As a USC Ambassador, you play an important role in sharing the university’s successes with broader communities, and I want to thank you for your efforts. As you communicate the university’s news with your friends and family, our story reaches more and more people, giving a boost to our university’s mission and the impact of our work. Please know that we sincerely appreciate your support, and ask you to continue to share these messages with others.
This month, I want to begin with wonderful news regarding University Professor Mark Humayun, who holds appointments in the department of ophthalmology of our Keck School of Medicine, as well as our Viterbi School of Engineering. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration recently approved a prosthetic eye implant developed by Professor Humayun, which represents the first treatment to restore limited vision to blind patients. This device, known as the Argus II, uses electrodes implanted in the eye to transmit images to the brain, bypassing retinas damaged by retinitis pigmentosa. This technology might eventually treat conditions other than blindness, such as spinal paralysis.
In an interview with The Wall Street Journal, Professor Humayun said: “The fact that many patients can use the Argus implant in their activities of daily living such as recognizing large letters, locating the position of objects, and more, has been beyond our wildest dreams, yet the promise to the patients is real and we expect it only to improve over time.” Professor Humayun’s innovation has received considerable attention all over the world, and I’d like to share a piece from The New York Times with you here.
Additionally, earlier this semester, USC hosted GLIMPSE, a special event to showcase our strengths in digital technology. As you can see from the enclosure, GLIMPSE was a tremendous success, but just as importantly, it allowed us to emphasize USC’s longstanding and growing excellence in the realm of digital media and communication. Given our location, as well as our resources as a major research university, USC has a unique advantage in this area, one that separates us considerably from our peer institutions.
To be more specific, Southern California has grown up alongside the entertainment and media, military technology, and engineering industries, providing a dynamic backdrop for the university’s work. Recently, we have seen a significant shift in technology development to Los Angeles, signaled by an influx of new media businesses such as Google, as well as tech start-ups that are establishing operations here. USC is certainly contributing to this shift—and the development of what is referred to as Silicon Beach—as we offer a vibrant and creative community with which to collaborate.
Also with this mailing, I want to share three magnificent pieces that recently appeared in the Los Angeles Times, each of which brought attention to a different arts school at USC. One profiled Alice Schoenfeld, a longtime professor of violin instruction at our Thornton School of Music. She has committed $10 million to the university, the largest gift ever made to USC by a faculty member. Her gift established the Alice and Eleonore Schoenfeld Endowed Scholarship Fund for Strings Students, and renovated the school’s symphonic rehearsal space. The scholarship fund and the hall are named for Professor Schoenfeld and her late sister, Eleonore, who also taught at USC for many years. The profile captures Professor Schoenfeld’s singular dedication to her late sister, her talented students, and the USC community, and is an outstanding tribute to her generosity of spirit.
A second piece in the Los Angeles Times featured two faculty members in our School of Dramatic Arts, Gordon Davidson and Eric Trules, who co-designed and co-teach the course “A Life in the Theater with Gordon Davidson.” Professor Davidson is the founder of the Mark Taper Forum and former artistic director of Center Theatre Group. The goal of the course, according to Professor Trules, is to “create new work for the theater with a passionate, committed, and original L.A. ‘voice.’” Professor Davidson, who is visiting at USC, encourages students to create hypothetical theaters, while crafting unique identities and artistic seasons for them.
The final piece I want to share is a conversation with Dean Elizabeth Daley of the USC School of Cinematic Arts, in which she discusses the relationship between entertainment and violence. She raises a number of thought-provoking points, and taken together, I believe these three pieces reflect the dynamism and diversity of the university’s arts programming.
I hope you enjoy all of the pieces that accompany this month’s letter, and I want to encourage you once again to share them with your friends and family. We appreciate your helping us tell USC’s story to the outside community.
Yours truly,
C. L. Max Nikias
President