Office of Research to close for holiday

All units within the Office of Research will observe the system-wide Bonus Leave Program and will close during the upcoming holiday season, from Dec. 24 through Jan. 2. The units consist of Central Administration in Mrak Hall, the Institutional Review Board (IRB) Administration at the medical center, formerly called Human Research Protection; Interdisciplinary Research Support in Everson Hall, Sponsored Programs in Everson Hall, and Technology and Industry Alliances at Research Park.

Dec. 20 is the submittal deadline to Sponsored Programs in 118 Everson for proposals with agency deadlines from Dec. 24 through the first week of 2005.

There are no IRB meetings scheduled during the closure. The deadline to submit protocols for review at the Jan. 10 Clinical Committee B meeting is Dec. 17. The deadline to submit protocols for review at the Jan. 19 Clinical Committee A meeting is Dec. 22.

ESPN2 to spotlight NCAA awardee Albin

The cable television network ESPN2 is scheduled to air the 2004 NCAA Woman of the Year awards at which UC Davis lacrosse player Kelly Albin is honored. The program begins at 1 p.m. today. Held in Indianapolis on Oct. 31, the awards event honors the 52 state winners and 10 finalists for Woman of the Year recognition.

In past NCAA Woman of the Year ceremonies, ESPN2's broadcast featured brief highlight videos of each of the 10 finalist, depicting scenes of the honoree both in her chosen sport and around her campus. Albin's video was shot primarily by UC Davis Athletics videographer Jim von Rummelhoff.

Now in its 14th year, the Woman of the Year program recognizes outstanding achievements in athletics, academics and community service. After selecting one student-athlete from each of the 50 states plus the District of Columbia and Puerto Rico, the NCAA chose 10 finalists Sept. 17.

Albin is the third UC Davis student-athlete to capture the award. A three-year All-American for the Aggie lacrosse team, she graduated magna cum laude in March 2004 with a degree in food science and is in her first year of a master's degree program at UC Davis.

Cancer fundraiser slated

The annual Joan Giboney Tree of Hope "untrimming" party and ornament sale on Dec. 16 will help raise money for breast cancer research.

The fundraiser will be held in the UC Davis Cancer Center lobby, 4501 X St., in Sacramento, from 11 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. Holiday cookies and punch will be served. Choral groups from Sacramento and Davis will perform holiday songs.

The professionally decorated, 15-foot tree, trimmed with more than 700 ornaments and 2,000 lights, is the legacy of the late Joan Giboney, a Lodi interior designer who wanted to raise the spirits of her fellow cancer patients during the holidays. Her family and friends have carried on the tradition in her memory.

This year's tree is decorated in a winter wonderland theme. Tree and ornaments can be viewed in the cancer center lobby from now through the sale. All proceeds go to breast cancer research at the UC Davis Cancer Center, the only National Cancer Institute-designated cancer center between San Francisco and Portland, Ore.

For information, please call the UC Davis Cancer Center at (916) 734-5800.

Holiday concert set

The University Chorus and the UC Davis Symphony Orchestra will take the Mondavi Center spotlight at 8 p.m. Sunday, Dec. 5.

Led by conductor Jeffrey Thomas, the groups will perform Handel: Dettingen Te Deum, with works for chorus and orchestra by Mathias, Rutter, Vaughan Williams, Willcocks and Darke, followed by audience caroling and sing-alongs.

For more information, call the Department of Music at (530) 752-0948.

Gospel singers visit

The Blind Boys of Alabama will perform its holiday album, Go Tell it on the Mountain, at 8 p.m. Wednesday, Dec. 8, in Mondavi Center.

For more than 60 years, the Blind Boys of Alabama has kept alive the spirit and pure soul energy of gospel music. Since forming their group at the Talladega Institute for the Deaf and Blind in 1939, founding members Clarence Fountain, Jimmy Carter and George Scott -- along with more recent arrivals Joey Williams, Ricky McKinnie and Bobby Butler -- have drawn upon gospel's river-deep reflections on life's trials, and mastered its haunting falsettos and vibrant, muscular harmonies.

Christmas museum house tour offered

An open house on Dec. 11 will allow visitors to get a peek inside the Victorian home of renowned collector and designer Dolph Gotelli, who has spent the past weeks carefully transforming the main living areas of the house into a wonderland of Christmases past and present.

The tour will take place from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m.

Known professionally as Father Christmas, Gotelli is also the director of the Design Museum at UC Davis, and a professor emeritus of design.  His interest in Christmas began in childhood and developed into a lifelong passion. Gotelli's collection has provided a rich base for his career in teaching, exhibition design and visual presentation.

The Design Alliance is presenting the event. For more information, contact John Fulton at (530) 752-6150 or jtfulton@ucdavis.edu.