Dec. 16, 2014 Speaker: Erica Ollmann Saphire, Ph.D., Ebola Virus

Erica Ollmann Saphire, Ph.D. is a Professor of Immunology and Microbial Science at The Scripps Research Institute. Her research explains how and why viruses are pathogenic and provides the roadmap for medical defense. Her team has explained how the viruses drive themselves into cells, how they suppress immune function, where human antibodies can defeat them, as well as the structure of the entire human antibody itself. A recent discovery expanded the central dogma of molecular biology by proving that certain viral proteins actually rearrange into different structures at different times for different functions.

Her work has been recognized with the Presidential Early Career Award in Science and Engineering, an Investigators in the Pathogenesis of Infectious Disease and a Career Award in the Biomedical Sciences from the Burroughs Wellcome Fund, by young investigator awards from the American Society for Biochemistry and Molecular Biology and the American Society of Microbiology, and by the Surhain Sidhu award for the most outstanding contribution to the field of diffraction by a person within five years of the Ph.D. She is a Fellow of the American Academy of Microbiology, serves on the Scientific Leadership Board of the Global Virus Network and is the Director of the Viral Hemorrhagic Fever Immunotherapeutic Consortium. This organization, the VIC, united the field into a single force to understand and provide antibody therapeutics against Ebola, Marburg, Lassa and other viruses.

Dec. 9, 2014: Dipak Gupta, SDSU, Understanding Terrorism & Social Conflict

Dipak K. Gupta is Distinguished Professor Emeritus in the Department of Political Science at San Diego State University.  He served as the Founding Director of undergraduate program in International Security and Conflict Resolution (ISCOR). In 1997, he was awarded Albert W. Johnson Distinguished Lecturer, the highest research award for the university and was the “Professor of the Year” in 1994. His primary research interest involves the causes of terrorism, ethnic conflict, and the impact of political instability on national economic development.

Born in India, Gupta received Master’s degrees in Economics from Visva Bharati University, Santiniketan, India, and University of Pittsburgh.  He earned his Ph.D. in the area of Economic and Social Development from the Graduate School of Public and International Affairs at University of Pittsburgh. He has been a visiting scholar at St. Antony’s College, Oxford University, El Colegio de Mexico in Mexico City, Leiden University in the Netherlands, Fudan University in Shanghai, China and the Terrorism Prevention Branch at the United Nations Office for Drug Control and Crime Prevention (ODCCP) in Vienna, Austria.  He was also awarded a summer fellowship in the International Studies Program at the Hoover Institution for War, Peace, and Revolution, at Stanford University. He received a post-doctoral fellowship at the Institute for International Politics and Economics in Belgrade, Yugoslavia.

Professor Gupta is the author of nine books and over 150 publications in scholarly journals, research monographs, chapters, in edited volumes and newspapers.

High School Interact Clubs And Rotary Club Of La Jolla Join Forces To Build 21St House In Mexico For Needy Families

By Sally Fuller (LJ Light Article) –

Volunteers from the Interact Club at La Jolla High and The Bishop’s School were joined by members of La Jolla Rotary to build the 21st home for an impoverished family in Tijuana.

You may also read the article HERE on La Jolla Light’s website

The home design is 16×20 feet with a small sleeping loft. The homes are unheated, have no running water and no electricity.

 The non-profit Project Mercy manages all the client-side considerations. Clients are evaluated based upon their family needs, legal rights to the property, and other considerations. To date, Project Mercy has arranged construction of more than 1,500 homes in Tijuana neighborhoods.

The total expense is $4,600 for the building materials, the cement foundation, building supervision and two or three local framing carpenters. An outhouse with a septic tank is an additional $900. Funding comes from generous Rotarians, community members and Interact Club fundraising.

Volunteers need to be in good health and must possess a passport or green card. The build day begins with a rendezvous at Mission Bay Visitor’s Center at 5:30 a.m. The home-build begins at 7:30 a.m. and ends by 4:30-5 p.m. Due to unpredictable border waits, return to the visitor’s center ranges from 6:30 to 8:30 p.m. At the end of the day, everyone is tired but happy!

Some people ask is it dangerous? Mexico is a developing country with well-publicized problems and attendant risks to visitors. Construction work is potentially dangerous and precautions are taken to reduce the likelihood of injury.

Plans are to build again in early March and late June. To join the effort, visit rotarycluboflajolla.com and click on “contact us.”