An archive of creative expression; brain shape changes

Oct. 7, 2025

UC Irvine Digest header featuring 60 years badge

The Infinity Fountain area is abuzz with student activity. (Photo by Steve Zylius / UC Irvine)

UC NEWS

Federal disclosure obligations: message from UC President

Yesterday, we shared a message from UC President James B. Milliken, which in part addressed the University of California’s legal responsibility to comply with certain federal oversight requests. While UC works to protect privacy, some investigations may require the release of university records. An accompanying FAQ (PDF) helps clarify what this means for our community members. For ongoing UC and UC Irvine federal updates, visit uci.edu/federal-updates/.

UC IRVINE NEWS

An archive of creative expression

“Untitled (Red Square)” by Ed Moses is among the many works that have been displayed in the University Art Gallery.

Claire Trevor School of the Arts is pulling back the curtain on six decades of groundbreaking artistic practice with “The Inoperative Community: Exhibition X Practice, UCI 1965-2025.” Opening with a public reception on Saturday, Oct. 11, from 2 to 5 p.m., the landmark exhibition spans all three of the university’s art galleries and anchors the School of the Arts’ yearlong 60th anniversary celebrations. The curators – Juli Carson, Kevin Appel and Sasha Ussef – conceived of the exhibition as both archival and forward-looking. “The archives show us that the galleries have always been a living, breathing organism,” said Kevin Appel, chair of UC Irvine’s Department of Art and executive director of University Art Galleries. “This exhibition isn’t about freezing history in place. It’s about recognizing how each generation reshaped the conversation – and how the next one will do the same.”

Celebrating National Latino Physician Day

physicians and students from the UC Irvine School of Medicine gathered to celebrate National Latino Physician Day

Dozens of physicians and medical students in the School of Medicine took part in National Latino Physician Day on Wednesday, joining a nationwide effort to raise awareness about the lack of Latinos in medicine. In the U.S., Latinos are 19 percent of the population but only 6 percent of physicians. In California, Latinos represent approximately 40 percent of the population – a number expected to grow to 50 percent by 2050. To inspire the next generation of Latino physicians, joint events were held at the UCI Health Medical Center in Orange and on the UC Irvine campus.

Brain shape changes

The analysis revealed substantial alterations in brain shape, which were closely associated with declines in memory, reasoning and other cognitive functions.

A new study by UC Irvine researchers found that aging changes the brain’s overall shape in measurable ways. Instead of focusing only on the size of specific regions, the team used a new analytic method to see how the brain’s form shifts and distorts over time. The analysis revealed that their geometric approach could provide new markers for identifying dementia risk. “If the aging brain is gradually shifting in a way that squeezes this fragile region against a rigid boundary, it may create the perfect storm for damage to take root. Understanding that process gives us a whole new way to think about the mechanisms of Alzheimer’s disease and the possibility of early detection,” said Michael Yassa, co-author and director of the CNLM, and James L. McGaugh Endowed Chair. The National Institute on Aging helped support the research. #SpeakUp4Science

#UCIconnected

Commemorative key for UCI Health

Team members who were instrumental to the design, construction and completion of the new UCI Health — Irvine hospital celebrate receipt of a commemorative key. L to R: Arash Altoontash (HCAI), Kasie Bowden (Hensel Phelps), Nate Shinagawa, Brian Maximuk (Hensel Phelps), Josephine Jorge-Reyes, Paul DeVeiga, Hoda Assadian, Dr. Alpesh Amin, Anne Marie Watkins, Chad Lefteris.

Chad T. Lefteris, president and chief executive officer at UCI Health (far right), received a commemorative key to the new UCI Health – Irvine hospital, to be completed in December. The Orange County Register spoke with Lefteris, who was attending an event celebrating the near completion of the building. “This is a historic thing. We are finally returning to Irvine as a health system. We’ve been up in Orange for years – now we’ve returned fully to meet the needs in Irvine and the central and coastal communities,” he said.

#IamUCI

Education faculty and students earn global honors

Nia Nixon, associate professor, holds award

Nia Nixon (right)

Nia Nixon, associate professor, and Ph.D. student Seehee Park both brought home international recognition – shining a spotlight on the School of Education across two major conferences. At the Society for Text and Discourse conference in July, Nixon received the Tom Trabasso Young Investigator Award, which celebrates early-career scholars making significant contributions in their field. Meanwhile, Park – who is mentored by Nixon – and her team’s paper, Discourse to Dynamics: Understanding Team Interactions through Temporally Sensitive NLP, earned the Best Paper Award at the International Conference on Educational Data Mining. Together, these achievements highlight what makes the School of Education special: faculty and students pushing the boundaries of research, lifting each other up and making waves far beyond Irvine.

#UCIconnected spotlights interesting updates from the UC Irvine community. #IamUCI spotlights profiles of students, faculty, staff and alumni. Send submissions via email or post on social media with the #UCIconnected or #IamUCI hashtags.