No. 1 in THE World

Announced today, Caltech is the best university on the Earth, according to THE World University Rankings.

Media coverage:

Caltech Today
LA Times
Business Week
Washington Post
Pasadena Star-News

Click here for the full list of rankings.

Five Named to SCIAC All-Academic Team

For the second straight season, five men's basketball players were named Academic All-Conference. To qualify for the SCIAC honor, one must be at least a second-year varsity player and have a minimum cumulative G.P.A. of 3.4.

This year, four sophomores and one senior qualified:

(pictured above, left to right)

Pan Wang '13 -- computer science

Arjun Chandar '13 -- mechanical engineering

Ryan Elmquist '11 -- computer science

Christophe Kunesh '13 -- computer science

Alex Runkel '13 -- mechanical engineering

Congratulations to the Beavers!

(official release here)

Beavers Bounce into Honors Court

Four Caltech players from the 2009-10 season were recently named to the NABC Honors Court for their achievements in the classroom. Honorees include ZeNan Chang, Christian Clanton, Ryan Elmquist, and Ruslan Kurdyumov.

Chang (biology), Clanton (applied physics), and Kurdyumov (mech E and business econ mgmt) graduated in June and are headed to graduate school while Elmquist is a rising senior and computer science major.

Both Clanton and Kurdyumov are 2-time honorees.

For the full list and official release from the NABC, click here. (Caltech student-athletes appear on page 3).


(From the release)

KANSAS CITY, Mo. — The National Association of Basketball Coaches (NABC) today announced the NABC Honors Court, recognizing those collegiate basketball student-athletes who excelled in academics during the 2009-10 season. The NABC Honors Court recognizes the talents and gifts that these men possess off the court, and the hard work they exhibit in the classroom. In order to be named to the Honors Court, an athlete must meet a high standard of academic criteria. The qualifications are as follows:

1. Academically a junior or senior and a varsity player.

2. Cumulative G.P.A. of 3.2 or higher at the conclusion of the 2009-10 academic year.

3. Students must have matriculated at least one year at their current institution.

4. Member of an NCAA Division I, II, III, or NAIA Institution.

Tech Trails: Beavers Ride Wave to More SURFs

Tech Trails tracks summer plans of Caltech basketball players -- from SURFs (summer undergraduate research fellowships) to related work in the fields of math, science, and engineering.

Two more players will be SURFing this summer on campus. (artwork by Caltech tennis player Michelle Jiang '11)

Arjun Chandar, a freshman guard from Miami, Florida, will be researching Modern American politics and Christianity under Erik Snowberg. The project aims to investigate the factors that lead Christian preachers to deliver political sermons in modern times (since 1995).

Chandar, who is often referred to as "Mr. President" by the the team because of his leadership and communication skills, will be collecting sermons from church websites and classifying them as political or nonpolitical based upon the results of a computer program as well as manual inspection -- of course, he will write the program.

"I expect to learn more about programming and important political drivers in modern American culture," said Chandar. "Hopefully, my research can shed some light on how politics influences Christianity and, possibly, how Christianity can influence politics."

Chandar, along with fellow classmate Ethan Boroson, was voted Citizen of the Year this past season by teammates.

Ziying Wang, a junior guard from SoCal's Rowland Heights, is set to research Nano-scale chemistry application in atrophic age-related macular degeneration with Robert Grubbs, who won the Nobel Prize in chemistry in 2005. End-stage atrophic age-related macular degeneration is a disease that causes middle-aged and elderly patients to go blind.

"The goal of my research," said Wang, "is to come up with nano-particle systems that can potentially replace some of the dead ganglion cells' photoreceptors to return vision to the patient."

Wang is a 3-year player and a double major in chemistry and BEM (business economics management).

Beavers Show Skills in the Classroom

The SCIAC announced the 2010 Men's Basketball All-Academic Team today. Five Caltech players were recognized for their academic achievements (3.5+ G.P.A. in second year varsity status). A number of the players on the team were not eligible for the honor because so many of them are still freshmen.

Check out the release on the Caltech site here and the news on the SCIAC site here.

Congratulations to the student-athletes who excel on the court and in the classroom.