Research

Leslie Bruce UC Irvine mathematics professor Svetlana Jitomirskaya received the 2005 American Mathematical Society Ruth Lyttle Satter Award on Thursday for her contribution to mathematics research. Jitomirskaya, a professor at UC Irvine for the past 14 years, received the Satter Award and $5,000 at an American Mathematical Society ceremony in Providence, R.I. Jitomirskaya was recognized for her research of disorderly models and elements to try to find patterns of order.

UC Irvine has received $14.5 million to do research on biological systems, joining eight other institutions in a nationwide project funded by the National Institutes of Health. In the study, a multidisciplinary team of 20 scientists will study the human body and other organisms to determine how different biological systems function together. The planned topics include birth defects, side effects of drugs and the ways bodies produce cells to repair wounds. Arthur Lander, the chair of UCI's Department of Developmental and Cell Biology, will spearhead the project, which is the only one of its kind to be held in California.

Paul Clinton Local brokers and investors reacted coolly last week to the watershed corporate fraud settlement reached between federal regulators and Wall Street's top firms. Many said the $1.4-billion settlement that requires millions in fines and restitution would probably not usher in much change in the way Wall Street works. The settlement, announced early last week following months of intense negotiations between regulators and firms, is meant to restore the shattered trust of investors who bought stocks on the glowing advice of research reports that ultimately proved fraudulent.

Two professors will discuss “Race and Equality in America” as part of UCI’s 10th annual Chancellor’s Distinguished Fellows Series. New York University sociology professor Troy Duster, who studies the role of ethnicity in biomedical research, will join University of Notre Dame professor Dianne Pinderhughes, who researches racial and ethnic politics and public policy, in a lecture Thursday. The lecture series brings top intellectuals in the sciences and humanities to UCI for public talks.

Bypassing federal restrictions, stem cell research is coming to campus at UCI. University officials and scientists cheered Friday morning as officials and top donors broke ground on the Sue and Bill Gross Stem Cell Research Center, a nearly $67-million building that will give four stories and more than 100,000 square feet to researching the fast-growing field. The new building will include not only the core stem cell laboratory and equipment, but also clinical space for work with patients, as well as a course on stem cell techniques and a master’s degree program in biotechnology with an emphasis in stem cell research.

Gail Steinbeck's Mailbag entry is full of too many mistakes, wild assumptions and misrepresentations about me, my motives and my research/reporting habits to address all of them here ("Mailbag: Steinbeck's daughter-in-law says 'Travel' is true," April 30). But before she decided to accuse me of being a lousy journalist and some creepy sort of publicity hound who set out to debunk "Travels with Charley" to make a name for myself, she should have done a little more research. Here's what I wrote in my Reason article: "My initial motives for digging into Travels With Charley were totally innocent.

Who said you can’t treat your college education like a game? UC Irvine’s school of information and computer science is aiming to do just that, with the establishment of the Center for Computer Games and Virtual Worlds, school officials announced Tuesday. The center, with the help of more than 20 faculty members, will aim to expand campus-wide research on the various social and technological qualities of games and virtual worlds. UCI was among the first universities to establish educational and research programs on game culture and technology.

A fire that blazed through two chemistry labs at UC Irvine in July resulted in as much as $3.5 million in damage, officials said. The fire, on July 23 in Frederick Reines Hall, will cost $1 million in damage, including cleanup costs, $1 million toreplace laboratory and research equipment and an estimated $1.2 million to $1.5 million to rebuild the two labs, which will be ready for use by next spring. Reines Hall is one of the two major research buildings in the School of Physical Sciences, housing laboratories, offices and research facilities for the chemistry, physics and astronomy departments.

UCI has created a new Environmental Institute to develop solutions concerning global change, officials announced Thursday. The institute will focus on conducting research on climate change and its effects, green solutions, and new energy technologies. Scientists from various backgrounds and departments across campus will work on these projects. The institute will award grants on a competitive basis to UCI research teams who are geared toward research, innovation and societal response.

Dr. Steven C. George is the new founding director of a new cardiovascular center at UCI’s Henry Samueli School of Engineering. George will take the new post at the Edwards Lifesciences Center for Advanced Cardiovascular Technology on July 1. George has led the UCI biomedical engineering department since 2002. Under George’s supervision, ABET Inc. accredited the department’s undergraduate biomedical engineering program. This makes UCI one of only two universities in California to offer an accredited bioengineering undergraduate program, according to UCI. The Edwards Lifesciences Center is a multidisciplinary center founded in 2007, which is dedicated to research on heart and vascular diseases and advanced cardiovascular device technology.

The body's natural clock and metabolism are more closely linked than originally thought, according to a recently released UC Irvine study. Natural body functions, such as hormone secretion, correlate with the 24-hour light/dark cycle, researchers say. Now UCI researchers think metabolism may join the ranks of other bodily functions that act in a cyclical manner following the body's internal clock. Mice used in the study were kept in 12 hours of light and darkness, with tissue samples taken every six hours.

When the Deepwater Horizon exploded in 2010, sending millions of barrels of crude oil into the Gulf of Mexico, most scientists were concerned about the damage to sea life. Not many gave a whiff of thought to air quality. The Rowland-Blake Group at UC Irvine was an exception. Student researchers from this group deployed to the gulf, rented a Forrest Gump-like boat and started analyzing air samples. By measuring certain gases, they found that the air was dirtier than in Los Angeles or Mexico City.

A team of astronomers that includes a leading UC Irvine scientist has found a missing link that shows how the universe's most active star-creating galaxies evolve into its largest and quietest ones billions of years later. UCI post-doctoral scholar Julie Wardlow and her colleagues accurately measured the invisible halo of dark matter — visible only through its gravitational effects on light and mass — that surrounds the universe's galaxies. "It's important in terms of galaxy evolution," Wardlow said.

Human tears are thought to be unique in the animal kingdom, in that they're often tied to our emotional state - but that's not the only special property they possess. Proteins in tears can protect against harmful bacteria, and now a team of UC Irvine researchers has shown how. Lysozymes are antiseptic proteins found in a number of bodily fluids, including tears. Their anti-bacterial properties were first identified by Nobel laureate Alexander Fleming, discoverer of penicillin, in the 1920s, but it was unclear how these proteins could take out bacteria much bigger than them.

The blaring noise from some children's toys may have worse side effects than driving parents crazy. Researchers from UC Irvine's otolaryngology department found that some trendy toys — like the Road Rippers Lightning Rods and the I Am T-Pain Mic — reach decibel levels similar to a subway train or chain saw. Researchers measured 10 popular toys' loudness by holding them next to a speaker and from 12 inches away, which...

COSTA MESA — Cycling with a mustache doesn't make you ride any faster, but it does garner a lot of awesome looks. And, with temperatures expected to be in the mid-40s, the extra facial protection may ward off frozen upper lips for a group of five Orange County natives pedaling 1,000 miles down the coast from Oregon to San Diego at the end of the month. The ride, known as CANCure1000 and founded by Costa Mesan Christopher Reynolds, aims to raise $10,000 in its inaugural year for cancer research nonprofit Movember.

NEWPORT BEACH - Pink covered Davidson Field in a field hockey game at Newport Harbor High between Edison and the Sailors on Tuesday. The ball was pink, instead of the standard orange. There were pink ribbons tying back ponytails of the players. Even the officials wore distinct dark pink jerseys for a Play for the Cure event, with proceeds from sales of pink ribbons going toward Susan G. Komen Race for the Cure. The result seemed pretty inconsequential compared to the overall cause - Newport Harbor won the Sunset League game, 1-0, on a goal by junior forward Taury Hlinka - but the real winner appeared to be breast cancer research and awareness.

IRVINE - As Anna Origel leaned back and forth in a wheelchair at UC Irvine, a soccer goalie on the computer screen in front of her danced left and right, trying to block her shots. When Origel reclined, even just an inch, the goalie in the game went to the right. When she leaned forward, it went left. She missed the ball every time, leaning too far back and then too far forward. "This is really hard, this should be a video game," said the Regional Occupation Program, or ROP, nursing student from Laguna Hills High School.

President Obama this week awarded the Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers to UC Irvine assistant professor Rommie Amaro. "I was pretty surprised — very honored and surprised," said Amaro, 34, an assistant professor of pharmaceutical sciences and computer science and chemistry. "I feel really very, very fortunate to be selected as a recipient of this award. " Amaro's research focuses on discovering new treatments for cancer, influenza, chlamydia and neglected diseases such as African sleeping sickness, Chagas disease and Leishmaniasis disease.

Though he overcame cancer, Jack Marshall Shimko was no match for the recent large ocean swells and rough seas off the Southern California coast. The Newport Beach native had to divert his quest to paddle to each of the eight Channel Islands - more than 200 miles - and was forced to skip an island and rest for a day. But Shimko picked up his paddle again Monday and resumed his quest. This, his second annual Paddle 2 Live, concludes at the Newport Pier on Saturday. Saturday's events, including a stand-up paddling race and an after party, are intended to raise funds for the John Wayne Cancer Foundation.