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Obama, McCain Can Help Advance Energy, Competitiveness Now
By Mort Kondracke, Roll Call, Thursday, June 19, 2008

Sens. John McCain (R-Ariz.) and Barack Obama (D-Ill.) unveiled impressive plans this week on energy and competitiveness policy, but they need to act now to save federal energy research from collapsing.

Specifically, McCain should call the White House and Obama should call Democratic Congressional leaders to make sure that federal scientific research budgets aren't flat-lined for another year.

Physicists in Congress Calculate Their Influence
New York Times , Tuesday, June 10, 2008

According to the Congressional Research Service, there are only about 30 scientists among the 535 senators and representatives in the 110th Congress, and that is counting the psychologist, the psychiatrist, a dozen other M.D.’s, three nurses, an engineer, two veterinarians, a pharmacist and an optometrist.

UCLA Professor Diana L. Huffaker among first class of new Department of Defense Fellows Program
Washington Post , Monday, June 9, 2008

Military power requires brainpower, and the Defense Department is moving to engage a new generation of scientists and engineers to conduct research that may pay off in technological breakthroughs for the nation's military.

The department last week announced the selection of six university professors who will form the first class of the National Security Science and Engineering Faculty Fellows Program.

New 2008 Stem Ed Reports Now Online

The 2008 State STEM Education Report Card series is now available for your information and use.  Your own state's STEM Ed Report Card can be immediately accessed at the two ASTRA Web Sites: www.usinnovation.org and www.aboutastra.org  

The Report Cards are co-located with the ASTRA R&D Sheets for your state.  These reports are important diagnostic tools for policy makers, teachers, parents, and anyone concerned about the future of the U.S. scientific and engineering enterprise. Your state's Report Card contains thirty benchmarks related to K-12 science and math teaching, socio-economic and diversity data, comparative rankings, and assessments of each state's public school educational progress as issued by the U.S. Department of Education.

Leukemia Stem Cells Identified
Science Daily, Tuesday, May 27, 2008

Stem cell researchers at UCLA have identified a type of leukemia stem cell and uncovered the molecular and genetic mechanisms that cause a normal blood stem cells to become cancerous. The discovery may lead to new therapies that target these leukemia stem cells, attacking the disease at its very root and killing the early cells that give rise to the mature cancer cells.

The UCLA Campus Awarded IDRE Approximately $4.2M
Monday, May 12, 2008

IDRE Data Center - The UCLA campus awarded IDRE approximately $4.2M in funding to build out and support the new IDRE data center located in the CNSI. IDRE will leverage this space to other researchers on campus through the Shared Cluster Hosting program – a program that allows researchers to add new nodes to the overall cluster pool. Researchers are guaranteed access to the number of nodes added, with the ability to use surplus cycles when needed. Read more

Terry Tao, receipient of the 2008 Waterman Award (video)

UCLA Professor of Mathematics Terence Tao was presented with the Alan T. Waterman Award. The annual Waterman Award recognizes an outstanding young researcher in any field of science or engineering supported by the NSF and carries a $500,000 grant for a three-year period. Often called a "supreme problem solver," and the "Mozart of Math," Tao and his work have had a tremendous impact across several mathematical areas.

UCLA center receives $19.8 million grant to build new facilities for stem cell research
Wednesday, May 7, 2008

UCLA's stem cell center received today (May 7) $19.8 million from the state to build new facilities to conduct human embryonic stem cell research.

The California Institute for Regenerative Medicine (CIRM), which administers Proposition 71 stem cell research funds, awarded the grant for UCLA to create a CIRM Institute, one of three types of facilities for which institutions statewide were allowed to submit grant applications. CIRM Institutes received the largest grants and will focus on basic and discovery stem cell research, preclinical translational research and preclinical development and clinical research.

3 UCLA Professors Elected to National Academy of Sciences
Thursday, May 1, 2008

Fields Medal–winning mathematician Terence Tao is one of three UCLA professors who were elected Tuesday to the National Academy of Sciences for their excellence in original scientific research.  

Michael Grunstein, a professor of biological chemistry at the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA, and Thomas M. Liggett, a professor of mathematics, will join Tao in being formally inducted into the academy next April.  

Membership in the academy is one of the highest honors given to a scientist or engineer in the United States. There are currently more than 2,000 active academy members, 343 of them from the University of California system. Among the academy's most renowned members are Albert Einstein, Robert Oppenheimer, Thomas Edison, Orville Wright and Alexander Graham Bell. More than 180 living members have won the Nobel Prize.  

7 Faculty Members Elected to American Academy of Arts and Sciences
Wednesday, April 30, 2008

Seven UCLA faculty members were elected Monday to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, one of the nation's oldest and most prestigious honorary societies and independent policy-research centers.  

Drawn from the sciences, the arts and humanities, business, public affairs, and the nonprofit sector, the academy's 191 new fellows and 22 new foreign honorary members are leaders in their fields and include Nobel laureates and recipients of Pulitzer and Pritzker prizes, Academy and Grammy awards, and Kennedy Center Honors.

Washington Think Tanks Issue Report Calling for New Federal Innovation Organization
Thursday, April 24, 2008

Two Washington, D.C.-based think tanks have issued a report that urges the federal government to create a National Innovation Foundation (NIF) to serve as its major advocate for innovation and innovation policy.   The new foundation, which could be an independent agency like the National Science Foundation or a "government-related public corporation within the National Institute of Standards and Technology," would consolidate innovation policy efforts scattered throughout the government and bridge the gap between basic research and the introduction of new products and processes. The agency would use a variety of competitive grant programs to promote industry-university research consortia, regional industry clusters, and other collaborations at the national, state, and regional levels. 

The report, "Boosting Productivity, Innovation, and Growth through a National Innovation Foundation," was released publicly on April 22 by the Metropolitan Policy Program within the Brookings Institute and the Information Technology & Innovation Foundation, with the endorsement of the Council on Competitiveness. 

Fuel for the Future
Tuesday, March 4, 2008, Sacramento

Engineering Professor Vasilios Manousiouthakis (from left) explains UCLA's hydrogen-fueled car to Lt. Gov. John Garamendi and alumnus Robert Holeman. UCLA showcased its green research projects during UC Day in Sacramento. Read more ...

Blue and Gold Goes Green
UCLA Impact Magazine, February 2008

Read the latest edition of UCLA Impact Magazine on green issues.

Seven things UCLA is doing for the environment that will affect your everyday life — from checking the morning weather report to your morning commute. Plus, learn what you can do to make a big difference for UCLA and the Earth.

Gift will establish first law school center in U.S. on climate change
Friday, January 25, 2008

The UCLA School of Law has received a commitment from Dan A. Emmett and his family for funds to establish the nation’s first law school center focused exclusively on climate change.

The Emmett gift, combined with a matching gift challenge, will provide a $10-million endowment fund to establish a center dedicated to the study and teaching of knowledge related to climate change and the environment.

Flagging economy needs science investments
San Francisco Chronicle, Sunday, January 20, 2008

At a time when the rest of the world is increasing its emphasis on math and science education (the most recent international tests - NAEP and PISA - show U.S. kids to be below average) and increasing their budgets for basic engineering and physical science research, Congress is telling the world these areas are not important to our future. At a time when we are failing our next generation of students, politically charged topics such as steroids in Major League Baseball and the destruction of CIA interrogation tapes command instantaneous congressional hearings while the seed corn (no pun intended) of our future is ignored and placed lower in priority than billions of dollars of earmarks.

California Scientists Vie for Fancy New Stem Cell Labs
Wired Magazine, Thursday, January 17, 2008

BURLINGAME, California -- Twelve research institutions came a step closer Wednesday to getting state-of-the-art stem cell laboratories on California's dime.

Passing muster before the California Institute for Regenerative Medicine advanced them to the next round in a competition for $262 million in grants to build new facilities. Seventeen applied last year, and five were knocked out on Wednesday. The remaining contestants range from a tiny University of California campus in Merced to internationally renowned Stanford University.

National Science Board Releases Science and Engineering Indicators 2008
National Science Board, January 15, 2008

Members of the National Science Board today delivered to the President and the Congress Science and Engineering Indicators 2008 (SEI'08), the Board's biennial report on the state of science and engineering research and education in the United States.

Called the "gold standard," it is the most comprehensive source of information on research and development conducted by universities, industry, the federal government and the international science and engineering enterprise.

NIH Announces Public-Access Policy
Science Magazine, Friday, January 11, 2008

Starting in April, most federally-funded U.S. biomedical scientists will have to send copies of their accepted, peer-reviewed manuscripts to the National Institutes of Health (NIH) for posting in a free archive. If they don't, they could have trouble renewing their grants or even lose research funding.

Science and Technology in the 2008 Presidential Election

The Association of American Universities (AAU) has joined with the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) in developing a Web site to serve as a science and technology (S&T) resource for the 2008 presidential candidates and to provide the S&T community and others with the candidates' positions on S&T issues.  The site, "Science & Technology in the 2008 Election," includes news updates, links to the candidates' S&T statements and positions, reports, surveys, and events. 

UCLA researchers develop method for production of more efficient biofuels
Wednesday, January 2, 2008

Researchers at the UCLA Henry Samueli School of Engineering and Applied Science have developed a new method for producing next-generation biofuels by genetically modifying Escherichia coli bacteria to be an efficient biofuel synthesizer. The method could lead to mass production of these biofuels.

This new strategy opens an unexplored frontier for biofuels production, both in coli and in other microorganisms.