USC Media and Public Relations

Featured Stories

The Huffington Post ran an Q&A by USC Dean of Religious Life Varun Soni with Rev. Cecil "Chip" Murray of the USC Dornsife College, on the 20th anniversary of the Los Angeles riots. "In the aftermath of the civil unrest, Rev. Murray inspired and mobilized politicians, religious leaders, entrepreneurs and policy experts to work together in order to redevelop and reinvigorate South Los Angeles," Soni wrote. Murray remembered: "We called the neighborhood fire department to help. The said they would come but they would need protection because people on the street were throwing rocks at them. We told them that we would protect them." Murray is the author of a new autobiography, "Twice Tested by Fire: A Memoir of Faith and Service."

Los Angeles Times covered the Los Angeles Times Book Prizes, which will be presented at a ceremony as part of the Los Angeles Times Festival of Books at USC. This is USC's second year hosting the festival, which will draw 500 authors and celebrities to campus and will feature 100 panels, eight stages and nearly 300 exhibitors.

PBS News' "NewsHour" featured DETERlab, a computer testbed partially housed at the USC Viterbi School's Information Sciences Institute. The lab is used to test and verify computer science principles and gain understanding on how to defend systems from computer attack. "I have to say it's very sad that despite millions and millions of dollars of government investment in cyber security, and industry investment in cyber security, we are still as a nation wholly vulnerable," said Terry Benzel of the Viterbi School.

Wired featured Leslie Saxon of the Keck School of USC and her project Everyheartbeat.org, a sort of "Facebook for medicine" that encourages patients to record and upload health data using smart phone accessories. The goal is to create an online health data network that allows doctors to study patterns, identify disease and solve endemic health problems. Saxon, who announced the system at TEDMED 2012, is part of an ongoing study that collects heart rate data from 200,000 cardiac patients with implanted medical devices.

NBC News Los Angeles affiliate KNBC-TV ran an op-ed by Sherry Bebitch Jeffe of the USC Price School about California's state and community colleges. "Today, higher education is fighting for state budget scraps. The anti-tax movement's hammerlock on the revenue side has squeezed higher ed resources to the breaking point," Jeffe wrote. "Tuition and fees at the University of California and State Universities have skyrocketed and some elite schools at UC's major research campuses are openly mulling going private."

The Huffington Post featured research by Joseph Miller of the Keck School of USC and colleagues, asserting that the Viking Lander discovered life on Mars in 1976. Miller and his colleagues ran a mathematical analysis of the original findings. Data from the NASA probe scheduled to land on Mars this August could change how we see the universe, Miller told NBC News Los Angeles affiliate KNBC-TV. Popular Science also featured the research.

The Huffington Post ran a column by Kathleen Reardon of the USC Marshall School about stay-at-home mothers in politics. "With regard to Ann Romney, I can't imagine that the wife of a former governor isn't considered someone who worked. As the wife of a candidate for governor and twice for president, she has traveled extensively and worked," Reardon wrote. "Sarah Palin was Governor of Alaska. She worked. Michelle Obama works as both a mother and the First Lady."