At the helm of world-class research

WILD GEESE: Paul Dodd Associate vice-chancellor at the University of California, Davis in California:As associate vice-chancellor of one of the leading research universities in the US, Paul Dodd is looking to forge links with research and industry worldwide

A $700 MILLION budget lured Paul Dodd from the Science Foundation of Ireland to California, where he is spearheading scientific advances in areas as diverse as cancer research and biofuel technology.

“UC Davis has one of the most diverse research activities of anywhere I’ve seen in the world,” says Dodd, who is coming to terms with the size of his task just weeks into the job as the university’s vice chancellor. “I’m responsible for 20 large-scale initiatives and organised research units with over 1,000 research students in multiple disciplines.”

UC Davis is one of the United States’ leading centres of excellence in many disciplines, so understanding what goes on there will be a vast undertaking.

One Davis researcher is developing a way of inserting molecules into leukaemia cells to kill them while causing no harm to healthy cells. In a nearby laboratory scientists are investigating how DNA combines to create healthy or unhealthy babies, while elsewhere others are looking into how yeast and algae can create biofuels that could reduce dependence on oil.

Others are studying the effects of climate change on sea creatures, or discovering how the brain is wired or what happens when galaxy clusters collide.

Dodd’s background is in physics – he has a PhD from Queen’s University, Belfast and a degree in material sciences from Trinity College. His doctorate was in nanoscale magnetic materials. He spent two decades working with the Science Foundation of Ireland and IDA Ireland before he landed the Davis job.

“I got the job the old-fashioned way,” he says. “I saw it advertised, sent my CV, did an interview and got the job.”

His IDA work included two years working in California, developing industry contacts. Part of his job was to encourage investment in Ireland and to bring research centres and industry together – something that is fundamental at UC Davis.

“I am [now] responsible for developing new research initiatives, new international links or new US national domestic collaborations. I’ll be linking these research centres to others in the US and around the world and I would also expect to develop some interaction with industry.”

Ireland could be among those to benefit from Dodd’s role in developing international partnerships, as he is determined to make links between the University of California and its counterparts back home.

“The research happening here is of a global nature and [in] common with the research activity happening in Ireland,” he says. “There is a good opportunity for links between California and Ireland, as all research is becoming more globally connected.”

He sees particular opportunity in agriculture, an area in which Davis is among the leading universities in the world. No other university produces more peer-reviewed papers in the area of agricultural sciences.

Already there is a collaboration in the pipeline involving Davis, Teagasc and three Irish third-level institutions.

“The standard of excellence in Irish research has risen to what you would see in a major university like Davis,” says Dodd. “And organisations like SFI and other funding bodies have made huge inroads into assisting Irish universities to compete on a global level.”

These advances in Ireland’s universities are giving Irish graduates ever greater opportunities, as their work can be placed with the best the world has to offer. There is enhanced opportunity for the work of Irish students to gain global traction through the sort of links that Dodd is attempting to develop.

The next few years also offer Dodd an opportunity to cement the already strong bond between Ireland and Davis. Among his new colleagues is Ralph deVere White, a member of the family behind the Dublin real estate company that carries his name.

Mr White is the dean for cancer programmes at UC Davis School of Medicine and the director of its newly accredited Comprehensive Cancer Center.

“That’s a particularly interesting area,” said Dodd. “Davis was just recently named a Comprehensive Cancer Center and it has been at the forefront of advances in treating cancer.”

The push towards enhanced links with Ireland began this summer when the EU embassy’s science attaché Astrid Koch visited Davis in June. For aspiring and qualified Irish scientists, it could be the beginning of a long and prosperous partnership.

* This article was amended on August 28th, 2012 to correct a factual error