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.

Alternate Member

Jacob Levin, Ph.D.
Assistant Vice Chancellor of Research
University of California, Irvine

Jacob is the Assistant Vice Chancellor for Research Development at UC Irvine. His office coordinates the preparation and submission process for major interdisciplinary grant proposals across campus, and has been instrumental in the development and funding of multiple campus research Centers, cross-School initiatives, capital projects, graduate and undergraduate degree programs. Dr. Levin sits as a voting alternate on California’s Independent Citizens’ Oversight Committee, the governing board of the $3 billion California Institute for Regenerative Medicine (CIRM), spearheaded the establishment and serves on the Oversight Board of two on-campus business incubators, and is on the board of BIOCOM San Diego (www.biocom.org). He is also a founding board member and immediate past-President of the National Organization of Research Development Professionals (www.nordp.org), and was recently elected as a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS).

Previously, Dr. Levin was Chief Technical Officer of an MIT spin-off biomedical research startup company, Physics Faculty at Santa Ana College, and a Research Scientist at the MIT Picower Center for Learning and Memory.

Dr. Levin received his B.A. in Physics and Math from Cornell University, an M.A. in Physics from UC Berkeley, a Ph.D. in Molecular and Cell Biology from UC Berkeley, and was a Postdoctoral Fellow in the MIT Department of Brain and Cognitive Sciences.