June 1, 2009
 As we wind down the academic year and bid farewell to our graduates, I’d like to recognize the many successes we’ve had over the last year, from faculty honors and student accomplishments to prominent university rankings and the opening of new buildings and centers on campus.
A Year of Kudos
During the last year, we opened the Conrad Prebys Music Center, created the San Diego Center for Algae Biotechnology and established the Gordon Engineering Leadership Center. Professor Roger Tsien received the Nobel Prize in Chemistry. Five faculty members were named fellows by the American Association for the Advancement of Science; three others were named fellows of the American Academy of Arts & Sciences; and one professor was elected to the National Academy of Sciences. Two UC San Diego leaders were tapped as key members of President Barack Obama’s administration transition team; one was later named to the President’s Council on Science and Technology and the other will serve temporarily as a member of the senior leadership team at the Office of the United States Trade Representative. We also had a record 58 students as Gates Millennium Scholars.
In addition, the campus received two Diamond Awards from the San Diego Association of Governments for its transit programs that reduce traffic congestion and improve air quality. U.S. News & World Report ranked UC San Diego the 7th best public university in the nation, and ranked our School of Medicine 6th among public medical schools and our Jacobs School of Engineering 7th among public engineering schools. The university was also ranked the 7th best value in public colleges by The Princeton Review. We were also listed as the top surfing campus by Surfline.com.
The Preuss School celebrated its 10th anniversary this year and was selected for the Title 1 Academic Achievement Award. The school also was ranked the 8th best high school in the nation by U.S. News & World Report and the top low-income school in California by BusinessWeek.
And if that’s not enough to be proud of, there is even more Triton Pride to report. This year we unveiled the Triton sculpture in front of Price Center East. UC San Diego was ranked first among Division II National Collegiate Athletic Association schools for its combination of athletic and academic prowess. Thirty-nine Triton athletes earned All-American status this year and nine individual athletes won national championships in their events. In addition, 17 of UC San Diego’s 23 teams advanced to post-season play, and 14 teams ended up in the top 25 nationally. Our men’s baseball team made its first appearance in the Division II College World Series. Nine teams won conference championships and seven coaches were awarded Coach of the Year honors in their conferences. I must say, with all of these accomplishments, I’ve never been more proud to be a Triton.
Congratulations, Class of 2009
I’m also proud of our newest group of graduates. In all, more than 6,000 undergraduate and graduate students will receive degrees this month, and that will bring our total alumni to nearly 130,000. That’s quite an impressive number for a university that will celebrate its 50th anniversary next year. As you know, our newest graduates are facing a competitive job market, due to the tough economic times and the shrinking workforce. The good news — Forbes.com ranks UC San Diego graduates third nationally in their salary earnings among U.S. public universities.
In addition to each college and school having its own commencement ceremonies, the entire campus community — graduate students, undergraduate students and alumni — is invited to the second annual All Campus Graduation Celebration June 12. We’ll have a wine and cheese mixer before the ceremony, and a picnic-style dinner and fireworks after the program. The keynote speaker is alumnus Mike Judge, who graduated from Warren College in 1985. Even though he majored in physics, he went on to create films and television shows such as Office Space, King of the Hill and Beavis and Butthead. In fact, he started his animation career while attending UC San Diego. His success shows how the quality and diversity of a UC San Diego education can provide the foundation for whatever path you choose.
Alumni Weekend
As our new graduates transition from students to alumni, it is our hope that they’ll stay connected with the university and return to campus often. I’m pleased that we had more alumni back on campus this past year than ever before. And we’re looking forward to Alumni Weekend this month. It’s an opportunity for former students to reconnect with classmates and professors, recount college memories and make some new ones. I encourage those who haven’t been back to UC San Diego for a while to take a tour of the campus and see how we’ve grown. We have many tours and activities planned, including a happy hour and brunch, lectures, alumni and family night at Birch Aquarium, and a concert at the new Prebys Music Center with performances by our very own faculty, students and alumni musicians. We’re also hosting the 31st annual Alumni Awards for Excellence Gala to celebrate outstanding alumni and graduating students. For more information on Alumni Weekend, click here
The Passing of Three Cherished Leaders
Three beloved members of our UC San Diego family passed away in May. Ellen Revelle, who had a lifelong affiliation with our campus, died on May 6. She was almost 99 years old. She was the wife of Roger Revelle, internationally acclaimed researcher in climate and marine science, who passed away in 1991. It was Roger’s genius and perseverance — and Ellen’s loving support — that helped establish UC San Diego. In addition to being the great-niece of Ellen Browning Scripps, one of the founders of Scripps Oceanography, Ellen also became the “First Lady of Scripps Institution of Oceanography” when Roger Revelle became the fifth director of Scripps in 1950. Ellen helped Scripps and our community of scholars and researchers to grow and flourish, including helping secure housing for new faculty when the UC San Diego campus was established. Ellen and her family also have provided generous funding for a variety of areas across campus, including contributions to help build the Ellen Browning Scripps Memorial Pier and the new Robert Paine Scripps Forum for Science, Society and the Environment. We are truly grateful for her kindness and support over the years. She will be dearly missed.
UC San Diego’s founding Chancellor, Herb York, died on May 19 at the age of 87. Herb served as the first Chancellor of the university from 1961 to 1964, and also stepped in as Acting Chancellor from 1970 to 1972. He was a trailblazer who forged the path for the future of the university, and he also was a global leader and a world-renowned nuclear physicist who helped develop the atomic bomb as a young researcher. He later became a champion of arms control and social responsibility, and an ambassador for peace. He had a long list of accomplishments as a scientist and a leader in national security issues. He served as the first director of the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, which was managed by the University of California. He was appointed as the first director of Defense Research and Engineering and he served as an advisor to six U.S. presidents. He also founded and was director of the University of California’s Institute on Global Conflict and Cooperation, which is headquartered at UC San Diego. Among Herb’s many awards, he received the University of California’s only systemwide honor, the UC Presidential Medal, for his extraordinary contributions to the University. Herb York made this campus and this world a better place. He was, and always will be, an integral part of our UC San Diego family.
Professor Emeritus and Nobel Prize recipient Clive Granger died on May 27 at the age of 74. He had joined the UC San Diego faculty in 1974 and was one of the world’s leading economists. He was widely admired for his brilliance and collegiality, and received many awards and honors during his career. It was in 2003 that he received the Nobel Prize in Economics for his discoveries in the analysis of time series data, which are sequences of numerical observations over time, such as stock prices each day or the levels of national income each year. His work fundamentally changed the way economists think about macroeconomic data. He contributed so much to this campus, to his students and to the field of economics. We mourn the loss of this leading scholar and great man.
In closing, I’d like to leave some parting words for our newest graduates. This quote is from another longtime friend of the university, Theodore Geisel, a.k.a. Dr. Seuss. “You have brains in your head. You have feet in your shoes. You can steer yourself in any direction you choose. You're on your own. And you know what you know. You are the guy who'll decide where to go.” Congratulations, Class of 2009!
With warm regards,
Marye Anne Fox
Chancellor |
