I would like to begin this month’s letter with my heartfelt congratulations to USC’s newest graduates. Commencement was tremendously inspiring for the entire Trojan Family, and we are so proud of our extraordinarily talented new alumni, and wish them continued success. Next month, I will share some highlights from commencement, but if you would like to see some of my personal photos now, I invite you to follow me on Instagram. My username is uscpres.
USC Shoah Foundation milestones
Earlier this month, the USC Shoah Foundation Institute commemorated its twentieth anniversary with a gala celebration in Los Angeles. (As you may know, USC Trustee Steven Spielberg established the foundation in 1994, and it became part of the USC Dornsife College of Letters, Arts and Sciences in 2006). This year, the institute presented its Ambassador for Humanity Award to President Barack Obama, saluting his continued commitment to human rights and education. The evening also included appearances by Bruce Springsteen and Liam Neeson, the lead actor from Schindler’s List, with Conan O’Brien serving as emcee.
Two weeks before the event, the USC Shoah Foundation announced that it would establish the Center for Advanced Genocide Research, thereby expanding its rigorous study of genocides and their origins, as well as how to intervene and stop them.
USC Kaufman celebrates its start
In April, USC broke ground on the USC Glorya Kaufman International Dance Center, to be constructed on the corner of West 34th Street and Watt Way. The three-story, brick building will house the USC Kaufman School of Dance, the university’s sixth independent arts school, and the first school to be established at USC in more than four decades. The school will welcome its inaugural class of students in the fall of 2015, and recently announced that esteemed choreographer William Forsythe will join its faculty. Mr. Forsythe stands among the most significant choreographers working today: he leads his own troupe—the Forsythe Company—and has deeply influenced both ballet and contemporary dance. In addition to teaching undergraduates, he will work with graduate students from the university’s International Artist Fellows program.
Paul Debevec and the USC Institute for Creative Technologies
The New Yorker recently published an in-depth piece on the work of Professor Paul Debevec and the USC Institute for Creative Technologies (ICT), focusing on its pioneering use of animation techniques and the creation of lifelike digital models. Professor Debevec’s innovations have an impressively broad range of applications: for example, his research has been used to create interactive holograms of Holocaust survivors to preserve testimony of their experiences, and he has contributed to several Hollywood films, including The Matrix and Avatar. For his cutting-edge and highly imaginative work, he has received an Academy Award.
Los Angeles Times Festival of Books
In April, USC hosted the Los Angeles Times Festival of Books for the fourth consecutive year. It was a glorious weekend—a true celebration of community, creativity, and intellectual curiosity. In addition to literary discussions and readings, the event included musical performances, film screenings, and cooking demonstrations, as well as a range of renowned writers, thinkers, and cultural figures. More than 154,000 attendees visited our University Park Campus that weekend, and the accompanying photos will give you a sense of the event’s vibrancy.
From rocket science to entrepreneurship
In May, the Los Angeles Times published a magnificent profile of Professor Andrea Belz of our Marshall School of Business. The article focused on Professor Belz’s unique career path: while pursuing research at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, she became interested in the culture of technology companies and elected to pursue an MBA. She later started her own consultancy and joined the USC Lloyd Greif Center for Entrepreneurial Studies, where she created the Accelerator, Incubator and Mentoring program. Professor Belz was recently named academic director of the master’s program in Entrepreneurship and Innovation, and the profile captures her entrepreneurial spirit and her passion for interdisciplinary collaboration, both of which typify the USC community.
USC News launched
I am pleased to share that USC has launched a new online news site: news.usc.edu. This site captures news from across the university, bringing USC’s stories, photos, and videos to a single, simple-to-use location. The site organizes our stories into categories, which you can easily search or narrow, and contains even more lively images, while incorporating leading-edge technology and the latest social media tools. To receive periodic updates, I encourage you to subscribe in the box on the left side of the page.
Niki and I truly appreciate your continued dedication to USC and your strong support of our community. We hope your summer is off to a wonderful start.
Yours truly,
C. L. Max Nikias
President