[SQ Volume 10] Letter from the Editor

Milli Desai| Editor-in-Chief | SQ Vol. 10 (2012-2013)

This year marks the production of the 10th volume of Saltman Quarterly (SQ). milliAs we celebrate more than one decade of SQ journals, we also celebrate one decade of our unique role as a facilitator of science communication.

At UC San Diego, we welcomed Pradeep Khosla as our eighth chancellor, and along with a new chancellor, we welcomed new visions for our university. During his Investiture speech, Chancellor Khosla quoted the founding father of UC San Diego, Roger Revelle, in saying that “the way to the future may derive from honoring the past.” The SQ program indeed revolves around this quote, as we continuously try to expand upon the visions of Dr. Saltman.

Dr. Saltman understood the passion that undergraduate students have for biology. He strove to provide means for students to be integrally involved in biological research, even at the undergraduate level. As we provide a means for students to have their own research published in our journal, we involve students in the process of disseminating knowledge–from students reviewing research manuscripts to designing the journal to distributing the journals for all students to read. And through this dissemination of knowledge, we as students encourage our own peers to learn about and develop a passion for biological sciences.

SQ continues to broaden its reach with Dr. Saltman’s legacy in mind. This year’s publication includes Master’s students’ short scientific contributions called brevias. We also expanded our social media reach and created a new interactive media website that is the online version of our journals–where one can access and share each of our research manuscripts and features articles on the web. A highlight of this year was when SQ students had the opportunity to meet Dr. Bruce Beutler, UC San Diego alumnus and 2011 Nobel laureate in Physiology and Medicine, on his visit to our campus. When we presented the SQ journal to Dr. Beutler, we are proud to say that he was very impressed by the quality of the publication and he said that the journal is “very beautifully put together.” I invite you to read my conversation with Dr. Beutler at the end of this journal to find out why he thinks the ability to communicate is the biggest indicator of success in science.

I am honored to introduce to you Volume 10. As the Division of Biological Sciences undergoes an expansion in its own way to no longer have impacted biology majors, it is my hope that SQ will carry on Dr. Saltman’s visions to make biology accessible to all students for many more decades to come.

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Volume 10 Articles

A complete archive of all articles and manuscripts in Volume 10 of Saltman Quarterly can be accessed here.

Featured Cover Photo

This photo was selected among the finalists of our annual photo contest, this year hosted on our Facebook page.

Photographer Hanwen Xie, captured this amphibian at the San Diego Zoo on June 23, 2012.
Photographer Hanwen Xie, captured this amphibian at the San Diego Zoo on June 23, 2012. She is a Visual Arts major at UC San Diego and will graduate in 2015.