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 Dear colleagues,
As we approach the end of the academic year, I look forward to commencement season and the opportunity to celebrate the academic achievement of our students who have persevered amid the challenges of the last two years.
I am also pleased to recognize the many prestigious awards earned by our faculty. We had two faculty elected to the National Academy of Sciences and four faculty named fellows of the American Academy of Arts & Sciences. In addition, Professor of Art Bruce Yonemoto won a Guggenheim Fellowship, and Assistant Professor of Urban Planning and Public Policy Michael Méndez was named an Andrew Carnegie Fellow.
This spring, the National Cancer Institute once again recognized the Chao Family Comprehensive Cancer Center as one of the nation's top cancer centers, renewing its funding and "comprehensive" designation. You can read more about this news and other recent faculty accolades and research highlights below.
This summer we will welcome two new deans to UCI. Tiffany López from Arizona State University will join us as Dean of the Claire Trevor School of the Arts and Austen Parrish from Indiana University will join us as Dean of the School of Law. I look forward to seeing what they bring to their respective schools and our greater campus community in their new roles.
Congratulations to the class of 2022. And to all our faculty and staff, thank you for your contributions to this academic year. I wish you and your loved ones a healthy, restful and productive summer.
Hal Stern
Provost and Executive Vice Chancellor
Chancellor's Professor, Statistics |
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Tiffany López Named Claire Trevor School of the Arts Dean
A visionary artist and administrator, Tiffany López has been named dean of the Claire Trevor School of the Arts, effective July 1. Dean López joins UCI from Arizona State University, where she serves as vice provost for inclusive excellence and as a Foundation Professor in the Sidney Poitier New American Film School. Prior to ASU, she spent 21 years on the faculty at UC Riverside as Professor of Theatre, Film and Digital Production and Tomás Rivera Endowed Chair. Dean López has worked with several theater companies, is founding director of the Latina/o Play Project at the Barbara and Art Culver Center for the Arts, and is a founding member of the Latino Theater Alliance of Los Angeles and of the national Latinx Theater Commons.
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Austen Parrish Named Law School Dean
A respected scholar, gifted classroom teacher and admired legal academy leader, Austen Parrish will become dean of the School of Law beginning August 3. Dean Parrish is currently dean and James H. Rudy Professor at the Indiana University Maurer School of Law. Prior to joining Indiana University Bloomington, he was interim dean and CEO at Southwestern Law School in Los Angeles. Dean Parrish is involved with a range of national organizations focused on legal education. He is a fellow of the Association of American Law Schools; a board member for AccessLex Institute, a nonprofit dedicated to the betterment of legal education; and an elected member of the American Law Institute.
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Faculty Awards and Accolades |
Jitomirskaya and Palczewski Elected to the National Academy of Sciences
Two UCI faculty members have been elected to the National Academy of Sciences. This year's election of 120 members and 30 international members recognizes their distinguished and continuing achievements in original research. Below are the new members from UCI:
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Svetlana Jitomirskaya
Distinguished Professor of Mathematics |
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Krzysztof Palczewski
Distinguished Professor of Ophthalmology, Donald Bren Professor, and Irving H. Leopold Chair in Ophthalmology |
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Four Professors Elected Fellows of the American Academy of Arts & Sciences
Four UCI professors have been elected as members by the American Academy of Arts & Sciences. The 2022 class of AAAS inductees includes 261 extraordinary people recognized for their accomplishments and leadership in academia, the arts, industry, public policy and research. The new fellows from UCI are:
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Jeffrey Barrett
Chancellor's Professor,
Logic and Philosophy of Science |
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Adriana Darielle Mejía Briscoe
Professor,
Ecology and Evolutionary Biology |
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Efi Foufoula-Georgiou
Distinguished Professor,
Civil and Environmental Engineering and Henry Samueli Endowed Chair in Engineering |
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Virginia L. Trimble
Professor, Physics and Astronomy |
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Bruce Yonemoto Awarded 2022 Guggenheim Fellowship
Professor of Art Bruce Yonemoto has been awarded a 2022 Guggenheim Fellowship. The grant will support his project "Not of Skin or Color," which continues his research driven by a personal desire to give voice to Americans of Asian descent. Professor Yonemoto's solo work has explored experimental cinema and video art within the context of installation, photography and sculpture. He joins 179 other scientists and scholars in the social sciences and humanities, as well as writers and artists of all kinds, receiving the prestigious grants this year.
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Michael Méndez Named 2022 Andrew Carnegie Fellow
Michael Méndez, assistant professor of urban planning and public policy, has been named a 2022 Andrew Carnegie Fellow. Professor Méndez is one of 28 fellows who will receive $200,000 for a research sabbatical focused on their work in the social sciences or humanities. He will use the funding to support the completion of his next book, Undocumented Disasters: (In)visible Communities Confronting Climate Change and Environmental Injustice, in preparation for Yale University Press.
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Chao Family Comprehensive Cancer Center Again Earns Federal Designation
The National Cancer Institute has renewed the Chao Family Comprehensive Cancer Center's "comprehensive" designation as one of the nation's top cancer centers. UCI is one of only 52 NCI-designated U.S. comprehensive cancer centers. The peer-review process of NCI designation is among the most rigorous in the nation, and the designation means patients with advanced-stage or treatment-resistant disease can access early-phase clinical trials of the very latest therapies.
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Research Highlights |
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NSF Funds UC Program to Increase Representation of Hispanic STEM Professors of Teaching
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| Natascha Trellinger Buswell, Assistant Professor of Teaching, Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering, and Brian Sato, Professor of Teaching, Molecular Biology and Biochemistry, lead the UCI team supporting the UC HIRE alliance. |
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A $2.3M grant from the National Science Foundation will enable faculty at UCI and three other UC campuses to work together to increase representation of Hispanic professors of teaching in science, technology, engineering and math over the next five years. The UC Hiring Interventions for Representation and Equity (UC HIRE) alliance will collaborate with search committees on equitable hiring plans and help develop best practices for inclusive teaching excellence and evaluation of inclusive teaching.
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Black Thriving Initiative Hiring Clusters Announced for "Poetic Justice" and "Infrastructure Equity"
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| Sora Han, Associate Professor, Criminology, Law and Society, and Douglas Houston, Associate Professor, Urban Planning and Public Policy, lead the two winning proposals selected for the UCI Black Thriving Initiative Faculty Cluster Hiring Program. |
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The UCI ANTrepreneur Center recently hosted a three-part event titled Hacking Student Success: Mental Health Innovation Challenge. The event gave students an opportunity to develop business ideas, compete in a pitch competition and ultimately develop real products aimed at positively impacting the mental health of UCI's student body. The event featured NBA champion and entrepreneur Metta World Peace, experts from Amazon Web Services and more.
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Congratulations to this year's Celebration of Teaching award winners and Deans' honorees. The annual UCI Celebration of Teaching recognizes instructors and teaching assistants for their exceptional leadership, innovation and commitment to excellence in undergraduate education.
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Congratulations to the 22 UCI students who received a National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowship Program Grant and the 21 UCI students who earned an honorable mention this year. These STEM students competed with thousands of applicants nationally for the five-year fellowship that includes three years of financial support and a cost of education allowance.
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