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Coronavirus lab and testing in place for fall quarter

ilseu — Wed, 23 Sep 2020 20:28:39 +0000

Coronavirus lab and testing in place for fall quarter ilseu Wed, 09/23/2020 - 13:28 More College News Imran Ghori | UCR News September 22, 2020

As the fall quarter begins, UC Riverside has a new diagnostic lab operating on campus that will rapidly process samples from students and employees as part of an ongoing coronavirus testing program.

The lab, located at the Multidisciplinary Research Building, or MRB, tested its first sample in August and opened in early September.

The result of months of collaboration between several campus groups, the lab allows UCR to conduct its own independent testing of the campus community at a rate of about 600 samples a day. Results are processed within 24 hours.

“It’s one additional and important measure among all the others in place to mitigate the effects of the pandemic,” said Rodolfo Torres, vice chancellor for Research and Economic Development, whose office was involved in planning for the lab.

A team of researchers from the College of Natural and Agricultural Sciences assembled the lab from scratch, borrowing some equipment from colleagues and creating their own testing kits.

Katherine Borkovich, a professor and chair of the Department of Microbiology and Plant Pathology; and Isgouhi Kaloshian, a professor and chair of the Department of Nematology, led those efforts and are overseeing the lab operations.

Having its own lab on campus will allow UCR to avoid testing kit shortages and longer wait times for results, which they said some health providers and public agencies have faced.

The lab has continued to refine its process in recent weeks, switching from nasal swabs to saliva tests. This change has allowed staff to boost testing speed and capacity, and they have the potential for an even bigger increase. While using nasal swabs, the lab could only process 200 samples a day, Borkovich said.

Student Health Services and UCR Health have begun using the lab for testing students and employees as part of an ongoing effort to keep the campus safe and healthy.

A drive-thru testing event held by UCR Health on Sept. 9 and 10 drew about 70 employees who made appointments in advance and provided saliva samples to medical assistants from their vehicles. The process took no more than 10 minutes.

Student Health Services, which had limited testing through an outside lab since March, is ramping up testing of students residing on campus with the opening of the new lab. It tested resident advisors earlier this month and began testing incoming students this week.

All students moving into campus housing are required to get tested before they can check in. Once they are living on campus, they will continue to be tested up to twice a week throughout the fall quarter.

Pop-up sample collection sites will be set up at or near the residence halls where students can check-in with a barcode on their smartphones.

For both employees and students, the campus has created an email notification process for those testing negative. Any positive results will be delivered by phone.

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UC Riverside No. 1 in U.S. News social mobility rankings

ilseu — Mon, 14 Sep 2020 17:36:47 +0000

UC Riverside No. 1 in U.S. News social mobility rankings ilseu Mon, 09/14/2020 - 10:36 More College News Johnny Cruz | UCR News September 13, 2020

For the second consecutive year, UC Riverside is the No. 1 university in the country for social mobility in the U.S. News & World Report Best Colleges rankings.

UCR rose up the charts in the overall rankings as well, now placing No. 34 among all public universities and No. 88 overall.

The social mobility ranking measures the size of the student population receiving Pell Grants and how well universities performed in graduating those individuals. According to U.S. News, most students who receive Pell Grants come from households with family incomes under $50,000 annually.

“I’m thrilled for our campus community that we are recognized as a national leader and an innovator in the social mobility movement,” said UC Riverside Chancellor Kim A. Wilcox. “Also, our stature as a top 35 public university reflects the nation is catching up with what we already know — that UCR is a teaching and research force to be reckoned with.”

This marks the third consecutive year that UCR has made national headlines in the U.S. News rankings.

In 2019, UCR made the greatest overall rankings gain of any university in the country — moving up 39 positions in one year. In the 2020 rankings, U.S. News introduced the social mobility category for the first time, and UCR was rated the top university in the United States.

UCR enrolls more students who receive Pell Grants than nearly every university in the country, and more than the entire Ivy League combined.

UCR’s overall ranking places it just ahead of the University of Arizona, University of Utah, and UC Santa Cruz — all members of the Association of American Universities.

Other notable UC Riverside placements in the U.S. News 2021 rankings include No. 42 in the “Most Innovative Schools” category, No. 52 undergraduate computer science program, No. 56 in the “Best for Veterans” category, No. 79 undergraduate engineering program, and No. 97 undergraduate business program.

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New Hellman Fellows Endowment at UC Riverside

ilseu — Mon, 14 Sep 2020 17:31:24 +0000

New Hellman Fellows Endowment at UC Riverside ilseu Mon, 09/14/2020 - 10:31 More College News John Warren | UCR News September 14, 2020

UC Riverside has received $5 million for junior faculty research fellowships in three colleges as part of a larger move by the Hellman Fellows Fund to establish permanent endowments across the UC system.

Since the 1980s, the Hellman Fellows Program has supported junior faculty in the University of California system with research awards. The new endowments rolled out over the past year build on these previous gifts to provide a total of $125 million in support of the research of early-career faculty at all 10 UC campuses.

The UCR fellowships will be distributed to tenure-track, early-career faculty members in the College of Natural and Agriculture Sciences, or CNAS; the College of Humanities and Social Sciences, or CHASS, and the Bourns College of Engineering, or BCOE. With each UC campus managing its own selection process, UCR’s Office of Academic Personnel will continue to oversee applications each year. A new cohort of Hellman Fellows begins every July 1.

“The Hellman Fellows Fund endowment creates meaningful, long-term support at a time when funding for research is critical – bolstering the work of our junior faculty,” said CNAS Dean Kathryn E. Uhrich. “Supporting faculty early in their academic careers empowers them to develop imaginative, independent, and innovative research.”

The Hellman Fellows Program has long supported faculty in Arts, Humanities, Social Sciences, and STEM.

“My parents, Warren and Chris Hellman, used to say that creating the Hellman Fellows Program was one of the best things our family ever did,” said Frances Hellman, president of the Hellman Fellows Fund. “Having had the opportunity to support over 1,900 faculty over the years, I enthusiastically agree. Their discoveries, commitment to their work, and great potential continues to inspire us year after year. We are thrilled to be carrying on our father’s legacy by ensuring that the Hellman Fellows Program can exist in perpetuity throughout the University of California system.”

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Experts on heat waves

ilseu — Mon, 31 Aug 2020 22:57:50 +0000

Experts on heat waves ilseu Mon, 08/31/2020 - 15:57 More CNAS in the Media Jules Bernstein | UCR News August 31, 2020

UCR NEWS - Robert Allen, assistant professor of climatology. Allen uses climate models in his research and can talk to reporters about how such models can improve our understanding of climate change. “Several observational studies have shown the frequency of occurrence of extreme warm temperatures has increased,” he says. rjallen@ucr.edu

Cameron Barrows: Research ecologist at the UCR Center for Conservation Biology. Relationship of warmer, wetter conditions to the spread of disease-carrying mosquitos, spreading malaria, Zika, dengue, West Nile diseases, and ticks carrying Lyme disease. cbarrows@ucr.edu

Francesca Hopkins: Assistant professor of climate change and sustainability. Greenhouse gas emissions; terrestrial carbon cycle; isotope biogeochemistry. New paper out soon on how climate change and increasing heat will specifically affect the Coachella Valley. francesca.hopkins@ucr.edu

Cesunica (“Sunny”) Ivey: Assistant professor of chemical and environmental engineering. Sources of fine particulate matter, regional air quality modeling for health applications, global atmospheric modeling, environmental justice. cesunica@engr.ucr.edu

Milt McGiffen, cooperative extension vegetable crops specialist and plant physiologist. McGiffen researches sustainable agriculture and can comment on the impact of the heat waves on crops and crop production. “As I understand it, the climate change predictions are that if you are currently dry and hot, you become drier and hotter; if you are wet and cold, you become more so – so places where the climate is near the extreme may be pushed over the edge.” milt@ucr.edu

Richard Minnich, professor of earth sciences. Minnich, a fire ecologist, can explain how climate change influences wildfires. “This is the third consecutive year when the Pacific Ocean just off the west coast is unusually cold this summer, encouraging heat in the middle of the country,” he says. richard.minnich@ucr.edu

Hamidreza Nazaripouya, Assistant Professional Researcher Winston Chung Global Energy Center, Assistant Adjunct Professor, Electrical & Computer Engineering. Power Systems and smart grid, power electronics, control and optimization. hamidreza.nazaripouya@ucr.edu

Miroslav Penchev, Assistant Project Scientist at CE-CERT. He can talk about how microgrids can buffer us against blackouts. miroslav.penchev@ucr.edu

Andy Ridgwell: Professor of geology. Biochemical modeling; climate; researches climate change in the past; geological climate records; global carbon cycling; ocean nutrient cycles; evolution and extinction; climate and carbon cycle models (and modeling). andrew.ridgwell@ucr.edu

Emma Simmons, M.D., associate dean of student affairs, School of Medicine. Dr. Simmons can answer health-related questions pertinent to the heat wave and discuss simple measures people can take to mitigate the effects of the heat wave. emma.simmons@ucr.edu

Sadrul Ula, Managing Director of Winston Chung Global Energy Center, a new research center at the UC Riverside Bourns College of Engineering. He is also an Assistant Researcher at CE-CERT and part of the Southern California Research Initiative for Solar Energy (SC-RISE). Dr. Ula is working on research, development and outreach aspects of electrical energy storage, power transmission and distribution, smart grids, solar photo-voltaic (PV), solar thermal, concentrated PV (CPV) and concentrated solar (CSP), as well as wind energy. sadrul.ula@ucr.edu

Brigham C. Willis, MD, Med, Senior Associate Dean for Medical Education
Professor of Pediatrics, UC Riverside School of Medicine. He can talk about how to maintain good health in a heat wave. brighamw@medsch.ucr.edu

Nanpeng Yu, Associate Professor, Electrical and Computer Engineering. Before joining UCR, Dr. Yu was a senior power system planner and project manager at Southern California Edison from January 2011 to July 2014. He can speak about power utilities in SoCal. nanpeng.yu@ucr.edu

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UC Riverside named No. 15 public university

ilseu — Mon, 31 Aug 2020 21:24:21 +0000

UC Riverside named No. 15 public university ilseu Mon, 08/31/2020 - 14:24 More College News John Warren | UCR News August 31, 2020

In its 2020 ranking of top national universities, Washington Monthly magazine has named UC Riverside No. 27 among all institutions, and No. 15 among public universities. UCR climbed one spot among publics, from No. 16 in 2019.

“The Washington Monthly ranking is significant because it was one of the first ranking systems to reward colleges based not on their prestige or exclusivity, but rather on what they do to make our country better,” said UCR Chancellor Kim Wilcox. “I’m pleased Washington Monthly continues to acknowledge UCR's record as a national leader for student success, knowledge creation, and research excellence.”

In the subcategory of “service rank,” UCR was No. 15 among the 389 four-year universities ranked in Washington Monthly’s 2020 list. The community-service list factors military and public service and community-service projects as part of its scoring.

UCR was ranked No. 34 nationally by Washington Monthly in the social mobility subcategory. Social mobility considers the graduation rates and future earnings of low-income students. In its most recent list, U.S. News & World Report ranked UCR No. 1 in the U.S. for social mobility.

Washington Monthly’s ranking system was devised in 2005 as an answer to traditional college-ranking systems that favor factors including low acceptance rates and alumni giving.

“Washington Monthly’s annual college guide ranks individual schools based on how well they promote upward mobility, research, and civic engagement,” the magazine’s editors wrote in a preface to this year’s rankings.

In the preface, the editors alluded to pandemic economic fallout and the Black Lives Matter movement in predicting universities will hear a greater call to boost Black, Latino, and Native American students, as well as students from low-income families. The Education Trust named UCR among the best in the U.S. in terms of graduation success for Latino and Black students.

Washington Monthly’s top five for 2020 looks much like other lists, led—in order—by Stanford, Harvard, MIT, Yale, and Princeton. But 11 of the top 20 universities are state schools, including five of the UC campuses.

UCR was sandwiched in this year’s rankings by California State University, Fresno, at No. 26, and the University of Virginia, at No. 28. In 2019, UCR also placed No. 27 in the Washington Monthly rankings. In 2018, UCR was No. 28.

The full 2020 Washington Monthly rankings report is available online.

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UCR responds to broadening COVID-19 impacts

ilseu — Wed, 18 Mar 2020 01:09:30 +0000

UCR responds to broadening COVID-19 impacts ilseu Tue, 03/17/2020 - 18:09 More College News UCR News March 17, 2020

As COVID-19 coronavirus impacts broaden across the world, UC Riverside is pointing its campus community to a frequently updated website for the latest related news. The site, https://ehs.ucr.edu/coronavirus, includes updates and frequently asked questions.

UCR Coronavirus updates

On Saturday, March 14, Chancellor Kim Wilcox announced that the campus is closing, with only critical campus operations continuing. Online or at-home final exams continue the week of March 16, as Wilcox announced that spring quarter instruction will be online-only.

Campus closure announcement

Student housing and dining services remain open for students who need them, though students have the option until March 27 of cancelling spring quarter housing and board contracts. Student Health Services is available for urgent needs only. All in-person campus gatherings are suspended.

All campus updates

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California adds online triage for Coronavirus to help with test shortages

ilseu — Wed, 18 Mar 2020 00:39:38 +0000

California adds online triage for Coronavirus to help with test shortages ilseu Tue, 03/17/2020 - 17:39 More CNAS in the Media Rachel Becker | CalMatters March 16, 2020

CALMATTERS - California still does not have enough capacity to test for coronavirus, Gov. Gavin Newsom said Sunday, despite furious efforts by private, university and government laboratories to scale up to handle thousands of more patients.

“The PCR is the really easy part,” said Frances Sladek, a professor of cell biology and toxicology as well as the divisional dean of life sciences at UC Riverside. Freshmen who have never touched scientific instruments learn in a lab course how to run PCR well enough to identify species of fish from the filets at a store, Sladek said. That’s why it’s so incomprehensible to her, she said, “that there’s any problem at all with this.”

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