Two professors, Evelyn Hu and William Murdoch, have been elected to the National Academy of Sciences, as has leading stem cell researcher James Thomson, who is an adjunct professor at UC Santa Barbara.

The election of Hu, a professor of electrical and computer engineering and of materials, and Murdoch, a professor of biology, ecology, evolution, and marine biology, brings the number of active UCSB faculty members in the academy to 29.

In addition, Thomson, a University of Wisconsin stem cell researcher who serves as a UC Santa Barbara adjunct professor of molecular, cellular, and developmental biology, was elected to the National Academy of Sciences.

UC Santa Barbara will receive $3.2 million from the California Institute for Regenerative Medicine (CIRM) to develop a state-of-the-art facility in the Center for Stem Cell Biology and Engineering. The long-term goal of the center is the development of stem cell-based therapeutics for a range of human diseases. The project will encompass renovation of 10,337 square feet in the seven-story Biological Sciences 2. The renovation project has a $6.3 million budget.

UC Santa Barbara has received a $600,000 gift from UCSB alumnus Anton Vonk and his wife, Diane Boss, to establish an endowed chair in political science. The Vonk professorship will support the teaching and research of international security studies related to energy and the environment and will be affiliated with the Donald Bren School of Environmental Science and Management.

Jack Johnson to Play at Harder Stadium

Champion surfer, UCSB alumnus and Billboard chart- topper Jack Johnson revisits his roots with a concert at 7 p.m. Aug. 27 at Harder Stadium. General admission tickets are $39.50. To purchase, contact Ticketmaster outlets including the Arlington Theatre Box Office, (805) 963-4408 or charge by phone (805) 583-8700 or online at www.ticketmaster.com

Julie Carlson, professor of English, explores an influential clan of writers in “England’s First Family of Writers: Mary Wollstonecraft, William Godwin, Mary Shelley” (Johns Hopkins University Press, 2007).

William Davies King, professor of theater, takes a hard look at his habitual hoarding in “Collections of Nothing” (University of Chicago Press, 2008).

Kip Fulbeck, professor of art, combines photographic tattoo portraits with stories about these images in “Permanence: Tattoo Portraits” (Chronicle Books, 2008).

Paul L. Portuges, lecturer in film and media studies, has published a screenplay, “The Silent Spring of Rachel Carson” (Plain View Press, 2008), that dramatizes the environmentalist’s battles against government corruption and corporate greed.

Cedric Robinson, professor of black studies and political science, analyzes theater and film depictions of racial behavior in the early 20th century in “Forgeries of Memory and Meaning: Blacks and the Regimes of Race in American Theater and Film Before World War II” (University of North Carolina Press, 2007).

Alice Alldredge, professor of ecology, evolution, and marine biology, has received the American Society of Limnology and Oceanography’s annual Evelyn Hutchinson Award for her “broad, significant, and ongoing impact on oceanography.”

Wallace Chafe, an emeritus professor of linguistics at UCSB, has received the Constantine Panunzio Distinguished Emeriti Award, which honors retired UC faculty.

Nancy Collins, professor of psychology, has received the Theoretical Innovation Prize from the Society for Personality and Social Psychology for stimulating “new ways of thinking” with her co-authored paper on risk regulation in relationships.

Michael Gazzaniga, professor of psychology and director of the Sage Center for the Study of the Mind, has received a 2008 Distinguished Scientific Contribution Award from the American Psychological Association.

Hugo A. Loaiciga, professor of geography, will receive the Environmental and Water Resources Institute’s 2008 Julian Hinds Award for his “professional service and distinguished research.” It comes with a $3,000 cash prize.

Sara Poot-Herrera, professor of Spanish and Portuguese, recently received a medal from the ruling body of Mexico’s Yucatán province.

Denise Segura, professor of sociology, has been honored by the American Sociological Association’s Latina/o Sociology Division with a Lifetime Distinguished Contributions to Research, Teaching, and Service Award.

Verta Taylor, professor and chair of sociology, has received a John D. McCarthy Lifetime Achievement Award in the Scholarship of Social Movements and Social Change from Notre Dame University.

Robert O. Collins, professor emeritus of history, died on April 11, 2008, of cancer. The Illinois native was 75. A former dean of graduate students and director of the UC/DC Program, he was a renowned Africa scholar and author of some 40 books, many written after he retired in 1994 with 29 years of service. He is survived by a daughter, two sons, a stepson, and two brothers.

Richard Helgerson, professor of English, died on April 26, 2008, after fighting pancreatic cancer for nearly three years. The Pasadena native and leading scholar of Renaissance literature was 67. He joined UCSB in 1970. He is survived by his wife of more than 40 years, Marie-Christine; a daughter; two grandchildren; and a sister.

Joseph Lodge, a Santa Barbara County Superior Court judge and lecturer in political science, died after a 10-year battle with lymphoma on May 5, 2008, at his Santa Barbara home. The St. Paul, Minn., native was 76. The judge was first elected in 1958, and was one of California’s longest-serving jurists. He began an almost equally lengthy part-time association with UCSB in 1959 when economics hired him; in 1963 he began teaching criminal justice for political science. He is survived by his wife of 47 years, Sheila, a son, three daughters, and a stepdaughter.

Mary Low Cheadle, wife of UCSB’s second chancellor, the late Vernon I. Cheadle, died June 30, 2008, in Louisville, Ky., due to long-term illness. Mary Cheadle was born in Westerly, R.I., in 1915, and later met and was married to Vernon Cheadle in 1939 until his death 55 years later in 1995. Cheadle donated her time and resources to UCSB for nearly 40 years, and had been a vital contributor to many of the programs on campus including the establishment of the UC Santa Barbara Foundation and the Chancellor’s Council to promote philanthropic contributions for high academic learning.

4,725 students  who plan to enroll as freshmen for fall 2008, the largest in UC Santa Barbara history

49 percent of them are members of a minority group

3.84 the average high school Grade Point Average of the applicants planning to attend UCSB

4,800 approximate number of graduating students in commencement ceremonies

8 number of commencement ceremonies held in June at UCSB

35,000 estimated number of attendees to commencement exercises