UCSB Nobel Prize Winner Joins National Academy of Sciences
UC Newswire
UCSB professor and winner of the 2000 Nobel Prize in physics Herbert Kroemer was elected to the National Academy of Sciences, the nation’s most prestigious scientific organization, on April 29. The election brings the number of current UCSB faculty to 22 among the almost 2,000 active academy members.
Kroemer, who holds the Donald W. Whittier Chair in Electrical Engineering at UCSB and is also a professor of materials, called the election “a wonderful honor.”
A German citizen, Kroemer was elected as a foreign associate of the NAS. He received the Nobel Prize for his pioneering research in developing semiconductor heterostructures used in high-speed and opto-electronics. He received his Ph.D. in theoretical physics from the University of Gšttingen in 1952 and joined the UCSB faculty in 1976.
The NAS is a private, nonprofit organization dedicated to furthering science and technology and using them for the general welfare. The academy received a mandate in 1863 from Congress to advise the federal government on scientific and technical matters. The elections were announced at the Academy’s 140th annual meeting in Washington, D.C.
Two UC Davis Student Deaths Over Weekend
UC Davis – The California Aggie
May 5 – Two UC Davis students died Saturday in unrelated events.
Neil King, a 35-year-old junior economics major, died of a suspected drug overdose early Saturday morning, and Adrian Uytingco, a 20-year- old biological sciences major, was struck by a semi truck early Saturday morning on Interstate 80.
Lt. Jim Harrit of Davis police said the exact cause of King’s death would not be known until autopsy results become available, which could take weeks. Harrit said emergency personnel were dispatched around 11 a.m. Saturday after receiving an emergency call from King’s Davis residence. King was pronounced dead on the scene, while medical personnel were able to revive a second person found unconscious at the residence.
Uytingco was hit around 2 a.m. Saturday, UCD spokeswoman Lisa Lapin said. At the time, Uytingco was walking in the number two lane on westbound I-80 between the Richards Boulevard and UC Davis exits. Lapin said the Solano County Sherrif’s Dept. had not yet released the specific circumstances of Uytingco’s death.
Report Says Legendary Berkeley Physics Department in Decline
UC Berkeley – The Daily Californian
A confidential report slammed UC Berkeley’s Physics Dept., warning that present problems could hinder the department’s ability to recruit quality faculty in the future.
The assessment, made by six outside physicists who visited the department in March at the university’s request, cited poor infrastructure, inadequate lab and office space, shoddy computer support and dispirited faculty as major problems within the department.
Physics Dept. chair Christopher McKee said the department needs 40,000 square feet of new space and equipment to fix the problem, at a cost that could be in the tens of millions of dollars.
“Space is so acutely short in the department that a lot of faculty have simply given up establishing a lab presence on campus,” astronomy and physics professor Marc Davis said. “They barely have an office, let alone room for their students.”
The Berkeley Physics Dept., which has had six Nobel Prize winners in its history, first gained prominence when Robert Oppenheimer was chosen to head the Manhattan Project in 1942.
