Jul 25, 2019

Dear colleagues,

I am pleased to announce that the two new Academic Initiatives starting on July 1, will be:

  • Applied Digital Health
  • Infectious Disease Science

The Applied Digital Health Initiative will be led by Leslie Thompson, Chancellor’s Professor in the School of Medicine and School of Biological Sciences; Peter Chang, Assistant Professor in the School of Medicine; Daniel Chow, Assistant Professor in the School of Medicine and Suzanne Sandmeyer, Vice Dean for Research and Professor in the School of Medicine. This Academic Initiative takes a step toward advancing precision health by applying artificial intelligence (AI) to healthcare’s needs and challenges. Specifically, the Initiative proposes to leverage new AI tools together with data collected from high throughput technologies to gain new insights. The overall goal is to empower researchers and clinicians to work together and deliver individually tailored treatment strategies at the earliest stages.

The Infectious Disease Science Initiative will be led by Sanghyuk Shin, Assistant Professor in the Sue and Bill Gross School of Nursing. Associate directors will include Donald Forthal, Division of Infectious Diseases, School of Medicine; Guiyun Yan, Public Health; Shruti Gohil, Epidemiology & Infection Prevention and Infectious Diseases, School of Medicine; and Vladimir Minin, Statistics, Donald Bren School of Information & Computer Sciences. The goal of this Academic Initiative is to position UCI as a global leader in infectious disease science by fueling the development of new knowledge and insights into the dynamics of infectious diseases and drug resistance. The Initiative will seek to answer questions about what factors drive and sustain infectious disease outbreaks and what can be done to predict and prevent the emergence and re-emergence of infectious diseases.

The proposals underwent a thorough review process that produced a high level of support from reviewers. Both Initiatives are well aligned with the purpose of the Academic Initiatives program to advance multidisciplinary research and collaboration across campus.
Faculty who are interested in getting involved are encouraged to contact the Initiative leads.

Sincerely,

Enrique J. Lavernia, Ph.D.
Provost and Executive Vice Chancellor
Distinguished Professor, Department of Materials Science and Engineering