Big Ideas From UC San Diego’s Third Convene and Influence Cohort
Faculty-Led Projects Drive New Collaborations Shaping Future Research on Urgent Challenges
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University of California San Diego has announced the newest cohort of Strategic Convene and Influence Awardees, continuing a critical campus investment with 12 faculty-led collaborations designed to spark interdisciplinary dialogue, define emerging research priorities, and generate products that can inform practice, policy, and future funding efforts.
Administered through the Office of Research and Innovation, the program supports one-year projects that bring together researchers and partners around timely questions aligned with UC San Diego’s strategic research themes.
“The Convene and Influence Awards are helping UC San Diego researchers come together around urgent questions that cannot be solved within a single field,” said Corinne Peek-Asa, Vice Chancellor for Research and Innovation. “This third cohort continues to reflect the creativity, range and collaborative spirit of our campus, bringing researchers and partners together to define emerging areas of inquiry, build durable networks and develop the ideas and frameworks that can shape future research, policy and societal impact.”
Projects range from artificial intelligence, health and student well-being to environmental displacement, soil health, resilience, border affairs and the future of the humanities.
In keeping with the program’s goals, these efforts are designed not only to foster new connections but also to produce white papers, policy briefs, research roadmaps and other dissemination tools that position teams for broader impact and external support.
Spring 2026 Strategic Convene and Influence Awardees
This third cohort continues to reflect the creativity, range and collaborative spirit of our campus.
Accelerating Soil Health Research at UC San Diego and Connectivity with Local Stakeholders
Leads: Sarah Allard, Project Scientist, Pediatrics and Scripps Institution of Oceanography; Amy Lerner, Associate Teaching Professor, Urban Studies and Planning; Sara Jackrel, Assistant Professor, Ecology, Behavior & Evolution; Jazz Dickinson, Assistant Professor, Cell and Developmental Biology
Project Summary: The Soil Health Center will convene faculty and community stakeholders to align research priorities, strengthen partnerships, and develop a practical engagement framework, producing a roadmap that advances UC San Diego’s leadership in actionable, community-engaged soil health innovation tied to climate resilience, food security, and well-being.
Executive Director of the Soil Health Center, Sarah Allard (second from right), conducting fieldwork at a partner farm, with (L-R) research assistant Sarah Pierce, postdoctoral fellow Kristin Barbour, and (on right) PhD student Vanessa Minnis.
Advancing Connection Science: A Student-Led Convening to Integrate Empathy, Compassion, and Belonging Research
Leads: Gentry Patrick, Professor, Neurobiology and Director, Center for Empathy and Social Justice in Human Health; Cassandra Vieten, Clinical Professor, Family Medicine Centers for Integrative Health, and Director, Center for Mindfulness
Project Summary: This student-centered convening series will examine connection as a unifying biopsychosocial framework for empathy, compassion, and belonging, and will produce a Connection Research Roadmap, design principles, and an accountability plan to advance interdisciplinary, fundable strategies for student well-being at UC San Diego.
Building A Cross-Campus Substance-Use Focused Implementation Science Network to Prevent Overdose, HIV, and Related Syndemics
Leads: Natasha Martin, Professor, Medicine; Angela Bazzi, Professor, Public Health; Jessica Montoya, Associate Professor, Psychiatry
Project Summary: This project will convene researchers and staff to map strengths, identify gaps in collaboration, and develop a fundable agenda for a Substance Use Implementation Science Center, producing a roadmap and center concept materials that position UC San Diego to compete for external infrastructure funding.
Awardees for the Advancing Connection Science convening project (Left to right) Helen Ho, Leigh Eck, Gentry Patrick, Cassandra Vieten, and Philayne Pribnow.
The Clinical AI Cybersecurity Summit
Leads: Jeffrey Tully, Clinical Associate Professor, Anesthesiology and Co-Director, Center for Healthcare Cybersecurity; Christian Dameff, Associate Professor, Emergency Medicine and Co-Director, Center for Healthcare Cybersecurity; Karandeep Singh, Associate Professor and Director of Jacobs Center for Health Innovation
Project Summary: The summit will bring together UC San Diego leaders in healthcare cybersecurity and health innovation to define this emerging field, identify key challenges, unite multidisciplinary experts, and produce practical guidance for stakeholders and policymakers while advancing strategic research on disruptive technology.
Convene Homelessness and Health Researchers and Community Experts to Form Innovative Partnerships, Advance Research, and Identify Solutions
Leads: Jennifer Nations, Project Scientist, Urban Studies and Planning and Homelessness Hub Director; Georgia Kayser, Assistant Professor, School of Public Health; Stacey Livingstone, Postdoctoral Fellow, Urban Studies and Planning.
Project Summary: We will convene UC San Diego researchers and community partners in three structured sessions to identify research gaps at the intersection of health and homelessness, further cementing UC San Diego’s role as a hub for identifying workable solutions to end homelessness. The project will produce a white paper and establish strategic campus partnerships, positioning participants to influence policy and program development and pursue funding for new, innovative research.
Representatives from ARPA-H, the UC San Diego Jacobs Center for Health Innovation and the UC San Diego Center for Healthcare Cybersecurity meet to discuss health innovation, clinical AI and healthcare resilience. (L-R): Bon Ku, MD, MPP, Program Manager, Resilient Systems, ARPA-H; Karandeep Singh, MD, MMSc, UC San Diego Jacobs Center for Health Innovation; Morgan Hutchinson, MD, Systems Engineering and Technical Advisor, Resilient Systems Office, ARPA-H; Jeff Tully, MD, UC San Diego Center for Healthcare Cybersecurity
Arts and Humanities Futures Studies Initiative
Leads: Cristina Della Coletta, Dean, School of Arts and Humanities; Jac Jemc, Teaching Professor, Literature
Project Summary: This convening will bring together arts and humanities scholars to define a research agenda at the intersection of human flourishing, democratic culture, and emerging technologies, producing a research framework and collaborative network that positions UC San Diego as a leader in humanities-centered futures research.
Extreme Weather and Environmental Displacement and Health: Advancing AI for Prediction, Recovery, and Resilience
Leads: Tala Al-Rousan, Assistant Professor, School of Public Health; Tarik Benmarhnia, Associate Professor, Scripps Institution of Oceanography; David FitzGerald, Professor, Sociology; Ilkay Altintas, Chief Data Science Officer, San Diego Supercomputer Center
Project Summary: This initiative will convene interdisciplinary experts to create a research roadmap on environmental displacement, focusing on AI-enabled prediction of displacement hotspots and AI-informed recovery and resilience, while shaping future research, funding, and policy engagement that strengthen UC San Diego’s leadership in displacement science.
Facilitating social & ecological resilience through multi-disciplinary views of reciprocity
Leads: Shermin de Silva, Assistant Professor, Ecology, Behavior and Evolution; Craig Callender, Professor, Philosophy
Project Summary: This initiative will convene researchers and practitioners to explore resilience across social and ecological systems, emphasizing reciprocity as a shared foundation for well-being, cooperation, and environmental justice, and developing interdisciplinary research agendas that position UC San Diego as a leader in resilience scholarship.
FORMA (Frontiers Of Reasoning in Mathematics and AI)
Leads: Federico Pasqualotto, Assistant Professor, Mathematics; Rose Yu, Associate Professor, Computer Science & Engineering / Halıcıoğlu Data Science Institute
Project Summary: FORMA will bring together UC San Diego faculty and students for a sustained conversation about AI for mathematics. Through a year-long working group and lecture series, the initiative will explore where tools such as automated theorem proving may be useful, clarify current mathematical and practical challenges, and identify opportunities for collaboration across departments.
Influencing Research across Earth, Planetary Systems, and the Universe
Leads: Eve Lee, Associate Professor, Astronomy & Astrophysics; Catherine Constable, Professor, Scripps Institution of Oceanography; Dave Stegman, Professor, Scripps Institution of Oceanography
Project Summary: This interdisciplinary seminar series will unite Astronomy & Astrophysics and Scripps researchers to identify major questions in astrophysics, planetary science, and geophysics, culminating in a white paper to stimulate cross-department collaborations and to guide future hiring priorities and communication with funding agencies.
(L-R) Professors Eve Lee, Dave Stegman, Catherine Constable
Shaping the Future of Digital Neurology: A Strategic Convening Initiative to Advance Research, Policy, and Innovation at UC San Diego
Leads: Jennifer Graves, Professor, Neurosciences; Alexander Khalessi, Professor, Neurological Surgery; Tzyy-Ping Jung, Associate Director, Swartz Center for Computational Neuroscience
Project Summary: UC San Diego’s Neurosciences, Neurosurgery, and Bioengineering departments will build a digital neurology roadmap by defining standards, governance, partnerships, and funding strategies. Deliverables include a quarterly seminar series, white paper, policy briefs, and dissemination tools to strengthen interdisciplinary proposals and advance research, policy, and clinical innovation.
U.S.-Mexico Artificial Intelligence Hub
Leads: Rafael Fernandez de Castro, Director, Center for U.S.-Mexican Studies (USMEX) at the School of Global Policy and Strategy; Amarnath Gupta, Research Scientist, Director of Query Processing Lab at San Diego Supercomputer Center
Project Summary: Led by USMEX and SDSC, this binational initiative will convene cross-sector leaders from government, industry, academia, and civil society to formally launch the U.S.–Mexico AI Hub through the inaugural U.S.–Mexico AI Summit. The Summit will also launch a border affairs research cluster focused on the CaliBaja region, examining AI's impacts on migration, infrastructure, and trade, as well as broader Hub themes such as governance and innovation. A key feature of the Summit will be the launch of a binational survey on AI use and adoption along the border, designed to inform a shared research agenda and produce actionable policy briefs and working groups.
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