RESEARCH PROGRAMS
At any given time, more than 5,000 funded research programs are in progress at UCLA. For information on any of the programs listed below, see http://www.research.ucla.edu/oru.htm.
Organized Research Units (ORUs) are campuswide research programs. Members come from more than one department and normally from more than one school, college, or division.
The Brain Research Institute (BRI) has one of the largest programs for neuroscience research and education in the country, with more than 200 scientists involved in every aspect of research on the nervous system from molecular organization to human behavior. The BRI provides facilities with new technologies for research and training and sponsors affinity groups, conferences, and symposia to strengthen ties among neuroscientists. Public service activities include an elementary school outreach program and a joint educational program with UCLA Extension. 
310-825-1868
Center for Medieval and
Renaissance Studies
The Center for Medieval and Renaissance Studies supports the research activities of some 20 academic departments dealing with the development of civilization between A.D. 300 and 1650. Programs include appointing visiting professors, organizing conferences, and supporting departments in inviting lecturers. The center sponsors two journals,
Viator,
with emphasis on intercultural and interdisciplinary studies, and
Comitatus,
with articles by graduate students and recent Ph.D. graduates.
310-825-1880
Center for Seventeenth- and Eighteenth-Century Studies
The Center for Seventeenth- and Eighteenth-Century Studies organizes scholarly programs and workshops, publishes conference results, provides long- and short-term fellowships to students and scholars, offers graduate research assistantships and master classes, and organizes public programs and classical music concerts. 310-206-8552
The center helps administer the William Andrews Clark Memorial Library, located about 10 miles from UCLA, which specializes in seventeenth- and eighteenth-century British works. It also has a renowned collection centering on Oscar Wilde and his era and significant holdings of modern fine printing and Western Americana.
323-731-8529
The Center for the Study of Women draws on the energies of more than 240 faculty from 10 professional schools and 34 departments. To facilitate faculty research, the center organizes conferences and lecture series on feminist theory, administers research grants, and offers an affiliation for research and visiting scholars. The center sponsors working groups, produces calendar of events posters, and hosts graduate programs, as well as an annual graduate student research conference. 310-825-0590
Cotsen Institute of Archaeology
The Cotsen Institute of Archaeology studies and seeks to understand the past through artifacts, analysis of field data, and the creation of archives. The institute, the only one of its kind in the U.S., coordinates facilities for more than 40 researchers and many graduate students and volunteers in 10 associated academic departments. Facilities include the Information Center (regional office of the California Archaeological Inventory), Ceramics Laboratory, Computer Imaging of Archaeological Data, Obsidian Hydration and Lithics Analysis Laboratory, Paleoethnobotany Laboratory, Rock Art Archive, and Zooarchaeology Laboratory. It publishes the findings of scholars from UCLA and other archaeology centers and provides a forum for the public presentation of archaeological discoveries and advances. 310-206-8934
Crump Institute for Molecular Imaging
The Crump Institute for Molecular Imaging brings together physical, biomathematical, chemical, biological, and clinical scientists and students to merge the principles of imaging with those of molecular and cellular biology, genetics, and biochemistry. The imaging domains range from the molecular organization of viruses and cellular subunits to the biological processes of organ systems in the living human. A major focus is the development and use of imaging technologies to collect, analyze, and communicate biological data. The institute has research and educational programs for visiting scientists, postdoctoral scholars, and Ph.D. graduate students which include the development of multimedia computer-based learning technologies.
310-825-6539
The Dental Research Institute (DRI) fosters professional training lic education as it focuses on the basic mechanisms of disease in the orofacial region. Members include scientists in molecular biology, immunology, virology, biochemistry, pharmacology, pathology, genetics, developmental biology, neurobiology, and neurophysiology. Research includes molecular oncology, viral oncology, molecular mechanisms of periodontal diseases, dental implantology, orofacial pain, neuroimmunology, molecular immunology, HIV immunology, and wound repair. The DRI contributes to educational activities in the form of quarterly seminars in the UCLA Center for the Health Sciences. 310-206-8045
Institute of American Cultures
The Institute of American Cultures oversees four ORUs associated with UCLA ethnic studies centers. Applying the University's capabilities to the analysis and solution of social issues, the institute makes funds available for research and fellowships and promotes the study and illumination of the histories of African Americans, American Indians, Asian Americans, and Chicanas/Chicanos. 310-206-2557
Center for African American Studies
The Center for African American Studies conducts and sponsors research on the African American experience, coordinates the Afro-American studies curriculum, publishes research results, and sponsors community service programming.
310-825-7403
American Indian Studies Center
The American Indian Studies Center serves as an educational and research catalyst and includes a library, master's and postdoctoral fellowship programs, a publishing unit that produces books and a quarterly journal, and a student/community relations unit. 310-825-7315
The Asian American Studies Center seeks to increase the knowledge and understanding of the experiences of Asian Pacific peoples in America and promotes the development of material resources related to Asian American studies. The center includes a library, publications unit, student/community projects unit, postdoctoral fellowships, and B.A., undergraduate minor, and master's programs.
310-825-2974
Chicano Studies Research Center
The Chicano Studies Research Center promotes the study and dissemination of knowledge on the experience of the people of Mexican descent and other Latinos in the U.S. The center supports interdisciplinary and collaborative research and the analysis, understanding, and articulation of issues critical to the development of Chicano and Latino communities in the U.S. It seeks to establish and maintain relationships with communities with similar academic and research interests at the state, national, and international levels. 310-825-2363
Institute of Geophysics and Planetary Physics
The Institute of Geophysics and Planetary Physics is a multicampus research unit of the University of California; the branch at UCLA researches climate dynamics, geophysics, geochemistry, space physics, biochemistry, and biology. Research topics include the nature of the Earth, moon, and other planetary bodies; global and regional environmental change; the origin of terrestrial life; dynamical properties of the sun and solar wind; and the nonlinear dynamics of complex systems. Facilities include analytical laboratories in geochemistry, meteoritics, glaciology, petrology, geochronology, archaeology, and the origins of life; laboratories for experiments in fluid dynamics and high-pressure physics; developmental laboratories for instrumentation in space physics and seismology; and computational laboratories for large-scale numerical modeling. 310-825-1580
Institute of Industrial Relations
The interdisciplinary research program of the Institute of Industrial Relations studies employment relationships, including labor markets, labor law, labor and management relations, equal employment opportunity, occupational safety and health, and related issues. Its Center for Labor Research and Education offers social policy and employment relations programs to the public, unions, and management. 310-794-5957
Institute of Plasma and Fusion Research
The Institute of Plasma and Fusion Research is dedicated to research of plasma physics, fusion energy, and the application of plasmas in other disciplines. Students, professional research staff, and faculty study basic laboratory plasmas, plasma-fusion confinement experiments, fusion engineering and nuclear technology, computer simulations and the theory of plasmas, space plasma physics and experimental simulation of space plasma phenomena, advanced plasma diagnostic development, laser-plasma interactions, and the use of plasma in applications ranging from particle accelerators to the processing of materials and surfaces used in microelectronics or coatings.
310-825-1642
Institute for Social Science Research
The Institute for Social Science Research promotes interdisciplinary research on contemporary sociological, psychological, political, and economic problems and community issues. Research components include the Center for American Politics and Public Policy, Center for the Study of Urban Poverty, Center for the Study of Society and Politics, Center for Social Theory and Comparative History, Survey Research Center, Social Science Data Archive, and Organizational Research Program. Training in survey research methodology is available to students through participation in the annual Los Angeles County Social Survey. The institute publishes the
ISSR Working Papers in the Social Sciences
.
310-825-0711
International Studies and Overseas Programs
International Studies and Overseas Programs oversees four study centers that are designated ORUs.
The James S. Coleman African Studies Center coordinates research and teaching on Africa in the humanities, social sciences, and natural sciences, as well as in the schools of Arts and Architecture, Education and Information Studies, Law, Medicine, Public Health, Public Policy and Social Research, and Theater, Film, and Television. The center sponsors public lectures, seminars, publications, and academic exchanges with African institutions and an outreach service to the Southern California community. 310-825-3686
Center for European and Russian Studies
The Center for European and Russian Studies develops and coordinates teaching and research on Russia and the successor states of the former Soviet Union, as well as the countries of western Europe, through conferences, lectures, seminars, and academic exchange programs with European and Russian institutions. It also offers an interdepartmental undergraduate major and provides fellowships to graduate students in European area studies. 310-825-4060
Center for Near Eastern Studies
The von Grunebaum Center for Near Eastern Studies coordinates research and academic programs related to the Near East. It administers the degree programs in Near Eastern Studies and Islamic Studies. Resources of the center include the largest faculty, one of the most comprehensive library holdings, and the richest variety of Near and Middle Eastern studies courses of any institution in the Western Hemisphere. The center conducts publication, community outreach, and scholarly exchange programs.
310-825-1181
The Latin American Center is a major regional, national, and international resource on Latin America and hemispheric issues. The center sponsors and coordinates research, academic and public programs, and publications on Latin America in the humanities, social sciences, and professional schools and links its programs and activities with developments in the field and in other institutional settings. By combining instruction, research, and service and by encouraging multidisciplinary and interdisciplinary approaches, the center promotes the use of UCLA Latin American resources for the benefit of the campus, the broader community, and the public at large.
310-825-4571
The Jules Stein Eye Institute is one of the best equipped centers for research and treatment of eye diseases in the world. This comprehensive facility is devoted to the study of vision, the care of patients with eye disease, and education in the broad field of ophthalmology. Outpatient, inpatient, and surgical facilities are provided.
310-825-5000
The Doris Stein Eye Research Center houses clinical facilities as well as new research and training programs concentrating on major eye diseases worldwide.
The Molecular Biology Institute (MBI) promotes molecular biology research and teaching at UCLA. The institute houses the laboratories of 30 MBI members, as well as the administration of the Molecular Biology Interdepartmental Ph.D. Program, the UCLA-DOE Laboratory of Structural Biology and Laboratory Medicine, and the UCLA ACCESS to Programs in the Molecular, Cellular, and Integrative Life Sciences.
310-825-1018
The Neuropsychiatric Institute and affiliated units--including the Neuropsychiatric Hospital, the Department of Psychiatry and Biobehavioral Sciences, and one organized research unit, the Mental Retardation Research Center--provide UCLA's leadership in the study and treatment of disorders of human behavior, the brain, and the mind.
Mental Retardation Research Center
The Mental Retardation Research Center provides laboratories and clinical facilities for research and training in mental retardation and related aspects of human development. Interdisciplinary activities range from anthropological studies to molecular aspects of inherited metabolic diseases.
310-825-5189
UCLA-DOE Laboratory of Structural Biology and Molecular Medicine
The UCLA-DOE Laboratory of Structural Biology and Molecular Medicine, funded though a Department of Energy contract, conducts research in molecular nuclear medicine and structural biology and genetics. Laboratory faculty members have joint appointments in academic departments and teach at both undergraduate and graduate levels. Major facilities include a biomedical cyclotron, advanced scanning equipment, nuclear magnetic resonance, protein expression, and X-ray crystallography facilities.
310-825-3754
Specialized Research Centers, Laboratories, and Institutes
Additional research centers, laboratories, and institutes advance scholarship in all fields. The breadth of research conducted on campus is reflected in undertakings as diverse as the Center for Astrobiology--which is developing new strategies for Mars exploration--and the Jonsson Comprehensive Cancer Center-- one of only 38 comprehensive centers in the nation.
Interdisciplinary activities in the social sciences include the nationally respected Business Forecasting Project in UCLA's John E. Anderson Graduate School of Management and the Center for the Study of Evaluation in the Graduate School of Education and Information Studies, which is at the forefront of efforts to improve the quality of schooling in America.
In the health sciences, research ranges from neurological and neuromuscular diseases at the Reed Neurological Research Center to epidemiology, immunology, and the clinical management of AIDS at the UCLA AIDS Institute and the Center for Clinical AIDS Research and Education. The Fernald Child Study Center focuses on the study and treatment of a variety of childhood behavioral problems and learning disorders.
In the physical sciences and engineering, the Center for Clean Technology in the Henry Samueli School of Engineering and Applied Science fosters research on the interaction between technology and the environment, focusing on pollution prevention and control. On other frontiers, an Artificial Intelligence Laboratory designed exclusively for research in this burgeoning field operates under the wing of the Computer Science Department.
The Center for the Study of Urban Poverty initiates new research on issues related to urban poverty and sponsors seminars in the field. The Center for Communication Policy is a national leader in communications public policy issues such as technological innovations in telecommunications and the social and political impact of these changes.
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