Professors

Arthur Jensen, a UC Berkeley professor whose scholarly contributions to the field of psychological measurement were often overshadowed by the furor over his findings on race-based differences in intelligence, has died. He was 89. One of the most provocative figures in 20th century psychology, Jensen died Oct. 22 at his home in the Northern California town of Kelseyville. He had Parkinson's disease and other ailments, said his son-in-law Joe Morey. In 1969, Jensen reignited a long-simmering debate over race and intelligence with an article in the Harvard Educational Review defending studies showing whites scored an average of 15 points higher than blacks on standard IQ tests.

Talk about tests of faith. Douglas Kmiec is an influential Roman Catholic scholar, a veteran of Ronald Reagan's Justice Department and a Pepperdine University constitutional law professor. What he's gone through in the last handful of years, he sums up pretty well with the title of his latest book, "Lift Up Your Hearts: A true story of loving your enemies, tragically killing your friends, and the life that remains. " His interfaith work earned him President Obama's appointment as ambassador to Malta.

CENTENNIAL, Colo. - A judge in the case against James E. Holmes ruled Wednesday that most of the mass murder suspect's academic records, his campus police file and some communication with University of Colorado Denver professors can be given to the prosecution to show state of mind and possible motive. Holmes, 24, was considered a promising doctoral student in the university's elite neuroscience graduate program before he withdrew about six weeks before the July 20 Aurora theater massacre.

For years, transplant surgeons have struggled with a vexing problem: seriously ill patients desperate for new kidneys and healthy people who were willing to donate an organ but had the wrong tissue type. Somewhere in the country, they knew, the right combinations of donors and recipients existed, but matching them often proved impossible. With most other items, freely set prices enable markets to allocate goods efficiently. But in areas such as organ transplants, societies shun the idea of a cash transaction.

SOUTH BEND, Ind. - Notre Dame law professor Mary Ellen O'Connell was in her office last month when Imran Khan, a former cricket star who could be Pakistan's next prime minister, phoned to ask for help. Pakistanis are furious about the CIA's covert campaign of drone missile strikes, Khan told her. Was she aware that the CIA often doesn't know who it is killing? "Yes, of all Americans, I think I have a pretty good handle on the facts," she replied, recounting the call. O'Connell, a fierce critic of America's drone attacks outside a war zone, insists the targeted killings are illegal under international law. "We wouldn't accept or want a world in which Russia or China or Iran is claiming authority to kill alleged enemies of the state based on secret evidence of the executive branch alone," O'Connell said.

Re "Leave it to the pros," Opinion, Sept. 30 The NFL's officiating problems highlight the value of professional referees. The media and the public were severe in their criticism of the NFL for its failure to ensure effective officiating. Rebecca Givan identifies other areas where professionals have been under attack by their employers. She forgot California legislators. Voters' insistence on having term limits has resulted in today's less-than-professional lawmakers in Sacramento.

Jurors in Alabama deliberated for just 20 minutes Monday before convicting a former college professor of killing three fellow professors during a campus shooting rampage in 2010. Amy Bishop, a Harvard-educated biologist, was sentenced to life in prison without parole. Bishop had pleaded guilty to killing three people and wounding three others, but Alabama law required that she stand trial because she had admitted to a capital charge. Her guilty plea allowed her to avoid the death penalty.

Governments want business to spend more on research and development. But even if, through tax breaks and other inducements, the amount of investment in R&D is stepped up, it will not necessarily lead to more innovation. What matters is how well companies manage the innovation process, how they organize and motivate their scientists, how they decide which ideas to pursue and which to discard. In a new book, "The Architecture of Innovation: The Economics of Creative Organizations," Harvard professor Josh Lerner provides an authoritative analysis of the strengths and weaknesses of the American system.

The sign outside Fred Caporaso's door lists his official title: professor of food science. And it's true that his research area is sensory evaluation, the science of how food tastes. But step inside, and it's clear that his heart never strays far from the Galapagos Islands. His cluttered desk and shelves are lined with tortoise trinkets and photos with him and his students, mementos from the 18 trips he has taken to the islands. The professor has become enamored with the islands made famous by Charles Darwin, and he has emerged as something of an authority - taking students each year and giving lectures nationwide about the creatures inhabiting the islands.

Slave to your email? Wonder what would happen if you had to do without it? UC Irvine informatics professor Gloria Mark was curious - so she recently led a study that separated 13 people from their email for five days and recorded what happened when they unplugged. Mark spoke with The Times about the joys and sorrows of ditching email and why the Army is interested in her research. What made you want to see how people fared without email? That was way back in 2005. I had this crazy idea that people were addicted to email.