University California Irvine 2023 Top Globally In Solutions That Scale

UCI leading globally with their campus-wide solutions-that-scale initiative--developing and ... [+] cultivating transdisciplinary energy and environmental solutions that scale globally in response to climate change; interweaves the entire campus ecosystem: research and education from each academic unit of 14 UCI schools, personal engagement from the student body, and a living-lab exploration within the city-sized community. Credit: DepositPhotos ID: 4370657 Author: Tristan3D

The University of California Irvine (UCI), which I refer as STS, is leading the global effort to develop campus-wide solutions that scale in 2023. STS develops and cultivates transdisciplinary energy and environmental solutions that can scale globally to address climate change. STS is a network that spans the entire campus ecosystem. It includes research and education from all 14 UCI schools, student engagement, and a living lab exploration of energy and food projects within the small city. I discuss this unique, transformative model in a lengthy chat with James Bullock, who co-founded STS. James is UCI's Dean of Physical Sciences, and Professor of Physics & Astronomy. The article contains extensive quotes and summaries of my conversations with James about this topic, as well as materials and websites. The UCI brings together all the academic, educational and institutional resources of the UC campus to create a comprehensive response to climate crisis. This includes engaging all levels of society, including national governments. The campus is a demonstration site for policies, strategies, and transformations that can be applied globally. City-scale manuals can be created from best-practices to promote climate regeneration.

STS education provides the following: a) the development of undergraduate majors in climate and regeneration; b) the creation of campus-wide interdisciplinary PhD programmes in climate solutions that scale. c) the provision of targeted short courses for corporate and policy leaders. UCI Transdisciplinary Leadership

UCI Solutions that Scale combines all academic units on campus (all 14 schools). UCI continues to build on its leadership in climate science by awarding the first Nobel Prize for climate-related science to Professor Sherry Ryland (founding Chair at UCI Chemistry) as well as his postdoc Mario Molina. UCI houses the USA's first Earth System Science Department (ESS), which is dedicated to studying humanity's effect on global climate.

UCI is a community of approximately 50,000 people in Southern California. It operates its own power grid and serves as a demonstration site to demonstrate true zero energy solutions.

UCI is responsible for the management and advancement of four protected natural resources in their region. These include environments that span deserts, wetlands and the ocean coast. The immediate issues that affect the surrounding communities include air quality, fires and floods, as well as sea level rise.

UCI boasts 21 LEED Platinum buildings, which is more than any other university worldwide. UCI is among nine campuses in the United States that have received a Platinum rating by the Association for the Advancement of Sustainability in Higher Education. This organization rates campuses based on Academics, Engagement and Operations. UCI was ranked among the top ten in the Sierra Club's data driven 'Cool Schools’ metric for 13 years and #15 of the past seven years. UCI is home to the first zero-carbon bus fleet in America. It also has the best data-driven Smart Labs energy program in the country, which has been the model for seven national labs. UCI was the first university to inject green hydrogen into campus's power supply. This is also the first project that uses power-to-gas hydrogen.

The Department of Energy announced in August 2022 that three new DOE research centers would be led by the UCI Department of Chemistry (for a total of $25M). These centers will transform clean energy production and reduce emissions. Prof. Shane Ardo leads the first center. He uses nano-reactors for lower costs of green hydrogen storage. Prof. Jenny Yang leads the second center which focuses on the conversion of air-captured carbon dioxide to new fuels or materials. Prof. Sarah Fenkeldei leads an effort to increase understanding of nuclear energy materials in order to create safe and reliable power plants.

The UCI Clean Energy Institute, (CENI), unites the Henry Samueli School of Engineering with the School of Physical Sciences in order to develop scalable clean-energy technologies. The CENI is headed by Jack Brouwer (engineer), and coordinates many initiatives including the National Fuel Cell Research Center which accelerates fuel cell technology and encourages strategic alliances to address challenges in the market for hydrogen energy deployment.

UCI Earth System Science continues its leadership in understanding the planet's climate. It also helps to reduce forecast uncertainties as climate change accelerates in 21st century. Professor Eric Rignot is a pioneer in polar ice research and was the first to discover that Greenland's melting rate is due to deep, warm ocean waters. Professor James Randerson has been at the forefront in monitoring wildfire spread using remote sensing and artificial intelligence. This research is expected to save lives and help focus resources around the globe, including California. Professor Mike Pritchard has been a pioneer in the application of machine learning to physical climate models. NVIDIA is currently building the most powerful AI supercomputer in the world for climate science (Earth-2), and Prof. Pritchard has been asked to lead their climate change modeling efforts.

The UCI Center for Hydrometeorology and Remote Sensing has been at the forefront in forecasting and mitigating global hydrologic disasters. It also provides free, real-time global rainfall data.

The Center for Land, Environment, and Natural Resources, Prof. Alejandro Camacho at the School of Law, brings together experts in academia, government, and industry to promote policies for protecting the environment.

Professor Richard Matthew, School of Social Ecology's Director, directs the UCI Blum Center. It works with international institutions and collaborates across disciplines to reduce the impact of climate change on vulnerable populations. Understanding the policy and impact of the predicted migration of 1.2billion people to the planet, who are most at risk from being displaced by climate changes in the coming decades is one issue.

Here are some UCI Centers you can follow: AirUCI, Blum Center for Poverty Alleviation, Center for Environmental Biology, Center for Environmental Health Disparities Research, Center for Hydrometeorology and Remote Sensing, Center for Land, Environment, and Natural Resources, Clean Energy Institute, Environmental Humanities Research Center, UCI Nature, Newkirk Center for Science and Society, Ridge 2 Reef, Solutions that Scale, Water UCI, World Institute for Sustainable Development of Materials.

This article was based on insights I gained from pro bono work with over 100 international communities and more than 1,000,000 CEOs, investors and scientists. James Bullock is the Dean of Physical Sciences at the University of California, Irvine and Professor of Physics & Astronomy. He is also a Researcher and co-founded the UCI campuswide Solutions that Scale initiative. He also serves on the Space Telescope Institute Council and was the former chair of UCI's James Webb Space Telescope Users committee.

James Bullock: A Brief Profile

Professor Bullock's extensive profile has led to a summary being provided by the IEEE TEMS, a non-profit organization. (see interview series - Stephen Ibaraki: 'Transformational Leadership and Innovation ). The profile and interview are available at this direct link.

James Bullock is the University of California, Irvine's Dean of Physical Sciences. He also serves as Professor of Physics and Astronomy. He was the dean of the UCI Eddleman Quantum Institute. This institute is dedicated to discovering new quantum phenomena and training a diverse workforce in the 21st century.

Bullock is also an academic leader. He leads a research group on cosmology and galaxy-formation to understand how galaxies, and dark matter, have changed over billions of year of cosmic time.

Bullock was a member of and the former chair of James Webb Space Telescope Users committee. Bullock currently serves as the Space Telescope Institute Council, which oversees the Hubble Space Telescope's operations center.

Interview with James Bullock

The transcripts are generated using AI. The transcripts are a combination of excerpts and edited text. They then have a summary with key themes. James maintains his personal voice and the conversation is conducted in a steady pace.

AI is also accurate to an average of 80%. Therefore, it is recommended that you engage in a full video interview for maximum precision. With the caveat that time stamps are not exact, they are given as an estimate.

This interview is highly recommended for students and global leaders in industry, government, investments, NGOs and United Nations scientific and technical organisations, academia, education media, translational research, development, interdisciplinary, and multidisciplinary work.

Interview Outline

James's history is amazing. 0:00

Which inflection points were there in your life that inspired and motivated you to become a scientist. 1:07

What's the purpose of the Physical Sciences department at UCI? 5:39

What can we do in a world with climate change accelerating? 10:23

This is not the world where engineers can solve this problem. 15:42

What are the major questions he is looking to answer in quantum science research? 21:33

Quantum computing's timing is perfect. 27:28

What is the consensus in quantum computing? 31:06

What do you think about Roger's ideas today in the area of cosmology? 35:48

41.39 41.39

Interview Excerpts & Summary

Stephen Ibaraki 00:00

(I briefly discuss James' history and thank him for coming to my office today.

James Bullock 01/07

It was wonderful to have the opportunity to speak with you today.

Stephen Ibaraki 01:13

My audience includes scientists, practitioners and notable experts, as well as CEOs and investors. Interestingly, I find that when I post on LinkedIn, the number one because I track the metrics is CEOs and founders.

Your career and your history will inspire my audience.

Which were your inflection points?

James Bullock 02/10

It's something I'd be happy to try.

It's a good idea to begin as a child, when you are younger. Math and science have always interested me. Carl Sagan was an idol of mine and I loved his appearance on PBS.

Cosmos, a 13-part TV series with Carl Sagan as the presenter, was a compelling television series. His perspective was not only global but also cosmic. Getting out of our heads. What does it take to fit in the world? These are the big questions that will answer why we exist and why we are here. It's very compelling to think of Earth, our planet as a small, pale-blue dot. Carl Sagan stated, "In this vast universe." It brings us closer together as humans, I believe.

This is the species that has done this amazing thing. It's only 100,000-200,000 years old. We live in a universe that is 13.7 billion years old. This is a lot more than we can experience every day. Yet, we have so many things to learn from it. We are all here on this tiny speck of dust within the solar system. We are trying to enjoy this beautiful globe together. This perspective has remained with me since I was a child.

It has inspired me to ask the big, most important questions and to consider what we can do to help each other succeed in the future. That's certainly a part.

This is why I became interested in topics such as the origin of the universe, and how we got there.

UCI was a great experience for me. It allowed me to interact with a diverse group of astronomers, particle physicists, and, as part of the University of California, gave me an incredible opportunity to interact and learn from colleagues at other campuses in physics, cosmology, or astrophysics. It opened my eyes to the wide range of approaches that can be used to build systems of scientists who work together towards solving large and complex problems.

This led me to academic leadership positions, where I can play a role in helping things happen that wouldn't have been possible otherwise. It is possible to get large groups of people together to accomplish major initiatives in astronomy or to use internationally renowned telescopes. However, it takes a lot of people working together to find things that aren't possible otherwise.

That's what I believe has influenced me. This is why I have worked with Hubble's telescope and the James Webb Space Telescope. The University of California Office of Research funds the multi-campus Southern California Center for Galaxy Evolution. The Southern California Center for Galaxy Evolution is a collaboration of five universities in California - Irvine (Los Angeles), Riverside, San Diego and Santa Barbara - that aims to make the institute the most comprehensive of its kind anywhere in the world. That's another kind of phase change, I believe.

However, I was appointed Dean of the School Physical Sciences at UCI. It was my responsibility to consider, "What are we doing here in physical science more generally and what's our purpose?"

The most compelling story about this role that I can tell is the one by Fred Reines, the school's founders, who was awarded the Nobel Pri.