 n
this interview, faculty members from the Earth System Science
Department of the University of California at Irvine discuss
the significant increase in citations in geosciences for their
institution in the past decade. The citations for the
University of California at Irvine have increased from 491 in
the early 1990s to 2,088 in the latter half of the decade, and
the number of papers published in this same period has
increased from 87 to 285, respectively. Ellen Druffel, one of
the department’s professors, credits a 1988 paper by the
department’s founder, Ralph Cicerone, "Biogeochemical
aspects of atmospheric methane" (R.J. Cicerone and R.S.
Oremland, Global Biogeochemical Cycles, 2: 299-328, 1988), as
a landmark in the impact this institution has had in the
Geosciences field (though citations of this paper were not
included in the present study). Dr. Cicerone’s paper has
been cited 543 times to date.
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How do you account for your
institution’s dramatic increase in the number of citations from the
early to late 1990s?
The dramatic increase in the number of citations from the
University of California at Irvine (UCI) through the 1990s is due to
the growing dominance of the Earth System Science (ESS) Department in
the fields of atmospheric chemistry and biogeochemistry. The ESS
Department was founded in 1989 by Ralph Cicerone. Between 1991 and
1993, eight faculty and principal researchers and their research
groups joined Cicerone: Sue Trumbore, Darin Toohey, Bill Reeburgh,
Michael Prather, Ellen Druffel, Stan Tyler, F. Sherwood Rowland
(primary appointment in the Chemistry Department), and Carl Friehe
(primary appointment in the Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering
Department). The goal of the ESS Department is to develop quantitative
understanding of the Earth system, focusing attention on global
reservoirs (atmosphere, terrestrial biosphere, and ocean) and on
processes that can change this system over a human lifetime.
ESS faculty strengths began in the fields of atmospheric chemistry,
biogeochemistry, and the carbon cycle, but since have grown to include
new faculty and principal researchers (Gudrun Magnusdottir, Mike
Goulden, Sarah Gille, Don Blake [Chemistry Dept.], Eric Saltzman, and
Warren DeBruyn) in fields ranging from atmospheric dynamics, aerosols
and the radiation budget, ecosystem-atmosphere exchange of trace
gases, and tropospheric chemistry. ESS now has 14 faculty and
principal researchers, 14 postdoctorals, 6 career technicians and
specialists, and a doctoral program with 19 graduate students.
Does this reflect a deliberate plan to enhance the institution’s
research
effort in this field, or was this an unexpected or
serendipitous development?
UCI's commitment to develop graduate and undergraduate research in
the field of Earth system science was in response to a campus-wide
study in 1988 that identified ESS as the most important field in which
the School of Physical Sciences and the campus could become a national
leader. Recruitment of Ralph Cicerone from the National Center for
Atmospheric Research a year later marked the beginning of UCI's rapid
growth in geosciences.
Do teamwork and collaboration entail significant involvement of
your researchers with groups external to your institution?
Earth system science is by nature an interdisciplinary field.
Teamwork is required in most research projects, because the processes
that we study require knowledge that draws from many areas of
geophysics and biological sciences. As a result, all ESS faculty are
involved with research groups across the UCI campus and across the
world in order to deliver the best research and publications.
What role did external support and funding play in this area?
In the decade since the formation of the ESS Department,
competitive extramural funding in global geosciences at UCI has
increased by more than $12 million. ESS and related faculty at UCI
have been very successful in acquiring the grants needed to fund their
research.
What research fields or capabilities do you see as critical for
the future of your institution?
Future growth of ESS is assured by campus initiatives that would
increase tenure-track faculty by about one or two per year over the
next five years. The faculty voted both to build on our existing
strengths in atmospheric chemistry and biogeochemistry and to fill in
the circle of Earth science studies in climate research involving
physical oceanography, global-to-regional hydrology and land-surface
studies, atmosphere-ocean dynamics, and remote sensing.
What were the greatest challenges for your institution in
performing and presenting its work?
The greatest immediate challenge for ESS, both for current research
and for development of the program, is the physical limitation of
laboratory and office space. However, we have designed and acquired
the majority of funding for a new ESS Research Center, which will
provide coordinated laboratories and office complex plus a
workshop-oriented conference center.
What are the social implications of your institution’s work,
if any?
The social implications of ESS's work are in the areas of global
change research. The Earth—as a coupled system of atmosphere,
ocean, and land—has changed in our lifetimes. The observed
depletion of stratospheric ozone at high latitudes has been attributed
directly to industrial use of halocarbons. F. Sherwood Rowland, an ESS
faculty member, received the Nobel Prize in 1995 for his pioneering
work with Mario Molina, which led to the Montreal Protocol banning
halocarbon use. Global warming is resulting from increases in the
atmospheric concentrations of greenhouse gases, such as carbon dioxide
and methane, which are released by fossil fuel burning and
agricultural practices. These examples illustrate only part of how
humans can alter the global environment over a century. We can expect
much more in the 21st century. Understanding the sensitivity of the
Earth's climate system in order to project the possible changes from
human activities requires a broad base of scientific knowledge (e.g.,
detection, quantification, and prediction of the rates of change of
chemical, physical and biological components of the Earth system). The
ESS Department, through our graduate and undergraduate programs, is
preparing the next generation of scientists and educated general
public for this change.
University of California, Irvine
Department of Earth System Science
Irvine, CA, USA
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