by Martin Boer
October, 2004
Dear Gaucho,
In recent days, two current and one former member of the UCSB faculty have received Nobel Prizes, giving UCSB with three Nobels (once again) more than any other university in the world.
David J Gross won for Physics and Finn E Kydland for Economics. Former UCSB prof Frank Wilczek (1980-88) also won for Physics.
This now bumps UCSB’s Nobel tally to 7 present and former professors. Previously, UCSB won one Nobel in 1972 (Schrieffer/Physics), one in 1998 (Kohn/Chemistry) and two in 2000 (Kroemer/Physics, Heeger/Chemistry).
Alumni is a different story. No UCSB grads have thus far garnered the ultimate accolade but the Nexus and its sister environs remain an undisputably good training ground for winning future prizes.
On a more personal note, Trine and I are proud to announce the birth of THEA ALEXANDRA BOER on 8 September in Windhoek. She weighed in at 2,620 grams and 49 cm. Little Thea is without doubt the first Dutch-American-Norwegian baby born in Namibia. Thea and mom are doing really well, save of course the last month of sleepless nights… Check out: http://www.martinboer.com
Yours,
Martin
=== BRIEFS: ===
“Shoot the Freak”, a short documentary co-directed by GARRET SAVAGE, screened at the Coney Island Film Festival in early October. “The film is a new twist on an old idea: a shooting gallery with a live human target. This short documentary follows two of its main players: Anthony, the man who invented the game, and Manny, the young man who plays The Freak.” http://www.coneyislandfilmfestival.com
Another SAVAGE work, “4-Cylinder 400,” a short documentary that’s an inside look at Jonathan LaFever’s out-of-control backyard NASCAR-style race in upstate New York continues to receive rave reviews. The film will be showing soon in New York, Milford, PA and Honolulu. E-mail Garret for more info.
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JASON LEZAK (’99) won one gold medal in Athens for the 400-meter medley relay and a bronze medal in the 400-meter freestyle relay at the Olympics in Greece. He previously won gold and silver in 2000. University University of California students and alumni won a total of 12 gold, 10 silver and 13 bronze medals at the Games – more than France, Italy or the United Kingdom…
Check it out here
THE KING OF COMEDY: For the second year in a row, JASON ROSS was part of the writing team that won an Emmy Award for Comedy Central’s “The Daily Show with Jon Stewart.” TONY PIERCE has already remarked that being a former NEXUS editor-in-chief provided Jason with all the necessary training to become one of America’s “best fake news writers.” The show has won 4 Emmys in the last two years, not all of which Jason will take credit for.
JENNIFER REICH is moving to the University of Denver, from UC-San Francisco, where she will be starting as Assistant Professor of Sociology in the fall.
MARISA LAGOS has joined the San Francisco Examiner as a general assignment reporter. “It’s full time, so my parents and former editors can all breathe a sigh of relief. (And my landlord, I suppose.).”
Human Rights Watch has just released a report, based on research work by PETER BOUCKAERT in Nepal, charging that both the government and the nation’s communist rebels have been guilty of gross human rights violations during the country’s eight-year civil war. “Between a Rock and a Hard Place” details a series of rights abuses committed by government forces and Maoist rebels against Nepalese civilians.
Check out: http://www.hrw.org/english/docs/2004/10/07/nepal9452.htm
RENEE BERGAN’s new film “Paul Soldner: Playing with Fire” premiered on 11 September at The American Museum of Ceramic Art in Pomona, California. It is a biographical film about revolutionary ceramist Paul Soldner. For more information please check out: www.ceramicmuseum.org
ROB DONNER was just in Iceland and has the pictures to proof it:
SANDIE BRILLIANT and DENIS FAYE have the pleasure of announcing the birth of Cassidy Suzanne Faye, born on July 29. She was 9 lbs, 8 oz, 22.5 inches and Denis writes that “the guys are already lining up to ask her to prom.”
STANLEY MOSS has just returned from Stockholm, Zurich and London where he delivered papers on the subjects of youth brands and global brand trends. For more information check out: www.diganzi.com
UCSB is the 35th BEST UNIVERSITY IN THE WORLD according to a survey of the top 500 universities in the world published by Shanghai Jiao Tong University. The survey judges academic and research performance (Nobel Prizes, citations, etc.) and found that UCSB is also the 28th best University in America. The ratings are biased towards universities with strong science programs. The top 10 schools are Harvard, Stanford, Cambridge, UC-Berkeley, MIT, Cal-Tech, Princeton, Oxford, Columbia and Chicago. (http://ed.sjtu.edu.cn/ranking.htm)
UCSB Named One of Top 25 “Hottest Colleges.” For the second time in the past three years, UCSB has been named one of the “hottest colleges” by the 2005 Newsweek-Kaplan College Guide.