F R O M T H E HE A R T O F U S C Spotlight
A Road Well Taken
A portion of a California freeway will soon bear the name of an American hero and USC Dornsife alum.
richard garcia ’20 Chemistry Major
“I know I did my part with academics, community service and extracurricular activities, but my parents worked so hard to give me this opportunity. It’s such an amazing thing to be here, and I’m so glad they get to be part of it with me.”
20
Shaking Things Up
The Southern California Earthquake Center hosts interns from around the nation to do seismic research.
State lawmakers have approved a resolution to name a 2-mile stretch of Interstate 405, the San Diego Freeway, after World War II hero Louis Zamperini ’40. The section of the freeway that will be known as the Louis Zamperini Memorial Highway runs through Torrance, Calif., where the famed runner grew up. “I’m proud to have led the effort to rename the Torrance stretch of the 405 freeway after Louis Zamperini. As an Olympic athlete and as a World War II hero, Zamperini has been an inspiration for generations of South Bay residents as well as the USC family for over 80 years,” said Republican Assemblyman David Hadley of Torrance. Hadley spearheaded the nonpartisan bill, ACR 157, aimed at renaming the freeway section. Zamperini harnessed his teenage angst by running on the Torrance High School track team, earning an athletic scholarship to USC. While working on his degree in physical education, he competed in the 1936 Summer Olympics, placing eighth in the 5,000-meter race. In 1941, Zamperini enlisted in the U.S. Army Air Corps. On May 27, 1943, his B-24 bomber crashed into the Pacific Ocean. He spent 47 days adrift before the Japanese captured him and took him to a prison camp. Presumed dead by the United States government, Zampirini endured extreme conditions including torture for more than two years. After the war, Zamperini returned to the U.S. and became a born-again Christian. He developed a career as an inspirational speaker, traveling the world detailing the many milestone moments he experienced.
Within the span of a week, two magnitude 7.1 earthquakes rocked greater Los Angeles. The seismic incidents, on the Puente Hills and Whittier fault lines, caused billions of dollars in damage and roughly 13,000 casualties. But luckily, it was just a simulation — engineered by summer interns at the Southern California Earthquake Center (SCEC), housed in USC Dornsife. Students came from community colleges and four-year universities near and far, with one coming all the way from Puerto Rico. For eight weeks, the interns used thousands of years’ worth of real and hypothetical data to forecast earthquakes, immersing themselves in the world of earthquake science — calculating data on the largest academic supercomputer in the world, determining probability and identifying the ramifications. They made visuals, a documentary and a virtual reality app. They also walked fault lines — from Hollywood to the Inland Empire — to see Southern California’s system firsthand. And it wasn’t just practice. The students presented their findings at the SCEC annual meeting in September, according to SCEC Director Thomas Jordan, University Professor, William M. Keck Foundation Chair in Geological Sciences and professor of earth sciences. “This is real research,” he said. —J.C.
P hoto o f Yo s e m i t e V a l l e y , Yo s e m i t e N a t i o n a l P a r k , c i r c a 1 9 3 0 c o u r t e s y o f th e USC D i g i t a l L i b r a r y
Richard Garcia’s earliest memories of USC were attending football games with his father. Because of those experiences, USC held a special place in Garcia’s heart. This fall, his family helped him settle into his new home in the Arts and Humanities Residential College at Parkside on the University Park campus. The move marked a significant moment for Garcia: He is the first in his family to attend college. Garcia chose chemistry as his major because it “was the most engaging subject for me, with all of the lab work and calculations.” Garcia plans to use his time at USC Dornsife to explore his career options. He hopes to participate in research projects with faculty as well as an internship. He said a liberal arts education will give him an opportunity to gain a multifaceted perspective on the world. “I truly want to understand people and the world around me in order to make an impact,” he explained.
Zamperini’s life was chronicled in Laura Hillenbrand’s 2010 book Unbroken: A World War II Story of Survival, Resilience and Redemption (Random House) and in the 2014 film adaptation directed by Angelina Jolie. He died at the age of 97, one month before the film’s premiere, of pneumonia. Hadley is currently working to raise $5,000 for two highway signs that will bear the freeway section’s new name. His goal is to get the signs installed by Jan. 26, 2017 — what would have been Zamperini’s 100th birthday. —D.K.