Media Watch Archives

Matt McMurry’s background made him the ideal candidate to be in on the ground floor of the Acura/HPD effort to develop the ARX-06. Eight years ago, at age 16, he became the youngest driver to start the 24 Hours of Le Mans in the fabled race’s history …. Along the way, he also earned an aerospace engineering degree from the University of California-Irvine and landed an internship at HPD that led to his current vehicle dynamics engineering position. Read More

UCI said biomedical laser researcher and professor Michael Berns, who founded the university’s Beckman Laser Institute & Medical Clinic, died on Aug. 13. He was 79. … Berns was known for his innovative work using “laser scissors and tweezers” to manipulate cells, university officials said. He was the first person to perform subcellular surgery on chromosomes and helped pioneer laser nanosurgery, according to SPIE, the international society for optics and photonics. He eventually earned the nickname “the father of laser microbeams,” and received a gold medal from the organization for his work with lasers. [Subscription required, you can request an electronic copy of the article by sending an email to communications@uci.edu.] Read More

Brett Sanders, PhD., is a professor of Civil and Environmental Engineering at the University of California, Irvine’s Department of Urban Planning and Public Policy. Ever since he was a child, Professor Sanders was fascinated by the everyday implications of how humans interact with water. … Professor Sanders’ research group created the first-ever fine-resolution model of flood risk across the Los Angeles/Orange County floodplain and a public dataset displaying the beach erosion throughout the same region – models used across communities to assess risk and take preventative measures to mitigate urban water damage and coastal erosion. [Subscription required, you can request an electronic copy of the article by sending an email to communications@uci.edu.] Read More

Jesus Rivera liked to scan Craigslist for crashed motorcycles. The first one he ever took home was a totaled green Suzuki GSX-R. It took him about a year, tinkering with wires, cutting metal, and forging new parts in the subterranean machine shop of the engineering building at UC Irvine, but he and a small group of fellow grad students in the materials science program eventually turned the motorcycle into a Formula One–style race car. … The first eerie thing Rivera read about the diabolical ironclad beetle, or Phloeodes diabolicus, was the pushpin thing. … As a guy interested in strength, in toughness, in building machines that could withstand high-impact crashes, Rivera was sold. He wanted to look deeper into the beetle, into the structures that made up its armor, to understand it. He looked up where the beetle lived, and was delighted to discover that, apparently, it resided alongside him on UCI’s campus! Read More