News Briefs

14 February 2002 |

New brown-bag series features campus research
Vice Chancellor for Research Beth Burnside has announced a new brownbag lunchtime seminar series to highlight the campus’s “extraordinary cauldron of research creativity.”

In the kickoff presentation, astronomy professor Geoff Marcy speaks on “Planets and the Prospect for Life in the Universe.” The seminar will be held at noon, Tuesday, Feb. 19, in the chancellor’s conference room, California Hall.

Marcy has been featured on several television shows and speaks widely about his pioneering research on planets and solar systems outside of the Milky Way galaxy.

The talk is geared to a general audience and is open to all staff and faculty.

Symposium looks at American freedoms post-Sept. 11
Have Americans’ civil liberties been compromised by the events of Sept. 11?

Activists and scholars will address foreign and domestic policy issues pertaining to Sept. 11 in a free symposium, “21st Century McCarthyism and the Rise of the Global Police State,” from 6 to 8 p.m., Tuesday, Feb. 19, in Wheeler Auditorium.

The presentation is co-sponsored by a number of campus departments and student organizations. For information, call 642-2264.

UC-wide ‘queer’ conference meets on campus Feb. 22-24
Hundreds of staff, faculty and students from throughout the UC system will converge on the Berkeley campus the weekend of Feb. 22 to 24 for “Queer All Directions,” the 13th annual conference of the UC Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, Intersex Association.

The conference includes workshops on developing inclusive curricula, bisexuality, queer graduate groups, living with HIV and the “hidden history” of LGBT life at Cal, among others.

Registration is currently $50 for staff and faculty, $55 for the public. The registration covers lunch and conference events. To register online, see http://queer.berkeley.edu/conference or visit the Gender and Equity Resource Center between 10 a.m. and 4:30 p.m.

For information on workshops and other conference events, see the web site, e-mail conference@queer.berkeley.edu, or call 643- 5728.

EH&S issues reminder on fire prevention
In the wake of a Jan. 11 fire at UC Santa Cruz that gutted two large research labs, the Office of Environment, Health and Safety is reminding campus offices of measures to reduce the risk of fire. They include the following:

Make sure your Building Emergency Plan (BEP) is current and that all employees in your department have received the appropriate training. Contact EH&S at 642-3073 or ehs@uclink.berkeley.edu for fire safety or fire extinguisher training.

Publications on fire prevention are available at www.ehs.berkeley.edu/whatwedo/fireprev/docs.html.

Panel to discuss Indian-Pakistani tensions over Kashmir
Kashmir is a disputed territory at the heart of tensions between India and Pakistan. The present tensions between the two countries over the territory has led to a situation described recently by U.S. officials as the closest the two countries have been to war since their 1971 conflict.

Experts on Afghanistan and Kashmir will discuss “Religion, Ethnicity and the Strategic Balance in South Asia,” from 6 to 8 p.m., Friday, Feb. 15, in the International House Auditorium.

The discussion — free and open to the public — is part of the 17th Annual South Asia Conference, hosted by Berkeley's Center for South Asia Studies.

For information on the panelists, see http://ias.berkeley.edu/southasia/kashmir.html or call 642-3608.