OFFICE OF RESEARCH
William H. Parker, Vice Chancellor for Research
A primary mission for UCI is faculty research and scholarship, which plays a valuable role in the education of both graduate and undergraduate students. UCI has established national and worldwide visibility in traditional disciplines such as physics and chemistry, which have earned three Nobel Prizes, along with "new" interdisciplinary pursuits. In the Humanities, UCI has become a center in critical theory. Biological and biomedical investigators conduct both basic science and clinical research in areas such as neuroscience, molecular biology, genetics, and cancer. Engineering specialties include electrical, computer, mechanical, aerospace, civil, and biochemical research.
The Vice Chancellor for Research has responsibility for research policy, research development, animal research administration, UCI-industry relations, and research administration, which includes submission of grant proposals and negotiation and administration of awards. The Vice Chancellor also encourages new research initiatives and administers UCI's organized research programs, interdisciplinary groups of faculty pursuing unique problems that cross departmental and school boundaries.
Additional information is available on the World Wide Web at http://www.rgs.uci.edu/.
Office of Technology Alliances
The Office of Technology Alliances (OTA) fosters research partnerships and transfers of technology between UCI and industry that lead to rapid commercialization of research results for the public benefit. OTA makes many of its services available on the World Wide Web at http://www.ota.uci.edu/. Specific services for faculty include assistance with invention disclosures, patentability assessment, technology marketing and licensing, industry-sponsored research collaborations, biological material transfer agreements, and copyrights and trademarks. Specific services for business and industry include access and links to faculty researchers (http://www.faculty.uci.edu/), licensing technology, assistance with research contracts, intellectual property, research materials transfer, and technology information.
California Institute for Telecommunications and Information Technology (Calit2)
The California Institute for Telecommunications and Information Technology (Calit2) was established in December 2000 by the State of California as a partnership between academia and the business community. Calit2—a joint venture between UCI and UCSD, with dedicated research facilities on both campuses—conducts interdisciplinary, collaborative research that generates novel materials, devices, and information systems, with applications in many fields. The Institute's research in networked systems, the environment, transportation, bioinformatics, policy, education, digital arts, security, and other fields will keep California's industry at the cutting edge of technology, accelerating growth in existing companies and spurring high-technology start-ups that will boost the State's economy.
UCI and UCSD faculty from many academic disciplines collaborate with researchers from more than 130 leading California high-technology corporations. A major objective of the Institute is to educate and prepare students—in the classroom and the laboratory—for successful careers in industry, government, and academia.
University of California Humanities Research Institute
The University of California Humanities Research Institute (UCHRI), located at UCI, is a multicampus research unit of the UC Office of the President. Founded in 1987, UCHRI's distinctive mission is to foster intellectual community, research, and public programs across campus boundaries; mobilize the strength of the University of California humanities faculty as a whole; and promote innovative collaborative and interdisciplinary research among humanities scholars and researchers in disciplines across the social sciences, sciences, technology, and medicine.
Residential research groups, historically at the heart of UCHRI's activities, bring together both UC and non-UC scholars, postdoctoral fellows, and advanced UC graduate students to work in collaboration on interdisciplinary topics of special significance. The groups are expected to communicate their findings following residency to a broader scholarly community or public. UCHRI's facilities for participating scholars include private offices with e-mail and Internet access, multimedia meeting rooms, and a reference library. Furnished apartments are provided by the Institute for use by fellows on an as-needed basis during their residencies. UCHRI also sponsors a wide range of conferences and seminars, as well as workshops and other research projects at all of the UC campuses. Two new programs have just been launched: short-term residencies for groups with pre-existing collaborative projects nearing completion; and partnership projects between UC humanities initiatives and community organizations. The UCHRI Advisory Committee, comprising a faculty representative from each UC campus, makes decisions on program proposals and fellowship applications.
UCHRI also administers the Kevin Starr Postdoctoral Fellowship in California Studies; the Andrew Vincent White and Florence Wales White Graduate Student Scholarship supporting dissertation research in the humanities or theoretical social sciences and medicine; and the annual summer Seminar in Experimental Critical Theory.
The Institute is engaged in an extensive digital humanities initiative in collaboration with researchers both within and beyond the University of California. Scholars interested in UCHRI programs now apply exclusively online via the Institute's FASTAPPS system, which is being adapted for use by other UC units. Virtual collaborative research environments are being implemented as an adjunct to the residential groups. The HASS Grid, developed by UCHRI with the Center for Information Technology Research in the Interest of Society at UC Berkeley and the San Diego Supercomputing Center at UC San Diego, is a major cyberinfrastructure initiative to strengthen research support for the humanities, arts, and social sciences. UCHRI has also led the development of the Humanities, Arts, Science, and Technology Advanced Collaboratory (HASTAC), a consortium of top-level humanities and science institutions in the U.S. and abroad dedicated to new and productive partnerships across disciplines in order to create tools and databases that will allow for the production of new kinds of knowledge.
For additional information, contact the University of California Humanities Research Institute, 307 Administration Building, Irvine, CA 92697-3350; telephone (949) 824-8180; e-mail: uchri@uci.edu; World Wide Web: http://www.uchri.edu.
Thesaurus Linguae Graecae®
The Thesaurus Linguae Graecae (TLG)® is a research project that was established at UCI in 1972, thanks to a gift by UCI alumna Marianne McDonald. Its goals are to create a comprehensive digital library of Greek literature from antiquity to the present era; to conduct literary research using collected texts; and to apply technological innovation in these endeavors. The TLG® corpus currently contains more than 90 million words of Greek text and essentially all extant texts from Homer to the fall of Byzantium in A.D. 1453. Work is underway to include later periods of Greek literature.
TLG® research activities combine the traditional concerns and methodologies of philological and literary study with the most advanced features of computer technology. Included among current research foci are the identification of ancient Greek literary and documentary materials from various literary-historical periods; the conversion of these materials into digital form using modern methods of text encoding; the enhancement of automated text-correction routines; and the formulation of criteria for the lexical analysis and categorization of the texts in the corpus. The project also has established procedures to facilitate international access to its textual, bibliographical, and lexical resources either online (http://www.tlg.uci.edu/) or through compact disk.
TLG®'s library holdings enhance those of the UCI Langson Library, and TLG®-related conferences and scholarly visits afford faculty and students contact with eminent scholars in related fields. The Thesaurus Linguae Graecae® has made UCI a major source of Classics research activity.
Organized Research Units
Organized Research Units (ORUs) normally consist of an inter-departmental group of faculty, students, and other researchers engaged in a continuing program of multidisciplinary or interdisciplinary research, supported by both University and extramural funding. The work of some ORUs is directed toward the solution of complex contemporary problems, while others conduct basic research essential to the understanding of natural or social phenomena or of humanistic ideas and expressions. The following ORUs have been established on the Irvine campus.
CANCER RESEARCH INSTITUTE
The Cancer Research Institute provides leadership and support for researchers working toward understanding and controlling cancer. The Institute serves as a means of focusing, coordinating, and directing efforts of scholars in basic and clinical sciences from several departments in the Schools of Biological Sciences and Medicine. It provides a central source of information concerning cancer-related research, as well as a forum in which basic researchers and clinicians can assess advances that may be of immediate value in the diagnosis and treatment of cancer, and in the detection of chemicals or conditions that cause cancer. Ongoing and projected research activities involve the regulation of cell function, viral carcinogenesis, immunology, and basic molecular processes relevant to cancer. The Cancer Research Institute administers Sprague Hall, a research facility in the Biomedical Research Complex dedicated to cancer and genetics. The Cancer Research Institute serves as the basic science arm of UCI's Chao Family Comprehensive Cancer Center, a National Cancer Institute-designated comprehensive cancer center. Other units of the center include the Chao Family Clinical Cancer Research Center and the Cancer Surveillance Program of Orange County.
CENTER FOR EMBEDDED COMPUTER SYSTEMS
The Center for Embedded Computer Systems, established as an informal center in 1998, was recognized as an ORU in 2001. The Center provides the organizational and administrative structure for researchers at UCI, UCR, and UCSD to conduct leading-edge interdisciplinary research in embedded systems, develop innovative design methodologies, and promote technology and knowledge transfer for the benefit of the individual and society. The research program focuses on three application domains: (1) Communications, including infotainment, information appliances, multimedia, personal imaging, and wireless; (2) Automotive, including collision avoidance, control/sensors, entertainment, and emergency services; and (3) Medical, including diagnosis, drug delivery, imaging, implanted devices, and monitoring. Additional information is available online at http://www.cecs.uci.edu/.
CENTER FOR THE NEUROBIOLOGY OF LEARNING AND MEMORY
The Center for the Neurobiology of Learning and Memory (CNLM), founded at UCI in 1983, is a multidisciplinary research institute that fosters and supports collaborative research on the brain processes underlying learning and memory. CNLM's research teams consist of faculty, professional and postgraduate researchers, graduate and undergraduate students, and visiting scholars. They investigate the formation, maintenance, and retrieval of memory at several levels of analysis—from studies of molecular and cellular processes in the brain to studies of memory in animal and human subjects.
Current research projects include investigations of the role of specific genes in memory formation, how neurons organize and communicate to enable learning and memory, the way experience alters the structure and organization of the brain, how we acquire and retrieve short- and long-term memories, and emotional influences on memory formation and retrieval. State-of-the-art techniques, including computer modeling of neural processes and functional neuroimaging, are used. The Center's basic research has important implications for understanding and treating human memory disorders and the diseases that cause them.
CNLM organizes seminars and colloquia throughout the year, as well as periodic workshops and international conferences for the neuroscience community. In addition, the Center organizes and sponsors programs for local schools and the general community, including public lectures focusing on the research of the Center faculty and on health issues related to brain and memory.
CNLM members include faculty from the UCI Departments of Neurobiology and Behavior, Cognitive Sciences, Anatomy and Neurobiology, Pharmacology, and Psychology and Social Behavior, as well as faculty from several other UC campuses, the University of Southern California, the Scripps Research Institute, and the California Institute of Technology. CNLM is located in the Bonney and Qureshey Research Laboratories of the Herklotz Research Facility.
CENTER FOR RESEARCH ON INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY AND ORGANIZATIONS
The Center for Research on Information Technology and Organizations (CRITO) is a multidisciplinary Organized Research Unit that conducts theoretical and empirical research into the social and economic impacts of information technology (IT) in organizations and society. CRITO focuses on the management, use, and impact of IT in the emerging global, competitive marketplace and on the policy issues raised by its use. CRITO researchers focus on the management of IT, the IT-enabled enterprise, technology-intensive user environments, and the increasingly global nature of IT use and production.
The CRITO Consortium,
within CRITO, is the only NSF-supported Industry-University Cooperative Research
Center (I/UCRC) on the UCI campus. Corporate sponsors of the Consortium have
included, among others: the Boeing Company, the Department of Defense, IBM Corporation,
Intel Corporation, International Data Corporation, and Microsoft. CRITO and Consortium research projects
include: nationwide study of computers and the Internet in the home; nationwide
study of e-government; the payoffs from investments in IT; outsourcing and offshoring
of IT and IT-enabled services; the impacts of IT on firm and industry organization;
the impacts of computing on work groups and collaborations; IT structuring
for e-commerce; the effects of IT on training, employee performance, and quality
of work life; the global spread of production and use of computers; and the globalization
of the Internet and e-commerce. For more information, see http://www.crito.uci.edu.
Faculty from The Paul Merage School of Business, the Donald Bren School of Information and Computer Sciences, the School of Social Sciences, and the Department of Education conduct research through the unit. There are approximately 15 faculty associates and 20 students involved in CRITO and Consortium research.
CENTER FOR THE STUDY OF DEMOCRACY
The Center for the Study of Democracy (CSD) sponsors research and education to enhance our scientific understanding of both the democratic process in the United States as well as in other established democracies, and expanding democracy around the world. The Center emphasizes five research programs: (1) Democracy21 focuses on the democratic process in established democracies including the United States as we enter the new century. This program examines ways to increase the citizens' ability to express their preferences and have these preferences represented within the democratic process; (2) Democratic Transitions/Consolidation supports research on the development of sustainable democracies in Eastern Europe, East Asia, and other new democracies; (3) Social Movements and Collective Action focuses on new forms of citizen participation and the use of collective action to expand the boundaries of democratic action; (4) Race, Ethnicity, and Democracy focuses on the representation and participation of minorities, and the institutional structures that may encourage democratic equality; and (5) Economics of Governance examines the intersection of economic and political worlds; how economic principles inform or should inform policy making and how economic factors enter into political decision making.
UCI's expertise in this area was recognized by the National Science Foundation, which selected UCI as a national center for the training of graduate students on democracy. The educational activities continue through the CSD's Democracy Fellows program.
CSD hosts an active lecture program, organizes international research conferences, sponsors faculty research, publishes a research paper series, and facilitates research and teaching on democratic themes. The Center has a multidisciplinary faculty from four UC campuses and is one of the leading university-based programs in America devoted explicitly to the study of democracy. Further information is available at the Center's Web site at http://www.democ.uci.edu/.
CENTER FOR VIRUS RESEARCH
The primary purpose of the Center for Virus Research is to significantly stimulate the interaction of UCI virologists with many other UCI basic and clinical researchers.
Research on viruses has often provided a biological and technological foundation from which much has been discovered concerning the basic molecular processes of organisms. Indeed, this technology has had enormous impact on other areas. As such, the very foundations of molecular biology owe much to virus research. Virology continues to teach us much about normal and disease processes (including cancer) of living systems not only at the molecular and cellular level, but at the level of whole organisms and their populations as well. Viruses have long provided some of the most useful experimental models for disease, cancer, immunity, and genetic systems of gene control. In addition, viral-based technology is being vigorously pursued and developed in the context of gene therapy and is teaching us much about the control of cellular processes.
With the growing worldwide threat of emerging viral diseases, interest in virus research at all levels has intensified and taken on a new global perspective; thus, there is a need at the international level to become more knowledgeable about viruses and disease. As a consequence, previously separate disciplines such as molecular biology, pathogenesis, evolutionary biology, neurology, and radiological sciences can now be readily linked by virus research. Such research pathways provide a highly interdisciplinary character to the Center for Virus Research at UCI.
CRITICAL THEORY INSTITUTE
The Critical Theory Institute (CTI) provides a locus for the conduct and support of collaborative, interdisciplinary research that focuses on the theoretical underpinnings of such fields as history, literature, philosophy, art, anthropology, politics, and cultural studies. CTI's principal function is to create a forum for debate among competing movements in contemporary critical theory. CTI's work encompasses not only the application of theory to data but also a self-reflexive investigation of theoretical presuppositions in order to produce alternative theoretical models, methodologies, and research strategies.
CTI investigates problems according to three- to four-year research projects on announced topics, such as "The Forces of Globalization" (1995-99), "The Futures of Property and Personhood" (1999-2003), and "In Security" (2003-06). Research projects involve collaborations between CTI members and contemporary theorists from around the world. Contributors to each project present lectures in CTI's Irvine Lectures in Critical Theory series. Research programs are concluded with the publication of essay collections in CTI's project series with Columbia University Press. See for example, "Culture" and the Problem of the Disciplines, edited by John Rowe.
CTI additionally hosts the annual René Wellek Library Lectures, inaugurated in 1981. Every year, typically in the spring quarter, a distinguished scholar delivers three public lectures on a topic relevant to the field of critical theory. Recent lecturers have included Gayatri Spivak, Judith Butler, Homi Bhabha, Paul Gilroy, Angela Davis, Achille Mbembe, and David Harvey. The Wellek Lectures also are published with Columbia University Press in CTI's ongoing series. Other activities sponsored by CTI include workshops, conferences, reading and discussion groups, one-time lectures by international scholars, and co-sponsorships of a number of other theory-related events.
In recent years, CTI has established broad connections to distinguished institutions and scholars around the world and has been planning collaborative international projects on a regular basis. The inaugural event, a conference entitled "The States of Theory: China and the West," took place in Beijing in the summer of 2000, and was co-organized by CTI and Beijing Language and Culture University. In April of 2002, CTI hosted another major conference, "Derrida/Deleuze: Psychoanalysis, Territoriality, Politics." The two-day event on connections between Derrida and Deleuze featured keynote lectures by Catherine Malabou and Jacques Derrida, and screenings of "D'Ailleurs Derrida" (Fathy, 2001) and "L'Abécédaire de Gilles Deleuze" (Boutang, 1996). In association with the Postcolonial Institute, CTI participated in another international conference in September 2003 in Melbourne, Australia.
Further information on CTI, including a calendar of events, is available at http://www.humanities.uci.edu/critical.
DEVELOPMENTAL BIOLOGY CENTER
The Developmental Biology Center (DBC) is an Organized Research Unit supporting multi-investigator research and training projects in developmental biology. DBC scientists are investigating how cells cooperate during development to control the growth and development of the body. This involves study of the processes of cell division, migration, and differentiation at the molecular, genetic, and cellular levels using a variety of experimental organisms, as well as human material and, more recently, stem cells. In support of these research programs, DBC manages shared facilities for confocal microscopy, computer-based image processing and analysis, cell sorting and analysis, and surface plasmon resonance measurements of binding kinetics. These facilities are part of the Optical Biology Shared Resource of the Chao Family Comprehensive Cancer Center. DBC also administers training grants to support both graduate students and postdoctoral investigators, and Program Project grants supporting research in multiple laboratories. The unit sponsors seminars; organizes local, national, and international conferences; and hosts visiting scientists for collaborative research. The results of the work will contribute to understanding normal development and growth control as well as abnormalities that lead to birth defects, cancer, and nervous-system malfunction in the human body. New research programs are helping to identify chemicals in the environment that pose hazards for human development; to help to train scientists in the manipulations of stem cells and in order to better develop methods to stimulate the regrowth of tissues and organs; and to produce tissues for reconstructive surgery. Additional information is available on the World Wide Web at http://mamba.bio.uci.edu/~pjbryant/ dbc/index.htm.
GENETIC EPIDEMIOLOGY RESEARCH INSTITUTE
The Genetic Epidemiology Research Institute (GERI) was established in 2004 and brings together scientists from epidemiology, developmental and cell biology, molecular biology and biochemistry, evolutionary biology, genetics, immunology, statistics, bioinformatics, and environmental and behavioral sciences to answer complex questions that can best be explored though an interdisciplinary approach. GERI will (1) combine epidemiologic approaches with basic science methods to test hypotheses related to genetic bases of the etiology and progression of disease; (2) facilitate research to apply newly discovered molecular biological processes and genetic characteristics in health and disease in well-characterized human populations; (3) provide epidemiological information that will influence the understanding of the basic processes leading to disease, such as environmental and lifestyle factors, and to test their effect as modifiers of genetic predisposition, thus providing the foundation for disease prevention; and (4) use advances in information sciences and communication technology to allow for efficient data mining and pattern recognition for genetic epidemiological data.
INSTITUTE FOR BRAIN AGING AND DEMENTIA
The goal of the Institute is to mobilize and unify University resources to discover meaningful ways to prevent decline in brain function with aging prior to its inception and to reverse loss of function once it has occurred. The elusive, yet attainable goal of "successful aging," maintaining functionality in one's later years, is one of the great challenges facing the nation. While many individuals continue to maintain and even improve their intellectual and cognitive skills, others suffer a serious and seemingly irreversible loss of cognitive function and develop dementias, most commonly Alzheimer's disease. The Institute is a fully integrated basic science/clinical research program that operates a Dementia Assessment and Treatment Clinic; a Brain Imaging Acquisition/Analysis Unit; a Tissue Repository for cellular and molecular analysis of the aged and Alzheimer's brain; and a comprehensive database of clinical and research data. Research is multidisciplinary, employing the latest techniques in computer science, artificial intelligence, molecular biology, and neuroscience. The Institute also sponsors a specialized educational track in brain aging and dementia for advanced students who wish to develop a career opportunity in an exciting and expanding field. The Institute is the site of a National Institute on Aging Alzheimer's Disease Research Center and a State of California Department of Health Alzheimer's Disease Research Center.
Faculty from the Departments of Neurobiology and Behavior, Neurology, Radiology, Anatomy and Neurobiology, Molecular Biology and Biochemistry, Microbiology and Molecular Genetics, Cognitive Sciences, and Electrical Engineering and Computer Science; the Donald Bren School of Information and Computer Sciences; and the School of Social Ecology comprise the Institute's core group of investigators.
INSTITUTE FOR GENOMICS AND BIOINFORMATICS
The Institute for Genomics and Bioinformatics (IGB) provides an organizational structure for interdisciplinary research and training in genomics, proteomics, bioinformatics, and computational biology—emerging scientific disciplines that are revolutionizing biology, medicine, and society. IGB computational and life scientists are working together to pioneer fundamental processes for reverse engineering gene and protein networks to understand complex biological systems. Through these interdisciplinary collaborations, IGB scientists are creating new theoretical, algorithmic, and software advances in storing, retrieving, networking, processing, modeling, analyzing, navigating, and visualizing biological information. In turn, their computational and computer science accomplishments are providing methods, predictions, and new hypotheses that are driving biological research in previously unanticipated ways. This scientific cross-fertilization is enriching both fields and will continue to do so in the coming decades. More complete descriptions of the Institute's research and training programs are available on the World Wide Web at http://www.igb.uci.edu/.
INSTITUTE OF GEOPHYSICS AND PLANETARY PHYSICS
The Irvine branch of the Institute of Geophysics and Planetary Physics (IGPP) was established in 2001. IGPP is a University of California Multicampus Research Unit (MRU) established in 1946, with existing branches at UCLA, UCSD, UCR, UCSC, and the Los Alamos and Livermore National Laboratories. The Institute's mission is to promote and coordinate basic research on the understanding of the origin, structure, and evolution of the Earth, the Solar System, and the Universe, and on the prediction of future changes, as they affect human life. The UCI branch's research goals complement the MRU in that the understanding of the Earth as a coupled system of atmosphere, land, and ocean is required to plausibly predict future changes in the Earth System. In order to assess the role of human activities on present and future changes in the global environment, as well as the consequent effects on human life, the UCI branch intends to forge links to other UC campuses as well as the national laboratories. The core of the UCI branch is the Center for Global Environmental Change Research (CGECR), which was established in 1999.
IGPP promotes research at UCI by (1) supporting major research initiatives and facilities jointly with the School of Physical Sciences and the Department of Earth System Science; (2) by supporting research by graduate students; and (3) by supporting visiting scientists, seminars, and workshops that promote collaborative research. Facilities that receive IGPP support include: the W. M. Keck Carbon Cycle Accelerator Mass Spectrometry Facility, the Stable Isotope in Atmospheric Trace Gas Facility, the Earth System Modeling Facility, and the Earth System Science (ESS) Analytical Mass Spectronomy Facility.
INSTITUTE FOR MATHEMATICAL BEHAVIORAL SCIENCES
The Institute for Mathematical Behavioral Sciences fosters research in the application of mathematical models and methods to describe and to better understand human behavior, both individual and social. Mimicking the successful interaction between mathematics and the physical sciences, a goal of the Institute is to generate successful interactions between mathematics and the behavioral and social sciences. The Institute sponsors specialized seminars and colloquia, a visiting scholars program, workshops, and focused research groups of faculty, students, and visitors, and it maintains a Technical Report Series. Participants include faculty from the Departments of Anthropology, Cognitive Sciences, Economics, Logic and Philosophy of Science, Political Science, and Sociology in the School of Social Sciences; the Department of Mathematics in the School of Physical Sciences; the Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science in The Henry Samueli School of Engineering; the Donald Bren School of Information and Computer Sciences; and The Paul Merage School of Business. Additional information is available at http://www.imbs.uci.edu.
INSTITUTE FOR SOFTWARE RESEARCH
The mission of the Institute for Software Research (ISR) is to advance software and information technology through research partnerships. ISR is dedicated to fostering innovative basic and applied research in software and information technologies. To achieve this goal, ISR works with established companies, start-ups, government agencies, and standards bodies to develop and transition technologies to widespread and practical application. The Institute also focuses on educating the next generation of software researchers and practitioners in advanced software technologies. It supports the public service mission of the University of California in developing the economic basis of the State of California.
Technical emphases of the Institute include software architecture, decentralized development and applications, event-based systems, open-source software development, game culture and technology, software processes, computer-supported cooperative work, human-computer interaction, user interface software, information visualization, privacy and security, ubiquitous computing, software understanding, requirements engineering, analysis and testing, extensible systems, configuration management, configurable distributed systems, Internet protocols and standards, and software engineering education.
Faculty members are drawn from throughout the University of California. Graduate research assistants, professional research staff, and visiting researchers complete the Institute's research body.
ISR supports research projects, sponsors professional meetings, and develops technology. To further its research agenda, the Institute sponsors a distinguished speaker series, technical roundtables, workshops, symposia, and special events. Effective partnerships with industry are essential for ISR to achieve its goals of technology development and transition. Corporate and institutional sponsorships support ISR's research, activities, and professional meetings.
Additional information is available at http://www.isr.uci.edu/.
INSTITUTE FOR SURFACE AND INTERFACE SCIENCE
The detailed understanding, control, and application of phenomena that occur at surfaces and interfaces requires expertise that cuts across the traditional boundaries of science and engineering. The increased activity in the nanosciences provides an excellent example. As structure sizes are reduced into the nanometer regime, the properties of surfaces and interfaces become dramatically more important as the surface-to-volume ratio increases. In this burgeoning new field, new understanding of surface chemistry becomes ever more important to the controlled synthesis of structures (e.g., wires, tubes, particles), new understanding of physics of surfaces and interfaces is required to understand and control the properties, and new engineering approaches are required to convert such structures into a broad range of new devices. The Institute for Surface and Interface Science (ISIS) at UCI exists to stimulate and foster scientific interactions between member faculty who share a common interest in molecular and atomistic-scale understanding and control of phenomena that occur on or at the interfaces between one or more phases of matter. A fundamental understanding of surfaces and interfaces provides a foundation for control of a myriad of technologically important phenomena including: lubrication, catalysis, corrosion, chemical sensing, semiconductor-based electronics, power generation in batteries, fuel cells, and solar cells. ISIS faculty have a diversity of training, experience, and research focuses related to surfaces and interfaces; interactions between members can be highly synergistic, and these interactions make possible a "vertically integrated" treatment of complex problems encompassing theory, fundamental experiments, engineering, and application.
INSTITUTE OF TRANSPORTATION STUDIES
The Institute of Transportation Studies (ITS), a University of California multi-campus organized research unit with branches at Irvine, Davis, and Berkeley, was established by act of the State Legislature in 1947 to foster interdisciplinary research on contemporary transportation issues. ITS research at UCI involves faculty and students from The Henry Samueli School of Engineering, the School of Social Sciences, the School of Social Ecology, The Paul Merage School of Business, and the Donald Bren School of Information and Computer Sciences.
ITS has a long and rich history of providing both direct and indirect support to the UCI transportation graduate programs. It provides office and research space to virtually all of the students enrolled in UCI's four graduate transportation programs—the interdisciplinary Program in Transportation Science; the graduate concentration in Transportation Economics; the Transportation Planning option in the Department of Planning, Policy, and Design; and the Transportation Systems Engineering graduate focus in the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering. ITS provides extensive computing resources to all of these students, together with state-of-the art simulation and laboratory facilities. ITS subscribes to the major transportation research journals and offers a variety of computer-based information retrieval services.
Research at ITS covers a broad spectrum of transportation issues. Much of the research conducted by the Institute is organized around centers. The Institute is part of the University of California Transportation Center (UCTC), a federally designated center for transportation research that focuses on research in transportations systems and policy. The ITS Center for Activity Systems Analysis (CASA) supports research directed toward the development of activity-based approaches to travel behavior analysis. For more than 25 years, CASA research associates have been on the leading edge of research in travel demand analysis, establishing an international reputation in the study of complex travel behavior, activity-based approaches, agent-based models, microsimulation approaches, data collection technologies, and empirical modeling. The ITS Center for Advanced Transportation Management Systems Research, which is part of the Universitywide PATH (Partners for Advanced Transit and Highways) program, supports research directed toward the development of intelligent transportation systems. The ITS Advanced Transportation Management Systems (ATMS) Laboratories provide facilities for the teaching, research, and development of intelligent transportation systems. This major effort is complemented by the ITS Center for Traffic Simulation Studies (CTSS), which features prototype systems for modeling and evaluating intelligent transportation systems and telematics. The Center for Logistical Innovations in Freight Systems (CLIFS) focuses on the development of optimization techniques for dynamic and stochastic freight and fleet management and investigation of the impacts of information technology on logistics operations. The Center for Urban Infrastructure (CUI) organizes and conducts research into the role of transportation in achieving and promoting sustainable community development. The Institute also plays a major role in the intelligent transportation and telematics research component of the California Institute for Telecommunications and Information Technology, one of the Institutes for Science and Innovation created by the Governor of California.
In addition to projects connected to these centers, ITS researchers are involved in many individual projects across several disciplines. ITS also hosts visiting scholars from the U.S. and abroad to facilitate cooperative research and information exchange, and sponsors conferences and colloquia to disseminate research results.
Irvine Research Units
Irvine Research Units (IRU) provide an organizational structure for the conduct of research that is difficult or infeasible to be carried out within the normal school or departmental structure. IRUs normally are established for a period of five years, and may provide the basis for establishment of extramurally supported research centers or Organized Research Units.
CENTER FOR HEALTH POLICY RESEARCH
The Center for Health Policy Research (CHPR) is an interdisciplinary faculty research organization dedicated to improving the quality of care and reducing the disparities in health care. Through research, its faculty and associates translate scientific findings into practice by uniting clinical sciences with the social and behavioral science fields of economics, psychology, anthropology, sociology, and business. This unique platform provides the basis for CHPR's research results to directly effect health policy and the health of the local community and the public.
CHPR is experiencing dramatic growth in personnel, grant support, and achievements, and is committed to building the Center into a nationally recognized focal point for health care research. CHPR has four principal functions: (1) to produce high-level health policy research in the areas of quality of chronic disease care (i.e., diabetes, cancer, nursing home care) and reduce health disparities and improve quality of care for ethnic minorities; (2) to disseminate research findings to UCI's faculty and students through seminar series, meetings, and publications; (3) to serve as the research center for UCI graduate and undergraduate students who have health interests; and (4) to support improvements in patient health and safety and organizational improvements in the UCI health care system.
CHPR's achievement of these goals begins with its faculty—an interdisciplinary group of national leaders representing health services research, health economics, clinical epidemiology, psychometrics, and behavioral sciences in medicine. The current research led by CHPR's members and its campuswide collaborators enhance UCI as one of the best research universities in the country.
