2023-24 Dates & Faculty Lecture Series

October 17, 2023

AMERICAN LIFE: HOLLYWOOD FILMS AND SOCIAL IDEAS

Allan Havis, MFA, Professor, Department of Theatre & Dance at UC San Diego

Mr. Havis will discuss the fascinating correlation in American life between Hollywood films and social ideas, highlighting six major movies over the last fifty years which captured an inflection point in our politics:  DR. STRANGELOVE, GUESS WHO’S COMING TO DINNER, SILKWOOD, COMING HOME, DO THE RIGHT THING, and ZERO DARK THIRTY.

November 14, 2023

I NEED A GOOD NIGHT’S SLEEP – HELP!

Sonia Ancoli-Israel, PhD, Professor Emeritus of Psychiatry and Professor of Research, Department of Psychiatry at UC San Diego School of Medicine

Many believe that older adults sleep less than younger adults, yet most surveys have shown that older adults report sleeping about seven hours a night.  Nevertheless, sleep disturbances are very common in the older adult.  The sleep disturbances, however, are not a result of aging per se, but rather are almost always related to medical/psychiatric problems, medications, or primary sleep disorders, including insomnia, circadian rhythm disturbances, sleep disordered breathing, REM behavior sleep disorder, restless legs syndrome, and periodic limb movements in sleep.  The good news is that there are effective treatments available for these sleep problems.

December 12, 2023

MANDEVILLE ART GALLERY: THE INSTITUTE FOR TRANSFORMATIVE CONTEMPORARY ART

Ceci Moss, PhD, Director and Chief Curator of the Mandeville Art Gallery; Professor of Practice, Department of Visual Arts at UC San Diego

This talk will provide an overview of the newly revitalized Mandeville Art Gallery, a non-collecting institute for transformative contemporary art located on the UC San Diego campus that recently re-opened in March 2023 following a massive renovation led by the San Diego-based studio Studio-E Architects.

The presentation will begin with the impressive history of this highly experimental gallery, spanning from one of the first exhibitions devoted to Fluxus in California in 1969 with “Alison Knowles’ Fluxus: the Big Book” to commissioned projects by numerous celebrated artists such as Mike Kelley, Barbara T. Smith, Betye Saar, Richard Serra, Nancy Spero, and Bruce and Norman Yonemoto – to name but a few of the hundreds of exhibitions hosted at the gallery.  The lecture will then turn to the gallery’s focus as a “teaching gallery” for the 21^st Century promoting technologically innovative, democratic, accessible, equitable and socially engaged means of artistic production and presentation.  Attendees will learn more about the gallery’s current exhibition and educational programs.

January 9, 2024

STRATEGIC DEVELOPMENTS IN THE INDO-PACIFIC: A TOUR OF THE REGION

Stephan Haggard, PhD, Krause Distinguished Professor of Korea-Pacific Studies; Director, Korea-Pacific Program, School of Global Policy and Strategy at UC San Diego

What are the risks of military conflict in the Asia-Pacific?  What are the forces – political, military, economic – that might hold such conflict in check?  Prof. Haggard provides a strategic tour of the region, from the Korean peninsula and Japan, to Taiwan and the South China Sea, and the important role played by Southeast Asia in the emerging “Indo-Pacific” concept.

February 13, 2024

STEM CELL, AGING, CANCER & LEO

Catriona Jamieson, MD, PhD, Director, Sanford Stem Cell Institute; Director, UC San Diego Health CIRM Alpha Stem Cell Clinic; Professor of Medicine and Chief, Division of Regenerative Medicine; Koman Family Presidential Endowed Chair in Cancer Research at UC San Diego Health

In the last five years, UC San Diego has become a pioneer in performing stem cell research in space, aka low Earth orbit (LEO). One major research focus, led by Dr. Jamieson, uses blood stem cells to study the molecular mechanisms of cancer.  Increasing evidence shows that the lack of gravity and exposure to the sun’s radiation in space can accelerate aging in human stem cells and promote their transformation into cancer cells. Given the compressed time frame, Dr. Jamieson and her colleagues are able to look for early predictors of cancer progression, which in turn can lead to novel drugs and stem cell therapies, thus accelerating bench-to-bedside research on Earth.

March 12, 2024

REDEFINING AND REINVENTING ANTIBIOTICS TO CONFRONT THE GLOBAL SUPERBUG CRISIS

Victor Nizet, MD, Distinguished Professor and Vice Chair for Basic Research and Chief of the Division of Host-Microbe Systems & Therapeutics at the UC San Diego School of Medicine; Distinguished Professor at UCSD Skaggs School of Pharmacy & Pharmaceutical Sciences

Antibiotic resistance presents an ever increasing challenge to the public health, with a dearth of new drugs in the development pipeline.  A single-minded focus on direct antimicrobial activities overlooks the fact that significant infections are really a disease of the interaction between that pathogen and the patient’s immune system.  Indeed, before the patient has even seen a doctor, their infection is already being treated by multiple antimicrobials – namely the cellular and molecular components of the innate immune system.  Dr. Nizet and his team see value in exploring potential novel therapeutic approaches for drug-resistant bacteria that aim to tip the host-pathogen interaction back in favor of the host.

This talk will illustrate novel therapeutics that mitigate bacterial virulence, re-sensitize the pathogen to innate immune killing, or directly boost the antibacterial killing capacity of host cells.  Current laboratory testing can be misleading, and can overlook potent antibiotic activities that are recognized only in the context of the normal immune system.  In this new discovery and treatment framework, drugs used in medicine for other indications, antibiotics otherwise deemed ineffective, or natural host cell membranes, can be “rediscovered” or “repurposed" for treatment of multi-drug resistant pathogens.

April 9, 2024

BRAIN DRAIN OR BRAIN GAIN? MIGRATION FROM INDIA TO THE U.S.

Gaurav Khanna, PhD, Assistant Professor of Economics, School of Global Policy and Strategy at UC San Diego

Migration from India to the U.S. links the two economies in various ways.  Most high-skilled immigrants to the U.S. are from India, and this has had an impact not just on the U.S. but also on the Indian economy.  In this talk, we will explore how high-skill migration affects the economies, technology sectors, and higher education sectors in both countries. We will begin with the 1990s, trace the trends to recent years, and discuss lessons for the future.

May 14, 2024

ADVENTURES IN OUR MICROBIAL WORLD

Jack A. Gilbert, PhD, Professor, Department of Pediatrics and Scripps Institution of Oceanography; Associate Vice Chancellor for Marine Science; Deputy Director for Research; Director of the Microbiome and Metagenomics Center; Director of the Microbiome Core at UC San Diego School of Medicine

The human microbiome is a dynamic part of our physiology that plays a key role in managing health and individual responses to diet and medicine.  Explore why changes in the human microbiome substantially influence neurological disorders, metabolic disorders, and a range of complex conditions and diseases.  Learn how innovations in precision medicine for facilitating patient care is becoming a reality.