Current News Releases

UCR's growing reputation for research excellence, diversity and programs that enhance student success rank the inland Southern California university ninth in U.S. News & World Report’s list of “Schools to Watch.”   (August 22, 2008)

The origin of the Tahitian vanilla orchid has long eluded botanists. It is found to exist only in cultivation; natural, wild populations of the orchid have never been encountered. Now, a team of investigators led by Pesach Lubinsky, a postdoctoral researcher, claims to have traced Tahitian vanilla back to its true origins.   (August 21, 2008)

University of California President Mark G. Yudof announced Monday, Aug. 18 the appointment of Robert D. Grey as interim provost of the UC system, effective today, Aug. 20. Grey is a longtime UC academic administrator who has served as provost and executive vice chancellor of UC Davis and, most recently, as acting chancellor of UC Riverside.   (August 20, 2008)

Noboru Sato, an assistant professor of biochemistry, has devised a method of growing human embryonic stem cells (hESCs) in the lab that uses no animal-derived materials – an important advance in the use of hESCs for future medical purposes.   (August 19, 2008)

UC Riverside will become only the third university in the nation to offer a Ph.D. in ethnic studies when the doctoral program launches in fall 2009. The Department of Ethnic Studies will begin accepting applications for the Ph.D. program on Sept. 1.   (August 13, 2008)

If you encountered an unfamiliar-looking insect, how would you identify it by name and learn more about its behavior and impact? Thanks to the efforts of entomologist Mark Hoddle, that difficulty has now been significantly eased for identifying California’s thrips.   (August 13, 2008)

Community college students can clock in at a number of science-based businesses and put their classroom skills to the test as part of the UCR’s Copernicus Project Beckman Coulter Internship program. The program, named for the $50,000 annual grant from the Beckman Coulter Foundation, provides students a chance to work any combination of 40 hours and earn $20 an hour.   (August 13, 2008)

As UC Riverside teams increasingly look to contend for conference titles, community leaders are forming the Highlanders Athletics Association to build regional support for the Division 1 athletics program that has produced championships in baseball, men’s golf, and women’s basketball and soccer, and individual national honors for athletes in a variety of sports.   (August 12, 2008)

To make a discovery and get to name it is just about every scientist’s dream. For Allison Hansen, a doctoral student in entomology, that dream already has come true.   (August 11, 2008)

The Gluck Fellows Program of the Arts at the University of California, Riverside has received a $1 million grant from the Maxwell H. Gluck Foundation to continue funding the arts outreach program through June 30, 2010.   (August 6, 2008)