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Media Advisory Contacts: Susan Houghton, Lawrence Livermore
National Laboratory Robin Shepard, Merced College VALLEY SCIENCE TO BE BOLSTERED BY UC MERCED AND MERCED COLLEGE AGREEMENTS WITH LAWRENCE LIVERMORE NATIONAL LABORATORY October 6 Signing Ceremony at Castle Airport Merced, CA - Higher education efforts in science will be enhanced in the aftermath of the upcoming signing of two collaborative agreements between the high-tech Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory [LLNL] and the University of California, Merced and LLNL and Merced Community College. The two agreements will be signed the morning of Friday, October 6 at Castle Airport; in attendance will be UC Merced Chancellor Carol Tomlinson-Keasey, Merced College President Benjamin Duran, and LLNL Director C. Bruce Tarter. Others expected to attend include state and local government officials and representatives, as well as representatives from K-12 education and friends of each institution. The signing ceremony begins at 10:30 a.m. outside the Castle Engineering Building. Those interested in attending are asked to register by calling 209-724-4400, or by e-mailing armik.allen@ucop.edu. According to officials from each institution, LLNL's partnerships with UC Merced and Merced College are expected to open many new opportunities to contribute to the academic and economic development of the Central Valley. As part of the agreement, LLNL will participate in faculty and academic program development at Merced College, and assist UC Merced in attracting key faculty by offering joint appointments, developing joint research programs, and helping support specific programs designed to enhance K-12 education throughout the Central Valley. LLNL officials say the lab will benefit from this partnership by developing new joint research opportunities and drawing future employees from the academic programs at UC Merced and Merced College. UC Merced Agreement The UC Merced - LLNL agreement is planned to strengthen UC Merced's research, teaching, and outreach missions by:
Merced College Agreement According to the Memorandum of Understanding between Lawrence Livermore and Merced College, the two institutions will work together to:
### Background Information Merced Community College Providing service to more than 11,000 students, Merced Community College is a California Community College operated by the Merced Community College District (MCCD) and administered by an elected seven-member Board of Trustees. The MCCD was formed by a vote of the people on February 27, 1962. Merced College is dedicated to the pursuit of excellence. The college's leadership and educational program and services reflect and enhance the cultural, economic, and social life of the community while responding to its changing needs and interests. Recognizing that learning is a life-long process, the college prepares students for a complex and changing society while maintaining high academic standards. Merced College fosters individual learning and critical thinking to enhance awareness of inter-relationships and inter-dependence of all persons. Merced College sets high standards to encourage students to reach their potential in a nurturing environment, and the school is a leader in innovative instruction and cultural activities. The college values and respects all members of our community and recognizes diversity is its strength. Merced College's mission statement is: "We are known by the success of our students." UC Merced UC Merced, the 10th campus of the University of California System, will be the first major research university built in the United States in the 21st century. In partnership with the people of the San Joaquin Valley and of California, UC Merced will create a multi-cultural community of scholars and students that benefit from unique new methods of leveraging technology to create and share knowledge. UC Merced will extend the benefits of California's public research university to the most populous region of the state without a UC campus, the San Joaquin Valley. The university will serve students in three ways that compliment the changing needs of today's society: 1) through a residential campus in Merced; 2) through distributed education centers elsewhere in the San Joaquin Valley; and 3) through unique partnerships and cooperative agreements with the other two branches of California state higher education: CCC and CSU. UC Merced will open for instruction in fall 2004; at that time the university will serve 1,000 students. Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory The Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) is a U.S. Department of Energy national laboratory operated by the University of California. Located approximately 90 miles northwest of Merced, LLNL was established in 1952 on the site of a former U.S. Naval Air Station. The Laboratory applies science and technology in the national interest. LLNL also maintains extensive relationships with colleges and universities and has a thirty-year history in science and technology education outreach. The University Relations Program operates five scientific institutes which collaborate closely with all of the University of California campuses and coordinates several programs designed to attract young scientific and engineering talent into the Laboratory's workforce. Many LLNL programs have impacted California's Central Valley, where a large percentage of the Laboratory's employees make their homes. These have included a major successful soils and groundwater cleanup project in Visalia which applied the Laboratory-developed Dynamic Underground Stripping technology; utilization of LLNL's National Atmospheric Release Advisory Capability (NARAC) to simulate the dispersion of smoke and predict the concentration of particulates at ground level during the 1998 Tracy tire fire; and many science and technology education projects benefiting both students and teachers in the Valley. ###
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