Blending art and science at UC San Diego

UC San Diego announced Feb. 28 that Maurizio Seracini will head the campus's new Center of Interdisciplinary Science for Art, Architecture and Archaeology. The center is billed as the first institution devoted to using and developing advanced technologies to understand and conserve works of art, monumental buildings and archaeological sites.

"Science can bring so much to our understanding and our appreciation of art," said Seracini, "and we are creating a new discipline where art and engineering go hand-in-hand."

The center will develop new technologies to peer beyond the surface of works of art and peel away their layers, Seracini said during a press conference. Researchers also will use current technologies to scan and analyze paintings, sculptures and buildings and help decide how to best handle and restore them.

Riverside professor scripts 'Monk' episode

Charles Evered, an assistant professor of playwriting and screenwriting at UC Riverside, has written an episode of the popular television series Monk that aired twice on Dec. 22, first in black-and-white, then in color.

The episode, a film noir-tinged story called "Mr. Monk and the Leper," has the quirky detective played by Emmy Award-winning actor Tony Shalhoub meeting a leper, a situation that seriously challenges the comically phobic and obsessive-compulsive investigator.

Shalhoub introduced the black-and-white episode, and co-star Ted Levine introduced the color episode following. Fans of the series were allowed to vote online on which version they preferred.

Evered wrote the script at the request of series creator Andy Breckman, who saw Evered's play The Shoreham, starring Eric Stoltz, in 2001. Writing the Monk episode introduced Evered to the cult following that surrounds the show.

Changing higher education

A UC systemwide conference on graduate education and the professoriate, "Changing the Culture of the Academy: Toward a More Inclusive Practice," will be held March 22 at UC Berkeley. The keynote speaker is Troy Duster, director of the Institute for the History of the Production of Knowledge at New York University.

The conference will explore ways that the academy might incorporate the challenge of diversity as it pertains to its core mission and practice.

The primary goal of the conference is to create a working model for change within the UC system.

For more information, see http://cci.berkeley.edu/news.

Berkeley grad students to receive maternity leave

Women doctoral students at UC Berkeley who hold fellowships or academic appointments as graduate-student instructors or researchers will soon be eligible for six weeks' paid maternity leave under a childbirth-accommodation provision adopted March 5.

The policy, which takes effect in fall 2007, was approved by the Academic Senate's Graduate Council and Chancellor Robert Birgeneau. Under the plan, a doctoral student who works as a grad student instructor, grad student researcher, or who is supported by a fellowship, will experience no change in her funding arrangements during the six-week childbearing leave.

For an article on this topic, see www.berkeley.edu/news/berkeleyan.