About the Newkirk Center

Mission

The Center promotes appropriate and effective uses of research in the natural and social sciences to enhance the quality of life. It finds ways to develop and share research knowledge with the public and policy makers so they can make informed decisions on vital policy issues on law, education, environment, health care, crime, and public infrastructure.

The Center carries out its mission in several ways: through conferences, workshops, colloquia, lectures and funding of research linked to the goals of the Center.

Priorities

The Newkirk Center encourages the use of high quality scientific findings and directs attention to instances where inadequate research has led to significant community changes. Emphasizing health, the environment, community development, education, and law, the Center will embrace the following principles in its operations:

Enabling scientists to connect more easily with policy makers, practitioners, and citizens.
Assisting the community to connect to the development of science intended to serve its needs.
Harnessing the multidisciplinary capacities of UC Irvine and the University of California system-wide.

Current Projects

The Center has a program of seed funding for research that is relevant to the Center's mission.

To assist in decisions about applying, the following are examples of research proposals that are encouraged:

Determining the practical uses of results of basic research. That effort may come from the original investigators or from an external observer of the research.
Increasing the knowledge of relevant communities and policy makers about specific scientific results and the implications of those results.
Using scientific theory in design of applied research that has potentially important social consequences.
Determining effective methods to educate policy makers and the general public in the realm of scientific findings. The work may be at the general level or directed at a specific array of scientific results.
Establishing collaborative relationships between scientists, on the one hand, and potential end users of scientific results at the local, state, national, or international level, on the other.

Director

Simon A. Cole, PhD
Associate Professor of Criminology, Law and Society.

Assistant Director

Erin Umberg, MA, MS

Advisory Board

   John C. Avise, Ph.D.
   Distinguished Professor of Ecology & Evolutionary Biology
   Member of the National Academy of Sciences

   Francisco Ayala, Ph.D.
   Recipient of the 2001 United States National Medal of
      Science
   Donald Bren Professor of Biological Sciences
   Member of the National Academy of Sciences

Susan Bryant, Ph.D.
Professor of Biological Sciences

   Bruce Clark, Ph.D.
   California Seismic Safety Commission
   Former President, Leighton and Associates

   Joseph F. C. DiMento, PhD, JD
   Professor of Law and of Planning, Policy, and Design
   Founding Faculty Member of UCI School of Law

Anne Earhart
President, The Marisla Foundation

   Elizabeth Loftus, Ph.D.
   Distinguished Professor of Psychology and Social Behavior,
      Criminology, Law and Society, UCI School of Law
   Member of the National Academy of Sciences

   R. Duncan Luce, Ph.D. (In memory)
   Professor Emeritus, Department of Cognitive Sciences
   Member of the National Academy of Sciences

   John "Jack" Miles, Ph.D.
   Distinguished Professor of English & Religious Studies
   Recipient of the Pulitzer Prize

Martha Newkirk, Ph.D.
Entrepreneur

   William Parker, Ph.D.
   Chairman and Professor, Department of Physics and
      Astronomy

   Jack Peltason, Ph.D.
   Chancellor Emeritus UCI
   President Emeritus, University of California
   Professor Emeritus of Political Science

   Sherry Rowland, Ph.D. (In memory)
   Nobel Laureate
   Bren Chair, Earth System Science
   Bren Research Professor of Chemistry