C.L. Max Nikias Photo by Philip Channing

Issue: Autumn 2005

What’s New - Shelf Life - People Watch

News & Notes on All Things Trojan

Introducing Provost Nikias

Engineering dean C.L. Max Nikias replaces Lloyd Armstrong, Jr. as USC’s chief academic officer.

“No single appointment is more important to the success of this university than that of the provost,” USC President Steven B. Sample stated late last spring, when announcing the selection of USC Viterbi School of Engineering dean C.L. Max Nikias for the job. Nikias took office in June. He succeeds Lloyd Armstrong, Jr., who is returning to the faculty after serving as USC’s provost for the past 12 years.

As provost and senior vice president for academic affairs, Nikias has become the second-ranking officer under the president. All university deans report to him, as do the divisions of student affairs, information services and enrollment services. In addition, he serves with the senior vice president for administration as the chief operating officer of the university.

Internationally recognized for his research on integrated media systems, digital communications and signal processing, and biomedicine, Nikias has been on the USC faculty since 1991. He has served as dean of USC’s Viterbi School of Engineering since July 2001, leading what is consistently ranked among the top 10 engineering schools in the United States.

He was also the founding director of two national research centers at USC: the National Science Foundation Engineering Research Center on Integrated Media Systems and the Department of Defense Center on Communications Signal Processing.

A native of Cyprus, Nikias was educated at the National Polytechnic of Athens. He earned his master’s and doctorate degrees at SUNY Buffalo. He is the author of more than 100 peer-reviewed journal articles, 180 refereed conference papers, three textbooks and eight patents.

The day he took office as provost, Nikias announced a new senior leadership team. To executive vice provost, he named sociology professor Barry Glassner, who had been director of the Casden Institute for the Study of the Jewish Role in American Life. To vice provost for academic affairs, he selected law professor Elizabeth Garrett, director of the USC-Caltech Center for the Study of Law and Politics. For vice provost for research advancement, Nikias named industrial and systems engineer Randolph Hall, USC Viterbi School senior associate dean for research and co-director of the USC-based think-tank that the U.S. Department of Homeland Security recently designated as its first center of excellence.

Of his goals for the university, Nikias had this to say: “USC’s rise in national reputation has been one of the fastest, if not the fastest, of any university in the nation. This is the moment in USC’s history where we have a big responsibility to ensure that the ascent continues by accelerating our trajectory.

“A university that has played a shaping role for its region is poised now to serve as a fount of energy and innovation for society as a whole. USC is on the verge of charting new avenues in all the great frontiers of human endeavor: the arts, humanities, sciences, professions and social sciences.”

The most immediate challenge facing Nikias is implementation of the university’s new strategic plan.

Approved Oct. 6 by USC’s Board of Trustees, the document – which was two years in the making – gives a blueprint to guide the university over the next decade. At its heart are three “core approaches” supporting USC’s vision for academic leadership in the future: meeting societal needs, expanding global presence and promoting learner-centered education.

The day Nikias took office, he issued a statement outlining his views on this document. “Our new strategic plan,” he wrote, “notes that leadership will come from the research university that can recognize and address society’s genuine needs, create dynamic collaborations, revolutionize curricula, stir the imaginations of students, master a cross-disciplinary approach in research and education, create partnerships that span nations and continents, and promote the search for truth and universal core values.

“Our strategic plan offers a clear vision: We will become one of the most productive, innovative and influential universities in the world; our ambition is to inspire other universities to want to learn from us and copy us, because we know we have an approach that will yield benefits to many. We will be a role model for others in our pursuit of excellence and innovation.”

Commencement 2005

Photo by Lee Salem Photography

A Giant Leap for Trojans

The words of legendary astronaut and USC alumnus Neil Armstrong MS ’70 sent more than 8,000 students out into the world at the 122nd annual commencement ceremony at Alumni Park May 13.

Trim and elegant with smooth gray hair and silver-framed glasses, Armstrong addressed his speech to the assembled dignitaries “and most importantly, members of the class of two-thousand-FIVE.” The special emphasis sparked a loud cheer, followed by laughter a minute later when he described commencement as “a joyous day for the graduating students, relieved faculty, thankful parents and amazed siblings.” To international students, who come to USC in greater numbers than to any other American college, Armstrong said, “You honor us by choosing this university.”

Armstrong, the first person to walk on the moon, avoided dwelling on his historic achievements, except to recall that when he was a student, any professor who suggested that space travel might be a subject of serious study would have been ridiculed. “You can’t imagine the change and related opportunity that will arise for you in the years ahead,” he said. That opportunity may not and should not be defined in material terms, Armstrong cautioned. “You can lose your health to illness or accident, you can lose your wealth to all manner of unpredictable sources. What are not easily stolen from you, without your cooperation, are your principles and your values,” he said. “They are your most important possessions, and if carefully selected and nurtured will well serve you and your fellow man.

“Society’s future will depend on a continuous improvement program for the human man’s character. And what that future will bring I do not know, but it will be exciting.”

Armstrong ended with a quote from Antoine de Saint Exupéry, beloved author of The Little Prince, who wrote this of the future: “Your task is not to foresee it, but to enable it.”

– Carl Marziali

Illustration by A.J. Garces

We Regret to Inform You...

With more than 70 percent of Americans now using e-mail, future generations will look back on us as bold pioneers on the frontiers of cyber-etiquette. Take, for example, the thorny question of what can and cannot be related via e-mail. Big changes are afoot, says communications scholar Jeffrey Cole, director of USC’s Center for the Digital Future. Consider the art of rejection: In the age of the telephone, people dreaded and frequently ducked delivering bad news. With the advent of e-mail, rejection goes forth serenely at the click of a mouse. It’s now commonplace to ask for a date by e-mail – obviating both the anxious dial-and-hang-up ritual and, on the receiving end, the need to fumble for excuses. So, too, in the hiring process. “You’re more likely to be told you’re not getting the job rather then being left to figure it out for yourself,” Cole told the Los Angeles Times. “We’re more likely to get that answer because it’s less painful to give.”

Science News

The new MCB building’s soaring atrium Photo by S. Peter Lopez

A Place to Count Molecules

A new science building stakes out USC’s place on the front lines of research in genomics, genetics and molecular evolution.

A computational biologist shares a cup of coffee – and key insights – with a molecular biology student in one of the glass-walled lounges lining the soaring atrium. Faculty trained in mathematics, molecular biology, genetics, computer science and medicine arrive in the ground-floor seminar room for a presentation on bioinformatics, a subject of interest to them all. Longtime collaborators who once had to travel cross-campus to meet now pause for a quick exchange in the corridors – the floors appropriately tiled in a DNA double helix theme – that link their brand new laboratories.

These are the kinds of once-imaginary scenes now taking place in the Molecular and Computational Biology building of USC’s College of Letters, Arts and Sciences. The 118,000-square-foot MCB building made its formal debut in late April and opened its doors in May. Standing next to Kaprielian Hall on the University Park campus, the four-floor, state-of-the-art interdisciplinary research and training facility houses scientists working on the front lines of genomics, genetics, bioinformatics and molecular evolution. With room for approximately 30 research groups, the building increases total USC College research space by 23 percent.

More than 200 guests attended the building’s dedication ceremony and gala dinner, hosted by USC College dean Joseph Aoun and USC President Steven B. Sample.

“Tonight’s celebration is about much more than a magnificent building. It is about the innovative research that led us to build this new facility,” Aoun told the crowd.

Many of its occupants study computational genomics – the design and development of algorithms that analyze DNA and protein sequences and the application of these algorithms to a wide variety of biological and biomedical problems. The top floor includes suites where these scientists can access powerful computing resources loaded with number-crunching software that speeds the analysis of data produced by the crew downstairs.

Other occupants specialize in functional genomics. Through experiments, they seek to elucidate how genes are regulated, the identity and nature of the proteins encoded by specific genes, the various mechanisms of DNA repair and replication, and broader questions of evolution and disease. These scientists work in suites of molecular biology “wet” labs on the first two floors of the building.

The hybrid laboratories on the third floor were designed for a new breed of biologist: people like associate professor Magnus Nordborg, who generates his own experimental data and then analyzes it using sophisticated computational techniques.

Although the molecular and computational biology programs formally merged a few years ago, until now faculty labs and offices continued to reflect a disciplinary division that scientists hoped to erase.

“Interactions between the molecular and computational biologists have steadily increased since the merger of the two programs,” says molecular biologist Steven Finkel, an assistant professor of biological sciences. “However, I expect things to explode when we’re all under the same roof.”

The cross-disciplinary kismet doesn’t end there. “This building will be a resource for the whole university and bring together researchers from the College, the USC Viterbi School of Engineering, the Keck School of Medicine, the Davis School of Gerontology and the School of Dentistry,” predicts Aoun. “This kind of interaction, which links fundamental and applied research, is expected to pay extraordinary dividends, not only in the understanding of disease but also in the design of new drugs and therapies.”

Designed by the architectural firm of Zimmer Gunsul Frasca Partnership, the MCB building is an important part of the largest building campaign in USC history. Construction of 28 new buildings – adding a total of 8.1 million square feet of usable space, almost equal to another campus – is underway.

– Eva Emerson

A small crowd of VIPs – all central to the effort to construct the new facility – gathered to help cut the ribbon draped across the front entrance. Pictured here, from left to right, are: USC College Board of Councilors chair Robert Erburu, dean Joseph Aoun, USC College councilor Jana Waring Greer, faculty biologists Michael Waterman and Myron Goodman, USC President Steven B. Sample, university trustee and USC College councilor Patrick C. Haden and faculty biologist Norman Arnheim. Photo by S. Peter Lopez

Learn More About It

Photo by Philip Channing

Waterman’s Wish

The MCB building realizes an idea long nurtured by mathematician-turned-computational biologist Michael Waterman. When he first joined the USC College of Letters, Arts and Sciences in 1982, Waterman began developing a cross-disciplinary research and education program built on genetics, math, computer science and informatics. A founding pioneer of bioinformatics and computational biology, Waterman had published in 1981 the groundbreaking Smith-Waterman algorithm, which rapidly became an essential tool for molecular biologists the world over. The program envisioned by Waterman, now a University Professor, has become one of the nation’s leaders in computational biology, a field of increasing importance in the era of genome sequencing and the attendant boom in biological data. “I’m obviously very excited about this state-of-the-art building,” says Waterman of the new MCB building. “It will give USC’s life scientists a world-class infrastructure to engage in the most forward-thinking and competitive research.”

Putting It All Together

The race is on to identify promising genes and gene scientists.

The sequencing of the human genome has long promised to usher in a new era in medicine – one where disease isn’t attacked one gene at a time but rather by viewing the human genetic blueprint as a whole. What’s still missing is the fundamental tool needed to turn the promise of genomics into actual advances in the understanding, diagnosis and treatment of common human diseases.

That’s the goal of USC scientists at the Center of Excellence in Genomic Science, one of the residents of the new Molecular and Computational Biology building.

Launched in 2003, CEGS unites leading scientists from the USC College of Letters, Arts and Sciences and the Keck School of Medicine of USC in a coordinated effort to unravel the mysteries of the human genome. Together, they are developing and testing new techniques expected to speed efforts to find disease-related genes and extract other useful information from the human genome.

In time researchers hope to shed light on cancer, cardiovascular disease, Alzheimer’s, diabetes, asthma, depression – all diseases influenced by multiple genes or by a combination of genes and the environment. These same diseases rank among the nation’s biggest killers and are major factors in the rising cost of health care.

In addition to research, CEGS runs a training program designed to attract underrepresented minority students to careers in genomics and bioinformatics. Over the past two summers, dozens of college students from around the nation have attended the center’s eight-week summer institute – an intensive introduction to genomics.

The students’ academic backgrounds have ranged from applied math and bioinformatics to molecular biology and computer science, a variety that mirrors the breadth of genomics itself.

The institute inspired Gilbert West, an African-American computer science major from Lehman College in the Bronx, to consider a career in genomics.

“I thought scientists mapped the genome from A to Z, but I learned it was more complex, following statistical rules,” says West, who will apply for graduate school at USC. “I didn’t realize how important statistics is to everything in genomics. It’s a lot more interesting than I thought.”

Funded for five years by $18.7 million in grants from the National Human Genome Research Institute, the CEGS at USC is one of only nine such centers in the nation and the only one in Southern California.

– Eva Emerson

Illustration by A.J. Garces

Reality Repeats Itself

Reality shows have been around for a really long time. Remember Alan Funt’s “Candid Camera” and Groucho Marx’s “You Bet Your Life”? But the genre truly exploded after a 2000 screenwriters’ strike turned hard times into an unexpected bonanza for networks. In June, unscripted TV crossed a threshold with the debut of Fox’s Reality Channel, serving up reality reruns 24/7, accompanied by original outtakes, past-participant interviews and commentary. NPR’s “Day to Day” asked USC communications expert Martin Kaplan to explain the appeal of watching strangers do outrageous things like undergo plastic surgery, eat bugs or propose marriage to someone they barely know. Kaplan didn’t sugarcoat it: “We love to watch people humiliate themselves and be subjected to sadistic situations,” he said.

Shelf Life

Faculty Books & Recordings

Photo by Mark Tanner

Living Healthy with Diabetes

When USC physician Anne Peters says diabetes complications are preventable, she isn’t sugarcoating anything.

Conquering Diabetes: A Cutting-Edge, Comprehensive Program for Prevention and Treatment
by Anne Peters
Hudson Street Press, $24.95

Modern medicine offers advantages never before seen – from vaccines against viruses to early detection of cancer. So how come children born after 2000 are actually expected to live shorter lives than kids who came before them?

Blame it on increasing levels of obesity and inactivity, which lead to diabetes and cardiovascular disease, says USC physician Anne Peters. Her new book, Conquering Diabetes: A Cutting-Edge, Comprehensive Program for Prevention and Treatment, urges Americans to get up and take control of their own health by deterring and managing diabetes before it becomes life-threatening.

The disease itself isn’t what kills. “Generally you die from the complications of diabetes which, I might add, are preventable. And that’s what’s so important,” Peters recently told a panel of celebrity guests with diabetes on CNN’s “Larry King Show.”

In Conquering Diabetes, Peters lays out easy-to-understand steps that readers can take to head off those complications. She even describes how to halt pre-diabetes – a condition of higher-than-normal glucose levels in the blood that precedes diabetes.

A professor of medicine at the Keck School of Medicine of USC and director of the USC Clinical Diabetes Program, Peters drew on years of working one-on-one with patients to write the book.

In some cases, she explains, diabetes can be prevented. If diagnosed early, its progress can be slowed dramatically, and it can be treated effectively so that potential complications – heart disease, stroke, blindness, amputation and kidney failure – can be reduced or even avoided altogether.

For people already diagnosed with types 1 or 2 diabetes, Peters offers a prescription for healthier living. With proper treatment most can add 10 to 17 years to their lives, says the director of the USC Westside Center for Diabetes and the Comprehensive Diabetes Center at Roybal Community Medical Center in East Los Angeles.

Throughout the book, Peters gives concrete advice to diabetes patients. She urges them to find a health-care team committed to working together to control the disease. She gives practical guidelines for keeping track of important test results – such as glucose, lipid, blood pressure and kidney function numbers. Peters also provides specific information on diet, exercise and other lifestyle factors that will improve a patient’s health. Publisher’s Weekly calls it “an excellent first-step resource for diabetics and pre-diabetics alike.”

More than 18 million Americans have diabetes – one-third of them undiagnosed. Another 45 million are at risk for developing the disease by 2050, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. More than 90 percent of diabetes patients aren’t getting the treatment they need, in part because many physicians are too busy or are not aware of recent advances and the latest medications, Peters says.

The book provides not only the latest information so that patients can become better advocates for their care, but also urges patients to keep current on diabetes developments as they happen, through books, newspapers and the Internet.

– Alicia di Rado

Photo by Mark Tanner

Inside Einstein

A Labyrinth Project interactive DVD-ROM probes the paradoxes of Einstein’s experiences in the Golden State.

Three Winters in the Sun: Einstein in California
by the Labyrinth Project
USC Annenberg Center for Communication, $34.95
isbn: 0967412765

In the panoply of celebrity faces, Albert Einstein’s is surely among the most recognizable. But ask people what they know of the physicist – beyond the pop-culture iconography of a Medusa-haired genius coasting on a bike or sticking out his tongue – and few can do more than mutter the rote-memorized “E = mc2.” (Fewer still can explain how that formula turned two centuries of Newtonian physics on its head.)

The interactive DVD-ROM Three Winters in the Sun: Einstein in California offers the curious a chance to delve deeper. Based on the three winter terms (1931 to 1933) Einstein spent as a research associate at Caltech, the disc serves up a trove of audio and visual elements exploring the scientist’s public persona and his private life.

“Three Winters creates a multi-perspective portrait,” says writer-producer Marsha Kinder, who heads the Labyrinth Project at the USC Annenberg Center for Communication and is a professor of critical studies in the USC School of Cinema-Television. “Instead of trying to present a definitive view of the man, we explore his interactions with six different communities: his own household, science, émigrés, Jews, Hollywood and the FBI” – the last of which kept a 1,400-page file on his political activities.

The disc presents rare photos, period recordings, newsreels, home movies, unpublished diaries, letters, animations, newspaper clippings, voice-overs and original video interviews with commentators, among them Einstein’s granddaughter, Evelyn.

The software’s non-linear structure invites the user to be an active partner in creating the story. “Our design was inspired by Einstein’s theory of relativity,” says Three Winters director Kristy H.A. Kang. “Just as he wove space and time into a single fabric, people interacting with this piece can fashion the database elements into a variety of interwoven narratives.”

Three Winters was conceived as a companion to the Einstein exhibition that opened at New York’s American Museum of Natural History in 2002 and arrived late last year at its only West Coast venue, the Skirball Cultural Center. Anticipating the Los Angeles opening, Skirball organizers had asked the Labyrinth team to create an interactive installation that would shed new light on the physicist.

Visiting the exhibit at Boston’s Museum of Science, Kinder and Kang saw that curators had used the famous bicycle shot as their signature image, but the background had been replaced with a cosmic motif.

“Next to this altered image – which had been shot in 1933 in Santa Barbara – was a panel entitled ‘The Path to Princeton,’” says Kinder. The exhibit treated both Caltech and Einstein’s three-year interlude in California as “merely a transitional path to his final East Coast destination. After seeing that, we knew we had our unique focus.”

Einstein made the most of his time in Southern California and the Southwest, hobnobbing with the Hollywood elite; championing the cause of Jews and Zionism; falling in love with the desert; and scanning the skies at the Mount Wilson Observatory for a reality in the heavens that had hitherto been only a theory in his head.

The disc is accompanied by a 62-page reader and interview transcripts. It is available through the USC Bookstores (www.uscbookstore.com) and Amazon.com.

– John Zollinger

Books and Music

		The Internet Playground: Children’s Access, Entertainment and Mis-education by Ellen Seiter Peter Lang Publishing, $22.95 What do children need to know about the Internet and when do they need to know it? USC media critic Ellen Seiter offers parents and educators practical advice in this volume. The Internet resembles a mall more than a library, she argues: It is an aggressive marketer to children and an educational boondoggle. She goes on to offer practical proposals for incorporating computers into teaching settings.
		The Grotesque Dancer on the 18th-Century Stage: Gennaro Magri and His World Bruce Alan Brown and Rebecca Harris-Warrick, editors University of Wisconsin Press, $35 Italian ballet was once dominated by dancers trained in ballo grotessco – a style combining French technique with vigorous athleticism. USC music historian Bruce Brown and his coauthor investigate this influential Baroque style, its relationship to pantomime, the music it employed and the movement vocabulary of the grotesque dancer, best exemplified by 18th-century virtuoso Gennaro Magri. Illustrations, musical examples and dance notations supplement the text.
		The Word Made Self: Russian Writings on Language, 1860-1930 by Thomas Seifrid Cornell University Press, $45 Russian philosophers, theologians, artists and poets of the Silver Age through the early Soviet period shared a fascination with the power of words, argues Slavic languages scholar Thomas Seifrid. Looking at the diverse works of Pavel Florenskii, Roman Jakobson, Aleksei Losev, Gustav Shpet and others, Seifrid finds a common thread: an attempt to articulate “a model of selfhood within the phenomenon of language.”

People Watch

Movers & Shakers

Illustration by Tim Bower

Painting by Neurons

USC neurobiologist Michael Quick examines chemical messengers underlying thought, movement, even furniture varnish.

From his color scheme (he favors black) to his choice of jewelry (a metal stud pierces his left eyebrow) and his means of transportation (a 24-speed bike), neurobiologist Michael Quick seems to be saying he’s no stereotypical professor.

His latest project proves that beyond a shadow of a doubt. Collaborating with Getty Research Institute conservator Arlen Heginbotham, Quick and student Vicky Millay ’05 applied biological tools to the preservation of centuries-old art and furnishings.

“Using antibodies, we set out to help Arlen identify a layer of ‘mystery material’ painted on a 17th-century cabinet from the Getty,” he says. “We detected egg albumin in the original 300-year-old piece of furniture.”

It’s not quite as weird as it sounds. Quick’s usual research in the USC College of Letters, Arts and Sciences focuses on the brain communication underlying all thought, movement and behavior. Chemical messengers, or neurotransmitters, mediate that dialogue. Low levels of the neurotransmitter serotonin, for example, have been linked to depression. Too much glutamate and you may get epilepsy.

In his attempts to understand factors that could alter neurotransmitter levels and thus influence disease, Quick was one of the first to identify and study the role of transporter proteins in the process. These transporters ferry neurotransmitter molecules inside the cell, where the molecules can be recycled or destroyed. This process can trigger a chain reaction leading to noticeable behavioral changes, Quick has shown.

His investigations have revealed myriad mechanisms for regulating the activity, number and location of transporters – a key step if scientists are ever to develop drugs that target the transporters.

In other promising work, Quick studies the basic biology of addiction, specifically the molecular events that establish and maintain nicotine addiction.

As for his foray into art restoration, that work has been progressing nicely. Quick and Millay stirred high interest presenting their results at a recent meeting of art conservators.

Millay did most of the actual lab work, her mentor emphasizes. The majority of Quick’s research is done with undergraduates –usually a dozen at a time. He works one-on-one with each, giving them bite-sized portions of a larger project to oversee.

In another departure from standard operating procedure, Quick doesn’t encourage his graduate students to labor on his research studies. He pushes them to work independently. “I really want them to learn how to be scientists,” he says, “and you can only really learn that by taking on your own project and figuring out how to make things happen.”

Did we mention he has long blond hair?

– Eva Emerson

Nex in Line

Photo by S. Peter Lopez

Fêting Mr. Fix It

If there’s a problem in Bovard, Nexahuhalcoyot Contreras usually has it resolved before you can properly say his name. Actually, few attempt to pronounce his Aztec handle; to many he is simply “Nex.” A fixture at USC for more than 33 years, Contreras began working the custodial night shift cleaning three floors in Waite Phillips Hall. He’s come a long way since then. Last spring at a ceremony in Town and Gown, the longtime USC maintenance technician was honored with the President’s Award for Staff Achievement – the highest honor a staff member can achieve. In presenting the award, President Steven B. Sample described Contreras – famous in Bovard for his casual “walk-throughs” in search of potential problems – as “a source of inspiration and encouragement to those around him.” Contreras was humbled by the recognition. “It really surprised me,” he says, adding that he’s just doing his job. That’s not how his co-workers see it. “This guy is the Rock of Gibraltar,” says Robert Cuthill, Contreras’ supervisor in Facilities Management Services. “He’s probably the most reliable, honest and caring individual who reports to me. He’s here every day at 5 a.m. His dedication is overwhelming, and his pride is through the roof.” Adds Joyce Savage, administrative coordinator in the office of the provost: “We’re not sure what his job description says because he does everything. You call, he comes.”

– Christine E. Shade

Top Prize in Enterprise

Photo by Ed Carreón

Fighting Fire with Business Flare

As a firefighter in rural Oregon during the 1980s, Irene Rhodes had been intrigued by the business possibilities of the fire-retardant she sprayed from her truck. The years passed. She married, had children, opened a successful landscaping business and finished community college. What spurred her to action were the forest fires of October 2003, which consumed 3,640 Southern California homes. “Finally I said: ‘If we’re serious, I need some book-smarts,’” she recalls. So last fall, Rhodes entered USC’s Marshall School of Business as a junior. By April, she and husband Ralph had launched Consumer Fire Products Inc., manufacturer of FOAMSAFE system. They also had snagged a $25,000 cash prize and six months of free rent for their start-up

as winners the first USC Universitywide Business Plan Competition. The competition was sponsored by the USC Marshall School’s Lloyd Greif Center for Entrepreneurial Studies and its Center for Technology Commercialization. Rhodes says her product – a patent-pending exterior fire-protection system that detects fire hazards and dispenses environmentally safe foam retardant automatically – is a realistic solution to a shortage of trained firefighters and the large increase in wildfires in recent years. “Putting out wildfires is much different than home and structure fires, but fewer than 41 percent of all firefighters are trained for wildfires,” she explains.

– Jaye Scholl

Photo by Felipe Dupouy

The Art of Social Justice

A USC law student champions civil rights through his lithography.

Artists often champion causes through their work. So do some attorneys.

In Brian Washington, a second-year law student at USC, you find both. A self-taught artist, Washington makes large-scale illustrations depicting “all the pain, sacrifice and emotion” of the civil rights era. In his distinctive style of restricted color and exaggerated light and dark tones, Washington offers stark glimpses of determined marchers, protesters filing onto buses and sharecroppers tending their 40 acres.

“The overarching theme of my work has been the struggle for equality and racial reconciliation in American society,” says the Duke University graduate. “I wanted to create a strong, powerful and uplifting portrayal of this struggle.”

In 2002, Washington’s 11-piece first-edition print series, The Continual Struggle, was acquired by the Smithsonian-affiliated National Underground Railroad Freedom Center in Cincinnati. The $100 million museum opened in 2004.

Print-making has been his ruling passion for more than 15 years, but since coming to USC Washington sees the art and the law in a new light: “They are really two different means of getting to the same end,” he says. “I want to raise awareness of certain issues and fight for what I believe is right. I want to be a voice for those who don’t – or can’t – raise theirs.”

The rigors of legal study haven’t stifled his artistic output. Washington is currently developing the second part of The Continual Struggle, which takes a symbolic look at the upward mobility of African Americans from slavery to contemporary times.

Milestones

		International banker Alexander L. Cappello ’77, president-elect of the USC Alumni Association, has been elected to USC’s Board of Trustees. Cappello, who graduated from the USC Marshall School of Business, is chairman and CEO of the Cappello Group Inc., a global boutique merchant bank specializing in direct investments of equity and convertible securities, merger and acquisition advisory services and financial restructuring services. He is on the board of the USC Marshall School’s Lloyd Greif Center for Entrepreneurial Studies.
		Todd R. Dickey JD ’93 has been elected a senior vice president of USC, responsible for providing administrative leadership for the university’s legal and regulatory-related departments. A USC law graduate, Dickey has served as vice president and secretary of the university since 2001 and as general counsel since 1999. In his new role, he will oversee the offices of compliance office, internal audit, administrative operations, contracts and grants, technology licensing, trademarks and licensing services, university real estate, and career and protective services.
		Chemical engineer Yannis C. Yortsos has been named dean of the USC Viterbi School of Engineering, replacing C.L. Max Nikias, who became USC’s provost June 1. The school’s senior associate dean for academic affairs, Yortsos is the Chester F. Dolley Professor of Petroleum Engineering and is well-known for his work on fluid flow, transport and reaction in porous media with applications to the recovery of subsurface fluids. He also has been actively involved in peer review of the Yucca Mountain Project for the disposal of high-level radioactive waste.