Columbia chemist speaks at Miller symposium

Ronald Breslow, professor of chemistry at Columbia University, will be the plenary speaker at the annual R. Brian Miller Symposium on Pharmaceutical Chemistry, which takes place March 9 in the Activities and Recreation Center.

The symposium runs all day, from 9 a.m. to 5.30 p.m. Breslow's talk on "A successful cancer drug with a novel mechanism," will begin at 4 p.m.. The Miller Symposium is held annually in honor of R. Bryan Miller, a long-serving professor of chemistry at UC Davis who died in 1998.

Breslow is an expert in organic chemistry and a pioneer in the synthesis of novel aromatic ring systems and non-natural compounds that imitate the behavior of natural enzymes. He elucidated the mechanism of action of thiamine (vitamin B1) and has developed a new group of chemicals with potential for use in cancer treatment. Breslow is a University Professor and holds the S.L. Mitchill Chair in Chemistry at Columbia. Among many other honors, he is a member of the National Academy of Sciences, the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and the British Royal Society.

The other speakers include: Carlos Gutierrez, professor of chemistry at California State University, Los Angeles; Cheryl A. Grice, principal scientist and team leader, hit-to-lead chemistry, Johnson & Johnson Pharmaceuticals; Dinesh V. Patel, president and chief executive officer of Arête Therapeutics; David Floyd, executive vice president and chief scientific officer, Pharmacopeia; Keith Woerpel, associate professor of chemistry, UC Irvine; Xi Chen, assistant professor of chemistry at UC Davis; and Arthur Wellman, special counsel and patent attorney with DLA Piper Rudnick Gray Cary.

Registration for the entire symposium costs $75 for general admission, and $10 for UC Davis undergraduate and graduate students. Free admission to Breslow's talk only is available to UC Davis students. The symposium is sponsored by the Department of Chemistry and the Division of Mathematical and Physical Sciences. More information is available at www.chem.ucdavis.edu.

Pack the Pavilion Night and bike record attempt

Don't let the parade pass you by.

Bike riders are invited to participate March 3 in a campus attempt to set a new world's record for the largest bicycle parade.

Aggie Pack, the student spirit organization, is organizing the effort as a prelude to its Pack the Pavilion Night when the men's basketball team takes on Cal State Fullerton.

It is inviting bike riders from the campus and community to join in the attempt to break the existing Guinness world record of 641 bicycles. A win could make UC Davis and the city eligible to be included in the 2008 edition of the record book.

Registration for the bike parade begins at 3 p.m. at Toomey Field. At 4 p.m., the parade will wind through campus and finish at the Pavilion.

Participants will receive a free ticket to the 7 p.m. basketball game while supplies last.

For more information about the parade, please call (530) 752-8962. To purchase basketball tickets, contact the UC Davis box office at (530) 752-1915.

Computers and daylight savings issues

Beginning this March, clocks in California and most of the United States will be set ahead earlier than they were last year, thanks to the Energy Policy Act of 2005 that extends daylight-saving time by four weeks. This change affects the way computers, applications and other electronic devices report the correct time.

And so, to help faculty, students and staff understand what steps they may need to take, Information and Educational Technology has created a Web site with advice and information. Go to the site — http://vpiet.ucdavis.edu/dst — to find:

• Information about the new DST rules for 2007;
• A table that identifies the patches and updates available for various operating systems, platforms, applications, mobile devices, etc.;
• Links to vendor DST patches and updates, and other helpful links and resources.

IET will post updates to the site, as they become available, about operating systems, campus systems and commonly used devices. In the meantime, IET advises campus community members to be cautious and to work with their departmental technology support staff before applying DST patches.

IET also suggests that campus members carefully review any meetings and appointments falling within the expanded DST date ranges, and to communicate with everyone invited to the meetings — on campus or not — to make sure the event is accurately shown on everyone's calendar.

This year, clocks are due to move ahead one hour on March 11 and move back one hour on Nov. 4.

If you have questions or need more help, contact the IT Express Help Desk at (530) 754-HELP (754-4357), or e-mail ithelp@ucdavis.edu.

Medical school for a day

Teenagers, research projects, classroom lectures and weekend mornings are usually not seen in the same sentence, let alone in real life. But for a group of students from Sacramento High's School of Math, Engineering and Health Sciences, having the opportunity to take a series of classes taught by UC Davis School of Medicine students is the chance of a lifetime.

On Feb. 24, students began the first of four weekend days in which they will be attending UC Davis School of Medicine in Sacramento. Known as the Saturday Academy, the program was founded in 2001 by a group of first-year medical students who wanted to reach out to groups that are underrepresented in health-care professions.

The mini-medical school courses range from anatomy and radiology to physical exams, cardiology and scientific research. Adding to the realism of the program, all of the coursework and activities take place in the school's new medical education facilities, which include high-tech classrooms and a lecture hall.