The School is committed to complex problems in order to strengthen communities and improve lives. Our faculty and students have ambitious goals to facilitate Healthy People and Places. Some examples of our efforts in this research hub are listed below. To learn more about our research hubs, click here.
Going Beyond the Drought
Southern California and communities worldwide face tremendous water resource challenges. Water UCI is facilitating collaboration around questions of fundamental and applied water science, technology, management, and policy to respond to the many challenges facing water resources.
Raising Populations out of Poverty
Part of a larger consortium of Blum Centers across the University of California campuses, the UCI Blum Center for Poverty Alleviation tackles one of the world’s most daunting challenges – poverty – in our own backyard and around the world – through a vibrant interdisciplinary nexus of education, research, and community engagement.
Promoting Healthy Aging
Several faculty members – including Susan Charles, Jutta Heckhausen, and Karen Rook – study how older adults maintain their emotional well-being and adjust their life goals in the face of health challenges, and in turn, how these processes affect their health. Together with students and other researchers, they also examine how family members and friends contribute to older adults’ quality of life and their ability to adapt to chronic illness – all critically important for promoting healthy aging in the US and globally.
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The Power of Awe
Awe is that sense of wonder felt in the presence of something vast that transcends one’s understanding of the world. People commonly experience it in nature, but also in response to religion, art and music. Assistant Professor Paul Piff studies how experiencing awe transforms a person’s altruistic, helpful and positive social behavior.