USC Dana and David Dornsife College of Letters, Arts and Sciences
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Electric City
May 23, 2013A towering electricity pylon dominates a moody black-and-white nightscape of 1950s Los Angeles. Silhouetted center stage, it straddles the landscape, its looping power cables carving up the artificially illuminated sky. At… more>
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You Did It!
May 17, 2013Graduated Betty Golden Globe and Emmy-winning America Ferrera stands with her mentor Steven Lamy, professor of international relations and vice dean for academic programs in USC Dornsife. Ferrera earned her… more>
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Head of the Class
May 15, 2013Katherine Fu: The Brain of the Matter It’s said that the study of the human brain is the last frontier in science. With that in mind, Katherine Fu, the class of 2013 valedictorian, is ready to chart new… more>
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The Fabulous Fulbrights
May 10, 201310 exceptional USC Dornsife students have been selected for the prestigious Fulbright Fellowship, which awards them for academic achievement and commitment to cultural engagement. USC has been recognized as one of the top 40… more>
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The Dark of Harkness
May 7, 2013Deborah Harkness believes the pages of centuries-old manuscripts are enchanted. Like clues to a mystery, they hold the key to unraveling the chronology, ambitions, failures and successes of those who lived before us. And… more>
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Castle in the Clouds
May 7, 2013What if the components of architecture — walls, windows, ceilings and everything in-between — were used to construct the human mind? How might the physical space integrate the mind’s two perspectives: the… more>
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Chicken Necks and Chili Queens
October 24, 2012USC Dornsife Spanish major Daniel Arellano picks morsels of sizzling meat from the delicate bones of a fried chicken neck and stuffs them into a warm tortilla, garnishing the resulting taco with freshly chopped onion and… more>
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Fighting for Inclusion
September 6, 2012Nayan Shah was in South Africa on a Thomas J. Watson Fellowship during the most intense period of struggle against apartheid. Black resistors were being beaten, tortured and murdered. It was 1989, a year before South African… more>
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Brink of Life
August 24, 2012Arriving at USC from Oahu, Hawaii, the first thing Azmera Hammouri-Davis unpacked was a Kukui nut lei, a traditional greeting gift she brought for her roommate. The state tree of Hawaii, the Kukui has a spiritual meaning of… more>
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Can Iran Achieve Its Nuclear Ambitions?
July 20, 2012Sanctions, sabotage, diplomacy and even the threat of military action — the United Nations Security Council countries seem to be emptying their toolbox when it comes to containing Iranian nuclear ambitions. But nuclear… more>
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Finding One’s Self in L.A.
July 19, 2012As USC Dornsife’s Dana Johnson strolled through Echo Park, taking in the downtown Los Angeles skyline and Palm tree-lined lake, the characters, setting and plot of her first novel took shape. Johnson often hiked several… more>
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Spain Rocks
July 13, 2012For some people, rocks are those pesky objects that sometimes find their way into your shoes. But for aspiring geologists, who study how rocks came to be, the aggregate of minerals provide a looking glass into the past. Was… more>
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Resetting Your Biological Clock
July 12, 2012Led by Steve Kay, incoming dean of the USC Dornsife College of Letters, Arts and Sciences, biologists at UC San Diego have discovered a chemical that offers a completely new and promising direction for the development of drugs… more>
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The Goddess of the Dawn
July 3, 2012In the poem, “The Aurora of the New Mind,” the narrator fluffs up the pillows then won’t let the reader get comfortable. There had been rain throughout the province Cypress & umbrella pines in a palsy of… more>
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Dion Dickman Wins Award to Fund Research on Neurobiology of Aging
July 3, 2012Dion Dickman, assistant professor of biological sciences in USC Dornsife, has received a 2012 New Scholar Award in Aging from the Ellison Medical Foundation. Over the next four years, the $400,000 award will fund… more>
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USC Shoah Foundation Institute Completes Preservation of Holocaust Testimonies
June 29, 2012The USC Shoah Foundation Institute has completed a multiyear, multimillion-dollar project to digitally preserve the video interviews in its visual history archive. The archive contains testimony from nearly 52,000 Holocaust… more>
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New Hindu Studies Chair
June 25, 2012The USC School of Religion will establish the first chair of Hindu studies in the United States funded by the Indian-American community. The $3.24 million gift from the Dharma Civilization Foundation to the School of… more>
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An Accident with Purpose
June 25, 2012On a bright day in 1964, Bob Padgett drove a company Ford van down two-lane Highway 4 from Hayward, Calif., to a construction site in Pittsburg, a 43-mile trip, and rounded the top of a small hill. Without any warning signage… more>
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Antarctica Warmer 20 Million Years Ago
June 18, 2012Ancient Antarctica was warmer and wetter than previously suspected, enough to support vegetation along its edges, according to a new study led by USC Dornsife’s Sarah Feakins. By examining the remnants of plant leaf wax… more>
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Black Pearls of the Sun
June 13, 2012Atop Mt. Wilson overlooking Pasadena, dozens of stargazers peered through telescopes at a celestial wonder. A few people donned T-shirts declaring “I Witnessed the Transit of Venus.” To mark the event that… more>
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Risk and Reward
June 8, 2012The Damon Runyon Cancer Foundation supports young scientists with creative, groundbreaking ideas leading to the prevention, diagnosis and treatment of cancer. Unlike many larger organizations, it funds research in its earliest… more>
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$1 Million Gift Establishes the Dean Howard Gillman Fund
May 16, 2012Two anonymous donors have made a $1 million gift to the USC Dornsife College of Letters, Arts and Sciences to establish the Dean Howard Gillman Fund. The endowment honors the legacy of Gillman, the 20th dean of the USC… more>
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Change Over Charity
May 14, 2012As a USC Dornsife researcher, Manuel Pastor is dedicated to improving the economic, environmental and social conditions facing low-income, urban communities. In honor of his work, the Liberty Hill Foundation presented Pastor… more>
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Going Places
May 11, 2012Emir Estrada opened an envelope she had just picked up from her campus mailbox. The return address said the University of Connecticut. “Let’s read this together,” said Estrada, who on May 11 earned her Ph.D.… more>
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May 9, 2012
Eye-Opening Science
Fourth-grader Zakar Martin cut a lemon in half. He pushed a nail into the squishy side of one half and a penny into the other half of the fruit’s pulpy side. Then he clamped one end of a wire to the copper penny and the… more>
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It's An Ad World
May 9, 2012When you look at an advertisement, how does it make you feel? Don Draper of AMC’s Mad Men could be five cocktails in and still wax eloquently on advertising’s myriad abilities. But Draper’s reactions to… more>
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Something in the Air
May 7, 2012John Seinfeld researches air pollution from the top down. The Louis E. Nohl Professor and professor of chemical engineering at the California Institute of Technology studies the tiny particles in the atmosphere for a broader… more>
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Introducing the 2012 Dornsife Scholars
May 7, 2012The USC Dornsife College of Letters, Arts and Sciences is delighted to recognize its first class of Dornsife Scholars for 2012. The 10 outstanding graduating USC Dornsife seniors were selected based on their academic… more>
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Remarkable Research
May 7, 2012For USC Dornsife undergraduates Ellen Park and Kevin Le, the idea of engineering a synthetic version of the E. coli immune system to learn how to defeat antibiotic resistance sparked a passion for research and two years of… more>
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All-Star Students
May 3, 2012Genevieve Hoffman: Woman of International Mastery by Diane Krieger Condi Rice, look out. Here comes Genevieve P. Hoffman. The Class of 2012 valedictorian has what it takes to make tidal waves in Washington, D.C., according… more>
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Kay Named New Dean of USC Dornsife
May 1, 2012Steve A. Kay has been appointed the 21st dean of USC Dornsife, the university announced today. He will lead USC Dornsife starting this Fall. Kay, who is a member of the National Academy of Sciences (NAS), currently serves as… more>
Event Calendar
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USC Global Conference in Seoul, Korea
May 23, 2013 - May 25, 2013: 6pm - 9pm
Global Challenges for HumanityGrand Hyatt Seoul Hotel 322 Sowol-ro, Yongsan-gu Soul 140-738 kr
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Dr. Matthew Botvinick, Princeton University
September 10, 2013: 4pm - 5pm
Neuroscience Graduate Program Distinguished Speaker Seminar SeriesUniversity Park Campus
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Dr. Carla Shatz, Stanford University
October 29, 2013: 4pm - 5pm
NGP Distinguished Speaker Seminar SeriesUniversity Park Campus