January 10, 2000 Making the News New findings on the migrations and feeding habits of elephant seals, from a research project led by Burney Le Boeuf, professor emeritus of biology, Daniel Costa, professor of biology, and research biologist Daniel Crocker, were reported in the San Jose Mercury News and the San Francisco Chronicle. Our resident Russia expert, Mike Urban of politics, has been in demand lately, appearing on KPFA Radio in Berkeley and KPFK in Los Angeles to discuss the Russian parliamentary elections and Chechnya, and then on Pacifica Network News in Washington, D.C., to discuss Putin's accession to the Russian presidency. Astronomer Sandra Faber was quoted at length in a Washington Post story about recent repairs to the Hubble Space Telescope. Faber described the importance of the telescope in shaping the ideas of astronomers and cosmologists and also in communicating those ideas to the public through stunning images of deep space. A year-end story in the San Francisco Chronicle headlined "Bay Area Brains" featured two UCSC scientists--Chancellor M.R.C. Greenwood and astronomer Steven Vogt. Greenwood was quoted in regard to the rise of the West Coast to scientific prominence, while Vogt was featured for his role in discovering planets that orbit stars outside our solar system. Vogt has handled the media attention surrounding his planet-hunting exploits with much patience and good humor, and for a recent story in the Napa Valley Register he even provided a helpful analogy between planet hunting and wine making. Graduate student Sarah Gerhardt, who is working toward her Ph.D. in physical chemistry, has been making a name for herself as a big wave surfer. Stories about her accomplishments, which include being the first woman to surf the monstrous waves that break at Maverick's near Half Moon Bay, have appeared in Sports Illustrated for Women and the Marin Independent Journal. A story in the San Jose Mercury News highlighted the Presidential Award bestowed on UCSC's ACE Honors Program and accepted by its director Nancy Cox-Konopelski in a White House ceremony in December. Manuel Pastor contributed to the Santa Cruz County Sentinel's coverage of a local nonprofit's efforts to help span the "digital divide."