3 UO faculty capture 2008 Oregon Book Awards

Media Relations is part of the Office of Communications under the umbrella of Public and Government Affairs in University Advancement.

Other affiliated offices are:

• Design and Editing Services

• Development

• Development Communications

• Government and Community Relations

• KWAX-FM

• Office of Marketing and Brand Management

• Oregon Quarterly

• Web Communications

Breakthrough Generation, a new national youth organization sponsored by the Breakthrough Institute, has officially launched, and one of its associate directors is Jesse Jenkins, a 2006 graduate of the University of Oregon's Robert D. Clark Honors College. (Official announcement)

In the cover story "Here Comes the Sun," on "the rise of the solar industry" in the June issue of Oregon Business, UO physics professor is quoted. He says "two thirds of Oregon receives more solar radiation than does Florida, and even soggy Astoria gets more sunlight than Germany, which leads the world in solar installations." (Read the story)

Scott Coltrane isn't on the job yet as the new dean of the UO's College of Arts and Sciences, but he drew media attention on Father's Day. Coltrane, a sociologist who studies the role of fathers, was featured for his research that shows that both moms and dads are happier individuals when the dads get involved in the workings of their households. (Read story)

Popular science magazine Discover recently spent time with the University of Oregon's Jon Erlandson. The result, a long feature story about Erlandson's research on ancient Ice-Age mariners. (Read the story)

A science article posted online July 24 by U.S. News & World Report looks at the early peopling of the Americas, and how new techniques, such as DNA, are shedding new light on the issue. Cited prominently is work by UO archaeologist Dennis Jenkins. (Read story)

Check out Jim Hutchison's participation in an American Chemical Society production of its "Global Challenges/Chemistry Solutions" Podcast, in which the society says: "Faced with concerns about dwindling petroleum supplies and environmental pollution, we must begin to consume in a new and more sustainable way." (Listen in)

Also, still available is a report featuring Hutchison by ScienCentral: Some are calling it a revolution in manufacturing technology. But, will nanotechnology be a "green" industry? It’s a question that some scientists are saying needs to be answered now, before nanotech goes big-time. (Check it out)

Kim Sheehan, UO communications professor, is quoted in a recent TIME magazine article about advertising greenwashing. Sheehan and her colleague, Deborah Morrison, worked with founders of EnviroMedia to develop a greenwashing index to evaluate the environmentally friendly, yet sometimes misleading, claims of advertisers.

The University of Oregon is one of 11 colleges that received a Green Rating of 99 (the highest score) in The Princeton Review’s “Green Honor Roll.” The news received national attention from the CBS Early Show, ABC World News with Charles Gibson, and other national and local media.

The UO is also included in the 2009 edition of the Fiske Guide to Colleges as a Best Buy school. From the guide: "UO may be the best deal in public higher education on the West Coast."

Since 2001, investors’ comfort zone with their stocks has nose-dived from little worry about negative returns to growing worry about their stocks going nowhere for maybe a decade, reports UO psychologist Paul Slovic in an interview with Wall Street Journal columnist Jason Zweig about today’s economy. In same article, UO psychologist Ellen Peters notes that American investors are spending a lot of time following, especially on TV news, the economic turmoil. Zweig’s column, however, carries the message that those who have some cash and can conquer their stock-phobia may be a good position, likening their potential investments to a venture in emerging markets. (Read story – may require paid subscription)

 The Oct. 14 New York Times article about the highly competitive NBC internship program for pages features Nancy Meuy Saechao, a UO graduate. She is one of 60-85 pages employed annually from a field of more than 7,000 applicants looking to break into the entertainment industry and follow in the footsteps of former pages including Regis Philbin, Ted Koppel, Michael Eisner and Kate Jackson.

The biotechnology company MitoSciences Inc., a technological spinoff founded in 2003 by University of Oregon scientists Roderick Capaldi and Michael Marusich, captured the Eugene Chamber of Commerce's 2008 Emerald Award for Innovation on Sept. 24. The company was among four winners of Emerald Awards.

For full details of the chamber's fifth-annual event, read the story in the Register-Guard.

CSM reporter Mark Trumbull takes on the potential expansion of government bailouts in a column in the Nov. 17 online edition. Quoted prominently is UO economist Tim Duy, director of the Oregon Economic Forum who also produces the monthly Oregon Economic Indicators. Duy says "you have to think big at this point." (Read story)

Bob Doppelt, director of the UO's Climate Leadership Initiative, is quoted prominently in a Nov. 7  Christian Science Monitor story titled 'How to spur action on climate change: Behaviorists weigh in on how to motivate change. A green-themed soap opera, perhaps?" The story calls attention to the upcoming Behavior, Energy, and Climate Change Conference in Sacramento. “Humanity has never experienced a situation in which the entire world is placed at risk because of human activities,” Doppelt says. “Humans are basically in charge of the climate, and we’re not doing a very good job.” (READ the story)

In a live radio interview Jan. 8, The Current featured UO psychologist Paul Slovic, who appeared via the UO's ISDN studio at Media Services -- at 4:30 a.m. Pacific Time -- but 7:30 Toronto/Eastern Time. Slovic discussed his research on genocide, in which people become numb to numbers of deaths, regardless of where such deaths occur. (Listen to the interview)

Bob Doppelt and Roger Hamilton of the UO Climate Leadership Initiative went on video to talk about the recently released report featuring climate-change projections for Oregon's Rogue River Basin. Visit our VIDEO PAGE where -- in six videos -- Doppelt talks separately about planning and policy implications, and Hamilton speaks on overall impacts facing the basin, how agriculture, particularly pinot noir production, may be threatened, what may happen to the region's vegetation, and how salmon may be affected.

Phone: (541) 346-3134
Email: uonews@uoregon.edu

Staff Members (Position Details)
Phil Weiler: 541-346-3873; pweiler@uoregon.edu
Julie Brown: 541-346-3185; julbrown@uoregon.edu
Heidi Hiaasen: 541-346-3606, heidih@uoregon.edu
Jim Barlow: 541-346-3481; jebarlow@uoregon.edu
Shannon Rose: 541-346-3314; roses@uoregon.edu

About the Office