IET cuts down on spam

A recent improvement to the UC Davis e-mail system should significantly reduce the volume of spam sent to campus email accounts.

The Jan. 18 upgrade of the real-time block list, or RBL, enables it to quickly block computer addresses (also known as Internet Protocol addresses, or IPs) that are sending spam. Before the upgrade, RBL updates occurred once a day.

Spam comprises a vast majority of the e-mail sent to UC Davis addresses, and a key goal of the campus e-mail system is to block spam while not impeding legitimate e-mail. Statistics collected by Information and Educational Technology for the last two months of 2010 show the extent of the challenge:

• 4.59 million IPs sent e-mail to UC Davis accounts.
• 4.39 million of those IPs (95.6 percent) sent spam, and nothing else.

Read more.

— Bill Buchanan, Information and Educational Technology

‘Space-Time’ lecture Feb. 2

The Department of Physics and the High Energy Frontier Theory Initiative announced a public lecture next week by Nima Arkani-Hamed, on the topic: “Space-Time, Quantum Mechanics and the Large Hadron Collider.”

Arkani-Hamed, widely regarded as one of the world’s top theoretical physicists, first gained recognition for his postdoctoral work on extra dimensions. He served on the UC Berkeley and Harvard faculties before joining the Institute for Advanced Study at Princeton in 2008.

His talk at UC Davis is scheduled for 7.30 p.m. Wednesday, Feb. 2, in the Activities and Recreation Center Ballroom. Admission is free.

Organizers said he will discuss some of the central theoretical challenges of physics in the 21st century: Is space-time doomed, and what will replace it? What tames quantum fluctuations, so that we can live in a huge universe?

A spectacular new experiment, the Large Hadron Collider, is now running and poised to shed significant light on at least some of these mysteries. Arkani-Hamed will describe these ideas, and discuss what we can expect to know by 2020.

For more information on next week’s program, call (530) 752-4086.

Outstanding student employees

The Student Employment Center announced that the nomination period for student employee of the year has been extended to Feb. 11. “Don’t miss the opportunity to participate in recognizing and celebrating your department’s student employees,” organizers said.

A five-member committee will select three outstanding undergraduate employees, one in each of three categories: contribution to community, contribution to UC Davis, and displaying the Principles of Community.

Each student will receive a bookstore gift certificate worth $75. Student Employment Center officials said they will visit each student at his or her workplace to present the awards.

From among the top three students, a Student Employment Center administrator will select one of them to put forward for recognition by the Western Association of Student Employment Administrators.

In turn, the association will review nominations from around the region — to select one student to vie for National Student Employee of the Year, in a competition sponsored by the National Student Employment Association.

The process begins with nominations at the campus level. You are eligible to nominate employees whom you directly supervise and interact with during their work. You can nominate only one student per department or unit.

Nominees will be reviewed based on their reliability, initiative, uniqueness of contribution, quality of work, professionalism, and contribution to the community and campus.

The nomination form, and eligibility rules are available for download at jobs.ucdavis.edu (click on “SEOTY Nomination Form” under “Important Announcement”).

More information is available from the Student Employment Center: (530) 752-0520 or sec@ucdavis.edu.

Student award nominations

Student Affairs has called for nominations for two sets of awards: outstanding graduating seniors and leadership awards for juniors.

The outstanding graduating senior awards recognize a woman and a man who are judged to be the most outstanding in the areas of leadership, scholarship, integrity and service in the campus community.

The woman’s award, established in 1942, is named after the late Mary Jeanne Gilhooly, recognized as an “unofficial goodwill ambassador to every prospective Aggie.” She died while attending UC Davis.

The man’s award, established in 1966, is named after the late Veloyce Glenn Winslow Jr. He was student body vice president at the time of his death.

The Margarita Robinson Student Leadership Award for Juniors is give to as many three students for outstanding service and leadership through involvement in recognized student groups and activities.

The award, established in 1982, is named in memory of Margarita Robinson, who was house mother at the Sigma Alpha Epsilon fraternity for 30 years and a founder of the Prytanean Honor Society.

Nominations are due by 5 p.m. Feb. 11. More information, including a link to the nomination form.