Research Centers

Never mind that Mayor Richard Riordan graduated from Princeton ('52). When UCLA's biggest guns prevailed upon him to loan his glorious Brentwood estate (think Hotel Bel-Air and squint and you have an idea) for one evening, he was all Bruin. Though there was a lofty purpose to Sunday's party--the inauguration of the UCLA Humanities Consortium, which will integrate three of the university's major research centers--there was no question that Riordan's home was a major draw.

California lawmakers are trying to resolve differences over competing proposals to host a research-and-testing center for drone aircraft that would be sanctioned by the Federal Aviation Administration. The FAA has called for competing bids to establish six research centers throughout the country to help determine the extent to which non-military drones should be allowed in the U.S. Some officials argue that there should be one unified bid from California. Ventura County has proposed hosting a facility, while a separate proposal, floated by a group calling itself California Unmanned Aircraft Systems (Cal-UAS)

The National Cancer Institute has decided to locate one of eight new national research centers at UC Irvine. The center, to be operated by the university's College of Medicine's Epidemiology Division, will be the only one of its kind in California. "UCI is proud to be selected," Chancellor Ralph J. Cicerone said Monday in a written statement. "This new . . . center will become a potent force for new ideas and new strategies in the fight against cancer."

Field scientists and students who rough it in UC Irvine's Steele/Burnand Anza Borrego Desert Research Center in eastern San Diego County will soon be settling into a new laboratory, apartment building and dormitory thanks to $2.8 million in Proposition 84 funds awarded by the California Wildlife Conservation Board. The lab, four-unit apartment complex and dorm with room for 24 students will support research by biologists, astronomers, anthropologists and others in the heart of Anza-Borrego Desert State Park's stark landscape of dry washes, palm groves and cacti.

U.S. Surgeon General M. Joycelyn Elders visited County-USC Medical Center last week to celebrate the opening of a research center that she said will help future clinical studies include more women and minorities, groups that have been neglected or underrepresented.

Wanna run a government lab staffed by hundreds of scientists tackling climate issues like global warming? For the first time in 46 years, management of the National Center for Atmospheric Research, perched on a ridge under the Rocky Mountains northwest of here, is up for grabs. Since 1997, National Science Foundation policy has required that all government research institutions be subject to a competitive bidding process when their contracts come up for renewal.

After much prodding by some Cal State Fullerton alums, Orange County now has its own real estate research center on the campus. The upstart Real Estate and Land Use Institute, like other centers in the Cal State system, is devoted to local research, forecasting and trend spotting. The center is headed by finance professor Donald Valachi and has been funded by a combination of college grants and money from companies like the Irvine Co. and E&Y Kenneth Leventhal.

A 30-year-old marine biology lab on Santa Catalina Island takes on a new mission today as USC officials open a center for environmental research. Outfitted with dormitories to house students for a semester, the Wrigley Institute for Environmental Studies is expected to become an interdisciplinary laboratory where scholars can perform experiments for mainland audiences via teleconferences.

Professor James Elias thinks "Porn 101" is a little too racy a title for his forthcoming volume on the San Fernando Valley's most notorious industry. A voluminous collection of essays on pornography, Elias wants to call it "Eroticism and the 1st Amendment," but his publisher says the book will sell better with a less scholarly name. They're probably right, but Elias still prefers his title. " 'Porn 101' makes it sound like we're teaching people how to make pornography," he said.

A unit of Nestle USA plans to close two food-product research centers, including one in Van Nuys that employs about 100 people, by the end of 1994. The unit, Westreco Inc., will either transfer the workers to other facilities in Ohio and Connecticut, or offer severance packages and job-placement services, said Laurie MacDonald, a spokeswoman at Nestle USA's headquarters in Glendale. Nestle USA is the domestic unit of the Swiss food giant Nestle SA.

Every so often, Chon Noriega wakes up in the middle of the night and thinks, "I agreed to do what ?" Maybe he signed on to teach another UCLA graduate seminar in avant-garde cinema. Or curate an exhibition of new Chicano art. Or write a biography. Or lead a walking tour of East L.A.'s historic murals. Or co-host a segment of TCM's "Race and Hollywood: Latino Images in Film. " Or ... well, you get the drift. Noriega's list of cultural IOU's is long and - insomnia be damned - getting longer.

SACRAMENTO — Electronics giant Samsung Electronics Co. is beefing up its operations in Silicon Valley, announcing that it's expanding a research and development center in San Jose. To lure the expansion, the state, Santa Clara County and the city of San Jose agreed to provide a variety of tax credits, fee reductions and worker training programs. "Here's a case where government and business work together and everyone benefits, " Gov. Jerry Brown said at a San Jose City Hall ceremony.

UC Irvine is home to a new $12.5-million research center funded by chip maker Intel Corp., the company announced Tuesday. The center, called the Intel Science and Technology Center for Social Computing, applies social science and humanities to the design and analysis of digital information. It opened June 1 but was announced Tuesday by Justin Rattner, Intel chief technology officer, in San Francisco. "Technology is profoundly entangled with our everyday lives. As researchers, we can't get a handle on what's going on by looking at technical factors alone," said UC Irvine professor Paul Dourish, who will co-lead the center.

Asian Americans are now the nation's fastest-growing racial group, overtaking Latinos in recent years as the largest stream of new immigrants arriving annually in the United States. In an economy that increasingly depends on highly skilled workers, Asian Americans are also the country's best educated and highest-income racial or ethnic group, according to a new report from the Pew Research Center . In fact, U.S. Asians, who trace their roots to dozens of countries in the Far East, the Indian subcontinent and Southeast Asia, are arguably the most highly educated immigrant group in U.S. history, the study shows.

That stereotypical image of the American teenager glued to the phone needs an update. A new study from the Pew Research Center's Internet & American Life Project found that 37% of Internet users ages 12 to 17 participate in video chats using such applications as Skype, Google Talk and iChat - and girls are more likely to engage in them than boys. "As more and more devices in our lives have video capabilities - as laptops and computers come with built-in video cameras, and many smartphones have cameras that allow for video chatting, for taking videos - teens are taking advantage of that," said Amanda Lenhart, senior research specialist with Pew Research Center.

If you once found the thought of living with your parents into your late 20s or even your 30s a little embarrassing, you no longer have reason to blush. A new report by the Pew Research Center finds that 29% of those between the ages of 25 and 34 have lived at home at some point during the tough economy of recent years — and most say they are satisfied with that arrangement and optimistic about their financial futures. For many of today's 20- and 30-somethings, moving back to or remaining in their parents' homes has been a matter of economic necessity, not a choice, said Kim Parker, associate director of Pew's Social and Demographic Trends Project and the author of the report released Thursday.

Research at USC on energy and the environmental impact of hydrocarbon fuels has received a big boost with a $7-million gift from Katherine Bogdanovich Loker, a USC alumna whose father founded the StarKist tuna company. USC officials are scheduled to announce today that the donation will be used to build a new wing onto what is already called the Donald P. and Katherine B. Loker Hydrocarbon Research Institute on the campus.

Switzerland's Novartis, the world's largest drug and crop chemical company, said it will spend $600 million during the next decade on a research center in San Diego to help it compete in the emerging market for genetically improved crops. The Novartis Agricultural Discovery Institute will employ 180 researchers who will identify and develop genes to protect crops against disease and insects, or improve their nutritional composition.

California and the Western United States are leading a nationwide surge in interracial marriage, according to a new study that paints a picture of a broadly diversifying nation, one where color lines are blurring and old taboos fading. One-fifth of all recent weddings in the western United States were between people of different races or ethnicities, said a report being released today by the Pew Research Center. Nationwide, 15% of recent marriages were interracial, researchers found.

Jacob E. Goldman, the former Xerox chief scientist who created the company's famed Palo Alto Research Center, whose scientists and engineers invented the modern personal computer in the 1970s and developed an array of other pioneering computing technologies, has died. He was 90. Goldman, a resident of Westport, Conn., died Tuesday at a hospital in nearby Stamford after a short illness, said his son, Melvin. A physicist, Goldman had been the head of the research and development laboratory at Ford Motor Co. before joining Xerox, then based in Rochester, N.Y., as chief scientist in late 1967.