Retirement of Vice Chancellor for Research, Sandra A. Brown

Following more than a decade of exceptional service as Vice Chancellor for Research (VCR), Sandra A. Brown will be stepping down from her office on September 1, 2021, and returning to her faculty position. VC Brown is a distinguished Professor of Psychology and Psychiatry at UC San Diego and co-directs two large NIH-funded research consortia.

Since her appointment to the role of VCR in December 2010, UC San Diego’s research enterprise has experienced significant increase, growing from $943 million to nearly $1.5 billion in annual sponsored research. UC San Diego’s research growth alone is more than the total research at 65 percent of the R1 universities across the country. Under her skillful leadership, UC San Diego has surpassed the $1 billion mark in sponsored research for 10 consecutive years.

VC Brown’s efforts to build infrastructure and programs to support the strategic objectives of the university have resulted in bold changes. Under her leadership, the Office of Innovation and Commercialization (OIC) was formed to expand the number of university-based start-ups created to support the UC San Diego Strategic Plan. UC San Diego now ranks third in the country for the number of new companies created. VC Brown also oversaw the development of policies allowing industry partnerships on campus and co-authored guidelines for university-industry joint appointments within the University of California as well as that of University-Industry Demonstration Partnership.

VC Brown oversaw the reorganization of the Office of Contracts and Grants to provide faculty-tailored support and technical expertise through unit-based teams. The campus-wide electronic platform now used for research activities such as grant applications, conflict of interest, material transfer agreements, and other research-related initiatives was developed under her leadership with integrated engagement from all parts of campus. She reformulated the research development program of research affairs to support both large-scale center applications and new innovative centers in development in addition to traditional Organized Research Units.

Through board memberships on San Diego business community groups, University of California system-level engagement and national leadership offices, she has been a strong proponent of community engagement and community-based research. As chair of the Association of Public and Land-grant Universities’ Council on Research, she spearheaded an 80-university initiative to develop a means for impact-focused research, bridging fundamental research with university-based solutions for local and national challenges. She chaired the University of California’s Council of Vice Chancellors for Research for five years and co-chaired the research workgroup of President Napolitano’s Carbon Neutrality Initiative for six years, generating support for technology advances and statewide collaborative efforts to address climate change. Cognizant of the needs of new and under-represented faculty, she has been a national champion for augmentation of academic-review criteria to include metrics for new types of professional scholarship for the next generation of faculty in cutting-edge areas of science. This focus widened to incorporate advocacy for community- and industry-sponsored-research internships to ensure our students are optimally prepared for the workforce of the future.

Internationally, VC Brown is a highly respected innovator and staunch supporter of international scientific research collaboration. She was the impetus for the Border Solutions Alliance, which recognized the value and impact of collaborations and partnerships among U.S. and Mexican universities and border cities. VC Brown brought Kyoto University to UC San Diego as their gateway to expanding collaborations within the United States, and she spearheaded joint international research development programs with the University of Sydney, Monash University, and the University of Melbourne. She also developed the Women in Administration Leadership Program with Kyushu University and established the joint Ulsan (South Korea) and San Diego Mobility Research Center with universities and cities at each location.

VC Brown led UC San Diego through a number of national research challenges including escalating concerns regarding foreign influence and research misconduct. Most recently, along with other senior leaders at UC San Diego, VC Brown led our research community through the challenges of the COVID-19 pandemic. She developed systems to quickly accommodate fluctuating demands caused by the pandemic while preserving research activity on campus and supporting research of all types. She co-authored the pandemic research framework for the University of California council of vice chancellors which became a national model.

In addition to these administrative contributions, VC Brown has received multiple national awards from the National Institutes of Health, American Psychological Association, and Research Society on Alcoholism for her substantial and sustained research on alcohol and drug problems of youth.

Upon her retirement as vice chancellor, Dr. Brown will return to UC San Diego’s top-ranked faculty as a Distinguished Professor of Psychology and Psychiatry, where she plans to continue her research into youth drug and alcohol abuse.

UC San Diego will conduct a national search to fill the Vice Chancellor for Research position. Details are forthcoming.

VC Brown has made a lasting impact during her tenure and leaves an enduring legacy that honors the past decade of research and positions UC San Diego well in its research enterprise for the next decade. Please join me in expressing sincere gratitude to VC Brown for her remarkable contributions to our university’s world-class research enterprise.

Pradeep K. Khosla
Chancellor