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NEWS

Geoff Pullum and Barbara Scholz visited Harvard University on October 9 to give a seminar to the Artificial Intelligence Research Group in the Computer Science department on their joint work on model-theoretic syntax.

Then on Saturday Geoff went through the the American Academy of Arts and Sciences' induction ceremony in Harvard's Sanders Theater, making his election to the Academy official. Geoff writes:

"The induction ceremony was like a graduation, but with some differences. First, no robes--despite the name, the Academy not an academic society; it was founded to bring together inventors, engineers, businessmen, philanthropists, poets, musicians, and administrators as well as scholars and scientists. Second, no diplomas--we just signed a big book. Third, no photos or applause: cameras are banned, and applause is held till the end. And fourth, the accomplishment levels of some of the people being honored went quite a long way beyond anything I was used to. For example, at one point, as Peter Agre of Johns Hopkins University was just about to step out on the stage to sign the book, the person calling out the names departed from the prepared script and said: "And let me add a word of congratulation to Peter for winning the Nobel Prize this week." Gulp!

One very eminent acquaintance ahead of me in the line-up was Professor William Kahan, Berkeley computer scientist and distinguished inventor of the standard techniques for accelerating floating-point calculation on PCs. He's family as far as UCSC Linguistics is concerned: we educated his son Ari Kahan, who was a Linguistics BA here in the 1980s and is now an intellectual property lawyer in Silicon Valley and a generous donor to our department."

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COLLOQUIA

The Linguistics Department Colloquium Series presents Junko Ito and Armin Mester, UCSC, speaking on "Contrast and Merger: Systemic Effects in Japanese," this Friday, October 24, at 4 pm. Please note that this colloquium will be held in the Cowell Conference Room. An abstract for this talk, as well as a list of upcoming colloquia, can be found at http://ling.ucsc.edu/events/index.html.

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The Psychology Department Colloquium Series Cognitive Program presents David Cope, Professor of Music at UCSC, in a talk entitled "Experiments in Musical Intelligence." This colloquium will be held Wednesday, October 22,  3:30-5:00 pm in Social Sciences 2, Rm. 121.

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On Tuesday, October 28, Emily Manetta will give a talk entitled "Linguistics and Linguistic Fieldwork in
Central Asia" at the Tajik National University Pedagogical Institute in Dushanbe, Tajikistan. The talk is part of the Aga Khan Humanities Project occasional lecture series. Everyone from Santa Cruz is invited to attend (if only Tajikistan were served by an international airline!)

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EXCELLENCE IN TEACHING AWARDS

Every year the Academic Senate recognizes 10 or more UCSC instructors for teaching that is exemplary and inspiring. Any fill-time or part-time faculty member is eligible for an award, provided they have not received the award in the past 5 years. Only students may propose a nominee. The deadline to submit nominations is March 8, 2004 by 5 pm. For instructions on how to nominate, visit the Center for Teaching Excellence website at http://www.ucsc.edu/CTE and select "Teaching Awards."