November 1, 2004
ARCS Foundation contributions to UCSC pass
$1 million with 2004-05 scholarships for seven top students
By Tim Stephens
At the annual awards luncheon of the Achievement Rewards for
College Scientists (ARCS) Foundation in San Francisco this week,
participants from UC Santa Cruz will have special cause for
celebration. Since 1976, the ARCS Foundation's Northern California
Chapter has given more than $1 million in scholarships to UCSC
students. This year, seven UCSC students each won $10,000 scholarships
from the foundation.
The ARCS Foundation, founded in 1958, is a national organization
that provides scholarships and fellowships for the country's
most promising students in science, medicine, and engineering.
The foundation's Northern California Chapter is one of the leading
private sources of annual student awards to the UCSC campus.
"The ARCS Foundation has provided incredible support
over the years for the training of scientists and engineers,"
said David Kliger, dean of physical and biological sciences
at UCSC.
The Northern California Chapter will honor the 2004-05 ARCS
Scholars at its annual scholarship awards luncheon on Thursday,
November 4, at the Westin St. Francis Hotel in San Francisco.
The luncheon speaker and honored guest will be Nobel Laureate
Arno Penzias.
This year's ARCS scholars at UCSC represent the Science Communication
Program and the Departments of Astronomy and Astrophysics, Chemistry
and Biochemistry, Computer Science, Ecology and Evolutionary
Biology, and Mathematics. The scholars and their interests are
as follows:
Vincent Bonini is a Ph.D. candidate in mathematics.
His thesis research addresses important aspects of the mathematical
theory of classic and quantum relativity, with applications
in physics and cosmology.
Tonya Clayton has a background in geology and oceanography
and is now enrolled in the Science Communication Program. She
wants to be a science writer to help provide greater public
access to scientific information and encourage informed decision
making.
Cynthia Hays is pursuing a Ph.D. in ecology and evolutionary
biology. Her research on marine algae along the California coast
aims to answer fundamental questions in ecology.
Jessica Marshall has a background in chemical engineering
and is now enrolled in the Science Communication Program. She
plans to work as a science writer to improve public understanding
of science and its context in society.
Sarah Martell is pursuing a Ph.D. in astronomy and
astrophysics. She is using telescopes at the Lick and Keck Observatories
to study very old stars in globular clusters, and she is developing
software to analyze the spectroscopic data gathered by the telescopes.
Her work will help scientists understand how stars evolve.
Jonathan Panttaja is a Ph.D. candidate in computer
science. He is studying an important class of computationally
intractable problems known as constraint-satisfaction problems.
His work has broad applications in computer science and artificial
intelligence.
Nicole Winter is pursuing a Ph.D. in chemistry. She
does computational simulations of molecular dynamics to better
understand the microscopic dynamics of chemical reactions in
liquids.
The Northern California Chapter of the ARCS Foundation is
one of 14 chapters nationwide. Since its founding in 1971, the
chapter has raised over $10.4 million for 1,811 scholars attending
seven northern California universities. Additional information
about the foundation is available on the web at
arcsfoundation.org.
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