Have you or a colleague authored a publication in the past year? Please let the Clark Library’s Diane Romero know so she can include your work in the UP Authors Reception this coming October. The Clark Library uses the summer months to prepare for this annual reception and works published between June 1, 2015 and May 31, 2016 will be featured. E-mail your publication information to Romero at hicksd@up.edu. Learn more about the event and how publications are selected at this link.
Academics
Bookstore Closure: Friday, July 8
The Pilot House bookstore will be closed on Friday, July 8, for annual maintenance, according to manager Erin Cave. A member of the bookstore staff will be available from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. for department charges only. If you have any questions, please contact the bookstore at x7125.
Independence Day Holiday
The Independence Day holiday will be observed for University employees on Monday, July 4, according to the 2016 University holiday schedule. All University offices will be closed and classes will not be held.
For more information, contact human resources at 8981 or hr@up.edu. Contact the provost’s office at 7105 or staten@up.edu for more information regarding classes.
UP Alumnus Mike Merzenich ’64 Honored By Norwegian Academy of Science
University of Portland alumnus Mike Merzenich ’64 has been awarded the 2016 Kavli Prize in Neuroscience by the Norwegian Academy of Science for his work in documenting the fundamental plasticity of the human brain. Merzenich shares the prize with fellow neuroscientists Eve Marder of Brandeis University and Carla Schatz of Stanford University.
A native of Lebanon, Ore., Merzenich attended the University on a merit scholarship and was inspired to pursue neuroscience by biology professor Blondel Carleton. After finishing as his class’s valedictorian at UP, Merzenich attended Johns Hopkins University, earned his Ph.D. in neurophysiology in 1968, and completed a fellowship in sensory physiology from the University of Wisconsin in 1971. He joined the faculty of at the University of California San Francisco in 1971 and retired in 2007 as Francis A. Sooy Professor and co-director of the Keck Center for Integrative Neuroscience.
Among many academic honors and appointments, Merzenich was elected to the National Academy of Sciences in 1999 and the Institute of Medicine in 2008. Merzenich was on the team that invented the cochlear implant, which gained FDA approval in 1984 and is now used by over 200,000 people worldwide to restore their sense of hearing. He is also the founding CEO of Scientific Learning Corporation, which markets and distributes software that applies principles of brain plasticity to assist children with language learning and reading problems. He was awarded the 2015 Fritz J. and Dolores H. Russ Prize, the bioengineering profession’s highest honor, thanks to his work with cochlear implants.
The Kavli Prizes are presented every two years in the fields of neuroscience, astrophysics, and nanoscience, and recognize scientists for pioneering advances in the understanding of existence at its biggest, smallest, and most complex scales. Laureates are chosen by committees whose members are recommended by six of the world’s most renowned science societies and academies. The prizes are named after Fred Kavli, a Norwegian-born U.S. philanthropist and founder of the Kavli Foundation.
For more information contact Beth Sorenson, marketing and communications, at sorensee@up.edu.
NASA Fellowship For Education Doctorate Recipient
Jennifer Snow Mayo, a recent doctoral graduate of the School of Education, has been selected to serve a full-year internship with NASA as a 2016-2017 Albert Einstein Distinguished Educator Fellow. She joins twelve other outstanding science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) educators selected to serve their fellowships in Washington, DC, within the offices of three sponsoring agencies and four congressional offices. The 2016‐17 Einstein Fellows were selected from a nationwide pool of applicants through a rigorous application and interview process, and will begin their appointments September 1, 2016. For more information go to this link.
Orientation Mass Regalia: Please Order By July 18
Faculty and staff who need to rent regalia for the Orientation Opening Mass on Saturday, August 27 are asked to please place your order online by Monday, July 18. Please visit UP’s Jostens page to place your order, click on Graduation Caps and Gowns, then select Faculty and Staff. You can place your order at this link.
Rented regalia will be available for pickup in the Chiles Center on Saturday, August 27, from 3 to 4:45 p.m.
For any questions contact the events office at x7523 or events@up.edu.
You Must Be Joking! Brian Doyle Scholarships, 2016-2017
Five University of Portland students have been awarded $3,333 Brian Doyle Scholarships in Gentle & Sidelong Humor, having agreed to publicly share a project that “brings the community together in laughter, acts as a statement that the cultural bias to cruel humor and constant irony is shallow, promotes helpless giggling, and insists gently that true humor is a weapon against violence and greed,” as set forth by donor John Beckman ’42, who began the scholarships with his wife Patricia as part of the RISE Campaign. The recipients are:
- Molly Kerns, who will borrow a page from the Portsmouth Sinfonia, which chose to take skillful musicians and have them play several well-known pieces after switching instruments with each other. The results are music that is just recognizable and entirely hilarious.
- Isabelle Pisani, who proposes to create a short film titled “I could never be a nurse” with the help of the School of Nursing, to provide a comical glimpse into the life of a student nurse.
- Alana Laanui, who intends to produce and share a video working with some of the Holy Cross priests on campus. She will show them how to use Snapchat and record their reactions to some of the more popular filters.
- Guadalupe Zamora-Resendiz, whose idea is to conduct a project combining the lyric theater, music, actUP, and improv clubs on campus in a music/theater production where the students of these clubs, as well as other UP students who wish to participate, present scenes ranging from Shakespeare to more modern works to improv and works from opera to musical theater.
- Sawyer Hudson proposes broadcasting a comedy podcast talkshow at KDUP, inspired by alternative comedy podcasts like “Comedy Bang Bang,” “improv4humans,” and audience participation shows like “Wait, Wait, Don’t Tell Me.”
For more information contact Denise Stack, development, at stack@up.edu.
New Clark Library Dean: Xan Arch
University president Rev. Mark L. Poorman, C.S.C., has announced the hiring of Xan Arch as the new dean of the Clark Library. She will begin on August 22.
Arch comes to UP from Reed College, where she served as director of collection services. She also held many posts in the Stanford University libraries, culminating her service there as the electronic resources and technology librarian. She was the 2013 recipient of the Esther J. Piercy Award given by the Association for Library Collections and Technical Services to a person who has shown “outstanding promise for continuing contribution and leadership.”
Arch has a B.A. in English and French literatures and an M.A. in English literature from Stanford University. She also has an M.S. in library science from San Jose State University.
For more information contact the Clark Library at 7111 or library@up.edu.
Parents Night Out, June 3
University parents are invited to take the opportunity to enjoy four hours of free time with their significant others while the UP onsite daycare watches their children on Parents Night Out, Friday, June 3, from 6-10 p.m. This service is provided by Vermont Hills Family Life Center daycare/ preschool. The cost is $30 per child and $40 for families (two or more) and includes dinner for the kids. All UP faculty and staff members can take advantage of this service, not just those whose kids are enrolled in daycare.
For more information or to sign your kids up contact Cala Richman at calar@vhflc.com.
Season Tickets Now Available
It’ s an exciting time in the athletics department with new head coaches taking the reins for the Pilot men’s basketball and men’s soccer programs, and they want the University community to be a part of this new era. Tickets for the 2016-2017 seasons are now available for all faculty and staff at a discount of 50 percent off.
For more information contact the Pilots box office at x7525, or e-mail Dave Taylor at taylord@up.edu.