UCLA Updates

Image of Omar Yaghi, smiling and wearing a black tie, sitting in an office with books behind him. The text on a blue gradient background reads, 'Winner: 2025 Nobel Prize in Chemistry. Congratulations to Omar Yaghi, UC Berkeley professor and former professor of chemistry and biochemistry at UCLA.'

Congratulations to former UCLA professor Omar Yaghi on winning the Nobel Prize in chemistry for his pioneering work in the development of metal-organic frameworks. Read more: ucla.in/48Vy1vt #NobelPrize #AcademicSky 🧪

Discoveries that changed the world: Meet UC’s women Nobel laureates Nearly a quarter of the women who have received Nobel Prizes in science have ties to UC.

Discoveries that changed the world: Meet UC’s women @NobelPrize laureates https://bit.ly/42wZj6x

Trump slashed funding for universities that helped create these vital drugs Medications that prevent HIV, shrink tumors and treat seizures were invented with government funding. At research universities, that money is now canceled or in jeopardy.

Medical drugs don't just happen. @washingtonpost.com shares how university research becomes life-saving and life-changing medicines including UCLA's Louis Ignarro's work on the cardiovascular effects of nitric oxide that led to Viagra. www.washingtonpost.com/education/in... #ResearchPowersProgress

Black-and-white photo of Sandy Gooch, in striped shirt and bouffant hairstyle, slicing a vegetable

New special collections alert: @uclalibrary.bsky.social has acquired the papers of Sandy Gooch, founder of Mrs. Gooch’s Natural Food Markets — the first natural foods supermarket chain in the U.S. newsroom.ucla.edu/releases/ucl...

Fred Ramsdell, a UCLA alumnus and now Nobel Prize winner, poses in front of a shelf.

UCLA alumnus Fred Ramsdell received the @nobelprize.bsky.social today in Physiology or Medicine — our 17th Nobel Prize for an alum or faculty member, and the third prize in five years for a Bruin. ucla.in/4oaVlKd #nobelprize #academicsky 🧪

Hear and get familiar with Tongva plant names while hiking Coldwater Canyon Park Nonprofit Tree People has worked with Native Americans and university scholars to show the Tongva language as a living culture

Prof Pamela Munro and Tongva-Kumeyaay scholar Virginia Carmelo researched the plant names. Recovering them, creating new ones and recording them for people to hear will bring Native Americans closer to their ancestors and their relationship to the land. Via @laist.com:

laist.com/news/los-ang...

Agricultural workers in California field

Read more from the @uclaanderson.bsky.social Forecast’s outlook for the national and California economies — where they are now and when they will recover — as weakness persists and the risk of rising layoffs leading to a recession is now a tangible possibility:
newsroom.ucla.edu/releases/and...

UCLA experts: Cybersecurity Awareness Month UCLA has scholars with deep expertise in cybersecurity, artificial intelligence, government policy and the technology industry.

October is Cybersecurity Awareness Month!

UCLA has scholars with deep expertise in cybersecurity, artificial intelligence, government policy and the technology industry, as well as useful information on how to stay safe online:

newsroom.ucla.edu/advisories/u...

UCLA forecasts 'stagflation-lite' economy with higher inflation and unemployment The UCLA Anderson Forecast released Wednesday predicts economic growth will slow next quarter as the costs of the Trump administrations tariffs fully take hold, leading to a 'stagflation-lite' scenario.

UCLA forecasts 'stagflation-lite' economy with higher inflation and unemployment

Join the @uclachpr.bsky.social on 9/10 as we present the updated California Elder Index™ dashboard, which measures older adults’ basic living costs — housing, health care, food, transportation, and some misc. expenses — in each of California's 58 counties. Register: ucla.in/3JQdk9G.

Historians See Autocratic Playbook in Trump’s Attacks on Science

“Science is a source of social power,” said Daniel Treisman, a political scientist at the University of California, Los Angeles. “It always poses a potential threat.”
www.nytimes.com/2025/08/31/s...

The 'Mozart of Math' rarely speaks about politics. The wide-ranging cuts to science funding made him change that. UCLA's Terence Tao called the Trump administration's actions an "existential threat" to academic research in the U.S.

Fields medal winner Terence Tao thinks the administration’s actions are increasingly pushing young scientists to leave the U.S., and if trends continue, Tao said he could not rule out leaving, too.
#ResearchPowersProgress #SpeakUp4Science #StandUpforUC
www.nbcnews.com/science/scie...

A new #UCLA study shows how African elephant poop helps ebony trees grow, the slow-growing source of wood used for guitars and pianos 🎸 In areas where elephants are poached, researchers found nearly 70% fewer ebony saplings.

ucla.in/47NATtO

What A Day: Xi Blinded Me With Science China and other countries are trying to take advantage of Donald Trump’s crusade against UCLA.

“I can’t tell you the number of people who are getting aggressive inquiries, many from out of the country,” Professor Tracy Johnson, UCLA’s dean of Life Sciences. “What we’re looking at is the potential for a serious brain drain.”

#ResearchPowersProgress

crookedmedia.substack.com/p/what-a-day...

✨💜 Noah Davis’ paintings are as magical as they are real.

"I feel there is immense freedom in painting to create your own universe – if you don’t let ‘Art History’ or pretense get in the way."—Noah Davis

⏳ “Noah Davis” closes this Sunday, August 31.

LAHSA appoints temporary head of agency Today on AirTalk, a new appointee for the Los Angeles Homeless Services Authority is under scrutiny; CECOT is a maximum security prison that is being used as a place to hold deportees by the Trump adm...

LA is fighting rising heat with shade – a vital tool to cool neighborhoods and protect residents. @edithdeguzman.bsky.social highlights how targeted shade and cooling strategies can improve health and equity on @laist.com's AirTalk.

Listen: laist.com/shows/airtal... #UCLA #UCLALuskin @ucanr.edu

We’ve been tracking the number of Americans who identify as transgender – soon, there will be no reliable way to measure them The federal government has erased gender identity questions from federal surveys. Researchers say it will cost them at least a decade’s worth of data.

"Though data sources are being erased, the transgender population will not be. And yet it will likely be at least a decade before we can publish updated figures on the estimated number of people in the US who identify as transgender." - Jody Herman and @aflor017.github.io for @theconversation.com

Bedsores are a huge problem. This UCLA-invented scanner detects them earlier, saving lives and costs In the U.S. alone, 2.5 million people get bedsores each year, and some 60,000 die from complications.

95% of pressure ulcers, also known as bedsores, are preventable. But identifying them before damage was done was difficult until nursing professor Barbara Bates-Jensen, helped invent the SEM Scanner and revolutionized woundcare.
newsroom.ucla.edu/stories/inve...
#ResearchPowersProgress #StandUpforUC

From higher wages to heat safety, workers won big in 2024 💪

A new report with @ucblaborcenter.bsky.social features three case studies unpacking key victories for workers in fast-food, warehousing, and agriculture industries.

Learn more in the thread below ⬇️
Read the report at bit.ly/SOTU-2024

Researchers from the @uclasamueli.bsky.social and their collaborators have developed FuelVision, a new system that could help enhance nationwide wildfire preparedness by combining satellite imagery with artificial intelligence to rapidly and accurately identify wildfire fuel sources.

California Democrats and Republicans agree on one big thing: They support UC, poll shows A poll of California voters conducted by the UC Berkeley Institute of Governmental Studies showed strong support among Republicans and Democrats for UC research, hospitals and the value of UC degrees.

Republican and Democratic voters share common ground when it comes to the University of California: Both sides express widespread support for UC, its research, medical centers and ability to elevate the lives of students, a statewide poll shows. (via @latimes) https://lat.ms/3JD8T1Z

Meet Joseph Curti, a #UCLA #bat scientist. 11 of California's 25 bat 🦇 species have been detected in the Santa Monica Mountains. By controlling insect 🦟populations, dispersing seeds 🌱and pollinating plants 🌺, #bats provide ecosystem services that humans depend on more than we realize. 🧪

The 'Mozart of Math' rarely speaks on politics. The wide-ranging cuts to science funding made him change that. UCLA's Terence Tao called the Trump administration's actions an "existential threat" to academic research in the U.S.

“I find that this administration in particular has been extremely radical with how it is changing the scientific ecosystem in a way that even the first Trump administration was not. This is not normal, and I think a lot of people don’t see the damage that is being done.” bit.ly/3JxOv2b 🧪

Millions of people receive drugs and therapies developed in Bruin labs. Here's 8 major cancer-fighting drugs that started at UCLA 👇 https://bit.ly/41od5sF

#SpeakUp4Science #StandUpForUC

Watch "Clearing the Air: The War on Smog" - Legal Planet The American Experience's "Clearing the Air: The War on Smog" tells an extraordinary story. It premieres on PBS this Tuesday.

Our Ann Carlson wrote her forthcoming book, "Smog and Sunshine: The Surprising Story of How Los Angeles Cleaned Up Its Air," to dispel the many myths about LA air pollution. She helps narrate this new documentary airing Tue 8/26 on
@pbs.org #ClearingTheAirPBS legal-planet.org/2025/08/25/w...

Trump vows to change how elections are run. The US Constitution doesn't give him that power President Donald Trump is vowing more changes to the way elections are conducted in the U.S., but based on the Constitution there is little to nothing he can do on his own.

UCLA Law's @rickhasen.bsky.social: “The president has very limited to zero authority over things related to the conduct of elections.”
apnews.com/article/trum...

“UCLA didn’t just launch my basketball career,” says alumnus Kareem-Abdul Jabbar. “It gave me the tools and confidence to pursue life off the court as a writer and advocate for social justice.”

UCLA research stalls as UC Regents debate $1B White House settlement demand UCLA faces allegations of failing Jewish and Israeli students after Oct. 7

Professor Carrie Bearden on Spectrum News last week: “The research doesn’t just pick up where it left off. If it’s just a delay, it’s an unnecessary delay that’s impacting the search for cures.”
spectrumnews1.com/ca/southern-...

I’m an award-winning mathematician. Trump just cut my funding. The “Mozart of Math” tried to stay out of politics. Then it came for his research.

"This is not a routine policy shift—it is a deliberate dismantling of the institutions, funding, and freedoms that have sustained American science for generations." - Professor Terence Tao
newsletter.ofthebrave.org/p/im-an-awar...

No, President Trump Can't Ban Mail in Ballots or Voting Machines, as His Truth Social Post Suggests He Might Try to Do #ELB This morning President Trump put out a post on Truth Social that shares some of his usual and debunked conspiracy theories about voter fraud in elections. Part of the post says that he will “lead a mo...

No, President Trump Can’t Ban Mail in Ballots or Voting Machines, as His Truth Social Post Suggests He Might Try to Do electionlawblog.org?p=151633