FROM THE CHANCELLOR

Welcome to the Irvine campus and to a new world of intellectual opportunity for you as a student. You've arrived as the University is expanding both in size and academic programs. Enrollments are rising as the State's college-age population increases during this decade. At the same time, UCI's reputation for innovation and high academic standards is attracting more of the nation's brightest students and faculty. UCI students compete successfully for the most coveted scholarships and fellowships. Their competitive edge comes from being at a research university where involvement in the intense creativity of the research process often begins during the undergraduate years.

UCI is regarded as one of the top ten public universities in the country. And many of our programs have achieved standing with those of the best private universities. Our strong faculty are the key. Two of UCI's founding faculty have received Nobel Prizes. Many others have attained worldwide recognition for their research, while gaining equal respect on campus for their ability to engage students in the excitement of learning. Faculty also are responsible for UCI's growing strengths in virtually every discipline from the arts, humanities, and social sciences, to technology and management.

Increasingly, society and the workplace demand knowledge that crosses traditional boundaries. So we have developed programs that combine studies such as art and technology, medicine and engineering, ecology and the social sciences, business and computer sciences, all designed to prepare students for roles as citizens and scholars in the new century.

UCI's partnerships with the fast-growing Orange County community also create incomparable opportunities for our students. They include work experience in a dynamic international marketplace, learning as you serve the community through the campus' outreach and public service groups, or simply benefiting from the advice of UCI alumni and leaders from every area of society.

Whether you are a graduate or undergraduate student, UCI offers a place to pursue whatever course you have in mind for your future, or to change that course should you decide to explore other educational goals. I look forward to seeing you on campus, and to sharing these next few years in your lifetime of learning.

Sincerely,

Ralph J. Cicerone
Chancellor

UCI ACADEMIC SENATE DISTINGUISHED FACULTY

MICHAEL B. DENNIN

Distinguished Assistant Professor Award for Research, 2001-02

Assistant Professor of Physics

Many people think of physics as the study of the very small (fundamental particles) or the very large (the universe). I started my career in physics with a particle physics group (the very small), and I did my senior thesis on inflationary models of the early universe (the very large). However, there is strange and wonderful physics of the "normal size." For instance, why does shaving cream, something made of a liquid and a gas, not flow onto the floor every time it comes out of the can? In graduate school I became enamored with the physics of things the "normal size" and have been doing "tabletop" physics ever since.

Here at UCI my research focuses on discovering general principles that govern complex systems. One example of a complex system that we study is foams, such as shaving cream. A foam is composed entirely of two fluids: a gas (the bubbles in the foam) and a liquid (the walls between the bubbles), and should flow freely. However, shaving cream holds its shape outside of a container because the bubbles press against each other. This is an example of a new physical principle, in this case the physical arrangement of bubbles, that accounts for a foam's behavior. I am interested in discovering the principles that govern how foams flow when you push on them hard enough.

The other complex systems we study are pattern-forming systems. When spatially uniform systems are driven by an external force, they spontaneously develop patterns: stripes, squares, hexagons, random spots, etc. This can be seen everywhere in nature, from the formation of patterns in animal coats (driven by chemical reactions) to stripes in clouds and the sand (driven by the wind). I am particularly interested in two aspects of this: (1) the formation of patterns that vary randomly in space and time (spatiotemporal chaos); and (2) the growth of regular patterns after a sudden influx of energy (coarsening dynamics).

The amazing thing about doing research at UCI is the wealth of talented undergraduates who do "real" research. I have worked with 12 undergraduates in my lab over the five years that I have been here. They have been major contributors to my work, and two of the students are coauthors on published papers. It has been a real pleasure to interact with these students and to share the exploration of mysteries of the "normal size."

BRYAN REYNOLDS

Distinguished Assistant Professor Award for Teaching, 2001-02

Associate Professor and Head of Doctoral Studies in the Department of Drama

The interdisciplinary approach that characterizes my scholarship informs my teaching. Most of my research on theatre, social performance, identity formation, and critical methodology has been dedicated to the development of what I call "transversal theory." Although research in many disciplines, both sociological and scientific, seems to have made huge strides over the last few centuries in its quest to understand and influence natural processes, the organizing machinery (governmental, educational, religious, and juridical structures) of all modern societies is still far from being able to account for common inconsistencies in the management of social order. For this reason, the machinery focuses on what it knows it must, and often can, control: the range of thought, what I term "conceptual territory," of the populace. The machinery needs continually to (re)establish the scope of personal experience and perception. This scope, what I refer to as "subjective territory," must be navigated so that notions of identity cease to be arbitrary and transitory, and acquire temporal constancy and spatial range for the subsistence of what is seen to be a healthy individual and, by extension, a coherent social body. Regardless of how actually heterogeneous the subject population (either genetically, ethnically, or philosophically), the machinery works to imbue this population with a state-serving subjectivity, indeed a shared ideology, that gives this social body the assurance of homogeneity and universality.

Transversal theory, and thus transversal pedagogy, pursues understanding of the workings of this machinery in the interest of making the individual aware of the means (both ideological and material) by which his or her subjective territory has been formed and maintained; it encourages conceptual and emotional experience outside of the society's constraints. The production of such alternative thinking and feeling, which expands subjective territory and creates more cognizant individuals with enhanced self-agency, is a primary goal of transversal pedagogy. By example, through class discussion, transversal pedagogy inspires students to be "investigative-expansive" rather than "dissective-cohesive," and thus to venture into "transversal territory": a limitless conceptual and emotional space, usually only ephemerally inhabited, that defies determination and regulation, and does not serve any specific structures, dispositions, systems, or objectives.

Unlike the dissective-cohesive mode, an analytical approach (characteristic of most dialectical argumentation) that breaks its subject matter into constituent parts and examines those parts with the goal of reassembling them into a unified and accountable whole, the investigative-expansive mode insists that the subject matter under investigation be partitioned according to essentially ad hoc parameters. The internal connectedness (among themselves) and external connectedness (to other forces, such as the subject matter's social history) of the partitioned units (the variables) are then examined with a readiness to reparameterizing as the analysis progresses--as unexpected problems, information, and ideas surface. Whereas the goal of the dissective-cohesive mode is to (re)construct an accountable whole, the investigative-expansive mode seeks comprehension of the subject matter's fluid and plural relationships to its own parts and to the greater environments of which it is a part. In my classroom, the subject matter is often a Shakespeare play, and the greater environments are the cultures that both produced and reproduce it through staged performance and reading the text. The students analyze transversally the circumstances of their own education as part of their educational experience.

WILLIAM R. SCHONFELD

Daniel G. Aldrich Jr. Distinguished University Service Award, 2001

Professor of Political Science and Former Dean of the School of Social Sciences

Potential new students to UCI have a number of questions about the higher educational experience. Perhaps the most important question is, What is expected of them during the four to five years they will spend at the University? This period of time can be extremely exciting and formative. It can be the most important experience in their life. Undergraduates must not only learn how to write well but also to understand and analyze statistical and scientific arguments. In addition, they need to find an area of study which interests them and then pursue it in-depth, for only in this way will they learn how to evaluate conflicting evidence and think creatively.

Faculty mentor students through this three-fold process. At an institution like UCI, the faculty are called upon to conduct innovative research, teach undergraduates, and also teach graduate students. There is a widespread notion that these roles contradict each other: that the more time spent on research means less time is available for quality teaching. At first blush, this seems to make sense. However, a careful examination of academic realities would suggest that research and teaching reinforce each other. Most important of all, it is impossible to be a truly excellent teacher without being a committed and successful researcher. The essence of the pedagogical role is not the transmission of specific knowledge or facts, but rather the transmission of the excitement of discovery and the challenges of figuring out intellectual puzzles that have not been resolved and that may even seem intractable. Only a scholar who is engaged in research and the resolution of such problems can share the excitement and stimulation of discovery with students. Moreover, it is the transmission of this excitement that generates the desire and capacity to learn, to acquire new knowledge, and to analyze critically information which is presented to you.

UCI, as a research university, is well positioned to provide the highest quality of undergraduate, as well as graduate education, to its students. The faculty, deeply engaged in the research process, can share both their failures and their triumphs with students, who in turn are introduced and socialized into the pursuit of knowledge. This is, in fact, the primary aspiration, which any college and university teacher must have. Simultaneously, it must be the goal of every undergraduate.

ROXANE COHEN SILVER

Distinguished Faculty Lectureship Award for Teaching, 2001-02

Professor of Psychology and Social Behavior

While growing up in the suburbs of Chicago, one of my earliest memories is of asking my mother, "What's the purpose of life if all that happens is we grow old and die?" I have been asking difficult questions since childhood, yet I rarely accept the answers I am offered without further scrutiny. In fact, I have always been reluctant to accept what I am told simply because others say it is true. Perhaps not surprisingly, my research in the field of psychology has also been characterized by curiosity and skepticism. Driven by my inquisitive nature, I have spent the past two decades conducting research to explore how individuals cope with stressful life events. But in this work I have also sought to challenge the core assumptions others make about how people are supposed to cope following a trauma.

Since graduate school, I have studied how individuals adjust to stressful life experiences, such as loss of a spouse or child, divorce, childhood sexual abuse, physical disability, war, and natural disaster. Unfortunately, many people have misconceptions about the coping process and its outcome, and much of my academic career has been spent identifying and shattering what I have labeled the "myths" of coping with loss. My goal has been to understand the variety of ways people cope--to go beyond the assumptions and beyond the clinical "lore." In fact, how people are "supposed" to respond often stands in sharp contrast to the research data. One thing that we do know about how people respond to traumatic life events is that there is no one, universal response. We should not expect an orderly sequence of "stages" of emotional response. We should not look at the calendar and expect "recovery" from trauma after a few weeks or months. There really is no "right" or "wrong" way to respond to a stressful life event--there are just "different" ways. Through my research and writing, I have maintained that we need to recognize and respect people's need to respond to trauma in their own ways, and with their own timetables.

Throughout my professional career, I also have identified strongly with my role as a teacher. Thus, as a professor I have tried to get others--undergraduates, graduate students, colleagues, community members, as well as my friends and family--also to ask difficult questions and to think critically about the answers they are offered. In addition, because people's willingness to provide support to distressed individuals is intimately tied to the assumptions they hold about the coping process, I have also felt it important to share the findings from my own program of research with as broad an audience as possible. In so doing, I have tried to make the information I have gathered through my research meaningful for individuals who are trying to come to terms with traumatic experiences.

I was trained as a traditional social psychologist and completed my undergraduate and graduate education at Northwestern University in Evanston, Illinois. However, to ask the kinds of questions and study the issues about which I am interested, I had to go outside the realm of traditional social psychology laboratory research to conduct many of my studies. During my academic career, I have been fortunate to reside in two academic departments that have supported my approach to research and teaching. I was first an assistant professor in the Department of Psychology at the University of Waterloo, Ontario, Canada, for several years before I relocated to the Program in Social Ecology at UC Irvine in 1989. Since 1992, I have been the coordinator of the Ph.D. program in Health Psychology in the Department of Psychology and Social Behavior here at UCI, and I have served as the Faculty Chair and the Associate Dean for Research in the School of Social Ecology. I am currently the Associate Director of the James and Martha Newkirk Center for Science and Society.

BRIAN SKYRMS

Distinguished Faculty Lectureship Award for Research, 2001-02

UCI Distinguished Professor of Logic and Philosophy of Science and of Economics, and Director of the Minor in the History and Philosophy of Science

When I was a boy I was introduced to the paradox of the liar, "This sentence is false," in a science fiction story. I couldn't stop thinking about it but couldn't make any progress. Finally, I had to put it out of my mind by promising myself that I would come back to it some time in the future. In high school I read Norbert Weiner's popular book Cybernetics and decided that I wanted to pursue that area. I was assured that electrical engineering was the right area of study from which to approach the field. I entered college as an electrical engineering major and emerged with majors in economics and philosophy. As an undergraduate I became fascinated with the theory of interactive rational decision, also known as the theory of games. This combines the questions of self-reference raised by the liar sentence with those of rational decision--for instance, when Peter wants to do the same thing as Paul and Paul wants to do something different. But there were no courses available, and my attempts to set up a reading course in the subject were fruitless. I promised myself that I would come back to the subject when I got a chance.

I was fortunate as both an undergraduate and a graduate student in working with professors who approached philosophy from the viewpoint of logical analysis. I started out investigating questions of causation and counterfactual conditionals from a Bayesian perspective. Eventually I revisited truth, self-reference, and the liar paradox. Now I am back working on the theory of games. The theory is changing into something deeper and more flexible than it was when I was first drawn to it. Explicit dynamics are being investigated; equilibrium is not something that is taken as an article of faith. And it is no longer required to assume that the agents making the decisions have Godlike knowledge and powers of reasoning. I enjoy making some contributions to these developments.