Dear colleagues,

Happy New Year! I hope that 2024 is a year of happiness and good health for you and your loved ones.

This quarter's newsletter celebrates national and local recognition of faculty excellence. Congratulations to Julian F. Thayer for his election to the National Academy of Medicine and to David Reinkensmeyer and G.P. Li for being named fellows of the National Academy of Inventors. Later this quarter, the Academic Senate will honor faculty achievements in research, teaching, mentoring and service with the 2023-24 Academic Senate Distinguished Faculty Awards. Congratulations to Krzysztof Palczewski on receiving the Distinguished Senior Faculty Award for Research, and to Philip Felgner and Frank LaFerla on receiving the Academic Senate's Better World Award.

Please read on to learn more about these and other faculty highlights along with recent research achievements and student successes.

Hal Stern
Provost and Executive Vice Chancellor
Chancellor's Professor, Statistics

Julian F. Thayer Elected to the National Academy of Medicine

Julian F. Thayer, Distinguished Professor of Psychological Science, has been elected to the National Academy of Medicine, one of the highest distinctions accorded to professionals in medical sciences, healthcare and public health. The academy selected Professor Thayer for his groundbreaking research that explores how stress, including racism, affects autonomic nervous system dynamics and influences disease and aging. He is one of 100 new members from diverse fields, including health, medicine, and the natural, social and behavioral sciences. UCI now has seven faculty who are members of the National Academy of Medicine.

David Reinkensmeyer and G.P. Li Named Fellows of the National Academy of Inventors

David Reinkensmeyer G.P. Li

UCI has two new fellows of the National Academy of Inventors: David Reinkensmeyer, Professor, Anatomy and Neurobiology, and Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering, and G.P. Li, Professor, Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, and Director, California Institute for Telecommunications and Information Technology (Calit2). UCI now has 18 National Academy of Inventors fellows and more than 680 active U.S. patents.

Diego A. Pizzagalli Named Founding Director of Depression Research Institute

Diego A. Pizzagalli has been named founding director of the Noel Drury, M.D. Institute for Translational Depression Discoveries. Supported by a record $55 million estate gift from philanthropist Audrey Steele Burnand, the institute focuses on innovative approaches to understanding the mechanisms behind depression; improving diagnosis of the disorder; and developing personalized, scalable therapies for it, and, ultimately, better prevention strategies. Joining UCI in January 2025, Dr. Pizzagalli comes from Harvard University and McLean Hospital, where he is the founding director of their Center for Depression, Anxiety and Stress Research as well as the Director of the McLean Imaging Center.

UCI-OC Alliance for a Latino/a Thriving University Funds Scholarships

The UCI-OC Alliance scholarship program selects recipients based on their accomplishments as high-achieving undergraduates who have shown a demonstrated commitment to promoting a thriving Latino/a community. Read more

The Hub Offers Entrepreneurial Students Access to Innovative Tools and Technologies

Located inside the ANTrepreneur Center, the Hub offers a curated suite of tools from organizations such as Amazon Web Services, Siemens and Salesforce, available at no cost. Powered by the UCI Office of Data and Information Technology, the new space and services advance the goal of providing cutting-edge technology to empower UCI's next generation of innovators and trailblazers.

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