|
THE REAL DR. SEUSS
 I
enjoyed the article in @UCSD about Ted "Dr Seuss" Geisel,
but let us not forget his near-namesake.
Dr. Hans E. Suess (not Seuss) was a memorable professor of chemistry
at UCSD and a major force in geoscience. I took his course on Molecular
Structure, and enjoyed the wide-ranging discussions that took place
in the course. Suess was famous for his "cosmische Schwung," a
deep understanding of how the universe works. Suess and Harold
Urey's 1956 paper on the abundance of the elements weeded the good
data from the literature to reveal the patterns that Burbidge,
Fowler and Hoyle explained by stellar nucleosynthesis. Still earlier,
Haxel, Jensen and Suess had described the "magic numbers" of
nuclear shell structure, which led later to a Nobel Prize for Maria
Mayer and Jensen. Suess came to La Jolla in 1955 to start the radiocarbon
lab. He discovered the Suess effect (13,000 hits on Google), that
is the dilution of radiocarbon by industrial CO2, and in a paper
with Roger Revelle first suggested global warming. His radiocarbon
lab on Mt. Soledad, not very far from the home of the other "Dr.
Seuss," had a splendid view of La Jolla Shores and SIO. Dr.
Suess died in 1993, and is commemorated by the Suess-Urey spacecraft
(renamed Genesis) which will return to Earth in September with
samples of the solar wind.
Dick Lindstrom, Ph.D., '70
Gaithersburg, MD
Image: TM & © 1960 Dr. Seuss
Enterprises, L.P. All rights
reserved.
THE GRAND TOUR
Congratulations
on the quality of @UCSD. Even though I am not an alumnus,
I certainly feel like one. My association with UCSD began
in 1966 when the School
of Medicine was formed. I was in private Ob-Gyn practice, and
became one of the first members of the clinical faculty. And
I remained so until my retirement from the practice of medicine.
Since then I have been a volunteer in the Visitors Program,
giving tours of the campus. My wife, Betty Joan Maly, and I are members of the Chancellor's
Associates and also members of Friends of the UCSD Theatre
and Dance.
It has been my privilege
to have known or met many of the chancellors, vice chancellors,
provosts, and other campus
luminaries. In
the course of giving these tours to guests of the chancellor,
an occasional UC Regent, and hundreds of visitors to the
University, I
developed an even greater interest in UCSD, its history and
everything that is happening on the campus today. When alumni
are in the tour group it is fun to see them discover not
only what is here since they left but what was already here
when
they were students, but which they never knew about!
Perhaps because of my
age I enjoyed reading, and recalling, the tidbits in the
Encore column! Throughout this second
issue I have found a wealth of information that serves
me well as
background for my tours, such
as the item about the watermelon drop and the Rady School
of Management. I thought that the article explaining the
admission
procedure was a gem in itself!
John Meyers
|
PERIPATETIC LIBRARY
The TV show "Push," which was a pilot on ABC that didn't
last very long, was filmed at UCSD and featured the Geisel library
in a few shots. You can still see the opening and closing credits
(both of which feature the library) here.
It was based on a fictional university called CSU (California Southern
University).
Melanie Horn, '94 |
 |
ADMISSIONS
AND MR. MOORES
The
thoughts of John Moores in the article by Jennifer Reese
in the May @UCSD perturb me. I am not ashamed to say that
I did not get past 1000 on the SAT both times I took it.
Yet I got into UCSD. I also managed to play intercollegiate
basketball, hold a part-time job, be a part of the Howard
Hughes enrichment program, be
a TA, and keep up a 3.3 grade point average. Now I will be
attending UCSF to be part of the Masters/Doctorate program
for Physical Therapy. Hmmmmm, do standardized test scores
really tell a lot about a student? Am I a contributor of
the "deleterious effect on the academic prestige of
UC"? I don't think so. I consider myself a success.
I agree with many of the comments stated in this article,
but Mr. Moores does not seem to see the big picture-people
are more capable than a test might seem to indicate.
Tianna Meriage,
'98
|
REMEMBERING PROF. WILLIAMS
Although
I was a graduate student at UCSD, I did not have a worthwhile
undergraduate experience. However, I was fortunate to have top-notch
instructors. In particular, I greatly appreciated working with
my mentor, the chair of my M.A. thesis, Sherley Anne Williams,
who has since passed away. By the way, I enjoyed reading many
of the short articles in @UCSD, not to mention the cover story
on Dr. Seuss. Thanks for creating a means for alumni to be reached.
Rosie M. Soy, M.A., '91
GET IT RIGHT!
I write to clarify the erroneous information about UC's Education
Abroad Program (EAP) that appeared in the May issue of @UCSD
in the Guardian online section. It is completely untrue that
students must now pay a $100 fee to enroll in study abroad.
The Guardian reporter confused a proposed $100 U.S. government
immigration service fee, only for incoming international
students and scholars, which then ran as an erroneous headline
about the Education Abroad Program. While it is true that
due to the state's budget situation, new program development
and expansion of EAP options have been put on hold for a
year or two, the admission of students to EAP has not been
negatively affected. In fact, the number of UCSD students
participating in EAP continues to increase each year. In
the 2003/04 academic year, UCSD had a record number of 558
students on the Education Abroad Program.
Kim Burton, Director
Programs Abroad Office
University of California, San Diego |
My
husband and I received the most recent issue of @UCSD and saw several
of our college friends listed
in Classnotes. We have a daughter going off to college in 4 years (and would
love for her to attend UCSD) so we were very interested in the article on admissions.
We have been hearing that it is much more competitive since we attended and
want to make sure she is on the right track! Thanks for the opportunity to
re-connect! We look forward to sending our daughter to UCSD someday soon!
Tina Pelletier (Wickman), '86
REVELLIANS AND MUIRONS
I
enjoyed the last issue of @UCSD but I wanted you to know as an
FYI that Revelle students are known as Revellians
(not Revellites) and Muir students are known as Muirons-the other
colleges do not have nicknames as of yet.
Renee Barnett Terry, Ph.D.
Dean of Student Affairs
Revelle College |
