Dean Steve A. Kay

During his 10 years at the nearby Scripps Research Institute, newly appointed dean Steve A. Kay has developed strong ties with the division and UC San Diego not only as a molecular biologist but also through a variety of collaborations aimed at initiating major interdisciplinary research centers and initiatives. Read more about Steve Kay.

Established in the late 1960s, the Division of Biological Sciences at UC San Diego has, in only four decades, achieved a well deserved reputation for academic and scientific excellence, innovation, and achievement that rivals that of older, more established institutions of higher learning. Many of its educational and research programs are ranked at or near the top nationally.

The division has consistently succeeded in recruiting distinguished, award-winning faculty at both the senior and junior levels, thus ensuring that our nationally ranked research and educational programs will continue to grow in excellence. Division faculty, in turn, attract the best and brightest students at all levels who want to learn from researchers working at the cutting edge of their respective fields.

With this foundation of stellar faculty and strong research and educational programs in place, I believe that the division is poised to play an even greater role in defining global research priorities in the areas of health, the economy, and the environment. The division's teams of researchers are already making breakthroughs that hold promise for solving some of the most perplexing and urgent issues of our time, from curing cancer and diabetes to removing toxic waste from the environment, from protecting and increasing the world's food supply to exploring the diseases of aging and the brain, from creating sustainable biofuels to maintaining the planet's biodiversity.

In the area of global health, for example, the division has tremendous expertise that can be applied to finding treatments and cures for the devastating diseases that every year claim the lives of millions of adults and children in developing countries. Division researchers are also actively involved in stem cell research and its potential for curing or treating a wide range of conditions and diseases. In our highly ranked neurobiology / neurosciences program, researchers are exploring the causes of diseases of the brain and central nervous system such as Alzheimer's and Parkinson's.

In the area of energy and the economy, the division is poised to become a world leader in research on alternative energy sources. This is a complex issue where each potential solution brings its own set of challenges. For example, we understand how within their cells plants produce molecules that can become fermentable sugars from which ethanol can be made. Turning this scientific understanding into practical application would take only several years' work. However, we must look at the long-range effects of our 'solutions'. A paramount concern is the impact this approach to creating biofuels would have on land usage and the cost of groceries if large tracts of farm land are redirected to producing crops for biofuels. It is clear that there will need to be a number of sustainable solutions to the energy crisis, solutions that will not create other global problems in need of solution.

In regard to environmental issues, the division has scientists who are among the world's leading ecology and evolutionary biologists. Two exciting areas of research primed for greater emphasis are the study of ecosystems at the land-sea interface and biodiversity - plant, animal and even human biodiversity. Key questions being addressed include, How is global climate change affecting the distributions of plants, animals, and humans? What can we do to predict these changes and to prepare for them? We must be ready for the real possibility that the world climate is going to change significantly within our lifetimes.

The division's challenge in becoming a central agent for change in global initiatives will be determining how best to organize this tremendous expertise to maximize the beneficial outcomes in the shortest amount of time. I look forward to applying my experience in initiating and building large-scale research collaborations to meeting this challenge. The foundation for this is already in place. The division has close working relationships among our own researchers and with other research units at UC San Diego such as the School of Medicine, the School of Engineering, the Rady School of Management, the Division of Physical Sciences, and the Scripps Institution of Oceanography. We also have ongoing collaborations with many of the research organizations on the Torrey Pines Mesa, including The Scripps Research Institute, the Burnham Institute for Medical Research, and the Salk Institute for Biological Studies with which we have a joint graduate program. The Mesa has become one of the premier areas for science in the world, with more than 29,000 people involved in biomedical research every day within a four-mile radius of UC San Diego. Added to this, the San Diego area is one of the three leading biotechnology innovation clusters in the nation. We will be looking at new ways to create clusters of researchers across disciplines and institutions to address global problems.

I also see the division's educational mission expanding. The research endeavors outlined above will serve to enhance our already strong educational programs at the undergraduate and graduate levels. The division's educational programs combined with those of our neighboring institutions provide a scientific breadth and diversity that is tremendously beneficial to our students and researchers alike. With increased collaboration, even more opportunities will be available for students to learn from and work beside the best scientific minds in the world, helping to find solutions to world transforming issues.

In addition to its strong commitment to educating future generations of scientists, I see the division taking the lead in educating the public about science and science-related issues affecting our daily lives. The future for the division is a bright one, full of great promise to make a significant difference in the quality of life on a global scale. We must communicate this vision to the public so that the people whose tax dollars largely fund our research and educational programs and whose lives will be affected by the application of our findings to solving real world problems understand the importance and implications of our research and educational missions. They need to believe that they too have a stake in the role of the biological sciences in transforming our lives and our environment.

More about Dean Kay.