The Associated Press interviewed UCLA experts Artur Davoyan and Dino Di Carlo in a feature commemorating Pi Day. The article touched on the varied applications of the number in mechanical, aerospace and biological engineering, detailing specific research at UCLA in which pi plays a large role. “As an engineer and scientist, [pi] is just a part of life,” said Di Carlo, the Armond and Elena Hairapetian Professor of Engineering and Medicine in the UCLA Samueli School of Engineering. Davoyan, an assistant professor at the school, was also quoted. Read more about UCLA in the news in today’s New York Times, NPR and other outlets.
More highlights from UCLA in the News: March 16, 2026
UCLA researchers test soil for contaminants across county | Santa Monica Daily Press
A team of UCLA researchers has screened nearly 700 soil samples for hundreds of Los Angeles County residents concerned about contamination in their yards and gardens, part of a growing effort to address pollution from both the January wildfires and decades of industrial activity. The initiative, called the LA Urban Soil Social Impact Collaborative, is a community-university partnership funded by UCLA’s Center for Community Engagement. (UCLA’s Kirsten Schwarz and Monika Shankar were quoted; UCLA’s Jennifer Jay was cited.)
Oscars can’t overshadow lack of representation | Los Angeles Times’ “De Los”
That “brown ceiling” was examined in the 2026 UCLA Hollywood Diversity Report, released Thursday. The study, which analyzed 108 of the top English-language theatrical film releases of 2025, found that only 2.8% of lead roles and 5% of all roles in theatrical releases were played by Latinos. The numbers were even bleaker in other categories. Only 2.5% of film directing jobs and 0.5% of writing jobs went to Latinos. (The report was also featured by KCRW-FM.)
Experts say kids today want a very different kind of dad | Good Housekeeping
The Center for Scholars and Storytellers at UCLA has just released a new study that surveyed 1,500 US adolescents (ages 10 – 24) regarding male images they see on TV and in the movies. Researchers found that the number one need expressed by 57.7% of these kids was to see fathers to show their kids love. The study also found that adolescents want to see that dads enjoy parenting and taking care of others. Watching men asking for help, seeking mental health care, and being affectionate were also considered to be positive qualities. (UCLA’s Yalda Uhls was quoted.)
Doctors hesitate to prescribe treatment being touted for autism | NPR
“All of a sudden, there’s this onslaught of information being disseminated that we now have to explain, disentangle and interpret,” said Dr. Shafali Jeste, an autism researcher at the University of California, Los Angeles. “It’s a big burden, and we’re all willing to bear it … but I think that a lot of it ends up becoming a distraction.”
Cholesterol screening and treatment advised for people in their 30s | NBC News
Dr. Karol Watson, the director of the UCLA Health Women’s Cardiovascular Center, co-authored a commentary published in Circulation alongside the new guidelines, which she called an extension of the previous version. “This is not a sea change; we are still managing lipids to reduce atherosclerotic events,” she said. “As a preventive cardiologist, I can tell you that’s the best strategy we’ve had yet to prevent heart attacks, strokes and cardiovascular death.”
Can a groundbreaking cancer therapy help people with multiple sclerosis? | NBC News
“The antibodies that we have do a good job, even though they don’t penetrate the blood-brain barrier,” said Dr. Rhonda Voskuhl, director of the UCLA Multiple Sclerosis Program, who is not involved in any of the CAR-T MS trials.
Comet baffles astronomers when it suddenly stops, reverses direction | Earth.com
Archived images from the Hubble Space Telescope, a powerful observatory that orbits Earth and captures detailed images of distant objects in space, tracked Comet 41P/Tuttle-Giacobini-Kresak as it brightened and dimmed on a steady schedule. By timing repeats, David Jewitt at the University of California, Los Angeles, built a rotation clock from the changes in brightness. Jewitt’s preprint reported a 14.4-hour period for the comet in December and placed the spin stall in early June 2017. (Jewitt was quoted.)
Cuban leaders signal concessions, also ensure political survival | Los Angeles Times
“The Trump regime has succeeded in crushing the economy,” said Robin Lauren Derby, a UCLA historian who follows Cuba.
California bets on an obscure tool to replace clean air authority | CalMatters
The key legal distinction, courts have found, is that indirect source rules target facilities rather than vehicles. That makes them more like regulation of stationary sources — such as refineries — than vehicle emissions standards. “Every court that’s ever seen a challenge to it has rejected the challenge,” said Brennon Mendez, an environmental law and policy fellow at the UCLA School of Law. “There’s been precedent that’s going to defend them against the challenges.”
As New York Mayor faces $7 billion budget hole, free parking may be history | CNBC
The amount of money the city could raise depends largely on the specifics of the program, but it certainly has the potential to chip away at the budget issue. “Can you finance the whole city off it? No, of course not, but you could make a sizable amount of money,” said Michael Manville, professor of urban planning at the UCLA Luskin School of Public Affairs. A 2020 study from UCLA estimated that New York is losing at least $114 million a year, on the Upper West Side alone, by allowing unmetered curb spaces.
They want to rebuild. Can they afford to prevent the next fire, too? | New York Times
Still, the perception is that the Palisades has the resources to move forward with its rebuild, making it a harder sell that such a “very high-value neighborhood” should be able to hold onto any gains in its property taxes, said Megan Mullin, a public policy professor at the University of California, Los Angeles.
Professors are changing what they teach, even far from Trump’s gaze | New York Times
Amander Clark, a professor of molecular, cell and developmental biology at the University of California, Los Angeles, said she had decided to “rewrite my grants so that I would remove any language that would potentially compromise the funding of my work.”
Reckoning with cuts, LA safety-net clinics push for a new tax | KFF Health News
In California, the GOP law will slash the federal contribution to Medi-Cal by an estimated $30 billion a year, or 25%. Enrollment in Medi-Cal could drop by 3 million by 2028 as a result of the federal and state spending cuts, according to an analysis by the UCLA Center for Health Policy Research and the University of California-Berkeley Labor Center.
