GENERAL INFORMATION

The UCSC branch of the Institute of Geophysics and Planetary Physics (IGPP) was officially established during the 1999-2000 academic year. IGPP is a multicampus research unit (MRU) of the University of California, which dates back to 1946 when the founding branch was established at UCLA. There are presently IGPP branches at 5 campuses (UCLA, UCSC, UCSD, UCR, UCI) and at two of the national laboratories administered by the University of California (LLNL and LANL). See websites for other IGPP sites.

The IGPP Charter defines a mission: to promote and coordinate basic research on the understanding of the origin, structure, and evolution of the Earth, the Solar System, and the Universe, and on the prediction of future changes, as they affect human life.

In practice, this mandate spans topics from the early accretion, orbital dynamics and internal structure of planetary bodies through to the present dynamics of the terrestrial hydrosphere and atmosphere. As such, the IGPP mission encompasses aspects of the traditional academic disciplines of astronomy, earth sciences, and ocean/atmospheric sciences. All of the latter disciplines are actively engaged in the IGPP branch at UCSC.

The UCSC branch of IGPP was established with funding from the UCSC Administration, the Division of Physical & Biological Sciences and the University of California Office of the President in parallel with the creation of two interdisciplinary research centers: the Center for Dynamics and Evolution of the Land-Sea Interface — C.DELSI and the Center for Origin, Dynamics and Evolution of Planets — CODEP. A third center, the Center for the Study of Imaging and Dynamics of the Earth — CSIDE, came into existence at the start of the 2000-2001 academic year. A fourth center, The Center for Remote Sensing - CRS, was established at the start of the 2003-2004 accademic year. In addition, a large computer facility, The Massive Computer Simulation Facility - MCSF, was established in 2000.

At present, the four research centers comprise the interdisciplinary research activity of the IGPP-UCSC branch, with 47 faculty and professional researchers drawn from eleven UCSC Departments (Anthropology, Applied Math and Statistics, Astronomy and Astrophysics, Computer Science, Earth Sciences, Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Electrical Engineering, Environmental Studies, Environmental Toxicology, Ocean Sciences, Physics) participating in the effort. IGPP-related faculty growth is expected to bring an additional 10 new faculty positions spread across five Departments in the Physical & Biological Sciences Division over the next five years (seven new IGPP faculty positions were filled in 1999-2004, and three related open provisions having been filled.