Alumni & Friends
What has UCI Accomplished as a University?
A principal constituency making UCI a great university is our alumni. Although UCI is just over thirty-five years old, our list of accomplishments is exceptional. This is largely due to the sterling reputation of our alumni who have led UCI to its present stature. U.S. News and World Report has ranked UCI in their annual 2002 survey:
In addition, UCI has been admitted to membership in the Association of American Universities (AAU), one of the nation's most prestigious associations of top research universities. AAU membership is by invitation only and is extended only to universities deemed to have exceptional quality in research and graduate education programs. Only 62 other universities have been honored with membership in this prestigious organization.
These outstanding rankings and accolades are rare among new universities; i.e., those originating only in the last 40 years. Typically, universities mature over decades and centuries. UCI's sudden rise to prominence among the nation's elite attest not only to the caliber of our programs, but indicate that a UCI graduate degree will continue to grow in recognition and stature in the years to come.
The Rise of American Universities: Elites and Challengers in the Postwar Era (Johns Hopkins, December 1997) ranks UCI:
- 17th among public research universities based on a combined index
- 3rd evaluating the science index alone
Probably one of the largest needs of any growing university is the support of alum. As you know from when you were a graduate student at UCI, you benefited from a variety of forms of financial support. From fellowships, to research assistantships, to teaching assistantships. Much of this support was derived from benefactors of the university that had proceeded your years of study. If you are able to be re-involved in UCI and help current UCI graduate students achieve their career goals, you can. Giving opportunities at UCI are available through a number of different means.
It is important that funding is available for graduate education. As you know from your days in graduate school, taken as a whole, graduate education has less of a separate identity than most other major elements of the university; certainly far less than its importance would suggest. It could be said that, historically, graduate education has been sandwiched between the long primacy of the undergraduate programs and the growth of research. Yet, graduate students face both ways and are so embedded in the both that it is hard to extricate them from either. It is important that individuals such as yourself, our alumnus and friends, recognize this critical role and need within the UCI community.
What have UCI Alumni Accomplished?
UCI does have its share of distinguished graduate alumni. As examples:
Michael Chabon, a 1987 graduate of UCI's M.F.A. Creative Writing Program in the School of Humanities, was the winner of the 2001 Pulitzer Prize in Fiction, for his novel The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay. His other works of fiction include The Mysteries of Pittsburgh, A Model World, Werewolves in Their Youth, and Wonder Boys, which was later adapted as a 2000 Hollywood movie of the same title and starring Michael Douglas and Tobey Maguire.
Kathie Olsen, a 1979 Ph.D. in Neurobiology & Behavior, has risen to the top of her profession and Capitol Hill, where she is the deputy director and chief operating officer of the National Science Foundation ( NSF). This U.S. Senate-confirmed position is responsible for the nation's scientific progress through federally supported basic research conducted by America's colleges and universities. NSF has an annual budget of over $5.5 billion. Dr. Olsen joined the NSF from the Office of Science and Technology Policy ( OSTP) in the Executive Office of the President and was responsible for guiding the nation's science and education procedures in the arenas of physical, life, environmental, behavioral and social sciences. Dr. Olsen was also previously Chief Scientist at the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA).
Jonathan Dorfan, Ph.D. in Physics, 1976, is the Director of the Stanford Linear Accelerator Center. The third individual to ever hold this post, Dr. Dorfan is also a Professor of Physics at Stanford. Since 1994, Dr. Dorfan's considerable energies have been involved in the construction of the asymmetric B Factory, PEP-II, a three lab collaboration with Lawrence Livermore National Lab, Lawrence Berkeley National Lab, and SLAC.
Roy Fielding, Ph.D. Graduate in Information and Computer Science, 2000, is Chairman of Apache Software Foundation and Founder of Apache HTTP Server Project, whose software runs over 60% of all public Internet Web sites. Honored as one of the "Top 100 Young Innovators of 1999" by Technology Review, MIT's magazine of Innovation. He is the architect of current version of HTTP/1.1.
Brian A. Wandell, Ph.D. in Psychology, 1977 is Professor of Psychology, Neuroscience and Electrical Engineering at Stanford University. He was awarded the Troland Research Award from the National Academy of Sciences in 1987. The Troland Research Award recognizes unusual achievement and further empirical research in psychology regarding the relationships of consciousness and the physical world.
UCI's M.F.A. Program in Creative Writing accepts 12 of its 300 annual applicants making it harder to get admitted to than Harvard University's Medical School. The Program has been called the "hottest writing program in the country" by a Newsweek analysis.
Among its graduates are award-winning novelist and short-story writer Richard Ford, Louis B. Jones (Ordinary Money), Marti Leimbach (Dying Young), and Whitney Otto (How to Make an American Quilt), whose book spent eight weeks on the New York Times bestseller list. Among the former directors of the program is Thomas Keneally, the Australian author of Schindler's List. The current director is for the MFA/Fiction is Ron Carlson; the director for the MFA/Poetry is James McMichael.
The Claire Trevor School of the Arts posts the accomplishments of its graduates on their web site and has an alumni newsletter.
If you or a fellow alumni have an accomplishment to submit, please e-mail us at dgreen@uci.edu.
The following links are provided to other University sites relevant to alumni.
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Last Updated: May 9, 2008
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