UCLA is a megalopolis, a city-state unto itself. Springing into the teeth of the Depression from a bean field on the edge of Los Angeles, today’s campus has evolved into a vast enterprise whose mission of teaching, research and public service makes a difference in people’s lives, not only in Westwood and Southern California, but around the globe. UCLA is the country’s most sought-after university, and its impact on improving humankind has resonated, and will continue to resonate, on myriad levels.
As one of the nation’s premier universities, UCLA has ascended to the top tier of higher education institutions in a very short period of time. Harvard is 364 years old. Yale is 299. Berkeley, the first of the University of California campuses, is 132; Stanford is 109. At 81, UCLA is a relative youngster. How did we come so far so fast? With the exuberance and unbounded enthusiasm of a strapping lad out to make his way in the world, UCLA combines outstanding intellectual achievement with a uniquely entrepreneurial style that has led to truly momentous outcomes that have positively affected our quality of life. In no particular order — and with a nod to the fact that no such list can be in any way comprehensive — here are 25 Bruin marks of distinction that have helped to change the world.
UCLA.edu: The triple W is so ubiquitous today that it’s hard to imagine life before the ’Net. But it was only a little more than 30 years ago when pioneering work in data networking, led by Professor Leonard Kleinrock, was conducted at UCLA, laying the groundwork for the Internet. Today, the child of that effort “is going to change the world on par with the printing press and the Industrial Revolution,” says Jeff Cole ’75, M.A. ’75, Ph.D. ’85, director of UCLA’s Center for Communication Policy, which has launched a landmark global study of the Internet’s impact on society.
A second chance for life: UCLA’s organ-transplant program — heart, lung, liver and kidney — has among the highest success rates in the country. UCLA has the largest liver-transplant program in the world, performing 250 a year, and its heart-transplant program is America’s largest, recently completing its 1,000th transplant since 1984. The first open-heart surgery in the western U.S. was performed here in 1956. The UCLA Alternative Heart Transplant Program, founded in 1994 by Dr. Hillel Laks, offers transplantation to individuals over age 70 with end-stage heart disease.
Eco champions: Showcasing UCLA’s commitment to addressing real-world issues is the Institute of the Environment. The institute engages in multidisciplinary research projects focused on solving complex environmental problems in the region. The Southern California Environmental Report Card and an undergraduate course on the global environment exemplify the institute’s collaborative approach to teaching and research. Institute faculty are drawn from the sciences, public policy, business, architecture, engineering, law and public health.
Bad air: UCLA engineers were among the first to identify smog particles in the air and to theorize about the role they play in the photochemical processes that create smog in Los Angeles; they were the first to compile data on how ozone is formed from the constituents of car exhaust. In 1966, they began building a database on worldwide smog, collecting air samples from 25 cities in Europe, Africa, Asia, Australia, New Zealand and Tahiti. One researcher designed a fuel-atomizing carburetor that led to production of fuel injection for cleaner-running automobiles and demonstrated recycling of exhaust gases through the engine.
Feed the world: Plant genomics pioneer Robert B. Goldberg, professor of molecular, cell and developmental biology, made discoveries that led to the development of a method to genetically engineer plants, increasing crop yields, with major implications to the world’s food supply.
New limbs, new hope: After World War II, UCLA engineers directed a program revolutionizing artificial-limb technology. Research at UCLA’s Biotechnology Laboratory pioneered the use of strong plastics, mechanical sockets and artificial-hand mechanisms, enabling the highest quality of functional gain for wounded veterans. Today, prosthodontists at the School of Dentistry’s Maxillofacial Prosthetics Clinic sculpt lifelike eyes, ears, noses, lips and jaws that snap or hook onto titanium screws implanted in the facial bones of cancer patients or accident victims. Clinicians from all over the world come to study at UCLA, the only such site in the western U.S.
War on breast cancer: Dr. Dennis Slamon, a research physician at the Jonsson Comprehensive Cancer Center, discovered the relationship between the HER-2/neu gene and a particularly aggressive form of breast cancer. Subsequent research at UCLA led to an antibody that makes it possible to control metastatic breast cancer in some women. The antibody, commercially sold as Herceptin, was approved in September 1998 by the FDA.
Eyes on the prize: Five UCLA professors have been awarded the Nobel Prize. Most recently, pharmacologist Louis J. Ignarro won the 1998 Nobel Prize in Medicine and Physiology for his work in showing that nitric oxide is an important signaling compound that helps the body regulate key functions such as blood pressure and preventing blood clots that can cause strokes. Other recipients include Paul Boyer and Donald J. Cram (1997 and 1987, chemistry). Nobelists Julian S. Schwinger (1965, physics) and Willard F. Libby (1960, chemistry) both became UCLA faculty after doing the research that led to their winning the prize. Alumni awardees include Ralph Bunche ’27, LL.B. ’50 (1950, peace), Glenn Seaborg ’34 (1951, chemistry), William Sharpe ’55, M.A. ’56, Ph.D. ’61 (1990, economics) and R. Bruce Merrifield ’43, Ph.D. ’49 (1984, chemistry).
Lifestyle awareness: We take it as a given now, but School of Public Health Dean Emeritus Lester Breslow, along with the supporting research of a UCLA faculty member, was among the first to show that simple health practices, such as eating breakfast, exercising moderately, getting enough sleep and not smoking, are linked to living a longer, healthier life.
Kicking the habit: With more than 400,000 people a year dying from lung disease, a UCLA professor emeritus of psychiatry and biobehavioral sciences at the School of Medicine may be indirectly responsible for keeping that number below what it might otherwise be. Dr. Murray E. Jarvik M.A. ’45 and his brothers, Jed and Kace Rose, invented the first nicotine patch. The product, marketed as Habitrol, delivers nicotine in regular and controlled doses to people trying to quit smoking.
Forecasting futurist: If you believe that weather forecasts are not all that accurate today, think about what it was like before landmark research by UCLA atmospheric scientist Jacob Bjerknes, beginning in the 1940s, that transformed the field of weather forecasting from unreliable guessing into a modern-day science. The results of his work can be seen today in every weather map and forecast. He was awarded the National Medal of Science for his research.
It’s a small world after all: Faculty in the School of Engineering and Applied Science are accomplishing some of the most advanced research in the world in the new field of micromachines, miniature sensors, actuators and gears. UCLA researchers are creating sensors that will monitor the performance and status of factory machinery and all the components of our cars; biomedical sensors will monitor heartbeats and the need for medication; and sensors specializing in transportation, pollution and battlefield awareness. Some of these sensors will be wired, some wireless; some smart with built-in processors, some simply reporting back to computers; some will be stationary and some will move like tiny robots. Says William Kaiser, chair of the Department of Electrical Engineering, “From the battlefield to the film studio, the home to the global environment, they [sensors] will be ubiquitous.”
Athletic pioneers: UCLA is the alma mater of Jackie Robinson, the first African American to play major league baseball; Kenny Washington ’41, the first African American to play in the National Football League; Don Barksdale ’47, the first African American to win a gold medal in Olympic basketball; and Arthur Ashe ’66, the first African American to win the Wimbledon tennis singles championship. Ann Meyers ’79 was the first woman to sign a free agent contract with an NBA team.
Avant-garde artists: UCLA in 1962 established the nation’s first university dance department and, in the 1980s, the first Department of World Arts and Cultures. UCLA is the leading arts and cultural center of the West and more than 500,000 people annually attend visual and performing-arts programs here. UCLA Performing Arts is one of the nation’s leading presenting organizations, with more than 200 sponsored events each year. The Department of Art is one of the finest in the nation, influencing the next generation of artists. Alumni have won Grammy, Tony, Emmy and Academy Awards, among numerous other distinctions.
Stargazer: The question of what lies at the center of our galaxy, 24,000 light years away, had been the subject of a raging debate among astronomers for more than a quarter-century. UCLA astronomer Andrea Ghez found that a monstrous black hole resides at the center of our Milky Way galaxy, with a mass more than 2 million times that of our sun. The center of the Milky Way was identified in 1968 by UCLA Professor of Physics and Astronomy Eric Becklin.
Salt-free: In 1959, UCLA professors were the first to demonstrate a practical process of reverse osmosis. They produced a synthetic membrane capable of rejecting salt and passing freshwater at reasonable flow rates. The impact of this discovery has been felt worldwide, ranging from home water filters to the creation of rivers of freshwater in the Middle East and North Africa, where desalination facilities produce trillions of gallons of pure water every day.
Undergrad research: If one accepts the adage “Give a man a fish, he eats for a day; teach a man to fish, he eats for life,” then one of the greatest accomplishments a university can claim is that it empowers people to do great things. UCLA is one of just 10 universities to receive the National Science Foundation’s Recognition Award for the Integration of Research and Education. The award recognizes UCLA’s systemic approach to combining research with undergraduate curricula. UCLA’s Student Research Program, one of the largest of its kind in American higher education, allows undergraduates to work face-to-face with world-renowned UCLA scholars on cutting-edge research, ranging from U.S. foreign policy to neural function in animal communication to HIV infection in children.
Interior lives: Michael Phelps, chair of the Department of Molecular and Medical Pharmacology and chief of nuclear medicine, invented the positron emission tomography (PET) scanner, an imaging system that provides the means to watch and measure biochemical processes of the human body. The first rectilinear scintillation scanner— an imaging device to pinpoint the location of radioisotopes in the body, find tumors and enable the study of kidney, liver and lung function — was developed at UCLA in 1950. The scanner ushered in the age of nuclear medicine and led to the development of other imaging devices by UCLA faculty: an early version of the CAT scanner and the PET scanner.
Origins of life: UCLA paleobiologist J. William Schopf’s research has revealed that primitive life existed on Earth 3.46 billion years ago, much earlier than previously suspected. Much of his research has focused on the first 85 percent of Earth’s history, when developments included the first living organisms, the modern food chain, photosynthesis, the ability to breathe oxygen, the development of the atmosphere and oceans, various types of cell division and sexual reproduction.
Coming to grips with AIDS: The nation’s first case of AIDS was identified at UCLA Medical Center in 1981. UCLA researchers in 1995 documented the first known case of an HIV-infected infant who eliminated the virus from his body. The UCLA AIDS Institute ranks fourth in the United States in total federal grant support. The AIDS clinical trials research program has a national reputation for the evaluation of new, immune-based therapies. More than 90 UCLA medical and dental scientists are currently studying AIDS.
UCLA International: Located in one of the most ethnically diverse cities in the world, UCLA offers the richest array of programs in all of higher education for international, cultural and ethnic studies and research, attracting approximately 2,000 international students from more than 125 countries each year. More than 500 UCLA faculty teach in excess of 1,600 courses with international themes, and enrollment in these courses exceeds 50,000 per year. UCLA faculty teach nearly 100 different languages, from Arabic to Zulu.
Research focus: UCLA’s Brain Research Institute, the oldest in the United States, has been a leader in its field since it was founded in 1959. It has more than 200 scientist members from departments throughout the university and from other institutions. The School of Dentistry was one of the first in the nation to create a Dental Research Institute, which houses faculty members dedicated to research in areas related to oral medicine, including AIDS, substance abuse, wound healing, oral cancer, periodontal disease, neurobiology and immunology.
Stroke treatment: The UCLA Stroke Center and Brain Attack Team are at the forefront in research and treatment for stroke, the third-leading cause of death in the United States. It is the only stroke center in the country with an emergency neurology program.
Nurse practitioners: With the largest acute/critical-care nurse-practitioner program in the western U.S. and the first established on the West Coast, UCLA is a leader in preparing students for the expanding role that advanced-practice nurses will assume in 21st-century health-care systems.
Teaching the teachers: The Graduate School of Education & Information Studies is home to the Corinne A. Seeds University Elementary School, California’s only university-based laboratory elementary school for pre-K–6. UES is a leader in educational innovation and is an integral part of UCLA’s Urban Education Studies Center, which examines issues relevant to the education of children in multicultural urban communities. GSE&IS also houses the National Center for Research on Evaluation, Standards and Student Testing (CRESST), a partnership of seven research centers around the country supported by a multimillion-dollar federal grant. CRESST focuses on the assessment of educational quality, with special emphasis given to the role technology plays in testing evaluation. CRESST is working with school districts and other organizations around the country and the world on problems associated with the design and use of assessment systems.
Lifetime learning: Whether it’s a career-changing certificate program or an interest in a new field of study, UCLA Extension has helped change the lives of millions of people over the years. Established in 1917, Extension enrolls more than 100,000 students annually and is the oldest and longest-serving division of UCLA in Southern California. Its first courses were language classes for nurses headed to the front lines during World War I.
