latest book, you got elected to office or you just turned 100. Tell us all about it, send a picture, and we’ll celebrate with you! Email us at [email protected] and we’ll include it in the next UCR Magazine.

I am a transfer student.

I am a father and husband.

I am an electrical engineering major.

Scholarships have changed my life.

FUND

PO Box 112 • Riverside, CA 92502

Tel 951.827.1922 • Fax 951.827.7311 • http://givenow.ucr.edu

MY NAME IS PATRICK SMITHAND I AM A HIGHLANDER

You can change the

lives of students like Patrick.

Please make a gift today!


W E R E M E M B E R

ALUMNI

Henry Ramsey Jr. ’60, prominent judge and educator, died in Berkeley on March 15 after a stroke. He was 80. Ramsey grew up in Rocky Mount, N.C. After serving in the Korean War, Ramsey was stationed at March Air Force Base. Astonished at the possibilities that he discovered were open to him in California, he used money from the G.I. bill to enter Howard University, a historically black institution in Washington, D.C. In 1957, after a year at Howard, he transferred to UC Riverside. He graduated from UCR in 1960 with a degree in philosophy and earned his law degree from UC Berkeley’s Boalt Hall School of Law.

He fondly spoke about his experiences as a student at UCR, and later established the Henry Ramsey Jr. Revolving Emergency Loan Fund to help undergraduate students with short-term financial emergencies.

“As a young student, I needed this kind of emergency assis-tance on an occasion or two,” he recalled.

After law school, Ramsey served as a Contra Costa County prosecutor — helping to integrate the office — and as a trial lawyer in private practice.

He was a member of the faculty at Boalt Hall from 1971 to 1980. During his tenure there, he served

on the Berkeley City Council from 1973 to 1977.

He served as an Alameda County Superior Court judge from 1981 to 1990 before serving as dean of the Howard University School of Law for the next five years.

He has served as chairperson of the American Bar Association section of legal education and admissions to the bar. He is a life member of the American Law Institute and was the recipient of the 2000 Robert J. Kutak Award for promoting understanding between legal education and the active practice of law.

Ramsey is survived by four sons; two daughters; his wife, Eleanor; and seven grand-daughters. His first wife, Evelyn, died in 2010.

Robert Poole, M.A. ’64, mathe-matics professor. March 2014.

H. Leonard Francis ’68, avocado expert. March 2014.

Robert Luxmoore ’69, environ-mental scientist. January 2014.

FACULTY

Carol A. Downey, former lecturer in the English department, died March 18 after a long illness. She was 63.

Downey was born in New York City on March 28, 1950. She moved to California and lived for many years in Huntington Beach, where she raised two children and worked as a psychiatric nurse. After her children were grown, she earned bachelor’s and master’s degrees in English literature at California State University, Long Beach. In 2010, she earned a doctorate in English literature at the Claremont Graduate School. She taught English composition, Shakespeare and early modern

studies at CSULB, California State University, San Bernardino, and UCR.

She is survived by her brother Frederick; two children, Alan Downey of Orange, and Valorie Bell (Jeff) of Huntington Beach; and five grandsons: Alexander, Ethan, Ollie, Theo and Nico.

Donald Carroll Erwin, emeritus professor in the Department of Plant Pathology and Microbiology, died Feb. 22. He was 93.

Erwin’s career at UCR began about the time of the university’s founding. He received his Ph.D. in plant pathology from the University of California, Davis, in 1953 and soon after joined the Department of Plant Pathology at UCR as a junior plant pathologist. He became a professor in 1966 and later served as department chair. He retired in 1991.

His research specialties involved the causes and control of diseases that affect alfalfa, flax, cotton and other crops. He was known internationally as an expert on the biology of Phytophthora, a cause of many plant diseases and published extensively on that and other topics.

Erwin’s honors included a Guggenheim Fellowship and a Lifetime Achievement Award by the Pacific Division of the American Phytopathological Society.

Herbert L. Baird Jr. died of heart failure in his sleep on Dec. 23, 2013. He was 90.

A U.S. Army Purple Heart Veteran of World War II, Herb served from the beginning of the war and was wounded while serving as a medic supporting Allied troops during the “Battle of the Bulge” in Belgium. After his recovery he was sent back to the front lines in Germany where he

participated in the final grueling march to the end at the Elbe. At the end of the war, Herb returned to California and enrolled at Pomona College under the G.I. bill to study Romance Languages; he was a gifted linguist and ultimately earned his Ph.D. in medieval Spanish literature from University of Chicago. A professor of foreign languages and literature, Herb started his teaching career at UCR before he moved to the Western Washington University where he taught languages and literature until his retirement as associate professor emeritus in 1985.

Austin Turk, professor of sociology, died on Feb. 1. He joined the faculty at UCR in 1988 and in the years since fulfilled many roles in that department, including a period as chair. He served on the CHASS Executive Committee, the Committee on Charges, the Law and Society Program Committee and a host of other boards and committees. In the community of Riverside, he was an avid supporter of the California Museum of Photog-raphy and the Citizens’ University Committee, and he also volun-teered with the Riverside Police Department.

Turk’s scholarly career spanned more than five decades. He was a Fellow and Past President of the American Society of Crimi-nology, and had also been Chair of the Criminology Section of the American Sociological Association. His 1969 book “Criminality and the Legal Order” is considered a classic in the field.

He is survived by his wife, Dr. Ruth-Ellen Grimes.

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Stephanie Martinez has her childhood best friend’s parents to thank for her Grammy. “They forced her to study the violin and I thought it would be fun to tag along,” says Martinez. “I picked it up pretty quickly. After a few lessons, I was in love. It was my new passion. My obsession.” Martinez, then 11 years old, already sang and played the guitar in church with her sister in El Centro, Calif.

Now 24, Martinez plays violin in Mariachi Divas, the L.A.-based Mexican folk group made up solely of women. She joined the Divas in 2009 while they recorded their sixth album; in 2014, the group won a Grammy award for Best Mexican Regional Music Album, for their ninth recording, “A Mi Manera (My Way).”

“The best thing about winning is that our album is recognized as No. 1 in the whole world!” says Martinez. “It means what we’re doing with mariachi music is life-changing and making an impact in the world. The music might be hard and the hours of practice endless, but being recognized makes it all worthwhile.” Their success is also notable since mariachi music is often the domain of male singers and musicians.

Martinez, a sociology major at UCR, is 20 credits shy of her bachelor’s degree. She tours most of the year with the group and hopes to finish when the Mariachi

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Divas’ schedule slows down. The band also performs year-round at Disney California Adventure in their signature embroidered

black suits with bolero jackets. “UCR has taught me dedication and constant hard work. Managing two things that I love — sociology and mariachi — and being allowed to be part of two such

different worlds has been eye opening,” says Martinez.

The Mariachi Divas, the first mariachi group to win two Grammys, bring a unique spin to mariachi music under their musical director, Alberto Jimenez Maeda, who

writes most of the arrange-ments. “If you’ve listened to

any of our albums, you’ll hear so many different genres,” says

Martinez. “The most wonderful thing about mariachi music and my job is that

no matter what mood I’m in, I can escape into a song. I absolutely love playing any chance we get. To get people on their feet and dancing at every single concert is the highlight of my day.”

Illustration by Mike Tofanelli

“What we’re doing with

mariachi music is life-

changing and making

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All in the numbers: Demographic research by UCR political scientist Karthick Ramakrishnan reveals the rapid rise of Asian Americans and the impact of their voting patterns on immigration reform, civic engagement, and national politics.

LIVING THE PROMISELIVING THE PROMISE

H O M E C O M I N G . U C R . E D U

11.15.14S AV E T H E D AT E

H O M E C O M I N G

F O O D T R U C K S | G A M E S | L I V E M U S I C | T O U R S | B A S K E T B A L L G A M E

A N D M O R E F U N F O R T H E W H O L E FA M I LY !

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UCR Magazine Spring 2014