UCSC Researchers Apply Telescope Technologies to Microscopes; Student Orientation this Week

It’s mid-summer, but there has still been a slew of recent news and developments up the hill at UC Santa Cruz. Here is a look at some recent highlights.

•Using techniques applied to telescopes, UC Santa Cruz researchers are developing new microscopic technologies to look deeper into cell tissues. In doing so, they will better be able to see previously blurred images, and observe the processes involved in basic biology and disease. Their project was funded by a $1 million grant from the W.M. Keck Center for Adaptive Optical Microscopy at UC Santa Cruz.

•A total of 7,300 incoming UCSC students and their families gathered on campus this week for a summer orientation, up from 6,800 people last year. There were a total of 3,300 first-year students, and 890 transfer students, who partook in events at McHenry, in the redwoods and at College 8. Led by yellow clad student volunteers, they learned about students activities and how to make their way around campus without getting lost.

•UC Santa Cruz’ hands-on Apprenticeship in Ecological Horticulture program at the UC Santa Cruz Farm and Garden has had half its funding slashed since 2008. This year, another $335,000 will be cut due to the elimination of an annual U.S. Department of Agriculture Grant. Yet the six-month apprenticeship program, which includes full-time instruction and housing, will continue. Fees will just rise from $5,300 to $8,500 starting with the April 2012 session.

•For those just want to get their feet wet, er, dirty in organic gardening, UCSC just launched a public organic gardening course deemed, “Garden Cruz: Organic Matters.” Beginning on September 7, and running for nine weeks, the hands-on course will delve into topics sucb as compost preparation and soil analysis, using the Chadwick Gardens as its laboratory.

•A delegation of UCSC students traveled to Taiwan at the end of June to lead an environmental workshop for the Taiwan Green University Program. The conference, led by UCSC undergraduates Gabi Kirk and Cameron Fields, and UCSC sustainability director Aurora Winslade, covered topics such as energy efficiency, food systems, and campus activism. The trip had been in the works for a year and a half, after Shin-Cheng Yeh, director of the Graduate Institute of Environmental Education (GIEE) at National Taiwan University, visited UCSC to learn about its sustainability initiatives, and invited UCSC students to his own campus.