USC Research Houses Shipped to Catalina
Photo/Philip Channing
The houses will be ferried across the San Pedro Channel, unloaded on the Catalina waterfront, hauled up a steep roadway by a semi-tractor and welded to steel-and-cement foundations at a site overlooking Big Fisherman's Cove.
The USC Wrigley Institute for Environmental Studies manages the Wrigley Marine Science Center on Catalina Island, and it will manage the new Boone Center as well. Anthony Michaels is the institute director.
“The USC Wrigley Institute is a world-renowned center for research, education and for the development of solutions to environmental problems,” Michaels said. “The Boone Center on our island campus will be the centerpiece of our effort to build consensus, mediate disputes and create leadership on ocean and environmental solutions.”
George N. Boone is a USC Life Trustee and member of the College Board of Councilors, and he and his wife, MaryLou, have provided inspiration and dedicated support to the Wrigley Institute and its mission. In 2004, the couple made a lead gift to establish the Boone Center, a gift that was complemented by other USC benefactors.
The new accommodations will provide an upscale setting to host leadership and planning retreats, training programs, high-profile conferences and environmental conflict resolution negotiations at the island campus, officially called the Philip K. Wrigley Marine Science Center.
The idea behind the center is to give scholars and environmental decision-makers a place that encourages creativity and camaraderie.
“We hope visitors to the Boone Center will find an 'island effect' that helps them work together,” Michaels said. “We know from experience that when scientists come together at marine labs, they find ways to work together that are often more creative and productive than they would be in any other setting. We want to create that same sort of environment for scholars from all kinds of disciplines to work together and for those scholars to work with other members of society on the really tough problems that we must collectively solve.”
The Boone Center is comprised of six houses with a total of 11 bedrooms. Each has a small food preparation area, and visitors will have access to a wide range of meals and other services from the existing island facilities. The Boone Center will offer the conveniences of a university campus - including ready access to the Internet and other telecommunications - in an island environment.
The construction of the Boone Center was a logistical challenge since the foundations were built on the island and the houses were built on the mainland. However, conducting the entire project on the island would have been even more complicated, time-consuming and expensive.
For an enlargement of the landscape plan, visit http://biology.usc.edu/BooneCenter
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USC in the News
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The Chronicle of Higher Education mentioned USC’s $6 billion fundraising campaign. The story noted that USC had already raised $1 billion in a “quiet phase,” including the $200 million naming gift from USC Trustee and alumnus David Dornsife and wife Dana Dornsife to the USC Dornsife College.
The Guardian (U.K.) highlighted two major gifts to USC in a list of the 10 biggest philanthropic benefactors in America. The list included the $200 million naming gift from USC Trustee and alumnus David Dornsife and wife Dana Dornsife to the USC Dornsife College, and the $110 million gift from USC Trustee and USC Viterbi School alumnus John Mork and wife Julie to create the USC Mork Family Scholars Program.
The New York Times featured the USC U.S.-China Institute documentary “Assignment: China — The Week that Changed the World.” The documentary, part of a series, examines media coverage of the 1972 Nixon trip that reshaped U.S.-China relations after a quarter century of isolation and hostility. “People look back now and take it for granted that the outcome was preordained,” said the institute’s Mike Chinoy, who produced the documentary. Voice of America also featured the story.
Los Angeles Times featured the Oscar Senti-meter, a tool developed by the USC Annenberg School, Los Angeles Times and IBM that analyzes thousands of tweets about the Academy Awards nominees. The story noted that Mexican actor Demian Bechir received an enormous boost on Twitter the day of the nominations, with a total of 6,893 tweets mentioning him, a 47-fold increase from the day before. The story noted the tool uses language-recognition technology developed in collaboration with USC Viterbi School’s Signal Analysis and Interpretation Lab.
The Times of India (India) featured a three-day medical emergency training workshop organized in association with USC. At the workshop, held at GCS Medical College in India, 50 doctors and more than 100 paramedics learned how to improve emergency support systems. William Mallon of the Keck School of USC said that discussion topics included the use of portable ultrasonic devices to scan patients. “The ultrasound applications help physicians make accurate and timely decisions,” he noted. Daily News & Analysis (India) also featured the workshop.
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