Research at UCSD
Organized Research Units (ORUs) are academic units the University
of California has established to provide a supportive infrastructure
for interdisciplinary research complementary to the academic goals
of departments of instruction and research. The functions of ORUs
are to facilitate research and research collaborations; disseminate
research results through research conferences, meetings, and other
activities; strengthen graduate and undergraduate education by providing
students with training opportunities and access to facilities; seek
extramural research funds; and carry out university and public service
programs related to ORUs research expertise. The senior staff
of these units are faculty members in related academic departments.
Institutes and centers currently in operation at UCSD are described
below.
In addition, the university is formally and informally affiliated
with various private research organizations such as the Institute
of the Americas, The Salk Institute for Biological Studies, Howard
Hughes Medical Institute, Ludwig Institute for Cancer Research,
and The Burnham Institute.
Universitywide Institutes/Organized Research Units
California Space Institute (Cal Space) was established
in 1979 as a multicampus organized research unit of the University
of California (UC). Cal Space maintains centers on several campuses,
which support and conduct pure and applied space-related science
and technological research and development. Specific areas of investigation
include the following:
Remote Sensingacquisition, processing, and application
of observations by satellites or other remotely automated instruments
to study the Earth and its changing environment. The primarily satellite-based
investigations study the greenhouse effect, global warming, hydrological
cycle, land surface processes, air-sea interactions, radiation,
and cloud dynamics.
Climateinterdisciplinary scientific research that
applies space observations and numerical modeling techniques to
fundamental issues of climate prediction and global change caused
by both natural and human forces within the atmosphere, the oceans,
and on land surfaces.
Space science and engineeringinvestigations of both
the solar system and universe, and the development of automation
and robotic systems for space exploration. Current investigations
include the study of comets, asteroids, the solar wind, and cosmic
background radiation. Space observations are often conducted with
instruments and techniques designed by Cal Space researchers.
Educationpromotion of undergraduate and graduate
education in the interdisciplinary fields of climate and global
change, and space science and engineering. The Cal Space-led statewide
consortium (California Space Grant Consortium) was designated in
1989 as a Space Grant College by NASAs Office of Education.
The program expands leadership in the development and application
of space resources through research and hands-on space projects,
fellowship funding, and educational outreach activities. The California
Space Grant Program works with NASA Centers and the aerospace and
high technology industries to strengthen its educational objectives.
Institute of Geophysics and Planetary Physics (IGPP) was
established in 1960 and named the Cecil H. and Ida M. Green IGPP
in 1994. It is a multicampus research unit of the University of
California, headquartered at UCSD, with branches at UCI, UCLA, UCR,
UCSC, as well as Los Alamos and Lawrence Livermore National Laboratories.
The present facility includes the Roger and Ellen Revelle Laboratory
and the Judith and Walter Munk Laboratory. Present research concentrates
on the study of crustal dynamics by measurements of gravity, tilt,
displacement, and strain in both continental and oceanic environments;
of regional seismicity and linear and nonlinear earthquake and explosion
source mechanisms; of the variability of the earths geomagnetic
field and its generation by the geodynamo; of the spherical and
aspherical structure of the earth by measurements of free oscillations,
surface waves, and travel times; of seafloor tectonics using marine
geophysical methods; of linear and nonlinear theoretical and computational
fluid dynamics; of the variable mesoscale structure of the oceans
and global ocean warming by acoustic tomography; of the structure
of the oceanic crust and lithosphere by seismic and electromagnetic
measurements on the ocean bottom and at the oceans surface
through seismic multichannel methods; of sea-floor and planetary
topography and gravity using satellite methods; of nonlinear dynamics
applied to geomorphology; and of tides, waves, turbulence, and circulation
in the oceans; of surface change caused by tectonic activity, or
climate change using satellite Interferometric Synthetic Aperture
Radar (InSAR), as well as airborne and spaceborne laser altimetry.
The institute operates a global network of some forty broadband
seismometers, the IDA (International Deployment of Accelerometers)
Array, with ten of these stations in the former Soviet Union which
are telemetered by satellite to the institute; a crustal strain
and seismic observatory at the Cecil and Ida Green Piñon
Flat Observatory near Palm Springs; a scientific wireless network
in California with SDSC, the High Performance Wireless Research
and Education Network (HPWREN); a southern California network of
Global Positioning System (GPS) satellite geodetic sites operated
by the Scripps Orbit and Permanent Array Center (SOPAC) and the
California Spatial Reference Center (CSRC); an acoustic network
in the Pacific for measuring ocean temperature variability; a modern
3D data visualization facility; a 5m, X-band satellite receiving
antenna for satellite remote sensing; a national Ocean Bottom Seismograph
Instrument Pool (OBSIP); and telemetered seismic arrays in Kirghizia,
and two locations in California. The institute does not grant degrees,
but makes its facilities available to graduate students from various
departments who have chosen to write their dissertations on geophysical
problems. Undergraduate students are involved in independent research
projects and as laboratory assistants. Members of the institute
staff now hold joint appointments with the Departments of the Scripps
Institution of Oceanography, and Applied Mechanics and Engineering
Sciences. Support for visiting scholars and grant matching funds
is provided through an endowment to the Cecil and Ida Green Foundation
for the Earth Sciences.
The University of California Institute on Global Conflict and
Cooperation (IGCC) is a multicampus research unit serving all
ten UC campuses and the UC-managed Lawrence Berkeley, Lawrence Livermore,
and Los Alamos National Laboratories. IGCC is based at the Graduate
School of International Relations and Pacific Studies (IR/PS) at
UCSD, whose faculty provides IGCCs leadership.
IGCCs mission to educate the next generation of international
problem-solvers and peacemakers is carried out through teaching
activities and research and public service opportunities. Scholars
and researchers from inside and outside the UC system, government
officials, and students from the United States and abroad have participated
in IGCC projects.
IGCCs initial research focused on averting nuclear proliferation
through arms control and confidence-building measures between the
superpowers. Since then, its research program has diversified to
encompass several broad areas of inquiry: regional relations, international
environmental policy, ethnic conflict, terrorism, and international
trade and policy issues. In addition, receipt of a prestigious NSF
award in 2002 for a program to train the next generation of nuclear
policy experts has lead to a rekindling of interest in research
on traditional security issues.
IGCC supports research and teaching on the causes of international
conflict and opportunities to promote cooperation through its annual
fellowship and grant cycle. IGCCs development office provides
an additional resource for UC faculty seeking foundation funding
for their projects. IGCC also serves as a liaison between the academic
and policy communities through its Washington, D.C., office, located
in the UC Washington Center (UCDC). The Washington, D.C., office
administers a graduate internship program in international affairs
and the IGCC Dissertation/ Foreign Policy Fellow Program. Interns
and fellows are placed with governmental and nongovernmental organizations
involved in international policy. The Washington office also sponsors
policy seminars to showcase UC faculty research results and to provide
opportunities for interaction between professors and policymakers.
IGCCs annual NEWSWired provides an overview
of the previous years research, funding, awards, projects,
meetings, workshops, colloquia, news, and publications. POLICYPacks
provide concise summaries of IGCC research programs for the policy
community. A new annual journal, IGCCReview, will
feature articles addressing the policy implications of IGCC research
conducted by senior UC faculty.
IGCC receives primary support from the regents of the University
of California. Additional funding has been provided by the U.S.
Departments of Energy, State, and Defense, the U.S. Institute of
Peace, the National Science Foundation, the Japan-U.S. Friendship
Commission, and Japans National Institute for Research Advancement
(NIRA). IGCC has also received important support from foundations
such as the Japan Foundation Center for Global Partnership (CGP),
the Carnegie Corporation of New York, The John D. and Catherine
T. MacArthur Foundation, the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation,
the Markle Foundation, the Smith Richardson Foundation, and the
Rockefeller Foundation.
For more information about IGCC and its research programs, including
full-text publications and downloadable POLICYPacks,
visit the IGCC Web site at http://www-igcc.ucsd.edu.
IGCC publications can also be downloaded from the California Digital
Librarys E-Scholarship Repository at http://repositories.cdlib.org.
The White Mountain Research Station (WMRS) was established
as a UC multicampus research unit in 1950 to support high-altitude
research. The station includes four laboratory facilities located
over a 3,000m (10,000 vertical ft.) altitude transect, ranging from
the floor of the Owens Valley to White Mountain at over 14,000 feet
above sea level. Located on the western edge of the Great Basin,
WMRS also provides access to three major biogeographic regions (Sierra
Nevada and White/Inyo montane, Mojave desert, and Great Basin desert),
and geologically rich and diverse field sites. WMRS has evolved
into a major multidisciplinary research and teaching institution
in eastern California, and hosts programs in archaeology and anthropology,
atmospheric and space sciences, biological and medical sciences,
ecology, conservation and natural resource management, geological,
hydrological, and earth sciences.
WMRS facilities include: (1) Owens Valley Laboratories with classrooms,
offices, dormitories, and food services for up to seventy people
outside the Sierra resort town of Bishop, (2) a newly renovated
lodge, cabins, classrooms, and laboratories for fifty people in
the Bristlecone pine forest at Crooked Creek (3,094m altitude) (3)
the Nello Pace Laboratory and Mount Barcroft facilities (3,801m
altitude), which can house thirty-five peoples, and (4) the 450-square-foot
Summit Laboratory on White Mountain peak (4,342m altitude), making
it the highest research lab in North America.
All of the laboratories are linked by a high-speed wireless internet
connection providing instant access between campus-based laboratories
and remote-sensing projects in the field. The Owens Valley Laboratory
includes a modern molecular biology and genetics laboratory used
to study adaptations to the environment and management of the majestic—but
endangered—Bighorn sheep. A geographic information system
(GIS) laboratory that houses the USGS-funded “Eastern Sierra
Geospatial Data Clearinghouse” is used by scientists and government
agencies for natural resource research and policy decisions. WMRS
also hosts a Center for Astrophysics and Cosmology at Barcroft and
“The Deepest Valley Interagency Plant Propagation Center.”
WMRS hosts more than 3,000 users from over 100 institutions per
year for research, teaching, and conferences. Research occurs year-round
with access to the high-altitude labs at Barcroft via snowmobile.
Summer is the busiest time at WMRS, with undergraduate internships,
graduate students supported by WMRS Fellowships in residence, plus
students and faculty from other universities around the world. Educational
uses include several geology field courses and a NSF-funded Research
Experience for Undergraduates program. WMRS sponsors professional
and post-graduate training courses, annual professional society
meetings, a community lecture series, an annual Open House at Barcroft
in August, and offers published proceedings from symposia on the
environmental science in the region.
Campuswide Institutes
The AIDS Research Institute
http://ari.ucsd.edu/index.html
Established in 1996 and formally opened in 1997, the AIDS Research
Institute (ARI) serves as the conduit for the UCSD Programs in HIV
Infection and AIDS, in which AIDS researchers in all university
departments and our associated institutions can collaborate on research,
with the objective of developing new approaches to the prevention,
diagnosis, and the treatment of HIV/AIDS.
UCSD faculty have made major advances in our understanding of
how the virus works, how it causes disease, how to treat HIV infection
and its complications, and the impact of HIV infection on nationwide
health and healthcare costs. In addition to the 104 faculty members
from 19 departments, the UCSD Program in HIV Infection and AIDS
is internationally recognized for its contributions to science and
patient care, bringing in more than $30 million in HIV and AIDS-related
grants annually and is ranked among the top ten AIDS programs in
the country.
ARI programs include:
- The Center for AIDS Research (CFAR)
- The Adult AIDS Clinical Trials Group (AACTG)
- The Pediatric AIDS Clinical Trials Group (PACTG)
- The California Collaborative Treatment Group (CCTG)
- The HIV Neurobehavioral Research Center (HNRC)
- The Southern California Primary Infection Program
- The HIV Costs and Services Utilization Study (HCSUS)
- The VA Quality Enhancement Research Initiative for HIV (QUERI-HIV)
- The San Diego AIDS Education and Training Center (AETC)
- The Owen Clinic, providing primary health care services
- The AntiRetroviral Research Center (AVRC)
- The UCSD Mother, Child and Adolescent Program
The institute sponsors seminars and workshops as well as offering
developmental grants to new investigators in the area of human immunodeficiency
virus (HIV) and acquired immune deficiency syndrome (AIDS) related
research.
Together with research and development the ARI is fully committed
to serve as a community resource for information and assistance
regarding infection, treatment, and education in HIV and AIDS. We
are here to serve as the regional resource for all aspects pertaining
to HIV and AIDS and, as a leader in research and education, to cure
the infected and prevent the uninfected from becoming infected.
The California Institute for Telecommunications and Information
Technology (Calit2) (http://www.calit2.net)
is an organized research unit that seeks to ensure that California
maintains its leadership in the telecommunications and information
technology marketplace. The institutes mission is simple:
Extend the reach of the Internet throughout the physical world.
Calit2 is a partnership between
UCSD and UC, Irvine, and is one of four institutes established in
December 2000 through the California Institutes for Science and
Innovation (CalISI). It is funded by a state capital grant, federal
research grants, industry, and foundations.
The institute is organized conceptually into five vertically interlocking
layers. The five layers are materials and devices; networked
infrastructure; interfaces and software systems; four applications
areas; and policy, management, and socioeconomic evolution. The
initial four applicationsenvironment and civil infrastructure,
intelligent transportation and telematics, digitally enabled genomic
medicine, and new media artsare target core concerns related
to Californias quality of life and represent large market
segments of Californias economy poised to be transformed by
the new Internet. Each layer and application has a leader listed
on the Calit2 Web site.
More than 220 professors and senior researchers, industrial partners,
postdoctoral researchers, and graduate and undergraduate students
are collaborating on interdisciplinary projects in living laboratories.
These labs include collaborative frameworks that span multiple layers
to enable creation of larger-scale activities to address real world
problems, such as pollution, traffic congestion, and the pressing
needs of medical practice. Early activities have focused around
eight living labs; some are technology-driven, some
are application-driven, and one is culture-driven.
The labs provide a context to deploy and test new technologies in
various combinations and experiment with new applications.
The Institute for International, Comparative, and Area Studies
(IICAS) was created in 2001 to promote research on international,
comparative, and cross-regional topics. Building on the substantial
existing strengths of UCSD in international studies, IICAS coordinates
and supports the research of faculty in departments, area studies
programs, and the Graduate School of International Relations and
Pacific Studies. It is closely associated with undergraduate and
graduate education in international studies, including Eleanor Roosevelt
College and the international studies major, whose program offices
are housed within the institute.
IICAS has three principal initial roles. First, it serves as a
research catalyst, fostering and incubating interdisciplinary and
cross-area research groups and projects. Activities have included
the launch of a European Studies initiative, a faculty research
project on globalization, territoriality, and conflict, and a multiyear,
interdisciplinary research workshop examining the empire-to-nation
transition. Second, IICAS coordinates and provides services for
existing and new international and area studies programs in development
and events planning and coordination. It also encourages new programs
in international and area studies. In this role, IICAS has cosponsored
campuswide panels and seminars that address critical international
issues. Third, the IICAS director and advisory committee advise
the senior vice chancellor for academic affairs on campus priorities
and appointments in international studies. IICAS also provides campus
wide services in support of UCSDs international contacts,
including international visitors, requests for affiliation agreements,
and collaborative international research projects.
The UCSD Institute of Molecular Medicine (IMM).
Our mission is: Integration of Molecules and Medicine—to
create an Olympic village for translational medicine in the San
Diego biomedical community, Innovation at Disease Interfaces—to
lead in the cross-fertilization between diverse human diseases and
disciplines, Interdisciplinary Training—to mentor
many of the highest caliber physician-scientists from the United
States and abroad, and International Programs—to
offer global outreach to Europe and Asia through innovative collaborations
and partnerships. IMM is designed to provide a unique research and
training atmosphere for graduate students, Ph.D. students, M.D.
fellows, and M.D./Ph.D. fellows with a scientific focus on molecular
medicine in the post-genome era. The Institute of Molecular Medicine
was established in June 2000 as an organized research unit at UCSD,
and has been designed as a Center Without Walls to encourage interactive,
interdisciplinary, educational, and research opportunities in the
growing field of molecular medicine. The faculty members of this
institute are committed to creating and maintaining a collaborative
environment that will ensure the rapid development of novel, biologically
targeted therapies to enhance the lives of the patients of tomorrow.
The first phase of programs has been established in the areas of
cardiovascular and neurological diseases; however, it is anticipated
that studies in other complex human diseases will be included as
scientific and clinical opportunities are solidified in the new
institute. A current National Institutes of Health Training Program
is a joint program with collaborators at The Salk Institute, which
affords students an opportunity to work for periods of time at both
institutions, depending upon the technology that is being applied
to their particular research project. Research and educational programs
include stem cell biology, regeneration, chemical biology, neuroscience,
computer modeling, and genomics.
The Institute of Molecular Medicine’s goals and objectives
are: 1) to expand on the growing vertebrate genomic databases and
a variety of genetic based approaches to form a multidisciplinary
research program to unravel complex human diseases, including heart
and neurological disorders; 2) to provide a high-technology platform
that will be based upon collaborative research efforts between prominent
scientists in the fields of bioengineering, neuroscience, chemistry,
physiology, biology, and genetics; 3) to provide an international,
cross-institutional, interdisciplinary training program in the Molecular
Basis of Complex Human Physiology and Diseases, for M.D., M.D./Ph.D.,
and Ph.D. postdoctoral fellows; 4) to develop strategic research
collaborations, educational exchange programs, and training alliances
with other international institutions; and 5) to promote the development
of industrial collaborations for specific targeted areas of both
scientific and clinical interest.
Seventy-five faculty members from UCSD, the Salk Institute for
Biological Studies, The Scripps Research Institute, The Burnham
Institute, and internationally based collaborators are participating
in the Institute of Molecular Medicine. These participants represent
a cross-section of the investigators and educators who constitute
the scientific and clinical community of leading investigators working
and teaching in areas related to molecular, cellular, genetic, and
bioengineering approaches to identify pathways that control complex
human physiological systems and related diseases. Each year the
IMM hosts an international symposium, Days of Molecular Medicine,
which brings world leaders to La Jolla to present state-of-the-art
lectures and provides programs that allow students in the IMM to
meet and discuss their projects with the speakers and senior scientists
in attendance. This year, the journal Nature Medicine and
IMM will co-sponsor the 2004 symposium “Integrative Physiology
and Human Disease: Neurohormonal and Metabolic Pathways” at
the Wellcome Trust Genome Center, Hinxton Campus in Cambridge, England.
Further information can be found online at http://www.imm.ucsd.edu/dmm/foundation.html.
The 2005 DMM conference will once again return to the Salk Institute
in La Jolla. In addition to strengthening the ties in academia,
the symposium also provides an opportunity for corporate sponsors
to discuss potential collaborations and meet with the next generation
of physician-scientists in this ever-changing field. The Institute
of Molecular Medicine is based on the vision that a new era in human
health and drug discovery lies at the borders between curiosity-driven
science and tomorrow’s medical therapies.
The Institute for Neural Computation (INC) focuses
on research into how nervous systems function through experimental
investigation and modeling of neural activity, and on applying knowledge
of nervous system function to the design of new technologies. The
institute supports graduate training programs in cognitive neuroscience
and computational neurobiology.
The Swartz Center for Computational Neuroscience develops models
of brain dynamics from electromagnetic and hemodynamic data acquired
during novel human behavioral experiments.
The Machine Perception Laboratory studies human perception and
develops similar capabilities for robots. Additional areas of research
include visual coding, motor control systems, and learning algorithms.
The goal is to gain insights into how the brain works by investigating
the nature of the problems it faces. This includes the development
of possible solutions to these problems in the form of robots that
interact with humans in real time.
The goal of the Lee Laboratory is to develop new machine learning
algorithms for advanced signal and image processing inspired by
recent progress in understanding how the brain represents and learns
sensory information.
Faculty from the Departments of Biology, Computer Science and Engineering,
Cognitive Science, Economics, Philosophy, Neurosciences, and Radiology,
and the Salk Institute for Biological Studies are actively involved
in the institute’s activities. The institute has an active
visitors program and an industrial affiliates program with ongoing
joint research projects. The institute sponsors a seminar series,
the annual Rockwood Memorial Lecture, and several scientific workshops
and conferences annually.
The Institute for Nonlinear Science (INLS) promotes interdisciplinary
research and graduate education in the development and application
of contemporary methods in the study of nonlinear dynamical systems.
Using a common mathematical language, faculty and students from
disciplines as diverse as physics, mathematics, oceanography, biology
and neuroscience, mechanical and electrical engineering, and economics
pursue the implications of generic characteristics of nonlinear
problems for their subjects. Each year the institute sponsors several
long- and short-term senior visitors from the University of California
and elsewhere and provides, through funds from external funding
agencies, support for approximately ten graduate students to work
on Ph.D. dissertations concerned with nonlinear problems. Also associated
with INLS are approximately twenty full-time research scientists
and postdoctoral researchers.
The core of INLS activities is composed of (1) joint research
among faculty and students across disciplinary lines and (2) lecture
series and working seminars designed to convey recent research progress
and to stimulate new investigations. Through contracts with external
agencies the INLS supports experimental, numerical, and theoretical
studies of nonlinear dynamics and chaos in neurophysiology, investigations
in nonlinear fluid dynamics and pattern formation, studies (jointly
with the University of California, Los Angeles and Stanford University)
of applications of chaos in communications, as well as in the nonlinear
dynamics of granular materials.
INLS has developed joint research programs with universities,
research institutes, and commercial companies in areas of common
interest. It actively works with colleagues at UCLA, Stanford, Cal
Tech, Argonne National Laboratory, ST Microelectronics, Time Domain
Inc., and Randle Corporation. These affiliations provide new research
horizons and realistic opportunities for technology transfer.
Institute for Pure and Applied Physical Sciences (IPAPS)
is an interdisciplinary research unit which brings together faculty
and researchers in physics, chemistry, engineering, and Scripps
Institution of Oceanography. The institute is concerned with fluids
and materials. Specific subjects of research include superconductivity,
ferromagnetism, semiconductor heterostructures, solid surfaces,
plasma physics, hydromagnetics, turbulence, fluid mechanics, laser
physics, and numerical analysis.
Within the IPAPS is the Center for Interface and Materials Science
(CIMS), which emphasizes interdisciplinary collaborative research
on the properties of surfaces, thin-layered composites, and novel
materials, as well as their technological applications. With centralized
space and equipment, CIMS brings together faculty and research staff
from the Departments of Physics, Applied Mechanics and Engineering
Sciences, Chemistry and Biochemistry, Electrical and Computer Engineering,
and the Scripps Institution of Oceanography.
The Sam and Rose Stein Institute for Research on Aging (SIRA)
is an ORU committed to fostering healthy aging by supporting advances
in patient care through innovative research, training, and education.
Established in 1983, the unit consists of eighty-five researchers
representing eleven different departments ranging from bioengineering
to family and preventive medicine and from neurosciences to psychiatry.
This wide diversity fosters an interdisciplinary approach to solving
the problems posed by diseases that increase with age. SIRA sponsors
Faculty Startup Grants to junior-level scientists in
order to allow them to lay a foundation of data necessary to compete
for national funding and help with career development. To facilitate
cooperative research endeavors, SIRA has also instituted the Faculty
Collaborative Grant Program that provides funding for researchers
from different medical/biological disciplines to work together in
developing innovative projects.
In addition, the institute is active in recruiting young students
to the field of aging through the Student Investigator Grant
Program. Undergraduate and medical students, who have expressed
an interest in age-related research, are teamed with established
senior scientists to pursue a research project. Healthwise,
the monthly newsletter, informs community members of upcoming lectures
and events sponsored by SIRA and UCSD, health and wellness information,
and advances in medical research. Coupled with the newsletter, a
monthly public lecture open to the public is presented by SIRA faculty
members. These lectures are videotaped and replayed on UCSD-TV,
other local stations, and also by satellite stations. These tapes
are available to SIRA members, faculty, and students, and can be
purchased at the UCSD Bookstore. In addition to our community outreach
and education, SIRA and the Academic Geriatric Resource Center has
developed a new series called Aging in the New Millennium.
These health promotion presentations provide information to seniors
enabling them to make appropriate and healthy lifestyle choices.
These presentations are taped and will be aired on UCSD-TV.
Lastly, SIRA provides health promotion presentations to the public
and non-profit community groups through its executive director and
research faculty. Contact steininstitute@ucsd.edu
for information and scheduling.
All of the above information and more can be accessed on the SIRA
Web site, http://SIRA.ucsd.edu.
Whitaker Institute of Biomedical Engineering (WIBE)
was established as an organized research unit in 1991 and named
as the Whitaker Institute in 2000. Its purpose is to promote and
coordinate interdisciplinary research among faculty and students
at the interfaces of engineering, biology, and medicine. The overarching
theme is integrative bioengineering, spanning the spectrum from
molecular to organismal levels and integrating engineering and biomedical
sciences. The major research thrusts are genomic bioengineering,
molecular biomechanics, tissue engineering, and systems biology.
Engineering principles and techniques are combined with biomedical
research across the entire biological hierarchy ranging from genomic
and molecular levels, through cells and tissues, to organs-systems.
The aim is to have an integrative understanding of the structure-function
relationships in normal and pathological conditions and development
of bioengineering approaches to restore, maintain, or improve functions.
The research pursued in WIBE involves the heart, blood vessels,
blood, lung, kidney, liver, pancreas, muscle, bone, cartilage, tendon,
ligament, skin, nerve, brain, retina, and cochlea, as well as targeted
molecular delivery based on engineering principles. WIBE research
and training activities include medical subjects such as cancer,
diabetes, myocardial infarction, hypertension, atherosclerosis,
peripheral vascular diseases, hemolytic anemias, pulmonary diseases,
renal diseases, hepatobiliary diseases, inflammation, AIDS, burns,
trauma, shock, retinopathies, tympanic membrane perforation, orthopedic
disorders, and sports injuries. Coordinated engineering and biomedical
research allows generations of quantitative information and new
investigative approaches.
The ultimate goal is improving the methods of prevention, diagnosis,
and treatment of diseases. WIBE facilitates university-industry
cooperation. It sponsors regular research seminars, workshops, and
symposia to promote information exchange and generate new ideas
and projects, and fosters interdisciplinary training of graduate
students and postdoctoral fellows. WIBE has nearly 100 faculty and
research scientists from the Jacobs School of Engineering, School
of Medicine, Divisions of Biological Sciences and Physical Sciences,
Scripps Institution of Oceanography, and members of neighboring
institutions, including The Burnham Institute, the Salk Institute
for Biological Studies, and The Scripps Research Institute. The
institute has an industrial advisory board, which has twenty company
representatives in San Diego and elsewhere, that fosters collaborative
research projects, joint grant applications, co-sponsoring of symposia
and workshops, student internship, and other academia-industry cooperative
activities. Together with the Department of Bioengineering, WIBE
received a Leadership Award from the Whitaker Foundation. Matching
gifts from the Charles Lee Powell Foundation and the William J.
von Liebig Foundation, as well as other donors, have made possible
the construction of the new Powell-Focht Bioengineering Hall in
2002, the first privately funded building on the UCSD campus.
The Project on Glucose Monitoring and Control
is a unit within WIBE. Its goal is to develop and evaluate new approaches,
both natural and engineered, to achieve ideal blood glucose control
and metabolic management in diabetes and related diseases. The project
brings together researchers and clinicians from bioengineering,
electrical engineering, computer science, and medicine, as well
as extramural collaborators. The project serves as a nucleus for
information exchange, development of new sensor and medication delivery
approaches, and development and evaluation of control strategies.
Centers
The Rebecca and John Moores UCSD Cancer Center (CC), active
in the fight against cancer since 1979, is a National Cancer Institute-designated
Comprehensive Cancer Center. The specific goals of the Cancer Center
are to enhance the present level of basic research, increase collaborative
research, increase the application of basic science to solve clinical
problems through translational research, disseminate new knowledge
to oncology professionals and scientists in the San Diego community,
enable the biomedical industry to transfer new technology to the
clinical setting, develop a strong effort in cancer prevention and
control, and educate and train undergraduate and postgraduate physicians,
and basic scientists. Under the auspices of a Cancer Center Support
Grant from the National Cancer Institute, there are seven active
program areas within the Cancer Center. These include Cancer Biology,
Cancer Genetics, Cancer Prevention and Control, Cancer Pharmacology,
Cancer Symptom Control, Translational Oncology, and Viral Malignancy.
Shared resources at the Cancer Center include Biostatistics, Clinical
Trials, Data Compilation and Analysis, Digital Imaging, DNA Sequencing,
Flow Cytometry, Histology and Immunohistochemistry, Microarray,
Molecular Pathology, Nutrition, Radiation Medicine, and Transgenic
Mouse.
Research and educational grants support the training of postdoctoral
fellows and medical students. The Clinical Trials Office coordinates
clinical research trials involving cancer patients at UCSD and is
the focal point for a large Oncology Outreach Network which provides
state-of-the-art protocol treatment opportunities for patients in
a broad geographic area. Patient care activities of the Cancer Center
are located in the Combined Oncology Clinic at the Theodore Gildred
Facility and in UCSD Medical Center, both located in Hillcrest,
and at the Oncology Clinic of the Perlman Ambulatory Care Center
and in UCSD Thornton Hospital, both located in La Jolla. Basic research
activities of the Cancer Center are carried out at a variety of
other locations on or adjacent to the La Jolla campus. Total membership
of the Cancer Center exceeds 260 laboratory investigators and clinical
physicians from twenty-two academic departments. The research funding
for Cancer Center members exceeds $180 million. Construction is
currently underway on the universitys east campus to erect
a five-story, 270,000-square-foot building to unite many of the
centers essential programs and services; it is scheduled for
completion in early 2005.
The Center for Astrophysics and Space Sciences (CASS) is
an interdisciplinary research unit established in 1979. The center
brings together academic and research staff from the Departments
of Physics, Chemistry, and Electrical and Computer Engineering.
Research is conducted in the scientific areas of theoretical cosmology,
computational astrophysics, observational cosmology, interstellar
medium, star formation; solar observational and theoretical studies;
X-ray and gamma-ray astrophysics; experimental and theoretical magnetospheric
and space plasma physics; and cosmochemistry, including the chemistry
of interstellar matter.
CASS provides a jointly shared facility which has office, laboratory,
and computer space to enhance the interchange of expertise. Researchers
in CASS have access to many University of California observing facilities,
including the 2 Keck 10m telescopes, Lick Observatories, and Keck
Telescopes, and have contributed experiments to many major NASA
space missions including the Hubble Space Telescope and the Rossi
X-Ray Timing Explorer. Associated with CASS are included seventeen
faculty, about twenty-five Ph.D.-level research staff, twelve graduate
students, and thirty technical and administrative support personnel.
The centers facilities, faculty, and research staff are
available to graduate students in the Departments of Physics, Electrical
and Computer Engineering, and Chemistry who have chosen to write
their dissertation on subjects of research encompassed by CASS.
Graduate and undergraduate courses in astrophysics, astronomy, and
space sciences are developed and taught by the academic staff of
CASS. The total yearly budget is about $5 million, mostly from federal
funding sources.
The Center for Comparative Immigration Studies (CCIS)
is an interdisciplinary, multinational research and training program
devoted to comparative work on international migration and refugee
movements. Its primary missions are to conduct comparative (especially
cross-national) and policy-oriented research, train academic researchers,
students, and practitioners, and disseminate research conducted
under its auspices to academics, policymakers, and NGOs through
research seminars, conferences, publications, the Internet, and
the mass media. CCIS seeks to illuminate the U.S. immigration experience
through systematic comparison with other countries of immigration,
particularly in Europe and the Asia-Pacific region.
The Center promotes research in the following areas: (1) the causes,
dynamics, and consequences (economic, political, and sociocultural)
of international migration, including low-skilled and high-skilled
migrant workers and refugees; (2) the determinants and outcomes
of laws and policies to regulate immigration and refugee flows;
(3) transnational relationships (economic, political, cultural,
ethnic) between immigrant sending and receiving countries; (4) the
impact of international migration on citizenship, national identity,
and ethnic relations; (5) immigrant rights, advocacy, and social
services; (6) immigrant political mobilization and participation;
(7) the socioeconomic, political, and cultural interactions of immigrants
with native-born residents of receiving countries.
CCIS hosts visiting predoctoral and postdoctoral research fellows,
and conducts an annual field research project on Mexican migration
to the United States. The Center’s Forced Migration Laboratory
conducts research in San Diego’s refugee communities originating
in sub-Saharan Africa, the Middle East, Central America, and Southeast
Asia. The laboratory promotes interaction between academic specialists
in refugee studies and practitioners, aimed at identifying and disseminating
best practices for refugee resettlement. The center has an active
publications program consisting of monographs, anthologies, and
working papers. Funding is provided by the University of California,
private foundations, and international agencies.
A number of graduate research assistantships are available. Applications
for graduate study in any of the disciplines covered by CCIS should
be directed to the academic department in which graduate study is
to be undertaken.
The overall objective of the Center for Energy Research (CER)
is to provide an academic research unit for interdisciplinary interactions
among UCSD faculty, research staff, and students aimed at promoting
and coordinating energy research and education. Approximately sixty-one
faculty, staff, and students are affiliated with the CER. The goals
of the CER are complementary to academic departments of instruction
and research with an emphasis on bridging the various disciplines
related to energy research on the campus. Emphasis is currently
on combustion and fusion energy research. The CER will also provide
a vehicle for developing other dimensions of energy research, including
energy policy research. The specific goals of the CER are: (1) to
provide an interdepartmental coordinating function for energy research
groups and projects at UCSD, (2) to enhance the prospects of extramural
research funding involving interdepartmental and multidisciplinary
collaborations in energy research, (3) to promote the visibility
of energy topics in undergraduate and graduate programs at UCSD,
(4) to provide a mechanism for interacting with other institutions
involved in energy research with particular attention to potential
industrial partners, and (5) to promote the visibility of energy
research at UCSD to potential sponsors and funding agencies.
A number of graduate research assistantships are available. Applications
for graduate study in any of the disciplines covered by the CER
should be directed to the academic department in which graduate
study is to be undertaken.
The Center for Environmental Research and Training (CERT)
coordinates the broad range of environmental research activities
across the university. Departmental participation includes the Departments
of Anthropology, Chemistry and Biochemistry, Economics, Division
of Biological Sciences, School of Engineering, School of Medicine,
Scripps Institution of Oceanography, the Center for U.S.-Mexican
Studies, and the Graduate School of International Relations and
Pacific Studies. This extensive group offers an opportunity to address
environmental issues across traditional disciplinary boundaries.
This opportunity is particularly crucial for understanding the complex
interactive nature of global and regional environmental issues.
The CERT also provides an interface for interaction with environmental
agencies outside the university, including the environmental technology
sector and governmental agencies.
The Center for Human Development (CHD) is an interdisciplinary,
research-centered unit designed to meet the growing needs for interdisciplinary
exchange on issues related to human development. The goal of CHD
is to provide a forum for interdisciplinary exchange that creates
dialogue between members of diverse disciplines. The Center is organized
around five structurally distinct components, but with integrated
functions. Each function is designed to serve a specific set of
needs and to make unique contributions to the larger enterprise.
These components are the following: (1) research support and infrastructure,
(2) enrichment of human developments instructional counterpartsthe
undergraduate Human Development Program and a proposed interdisciplinary
graduate program, (3) dissemination activities focused on but not
limited to local community needs, (4) public policy analysis, and
(5) assessment activities. In addition, the Center serves as a focal
point for research, evaluation, and assessment activities associated
with the campuswide Center for Research in Educational Equity, Assessment,
and Teaching Excellence (CREATE).
The Center for Human Information Processing (CHIP) is a
research facility for the study of the neural and cognitive mechanisms
underlying human perception, thought, and emotion.
CHIP has two missionsa practical one and a theoretical one.
The practical goal is to help develop new therapeutic approaches
for the treatment of neurological and psychiatric patients (e.g.,
stroke and childhood autism). The theoretical agenda is to understand
the neural basis of human behaviorthe question of how the
activities of millions of tiny wisps of protoplasm in the brain
gives rise to all the richness of our conscious experience and the
complexity of our cognitive processes.
It is ironic that even though we now have a vast amount of factual
information about the brain, even the most basic questions about
the human mind remain unanswered. How does the human brain create
and respond to art? Why do we enjoy music? How are metaphors represented
in the brain? What is body image and why does it get
distorted in Anorexia nervosa? How did language evolve? Or even
more basic questions such as: How do we see color? Can we pay attention
to only one thing at a time? How do we recognize faces so effortlessly?
CHIP has become well known for tackling questions such as these
experimentally. CHIP has played a major role in the emergence of
such new disciplines as neuro-ethics, neurotheology,
neuroeconomics, neuro-aesthetics, and neuro-epistemology.
CHIP has four divisions, each operating with the common goal of
furthering our understanding of human cognitive processes and the
neurological bases of these processes. The subdivisions are: brain
and perception division, the cognitive processes division, the division
of neuropharmacology and alternative medicine, and the language
processing division.
CHIP provides facilities for visiting scholars and supports workshops,
conferences, and brown-bag discussion groups centering on the theoretical
and empirical issues in each of these areas.
The Laboratory of Comparative Human Cognition: Each member
of LCHC pursues forms of critical empirical research, which aim
to understand the historical construction of human life. We use
a range of methodological tools to throw into relief the contingency
of culturally inflected collective social practices, change over
time, and the implications of social practices for human development.
And, in keeping with the critical ethos of our orientation, we often
utilize strategies to actively initiate change in the settings we
investigate. We take an ecological approach, looking at systems
that include meditating tools, people, representations, institutions,
and activities. We are especially interested in the collective accomplishment
of knowledge practicescognition, learning, remembering (and
forgetting), teaching, research, and engineering. Collectively,
our research spans all ages. At the same time, because the institutionalization
of social practices holds an important place in our studies, specific
projects often take the form of educational or workplace
research. In both domains, the place of discourses,
economics, and technologies in the development of social relations
of power, and their implications for change over time, are scrutinized.
We find comparisons across these realms a powerful source of insight
and theoretical development.
The LCHC published fifteen volumes of The Quarterly Newsletter
of the Laboratory of Comparative Human Cognition. It now publishes
a journal, Mind, Culture, and Activity: An International Journal.
The LCHC also coordinates an international electronic discussion
(http://communication.ucsd.edu/MCA/Mail/index.html)
that currently includes more than 400 researchers from sixteen countries.
The LCHC conducts a weekly seminar and workshops focused on special
topics, including cutting-edge research reports from members of
an interdisciplinary, international group of LCHC alumni who visit
periodically.
The Center for Iberian and Latin American Studies (CILAS)
coordinates and promotes Latin American and Iberian research and
service activities for faculty and students in all departments at
the university and outreach programs for the San Diego community.
It sponsors multi-disciplinary colloquia, conferences, projects
and publications, collaborations and exchanges with Latin American
institutions, as well as library expansion. The center is currently
launching new initiatives in the areas of public health; democracy,
civil society, and citizenship; and cultural studies. The center
also hosts visiting scholars, and it awards grants and fellowships
each year to promising graduate students.
The Center for Magnetic Recording Research (CMRR) is devoted
to multidisciplinary research and education in areas of science
and engineering that form the foundation for information storage
technologies for computer disk and tape drives. Founded in 1983
in partnership with a consortium of industrial sponsors, the centers
continuing mission is to advance the state-of-the-art in magnetic
disk and tape storage technologies, while producing highly trained
graduate students and postdoctoral professionals. Together, the
centers faculty and graduates have made major contributions
to the remarkable progress that storage systems have achieved in
storage capacity, data transfer rate, and cost efficiency over the
past two decades.
CMRR supports four endowed professorial chairs, currently in the
areas of magnetic materials, recording physics, tribology and mechanics
of the head/medium interface, and signal processing and coding.
The chaired professors also hold faculty appointments in the Departments
of Physics, Electrical and Computer Engineering, and Mechanical
and Aerospace Engineering. Graduate student researchers, post-graduate
researchers, professional scientists, and visiting scholars representing
international academic institutions and industrial laboratories
contribute to a research and educational environment that is dynamic
and varied.
As part of the centers mission to educate future leaders
in the vital information storage industry, the faculty teach specialized
classes at the undergraduate and graduate levels that train students
in the theoretical methods and experimental techniques underlying
advanced magnetic recording technology. In addition, the center
contributes to the continuing education of professionals in the
storage industry through regular seminars, research reviews, and
focused workshops.
Virtually all major information storage companies are sponsors
of CMRR, and they provide substantial research support through their
membership fees, focused research grants, and graduate student fellowships.
Real-world research opportunities are also available
to students through academic-year and summer internships with selected
sponsors. Additional support has come from private foundations,
state, and federal funding agencies, as well as from active participation
in joint university-industry programs, such as those coordinated
by the Information Storage Industry Consortium (INSIC).
Through cooperative research projects and the CMRR affiliated
faculty program, the center also fosters interactions with researchers
in other campus organizations, including the Department of Chemistry
and Biochemistry, the Department of Computer Science and Engineering,
the San Diego Supercomputer Center, and the Information Storage
Industry Center in the Graduate School of International Relations
and Pacific Studies. The interests of these affiliates cover a broad
spectrum, including novel materials for data recording, disk-drive
failure prediction, computational analysis of the recording process,
and the globalization of the magnetic recording industry.
CMRR also supports a world-class Library/ Information Center for
information storage technology that provides a range of services
to sponsors, resident researchers, and students. Services include
licensed database searching, patent searching, document retrieval,
and expedited access to proprietary technical resources.
The Center for Molecular Agriculture (CMA) promotes research
and education in plant genetics and plant molecular biology with
an eye to the application of that research to the improvement of
crops. Crop improvement cannot any longer rely exclusively on traditional
plant breeding methods but requires the application of new technologies
that include but are not limited to genetics and genomics, informatics,
molecular gene isolation, and plant transformation. The CMA brings
together researchers from UCSD and the Salk Institute and is a resource
for the entire San Diego community. It provides a focal point for
interaction with the local and statewide agricultural biotechnology
industry. The Center wishes to play an active role in the debate
about the safe cultivation and use of genetically modified crops.
The Center for Molecular Genetics (CMG) promotes
molecular genetic research and the training of graduate students
and postdoctoral fellows in the biological, chemical, and biomedical
sciences. The center’s research incorporates studies in both
model systems and humans that share a focus on dissecting the molecular
basis of human diseases. The latest techniques of gene isolation
and manipulation, as well as the genetic transformation of both
cells and organisms, are applied to major problems in biology and
medicine. The center serves as a resource for the entire UCSD campus
for molecular genetic techniques, materials, and facilities. The
CMG also is host to seminar series, conferences, and workshops that
encourage cross-disciplinary interactions among biomedical and bioinformatic
investigators.
The Center for Research in Biological Systems (CRBS)
is an organized research unit that exists to provide human resources,
high-technology equipment, and administrative services to researchers
engaged in fundamental research on cell structure and function relationships,
particularly those involved in central nervous system processes,
cardiovascular networking, and muscular contraction. CRBS scientists
investigate these processes through invention, refinement, deployment
of sophisticated technologies, especially
- High-powered electron microscopes that reveal three-dimensional
cell structures
- State-of-the-art X-ray crystallography and magnetic resonance
analysis that provide detail on protein structures at high resolution
- Laser-scanning and Confocal light microscopes that reveal molecules
tagged with fluorescent markers as they traffic within cells and
pass transfer signals within and between cells
- High performance computing and grid-based integration of distributed
data
CRBS facilitates an interdisciplinary infrastructure in which people
from biology, medicine, chemistry, and physics can work with those
from computer science and information technologies in collaborative
research. CRBS researchers share interests in the study of complex
biological systems at many scales, from the structures of enzymes,
proteins, and the body’s chemical communications network at
atomic and molecular levels, to an organism’s physiology,
strength, and support at cellular and tissue levels.
The CRBS infrastructure integrates resources for high-performance
computing, visualization and database technologies, and the grid-integration
of large amounts of archival storage data. The California Institute
for Telecommunications and Information Technology (Cal-IT2) and
the San Diego Supercomputer Center (SDSC) are collaborators in simulating
the activity of biological systems, analyzing the results, and organizing
the growing storehouse of biological information.
The aims of CRBS researchers are met in interdisciplinary research
efforts of major federally funded research efforts that are presently
the heart of CRBS:
- BIRN, the Biomedical Informatics Research Network http://www.nbirn.net
tests new modes of large-scale biomedical science. BIRN builds
infrastructure and technologies to enable large-scale biomedical
data mining and refinement.
- NCMIR, the National Center for Microscopy Imaging Research http://www.ncmir.ucsd.edu
specializes in the development of technologies for improving the
understanding of biological structure and function relationships
spanning the dimensional range from 5nm3 to 50µm3.
- NBCR, the National Biomedical Computation Resource http://nbcr.ucsd.edu
conducts, catalyzes, and advances biomedical research by harnessing,
developing, and deploying forefront computational, information,
and grid technologies.
- JCSG, the Joint Center for Structural Genomics http://www.jcsg.org
creates new technologies to drive high-throughput structure determination.
The Bioinformatics Core at UCSD is responsible for target selection,
sample tracking, information management, structure validation
and deposition, and poststructural analysis. Through these functions,
the group provides the integrated informatics backbone required
for the successful operation of JCSG.
CRBS researchers also have significant roles in collaborations
with
- PRAGMA, Pacific Rim Applications and Grid Middleware Assembly,
http://www.pragma-grid.net
establishes sustained collaborations and advances the use of grid
technologies in applications throughout the Pacific Region to
allow data, computing, and other resource sharing.
- Optiputer, http://www.optiputer.net,
involves the design and development of an infrastructure to integrate
computational, storage and visualization resources over parallel
optical networks using lambda switching communication mechanisms.
CRBS is an entity evolving as research evolves. It was established
in 1996 to involve researchers from disciplines across UCSD, the
School of Medicine, the Salk Institute for Biological Studies, Calit2,
and SDSC, including bioengineering, biology, chemistry, computer
science, mathematics, neurosciences, pharmacology, psychiatry, and
physics, and forges interactions with biotechnology and biocomputing
companies for technology transfer. Interaction, collaboration, and
multiscale research produce new perspectives, reveal fruitful research
topics, lead to the development of new technologies and drugs, and
train a new generation of researchers in biological systems.
The Center for Research in Computing and the Arts (CRCA)
is an organized research unit of UCSD whose mission is to facilitate
the creation of new forms of art that arise out of the developments
of digital technologies. Current focus areas include networked multimedia,
virtual reality, computer-spatialized audio, and live performance
techniques for computer music and graphics.
As the University of California’s oldest arts research center,
CRCA pursues innovative approaches to the arts, crossing disciplinary
boundaries with the humanities, engineering, and the sciences. Faculty
members devise new modes of artistic practice through their liaisons
with international cultural institutions, high-tech industries,
and interdisciplinary collaborations.
CRCA coordinates the New Media Arts layer of the California Institute
for Telecommunications and Information Technologies [Calit2] at
UCSD. The center’s cultural research activities are considered
a model “living laboratory” for Calit2 provocatively,
and critically, pursuing new cultural forms and social engagements
provided by developments in IT and telecommunications.
CRCA provides the support framework for a broad range of approaches
to artistic, scholarly, and technological development that is at
the basis of our digitally transformed culture. We actively encourage
the investigation of what constitutes the potent cultural acts of
our time and the viable mechanisms that should be engaged to create
them. More information about the center, its researchers, public
events, and the process for engagement, can be found at http://crca.ucsd.edu.
Center for Research in Language (CRL). The foci of the center
are on language processing, language learning, language disorders,
and simulations of all these aspects of language in artificial systems.
Research in the center is interdisciplinary and draws upon the fields
of linguistics, psychology, cognitive science, neurosciences, computer
science, and communication.
The centers facilities are designed to accommodate laboratory
research projects by the faculty and graduate students; facilities
include a number of high-performance work stations, a computer laboratory,
extensive equipment for audio recording and analysis, and equipment
for psycholinguistic experimentation.
Current research projects include studies of language and cognitive
development in children; language impairment in children and adults;
word and sentence processing in bilinguals; foreign vocabulary in
American Sign Language; development of neurally inspired parallel
processing models of speech perception; studies in first language
acquisition; cross-linguistic comparisons of the process of language
acquisition and aphasia; research on the integration of grammatical
analyses and theories; a project to collect large-scale text corpora
in electronic form; and a study of expectancy generation in sentence
processing. The center administers an NIH pre- and postdoctoral
training grant, Language, Communication and the Brain.
CRL has also entered into several institutional agreements with
research institutions in Europe, Asia, and the Americas, providing
for the exchange of personnel and support for projects of mutual
interest. An ongoing speaker series presents a broad range of experimental
approaches to the study of language. The center publishes a monthly
electronic newsletter.
The Project in Cognitive and Neural Development is an activity
of CRL. Its purpose is to provide a forum for interdisciplinary
research on brain and cognition in human children, including research
on the neural bases of language and communication. The project brings
together faculty and research staff from the UCSD Departments of
Cognitive Science, Communication, Linguistics, Neurosciences, Psychology,
Psychiatry and Sociology, the San Diego State University Departments
of Psychology and Communication Disorders, and the Salk Institute
for Biological Studies.
The Center for U.S.-Mexican Studies (CUSMS), established
in 1979, is the nations largest program devoted to the study
of Mexico and U.S.-Mexican relations. It supports research in the
social sciences and history, graduate student training, publications,
and public education activities that address the full range of problems
affecting economic and political relations between Mexico and the
United States.
Through its visiting researchers program, the center each year
sponsors the research of predoctoral and postdoctoral scholars,
who spend three to nine months in residence. Typically, people from
Mexico receive over half of these awards, which are made through
an open, international competition. Other visiting fellows come
from Europe, Canada, East Asia, and the rest of Latin America. The
centers permanent academic staff also conducts long-term studies
of Mexico’s competitiveness in the global economy, Mexican
financial markets, the impact of remittances on development, political
change and the administration of justice in Mexico, environmental
problems in Mexico and the U.S.-Mexico borderlands, Mexican immigration
to the U.S., and new forms of North American economic integration.
The center publishes much of the research conducted under its auspices.
Each summer, the center conducts a seminar in studies of the United
States for twenty-three to twenty-five Latin American social scientists
and nonacademic professionals.
The centers interdisciplinary Research Seminar on Mexico
and U.S.-Mexican Relations, which meets throughout the academic
year, features presentations of recent research by scholars from
throughout the United States, Mexico, and other countries. In addition,
several research workshops on specialized subjects are held each
year.
The center has an active public education program, which includes
frequent briefings for journalists, public officials, and community
groups.
The Glycobiology Research and Training Center (GRTC) seeks
to facilitate and enhance glycobiology research and training at
UCSD. Current faculty membership includes many UCSD faculty from
several departments across the School of Medicine, SIO, and the
general campus as well as adjunct faculty at nearby institutions.
Affiliate members include interested scientists in the La Jolla
area as well as faculty from other UC campuses.
Glycobiology is the study of the structure, biosynthesis, and
biology of sugar chains (called oligosaccharides or glycans) that
are widely distributed in nature. All cells and many proteins in
nature carry a dense and complex array of covalently attached glycans.
These are often found on cellular and secreted macromolecules, in
an optimal position to modulate or mediate events in cell-cell and
cell-matrix interactions that are crucial to the development and
function of a complex multicellular organisms. They can also mediate
interactions between organisms (e.g., between host and parasite).
In addition, simple, rapidly turning-over protein-bound glycans
are abundant in the nucleus and cytoplasm, where they appear to
serve as regulatory switches. The development of a variety of new
technologies for exploring the structures of these glycans has recently
opened up this new frontier of molecular biology.
The GRTC seeks to foster interactive research in glycobiology
by coordinating the availability of state-of-the-art instrumentation
and expertise in the structural analysis of glycans through a Glycotechnology
Core Resource, increasing intellectual and collaborative interactions
by organizing symposia, joint programs and seminars, coordinating
joint applications for extramural support, improving access to relevant
informatics, and facilitating the transfer of basic glycobiology
research to practical applications. The Center also strongly emphasizes
graduate, postgraduate, and medical student education in glycobiology,
including contributions by the faculty to core curricula, as well
as to elective courses and journal clubs.
The San Diego Supercomputer Center (SDSC) is an
organized research unit of UCSD that provides world leadership in
developing and applying technology to advance science. SDSC research
activities are undertaken jointly with faculty from UCSD departments,
including computer science and engineering, bioengineering, biochemistry
and chemistry, pharmacology, physics, and Scripps Institution of
Oceanography; local research institutions such as The Scripps Research
Institute and the Salk Institute for Biological Studies; and national
and international collaborators.
With a staff of 400 scientists, software developers, and research,
operations, and user support staff, SDSC is focused on data management,
high-end computing, integrative biosciences, geoscience, grid and
cluster computing, and visualizations.
SDSC’s data management activities provide data integration
for large-scale application efforts within UCSD and beyond in fields
such as geosciences, biological and environmental sciences. Two
key projects include the Geoscience Network (GEON) and the Sceince
Environment for Ecological Knowledge (SEEK). GEON weaves together
separate informational strands into a unified fabric that enables
the discovery of data relationships within and across Earth science
disciplines.
SEEK uses SDSC’s computational science resources to provide
the computational and data-management components of UCSD’s
strong environmental informatics program. Reflecting the dramatic
increase in humankind’s ability to change the environment,
the study of environmental informatics is increasingly critical
to California. SDSC and UCSD are building and supporting a program
that spans scales from the molecular level to entire populations,
accurately modeling the impact of population on the environment.
In addition, SDSC pursues data management activities such as digital
library initiatives, data-system standardization, and opportunities
to impact large-scale data mining, analysis, and knowledge synthesis
with academic, federal, and commercial partners. SDSC’s high-end
computing unit is leading a national effort to understand and deploy
the most capable computational environments and to make those environments
easily accessible and usable by scientific communities—locally,
nationally, and globally. SDSC maintains leadership in critical
strategic capabilities, including chemistry, parallel applications
and performance modeling, scientific visualization, and increasing
collaborations with the social sciences.
Researchers involved in SDSC’s integrative biosciences area
are developing projects to understand how cellular behavior emerges
from the molecular level, how tissue behavior emerges from the cellular
level, and so on up to the level of the organism. SDSC is collaborating
in this area with the UCSD School of Medicine, the Center for Research
in Biological Structure, The Scripps Research Institute, the Salk
Institute for Biological Studies, and local biotech and pharmaceutical
companies. SDSC also is focusing on large-scale collaborative bioscience
projects worldwide using an infrastructure based on high-performance
computation and analysis of massive amounts of data.
As the leading-edge site of the National Partnership for Advanced
Computational Infrastructure, SDSC is collaborating with forty-one
partner institutions. The partnership is developing a ubiquitous,
continuous, and pervasive computational environment for tomorrow’s
scientific discovery. Major academic researchers around the country
use the powerful computing resources at SDSC to make breakthroughs
in diverse areas of science—from astronomy and biology to
chemistry and particle physics.
In early 2004, SDSC deployed DataStar, a 10.4 teraflops (trillion
floating point operations per second) supercomputer with a total
shared memory of 3.2 terabytes. DataStar is among the top supercomputers
in the world. DataStar is used by researchers in academia and industry
to conduct large-scale scientific research applications that involve
extremely large data sets or have stressful input/output requirements.
SDSC and four partners are developing the TeraGrid—the first
large-scale and production grid that provides a national computational
infrastructure for open scientific research. SDSC’s partners
are the National Center for Supercomputing Applications at the University
of Illinois, Argonne National Laboratory, the Center for Advanced
Computing Research at the California Institute of Technology, and
the Pittsburgh Supercomputing Center. The TeraGrid integrates more
than 20 teraflops of computing power distributed at the five sites
through a cross-country network backbone that operates at 40 gigabits
per second. The storage facilities at SDSC alone include more than
500 terabytes of high-speed disk and six petabytes of archival storage.
The complete TeraGrid project also includes facilities for high-resolution
visualization environments, as well as toolkits for grid computing.
SDSC hosts huge digital collections, including astronomical images
from the 2-Micron All Sky Survey, images from the Art Museum Image
Consortium, Chinese text from the Pacific Rim Digital Library Alliance,
and tomographic images of the human brain. The technology is also
being used to prototype persistent digital archives for the National
Archives and Records Administration and other government agencies
with huge data archives.
The Cooperative Association for Internet Data Analysis (CAIDA)
at SDSC engages Internet providers, vendors, and users in engineering
and technical collaborations to promote a more robust, scalable
Internet infrastructure. CAIDA works with the community to develop
and transfer tools and technologies that provide engineering and
other insights relating to the operation and evolution of the Internet
infrastructure. CAIDA works with providers and researchers to refine
Internet traffic metrics, foster shared research environments, and
encourage the development and testing of advanced networking technologies.
SDSC’s Applied Network Research group is currently conducting
two Internet research projects. The first involves the National
Laboratory for Applied Network Research (NLANR), an NSF-supported
collaboration to provide technical, engineering, and traffic analysis
support for NSF’s High Performance Connections sites and the
nation’s high-performance network infrastructure. NLANR members
include SDSC, the National Center for Supercomputing Applications
at the University of Illinois, the Pittsburgh Supercomputing Center,
and the National Center for Atmospheric Research. \
The second activity of the Applied Network Research group is the
High Performance Wireless Research and Education Network (HPWREN),
a collaboration with SIO that created a noncommercial, prototype,
high-performance, wide-area wireless network in San Diego County.
The NSF-funded network includes backbone nodes on the UCSD campus
and a number of “hard to reach” areas in the county.
HPWREN is demonstrating, and evaluating uses of the prototype for
network analysis research, for high-speed Internet access for scientists
involved in field research projects involving geophysics, astronomy,
and ecology, and for educational opportunities for rural Native
American learning centers and schools.
The SDSC Fellows Program promotes computational science and engineering
activities at UCSD and seeks to strengthen intellectual ties between
SDSC staff and other researchers on campus. UCSD faculty members
are invited to join this program by contacting Kim Baldridge, kimb@sdsc.edu,
(858) 534-5149.
Research Experiences for Undergraduates (REU), funded by NSF, provides
an opportunity for undergraduates to work on computational science
research projects under the guidance of SDSC mentors and their campus
advisers. Students can participate in a full-time summer program
or part-time during the academic year. Candidates must apply to
and be accepted by the program. Stipends are provided. For more
information, contact Rozeanne Steckler, steckler@sdsc.edu,
(858) 534-5122.
Projects
The goal of the African and African-American Studies Research
Project (AAASRP) is to facilitate faculty, postgraduate, and
graduate research in the areas of Africa and African diaspora studies
in the social sciences and the humanities, and to foster the comparative,
cross-national, and interdisciplinary dimensions of research, with
a core group of scholars drawn from several fields in the social
sciences and humanities. These research efforts are linked directly
to larger local and international community concerns.
The project sponsors visiting scholars, focused research groups,
a seminar, and symposia. Faculty from seven university departments
are involved. The project oversees the African Studies Minor. The
project is also part of the UC Systemwide Consortium of African
Studies Programs and the national Association of African Studies
Programs. It provides the basis for the establishment of an organized
research unit on African and African-American Studies at a later
time. For more information, contact the AAASRP office at (858) 822-0265.
The Project for Explaining the Origin of Humans is a broad-based
multidisciplinary coalition of individuals in the La Jolla area
(from UCSD as well as surrounding institutions) who are interested
in defining and explaining the evolutionary origins of humans and
in generating testable hypotheses and new agendas for research regarding
this matter. Areas of current interest include primate genetics
and evolution, paleoanthropology and hominid origins, mammalian
and primate neurosciences, primate biology and medicine, the roles
of nature and nurture in language and cognition, human and primate
society and culture, comparative primate reproductive biology, geographic,
environmental and climatic factors in hominid evolution, as well
as general theories for explaining humans. The group includes faculty
from the Departments of Anthropology, Biology, Chemistry and Biochemistry,
Cognitive Science, Linguistics, Medicine, Neurosciences, Oceanography,
Pathology, and Psychology. A listing of participants can be found
at http://origins.ucsd.edu.
The Project in Display Phosphor Research provides a forum
for research on the synthesis, characterization, and processing
of phosphors for high definition display applications. The project
brings together faculty and researchers from the UCSD Departments
of Chemistry and Biochemistry, Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering
(MAE), and Electrical and Computer Engineering (ECE). The project
was organized in 1992 in order to expand collaboration with other
colleagues at UCSD and to extend research efforts to address both
near-term and future research issues concerning phosphor materials
and advanced displays.
The Project In Econometric Analysis (PEA) is concerned
with the analysis of economic and financial data and with techniques
for modeling relationships between economic variables and testing
economic theories. As economic variables have properties not generally
found in other fields, standard procedures from mainstream statistics
are often not appropriate. The field of econometrics has been developed
to deal with these issues. Its importance is indicated by its effect
on the methodologies in other social sciences, such as political
science and empirical history, and the fact that several Nobel Prize
winners in economics have been econometricians. In fact, the 2003
Nobel Prize in economics was awarded to Clive Granger and Robert
Engle, two of the founders of the PEA.
The Project in Econometric Analysis (PEA) supports the work of
an active group of researchers and provides opportunities for productive
interaction among faculty and students. Areas of active research
include financial econometrics, non-linear time series modeling,
properties of neural network models, the theory of economic forecasting
and various actual applications including evaluations of models
and forecasts in finance and economics. The PEA allows links with
workers from other universities in this and other countries. In
20002001 and 20012002 the project had visitors from
Europe, Asia, North America, and Australia; some were senior and
some were pre- and post-doctoral students. Faculty members and graduate
students associated with the project presented their research at
workshops and conferences worldwide. In addition, PEA facilitates
the submission of grant proposals to outside agencies.
The Project in Geometry and Physics (PGP), established
in 1987, provides opportunities for increased collaboration between
mathematicians and physicists. The project hosts several scientific
meetings each year and also sponsors a number of research seminars
with distinguished scientists from inside and outside the UCSD community.
The Project on International Affairs (PIA) is one of the
international programs within the Institute on International, Comparative,
and Area Studies, focusing on economic and political interactions
between states. The project serves to promote interdisciplinary
research on international politics and international economics;
disseminate current research to UCSD faculty and students; provide
a multidisciplinary focal point for research and programming; and
enhance campus and community understanding of international political
and economic affairs.
The Project on Responsible Conduct of Research Education
(RCR Education Project) was created in 2003 to promote
RCR education both at UCSD and nationally. To achieve this goal,
the RCR Education Project is facilitating the formation of an independent
Responsible Conduct of Research Education Consortium (RCREC). The
RCREC will provide leadership to the research community in promoting
education in the responsible conduct of research
The RCR Education Project and the RCREC are intended to be a broad-based
coalition, representing medical, social, and behavioral research,
and public and private institutions. Through these collaborations,
the RCR Education Project will lay the foundations for the RCREC
to advance programs of RCR education, develop RCR education standards,
certify or identify programs that meet those standards, facilitate
the exchange of RCR education programs among research institutions,
and develop outcome measures to evaluate the success of the endeavor.
Specific objectives of the RCREC are to: 1) promote RCR education
as a central responsibility for any institution involved in research;
2) develop clear definitions for RCR education, including goals,
standards, competencies, and methods for evaluating the effectiveness
of programs; 3) assist institutions, RCR programs, and investigators
in identifying and developing RCR education curricula and resources;
4) facilitate discussion and collaboration among federal agencies,
public and private research institutions and organizations, professional
societies, and businesses in developing, coordinating, and sharing
new and existing RCR educational programs within the research community;
and (5) identify and overcome barriers to fulfilling RCR educational
needs and requirements.
The Public Policy Research Project was established to facilitate
interdisciplinary research and educational opportunities in public
policy and business-government interaction. Through conferences,
focused research groups, and lecture series, the project acts as
a catalyst for interaction among economists, political scientists,
moral philosophers, historians, cognitive scientists, anthropologists,
and sociologists. The project supports programs that: (1) help faculty
obtain funding that are engaged in policy-related research, (2)
conduct research apprenticeships for doctoral students working on
research projects dealing with issues and processes of public policy,
and (3) provide technical support and arrange faculty-proposed conferences
within the scope of the projects mission statement.
Natural Reserve System (NRS)
The Natural Reserve System (NRS) was founded to establish
and maintain significant examples of Californias diverse ecosystems
and terrain. These reserves are used for teaching and research in
all disciplines, from geology and environmental sciences to anthropology
and art. Faculty and students of the University of California and
other institutions are encouraged to use any of the thirty-four
reserves in the system for serious academic pursuits. The San Diego
campus administers the following four reserves:
Dawson Los Monos Canyon Reserve: This 218-acre reserve
is located in the cities of Carlsbad and Vista in north coastal
San Diego County. Its young, stream-cut valley contains a year-round
creek with precipitous north- and south-facing slopes. The major
habitat types are Southern Riparian Woodland, Diegan Coastal Sage
Scrub, Perennial Coastal Stream, Coast Live Oak Woodland, Mixed
Grassland of native bunchgrass and introduced annuals, and South
Coastal Mixed Chaparral. This area is also of unique and significant
historical and archaeological value. A small field station provides
opportunities for small laboratory classes, overnight stays, and
on-site research.
Elliott Chaparral Reserve: Located ten miles to the east
of campus, this 107-acre reserve, adjacent to the large expanse
of Marine Corps Air Station Miramar that is undeveloped, features
Chamise Chaparral typical of the Southern California coastal plain
and a large stand of mature planted eucalyptus. It is readily available
during a normal three-hour lab period or for term paper-length field
studies as well as for more lengthy projects.
Kendall-Frost Mission Bay Marsh Reserve: This sixteen-acre
reserve, together with the city of San Diegos contiguous Northern
Wildlife Preserve, constitute the last remaining forty acres of
tidal salt marsh on Mission Bay and one of the few such wetlands
remaining in Southern California. It is recognized for the habitat
it provides for several rare and endangered birds including the
light-footed clapper rail, Beldings savannah sparrow, and
the California least tern, as well as many resident and migratory
shorebirds and waterfowl, and several fish species. An on-site trailer
houses limited residential and laboratory facilities, and extensive
facilities exist within ten miles on the UCSD main campus and at
the Scripps Institution of Oceanography. There are opportunities
for studying restoration ecology of upland and tidal habitats.
Scripps Coastal Reserve: This reserve consists of disjunct
shoreline and cliff-top (or knoll) portions. The shoreline
part consists of the 67 acre San Diego Marine Life Refuge extending
seaward 1,000 feet from the high tide line, and surrounding the
Scripps Institution of Oceanography (SIO) Pier. Habitats include
sandy beach and submerged plain, to 60 feet below mean lower low
water, seasonally exposed cobble beach, rocky reef, pier pilings,
and upper submarine canyon ledges. Habitats of the clifftop knoll
and canyons include coastal sage scrub, maritime succulent scrub,
southern coastal mixed chaparral, and disturbed grassland. The latter
is particularly suitable for ecological restoration experiments.
This reserve is enhanced by the availability of the laboratories
and facilities of adjacent SIO and the main San Diego campus.
Campuswide Research Facilities
Academic Computing Services
San Diego Supercomputer Center
The UCSD Libraries
Research at UCSD
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