Goldberg elected to national academy
UCLA plant biologist Robert B. Goldberg was elected to the
National Academy of Sciences “in recognition of his
distinguished and continuing achievements in original
research,” the academy announced Tuesday.
Membership in the National Academy of Sciences, one of the
highest honors that can be accorded an American scientist or
engineer, is based on election by the academy’s members.
Goldberg is among 72 new members elected to the National Academy of
Sciences.
“Robert Goldberg is an outstanding scientist, and his
election to the National Academy of Sciences is richly
deserved,” said Chancellor Albert Carnesale in a statement.
“He is a highly creative scientist whose work is at the
intellectual forefront of the field of plant genomics. Professor
Goldberg is also an exceptional teacher. He loves teaching
undergraduates and is extraordinarily good at it. We are fortunate
to have him as a member of the UCLA faculty.”
With Goldberg’s selection, 33 UCLA faculty members now
have been elected to the National Academy of Sciences.
Goldberg, a professor of cell, molecular and developmental
biology, and co-director of the Seed Institute, has won many awards
for his research on gene expression during plant development.
Ethiopian Jewish teens perform on
campus<//b>
While on tour in the United States, Shlomo Gronich and the Sheba
Choir, a group of 13 Ethiopian Jewish teens from Israel, performed
a short concert at Westwood Plaza Tuesday.
The choir, which has performed worldwide ““ including two
performances for former President Bill Clinton ““ is comprised
of 15 to 18-year-old singers born in Ethiopia who each moved to
Israel during the 1980s to avoid persecution, or possible death, by
Christian missionaries.
“Everyone went through very different
circumstances,” said 18-year-old choir member Elana Besha
through a translator. “They lost family, went through
poverty. They walked 12 days without food, without
anything.”
“For the Ethiopian Jews, it was a fulfillment of a dream,
because they carried on their commitment to Judaism despite of the
fact that they are a small minority,” said Rabbi Chaim
Seidler-Feller, director of UCLA’s Hillel Jewish Student
Center, which organized the event.
Judge tosses former student’s thesis
suit
A judge dismissed a lawsuit by a former UC Santa Barbara student
who denounced mentors in his master’s thesis and then claimed
his free speech rights were violated when officials refused to file
it on the school library’s shelves.
U.S. District Judge Ronald Lew tossed the case out Monday,
saying that Chris Brown had no constitutional right to compel UCSB
to accept the thesis, complete with a section he labeled
“disacknowledgments.”
The ruling was a blow to efforts Brown has undertaken for nearly
two years to get his 1999 thesis placed on the library’s
shelves.
Administrators have refused because he labeled a section
“disacknowledgments” ““ in place of
“acknowledgments” students traditionally offer their
mentors ““ and lashed out at staff with remarks that were
initially obscene, but were later toned down.
Brown sued last year, claiming that six university officials,
including Chancellor Henry Yang, Graduate Dean Charles Li and
Library Director Sarah Pritchard, infringed his constitutional
right to free speech and academic freedom.
Brown’s attorney, Paul Hoffman, a former legal director
for the American Civil Liberties Union of Southern California,
argued in court documents that his client would not have had a
problem if he had chosen to praise university officials.
Compiled from Daily Bruin staff and wire reports.