The Master of Landscape Architecture program at the USC School of Architecture has received a six-year accreditation from the Landscape Architectural Accreditation Board.

The fledgling program received accreditation candidacy status in July 2008, offered its first classes in the 2008-09 academic year and produced its first graduates in spring 2010.

Under the leadership of Professor Emeritus Robert S. Harris, the program has had an excellent start. A team of tenure-track, adjunct professors, visiting professors and lecturers from the public and private sectors have developed the program’s curriculum.

The appointment of Rachel Berney, the program’s first tenure-track assistant professor, began the development of a permanent academic faculty for the program at the start of the fall 2009 semester. A search is under way for a new program director.

USC Hosts First West Coast Alumni Career Fair

As part of its ongoing efforts to address alumni career needs, the USC Career Planning & Placement Center partnered with the USC Alumni Association and MyWorkster.com to sponsor the first West Coast multi-school alumni career fair on March 18.

More than 500 alumni from USC and 15 other universities attended the one-day event in the Ronald Tutor Campus Center Ballroom, where job-seeking graduates met more than 50 employers selected on the basis of available job openings, industry affiliation and alumni interest.

Participating employers included Northrop Grumman, Slalom Consulting, Experian, Fox Entertainment Group, Kaiser Permanente, Target, the U.S. Department of State and the CIA.

Combining face-to-face and online engagement, the fair presented a new business model for improving alumni access to top employers.

Materials Research Society Receives Fellowship

Terence Langdon, the William E. Leonhard Professor of Engineering at the USC Viterbi School of Engineering and one of the most-cited authors in materials science, has been elected a fellow of the Materials Research Society.

Langdon will be honored at the society’s spring meeting in San Francisco on April 26.

SPPD Graduate Student Wins Best Paper Award

Pengyu Zhu, a Ph.D. student at the USC School of Policy, Planning, and Development, was awarded the Western Regional Science Association’s 2011 Charles M. Tiebout Prize for the best paper submitted by a graduate student.

Zhu received the honor at the association’s 50th annual meeting in Monterey, Calif., on March 1. His paper will be published in The Annals of Regional Science, an international quarterly journal.

According to Zhu, the paper explores how telecommuting shapes workers’ one-way commute trips, daily total work trips and daily non-work trips.

A Leader With His Eyes on the Future

Adam Bush, a USC doctoral candidate in American studies and ethnicity, has been recognized by the Association of American Colleges and Universities with the K. Patricia Cross Future Leaders Award.

Bush is one of eight graduate students, selected from more than 225 nominees, to receive the honor.

The accolade recognizes students who demonstrate a commitment to developing academic and civic responsibility in themselves as well as in others, and whose work demonstrates an emphasis on teaching and learning.

Golubchik Honored With Diversity Award

The Los Angeles chapter of the Women’s Transportation Seminar presented USC Viterbi School of Engineering associate professor Leana Golubchik with its 2011 Diversity Leadership Award.

Golubchik was selected for her contributions to the promotion of diversity and cultural awareness at USC Viterbi in the transportation industry and in a project or activity that supports the goals and mission of the seminar.

She has been an active member of the USC Women in Science and Engineering program since joining the school in 2002.

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