science wire

Merit E. Janow Appointed Dean of Columbia's School of International and Public Affairs
Columbia University President Lee C. Bollinger has appointed Merit E. Janow as the next dean of the University's School of International and Public Affairs (SIPA), effective July 1.

Alba Holgado, ’a rare workplace treasure,’ wins Amy J. Blue Award
Alba Holgado, digital course management at Robert Crown Law Library, is one of three recipients of the 2013 Amy J. Blue Award.

Brian Mulhall, From the Navy to the Law
Brian C. Mulhall, who is graduating from the Law School , learned a lesson in a middle school summer wrestling program that became central to the way he approaches life.

A dozen outstanding individuals to receive honorary degrees at McGill’s Spring Convocation
McGill University will confer honorary degrees upon 12 exceptional individuals during this year's Spring Convocation ceremonies.

Probing Question: Do women dominate the field of forensic science?
Exhuming corpses, analyzing bloodstained clothing, collecting "crime scene insects" (yes, maggots)...these are some of the grittier realities of life as a forensic scientist.

Book on Loneliness Is Crowded With Insights
If you could take only one volume to a desert island, Columbia Law School Professor Robert A. Ferguson 's new book might be the one.

Gift of $5 million establishes two faculty chairs at School of Nursing
The School of Nursing has received a gift of $5 million from John and Tashia Morgridge in honor of Mary and Carl Gulbrandsen, establishing two permanently endowed faculty chairs — one in pediatric nursing and one in health systems innovation.

Faculty Q&A With Olatunde Johnson
Olatunde Johnson 's interest in a law career was sparked shortly after she graduated from Yale with a B.A. in literature.

’Pied Piper of new research-based legal education’ chosen for 2013 Roland Volunteer Service Prize

Berkeley professor to testify in trial of former Guatemalan dictator
ATTENTION: Reporters covering Latin America, human rights, indigenous communities and legal affairs WHAT: Anthropologist and UC Berkeley Professor, Beatriz Manz has been called to testify as an

New book questions preferential legal treatment of religious liberty
The Western democratic practice of singling out religious liberty for special treatment under the law is not in sync with the world we live in today, argues University of Chicago Law School professor Brian Leiter in his new book, Why Tolerate Religion?

Federal ‘detainer requests’ for suspected immigration violators cause longer jail stays, increase cost, UW research shows
Posted under: News Releases , Politics and Government , Research , Social Science Jail stays and costs increase dramatically when federal immigration authorities request that inmates be held under what are called “detainer requests,” according to research by University of Washington sociologist Katherine Beckett.

Q&A: Stanford Law Professor Jane Schacter on the Supreme Court same-sex marriage hearings
Same-sex marriage takes center stage at the U.S. Supreme Court this week. Stanford Law Professor Jane Schacter talks about the arguments. The U.S. Supreme Court is hearing arguments this week on same-sex marriage. On Tuesday, the justices questioned lawyers on California's Proposition 8, the voter approved initiative that bans the unions.

Penn Public Safety Kicks Off Share The Road Campaign

Symposium Honors Law Prof. Patricia Williams
After completing her 1991 autobiographical book The Alchemy of Race and Rights , Patricia J. Williams faced a dilemma.

McCartan to discuss public attitudes toward sex abusers at Robina Institute Forum
MINNEAPOLIS / ST. PAUL (03/18/2013) —The University of Minnesota Law School announced today that Kieran McCartan, senior lecturer in criminology at the University of the West of England, will headline the first installment of the Robina in Conversation series April 10 in the Law School.

Penn Alum Lawrence Lessig to Speak at National Constitution Center for Democracy Café

UCLA, Harvard experts propose new structure to guide governance of geoengineering research
Geoengineering, the use of human technologies to alter the Earth's climate system — such as injecting reflective particles into the upper atmosphere to scatter incoming sunlight back to space — has emerged as a potentially promising way to mitigate the impacts of climate change.

Guiding responsible research in geoengineering
Geoengineering, the use of human technologies to alter the Earth's climate system-such as injecting reflective particles into the upper atmosphere to scatter incoming sunlight back to space-has emerged as a potentially promising way to mitigate the impacts of climate change.

Diversity fellow focuses on changing meanings of peace
The search for peace is used as a means to defend the idea of war, vilify enemies or gain political points.

Argo tore open a wound, says former hostage in Iran during visit to Stanford Law School
Stanford Report, March 13, 2013 Argo tore open a wound, says former hostage in Iran during visit to Stanford Law School John Limbert tells Stanford Law students what it was like to be a hostag

Faculty members recognized for outstanding research with new professorships
Sixteen UChicago faculty members— Clifford Ando , Isaam A. Awad , David Awschalom , Omri Ben-Shahar, Philip G. Berger , Matthew Gentzkow , James K. Liao , Elizabeth McNally ,

How to predict the progress of technology
MIT researcher finds Moore's Law and Wright's Law best predict how technology improves. Researchers at MIT and the Santa Fe Institute have found that some widely used formulas for predicting how rapidly technology will advance - notably, Moore's Law and Wright's Law - offer superior approximations of the pace of technological progress.

Texans Not Eager to Change Gun Laws, UT/Texas Tribune Poll Shows
AUSTIN, Texas — Although a large majority of Texans support background checks for all gun purchases, they are not eager to change existing gun laws in Texas, according to a University of Texas at Austin/Texas Tribune poll.

Researchers: Lawyers make good board directors
The benefits of lawyer-directors of public corporations significantly outweigh the costs, according to a new working paper by Charles K. Whitehead, professor of law and two co-authors.

A Cyclotron’s Long Journey Home
Seventy-five years after one of the world's first working cyclotrons was handed to the London Science Museum, it has returned to its birthplace in the Berkeley hills, where the man who invented it, E

Stanford law prof, security expert to lead university’s international studies institute
Stanford Report, February 12, 2013 Mariano-Florentino Cuéllar will take the helm of the Freeman Spogli Institute for International Studies in July.

U-M experts available to discuss North Korea’s third nuclear test
ANN ARBOR-University of Michigan experts are available to discuss the scientific, legal and political issues involving in North Korea's third nuclear test. They include: Sara Pozzi , associate professor of nuclear engineering and radiological sciences, can address the significance of the test and how close it brings North Korea to delivering a nuclear weapon at long range.

UAlberta law professor appointed to Court of Queen’s Bench

Sandor makes major gift to Law School; Coase-Sandor Institute named to honor mentor
Dean Michael Schill announced today that Richard Sandor, Chairman and CEO of Environmental Financial Products LLC, and his wife Ellen are the principal donors to a $10 million endowment in law and economics at the University of Chicago Law School.

Sandors make major gift to Law School; Coase-Sandor Institute named to honor mentor
Dean Michael Schill announced today that Richard Sandor, Chairman and CEO of Environmental Financial Products LLC, and his wife Ellen are the principal donors to a $10 million endowment in law and economics at the University of Chicago Law School.

Stanford hosts educational sessions on ’first inventor to file’ patent system
Stanford Report, February 7, 2013 The new system for patent filing is the most significant change under the America Invents Act and will affect all researchers at Stanford.

Scholars urge Supreme Court to keep Voting Rights Act provisions on equal access
Posted under: News Releases , Politics and Government , Research , Social Science Racial discrimination and prejudice remain prevalent in the United States, so the U.S. Supreme Court shou

Q&A: Stanford scholars on immigration reform
Stanford Report, February 1, 2013 Stanford experts in politics, law, sociology, entrepreneurship and security answer questions about the latest proposals for immigration reform.

Statement on protest at Center for Care and Discovery
The University issued this statement today: Several dozen protesters entered the University of Chicago Medicine's Center for Care and Discovery Sunday afternoon without permission.

Residential schools: assessing the litigation and settlement process
Canada's historic, estimated $5-billion agreement to settle its sordid past and shameful legacy of physical, mental and sexual abuse in the Indian residential schools system may be long overdue, impe

Law Professor Hank Greely to receive 2012 Lyman Award

U of M Journal of International Law to present its 2013 symposium, "The Future of Warfare: The Law of Tomorrow's Battlefields"
News Release Experts to discuss robotics, cyber warfare and the privatization of war MINNEAPOLIS / ST. PAUL (01/22/2013) —The University of Minnesota Law School's Minnesota Journal

Facing life after death
One lies hidden inside a coffin. Another has his face exposed with hands extended at his sides. A third wears a mask over her face.

ESnet’s New Map Gives Up-to-the-Minute Network Data
A new interactive map developed by the Department of Energy's ESnet (Energy Sciences Network) provides a detailed, up-to-the-minute look at the level of traffic traversing the various sections of the network as it connects 40 research sites around the country.

Professors Barbara Frey and Jennifer Green and the University of Minnesota Law School Human Rights Litigation and International Advocacy Clinic submit gun violence report to U.N. Human Rights Committee
News Release MINNEAPOLIS / ST. PAUL (01/17/2013) —As the United States Government debates domestic policy changes to address national concerns about gun violence, students at the Unive

Stanford Law School opens Religious Liberty Clinic
Stanford Report, January 16, 2013 Stanford Law School students will get hands-on experience defending freedom of religion for their clients.

Barry Scheck of the Innocence Project to Speak at Penn
WHO: Barry Scheck, Cardozo School of Law professor and co-founder of the Innocence Project WHEN: Jan.

Minnesota's open enrollment program increases racial segregation, new study by the Law School's Institute on Metropolitan Opportunity finds
News Release MINNEAPOLIS / ST. PAUL (01/14/2013) —The University of Minnesota Law School's Institute on Metropolitan Opportunity released a new study Friday, Jan.11 providing evidence that Minnesota's open enrollment program increases racial segregation in area schools. Minnesota's open enrollment program became law in 1988, the first of its kind in the nation.

Improving road safety: Lessons from Europe
ANN ARBOR-Tougher drunk driving laws, lower speed limits and stricter seat belt laws are the best ways to reduce traffic deaths in the United States, say researchers at the University of Michigan Transportation Research Institute.

UT Austin Names Director for Commercialization Efforts
AUSTIN, Texas — The University of Texas at Austin has appointed Dan Sharp, a veteran intellectual property and technology lawyer, to be the director of the Office of Technology Commercialization (OTC) and associate vice president for research.

Penn’s Field Center for Children’s Policy, Practice & Research Works Toward Changing Child Protection Laws
A lot can change in a year. One year ago, Pennsylvania's General Assembly established a Task Force on Child Protection to review child-abuse-reporting procedures and laws. In November, the Task Force issued a 400-page report outlining its proposal for revisions to the child abuse-reporting laws in Pennsylvania.

Banguns inititative calls for change, accountability
Steve Fish knows there's a slew of petitions aimed at reining in American gun violence in the wake of Sandy Hook.

Former Solicitor General Returns to Law School to Teach Contracts
When Charles Fried was a student at Columbia Law School in the late 1950s, he took three classes with Herbert Wechsler, a legendary constitutional law professor whose achievements included developing

UAlberta honoured for human-rights leadership

U-M experts available to discuss fiscal cliff stalemate
ANN ARBOR-Less than three weeks until the Dec. 31 deadline, President Obama and Republican leaders remain at an impasse on resolving the "fiscal cliff," which involves automatic tax hikes and spending cuts that take effect on Jan.

U-M experts available to discuss Japanese election
ADVISORY ANN ARBOR-University of Michigan experts are available to discuss the political, economic and legal issues in the Dec.

‘Fiscal cliff’ challenge explored in ‘Congress and the Politics of Problem Solving’
John Wilkerson , University of Washington professor of political science, is the co-author with E. Scott Adler of the University of Colorado of a new book titled “ Congress and the Politics of Problem Solving ,” published in December by Cambridge University Press.

UCLA environmental researchers release citywide plan, call on candidates to adopt
Environmental experts at UCLA, frustrated by years of Los Angeles making piecemeal progress or announcing 20-year proposals that could be undone by a new political regime, have created a citywide environmental sustainability plan that local leaders can accomplish in just two four-year terms.

When it’s not sex
It's a simple message that bears repeating: Don't be that guy. And it's a message that Lise Gotell , chair of women's studies at the University of Alberta, was pleased to be able to deliver.