USC Media and Public Relations

Featured Stories

U.S. News & World Report featured the new USC Schwarzenegger Institute for State and Global Policy, co-founded by former Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger at the USC Price School. The story reported that the institute is committed to finding bipartisan solutions to government problems. "Knowing USC's reputation as one of the nation's leading policy schools, I could think of no better home for this institute," Schwarzenegger said.

MSNBC featured inexpensive, eco-friendly batteries developed by Sri Narayan, G.K. Surya Prakash, Aswin Manohar, Souradip Malkhandi and Robert Aniszfeld of the USC Dornsife College and colleagues. Rechargable iron-air batteries were first created in the '70s as a way to cope with the energy crisis, but were too inefficient for practical use, the story stated. Narayan and colleagues developed improved batteries that are 10 times more efficient. "Iron is cheap and air is free," Narayan said. KCET-TV also covered the work.

BBC News (U.K.) highlighted research by Valter Longo of the USC Davis School on the health effects of fasting. Longo said that when the human body lacks access to food, it switches on repair genes that can keep it in better shape. Longo told Daily Mail (U.K.) that hormones like IGF-1 are linked to aging, as well. "You need adequate levels of IGF-1 and other growth factors when you are growing, but high levels later in life appear to lead to accelerated ageing," Longo said.

The Star (Malaysia) highlighted a joint summer school session run by USC's East Asian Studies Center (EASC) and Ewha Womans University. Students are given the opportunity to participate in local cultural programs offered by the South Korean school. "The Korean Studies faculty and EASC see it as a wonderful opportunity for students to gain first-hand cultural experiences while taking courses on Korea on site," said Youngmin Choe of the USC Dornsife College.

The Telegraph (U.K.) reviewed "Marilyn: The Passion and the Paradox" by Lois Banner of the USC Dornsife College. The review states that the book is the first to describe Marilyn Monroe's nightmares and spiritual side, and to take a longer look at her fears surrounding her lesbian affairs. The book was also covered by another story in The Telegraph (U.K.), L.A. Weekly and CW News New York affiliate WPIX-TV.

Associated Press highlighted a partnership between pilot aquaculture project KZO Sea Farms and the USC Wrigley Institute for Environmental Studies. The institute will study environmental effects and advanced shellfish breeding techniques to facilitate the growth of a California aquaculture industry. Dennis Hedgecock of the USC Dornsife College called the partnership "a milestone in aquaculture."

The New York Observer featured a TED talk by Behrokh Khoshnevis of the USC Viterbi School, who theorizes that 3-D printing could be used to provide simple, mass-produced homes to replace Third World slums. The homes would be "printed" in layers, in as short a period of time as 24 hours. "What we are hoping to generate are dignified, at a fraction of the cost, at a fraction of the time, far more safely, and with architectural flexibility that would be unprecedented," Khoshnevis said of the homes.

LiveScience featured research by Albert "Skip" Rizzo of USC's Institute for Creative Technologies, involving training therapists to deal with traumatized veterans. Psychiatry residents use interactive programs to learn to diagnose disorders like post-traumatic stress disorder; they speak in real time to virtual characters with different personalities and problems, and the characters respond. Rizzo said he hopes to create a library of virtual patients with different diagnoses, for use by psychiatrists and psychologists. SmartPlanet also covered the work.

Voice of San Diego ran a column by Murtaza Baxamusa of the USC Price School a lack of affordable housing in San Diego. He wrote about changes that were put into place to improve the problem, and how the city is faring a decade later. "With the largest share of the increased cost of living being housing, much leadership is needed in the city to balance the income gap between home and work," Baxamusa wrote.