Volume IV

THE EQUILIBRIUM Warren College Undergraduate Research JournalVolume 4 | 2018 UC San Diego

Letter from the ProvostThe fourth issue of Earl Warren College’s interdisciplinary student-centeredresearch journal has extended The Equilibrium’s reach by opening submissionsto undergraduate researchers from any UC San Diego college, as well as byexploring a broad spectrum of topics from film studies and computer simulationto German history and public health. Owing in part to these expansive efforts,the undergraduate lead editors of the Equilibrium—Hazel Leung and YogithaChareddy—were 2018 finalists for Warren’s Academe Award for Principles ofCommunity in the category “Championing Freedom of Expression” because theyexemplify how important it is to amplify the excellent undergraduate researchat UC San Diego.Since publishing their last issue, the editorial team has succeeded in expandingthe disciplinary range of their journal in order to more accurately representthe range of research taking place on campus across the Divisions of BiologicalSciences, Arts and Humanities, Engineering, Physical Sciences, and SocialSciences, and extending to our professional schools of business, health sciences,and oceanography. Representing the greater range of disciplines at UC San Diegoreflects Warren’s motto, “Toward a Life in Balance,” by proving a more balancedlook at our University and its students.In addition to expressing my gratitude to Hazel, Yogitha, and the many otherUC San Diego students who have worked tirelessly to create this gorgeouspublication and its expanded online version, I would also like to thank the WarrenCollege faculty who took the time to be interviewed for this issue, as well asthe UC San Diego faculty who took the time to mentor the student researchshowcased herein. I also need to thank the Equilibrium’s advisor, Warren CollegeOperations Specialist Kara Bayani, for everything she has done to make thisstudent organization thrive. Finally, I hope that you find this issue of Equilibriumas impressive as I do, and that you will be inspired to get involved in the researchendeavors to be discovered all across our vibrant campus.Emily Roxworthy, Ph.D.Provost of Warren College College

Letter from the EditorsAs new editors-in-chief following in the footsteps of a formidable team, wewere face with a huge task. We wanted to create a volume of the journal thathighlighted the existing brand of The Equilibrium, but we also wanted to expandthe journal’s efforts and reach. Previously, submissions to the journal werelimited to only the Earl Warren College student body and the volume existed in aprimarily physical format. However, this did not accurately represent the excitingand diverse student body of UC San Diego as a whole or the groundbreaking andinterdisciplinary research that they were participating in, which significantlyreduced our potential impact. So, in order to better reflect the campus profileand to increase our accessibility, we opened up our research submission tothe entire campus — a first for The Equilibrium. True to our interdisciplinarypurpose, we received research from a wide variety of backgrounds and topics.This year, we have added new topic domains in addition to disciplines we havepublished before. We pushed our team to be creators and innovators themselves,to seek out original ideas that we published on our website. And we saw a furtherexpansion in accessibility with our inclusion in the UC online database for journals,e-Scholarship.We would not have been able to publish this issue without a lot of help fromWarren College faculty and staff. Thank you to Provost Emily Roxworthy and Ms.Kara Bayani for advising throughout the process and encouraging us to makeour own mark on the journal. Thank you to all the professors Professor ThomasBussey, Professor Jade d’Alpoim Guedes, Professor Frank Talke, and Professor MegWesling, who all took the time out of their busy schedules to give us insight intotheir college and research experiences. We hope these interviews have provideduseful information and advice to our readers.It was an honor to lead the journal this year. We are incredibly proud of the workthe editorial team. We hope you enjoy reading this issue and are inspired to startconducting your own research!Hazel LeungYogitha Chareddy

CONTENTStudent Research 5 Reassessing the “ Culturization of Race”: The Black HIV/AIDS Epidemic 8 A Most Wanted Man By Anton Corbijn: Poetics Of Imprisonment14 The Internal Enemy: An Examination of the Stasi’s Contribution to the East German Collapse18 A Simulator for Ambulance Dispatch

Professor Spotlights24 Professor Thomas Bussey27 Professor Jade d’Aploim Guedes30 Professor Frank Talke32 Professor Meg WeslingResearch Programs and Scholarships34 Research Scholarship Catalogue

student researchReassessing the “Culturization of Race”: The Black HIV/AIDS EpidemicMariam AbdalgadirEarl Warren College, Class of 2018 Precious, based on the novel Push by Sapphire is a film actual efforts to create new possibilities for themselves.that follows a 16 year-old HIV-positive Harlem black teen, This essay hopes to approach the ways in which publicClaireece “Precious” Jones. Precious is a beautiful young girl health disease assessment of the HIV/AIDS epidemic inwhose unfortunate life circumstances have not afforded her black communities has historically been insufficient inmany opportunities for reaching her full potential. Due to actually tackling the social and structural forces that createher mother’s constant emotional abuse, she suffers from poor health outcomes. Instead, it aims to pathologize theirlow self-esteem and obesity, causing her to seek safety in culture as a primary factor in the spread of HIV/AIDS.food. Aside from her toxic relationship with her mother,she also experiences frequent sexual abuse at the hands Culturization of Raceof her HIV-positive father. Consequently, Precious is nowpregnant for the second time, with her father’s child. Knowledge production assessing the spread of diseaseThese harmful familial relationships, along with her low and illness among the black population within the Unitedsocioeconomic status, have also made it so she can not States has historically been revealed to be profoundly racistacquire an adequate education. Through all of her life and counterproductive to addressing the black poor statechallenges, Precious has been able to successfully reach of health. The earliest understandings of black illness andthe ninth grade with good grades despite her inability to poor health were theorized as a consequence of biologicalread nor write. difference or cultural pathology instead of racialized social structures. Adam Geary, author of Antiblack Racism and the Precious encounters her environment with great AIDS Epidemic: State Intimacies, reveals that in the 1980scuriosity and an unshakable sense that there is another, investigators of the overrepresentation of black folks withinbetter, world for her. In one scene of the film, Precious’ the AIDS epidemic failed to recognize the “black healthteacher learns about her pregnancy and sends her to tradition, and with it, the broader materialist tradition in thethe principal’s office where she is asked several invasive US health sciences, had been effectively marginalized andquestions, specifically if she indeed is pregnant again for isolated within the US health sciences. To the degree thatthe second time. When Precious reveals that she is, her black health disparities were not conceived as a problem atprincipal disgustedly asks “tsh what happened Claireece? all, rather than simple ignored, they were treated as eitherDo you have any other thoughts about your situation?” the consequence of black cultural pathology or black racial-insinuating that Precious engages in risky sexual behavior genetic vulnerability.” (p. 8-9)with no regard for her future. The conversation ends withPrecious denying the principal’s request for a teacher- Dated notions of cultural scapegoating arose onceparent conference, which then leads to her immediate again during the AIDS epidemic where the presumablysuspension from the school. black Haitian or African origin of the disease portrayed black people as sexual deviants and created the dynamic Precious’ case, like that of many other poor black for what they called a racist “blame game” (Geary, 2014, p.girls living with HIV, highlights how structural racism 9). This solidified an atmosphere where “black communitiesmanifests as state imposed anti-blackness where black and especially black health professionals [on a global scale]bodies are vulnerable to disease and poverty. Young black attempted to distance themselves from AIDS all together”women like Precious are often subjected to unhealthy (Geary, 2014, p. 9).home environments coupled with structural violence(i.e. poverty, inadequate education). Instead of receiving Rightfully, many black individuals at this time feltassistance from the state or community they are met the need to seperate themselves from these damagingwith that violent racial bias that the conditions of their narratives about the spread of HIV that often depicted thelife seem to be of their doing and choice. As a result, black race as uncivilized and sexually deviant. As a result,these women are subsequently punished for their life this distancing allowed for investigations on the spread ofcircumstances (e.g. unintended pregnancy) despite their AIDS within the black community to focus more on the happenings of their everyday life rather than the l5 THE EQUILIBRIUM

student research“structured violence -- their conditions of everyday resentment towards Precious for “stealing her man” andlife.” (Geary, 2014, p. 10) In doing this, researchers were driving him away. Precious’ mother believes in this ideaable to further propel harmful cultural pathology about that there is a “surplus” of black women so much so thatthe spread of HIV/AIDS and the global black community it causes her to compete with her own daughter over herinstead of exploring the structural inequities at bay. husband in hopes of financial stability. With this evidenceThis specific moment in HIV/AIDS history mirrors the and Precious’ case, it is irresponsible to believe that blackcontinuacommensuration between the U.S. history of women do not face state-sanctioned structural violence indisease assessment in black communities and the racialized the form of imposed sexual deviance, poverty and genderinstitutions under which they produce knowledge about based violence. All of which, contribute to inadequatethis population. conditions of Life for optimal health outcomes.Black Women: Respectability, Power and Sexuality AIDS Prevention Initiatives: The Perpetuation of State Violence Just as Precious’ principal blames her secondpregnancy on her assumed promiscuity, recklessness and Influential organizations like the Center for Disesaseother racist stereotypes associated with the black femme Control (CDC), whose stated goals are predicated onbody, the U.S. health sciences has also had a history of curing the spread of disease, completely miss the marktreating black women’s illnesses as a symptom of cultural when approaching the spread of HIV/AIDS within thepathology regardless of class or education. Current black black community. Geary explains that “the inability towomen’s sexuality and normative gender pathology is a conceive risk reduction in terms of interventions intoresult of medical inquiry that defined racial differences. poverty, racial segregation, access to basic and preventiveEarly scientific discourses surrounding anatomy and racial healthcare, or safe housing-all [...]suggests that for thedifferences classified the African women’s genitalia as CDC, as with dominant understandings of AIDS generallypeculiar, excessive and a sign of sexual deviance (Somerville, African Americans can only be conceived as a cultural group2012). This racist ideology has evolved over generations with behavioral characteristics that lend themselves toand took form in stereotypes about black women of the increased risks for HIV.” (2014, p. 14) Instead of assessingtimes. Relative to Precious’ case, we can see this notion the conditions that contribute to their precarious state ofof sexual deviance take its course where contemporary health, this viewpoint ultimately remains consistent with thedebate around black women on welfare depict them as logic that the black community contributed to the spreadcomplicit in engaging in high-risk behavior, apathetic to of AIDS because of cultural shortcomings and flaws. Thisthe consequences and making their fertility a source of new form of racism is what Geary calls the “culturalizationincome (Jordan-Zachery). The stereotype of the “welfare of race,” where in the past the scientific community wouldqueen” is harmful and does not engage with the very real attribute poor black health to biological differences, nownature of black women’s everyday conditions of suffering. it has become a result of cultural inferiority instead of acknowledging racist social structures (2014, p. 15). Halford Relatively, the sexual revolution of the of the 1960s H. Fairchild explains that, “[African Americans], on average,and 1970s made massive strides in freeing white and suffer from less access to healthcare, obtain less prenatalmiddle class women from traditional gender norms and care, and live in more impoverished and stressful residentialgiving them opportunity to pursue intellectual/career areas than do Whites” and that “environmental influencesdevelopment goals. The reality of the sexual revolution begin to influence developmental outcomes from the veryfor black women however was that it contributed to a early stages of their lives” (1991, p. 104).shift in power between black men and women, creatinga normalization of relationships outside of marriage that High rates of HIV/AIDS and STD among black womendramatically changed traditional family dynamics and can be directly correlated to their quality of life. Dr. Tayanastability (Sharpe, 2012, p. 250). Changing the gender norms Telfair Sharpe reveals in her paper “Social Determinants oflead to a decline in marriage rates among black women HIV/AIDS and Sexually Transmitted Diseases Amoung Blackwhere they were now seen as a “surplus” because of high Women: Implications for Health Equity” that in 2007 1 in 4black male incarceration rates. This change in gender black Americans lived in poverty that “limits the choices fornorms also lead to a decline in economic power which selection of residential neighborhoods in which HIV/AIDSheavily influenced black womens ability to safely negotiate and STDs cluster” (2012, p. 250). Sharpe also points to thesexual behaviors (i.e condom use) with partners and fact that “poverty can limit access to quality medical careincreased their risk of HIV/STD infection (Sharpe , 2012, because the poor may have no health insurance coverage,p. 250). The imbalance of power coupled with poverty and inadequate insurance coverage, no personal healthcarelittle educational opportunities allowed for black women provider, no routine medical screening” (2012, p. 250). Usingto frequently depend on male partners financially by using the example of the spread of HIV in US black communities,sex as a survival method (Sharpe, 2012, p. 250). One of we can analyze how the current assessment of black bodiesthe primary factors behind Precious’ mother’s abuse is her within the U.S. healthcare system continues to propel whiteVOL 4 / 2018 6

student researchsupremacist, anti-black social structures that essentialize Referencesblack people through the false association of disease andculture. Fairchild, H. H. (1991). Scientific Racism: The Cloak of Objectivity. Journal of Social Issues, 47(3), 101-115.Onward: Closing the Gap Geary, Adam M. (2014). Antiblack Racism and the AIDS To close the gap in disparities, health professionals Epidemic: State Intimacies. New York: Palgravemust be prepared to explore and integrate new, non- Macmillan.traditional mixed method interventions that measureblack lived experiences with discrimination, structural Jordan-Zachery, Julia Sheron. (2017). Shadow Bodies: Blackviolence and health inequity. Data on such things can Women, Ideology, Representation, and Politics. Rutgerspropel legislative action that responds to the complex University Press.social determinants of HIV/AIDS and STDs amongst poorblack populations. Interventions that provide this type of Jordan-Zachery, J. S. (2009). Black women, cultural images,data can legitimize true lived experiences of black peoples and social policy. New York: Routledge.and potentially increase their quality of care. They will alsoencourage healthcare professionals to acquire adequate Sharpe, Tanya Telfair, et al. (2012). “Social Determinantscontextual details about individual patients’ everyday life of HIV/AIDS and Sexually Transmitted Diseasesto improve their health outcomes. For example, the lived Among Black Women: Implications for Health Equity.”experiences of older black women were documented in Journal of Womens Health, vol. 21, no. 3 , pp. 249–254.,a study on depression and coping behaviors by Earlise C. doi:10.1089/jwh.2011.3350.Ward entitled “Older African American Women’s LivedExperiences with Depression” (2013). Through a qualitative Somerville, S. B. (2012). Scientific Racism and the Inventionphenomenological investigation, older African American of the Homosexual Body. Queering the Color Line, 15-38.black women’s lived experiences with depression wereexamined and documented. Phenomenological studies Ward, E. C., Mengesha, M. M., & Issa, F. (2013). Older Africanfocus less on the researcher’s interpretation and more on American Women’s Lived Experiences with Depressionsubjective meanings of participants’ descriptions of lived and Coping Behaviours. Journal of Psychiatric andexperiences. This study gave researchers the ability to Mental Health Nursing, 21(1), 46-59. doi:10.1111/understand what it was like for older black women who jpm.12046dealt with depression, revealing structural and societalfactors that influence the low proportion of older AfricanAmerican women whom sought therapy. Studies like this provide new alternatives to measuring Mariam Abdalgadirdisease and give depth to health outcomes of populations.Julia S. Jordan-Zachary, author of Shadow Bodies: Black Biochemistry/Cell BiologyWomen, Ideology, Representation and Politics, explains inher book that “through stories black women theorize their Mariam is a recent graduate from Warren Collegeexperiences. They Bring together what seems disparate with a degree in Biochemistry/Cell Biology and minorsto make way out of no way. These stories do a type of in Global health & African American Studies. She ismethodological and data work that ‘standard’ academic invested in promoting health equity and challenging themethods and data could not-primarily because they are way health systems approach structural deficienciesnot bound by western philosophical understandings of that influence precarious life conditions. Her paperknowledge production” (2017). Uplifting and validating black Reassessing the “Culturization of Race”: The Black HIV/lived experiences is key to rewriting the racist history of AIDS Epidemic reveals the history of disease assessmentdisease assessment on the population and for propelling a of black communities in the United States and its aims tobetter future of health equity for this community. pathologize African American culture as a primary factor in the spread of HIV/AIDS instead of tackling health inequities.7 THE EQUILIBRIUM

student researchA Most Wanted Man By Anton Corbijn: Poetics OfImprisonmentNathaniel ImelThurgood Marshall College, Class of 2020SYNOPSIS:A Most Wanted Man (A. Corbijn, 2014): A Most Wanted Man opens in text explaining how since 9/11, when “intelligence failures andinterdepartmental rivalries” allowed the man who conceived preparation for the 9/11 attacks to go onundiscovered, Hamburg has been on high alert for terrorism. Issa Karpov (Grigoriy Dobrygin) is a Chechenrefugee who has been tortured in the Russian state security system. He has recently escaped prison, andillegally slips into the port of Hamburg. Gunther Bachman (Philip Seymour Hoffman) is a spy in Hamburg,who along with his team, works to find and ‘turn’ individuals who have ties to Islamist terrorist organizationsinto his informants. He notices Karpov and begins to monitor him. Gunther is unkempt and displays signs of addiction and/or PTSD, though his team is elite and highlycompetent. It is made up of Maxi, Carl, Niki, and Rasheed, an informant and the son of a prominentMuslim scholar, Dr. Abdullah. Gunther believes Abdullah is funneling money to Al Qaeda under the coverof philanthropy. Dieter Mohr, a head German intelligence official, and Martha Sullivan (Robin Wright), anAmerican diplomat, take an interest in Gunther’s investigations. It is revealed that Bachman had madea tragic mistake in Beirut in the past, and that this disgrace hovers along with Mohr and Sullivan, overBachman’s head, although the details of the traumatic incident are not made explicit. Issa contacts a social worker, Annabel Richter (Rachel McAdams), who helps him make contact withwealthy banker Tommy Grue. Grue’s father laundered millions of dollars from the Russian mafia, of whichIssa’s father was a powerful member. Gunther follows Karpov around Hamburg and is able to manipulateGrue and Richter into helping him use Karpov as the “minnow to catch a barracuda…a barracuda to catcha shark.” The metaphorical shark implied to be somebody powerful in Al Qaeda, and an almost mythicalfigure for Bachman who is devoted to slow progress in securing sources over the years. Gunther appearsnot to care for punishment of these lower-level ‘pawns,’ instead putting his effort into watching, waiting,securing, and turning ever more powerful figures. The ‘barracuda’ plan is catalyzed when Karpov makes the moral choice to donate his father’s blackmoney to Dr. Abdullah’s charities, rather than use it for his own new life and be wracked with guilt. Mohr,Sullivan, and the international intelligence body agree to let Bachman continue his plan with their support– however, as Bachman is driving Karpov and Dr. Abdullah, undercover as a cab driver, they are ambushedby another team. Issa is seized captive by Mohr and Sullivan’s forces, leaving a betrayed Gunther, his team,and Annabel (who had been developing feelings for Issa) devastated. Gunther screams, realizing he haslost all he had worked for, again, just as in Beirut. He drives off, and the last camera shot is one left still inhis backseat, while Bachman leaves the frame, presumably to self-destruct.VOL 4 / 2018 8

student researchSystems: Interdefined Narrative Programs (NPs):* System I: (Filmic apparatus, e.g./light & NP1 = G’s steps to identify and prevent terrorism shadow, Grönemeyer soundtrack/, V.O = NP2 = I’s steps to get physical, metaphysical Voice over/, H/LAS = High/Low angle, CU = close up, XC = Cross cut shot, OTS = Over security ($) the shoulder, BEV = Bird’s Eye View/ etc.) NP3 = German & international authority to get** System II: Spectatorship Issa to prevent terrorism*** System III: Characters NP4 = G’s redemption from mysterious trauma I = Issa, G = Gunther, A = Annabel, F = Dr. in Beirut Faisal Abdullah, J = Jamal Abdullah, Ir = Irna NP5 = I |R| A |R| T (love triangulation) Frey, M = Maxi, C = Carl, R = Rasheed, N = Niki, T = Tommy, D = Dieter, L = Leyla, Mk Legends for the initialisms and abbreviations that are = Melik, Mi = Michael, Ma = Martha referenced throughout the research paper.**** System IV: Subjectivity of ActorsQuestions of filmic poetics and iconic recursivity dominance (TYPa), or G using cigarettes to exhibit vulnerability (TYPb). Alcohol usage (12 occurrences, REC2) Corbjin’s A Most Wanted Man is an exploration of the falls into category (CAT) 1, solitary and CAT2, social. Thesespy genre with a postmodern bent, in which the usual distinctions are only stable in that one always seems totropes such as escapism, exoticism, and technological dominate the other, for at any given moment G smokesand political thrill are constantly interwoven into a kind of and drinks due to suffering from the pressure of hisirony in narrative programs that plays on the subject’s ideas job, especially in light of his previous disgrace in Beirut;about spies and terrorism. In A Most Wanted Man, viewers however, he also uses his self-neglecting identity to hisare forced to think critically about aesthetic experience in advantage in manipulating people. It is difficult to find theorder to find answers to the film’s implied questions; I will source and meaning of every instance of G’s smoking andargue that a poetics arises from recursive imagery and gives drinking, and in this sense we might say his addictionsweight to the film’s issues regarding a core, psychoanalytic- are overdetermined, and to an extent self-defining -- aexistential lack. This lack appears in the form of desire for favorable quality to have for a recursive image, which incontrol within a global power structure and addiction. its pure form ought to be separate from the narrative. TheRather than giving physical violence any screen time, the instances insert themselves into the NPs, as well as thefilm exploits alternative (or perhaps underlying) anxieties to film’s Systems (such as ‘actor subjectivity’ -- for example,deal with politics: ideology, sex, and addiction bloodlessly Hoffman’s real life and death in relation to addiction),drop viewers into thriller territory, exposing the anxieties enabling various interpretations with respect to psychologyinvolved in what we might call ‘post-terrorism.’ Recursive and politics.filmic images of “arrest,” or brief lapses in the action whichfunction to anchor NPs to one another, offer certain releases /REC1/ [OCC1] The film’s second seq. introduces Gfrom A Most Wanted Man’s dystopia while simultaneously in a CU shot from behind, but aimed at the photos of thedeveloping a poetics, through patterns, rhythms, and terrorist suspects. He picks up the photo most clearlyinterweaving with NPs. Recursive images of alcohol and showing F, leaving his cigarette burning in the same handcigarettes will be the focus in this paper, because of their (TYPa), and the spectatorship sees the terrorist’s face beforeobvious recursive role in the film, but also because smoking G’s own -- a strong hint at the later deconstruction of theis often a universal proxy to psychological issues. During spy/terrorist agonistic by global beauracrats (Cohen, 1996).a period of significance for the poetics of recursivity, He is a chain-smoker; in seq. 7 he leaves F’s lecture on hiswe observe a shift in Gunther’s cynical, narcissistic, and charities to smoke outside the building [OCC2], and cut toself-destructive personality. I will then use this aspect G driving is a CU of his lips holding a lit cigarette [OCC3].of the recursive poetics to psychoanalyze the nature of In the former shot, G is taking a break from spying (NP4);subjectivity construction in film. in the latter, REC1 seems to be a limp arrow, pointing to the road and to G’s perseverance in his job (NP1). TYPb isTypes and categories of occurrence dominant in both. In seq. 9 [OCC4] G’s identity as a smoker is reinforced, and it is revealed that J has hidden an SD card My recursive configuration is the networking of in the pack he gives G containing vital information on J’scigarettes and alcohol to form a filmic structure based father’s (F) links to Al-Qaeda. The significance of this OCCon hierarchy and vulnerability. There are 19 different is found in its structure: the appearance of a psychoanalyticoccurrences of cigarettes (REC1) falling into two types: Gusing cigarettes to establish a psychoanalytically masculine9 THE EQUILIBRIUM

student research‘Father,’ himself a fugitive of the ‘Law,’ in G’s object of desire of course this latter superego structure is already what(cigarettes) shows the core of the film’s triadic conflict: the generates the limits of law and society itself. Transposedspy-father-figure that contradicts international authority onto discussions of authority in real life, the spies and theirsublimates this antagonism into substance abuse – the world are perhaps originally a subtly attempted fantasyrecursive signifiers of the film (Kent, 2000). Like in OCC1, where we identify with heroes who are more free, yet theG’s dependence on substances references his prior trauma film instead announces itself as an intense and stressful(NP4), but smoking also provides a means for his focus on nightmare -- more dangerous, socially encoded, andthe job—and in this occurrence, the appearance of NP1 surveilled than our own realities. This progression of spyliterally inside of REC1 indexes a nonlinear, more poetic fantasy-into-nightmare illustrates how the paradoxes offormalism beginning to relate the five narrative programs desire hint at a ‘traumatic core’ in the psyche manifestingto each other. as prison-like limits or prohibitions (Zizek, 2009). In seq. 11, G is smoking on the balcony [OCC5] in LAS There are two occurrences of TYPa REC1 in seq. 25; thewith modern brutalist architecture fragmenting him with first [OCC9] is outside on the balcony and a replica of OCC5,diagonal vectors. Shot of D’s car arriving, and cut back to a but this time it is night and there is more pressure on G tocloser shot of G, who flicks his cigarette in D’s direction in secure I and F, and D walks with his team this time. OCC10exasperation. This is TYPa, as G uses a cigarette as a classic is after G has gone inside, as he lifts a pack off the deskexpression of phallic dominance against the other (Freud, to reveal a photo of I’s father, Grigori Karpov, underneath.1922). A less obvious example of TYPa, however, occurs There is a complex power/desire/identity triangulation[OCC6] in seq. 19 at the club, where G casually apologizes present in (Fosshage, 1995) G’s command: “Tommy, youfor his smoke and lightheartedly wishes A luck with her need to give Issa Karpov what he wants,” tracable to G’sown quitting. Masking his true intentions with friendliness, compulsive need to attack and replace the paternal figure.(subjecting A to his eavesdropping) the function of REC1 Here, NP1 and 2 grow more indistinguishable, with NP4is again, outward identity, but this time in half-genuine overlapping. REC2, as it often does, complements REC1 invulnerability: while his presence next to A in the bar is this scene, which will be elaborated on later. In anothermanipulative, his smoking and interaction is not pure scene of psychoanalytic importance and REC pairing, Maperformance in itself -- thus we say there is a significance meets G in his “cave” (The Silbersack) in seq. 30 [OCC11]that belongs not solely to the spy chain of command or its and they argue as a man hits his lover in the background,addicted subject; rather, an aesthetic lacking free ethical the couples’ presumed love ballad playing on jukebox as Gwill emerges -- a gap between subjects indicating some and Ma conflict ideologically (TYPa).larger metaphysical bind. In seq. 31, G smokes in a park melancholically [OCC12] TYPb is dominant in seq. 21; G recruits T into his scheme while A is kidnapped by the team (TYPa). [OCC13] In G’sthrough a combination of blackmail and seduction via A, interrogation of A, he says, “Cigarette? That’s right you’veand after G says he’s “[not threatening,] just sympathizing. given up… Is that it? Is that all the fight you’re going to giveYou’ve been left to clean up the mess [of your father’s black me?” (TYPa). The REC maintains narrative logic, and withmoney],” T affirms solemnly, declines a cigarette, but then the use of the word in this OCC, the ambiguity suggestsstares at the one G lights for himself [OCC8]. Sequence 20 a poetics configured across diverse filmic elements. In A’sis particularly interesting [OCC7], where G is seen smoking underground cell-turned bedroom, G and Ir take turns inoutside T and A’s meeting. Ir approaches his campout, and as a good cop/bad cop routine, watching each other play theA passes by, G says “[A isn’t my type], you are, Irna, you know role of parents concerned over their daughter’s boyfriend,that,” and he continues spying by kissing Ir and keeping his eventually ‘approving of the relationship’ once A agrees toeyes open. Ir’s sigh of resentment afterwards indicates an convert I’s politics. OCC13, 14, and 15 happen as G playsimportant power imbalance: Ir regrets her vulnerability to the verbally abusive but ‘caring father’ (TYPa). In contrast,G, because he justifies intimacy on a professional basis, and A and I’s love seq. in 34 find the team as voyeurs, butis furthermore a ‘voyeur’ (in the sense the subject’s sex drive deep, sympathetic strings on soundtrack and their rivetedis subordinated to spying) to A, while kissing Ir (TYPa). In expressions position G’s cigarette [OCC16] as TYPb to AA Most Wanted Man, sex and substances are multifaceted, and I’s forbidden relationship.in that they exist in their own (traditional) right as meansfor pleasure, and also function as black holes characters OCC17 is not G’s cigarette, but is significant because itcan climb into to escape loneliness, despair (I and A and belongs to F’s doorman, who frisks T on arrival (TYPa, seq.T), and of course each other (G and I). There is also the 36). This may serve to highlight the similarities and possiblecharacters’ practice of using the antagonisms of sexuality transferences between F and G, who act as father figures toto manipulate each other; altogether, in the act of evading I and J, and who are the most confused about Ma’s betrayalpeople the spies sublimate their more unconscious needs in the end. In seq. 41, OCC18 is strongly TYPb: G is home into what is acceptable in the intelligence community -- and his bed, and puts out his cigarette carefully before goingVOL 4 / 2018 10

student researchto his piano to play a soft prelude, which becomes extra- when G pours whisky into his coffee as she interrogatesdiegetic in the next scene to re-emphasize foreshadowing. him, trying her best to appear guiltless herself. G is notThe last cigarette [OCC19] is perhaps even more TYPb than convinced, and is resentful at the American spies forits precedent; as G leaves the surveillance van to smoke intervening on his work. He leaves, both of them showingfor stress, he awkwardly makes eye contact with two male faux manners to end their ‘professional’ meeting. OCC7 incolleagues and turns around in a CU to drag in front of the this sequence is still CAT2, but it’s self-aware and spiteful. Inspectatorship instead. another confrontation with Ma in seq. 30, G uses REC1 and 2 [OCC10, CAT2]. REC2 confirms G’s identity as a regular /REC2/ [OCC1] G’s introduction in seq. 2 begins with at the Silbersack, and his ‘acting out’ at Ma that ensues isan ECU of a white wine filling a wine glass, setting the orchestrated by the rebellious setting, of which REC1 andtone of G’s character as a sophisticated but disheveled 2 are important components. Their last one-on-one is inspy [CAT1]. Sequence 10 finds G interrogating the Admiral seq. 33, and this time, Ma lets G “get her drunk” [OCC11,atThe Silbersack [OCC2], who is cooperative and takes, by CAT2]. The tone is reconciliatory — she sympathizes in thephysical use of a bottle, cash in exchange for information supermarket and reveals her fault for “Beirut,”— which is aon I and T. We will see there is an association of money and fault yet not apologetic; her mothering tone in the scene isalcohol sustained throughout A Most Wanted Man -- but set by the highly quotable, “[I’m trying] to make the worldbeyond merely compelling certain social interactions in a a safer place.”consumer capitalist society, for the film, there is also powerin the image itself, and in its position in relation to an NP REC2’s last occurrence [OCC12] is the piano prelude‘economy’ [CAT2]. in seq. 41. G is slow and melancholy, as if about to perform a farewell (CAT1). Soft yellow lighting contrasts with the In seq. 14, G is pouring a drink [OCC3] and engaging harsh, green lighting used in most of the film, and the scenein banter with Ir, his assistant, listening to Ir’s cynicism. is all MS of G, except for one LS as he sits down to play. TheAfter getting a warning phone call about Americans, and cinematography, music, and recursions construct a portraitknowing Ir is uneasy about U.S. interference, G uses self- of a sensitive, intelligent G, so as to clear any confusiondeprecating humor to restore the mood. REC2 here is a about who the ‘good guy’ is going into the climactic fall.marker of G’s cooperation (CAT2). Similarly, when OCC4in seq. 19 is in combination with REC1, it helps G blend Aesthetics of frequency, rhythm, and combinationin with the rest of the club (CAT2) and behave passively,despite his intentions to spy on A, which are signified by The high frequency and seemingly random order ofREC1. A’s meeting (CAT2) with T [OCC5] is an uncomfortable RECs first appear to be simply because G is a chain-smoker.scene because of T’s sexual aggressiveness, markedly more The recurrence of alcohol however, in not just G’s affairspolite than their first encounter but much more explicit, but in T’s, A’s, and Ma’s suggests the importance of alcoholespecially as it relates to T’s drinking of (blood) red wine. in the social realm. In addition to cigarettes and alcohol,Following T until he gets home late in seq. 21, we see his uncomfortable sexual dynamics and advances recur. Thewife waiting for him with scotch, but his drinking is CAT1 male-spy gaze brings up voyeuristic narcissism, which canbecause she insults him for being rude, and in a LS of him often be problematic enough to block the spectatorship offangrily standing outside his colorfully lit mansion he tosses from sympathizing with characters. When we ask why Ghis ice in frustration [OCC6]. deserved his terrible fate, these social transgressions may appear as plausible justification. In seq. 25 and 27, REC2 is the top half of a clear liquor Frames within the camera frame and diagonal vectors,bottle—neither OCC8 nor 9 includes consumption. A LS of too, are crucial iconic recursions as they emphasizeG against his wall entirely covered with photos, text, and the prison-like nature of every character’s situation. Glabels subjects G to the claustrophobia of rising NPs 1-4 and other intelligence officers are caught in modern(CAT1), adding TYPb to REC1 with a tone of fear. Because architecture, windows, while I and A get literally capturedREC1 and 2 do not function as oral fixations here, we may and imprisoned. The unique aspect of cigarettes andhypothesize that G’s recursive ‘pacifiers’ are removed and alcohol, however, lies in that they are consumable; forhe is acting on his inappropriate desires, albeit through example, G consumes -- physically houses -- the chemicalstransference. Maintaining the hypothesis of Oedipal to which he is a slave by smoking and drinking. Here atriangulation: OCC9 is at lunch (we are back to the oral basic paradox lies at the heart of the recursive poetics: thestage) spying on F’s TV superego (CAT1); G chases I on his problem of an attempted break with one’s circumstancesway to A’s apartment, and is frustrated when he loses them preserves the continuity.in the crowded young, sexualized nightclub (hints of Freud’sage taboo here). Substances in general for A Most Wanted Man hold value in character mood, frame composition, etc., and Sequence 23 is the skyscraper cafe meeting with Ma, therefore their recursive structure as they graft on to11 THE EQUILIBRIUM

student researcheach NP offers a glimpse into the aesthetics of the film as a realistic fiction self-aware enough to deconstruct itself,a whole. For example, the purpose of cigarettes in each while still holding the power of interpolation (keepingoccurrence distinguishes a loose rhythmic mood for G: viewers interested) and interrogation (curiosity, reflection).blasé and tragic when NP1 is dominant in the first few Recursive tracing works similar to NP study in that all thesequences; focused and hyper-masculine as he closes in TYP/CATs and NPs have a stake in a given shot (OCC inon F and I when all NPs are active; vulnerable and tragic as the case of REC), and yet only one, and at most a limitedthe climax approaches and he realizes NP4 affects him more few, memorable meanings are communicated. Mapping thethan NPs 1 or 3. When TYPa is present, so is G’s masculinity, linear appearance of signifiers, and then the multiplicitiesambition, etc., and in combination with REC2 CAT1, the and hierarchies within each signifier (as precipitated bypresence of TYPb in REC1 only adds to the portrait of a their interrelations) allows for illustrative and concretedamaged, egoistic spy. G’s smoking becomes less vulnerable interpretations. The main principle (PRINC) of combinationin the honest sense during the rising action: G uses TYPb of the recursive cigarettes and alcohol for A Most Wantedmostly to manipulate, he exhibits dominance smoking, and Man is the achievement of structural gendering in a scene,he becomes more interrogative. However, after witnessing sequence, or character. The masculine/feminine binaryI’s struggle between love and religious piety, G’s smoking is held together by the other iconic recursions, servingbecome less frequent and more sympathetic, and if still to emphasize difference and thus hierarchy in a scene;masculine, then in a more fatherly sense. This decrease e.g. the weathered spy, G flings his cigarette in derision ofin frequency is an important change in rhythm, especially oppressive, modernist architecture.with respect to I’s sexual reticence due to character andreligion; we might say that G, through identifying with I’s In this process, NPs are united as the associationspowerlessness across the political, social, and metaphysical attached to the RECs weave together a logic to maintainrealms, receives a short-term replacement for his own narrative continuity and in doing so create meaningssimilarly caused mental distress, as one might through self- useful to the overall aesthetic of the film. For example, thereflective psychotherapeutic treatment. As G draws nearer combination of REC1, 2 in G’s piano scene is firstly for G toto the fateful repetition of the Beirut disaster, he regresses control his nerves before the climax. But his cigarette alsoto a kind of infantile narcissism, in which upon seeing has relevance to his identity in the immediately precedinghis reflection in I on the security camera feed he gains conversation with J, in which G takes F’s place as father.sufficient ego fulfillment before he brings I into the hands Moreover, before playing soft classical music, G sets hisof the international authorities. Thus, G’s unconscious drink on the piano in a profoundly retiring moment. Theknowledge for the need of preparing for a great loss, and a transferability of artistic creation and addiction, again,vaguely mounting guilt, is expressed by the slowed rhythm. appears to be due to similar processes of sublimation in the psyche. The positive and negative qualities, the essence, Alcohol usage is varied amongst characters but its and the limits of both become increasingly interchangeable.purposes remain consistent, and rhythmic structure closelyresembles that of REC1. The tone of its appearance manifests Conclusionsas: reclusive; friendly; mixed; reclusive; mixed; friendly;reclusive. For example, seq. 2 opens with an ECU of the In tracing the recursive images in the film, and thenwine being poured emphasizing its sole, or at least personal exploring their multifaceted value to the NPs, I findsignificance. Sequences 10 and 14 have G’s social drinking, that in addition to functioning as acts to further theand his dialogue during and up until this point has been narrative programs, the substance usage signifies a corejoking and lighter than seq. 2’s. G’s drinking and smoking psychoanalytic lack, which is then fixed to various political,at the club to blend in and spy on A is a friendly manner sexual, and addictive objects or ideas. As we determinelayered on top of a sinister intention, and T’s drinking in how the recursive image exerts the power of filmic arrest,the next scene combines a mask of elegance barely hiding we also get a sense of how certain forms of powerlessnessthe desire to disregard boundaries. The next two REC2s are are aesthetically pleasing in the film as a whole. Charactersmixed but firmly headed towards spite and reclusion; seq. use manipulation on each other and themselves in order25 and 27 find G reclusive and the bar-fight scene is mixed. to try and transcend their problems; the underlyingMa’s revelation to G is superficial, but friendship triumphs philosophical question in A Most Wanted Man lies in thefor the moment; and the last REC2 appears in G’s home, questions of subjectivity -- especially because a deepCAT2, as a soft foreshadowing. The aesthetic symmetries conflict is misinterpretation. We regret that G fails in thein REC and narrative structure predict a philosophy of loss, end to the ‘bad guys,’ but we also find that the concepts ofas in Le Carré’s earlier novel The Spy Who Came in from goodness and evil are too unstable to rely on in the firstthe Cold, though more convoluted in keeping with the place; authorities confuse fear with valor, I is too naive topostmodern condition (Ritt, 1965). realize his charity funds terrorism, and G is too tired and longing for redemption to realize his good actions appear One achievement of the postmodern film is to create dangerous to the international intelligence body. Finding the characters trapped in their subjectivities, my researchVOL 4 / 2018 12

student researchon the recursive imagery in The Most Wanted Man arrives Referencesat a “poetics of imprisonment.” This poetics of recursionhinges on a tapering off near the climax, precisely Cohen, A. J.-J. (1996) “Blade runner: Aesthetics of agonisticswhen investment in characters is at maximum. Hence, and the law of response.” Il Cannocchiale. Rivista dimanipulating, watching, and most importantly, identifying studi filosofici (pp. 3, 43-58).with Issa, replaces Gunther’s lack, which he otherwisereplaces with addictive behavior. Gunther’s subjectivity is Freud, S. (1922). Beyond the pleasure principle (C.J.M.disrupted by means of the surveillance camera’s video feed, Hubback, Trans.) London, Vienna: Internationaland thus A Most Wanted Man suggests that the ‘lack’ that is Psycho-Analytical.a painful fact of life is indispensable when it comes to ourdrives, mistakes, and our ability to empathize. Lacan, Jacques. The seminar of jacques lacan, Book III: The Psychoses trans. Russell Grigg. Edited by J.A. Miller (W. Finally, for this “poetics of imprisonment,” we Norton: Kent, 2000).can contextualize a certain amount of its pessimismandconfusion historically: by remembering the film’s Lyotard, J-F. The postmodern condition: A report onpostmodernisms. If the reality that this film puts forward knowledge (pp. 14- 17, 26- 37). Minneapolis, MN:appears bleak or meaningless, the possibility we have again University of Minnesota Press, 1978.misinterpreted a fundamental irony also remains strong. Toquote Lyotard (1978), communication is a “game,” in which Ritt, M. (Director & Producer). The spy who came in from“the [rules] only stabilize when they cease to be stakes” the cold. (1965). UK: Salem Films Limited, Paramount(1978). Our lack of freedom, physical or psychological, is Pictures.one of the names for beauty -- and for viewers, critics,philosophers, and artists, to draw inspiration from their Cornwell, S. (Producer). Corbjin, A. (Director). A mostboundaries, to share the limits of their subjectivities, and to wanted man. (2014). UK: Lionsgate.communicate their knowledge, then perhaps partly fulfillsthe wish contained in A Most Wanted Man: “to make the Žižek, Slavoj. The parallax view. Cambridge, Massachusetts:world a safer place…” The MIT Press, 2009. Nathaniel Imel Philosophy Nathaniel Imel is a third year philosophy student with a minor in world literatures. He has spent the last two years exploring the humanities before switching his major to Philosophy after taking a class on Schopenhauer. He has presented at two undergraduate research conferences on philosophy, art, psychotherapy, and mental health. He wants to study for the GRE soon, and dreams of attending a graduate program located where it will snow.13 THE EQUILIBRIUM

student researchThe Internal Enemy: An Examination of the Stasi’sContribution to the East German CollapseBrandon MoguelEleanor Roosevelt College, 2018 ABSTRACT: This piece was written with the intent to provide a more nuanced perspective on what contributed to the fall of the East German state. Contending that it was more than just the result of the Soviet Union relaxing its grip on Eastern Europe, this piece claims that the German Democratic Republic’s secret police (Stasi) played a significant role in fostering disunity among the population. This, in turn, allowed the G.D.R. to come apart at the seams during the first signs of glasnost or “openness”. Hopefully, this kind of research will inspire more critical analysis of the events that brought about an end to the Cold War. They were watching. Hundreds of thousands of them. excessive surveillance, unofficial collaboration, torturousThey were wives, friends, neighbors. For the latter half of interrogation, and imprisonment, the Stasi fostered athe 20th century, if a letter was mailed, they likely read it. corrosive sense of disunion, mistrust, and unhappinessIf a phone call was made, they likely listened. They were that significantly contributed to East Germany’s downfall.watching. The highest statute of these people, as issuedin a 1969 top secret memorandum, was to ‘“uncover and But first, those who might happen to disagree shouldforestall the hostile plans and intentions of the aggressive be addressed. Historian Walter Hitchcock characterizedimperialists and their helpers…and secure the socialist the fall of the GDR as a result of “its Soviet patron openlyachievements and the state border’” (Dennis, 2000, urging democratization” citing Gorbachev’s remark thatp. 212). They were the sword and shield of the German the USSR had no right—be it moral or political—to involveDemocratic Republic’s Communist Party—the Ministerium itself in the affairs of its neighbors (Hitchcock, 2003, p.für Staatssicherheit, fearfully referred to in hush tones 366). This abandonment of the Brezhnev Doctrine, wherebyonly as ‘the Stasi’. But the world watched on that fateful the Soviet Union proclaimed that it reserved the right toNovember evening when the embodiment of Churchill’s invade any socialist country it deemed threatened by forcesIron Curtain—the Berlin Wall—was hacked to pieces and a ‘hostile to socialism’, was the result of Mikhail Gorbachev’speople partitioned for almost half a century were reunited. major reform policies to the USSR: glasnost and perestroikaThis break in the divide between East and West Berlin was (Bentley & Ziegler, 2013, p. 860). These reforms werethe unofficial end to the Cold War and East Germany itself, intended to revamp the Soviet Union by decentralizingand is often attributed to the liberalizing policies of the the economic and political system and promoting publicSoviet premier at the time: Mikhail Gorbachev. While this criticism (Bentley & Ziegler, 2013, p. 894). Hitchcock followsno doubt contributed to the fall of East Germany, it would up with highlights of the protests that became endemic inbe foolish to attach the fall of an advanced and modernized the final months of the German Democratic Republic withstate like the GDR to a change in policy alone. Despite this, shouts like ‘Gorbi, Gorbi!’ and ‘Perestroika!’ to show a directhistorians like Walter Hitchcock and James Sheehan frame link between popular discontent and popular support forGorbachev’s glasnost and perestroika as the sole cause of Gorbachev’s policies (Hitchcock, 2013, p. 364-365). JamesEast Germany’s collapse. On the other hand, historians like Sheehan follows a similar line of thinking by saying thatAlon Confino allege that the GDR’s fall was in large part the unlike previous instances of uprisings in the Eastern bloc,result of “a high degree of dissatisfaction that corroded under Gorbachev “400,000 Soviet troops stayed in theirthe regime from within” (Confino, 2008, p.133). With this, barracks and watched as Moscow’s most resolute andI was confronted with the question of how the excessive strategically important ally disintegrated” (Sheehan, 2008,use of domestic surveillance by the Stasi contributed to p. 195) . While one would be hard-pressed to find a scholarthe ultimate collapse of the German Democratic Republic. of the era who does not at least in part attribute glasnostAfter a wide breadth of research, it seems the most and perestroika to the fall of the GDR, framing this policyholistic and nuanced answer is that through the use of as the sole contributor, as Sheehan and Hitchcock have, isVOL 4 / 2018 14

student researchwoefully misguided. Unlike Poland, Hungary, Romania, or escape” (Peterson, 2004, p. 307). This highlights the scopeany other former Eastern bloc states, East Germany is the of the government’s feelings of mistrust and suspiciononly one to be annexed by a Western state. A sense of East towards its own citizens—a feeling that grew to becomeGerman self-identity, autonomy, and pride was therefore mutual among the populace.not strong enough among the general population to surviveliberalization. Something different must therefore also be at But perhaps to best comprehend this mass suspicionplay when considering the fall of the GDR. Because, hearing from the Stasi and how it helped to breed mistrust amongthat it was ‘okay’ to travel could not have been the only the population, it must be understood on the micromotivation for those who ecstatically hacked at a wall that level with the unsettlingly true case of a young womanhad kept them imprisoned for almost half a century. This named Julia and her Italian boyfriend. She met him at theshows that there must have been some force or reason Leipzig International Trade Fair; she was an usher and hethat inhibited East Germany from growing a strong enough was a representative of a northern Italian computer firmsense of national identity to survive the 20th Century. That (Funder, 2002, p. 98). It was a long-distance relationship,force, that reason, I contend to be the sworn protectors of so the managed by meeting whenever they could. ButEast German socialism—the Stasi. when they did, they knew they were being watched and “could hardly leave the house without being stopped by The size and scope of this secret police force must first the police and asked to account for [ourselves]” (Funder,be understood. The Secretary-General of the Ministry, Erich 2002, p. 99). Julia recounts, ‘“If we said we were going toMielke, was remarked as having a “conviction that everyone the [movies], they would disappear for long enough withwas a potential security risk” and “pressed the need to my ID and his passport to make us miss the start’” (Funder,thwart the omnipresent and hated enemy” (Dennis, 2000, p. 2002, p. 99). Despite being an exceptional student, she soon212). That enemy had come to be defined as “persons, either found trouble getting accepted into any university (Funder,in groups or as individuals, who hold political-ideological 2002, p. 103). With no degree, it was difficult for her to findviews which are intrinsically hostile to socialism and who any employment to make a living (Funder, 2002, p. 103).seek to endanger or harm the social state and its social Even when she applied for the more menial job of hotelorder” (Dennis, 2000, p. 212). With this broad definition of receptionist, she would be warmly received by the managerthe ‘enemy’ as a justification for its paranoid need to expand, impressed by her multilingual skills and sharp dress, butthe ministry’s surveillance program was allowed to grow at would invariably get a letter in the mail a few days latera rate and size unrivaled by any other nation at the time, saying, “the position has been filled” (Funder, 2002, p. 103).starting at 1,000 official employees in 1950, and reaching She fell into a deep depression; she knew this was the workto almost a 100,000 by the end of the 1980s, half of whom of the Stasi, and recalls seeing the same white car parkedwere stationed in East Berlin alone (Dennis, 2000, p. 213). outside her house every day (Funder, 2002, p. 105). WhyThere was approximately one official Stasi officer for every would the Stasi put so much effort and so many resources165 people in the German Democratic Republic (Hitchcock, into tormenting this one girl? It was the Italian boyfriend;2013, p. 363). These numbers allowed the Stasi to construct they assumed she would use him as her ticket out of Eastan ambitious security apparatus with the expressed goal Germany and were doing everything they could to get herto surveil every aspect of its citizens’ lives. Moreover, to break it off with him (Funder, 2002, p. 102). As one canthe ministry collected files on approximately six million imagine, this kind of torment from one’s own governmentindividuals they deemed suspicious—amounting to over a would certainly do anything but foster the kind of trust,third of the population (Dennis, 2000, p.218). In Dresden satisfaction, and happiness that East Germany desperatelyalone, 4,000 to 5,000 postal deliveries were investigated needed to form with its population. Keep in mind that foreach day, and on an average day in Leipzig, 1,000 phone calls all intents and purposes, Julia was a nobody. There waswere recorded (Dennis, 2000, p.219). All of these intrusions nothing particularly important or special about Julia tointo the private lives of citizens were justified through a justify the state’s need to keep her from progressing inloophole etched in the East German Constitution,. Article her personal and professional life as long as she was withthirty declares the inviolability of one’s “person and liberty” the Italian boyfriend, but they did it anyway. The truth isunless “in cases where a person’s action would infringe that there are countless Julia’s with similar stories, whichthe legal order but also where ‘socialist morals’ would be only highlights the extent to which the Stasi was willing tooffended” (Childs, 1985, p.25). With all these resources and go, punishing citizens for romance that happens to stretchtime spent on monitoring their own people, one would beyond borders.think that their efforts to wield this sort of manpoweroutward and follow the expressed doctrine of spreading Keep in mind that the aforementioned statisticalsocialism abroad would be remarkable, as well. In fact, it figures of the Stasi have been official employees, and theywas anything but. For the Stasi, the task of catching foreign only tell half of this horror story. To truly know the extentspies and infiltrating the West was nothing compared to of the Stasi’s corrosive grip is to know the ‘Inoffizielle“preventing the crime of trying, even thinking of trying, to Mitarbeiter’—the unofficial collaborator. These IMs, as15 THE EQUILIBRIUM

student researchthey were classified, numbered almost 200,000 (Dennis, leaving them the choice to either drown or face the pain2002, p. 213). These unofficial employees were usually once more (Funder, 2002, p.226-227).hired to keep tabs on their spouse, friends, co-workersor neighbors and the means through which they were Frau Paul’s story is not unique. There are countlessenlisted was often a form of negative reinforcement. This stories like hers and to tell them all would only be in theincludes instances in which people were blackmailed into service of morbidity. These sorts of crimes committedcollaboration out of “fear of the disclosure of an adulterous by the Stasi in the defense of socialism would, of course,relationship”(Dennis, 2003, p.99). Female IMs were regularly contribute to a sense of dissatisfaction in East Germanycoerced into prostituting themselves to gather information which in turn would lead to defection. This explains thein what were known as ‘operational beds’. Perhaps the most state’s concentration of its surveillance resources onshocking thing about this system of forced collaboration is preventing such escapes, which it used as justification forthat it was largely unnecessary. Female IMs were regularly implementing other forms of tortuous abuse. All of thiscoerced into prostituting themselves to gather information contributes to a cycle of discontent, defection, and abuse,in what were known as ‘operational beds’ (Dennis, 2003, doing only harm to an already unhappy populace.p.94). Perhaps the most shocking thing about this systemof forced collaboration is that it was largely unnecessary. In summation, in using excessive surveillance,It is not as though the Stasi had trouble finding willing unofficial collaboration, torturous interrogation, andemployees. The Stasi regularly turned down volunteers imprisonment, the Stasi fostered a corrosive sense ofbecause they “feared that they might be imperialist agents” mistrust, and unhappiness that significantly contributed(Dennis, 2003, p.95). Through this sort of paranoia, the to East Germany’s downfall. In regard to the significanceStasi literally fostered a mentality of ‘neighbor watching of this topic and question, it must be understood whatneighbor’ throughout the populace that inhibited any sort East Germany—or Germany for that matter—representedof national cohesion. So much so that by 1989, East Germany on the global stage during the Cold War. After the Secondwas riddled with 160 opposition groups with approximately World War, Germany could perhaps best be described as2500 members (Riemer, 1990, p.1). These numbers were the contested child in a bitter divorce between formerestimated by the Stasi themselves, but they determined allies. Because of this, the Soviet Union put much effortthat it was the result of “the enemy’s subversive action into developing this state as something that could rival itsagainst socialism…to create and legalize so-called domestic Western counterpart. Being the closest, geographically, toopposition” (Riemer, 1990, p.1). The Stasi were unable to see the U.S.-backed powers of Western Europe, East Germanythat the disunity that would become the final nail in East was presented as and treated like a model; a storefrontGermany’s coffin was of no fault but their own. window to show the West all that could be achieved under socialism. But this apple of the Russian Bear’s eye couldn’t When pervasive spying didn’t get the Stasi the survive the 20th century. As a result, knowing how this all-information they needed, the next resort was torture. To important Soviet satellite fell out of orbit, would not onlybest understand the human casualties of this policy, one be significant to the understanding of socialism’s failuremust understand its effect on the individual level—one must in East Germany, but also the failure of the Soviet ventureknow the story of Frau Paul. Frau Paul and her husband, at empire in Eastern Europe itself. Moreover, to explaindespite never hearing the charges levied against them, were this phenomenon as solely resulting from Gorbachev’sarrested and held for five months in ‘Hohnschönhausen’, liberalizing policies of glasnost and perestroika, wouldthe flagship prison of the Stasi located in in the heart of be to indulge in a tunnel-vision view of East Germany’sEast Berlin (Funder, 2002, p.222). This was an exclusively fall. Showing that the reckless and paranoid behavior ofpolitical prison, and inmates were carefully prevented from the Stasi which corroded East German society adds to theseeing one another or fraternizing, limiting the only human understanding that the fall of East Germany was as much, ifcontact these inmates experienced to when they were at not more, a collapse from within than a push from without.the hands of their captors (Funder, 2002, p.225). Frau Paulwas offered a deal to collude with the Stasi, she refused,and for that, she was punished; ‘“twenty-two hours onthat”’ is what Frau Paul exclaimed as she pointed to a smallmilking stool—her seat for the duration of one interrogation(Funder, 2002, p.225-226). But it didn’t end there, Frau Paulrecalls the unbearable stench of urine and vomit in everycell and the use of a particularly medieval form of torture,in which prisoners were bound and yoked with continuousdrips of water falling on their head; eventually the painwould cause inmates to lose consciousness in which casetheir head would slump into a pail of the collected water,VOL 4 / 2018 16

student researchReferences Hitchcock, William I. The Struggle for Europe: The Turbulent History of a Divided Continent, 1945 to theBentley, Jerry H. and Ziegler, Herbert F. Traditions and Present (New York: First Anchor, 2003). Encounters: A Global Perspective on the Past. 5th ed. (New York: McGraw-Hill, 2013). Peterson, Edwards N. . The Limits of Secret Police Power: The Magdeburger Stasi, 1953-1989. (New York: PeterChilds, David. ed. Honecker’s Germany (London: Allen & Lang, 2004). Unwin, 1985). Riemer, Jeremiah. trans. “East German Secret Police ReportConfino, Alan. “The Travels of Bettina Humpel.” Socialist on ‘Personal Ties to Oppositional and Other Negative Modern: East German Everyday Culture and Politics. Forces’”. Ed. Armin Mitter and Stefan Wolle. “But I Do Ed. Katherine Pence and Paul Betts. (Ann Arbor: U of Love You All!” Orders and Updates from the Ministry for Michigan, 2008). State Security. 3rd Revised ed. Vol. 9. Two Germanies. German History in Documents and Images. Web. 16Dennis, Mike. The Rise and Fall of the German Democratic May 2016. (Berlin: Base Pressure / CVK, 1990). Republic 1945-1990 (Harlow: Pearson/Longman, 2000). Sheehan, James J. Where Have All the Soldiers Gone?: TheDennis, Mike. The Stasi: Myth and Reality. Trans. Peter Transformation of Modern Europe (New York: First Brown. (Harlow: Pearson/Longman, 2003). Mariner, 2008).Funder, Anna. Stasiland: Stories from Behind the Berlin Wall (New York: Harper Perennial, 2002).17 THE EQUILIBRIUM

student researchA Simulator for Ambulance DispatchHans YuanThurgood Marshall College, Class of 2018Timothy LamEarl Warren College, Class of 2018Advisor: Professor Mauricio de Oliveira, MAE, UC San DiegoAffiliations: Instituto Tecnologico de Tijuana, Cruz Roja de TijuanaClinton Global Initiative University Conference in Fall 2018ABSTRACT: Ambulance dispatch is a system where an operator directs a set of ambulances to locations wherepeople require emergency medical assistance. A few seconds can still be decisive in whether the ambulanceand the medical technicians arrive on time to save the patient. To further study how ambulance travel timeaffects success rates, we have written software to simulate ambulance dispatch using past data. Running thisprogram on varying parameters such as number of ambulances and bases show minor to stark differences in theeffectiveness of a group of ambulances to respond to emergency medical cases within a city. Using this tool, itbecomes possible to highlight the effectiveness of increasing the number of ambulances in Tijuana in order tobetter execute ambulance dispatch.1. Introduction geographic locations where ambulances can, on average, respond to emergency cases within ten minutes for 95% The Red Cross of Tijuana/Cruz Roja de Tijuana is a of the region. The previous improvement to ambulancehealth services organization based in Tijuana, Mexico that response times was an update to a static system.manages approximately 11 ambulances for Tijuana. Theyrespond to more than 90% of the emergency calls in the We wish to add a step to findings from Dibene et. al.region. With a population of two million, this is close to and improve ambulance performance by using computerstwo hundred thousand people per ambulance (World). to help determine optimal choices and paths for ambulanceConsequently, the performance of each ambulance is vital dispatch. This new system would be dynamic - ambulancesto the success in responding to calls for urgent assistance. will be directed based on the live locations of all ambulances.Currently, a dispatcher manages ambulances from a set That information is provided by the mobile and cloudlocation using radio. On a typical call, after the ambulance networks, where each ambulance has a smartphone activelyis dispatched, it travels from one of eight bases throughout transmitting its precise location through a secured channelthe city to the emergency, attends to the case, and may to a central server. With that information, it becomestransport the patient to a hospital for further treatment. possible to tie the simulator into this location system toThe ambulance then returns to its original base location. predict optimal ambulance dispatching in real time. This emergency system structure is typical in the We present a simulator for ambulance dispatch. Itdeveloping world and takes little advantage of today’s serves two main purposes:communication and computing technology. In recent years,the Tijuana Red Cross has been looking for ways to use 1. To simulate historical dispatch cases with varyingmathematics and computer science to improve ambulance initial resources and dispatchment decisiondispatch. Before intervening, ambulances responded to makingemergencies on an average of 23 minutes. With advancesin software, we want to see how we can improve Cruz Roja’s 2. To take live ambulance location data and recommend todaily ambulance operations through improved digital user dispatchers the optimal ambulance to dispatchinterfaces, data analysis, and live recommendations fromsimulations. In an earlier step of our project, Dibene et. al. The first feature allows using historical data to analyze(2017) used combinatorics to find the best set of starting the performance of ambulances in various hypotheticalVOL 4 / 2018 18

student researchscenarios. For example, we can vary the number of bases policies which are simulated in software using dynamicin the simulation. Using the combinatorial procedure from programming and simulations to find whether dispatchDibene et. al., we can compute the optimal locations for runtimes can be improved (Ni et. al., 2012; . Aboueljinanebase placement. For varying numbers of bases, we will et. al., 2012; Aringhieri, 2007).produce different sets of starting bases. Furthermore, wecan also vary the number of ambulances and the ambulance 3. Simulation Programselection algorithm. The program can simulate a set ofhistorical cases with different values for these parameters Simulator: The simulator is the big-picture controllerand show heightened or worsened performance in which emulates the passage of time. The basic mechanismresponding to those emergency cases. of the simulator runs as follows: as long as there are still cases to attend, load the next case into the simulator. The second feature runs actively throughout the day. Before starting the case, check which ambulances areAs the dispatcher assigns a new emergency case to an available. Then, using a selection algorithm, pick aambulance, the changes in the ambulance’s state reflects particular ambulance to dispatch to the case. There can bein the data. The project as developed by Global Ties already different criteria for selecting an ambulance. For example,allows the dispatcher to actively track the ambulances. the simulator can choose an ambulance arbitrarily, chooseIt will become possible to plug-and-play the simulation the ambulance with the smallest projected travel time tointo the deployed project, allowing the dispatcher to run the location, choose an ambulance that maintains the bestdifferent scenarios depending on which ambulance is overall coverage of the city, or a combination of these. Thisdeployed. These predictions occur within seconds, but can cycle continues until there are no more cases to run. Ifsave an ambulance seconds or minutes towards arriving at there are no ambulances to assign for a case, then thethe area of emergency. simulator delays it until an ambulance is available. In the future, it will become possible to use live 4. Modelsambulance location data that is transmitted over the internetto generate live recommendations from the ambulance To design the program intuitively, we used object-dispatch simulator. This will help dispatchers decide how oriented programming in Python. The active elementsto respond to new calls for medical assistance. Through of real life attendance to urgent medical cases includethese tools, we anticipate that ambulance dispatching the ambulance capability, the physical locations of thein under-resourced areas will see improvements to the ambulance, the case urgency, the hospitals, the ambulanceamount of time it takes for an ambulance to respond to bases, and the date and time at which events occur.emergencies. Although our pilot program continues inTijuana, the software and features are open-source and Cases: Each case includes information on when the callavailable at our GitHub repository. We expect that this was placed, the location of the emergency, and the prioritysoftware will help revolutionize the way ambulances are of the emergency (urgent, mildly urgent, not urgent).dispatched throughout the world at large. During the lifetime of the simulation, we can compute the time an ambulance was dispatched for the call, which Section 2 explores related work including a previous ambulance was selected, and when the call finished. Theresearch step in our Cruz Roja project. Section 3 gives an simulation accumulates this information to allow for theoverview of the simulator itself and its basic procedure. summarization and analysis of performances on the cases.Section 4 dissects the simulation into components/models.Section 5 introduces the metrics and evaluation methods Location Sets: Some elements of the ambulancefor measuring impact. Section 6 shows our simulation dispatch require only knowledge of the GPS coordinates.results. Section 7 offers a discussion on the project. Section The starting point of ambulances and the location of the8 concludes this entry. case are examples. Often, we want to find a particular point within a set of locations. We use K-Dimensional Trees (kd- trees) to efficiently find the closest point within the set.2. Related Work Ambulances: Each ambulance includes information on its license plate, its location, and whether it is deployed. In earlier work related to our Cruz Roja project, JuanCarlos Dibene used combinatorics to find the optimal set of 5. Metricsstarting locations (bases) for ambulances to idle. His workinvolved identifying the location of all past emergency calls, To decide the effectiveness of a series of dispatches, itclustering them, and finding the optimal locations where is necessary to define the kind of metrics we use in orderambulances may reach emergencies within 10 minutes. to observe and measure.Previous work related to ambulance simulations Regional Coverage: Generally, the coverage of the cityinclude Maxwell et. al.’s (2009) Ambulance Redeployment is a metric quantifying the percentage of the city reachable19 THE EQUILIBRIUM

student researchby an ambulance within some time requirement. For this Point Meaningproject, we defined the coverage as the number of demandpoints covered by an ambulance within 10 minutes. There Blue Demands coveredare 100 demand points. Dibene et. al. clustered these points Red Demands exposedbased on the tens of thousands of cases Cruz Roja recorded. Yellow Bases Green Location of medical emergency Since Cruz Roja uses the US EMS Act (Ball & Lin, 1993) as Black Chosen ambulancea standard for their dispatch standard, it is useful to knowthe current coverage of the region. Some ambulances may Legend for Figures 2, 3, and 4.already be attending to a case. These ambulances are busyand cannot be considered when determining the overall Figure 2. The coverage of Tijuana at a given time. X-Axis: Longitude. Y-Axis:coverage of the city. If an ambulance is dispatched and no Latitude.other free ambulance is nearby, then the previously coveredarea may become exposed. The reverse function may also be useful. We computethe required minimum travel time radius for each ambulanceto maintain a percentage coverage of a city. For example,if we were to maintain a 60% coverage as opposed to a40% coverage, the travel time radius for each ambulancemay increase. A graphical example can be seen in Figure 1. Ambulance Selection: The simulation is affected by theambulance selection policy. A few outcomes are desired,such as the need for the ambulance to reach the destinationin minimal time. Sending the fastest ambulance at any giventime would accomplish this. However, when the region isrestrained by the number of ambulances present at once,choosing the fastest ambulance for each case may not bethe optimal option in the big picture. Not all emergencycases are equally as urgent. Some cases may allow foradditional time to pass without causing harm, while othercases absolutely need the closest ambulance possible.There are several metrics for choosing an ambulance. Theimpact of the chosen metric can be seen in Figures 2-4. Figure 3.Urgent medical attention needed at the green point, the fastest ambulance is at the black point. Certain previously covered demands points are now exposed. Figure 1. Given the desired coverage of Tijuana after an ambulance is Figure 4. Urgent medical attention needed at the green point, the dispatched (x axis in percentage), returns the number of seconds required ambulance that disrupts the coverage the least is at the black point. to achieve that coverage. As the desired coverage increases from 90%, the amount of time needed for each ambulance increases drastically. 20VOL 4 / 2018

student research When a call comes in, if the case is urgent, then we may and selecting the ambulance that least disrupts coveragesend the ambulance that has the lowest projected travel produce different results. Sending the fastest ambulancetime to maximize the chance of arriving on time. If the tends to leave many demand points uncovered. On thecall coming in is completely non-urgent, then we could other hand, sending the ambulance that minimizessend the ambulance that least disrupts the overall coverage coverage disruptions incurs a higher response time toof the region in anticipation for urgent calls. There are the case. Demand points on the outskirts of Tijuana wereissues with the above two choices. The case may not always noticeably uncovered by the ambulances stationed in basesrequire the fastest ambulance, but most cases still need placed in denser areas of the city. In Figure 1, we notice thatambulances to arrive at a reasonable time. Thus, there is a ambulances must cover a larger distance, as measured intension between choosing a fast enough ambulance while seconds, to maintain an increasing minimum coverage. Inanticipating a case where the emergency is dire. particular, travel times dramatically increase when we wish to maintain a minimum coverage of around 90% in Tijuana. Using the simulation, dispatchers will be able to quicklyrank ambulances based on their location and availability Runtime Performance: The simulation was testedon demand. The simulator returns two lists: ambulances using 8 months of data containing 23,000 unique casesranked by fastest travel time to the destination, and collected by Cruz Roja. In general, the lower the numberambulances ranked by lowest disruption on the regional of ambulances and bases, the faster the algorithm runs.coverage. With this information, dispatchers are presented The following times were gathered from running threewith various options instantly to select an ambulance based simulations simultaneously on a 2016 Macbook Pro, 15on whether faster travel times or better coverage is desired inch. For three ambulances and three bases, the simulationfor that particular case. Examples can be seen in Figures took 9 minutes and 37 seconds. Running the simulation5 and 6. for 7 ambulances and 7 bases took 20 minutes and 4 seconds. In general, the runtime increased as the number Quantifying the Desired Outcome: While ranking the of ambulances and bases rose.fastest travel times and best regional coverage are eachdesired, it is useful to find a numerical relationship between Figure 1 models a tension between the ambulancethe mentioned metrics. Since the travel times should be coverage travel time radius and the minimum requiredminimized while the coverage is maximized, we can relate coverage in Tijuana. Figure 2 displays the Tijuana coveragethem by dividing the travel time by the coverage. In Figures at a given time. Figures 3 and 4 display the location of a5 and 6, this is the “composite” value. single case during the simulation and mark the ambulance chosen for dispatchment. Figures 5 and 6 show the chosen6. Results ambulances’ rankings via different ambulance selection methods. Simulation Effects: Selecting the fastest ambulance Figure 5. Sample rankings of ambulances. Each row’s values are (ambulance Figure 6. Sample rankings of ambulances. Each row’s values are (ambulance ID, travel time in seconds, resulting percentage covered in Tijuana, the ID, travel time in seconds, resulting percentage covered in Tijuana, the number of demands newly exposed, and the composite value). Ambulance number of demands newly exposed, and the composite value). Ambulance #4 can reach the destination in 99 seconds while sacrificing 1% more #3 is the optimal ambulance for both metrics: it is the fastest ambulance coverage than the ambulance which maximizes the resulting coverage. and least disrupts the coverage.21 THE EQUILIBRIUM

student research7. Discussion Acknowledgements Limitations: The simulation software piece is composed Professor Mauricio de Oliveira mentored us on doingof pieces of logic to model a real world scenario. Thus, the research and developing high quality software. He spentcurrent simulation form is static and deterministic: running years advising each layer of the Cruz Roja Project. Withoutthe simulation on the same cases with the same parameters his ideas, patience, and expertise, we would not have beenwill result in the same performance. able to implement this project. Reality is much more complex and random. For Professor Scott Klemmer offers candid feedback. Hisexample, traffic patterns may shift for unknown reasons, lessons on human-centered design and the design processdelaying an on-route ambulance more than usual. A possible were pivotal to our development.solution for this is to consider the way the simulatorcalculates ambulance travel time. Since the components Referencesof the simulation are modularized into different classes,developers need to simply improve or replace the Aboueljinane, L., Jemai, Z., & Sahin, E. (2012). “Reducingcomponent to account for these situations. ambulance response time using simulation: The case of Val-de-Marne department Emergency Medical Thus far, we have worked with only Cruz Roja in the service,” Proceedings of the 2012 Winter Simulationdevelopment of this simulator. Considering ambulance Conference (WSC), Berlin, 2012, pp. 1-12. doi: 10.1109/dispatch at scale, for example in different countries, WSC.2012.6465018there may be different types of information useful forthe simulation. The solution is the same as above. The Aringhieri, Roberto. (2007). Ambulance location throughsimulation is broken into various steps and modules. In optimization and simulation: the case of Milano urbanorder for this simulation to work with different inputs area.of data, parts of the simulation would be modified orreplaced. Modifications can be easily made because of the Ball, M. & Lin, F. (1993). “A reliability model applied toadoption of object-oriented programming and the Python emergency service vehicle location,” Operationsprogramming language. Research, vol. 41, pp. 18-36. Future Work: In future quarters, the Global Ties Cruz Dibene, J.C., Maldonado, Y., Vera, C., Oliveira d.M., Trujillo,Roja undergraduate team will connect the dispatcher user L. & Schtze, O. (2017). Optimizing the location ofinterface and the core server runtime with this simulator. ambulances in Tijuana, Mexico. Comput. Biol. Med. 80,Currently, this simulation can only use past data to simulate C (January 2017), 107-115. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.the ambulances. Upon plugging in the simulator, it will compbiomed.2016.11.016become possible to use the already-existing live ambulancetrackers to run the simulation. While the past data may be Maxwell, M. S., Henderson S. G., & Topaloglu, H. (2009).useful to inform travel times in the live simulation, it may “Ambulance redeployment: An approximate dynamicalso be useful to integrate e.g. Google Maps API calls into programming approach,” Proceedings of the 2009the simulation, giving a second opinion for travel times. Winter Simulation Conference (WSC), Austin, TX, 2009, pp. 1850-1860. doi: 10.1109/WSC.2009.5429196 While the simulation itself is useful for comparing theperformance of ambulances given different scenarios of Ni, E. C., Hunter, S. R., Henderson, S. G., & Topaloglu, H.ambulance counts and the number of starting locations, (2012). “Exploring bounds on ambulance deploymentit will also be useful to have the simulation portray its real policy performance,” Proceedings of the 2012 Winterworld counterpart accurately. Machine learning may help Simulation Conference (WSC), Berlin, 2012, pp. 1-12. doi:to improve the accuracy of the simulation itself. 10.1109/WSC.2012.6465198 World Population View http://worldpopulationreview. com/world-cities/tijuana-population/8. Conclusion The software program described here is a proof-of-concept that shows usage of historical data and varyingparameters such as ambulance count and starting locationsto show increases or decreases in ambulance dispatchperformance. We discussed the possibility of furthergeneralizing this simulation to plug into a live-dispatchingsystem to produce realtime information. We will furtherimplement these ideas and test them in Tijuana. Our effortsoffer a promising look at optimizing ambulance dispatchto potentially revolutionize emergency services at scale.VOL 4 / 2018 22

student research Hans Yuan Computer Science Hans graduated from UC San Diego with a Computer Science undergraduate degree. Passionate about teaching, he worked as a TA and has done Computer Science education research. His other interests include engineering leadership and management, politics, and science. Involved with the Cruz Roja Project for the third year, he will be attending the Clinton Global Initiative University conference to share the project and learn about humanitarian efforts done by other students. He’ll use the new insight to continue contributing to the project. Timothy Lam THE EQUILIBRIUM Computer Engineering Timothy Lam graduated from the Universityof California, San Diego in March 2018 and iscurrently pursuing a Masters in ComputerScience there. By becoming involved with theGlobal TIES organization and the QualcommInstitute at UC San Diego he developed aninterest in the intersection between health,humanitarian work, and technology. With avariety of experience in mobile programming,web technologies, and machine learning, he istaking steps towards understanding how datacan be collected, stored, and manipulated intosolving health issues that plague the world today.23

PROFESSOR SPOTLIGHTS Thomas Bussey Assistant Teaching Professor Chemistry & Biochemistry Thomas Bussey earned a B.S. with Honors in Biochemistry and Music from the University of Wisconsin-Madison in 2004, and was selected as a charter member of the Las Vegas Valley Corps of Teach For America. From 2004-2009, he taught high school science at Desert Pines High School in Las Vegas, Nevada and received the Distinguished Educator Award in 2009 from the Educational Services Division of the Clark County School District. During this time, he completed a Masters in Education in Secondary Science with an Emphasis in Technology in 2006. He then went on to complete his Ph.D. in Chemistry with a research focus in Chemical Education in 2013 at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas. Dr. Bussey’s research explores students’ understandings of non-experiential, abstract, and/or emergent scientific phenomena and practices.What were your undergrad years like? me to understand a topic means that I really question how well I am communicating ideas and how well do students Busy. I was a double major in Biochemistry and Music. understand what I think I am saying. Because I know myMentally it was fun because I would go from Chemistry lab own ideas change a lot over time. I’ve been in front of theto choir practice to biology lecture to piano class. So, I had lecture with students talking and then thinking at theto bounce back and forth between different fields. It was same time that, “Oh my gosh, the thing that I’m saying isa lot of work, but it was fun. like what I was talking about last week.” So the fact is that knowledge is not an object, but a process that is evolvingDo you think music has influenced your scientific all the time. It makes me really think about how do we thinkcareer? about what it means for students to know information and reveal what it means to get a right answer to things. So Yes, I think it made me a little more aware of how how do we give students the opportunity to do that, tocreativity and the creative process factors into science. think about what they know, change what they know andAt the end of the day, science is a human creation. People question what they know and be okay with the fact thatmake it up and choose to believe the same things. So they might be wrong and that is an opportunity for themthere is a lot of imagination and creativity involved in to continue to learn. So I mean, there is a lot of just myasking interesting questions and coming up with unique own awareness of how I think makes me really questionways of solving the problem and new techniques and new and continue to ask questions around what does it meaninstruments and things like that. There is a lot of overlap for students to know or understand a science.between the arts broadly and science. Although scientistslike to think of themselves as separate. But I think there is What made you want to pursue a Ph.D. in biochemistry?a lot of commonality between the two. My Ph.D. is in Chemistry but my research focus is inWe know you do research on topics such as how Biochemistry specifically. At the end of the day, it camestudents learn about abstract concepts they can’t down to, ‘what do I want to be when I grow up?’ kind ofsee. What makes you stay in your research area and question. So, as an undergrad I thought I was going to go toconduct research overall? med school. When I graduated, I ended up doing a program I think my own ability to think about what it means forVOL 4 / 2018 24

professor spotlightscalled Teach for America and I got placed in a school of making some broad assumptions.district where I started teaching at a high school rightout of college. I had no training in education and I started So I’m assuming that you just haven’t been doingto figure out very quickly that, ‘I don’t know what I am research on perception and how we learn chemistry.doing.’ So I ended up doing a masters in education. Then I So what has been your favorite research topic so farwas thinking well, I really like being in the academic sort from what you have done?of environment and I wanted to be able to do researcheventually. I actually started a PhD in education and I was So most recently, I’ve been collaborating with a studentsort of thinking to myself that if I do this, I’m going to be who graduated last year. It was one of the first times wherein the education department if I go into academia which - so a lot of the research I’ve been doing have been drivenmeans that I will be teaching teachers how to teach science. by research questions that I have been asking. StudentsI didn’t really want to do that. I wanted to teach science to kind of just come in and help on those projects. This is onestudents. That meant I needed to have a terminal degree in of the first times where we were actually collaborating onmy area. So I switched from a Ph.D. in education to a Ph.D. something. He brought a skill set that I didn’t have and hein Chemistry, so that I could teach Chemistry. The other helped code and design some software to help with thething was really just by chance. I was at a university where analysis process that we have been doing.one of the Chemistry professors was doing educationalresearch. I liked the idea about thinking about teaching If I’m trying to think about what students know andand learning but I also liked Chemistry. So it sort of was what they can learn about non-experimental events, sothe opportunity to do both of those things; have a degree like Chemistry for example. You can’t see atoms, youin Chemistry but still be able to do educational research can’t watch molecules interact and go through a chemicalin that context. reaction. Instead you sort of might see the by-products in lab where you see that the color changes or it gets hot orFor you, what would be the most exciting and something like that. But you’re not seeing what is actuallyfrustrating part of your research? happening. So you have this process that needs to occur in your head where you can mentally zoom in and imagine The exciting thing is that I get to talk to a lot of the molecules moving around or this sort of unreal worldstudents. A lot of what we do is interviews. At the end of of atoms and molecules. Unreal in the context of thatthe day what I want to know is what do you know? And you don’t experience it. So the questions that I ask in mythere is no good way of answering that question. You can’t research is how do you imagine these things that you haveopen somebody’s head and take out what they know. Even never seen or interacted with or experienced in any way.if you do sort of the neurobiology side of it, like maybe I The short answer is that you do experience them. But youknow that this neuron is firing or this neuron is firing or get sort of a cartoon versions of this and stories aboutthey are talking to each other. But that still doesn’t answer how this happens. So you create these mental images fromthe question of ‘what do you know?’ It answers more of the the pictures that are in your textbook and the animations‘what is happening when you do something.’ So the best I that you see on YouTube or wherever you are getting thecan get at what students know, is to ask them what they imagery part of the science.think they know and then observe what they do and whatthey say and make some inferences about what that means So what I am interested in is how you take this picturein terms of what they are doing mentally. So, by talking to you have been given and what does it mean to you? Wea lot of students, I get really interesting insights as to what show students’ representation of science and we askthey’re thinking and what they’re doing. So that is sort of them to interpret what is going on. So what the student isthe exciting part. helping to collaborate with is if I show somebody a picture, and I want to compare it to another image that shows the The frustrating part is that it doesn’t end. Everybody has same kind of information, how do you do that in a way thattheir own sort of unique perspective on things, so trying to is systematic? If I show you two images, they are inherentlyfigure out the broader theme here can be really frustrating different, right? They have different qualities and mightsometimes because everybody is slightly different. At the show different pieces of information. So how do you makeend of the day, we can say that each person has their own a comparison of well ‘this one is better than that one?’. It’sperspective on what’s happening. So what that means is like comparing apples and oranges essentially. So what wethat if you’re studying a room with 400 students in it, that are looking at is how can we categorize the representationsreally means that there are 400 different ideas in the room themselves and then code them in a way that allows us,and 400 ideas that leaves the room after that experience. not to say that this one is better than that one, but toNot everyone is doing everything at the exact same way. say like, if I show students this image, they are likely toSo it is sort of a factory function of education, that might notice these things. So as an instructor, if I want studentsnot work very well. Learning really is an individualised to pay attention to certain features, maybe I can chooseprocess. It makes it a little bit challenging to figure out representations that portray those features better thanhow we know what we think we know, and are we just sort others. At the end of the day, students don’t know what25 THE EQUILIBRIUM

professor spotlightsthey are learning and working at. When we throw an image something that you need to have ownership over, beingupon the screen during lecture, and if I’m the instructor aware and taking advice is great, but I wouldn’t be beholdenand I sort of assume that you see what I see, that is wrong. to anybody to say this is how you have to be and this isYou don’t see what I see. I know what I am trying to what you have to do. Choose those things for yourself.communicate to you. But as students, you don’t necessarilyknow that. So, is there a way that we can sort of cue you Do you have any advice for UC San Diego students?to pay attention to thing that need to be highlighted. Ormaybe minimizing the things that are not that important Try things. But try them for an extended period ofso that you are less distracted by all of the other stuff going time. So I think one of the things that I’ve noticed is - andon there. I was equally guilty of this when I was in undergrad as well - that the idea of what you’re doing an undergrad is to build So, he and I are working on an analytical tool to help a list of things. And sure, there are definitely requirementsdifferentiate one representation from another. for certain things, but I think doing something because you are interested in doing it and doing it for an extendedWhat advice would you give to students that are period of time is important. You need to be wanting tointerested in pursuing a Ph.D. or a career in academia? do that activity, you want to be able to be in the lab or be volunteering at that hospital because you are interested in I would say that getting a Ph.D. is really not an exercise it and you are learning something and you are developing ain gaining knowledge. It is really an exercise in learning how skill set that is unique to that environment. The motivationto navigate bureaucracy. I think the hardest part in my PhD to do something else should be because you want to gainwas in getting all of my committee members in the same a difference of experience and try something new. I thinkroom at the same time, like scheduling. At the end of the that extended duration of experience is useful because it’sday, you have to be really interested in what you are doing one thing when the boxes are checked, but it’s another toin order to pursue a Ph.D. and be self-motivated to be able have developed an understanding of what you’re doing.to continue to do it. Having said that, I think now that I am Because once you develop that rapport, then the lab knowsin academia as a Professor, I am on the opposite side of it you’re not going to mess up and you’re reliable and you’renow. In some ways, I can see a lot of my own frustrations going to show up when you’re supposed to show up, thenand development of self-awareness that students kind of they start trusting you and then that allows you to startcome through and see them working on their projects and doing other things. So having the opportunity to be therethey’re writing their dissertation or thesis and things like for a while to develop that relationship is the importantthat. At some point, you sort of mentally shift from ‘I am a part and once you have that relationship, then you canstudent and I am learning’ to ‘I am not a student anymore, develop sort of additional checkboxes to mark off becauseI’m a colleague with these people’. How I think about this that will allow you to work on a project or participate inproject and the ownership that I take over this work sort writing a paper or something.of transitions. You sort of become more confident and youbecome much more responsible for what you are doing.I think people have this perception that a Ph.D. sort ofgrants you a certain amount of knowledge or expertiseand it doesn’t. It just means that you successfully navigatedthe bureaucracy. At the end of the day, your own expertisecomes from your own development and motivation andthat is something that has no line that you have to cross.So it is something that is sort of constantly developing andbuilding, so I think that it took me a little while to figurethat out. So in terms of advice, I would say that if you want to doit, then do it. Be motivated or find some kind of motivationabout the work that you are doing that makes you get upand want to go into the lab and work on those assignmentsbecause that is what is going to keep you moving forwardis yourself. The other piece of advice I would is to smileand nod. People are going to tell you what to do and whatto think and be nice to them. Smile and nod at them whenthey say those things and then think what parts of thatinformation or advice work for you and do those things,and choose the things that aren’t going to work for youand ignore those things because at the end of the day, it’sVOL 4 / 2018 26

professor spotlights Jade d’Alpoim Guedes Assistant Professor Anthropology & Scripps Institution of Oceanography Jade d’Alpoim Guedes is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Anthropology and at the Scripps Institution of Oceanography. Dr. D’Alpoim Guedes is an environmental archaeologist and ethnobiologist who employs an interdisciplinary research program to understand how humans adapted their foraging practices and agricultural strategies to new environments and have developed resilience in the face of climatic and social change. She employs a variety of different methodologies in her research including archaeobotany, paleoclimate reconstruction and computational modeling. Dr. d’Alpoim Guedes’ primary region of focus is Asia, where she has worked extensively in China, but also has interests in Nepal, Thailand and Pakistan. Dr. d’Alpoim Guedes also works closely with crop scientists to examine the potential of landraces of traditional crops such as millet, wheat, barley and buckwheat for modern agricultural systems.What were your undergraduate years like? adapted their agricultural systems to climate change and how people first started domesticating the first plants Well, mine were actually different from your guys’ and animals, and I studied that in China and the Tibetanbecause I actually did my undergraduate degree in Paris, plateau. One of the things I was really interested in wasFrance. It’s a very different system there because people how climate change affected what people were doing withspecialize immediately after high school. I actually had crops and I wanted a way to model that across space andto do three separate undergraduate degrees because I time. So, I got really interested in computational modelingknew I wanted to be an archaeologist but I also knew I and using paleo climate data. I decided to actually do awanted to work in China and Tibetan areas. I did a degree post-doctoral fellowship in a field that was not my own soin Chinese and one on Tibetan studies and another one I could get the skills to do that. I had two post-doc advisorsin Archaeology. But, it was different in that I couldn’t take and one of them worked on ancient climate change andcourse work outside a certain degree, which made the then my other post-doc advisor actually worked on seadegree you were working on a little bit monotonous. I lived level changes in the past. His name was Jerry Mitrovicain Europe at the time, and that was a good choice as college and one of the things he does is he creates models of howwas free and only about 400 euros for health insurance. I sea level changes throughout time. One of the things wemight have gotten a better education here, but if you weigh found was that a lot of the sites of the coast in China areout the costs of everything else, I was quite happy. And I now underwater. There was a huge wide open continentaldidn’t have any debt after my undergrad. shelf that was once occupied by prehistoric people for like about 30 thousand years. That was recovered prettyWe know you did your Ph.D. in Harvard Graduate quickly, so we’re missing, you know, like a whole part of theschool. Can you talk about that? archaeological record. Anyway, it was a good experience, I really enjoyed delving into a field that had nothing to do I did my Ph.D. in Archaeology at Harvard, within the with what I did my Ph.D. in. It kind of expanded how I thinkanthropology department. It was a different feel than it was about science and everything. Now I’m lucky because myin Europe, as there archaeology is linked more to history job is actually jointly appointed between Scripps - which isthan anthropology. I’m an archaeobotanist, so I study kind of like earth and planetary sciences - andancient plant remains and I use those to understand howpeople’s subsistence changed over time and how people27 THE EQUILIBRIUM

professor spotlightsAnthropology. So, I was able to keep that here, which is one picking a program that is willing to give you some fundingof the things I liked about UC San Diego. for graduate school is what I would say. I would not take out a loan to go to graduate school unless it’s like an MAWhen you went into getting your Ph.D., did you know or medical school. But for something like a Ph.D. I wouldyou wanted to be a professor? go to a fully funded program -- you have enough debt to pay off from undergraduate. Yes. I did know I wanted to be professor when I wentin to get my Ph.D. That was mostly because there wasn’t a Can you delve more into your research?huge job market for other things for archaeologists to do.You could work in CRM - that’s called cultural resource Yeah, so what I’m doing right now is so I have themanagement - but I would have to be working in north laboratory component of my research and there so whatAmerica, and I work in China so that was one of the only I’m doing is I’m analyzing seeds from archeological sitescareer paths I saw myself going through. So, I think I was and identifying them under the microscope with charcoalpretty set on that. and seeing how people’s diet changed, how the crops they used changed, how the seeds the animals ate changedSo what made you stay in research? and how that can reflect the like the flora around the archeological sites or what a step environment might I’m really passionate about the work I do. I think that’s have looked like and we can see changes in decompositionpart of it. I spend a lot of time thinking about it. I really around sites taking place due to deforestation and alsolove doing research I love every part of the process about climate change. So that’s sort of what I do in the lab. Thenit. In terms of just like quality of life issues. I like research I also actually direct an archaeological field work projectbecause I’m my own boss in a way. I mean I do have a boss in China in Jiuzhaigou National Park in Citron Province inbut I get to decide what I’m going to be doing for research Eastern Tibet.and I get to decide how much time I’m spending on it andwhen I’m spending the time on it and how I divide my work What we’re trying to understand there is we’re tryingschedule off. So I like that a lot. I think academia is great to understand how the Tibetan diet as we know it todaybecause is a job where you have a lot of freedom to do emerged and the Tibetan economy as we know it. Sowhatever you want. It’s much less well-paid than other jobs when did people start applying pastoralism and when didbut if you think about how much freedom we have for me they first start planting barley and why and how quicklythat weighs off the having a less high paid job. Plus, I love did things change. So, we’re looking at a very long termteaching, I couldn’t imagine being in a job where I wasn’t habitation site with deep stratigraphy and it’s a reallyteaching. beautiful place. It’s a very alpine environment and then they have these crystal clear lakes with like logs inside.What advice do you have for students that areinterested in pursuing a Ph.D.? What made you interested in China? I have a lot of advice. The one thing I would definitely Yes. I’ve always been interested in Chinese archeologyadvise people is to be realistic about what the job market and I was actually thinking of working in India for a longis at the end. To get really good advice going into grad time but then I went on a trip to China and I was reallyschool about like how many people out of getting the Ph.D. impressed because the government was just putting soactually get a job in academia afterwards. And also looking much money and resources in to archeology. People wereat the CVs of people who did get the jobs. So one can really enthusiastic about working together and that wasactually see, from day one starting in graduate school and what kind of just made me think, “Hey, I might as well justeven before starting grad school , this is what my CV needs work in China.” So, I actually spent my gap year learningto look like so I’m capable of competing for an academic how to speak Chinese. I spent a year actually studyingjob. Because I know when I first started my Ph.D. I think Chinese in Beijing, China between college and graduatethat most of my graduate cohort we didn’t know what the school. It was a great experience.job market was like. I think we were under the impressionthat getting a Ph.D. alone would get us a job and that is What kind of program did you participate in?not how it is at all actually. Compared to the 1970’s, there’sactually a lot less professor positions now. Also there’s a What it is is a consortium of American universitiesmuch higher of number of people getting a Ph.D. So I think that allow you to spend a year at Tsinghua University inthere’s definitely a certain amount of boxes you have to China learning intensive Chinese. I mean my teacherscheck to be successful. I think getting advice on that and were amazing. My classes were either two students to oneactually looking at the CVs of people who were successful teacher or one on one. You have come into class and beat getting jobs out of grad school can be really helpful in prepared. There was a language pledge, I couldn’t speakfiguring out: “Ok this is what these people did they did English the whole year unless when I called my parentsreally well and how can I emulate that” and of course it’s and we we weren’t allowed to speak English to each otherdifferent depending on the field so pick something that is either. I mean it was very intense, but it did the job and thatfield specific in what your interested in. Also, I would say was a really hard job.VOL 4 / 2018 28

professor spotlightsSo what are the most exciting and your favorite parts Do you have any advice for current undergraduateabout research? students? Let me start what the most exciting parts are. It’s really So, I think the hardest thing is somehow getting clearexciting when you coalesce and you make a discovery and on what one wants. But once you know, one of the thingswhen you figure something out that no one has figured that I started doing was I started making five year plans.before. That is really cool. I also just like the process of it. I kind of started asking myself the question of where doYou know, I really enjoy the process of pulling data together, I want to be in five years and then I do a backwards mapseeing correlations between things, seeing the story about of what I have to do to get there. At the end of five years,something in your mind, and why something must have whether it be my CV, or training, or degrees I need or justbeen a certain way. One of the things that I discovered coursework or grades I need on coursework and I justthat was the most exciting to me was four thousand years sort of map that all onto the five year plan and then workago all of these sites that represent the earliest habitation backwards and put it in weeks and semesters and yearsof the Tibetan Plateau were suddenly abandoned. And and quarters and it kind of breaks down the overwhelmingthey were reliant on millet and pig agriculture. I actually task of getting to where you want to get to into a smalldemonstrated that it was impossible for people to continue little task basis without it being this daunting thing. It alsogrowing millet and that is why Tibetans started planting helped me keep on track with what my goals were and itbarley. And that was a really cool moment. I mean it was helped me be accountable like “I said I was gonna publishreally awesome. The model that I ended up running just fit that paper and I haven’t done it yet.” Then like somethingperfectly with what the archaeological record was telling like publishing a paper you can break it down into like writeus. And that’s rare, it’s really rare when that happens. the introduction, make figure #1, figure #3. Those can beSo, discovering that was fun. A lot of my work is being useful I think at any stage of what one wants. And scheduleoutdoors as an archaeologist, and I really enjoy being in the fun into that! It shouldn’t all be about work. I think have anfield. It’s really great too, you know I got for about a month idea of what one needs to succeed in the field. Also, I thinkto two months to my field location and we do excavations having a mentor can be really helpful in helping find whatthere. In terms of the outdoorsiness, I like. that is you enjoy, but also look at the CVs of people you admire. My only other suggestion would be pick something In terms of the more frustrating things I would say, I you’re passionate about because Academia is kind ofthink that Academia still has a lot of work to do for gender like a slow burn versus like a fast burn. So, it’s not likeequality. I have seen around me that there can be bullying studying for a final the night before. It’s not like the kindand stuff in Academia. So, I think that with the #MeToo of profession where one can put like short spurts of reallymovement that things are changing but we still got a road intensive energy and it actually has to be the slow andto go. I think that that happens in politics a lot for the consistent energy. Sometimes it can actually be quite nicesame reason that Academia is still a hierarchical structure working at a consistent pace. Sometimes it can definitelyuntil you get tenure. So, I think we’re not quite there yet. be less stressful than the 10 hour frenzy.I think this is particularly seen in any system where yourjob depends on people more senior than you. I mean I’m What have been some of the challenges you havevery lucky here to know things are really fair. I know of faced?examples where all kinds of things can happen to peopleand there are abuses of power and not just in my field; it’s Some of the challenges I have really arise from doingacross all fields. Even in things like the medical profession. field work in China. It’s very hard to actually get a permitOverall we’ve got a lot of work to do in gender equality. to work in archeology there. I have just received mine this year it took me like four years. So it was a real labor ofWhat do you think have been your greatest love and patience. Sometimes I thought it was never gonnaachievements? work out, and it did. In the end, it was just keeping on working at it consistently and following up with people and A lot of how I think and how I count my achievements working through the bureaucracy. Also, my first job wasn’tis also how my students do. When my students do well, somewhere where my partner could get a job actually. Butlike my MA or Ph.D. students, when they’re able to go now we are so that’s good.and get the jobs that they want because part of our job ismentoring and being good mentors.What are your hobbies? I really like doing yoga. I love cooking, and I also reallylike horse riding but I don’t really get to do it unless I’m inthe Tibetan Plateau.29 THE EQUILIBRIUM

professor spotlights Frank Talke Professor Mechanical & Aerospace Engineering Frank Talke came to UC San Diego in 1986 after seventeen years at the IBM Research and Development Laboratories in San Jose, CA. He was the chairman of the Department of Mechanical & Aerospace Engineering from 1993 to 1995. He is a Fellow of the American Society of Mechanical Engineers (ASME), the Institution of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE), and the Society of Tribology and Lubrication Engineers (STLE). Professor Talke is a member of the National Academy of Engineering (NAE) and a member of Acatech, the German equivalent of the NAE. Among his honors, Talke is the recipient of the first ASME Seagate Information Technology Award (2002), the ASME Medal (2008), the Mayo D. Hersey Award (2010), and the Tribology Gold Medal. Talke received a Diplom-Ingenieur degree from the University of Stuttgart, Germany, in 1965, and an M.Sc. and Ph. D. degree from the University of California, Berkeley, in 1966 and 1968, respectively. Prof. Talke also holds an honorary doctorate degree from the Technical University of Muenchen, Germany.What were your undergraduate years like? an engineer, you have to study the boundary layer that develops at that plane and where the floodplain ends I did my undergraduate education in Germany. It you have an area that is not governed by boundary layerwas a five-year program. I went to school at University equations. This area, the end of the floodplain is what Iof Stuttgart from 1961 to 1965. I studied Mechanical and completed my Ph.D. in 1968. I sometimes think I finishedAerospace Engineering. I worked very hard in undergrad. too fast. I then started to look for jobs.I was also interested in mountaineering and skiing. I skiiedin the Alps and once I crossed the Western Alps from What did you do after your Ph.D.?Chamonix in France and ended in Switzerland. It wasaround 120 miles and took 12 days. We had to take our I had job offers in various areas of the country; Generalfood and luggage and all of the equipment with us for at Electric, Shell Oil and I also got an offer from Xerox. Ileast 6 days. I wanted to study in the United States for one ultimately accepted an offer from IBM. IBM needed anyear, so I got a fellowship in Germany. I then applied for engineering scientist to study hard disks. At that time,schools and I was accepted at UC Berkeley. I came to UC hard disks were a technology that was not well known. SoBerkeley in 1965 with the intention of staying there for I decided that I would work on that. I didn’t know muchonly a year. I received my Masters Degree in 1966. Towards about hard disk technology and computers, but it seemedthe end of the 1966, I took a trip around the world. I went really interesting so I went to IBM. I started working atto Hawaii, Japan, Hong Kong, India, Nepal, Russia, France IBM from 1969 up until 1986. So I was at IBM for 17 years. Iand then back to Germany. I was supposed to do my Ph.D. worked on the disk drive technology and I also worked onthesis at the University of Stuttgart, however I went back tapes. Tapes are used for storage of information. These areto Berkeley to pursue my Ph.D. flexible media. I also worked on ink-jet printing technology. It was under development when I started working on it. AtWhat did you do your Ph.D. thesis in? that time, you did not have inkjet printers that would make beautiful pictures as it is now. When you buy an inkjet I did my Ph.D. thesis in Mechanical Engineering at UC printer now, you pay $50 or $80 and you get this beautifulBerkeley. It was theoretical or numerical problem. I was device. The ink is more expensive than the actual printer.studying the flow of field on a plate that ends. If you areVOL 4 / 2018 30

professor spotlightsHow did you come back to a University setting after Do you have any advice for undergraduates who arebeing in industry for so long? interested in research or want to pursue a PhD? In the early 1980s, the hard disk drive technology What they should do, if they are not sure or if theybecame really important for all of the computers. But it want to learn if a subject is good for them, is find a researchbecame apparent, this technology was also developed in group and try to get some experience and work with aJapan. The Japanese people would take over this technology graduate student or professors. Even if something lookslike they did with cameras and TVs. So there was a drive very formidable, they can learn how it can be broken downby American people in the computer industry to form a into something manageable. They would also learn howcenter for Magnetic Reporting Research. That is how this complicated things are. That is what I would recommendcenter was formed. They went to various companies in the that undergraduate students do. Don’t look for whether itindustry and proposed a Center for Magnetic Research is paid or not. Just look for valuable experience and oncethat can train students, PhDs, and masters who go into you become valuable it all goes from there.the industry and help the industry to prosper in the UnitedStates. In 1984, the center was started and was formed at Are there any challenges you have faced in this path.UCSD. They looked for four chairs. They contacted me tobe the chair for hard-disk interface. Since I had been at There are always challenges. In this project, theIBM, I had knowledge in this area and I had also spent a challenge is that the eye is a very difficult part of theyear in sabbatical from IBM at UC Berkeley. I wasn’t too human body. If you want to measure something in thesure if I would come here to UCSD, since my job at IBM eye it must be done with extreme care. With my otherwas great. I decided that I would come here and if I didn’t project, there was a lot of difficulty about the measurementlike it, I would go back. When I first came here, the lab was of the spacing and understanding the topology and theempty. It was a lot of work to get started. It took a year to friction and working with many people in industry and inget a research group established. the university. Another challenge is with the management of time because at certain times you need to be at homeWhat is your research focus now? with you kids to watch them to grow up. You also have to have time to write papers, do things for students, teach, We started off working mainly on the technology write proposals and so the job never ends. But if you likerelated to hard disk drives. Hard disk technology has it, it doesn’t feel like a job.improved so much. At some point, this technology reachessaturation where nothing can be made much smaller. Weare now on the scale of nanometers. Six or seven years ago, I had a meeting in UC SanDiego with a professor of ophthalmology and two otherprofessors from engineering and these professors said itwould be nice to have a sensor to measure the pressure inthe eye. I went back and thought about how can we coulddo that. After many attempts and tries we narrowed it downto this optical approach where we have a passive sensorat which we shine light from the outside. We implantedthe sensor in the eye of a rabbit for ten weeks. The rabbitperformed really well. Next, we will have a smaller sensorimplanted on the lens. A few years ago, we discovered thesuperbug problem where instrumentation for endoscopyis not cleaned properly and there is a chance that bacteriacan be transferred between patients. We hypothesized thatwe could 3D print something disposable instead. Apartfrom that, we are working on the esophagus deflectiondevice and other students are working on other biomedicalinstrumentation problems.What is the most exciting part about doing research? Well, the exciting part is to think about new ways ofapproaching things and working with students and seeinghow well they approach a problem and how they learn. Mystudent Alex has worked with me for the past 5 years. It iswonderful to see how he has become a scientist and howhe can solve these complicated problems.31 THE EQUILIBRIUM

professor spotlights Meg Wesling Associate Professor Literature Professor Meg Wesling teaches courses in American literature, gender, sexuality, and race. She earned her Ph.D. inEnglish from Cornell University, and has been a part of the Department of Literature at UC San Diego since 2004. Herfirst book, Empire’s Proxy, studied the relationship between American literature and U.S. Imperialism . She is currentlyworking on a book on how we use biology to talk about identity. She has been awarded fellowships and research grantsfrom sources such as the Hellman Foundation, the UC San Diego Academic Senate, and the Society for the Humanitiesat Cornell University.What were your undergraduate years like and how did value and their safety accrue in certain ways, partiallyyou get involved in an academic career? around how loyal they are to gender norms. And so one of the ways I am attempting to theorize gender as labor is to I was a French major in undergrad and I got a certificate think about literally, how much work it takes to producein women’s studies. Keep in mind they didn’t have a major the body as gendered. There’s an economy around the wayat that time. My senior year, I met a professor who became you and I produce our gender. We may experience thata mentor to me. She encouraged me to go to grad school. as natural to us but were we to disavow it there would beShe encouraged me and I have always been grateful for consequences. The degree to which those consequencesthat. could be enacted strikes me that this is a type of compulsory labor. It raises questions about our value as humans andHow did you decide to become a professor? our material value. In my senior year, I was introduced to feminist theory How do you think societal pressure on gender normsand queer theory in the more radical sense. All of a has changed since the 1950’s?sudden, it changed the way I saw the world and I thoughtthat if I could always be in this intellectual and political I resist the idea that we are on a straight line of progress.conversation, then my life would always be enriched by I do not think that things are always getting better, butit. And I get to be there when other students will have now we are able to have conversations that in the pastthat same experience. One of my students from last year were unthinkable. We have also seen in the recent past,wrote me a postcard. “I took your life changing LTEN 175A an enforcement of gender normativity and particularlyand I just wanted to let you know what a lasting impact patriarchal privilege come roaring into the foregroundyour wisdom had on my life. I will cherish this experience.” very acutely. Women having a public role, daring to insistMy mentor changed my life, and now this student will that their diverse experiences are not just marginal toremember this class for a long time and that’s incredible. the universal norm that is some idealization of white masculinity. I think there are some incredibly powerfulWhat has been your favorite research topic so far? conversations happening now, about sexual assault and sexual harassment. I wonder if this will translate into some I’m always interested in the concepts that we, as kind of structural transformation; meaning that the actualindividuals, take to be obvious and ahistorical, like institutions will change beyond something superficial.gender and race. We are taught to think that these arestatic concepts that don’t change. Any time I can work What made you want to pursue so much research inon greater insight about how those concepts actually the LGBTQ field?change historically and how they change based on politicalvariables and cultural norms, those shifts are fascinating to I think it’s my commitment to feminist politics andme because they undo what we take for granted as natural feminist theory that made me interested in exploring andand personal. unpacking ideas about gender and a lot of that happens in the context of thinking about queer politics and queerI know a lot of your work focuses a lot on LGBTQ theory. From the moment that someone is visibly pregnant,aspects of society. Were you trying to demonstrate the first thing that people ask is “do you know the sex of thethat queer culture has an economic value? baby.” This is the first thing that people become interested in about the baby and I think that a person becomes One of the main strands of Queer Theory talks about gendered before they are even born. I am really in awehow gender is a performance and I’ve been very influencedby that theory. I’m interested in how people’s materialVOL 4 / 2018 32

professor spotlightsof people who manage to chart their own course in the expected, take seriously the possibility that the professorface of so much pressure to reproduce the norms that we really wants to create a culture where knowledge is createdall inherit. collectively. The participation actually helps produce insight and analysis in a classroom. If you struggle withWhat are the most exciting and most frustrating parts that, ask for help. As far as pursuing graduate work, I tellof research? students to not go into debt when pursuing humanities graduate degrees because the job market is always The most exciting part is when I can feel that the ideas changing. The other thing I would say is that getting aare finally coming together. I spend a long time pursuing graduate degree takes a long time and being on the clockideas and I can’t be sure if they are going to actually develop to getting tenure takes a long time so if there are thingsinto an argument. There’s a lot of exploration. That’s the you want to do that are time sensitive, do not put themfrustrating part in a way. It’s hard because writing is very off. Your life as a human being is important. You can’t waitsolitary, but I think that it’s exciting to get to spend time until you get tenure to start the rest of the things in yourwith ideas. It always feels a little hard too. Students are life that you want to pursue. I guess the main thing is askalways surprised when I tell them that it is still hard to for help!write. You still, all of a sudden, get an almost uncontrollableurge to clean something in your house or go run an errandor return a phone call. Yup! That doesn’t go away. You justhave to have to try to get better at managing it.Do you have any advice for UC San Diego students orpeople pursuing a career in academia? My advice is go talk to your professors at least onceduring office hours. Tell them when you need help andespecially in a humanities class where participation may be33 THE EQUILIBRIUM

RESEARCH PROGRAMSResearch Programs at UC San DiegoUC San Diego sponsors a variety of programs, internships, and fellowships to encourageundergraduate students to immerse themselves in a particular discipline and train under theuniversity’s guidance.AHA Summer Undergraduate FellowshipThe goal of this fellowship is to encourage students from all disciplines to consider research careers in areas thatare relevant for the mission of the AHA. Student from disadvantaged backgrounds and underrepresented minoritiesare particularly encouraged to apply for this fellowship experience.Application Deadline: December to February 16Program Dates/Info: Requires 2 letters of recommendation, GPA/unofficial transcripts, personal statement requiredfor application.Leadership Excellence through Advanced Degrees (UC LEADS)The UC LEADS program identifies, encourages, and trains undergraduates who have potential for leadership asgraduate students and also as future leaders committed to address the educational and economical factors leadingto underrepresentation of domestic minorities in STEM fields.Application Deadline: FebruaryProgram Dates/Info: 2 year program; Minimum $3000 stipend for the first summer; Minimum $4000 stipend forthe second summer; Housing compensation also providedMcNair ProgramThe objective of the McNair program is to provide students from low income families, first-generation collegestudents, and underrepresented groups an effective preparation for Ph.D. studies.Application Deadline: OctoberProgram Dates/Info: 10 hours/week during Winter and Spring quarter; 30 hours/week during 8 weeks of summerMedical Scientist Training Program Summer Undergraduate Research Fellowship (SURF)The Summer Undergraduate Research Fellowship is an 8 week program for undergraduate students fromunderrepresented groups in the Biomedical Sciences.Application Deadline: March/AprilProgram Dates/Info: 8 weeks during summer; $1600/month stipend; Includes room (not board)Qualcomm Institute Summer Research Seminars & Networking ProgramThis summer program will consist of various workshops and seminars for all UC San Diego students who can benefitfrom the institute’s summer training events, including seminars and workshops on research communications(makeing professional presentations, public speaking, use of social media to publicize research findings, etc.).Application Deadline: Rolling BasisProgram Dates/Info: June 21 - August 2VOL 4 / 2018 34

Research Programs UC Scholars Program The UC Scholars Program is a 8-week, full-time research experience for undergraduates, supported by UCSD Student Affairs. The objective of the UC Scholars program is to increase learning and networking opportunities for students committed to pursuing either a professional or academic research career Application Deadline: Frebruary Program Dates/Info: 8 weeks during summer Scripps Institute of Oceanography SURF SURF fellows will typically spend 8 hours a day, Monday - Friday, engaged in their faculty led research projects. In addition to research training, the SURF program provides mentoring and tips to prepare participants for success in graduate school. Fellows will attend weekly research workshops, conducted by Scripps researchers and faculty, participate in a GRE (Graduate Records Exam) course, and give a formal presentation of their results at the SURF Research Symposium at the end of the program. The SURF program also includes local field trips and social events. Application Deadline: March 5 Program Dates/Info: Application Opens mid-January; Students Notified by March 23; Program Duration June 24 - August 24 Triton Research and Experiential Learning Scholars Program (TRELS) TRELS is an undergraduate summer research program. The purpose is to: introduce students to what experiential learning looks like in their field, and promote an understanding that experiential learning encompasses more than just research; provide students with an understanding of the collaborative processes involved in research, creative work production, and other experiential learning practices; increase participation in experiential learning opportunities for underrepresented and low-income students. Application Deadline: Quarterly Deadlines Website: https://ucsd-research.academicworks.com Program Dates/Info: Awarded $1,000 per quarter (or up to $5,000 per summer); Supplemental Information Required: Statement of Interest, Statement of Obstacles, Project Description, Project Independence, Project Deliverable; Faculty Support, Project Type, Project Area, 2018 CAICE Undergraduate Summer Research Program CAICE is an undergraduate summer research program. This program features mentoring from professionals in the network, graduate school preparations, field trips and symposiums, a stipend and cover for travel costs. Application Deadline: September 2 and February 1 Program Dates/Info: Minimum stipend of $4000; Housing for full program duration; Summer duration Contact: [email protected] THE EQUILIBRIUM

Research ProgramsResearch Programs outside of UC San DiegoUC San Diego sponsors a variety of programs, internships, and fellowships to encourageundergraduate students to immerse themselves in a particular discipline and train under theuniversity’s guidance. Amgen Scholars Amgen Scholars allows undergraduates from across the globe to participate in cutting-edge research opportunities at world-class institutions. Undergraduate participants benefit from undertaking a research project under top faculty, being part of a cohort-based experience of seminars and networking events, and taking part in a symposium in their respective region (U.S., Europe or Japan) where they meet their peers, learn about biotechnology, and hear from leading scientists. Application Deadline: February 1 or 15 (Depending on location) Program Dates/Info: Must be a US citizen or permanent resident, have GPA of 3.2 or higher, be an undergraduate student enrolled in accredited four-year college or universitie in the United States, Puerto Rico or other U.S. territories, be interested in pursuing a Ph.D. or M.D.-Ph.D. Collegiate Leaders in Environmental Health (CLEH) CLEH program is only open to full-time undergraduate students who are rising juniors or seniors by Fall 2018. CLEH applicants must have an academic major or demonstrated coursework concentration in environmental studies, environmental, physical, biological, chemical, and/or social sciences. Application Deadline: Varies Program Dates/Info: Interns will be provided a monthly stipend of approximately $600/week; Be a US citizen or Permanent Resident (with a green card); Minimum cumulative GPA of 3.0 on a 4.0 scale; Proof of health insurance upon acceptance into the program; Be a full time student, NOT graduating before or during the internship summer. National Institutes of Health (NIH) Summer Internship Program in Biomedical Research (SIP) The NIH Institutes sponsor a wide range of summer activities including lectures featuring distinguished NIH investigators, career/professional workshops, and Summer Poster Day. Individual scientists select their own summer interns and provide their funding; there is no centralized selection process. Application Deadline: March Program Dates/Info: Internships cover a minimum of eight weeks, with students generally arriving at the NIH in May or June. Stipend amount varies. National Science Foundation (NSF) Research Experience for Undergraduates (REU) This program provides indirect funding for undergraduate students to participate in research. REU sites are based on independent proposals to initiate and conduct projects that engage a number of students in research. REU sites are offered at a variety of locations - see online for details. Application Deadline: Winter Program Dates/Info: Generally 8 weeks during summer; Stipend amount varies.VOL 4 / 2018 36

Research Programs U.S. Dept. of Energy Office of Science Undergraduate Laboratory Internships (SULI) This program encourages undergraduate students to pursue science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) careers by providing research experiences at the Department of Energy (DOE) laboratories. Application Deadline: May Program Dates/Info: Internships are 10 weeks in duration for the Summer Term (May through August) or 16 weeks in duration for the Fall (August through December) and Spring (January through May) Terms Summer Program in Environmental Health (SUPEH) This is a paid 9-week internship for current students majoring in environmental health in a program accredited by the National Environmental Health Science and Protection Accreditation Council (EHAC). Interns collaborate with federal employees working in the environmental health field and develop mentoring relationships. Interns also shadow senior officials and scientists, spend time in local public health departments, and travel to important environmental health sites in the city of Atlanta and beyond. Application Deadline: Varies Program Dates/Info: Be a US citizen or Permanent Resident (with a green card); Minimum cumulative GPA of 3.0 on a 4.0 scale; Proof of health insurance upon acceptance into the program; Be a full time student, NOT graduating before or during the internship summer; Stipend of 600$/week37 THE EQUILIBRIUM

Team membersMeet TheEquilibrium TeamVOL 4 / 2018 Hazel Leung Editor-in-Chief Hazel is a third year cognitive science, human computer interaction major. She probably wants to be a UX designer and researcher one day, so she is getting very acquainted with the human-centered design process and experimental design. She works in two labs: The Design Lab, where she is researching data visualization, and in a cognitive psychology lab, where she is researching social cognition, property, and social norms. She will probably eventually apply to graduate school, but since there are already quite a few “probably’s” in this short biography paragraph, she probably still does not know what she really wants to do. She’ll probably eventually figure it out. She loves traveling, eating, and petting dogs and cats. She also loves taking pictures of the food she eats and the dogs and cats she pets. Yogitha Chareddy Editor-in-Chief Yogitha is a third year molecular biology major with a minor in business. Her love for science began in high school after she read Jurassic Park, and she aspires to one day use genetic manipulation for medical and commercial purposes in the biotechnology industry (although hopefully nothing as dangerous as bringing dinosaurs back to life). She is currently a research assistant in a cell biology lab in the School of Medicine and a financial consultant for the UC San Diego Food Cooperative. After completing her degree next year, she hopes to go to graduate school for a Ph.D. and then enter the workforce. When she is not obsessively editing submissions or harassing her editorial team to edit submissions, she enjoys reading and writing, traveling, and updating her Instagram with aesthetic pictures. 38

Team members Aditya Rao Content Editor Aditya is a third year Biochemistry & Cellular Biology Major, with minors in History & Psychology, who is applying to medical school this year. He currently works at the Cleveland Lab for Neurodegenerative Diseases and as a Resident Adviser for Sixth College Reslife. He is involved with a number of service orgs on campus such as Camp Kesem and Therakeys and in his free time he enjoys boxing recreationally. Akhilesh Yeluru Content EditorAkhilesh is a third year Bioengineering: Biotechnology Majorwho is planning on applying to medical school next year. He ispassionate about his research in the Cardiovascular ImagingLab on a predictive measure of TAVR surgery success. He is aPalomar Pathmaker Intern and is also involved with the TritonEngineering Student Council on campus. In his free time, Akhileshis an avid archery on the Sun God Archery competitive team. Cailen Cortez Content Editor Cailen is a third year Political Science/International Relations major with a minor in Law & Society. Her primary interests are international and national security, foreign policy, and political analysis. As she is finishing her degree in June, she plans to spend this upcoming year in Europe further studying international affairs. One of the hallmarks of her personality is saying “I have so much to do” and then taking a 4 hours nap. Anyway, what was I saying? Oh yeah. Go Tritons! Diana Cortez-Moreno THE EQUILIBRIUM Content EditorDiana is a fourth year public health major and besides being acontent editor for The Equilibrium, she volunteers in a clinic forthe underserved in Tijuana and is an active member of Rotaractat UCSD. She plans on attending graduate school for a Masters inPublic Health. Her favorite food group is hot chocolate and in herfree time she loves to hang out with her friends at coffee shops allover SD, find new music, go on hikes and joke around with friends.39

Team Members Priyanka Dasgupta Content Editor Priyanka is a fourth year Cognitive Science major and is a content editor for The Equilibrium. After graduation, she plans to apply to Ph.D. programs in Neuroscience. She is deathly afraid of turning 30 but is more afraid of not realizing she was halfway to 40. Priyanka likes to read, binge watch TV shows and occasionally likes to write short stories. Ponmathi Ramasamy-jayaseelan PublicistPonmathi is a publicist in The Equilibrium. She is a second yearchemistry major from Dubai, U.A.E. Her full passport nameis 39 letters long, and her favourite book is A Brief History ofTime. In her free time, Ponmathi likes to work out, volunteeras a peer advisor in the chemistry department, and hike. Sheenjoys exploring San Diego, as well as talking to professorsabout their research, which made the Equilibrium a greatfit for her. She saw Chance in concert and it changed her life.Yelitza MendezDesign EditorYelitza is a first year computer science major, who is interestedin graphical user interface and user experience. Besides beinginvolved in The Equilibrium, she is also a member of Womenin Computing. When she’s not coding her life away she enjoysexploring the city, going on brunch dates, and visiting art museums. Yubin Cho 40 Design EditorYubin is a graduating senior majoring Cognitive Science specialized inHuman-Computer Interaction. She is planning to go to grad school inSouth Korea after graduation. Before she leaves California, she wantsto try many things. So she is taking a surf class and hiking in her freetime. She also loves traveling the city, reading books, and swimming.VOL 4 / 2018