Susan V. Bryant, Ph.D.

An executive officer from a UC with a medical school
Appointed by UCI Chancellor

Susan V. Byrant, Ph.D., is a developmental biologist who during her career has conducted influential research in the area of regeneration and has published more than 100 papers delineating its core principles in addition to pioneering the development of molecular techniques for studying regenerative systems.

Associate Executive Vice Chancellor for Research at the University of California, Irvine (UCI), Dr. Bryant rose to the position after being the first woman in the university’s history to be recruited as a faculty member in biology. Since then, she has continued to be a strong advocate for women in science, winning numerous awards including the UCI Pacesetter Award for contributions to women. Her goal as Dean is to ensure that the School is a major participant in the discoveries that are fueling the revolution in biology, and at the same time to work for the full participation of women and
minorities in the scientific enterprise.

Dr. Bryant has been an influential developmental biologist, and she established regeneration as a model system for pattern formation. Her research provided evidence for a unified model for pattern formation, demonstrated the universality of regulative mechanisms among diverse animals, predicted the conservation of developmental pathways, and pioneered the development of molecular techniques for studying regenerating systems.

Dr. Bryant spent her childhood in Yorkshire, UK. She became interested in biology in at a girlsonly high school, obtained her undergraduate degree at King’s College and her Ph.D. degree at St. Mary’s Hospital Medical School, University of London. She moved to the US to study regeneration as a postdoctoral fellow at Case Western Reserve University, after which she joined the faculty at UC Irvine. In 2005, she was elected a Fellow, the highest honor bestowed, by the
Association for Women in Science.