From the very beginning, however, UC San Diego has been in a constant state of anticipation. From year to year, as we chalked up one achievement after another, whether in the arts and humanities, the social sciences, the natural sciences, the health sciences, engineering, or oceanography, we were always already poised for the next adventure. Anticipating opportunities is a fact of life at UC San Diego.

For instance, for more than twenty-five years, UC San Diego has been in the forefront of genetic research and therapy, so much so that–now that the sequencing of the human genome is on the verge of completion–we are primed to reinforce our leadership role in the worldwide effort to interpret, analyze, and understand the oceans of biological data that are becoming available. The presence on our campus of the most powerful computer available to the U.S. academic community for unclassified research provides us with an opportunity that no other university has.

Therefore, when some of our researchers want a better understanding of the ways living cells interact with one another, they are not shy about asking their colleagues at the San Diego Supercomputer Center to help with visualization techniques. From such interdisciplinary work on this campus, and others, the relatively new, but absolutely essential, science of bioinformatics was born.

Luckily, the growing economy of California–now the sixth largest in the world, bigger than Italy's and catching up on Britain's–and the changing face of the stateís demographics will support our endeavors. Over the next ten years we will have an opportunity to add another 10,000 students to our enrollment, hire approximately 925 new faculty, and increase the size of our facilities by 37 percent.

We will advance the human diversity of our campus, and raise the intellectual standards of our faculty and student bodies even higher than they are today. And as we develop our human and physical potential, we will be all the more able to continue to engage in world-class research and put our discoveries at the service of people everywhere.

UC San Diego's record shows that we welcome challenge even when it demands change. Seeing challenges as opportunities has been a constant since the day we were founded. As we enter a new decade of growth, we embrace it with the same readiness, willingness, and expertise that made this campus so successful in such a short time.

Sincerely,

Robert C. Dynes

Chancellor, UC San Diego