Barry Klein, who has led UC Davis' Office of Research since 2001, has been appointed vice chancellor for research after a national search. He will lead one of the nation's largest university research programs.

A physicist with a lengthy tenure in both UC Davis administration and national research administration, Klein heads the primary campus office with responsibility for reviewing and accepting more than $420 million in annual research grants.

The Office of Research develops partnerships and collaborations with government and industry and manages patenting and licensing of UC Davis intellectual property. The office also provides oversight for more than a dozen organized research units, including the Cancer Center, the Bodega Marine Laboratory, the California National Primate Research Center, the John Muir Institute for the Environment and the Institute for Transportation Studies.

"During his interim service as vice chancellor for research, Barry has made the office very responsive to the faculty's grant proposal needs, expanded interactions between researchers and the private sector, and championed several initiatives to increase the campus' success in attracting research funding," said Chancellor Larry Vanderhoef. "This record, plus his credibility with the faculty, made him the clear choice to lead the Office of Research."

Klein said he looks forward to continuing to "build an organization that figures out how to say 'yes' rather than 'no' to the people we serve. That is our culture. We want to facilitate the exciting research conducted on our campus and maintain a culture of strong academic principles."

One challenge facing Klein is the changing national environment for research funding, as major agencies such as the National Science Foundation and National Institutes of Health, as well as California state agencies, curtail available funds. UC Davis remains a national leader in research funding, and the National Science Foundation has ranked UC Davis 14th overall among American universities in research expenditures.

"We are learning how to negotiate well with funding agencies, and we also are building a team that finds creative solutions to problems," Klein said. "My passion is to look at the entire continuum of research, from the bench to public benefit, and to be a catalyst for transferring UC Davis knowledge to improve quality of life."

Under Klein's leadership, the Office of Research has created a Technology and Industry Alliances unit to help move UC Davis research to the commercial sector and encourage entrepreneurial ventures between the campus and industry. This unit emphasizes business development and technology transfer, and houses the UC CONNECT program aimed at linking scientists with regional businesses.

In the fall of 2003, the Office of Research formed a board of private industry leaders to provide UC Davis with advice and guidance for strengthening its effectiveness as a research university, and to help build mutually beneficial relationships with industry. The External Research Advisory Board includes distinguished executives in industries ranging from biotechnology companies such as Genentech to visual arts companies such as Pixar.

Research compliance has also been a focus of the Office of Research, which has instituted training and promoted a strong culture of research integrity within the university community. As UC Davis has expanded interactions with industry partners, the Office of Research has strengthened the collecting and reporting of faculty conflict of interest disclosures and the process to ensure appropriate interactions with the private sector.

In the near future, the office will be concentrating on broad research areas that embrace the cross-disciplinary strengths of the campus. "Health care. Energy. Security. These are big issues that UC Davis has all the components to successfully tackle," Klein said. "We can take a holistic approach to solving problems, applying all of our expertise in social, cultural and political issues, as well as the technical and scientific."

Klein, whose academic expertise is theoretical physics, was recruited to UC Davis in 1992 to chair the physics department. He became vice provost for academic personnel in 1998, and moved to head the Office of Research in 2001. Before joining UC Davis, Klein had spent 23 years at the Naval Research Laboratory, located in Washington, D.C., where he served as a researcher, instructor and administrator in many roles, culminating as the head of the Complex Systems Theory Branch. He has acted as section head for several National Science Foundation programs, including those in condensed-matter theory, solid-state chemistry and low-temperature physics. Klein earned his bachelor's, master's and doctorate degrees in physics from New York University.