As a physiologist, Phyllis Wise has long been fascinated by how the human body works, how the brain, hormones and other biological systems interact and how the body responds to the environment. As new dean of the Division of Biological Sciences, Wise is similarly focused on interconnections both within the division and with other life scientists across campus.
Wise started her new post as dean last month after eight years as chair of the Department of Physiology at the University of Kentucky College of Medicine. She is an expert on the neuroprotective actions of estrogen after injury and during aging.
She succeeds Mark McNamee, who, after more than a decade of division leadership as dean and department chair, left UC Davis last summer to become provost of Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State Un-iversity. Wise, the New York-born daughter of a distinguished neuroscientist and a nurse who both immigrated from China, is the first woman to lead the division and the campus’s first Asian American dean.
A month into her new job, Wise talked for Dateline about the campus, the community and her goals for the division.
Q: What was most attractive to you about the post of dean for the Division of Biological Sciences at UC Davis?
To me, the most exciting aspect of this position is to be able to work with issues that are uniquely relevant to the Division of Biological Sciences, as well as to be able to connect the division with people and groups in other schools where there is an interest in biological sciences. That weaving, that building bridges of communication and collaboration is my greatest challenge.
There is already a wonderful culture of working together toward common goals across the campus. For example, neuroscience is a strength in the Section of Neurobiology, Physiology and Behavior and in several other departments. It is clearly the focus of the Center for Neuroscience. Aging is a focus of interest in several colleges. And I hope to build that strength in the division.
My challenge is to understand the core strengths and the important issues in the Division of Biological Sciences, and yet not be insular. I want to broadcast the strengths in the division to the university community, and I took this position because I’m anxious to do that.
Q: What are the most striking similarities and differences between the University of Kentucky and UC Davis?
The most striking similarity is that both institutions have the goal and dream of becoming much better than what they are. They see the potential and the challenges. They both want to make dramatic improvements – not just an arithmetic change but an exponential change.
The difference is the UC system has many more resources and a longer history of excellence in higher education and research. The state of Kentucky has many more economic challenges. So the difference really is in the breadth and depth of the intellectual and financial resources that can be brought to bear to try to meet the challenges of improving the university.
Q: What has surprised you most about the UC Davis campus?
I’m surprised at the complexity of the channels through which we have to go to accomplish important and urgent needs, and at the number of acronyms. There’s an initial for everything. I’m turning to the person next to me at every meeting, asking, "What does that stand for?"
Q: What are your priorities once you’ve settled in on campus?
Initially, I plan to focus on facilitating the building of a neuroscience building that can bring together in one physical location many of the researchers in neuroscience. We have already begun to plan on this and will bring this in front of the state Legislature for Garamendi funding in 2003.
In addition, I plan to help to finalize plans for a mouse biology building that will be built together with the Jackson Laboratory. This initiative was begun under the division’s previous dean, Mark McNamee. It will allow UC Davis to take optimal advantage of the power of transgenic technology and will truly put the university on the map in terms of fruitful interactions between academics and industry.
Finally, I hope to establish a Center of the Biology of Aging and a Center for Women’s Health Research. UC Davis already has considerable strengths in both of these areas across the campus. My hope is to create centers to coordinate activities in these focused areas and to accelerate the hiring of additional faculty members with interests and strengths in these areas.
Q: In what areas do you think you can contribute most substantially to UC Davis and biological sciences?
Clearly, my background is in biomedical issues, which will make it easier for me to help marry initiatives that are important to the division with initiatives that are important to the School of Medicine. I know there is already good communication between the College of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences and the division. Those ties will be maintained and nurtured. I’m not going to forget the strengths that already exist and are so healthy and good. But I do feel equivalent communications between the division and the School of Medicine and the division and the School of Veterinary Medicine could be explored. That’s where my background should help.
Q: How do you think the division might be further strengthened?
Clearly we want to have a bigger impact nationally. That to me translates into more research grants, particularly from the National Institutes of Health, the National Science Foundation, the U.S. Department of Agriculture and possibly the Environmental Protection Agency and the Department of Defense – the premier federal funding agencies. We must also pay attention to the quality of teaching at the graduate and undergraduate level, and to attracting the best postdoctoral fellows.
I really feel that universities are at the forefront of discovery. Pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies have to be driven by whether can they put a product on the shelf in five years. I think that we have the luxury of searching for its own sake. However, we too must promote research that is relevant to the citizens of California and will help them and the economy. If we are not doing our fair share of discovery then we are not meeting the needs of the country.
Good students and good faculty will come to places where the research is the best. The UC system has such a wonderful reputation. This makes it easier to attract the best faculty. We need to invest in them.
Q: Regarding biological sciences, in what areas do you think UC Davis can contribute most substantially to the state and beyond?
Davis hosts the Biotechnology Program, the UC-wide Biotechnology Research and Education Program. We are excited about the new genome building and the focus on genomics. We interact very strongly with the College of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences in the growth of biotechnology. The four areas of genomics, proteomics, biotechnology and bioinformatics impinge on every section in the division. And I think the state economy will be enhanced by our ability to contribute – with increased employment as well as products that will help the quality of life for all Californians.
Q: How do you keep your personal work/life scales in balance?
I don’t always succeed at this, but I’m working on it. I really am excited about moving to California because I get to launch a new chapter in my life. My children and my mother, my cousins and my aunts and uncles – almost everybody in my family – are on the East Coast. I want to be able to stay in close touch with them; I have a new grandchild and it is important to me to be able to see him frequently. I have two cousins in the Bay Area and they have already visited Davis. I also have three aunts and an uncle in Irvine who I hope to be able to visit.
I started taking yoga classes last year, which I really enjoyed doing and hope to continue. It was wonderful to have that outlet – that way of re-centering myself outside the office and the lab.
Q: Have you found a home here yet, and, if so, what are some of your observations about the community of Davis thus far?
Yes, I have found a home in west Davis. Everything that I have seen so far convinces me that Davis is a great community in which to live. I think it welcomes new people. It seems to be a very easy community to live in because traffic isn’t a problem and there are so many places close by.
I have already discovered the farmers market, the Co-op, the Nugget and Peet’s Coffee. It’s easy to jog here. I used to live in a place that was amongst beautiful Kentucky horse farms, but there was no lighting on the streets. Here, I can run here even when it is not light out because there are streetlights. I have to figure out the bike path from my house to campus because I really want to ride my bicycle to work at least occasionally.
Q: You are moving your lab here. Would you talk some about your commitment to continuing your research?
I believe that my research program is as important, or at least almost as important, as my deanship; in part, because I love it and, in part, because the people in my lab are my extended family. I love facilitating progress for other people, but my own research is still my home for discovery. When I give up teaching and research myself, I don’t think I can mentor other faculty and appreciate fully what they’re going through.
For me to be a complete professional person, I feel that I need to keep my research program active in a meaningful way. Whether it is to the extent that I have now, which involves three grants, I don’t know. But the idea of discovery, of putting pieces together, making the whole bigger than the pieces, still excites me.