Lighting center open house

UC Davis' California Lighting Technology Center announced an open house to celebrate the center’s new home and six years of operation, and to introduce new staff members.

The event is scheduled from 3 to 7 p.m. Jan. 20 at 633 Pena Drive, in east Davis.

Officials said the center’s new home encompasses 14,000 square feet with expanded education and research areas. In fact, the new center is twice as large as the center’s old home in south Davis.

And, as in the center’s former location, the new center is filled with energy-efficiency lighting projects. Tours are planned during the open houses, giving people an opportunity to see various lighting demonstrations.

Opening remarks are scheduled at 3:30 p.m. The speakers are listed as Bernd Hamann, associate vice chancellor in the Office of Research; Professor Michael Siminovitch, the center’s director; and Karen Douglas, chair of the California Energy Commission.

Directions: Take Fifth Street east from downtown, continue east past Pole Line Road and Cantrill Drive. The next street after Cantrill is Pena Drive; turn right.

More information

Live report from Honduras

A noontime seminar set for next week is not only international in nature, but will actually feature a live presentation that crosses borders — via an online interview.

The subject is the leadership struggle in Honduras, where a June 28 coup ousted Manuel Zelaya as president. He was forcibly removed from the country, only to sneak back in Sept. 21 and take refuge in the Brazilian Embassy in Tegucigalpa. He remained there as of press time.

Journalist Andres Conteris, the founder of Democracy Now! en español, has been holed up in the embassy with Zelaya — and Conteris is due to be the featured guest for the UC Davis seminar. It is scheduled to start at 12:10 p.m. Jan. 20 in 5214 Social Sciences and Humanities Building.

The seminar is being sponsored by the Hemispheric Institute on the Americas and the Center for the Study of Human Rights in the Americas.

The center’s director, Almerindo Ojeda, a professor of linguistics, plans to interview Zelaya via Skype — for a discussion of Zelaya’s asylum and human rights situation.

CIA chief-turned-venture capitalist

The Graduate School of Management announced a talk Jan. 22 by R. James Woolsey, the one-time CIA director who today promotes national security in a different way, as a venture capitalist specializing in alternative energy.

Woolsey is a partner and senior adviser with VantagePoint Venture Partners, a company that offers “creative capital for transformative companies,” according to the VantagePoint Web site.

He is coming to the GSM as a Dean’s Distinguished Speaker; his talk, “National Security and Alternative Energy,” and a question-and-answer session are scheduled from noon to 2 p.m. in the AGR Room at the Buehler Alumni and Visitors Center. RSVPs are required.

Reservations and more information

Rural After School Summit

The California Afterschool Network, managed by the UC Davis-based Center for Community School Partnerships, is organizing the inaugural Rural After School Summit.

Jack O’Connell, state superintendent of public instruction, is due to address the gathering, scheduled from 9:30 a.m. to 3 p.m. Jan. 26 at the Sierra Health Foundation, 1321 Garden Highway, Sacramento.

Organizers said Harold Levine, dean of the UC Davis School of Education, will introduce O’Connell.

The California Afterschool Network is a coalition of stakeholders that charts the course for California’s after-school programs.

Summit registration and more information. Or contact Jeff Davis, (530) 752-5965 or jefdavis@ucdavis.edu.

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