Strategy: Invest in targeted areas of established and emerging excellence and distinction
Point People: Barry Klein and Ken Burtis
Narrative Summary of Fifth Year Implementation Efforts
Key Objectives and Campus Efforts for Implementation
One of our core missions remains to support and help define the emerging areas of excellence and advance efforts to prosper and achieve success. Along with the great faculty efforts and the inherent collegiality of their efforts, the administrative support groups of the Deans and Vice Chancellors/Provosts continue to work well together in providing appropriate support. The campus is making great strides in advancing the implementation of the various FTE initiatives.
The UC Davis Energy Institute, formally sanctioned in October 2007, has become a leader in energy issues with more than 160 faculty members engaged in research, technology, policy, and education. A major component of the Energy Institute is the Energy Efficiency Center with its highly effective programs in agriculture and food processing, buildings, and transportation. A formal proposal to develop a Graduate Group in Energy Science, Technology, Policy, and Management has been submitted and is currently under review by the Academic Senate.
Another major initiative is the Foods for Health Institute, with over 100 scientists. Research interests span from agricultural and food sciences to the clinical assessment of food components. The completion of the state-of-the-art Robert Mondavi Institute for Food and Wine Science in fall will also be a significant catalyst. The institute will consist of a complex of five buildings and house the departments of Viticulture and Enology and Food Science and Technology. UC Davis has a rich history of excellence in the wine and food sciences, and with the launch of this premier institute opens a new era of opportunity for our campus in its widely acclaimed wine and food programs. The UC Davis Clinical and Translational Science Center, spearheaded in the School of Medicine, draws on the sciences across the broader UC Davis campus, institutional partners, as well as the community.
The Office of Research continues to promote collaboration and large-scale, interdisciplinary research projects in general. Efforts will include expanding possibilities to foster more collaboration in selected research areas and continuing and expanding the joint research seminar series and area-specific workshops especially with Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, Los Alamos National Laboratory, and Sandia National Laboratory to enhance opportunities for UC Davis and national laboratory scientists to define areas of collaboration.
2007-08 Accomplishments
- An agreement is being finalized between the UC Davis Energy Institute and the California Energy Commission’s Public Interest Energy Research (PIER) Program to establish UC Davis as the lead organization to oversee the state’s Collaboratives in Biomass, Wind Energy, Geothermal Energy, and Solar Energy.
- The California Lighting Technology Center is an award-winning collaborative effort between the California Energy Commission, the US Department of Energy, and the National Electrical Manufacturers Association.
- The Western Cooling Efficiency Center partners with stakeholders to identify technologies, disseminate information, and implement programs that reduce cooling system electrical demand and energy consumption in the Western United States. The center is supported by industry affiliates, including manufacturers, contractors, utilities, and the California Energy Commission.
- Major program initiatives with several national laboratories have been undertaken in the areas of Biosecurity, Nanotechnology, Bioenergy, Medical Isotopes, and Energy Storage. Workshops have been used to identify individual and team collaborations between our faculty and national laboratory staff, with the goal of establishing new research programs with third-party funding.
- Regular meetings of the National Laboratory Advisory Board were held with the purpose of identifying major directions for large-scale, interdisciplinary efforts where national laboratories and the campus could partner.
- Discussions with Professor Alan Hastings have taken place regarding a potential major center proposal in Mathematical Biology.
- Key faculty members have been enlisted to attend national conferences focusing on emerging areas of research, such as nano-technology and cyber-security.
- In the areas of Nano-science and Nano-technology, there was the initiation of pioneering research on the possible health effects of certain nanomaterials, such as "nanotubes" (newly approved EPA project by Professors Kent Pinkerton and Ting Guo). This project could foster the submission of several center follow-up proposals.
- The External Research Advisory Board (ERAB) met biannually for the purpose of providing advice and guidance for strengthening our effectiveness as a research university and helping the campus facilitate mutually beneficial relationships with industry. The board consists of senior and high-ranking representatives from industry, national laboratories and the policy sector.
- New grants program research ideas/results to patent are in progress.
- Organized Research Unit (ORU) Budget Review Committee continued to ensure that the core budget best supports emerging areas of research.
- Dialogue with Office of Graduate Studies and faculty continued, concerning the issue of new graduate education and training efforts, as a result of an increasingly interdisciplinary research landscape (nano-science and -technology, cyber-security, computational biology, computational science and engineering).