Calit2 at 10: Former California Governor and Dignitaries Help Celebrate an Institute Milestone

December 7, 2010 -- On Tuesday, December 7, 2010 the California Institute for Telecommunications and Information Technology (Calit2) at the University of California, San Diego and the University of California, Irvine will celebrate the institute’s 10th anniversary. A joint plenary session will feature a keynote by former California Governor Gray Davis, who launched Calit2 and its sister institutes in 2000.

Former Gov. Gray Davis will deliver the keynote at UCSD. All talks will be available online, including parallel sessions on the afternoon of Dec. 7. Click here to watch the streaming video between 10am-12:15pm and 1:30-5:30pm.

Activities open to the public include a Research Open House on both campuses in the afternoon, and an evening of Calit2 in Performance and a Calit2 Digital Cinema Showcase at UC San Diego.

The Joint Plenary Ceremony from 10am to noon is by invitation only. It will tie together the two Calit2 auditoriums via a real-time HD videoconference link. The session will feature a keynote speech by former Gov. Davis, as well as welcomes and introductions by UC San Diego Chancellor Marye Anne Fox and UC Irvine Chancellor Michael Drake. The Chancellors will introduce videotaped messages from two of the institute's strongest industry supporters: Qualcomm founder Irwin Jacobs, and Broadcom founder Henry Samueli.

 The session will also commemorate the renaming of the four institutes, which are now to be called the Governor Gray Davis Institutes for Science and Innovation.

Many of Calit2’s other founders will participate in the day’s activities, including former UC President Richard C. Atkinson, and Robert Dynes, then Chancellor of UCSD, as well as founding Calit2 Director Larry Smarr. Former Jacobs School of Engineering Dean Robert Conn will be on video. Former UCI Chancellor and current President of the National Academy of Sciences Ralph Cicerone will make brief remarks in Irvine, as will former UCI Henry Samueli School of Engineering Dean Nicolaos Alexopoulos. 

For full details about the day's activities, visit http://10th.calit2.net

Calit2's Smarr will focus on "the path forward", and introduce talks by experts in areas that have been singled out by Calit2 for future research into applications that will benefit society: health, in a talk by San Diego physician and venture capitalist Drew Senyei; energy and the environment, by UC Senior Vice President Daniel Dooley (in Irvine); and culture, in the form of music professors Mark Dresser (UCSD) and Michael Dessen (UCI), who will perform a long-distance 'telematic' concert.

After the Joint Plenary Ceremony, visitors to both campuses will have the opportunity to meet researchers in the UC San Diego and UC Irvine divisions of Calit2, listen to presentations by distinguished faculty, visit labs, watch technology demonstrations, and talk with graduate and undergraduate students about their research. More than two dozen Calit2 researchers will deliver presentations in the Calit2 Auditorium and Calit2 Theater, with others slated to talk about their work in labs and demos dotted throughout Atkinson Hall.

For details on the day's activities, including an evening of musical performances and Calit2's first Digital Cinema Showcase of ultra-high-resolution videos created by Calit2 faculty, alumni, staff and students, visit the 10th Anniversary website at http://10th.calit2.net. 

Related Links

Calit2 10th Anniversary Website

Media Contacts

 Doug Ramsey, 858-822-5825, dramsey@ucsd.edu