Contents > Research Centers
Research Centers
For a more current version of this section, see the 2007–2008 Graduate Catalog.
Business, W. P. Carey School of Education, Mary Lou Fulton College of Engineering, Ira A. Fulton School of Fine Arts, The Katherine K. Herberger College of Law, Sandra Day O’Connor College of Liberal Arts and Sciences, College of Nursing & Healthcare Innovation, College of Research and Economic Affairs, Vice President for
Research centers, institutes, and laboratories serve the university’s mission in research. They are overseen by eight of the colleges, the Office of the Vice President for Research and Economic Affairs, the Polytechnic campus provost, and the West campus provost.
Center for Research on Education in Science, Mathematics, Engineering, and Technology
The Center for Research on Education in Science, Mathematics, Engineering, and Technology (CRESMET)—an alliance of the ASU Mary Lou Fulton College of Education, the Ira A. Fulton School of Engineering, and the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences—was initiated in 1999, growing out of what was previously the Center for Innovation in Engineering Education. The mission of the center is to bring together individuals, programs, and organizations interested in improving K–20 science, mathematics, engineering, and technology education to research, develop, and assess educational theories, curricula, courses, and administrative policies that impact science, mathematics, engineering, and technology education. The center also encourages and supports wide-scale sharing and implementation of effective approaches to producing a more scientifically and technologically literate populace and more capable science, mathematics, engineering, and technology majors.
CRESMET pursues research and development that demonstrates coherent, consistent, and conceptually powerful mathematics, science, engineering, and technology education from kindergarten through college (K–20).
CRESMET supports collaborations across the traditional boundaries of university, community, business, and local education agencies.
CRESMET establishes communication avenues for intellectual and material products proven effective in supporting powerful learning in science, mathematics, engineering, and technology fields.
For more information, visit CRESMET in UC 202B, call 480/727-8884, or access the CRESMET Web site at cresmet.asu.edu.
Arts, Media, and Engineering/Institute for Studies in the Arts
The Arts, Media, and Engineering (AME) program, that was started in 2003, is a joint initiative of the Katherine K. Herberger College of Fine Arts and the Ira A. Fulton School of Engineering. The goal of AME is transdisciplinary research and education applied to the integrated development of experiential media. To achieve this complex goal, AME combines knowledge and resources from 14 disciplines across ASU and has established a shared curriculum among nine departments. The Institute for Studies in the Arts (ISA) is an interdisciplinary research center within the Herberger College of Fine Arts.
AME/ISA facilities include Digital Arts Ranch—a black-box theater with a matrix of video, audio, and movement sensors; controllable projection screens; surround sound capabilities; shops for design and fabrication; a CAD unit; and the Intelligent Stage—a research environment and performance space dedicated to the expansion of studies in interactive performance technologies, including 3-D motion capturing and 2-D sensing technologies; a state-of-the-art Audio Lab and Digital Imaging Lab; and the Technology Development Studio—dedicated to the development of software and hardware for experiential media and arts interfaces.
For more information, call 480/965-9438, or access the Web sites at ame.asu.edu or herbergercollege.asu.edu/ame.
W. P. Carey School of Business
All W. P. Carey School of Business research centers operate under the oversight of the L. William Seidman Research Institute.
L. William Seidman Research Institute
The mission of the L. William Seidman Research Institute is to encourage and support applied business research by serving as a public access point to the W. P. Carey School of Business. Specific goals include transferring new knowledge to the public; supporting faculty and student research; encouraging the development of educational programs grounded in business research; and conducting high-quality, applied business research.
The institute encourages research activity by providing research support services to the faculty, staff, and students of the college. These services include facilitating grant preparation and assistance in grant administration. The institute’s research centers act as the focal point for involving faculty and students in applied research on important issues identified by the business community.
The institute also serves an important role in the broader educational mission of the W. P. Carey School of Business by disseminating the findings of research conducted by the faculty, students, and research center staff, as well as the results of business research from other sources around the world. This is accomplished through a variety of mechanisms: newsletters and research reports; seminars and conferences; Internet Web pages; media interviews and press releases; and by responding to inquiries from businesses, public officials, and the community. For more information, call 480/965-5362, access the institute’s Web site at wpcarey.asu.edu/seid, or write
L. William Seidman Research Institute
Bank One Economic Outlook Center
The Bank One Economic Outlook Center (EOC), established in 1985, specializes in economic forecasts for Arizona and the Western states. The center publishes the Bank One Arizona Blue Chip Economic Forecast (monthly), Greater Phoenix Blue Chip Economic Forecast (quarterly), Western Blue Chip Economic Forecast (10 issues per year), and Blue Chip Job Growth Update (monthly), an update of current job growth in the United States. The center also publishes Mexico Consensus Economic Forecast (quarterly), which forecasts and provides historical data on the Mexican economy.
For more information, call 480/965-5543, access the EOC Web site at wpcarey.asu.edu/seid/eoc, or write
Bank One Economic Outlook Center
CAPS: Center for Strategic Supply Research
CAPS: Center for Strategic Supply Research was established in November 1986 by a national affiliation agreement between the ASU W. P. Carey School of Business and the Institute for Supply Management. It is the first and only program of its kind in the nation and is located in the ASU Research Park, about eight miles south of the Tempe campus. CAPS conducts in-depth research into the problems facing the purchasing profession today and, through its studies, seeks to improve purchasing effectiveness and efficiency and the overall state of purchasing readiness.
For more information, call 480/752-2277, access the Web site at www.capsresearch.org, or write
CAPS: Center for strategic supply Research
Center for Advancing Business Through Information Technology
The Center for Advancing Business through Information Technology (CABIT) focuses on research and educational innovations in technology and business that have been accomplished since 2002. CABIT explores how technological innovations are transforming business operations and provides a forum for interactions between the academic and the practitioner communities. The aim is to leverage the internationally recognized expertise of the ASU faculty, to be in active partnership with industry, and to address current issues related to the technological impact on business.
One of the primary goals of CABIT is to encourage interdisciplinary research within the School of Business. Business faculty members then share their findings with colleagues throughout ASU who have a common interest regarding the impact of technology on business.
The creation of CABIT is an outgrowth of a decade of significant investment in the development of innovative business management programs and the recruitment of technology-savvy faculty. As a result, significant curriculum enhancements have been integrated into the MBA and undergraduate programs. For more information, call 480/965-2280, access the CABIT Web site at wpcarey.asu.edu/seid/cabit, or write
Center for Advancing Business Through Information Technology
Center for Competitiveness and Prosperity Research
The Center for Competitiveness and Prosperity Research has been a source of information on the Arizona and metropolitan Phoenix economies since 1951. A public service research unit of the L. William Seidman Research Institute, the center specializes in applied economic and demographic research. The center works cooperatively with other ASU units, particularly the Morrison Institute for Public Policy. In addition, the center conducts special research projects of a public service nature under sponsorship of private business and/or government agencies. Recent examples include a study on job quality and work on the Statewide Economic Study for the Arizona Department of Commerce.
For more information, call 480/965-3961, access the center’s Web site at wpcarey.asu.edu/seid/ccpr, or write
Center for Competitiveness and Prosperity Research
Center for Services Leadership
Since 1985 the Center for Services Leadership (CSL) has been a leading university-based hub devoted to the study of services marketing and management. The CSL addresses how any company can improve internal service processes and use service and customer satisfaction as a competitive advantage. The center encourages firms to share the best ideas and practices for adaptation across industries. Though grounded in marketing, the center’s work is cross-functional, integrating concepts and techniques from marketing, operations, human resources, and management.
The center’s areas of expertise include customer retention and loyalty; service quality; service delivery; professional services such as healthcare, accounting, and consulting; customer satisfaction; services strategy; service culture; and service recovery. A leader in the business and academic communities, the center’s work advances the knowledge base in the field and provides applicable frameworks, concepts, and tools.
The center offers its partner firms topflight executive education in services through the annual “Activating Your Firm’s Service Culture” symposium, the annual “Services Marketing and Management” institute program, and the annual “Information Technology Services Marketing” course and provides customized executive education programs and research projects tailored to and conducted for charter member firms.
For more information, visit the CSL in BAC 440, call 480/965-6201, or write
Center for Services Leadership
The Spirit of Enterprise Center
The Spirit of Enterprise Center is a 21st-century leader in business education, practice, and research providing high-quality, relevant programs, and information services focused on small business since 1994. The center enables students and existing small and medium-size businesses to participate, contribute, and compete in the global economy.
The center provides students from all disciplines with programs and resources that prepare them for leadership positions in small and medium-size businesses, and aids small and medium-size businesses in the continuous improvement of human resources and business practices. The Spirit of Enterprise Center also engages in applied research on entrepreneurship and the emerging changes and trends in small business.
For more information, visit the Spirit of Enterprise Center in BAC 101, call 480/965-3962, access the center’s Web site at wpcarey.asu.edu/spirit, or write
The Spirit of Enterprise Center
Herberger Center for Design Research
The Herberger Center for Design Research (HCDR) supports and promotes scholarly inquiry and applied research in the College of Design for the disciplines of architecture, industrial design, interior design, landscape architecture, planning, and visual communication design.
As a resource center for the exchange of ideas and experience, the HCDR seeks to create new partnerships that investigate alternatives and provide groundbreaking solutions for the many design challenges posed by the natural and built environments and their inhabitants.
The HDCR mission is evident through transdisciplinary research initiatives exploring a variety of topics, including alternative energy solutions, integrated building systems, digital technology, housing, transportation, and sustainable planning and development.
Through an innovative array of programming, including seed grant funding, proposal development support services, connection to the PhD program, and partnerships with other ASU centers and institutes, the HCDR facilitates faculty research initiatives and applied design projects toward successful funding and implementation.
Herberger Center services and activities include 1. providing grant funds to advance faculty research projects toward larger sponsored funding; 2. offering support services to help faculty locate, develop, and manage funding opportunities for research projects; 3. provide facility workspace for faculty and graduate student research and presentations; 4. communicating faculty research proposal awards and research results; 5. sponsoring faculty research events; 6. forming and managing topic-based exploratory research groups led by college faculty; 7. developing and coordinating a college research agenda; and 8. creating a clearinghouse for collaborative opportunities across the ASU campus and around the globe.
For more information call 480/727-0478, or access the Web site at design.asu.edu.
Phoenix Urban Research Laboratory
The Phoenix Urban Research Laboratory (PURL) is an information-rich environment for researchers, decision makers, industry professionals, and students to debate, collaborate, and seek new solutions to the most pressing design problems facing cities today. Finding options to urban issues through design helps communities make well-informed decisions about the physical form of their cities and can create a thriving, successful urban core that adds exuberance and quality to city life. Staffed by design professionals, PURL projects synthesize real-world situations to offer informed alternatives to actual design problems. PURL is a conduit through which applied research, public policy, and scholarly investigation flow to create practical applications and implement projects. Located in downtown Phoenix and using metropolitan Phoenix as a laboratory, PURL serves as a catalyst for progressive urbanism. For more information, call 480/727-9888, or access the PURL Web site at design.asu.edu.
The Community Design Studio (CDS), previously the Joint Urban Design Program, is based at PURL. The CDS is a community outreach program that facilitates interaction within the university and with the broader ASU community and promotes design as a way to further dialogues and to address urban issues. The CDS conducts intensive workshops (community-based charrettes) that help neighborhoods, groups, and other stakeholders focus on and respond to critical needs. For more information, call 480/965-1344 or access the Web site at design.asu.edu.
Mary Lou Fulton College of Education
The Center for Indian Education is an interdisciplinary research and service center established in 1959. It promotes studies in American Indian policy and administration that contribute to scholarship and effective practices in education, professional training, and tribal capacity building. It is structured to foster relations between the university and sovereign tribes and to provide training and technical assistance for community programs. The center publishes the Journal of American Indian Education and sponsors workshops and colloquia that bring together scholars and tribal community leaders.
The center provides leadership through a group of American Indian faculty and is organized on the basis of scholarly expertise of the faculty. In addition to Mary Lou Fulton College of Education faculty, responsibilities are shared by faculty from the School of Social Work, the School of Justice and Social Inquiry, the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences, and the Sandra Day O’Connor College of Law. Areas currently studied include administrative leadership, policy analysis, bilingual education, health and welfare policy, justice studies, and program development in professional studies.
For more information, visit the center in ED 402, call 480/965-6292, or access the center’s Web site at coe.asu.edu/cie.
See Center for Research on Education in Science, Mathematics, Engineering, and Technology.
Education Policy Studies Laboratory
Located within the Division of Education Leadership and Policy Studies, the Education Policy Studies Laboratory (EPSL) disseminates policy research to policy makers, educators, the media, and the public. For more information, visit EDB L1-01, call 480/965-1886, or access the EPSL Web site at epsl.asu.edu.
Southwest Center for Education Equity and Language Diversity
The Southwest Center for Education Equity and Language Diversity (SCEED) is a research and development unit that encourages comprehensive, binational, participatory, multi-methodological research and scholarship to investigate P-20 education policy and practice involving English language leaners in the U.S. and Mexico.
SCEED serves the entire Mary Lou Fulton College of Education through a scope of work that focuses on these target areas and goals:
1. Scholarly Inquiry. Keeping abreast of and disseminating information on current research and policy issues regarding language diversity and educational equity affecting schools and society in the Southwestern states.
2. Communication. Facilitating dialogue and relations between American and Mexican educators and community groups to develop common educational goals for Latino students.
3. Culturally Responsive Educational Policy. Working to improve public education for all children, regardless of cultural, linguistic, or socioeconomic background.
4. Collaboration and Partnership. Developing and operating educational projects, which improve education for immigrant children in the U.S., with a special emphasis on the Latino population.
SCEED fosters collaboration with individuals and institutions with similar interest in dual-language and other generally accepted approaches to literacy development that result in literacy in two languages, the most appropriate approach to education along the U.S./Mexico border. SCEED’s work places education equity and language policy issues in a broad framework involving school institutional analysis and development to better serve all children. SCEED’s goals are to inform policy-making efforts toward development of a binational pedagogy uniquely suited to education in the U.S. Southwest borderlands.
For more information, visit the center in ED 440, call 480/965-7134, or access the center’s Web site at sceed.asu.edu/blog.
Ira A. Fulton School of Engineering
The Ira A. Fulton School of Engineering has a collaborative relationship with this program. For more information, see Arts, Media, and Engineering/Institute for Studies in the Arts.
Biodesign Institute at Arizona State University
This institute has a collaborative relationship with the Ira A. Fulton School of Engineering. For more information, see Biodesign Institute at Arizona State University.
Center for Low Power Electronics
The Center for Low Power Electronics (CLPE) is a collaborative effort of the University of Arizona and ASU to address fundamental, industry-relevant research problems in the design of ultra-low power microelectronic systems. The center is formed under the State/Industry/University Cooperative Research initiative of the National Science Foundation (NSF). The NSF and the State of Arizona recognize that Arizona has the key ingredients to become a leader in this technology, such as the world’s leading companies involved in the manufacture of portable computing and communication systems. The center’s technical areas of focus include
1. basic materials, alternative materials, and their fabrication;
2. device design optimization;
3. design of digital, analog, and hybrid low power circuits; and
4. power-based physical design for single- and multi-chip VLSI systems.
For more information, visit the center in ENGRC 115, call 480/965-8654, or access the Engineering Research Services Web site at fulton.asu.edu/fulton/research.
See Center for Research on Education in Science, Mathematics, Engineering, and Technology.
Center for Solid State Electronics Research
The Center for Solid State Electronics Research (CSSER) focuses on research in the areas of epitaxial semiconductor crystal growth, device characterization and modeling, defect behavior in semiconductor material characterization, environmentally benign and other novel processing, fine line lithography, surface analysis, and transport. Major programs address semiconductor device modeling, transport theory, optoelectronics, feroelectrics, semiconductor processing, microwave devices, and ultra-submicron and nano-structured devices. New thrust areas include molecular electronics and MEMS.
For more information, visit CSSER in ENGRC 115, call 480/965-3708, or access the CSSER Web site at fulton.asu.edu/fulton/csser.
Ira A. Fulton Research Institute
The Ira A. Fulton Research Institute serves as an umbrella organization for centers, institutes, and programs that are administered through the Fulton School of Engineering. The institute also houses research programs that are receiving seed funding from the Fulton School or the university and are identified through the Fulton School Research Themes and Clusters.
For information on this new institute, access the Ira A. Fulton School of Engineering Web site at fulton.asu.edu/fulton.
The Katherine K. Herberger College of Fine Arts
The Katherine K. Herberger College of Fine Arts has a collaborative relationship with this program. For more information, see Arts, Media, and Engineering/Institute for Studies in the Arts.
The ASU Art Museum’s Ceramics Research Center is a national and international destination for the hands-on study and enjoyment of ceramics. It houses the ASU Art Museum’s extensive and nationally recognized ceramics collection of more than 4,000 objects. The center, which opened in 2002, is an educational component of the Herberger College of Fine Arts, providing teaching and research capabilities. The collection showcases works that reflect global social, cultural, and historical activities that occur within the relationship between art and society. Its international holdings demonstrate the full range of techniques, aesthetic approaches, and possibilities within the medium.
For more information, call 480/727-8173, or access the museum’s Web site at asuartmuseum.asu.edu.
Center for Applied Behavioral Health Policy
Housed within the College of Human Services, at the West campus, the Center for Applied Behavioral Health Policy serves as a research and training center focused on improving programs and policies for individuals with behavioral health disabilities and their families. Behavioral health disabilities encompass a broad spectrum of bio-behavioral manifestations, including substance use and abuse, and mental illness. The impact of these disorders upon individuals, their families, and society can be devastating and frequently correlated with criminal behavior, family instability, unemployment, poverty, and homelessness. Through a combination of research, program evaluation, in-service, continuing education, and pre-service educational initiatives, the Center for Applied Behavioral Health Policy brings clarity to improving governmental policies and programs for individuals and families faced with behavioral health disabilities.
For more information, call 602/942-2247, or access the center’s Web site at www.cabhp.asu.edu.
Center for Violence Prevention and Community Safety
In response to the growing need of Arizona’s communities to improve public safety, ASU established the Center for Violence Prevention and Community Safety. Setting a course to address all forms of interpersonal violence, the center is forcefully committed to reducing violence and the resulting social and economic costs, while increasing public safety. In today’s world, the spectrum of violence is sufficiently broad to attract a variety of high-caliber faculty researchers and students.
In a think-tank atmosphere, where creative processes are nurtured and breakthroughs are shared, the center brings together scholars and practitioners from social, behavioral, and humanistic backgrounds to confront the urgent problems of violence. Together, these researchers and leaders examine sources of crime, youth violence, and violence against women, children, and the elderly. The most significant outcome is the development of new violence prevention and community-safety models that reduce interpersonal violence and strengthen society’s quality of life. As a leading source of research-based knowledge and analysis about violence and its prevention, ASU’s Center for Violence Prevention and Community Safety improves community safety through community-based solutions. The mission is to generate, share, and apply quality research and knowledge to create “best practice” standards. The center specifically:
1. evaluates policies and programs;
2. analyzes and evaluates patterns and causes of violence;
3. develops strategies and programs;
4. develops a clearinghouse of research reports and “best practice” models;
5. educates, trains, and provides technical assistance; and
6. facilitates the development of and construction of databases.
Currently, the center is engaged in several local, state, and international research projects aimed at reducing violence.
For more information, call 602/543-6607, or access the center’s Web site at www.west.asu.edu/cvpcs.
Sandra Day O’Connor College of Law
Center for the Study of Law, Science, and Technology
Located in the Sandra Day O’Connor College of Law, the Center for the Study of Law, Science, and Technology conducts research, edits Jurimetrics: The Journal of Law, Science and Technology in cooperation with the American Bar Association Section on Science and Technology, and sponsors seminars, workshops, and conferences. Through these activities, the center seeks to contribute to the formulation and improvement of law and public policy affecting science and technology and to the wise application of science and technology in the legal system. Current areas of research include communications and telecommunications law, computer-related law, forensic science and statistics, legal issues and biotechnology, law and medicine, law and social science, genomics, privacy, intellectual property, and bioethics.
For more information, visit the center in LAW 120, or call 480/965-6606.
College of Liberal Arts and Sciences
Arizona Center for Medieval and Renaissance Studies
The Arizona Center for Medieval and Renaissance Studies (ACMRS) is a research unit serving affiliate scholars from ASU, Northern Arizona University, and the University of Arizona. It represents a variety of disciplines, including history, literature, philosophy, religion, language, music, art, and science. ACMRS enriches academic offerings in medieval and renaissance studies by sponsoring one or two visiting professors each year. Graduate research assistantships are also available through the center.
Significant opportunities for the study of the Middle Ages and the Renaissance exist at ASU. Hayden Library has an extensive microfilm collection and many rare books in medieval and renaissance studies. ACMRS also sponsors a lecture series each semester covering a variety of topics.
Other programs include an annual conference, a public symposium, a summer study abroad program at the University of Cambridge (United Kingdom), and student exchange programs with the University of Copenhagen (Denmark) and the University of Kalmar (Sweden).
Since 1996, ACMRS has published Medieval and Renaissance Texts and Studies, a major series of editions, translations, and reference works. In collaboration with the University of Massachusetts at Dartmouth and the University of Kansas, ACMRS sponsors and coedits Mediterranean Studies, an annual interdisciplinary journal publishing articles on all aspects of the Mediterranean region. ACMRS also sponsors a book series titled Arizona Studies in the Middle Ages and the Renaissance, published by Brepols (Belgium).
ACMRS also partners with the Renaissance Society of America and the University of Toronto in Iter, a massive, retrospective, online medieval and renaissance bibliography covering all languages and disciplines, and is the official site of the Medieval Academy of America’s online data project offering information on medieval centers, programs, committees, and regional associations in North America.
For more information, visit ACMRS in COOR 4429, call 480/965-5900, or access the ACMRS Web site at www.asu.edu/clas/acmrs.
The mission of the Center for Asian Research is to create physical and intellectual space for innovative research projects—both local in nature and specific to east, central, southeast, and south Asia. The center researches and explores the impact of transnational, environmental, political, and cultural trends on local societies and localized cultural production in Asia. The center supports activities in tandem with other centers and departments on campus, such as the School of Global Studies and the School of International Letters and Cultures. The center explores the historical and current connections of Asia to the rest of the world, including the Western Enlightenment, its early successes with industrialization in the 12th through 16th centuries, its impact on modern consciousness and mass consumption, its increasing importance as a key player in the world economy, and its role as a key global consumer of raw materials.
The Center for Asian Research offers competitive research funding in three categories: reading groups, research initiative clusters, and sustaining grants.
1. Reading group funding supports small groups of people who are interested in exploring the feasibility of establishing a research cluster. The center provides up to $250 for books and provides space for groups to meet on a regular basis.
2. Research initiative clusters funding awards up to $2,000 to support organized research clusters. These funds may be used for travel to libraries, for consultants, for materials directly related to the research, and for preparation of large grant proposals.
3. Sustaining grants award up to $2,500 to support ongoing individual and joint research projects. These funds may be used for any direct costs associated with sustaining significant research, for travel to overseas libraries, archives, museums, or cultural and natural sites directly related to research, for publication of research, and for other justified costs.
The Center for Asian Research offers modest funding to help PhD students travel to conferences to present their work and for travel abroad for research. Key to the center’s philosophy is the belief that research and graduate education are intimately connected. Preference is given to research requests that include advanced graduate students as peers.
The center houses graduate research resources. It also hosts research symposia, conferences, workshops, and other research-related activities.
For more information, call the Center for Asian Research at 480/965-7184, or access the Web site at www.asu.edu/clas/asian.
Center for Biology and Society
The Center for Biology and Society promotes research on the conceptual foundations of the biosciences and their interactions with society through the exploration of bioethics, biology and law, history and philosophy of science, sociology of science, and environmental history, ethics, and policy. The center brings together dispersed research and outreach activities relating to the interactions of the life sciences and society. Major sources of research funding come from the Greenwall Foundation and the National Science Foundation; and collaborators include the Flinn Foundation and Mayo Clinic in Scottsdale. Core faculty members hold many ASU and external awards and honors, including designation as regents’ professor and other named, endowed professorships as well as MacArthur, Guggenheim, and National Humanities Center fellowships.
The center provides small grants to support independent student projects through the Biology and Society Unusual Student Project Award endowment and sponsors travel programs for students to attend national meetings. Students involved in the Biology and Society Program are among the top students at ASU. Graduates of the program have received Rhodes, Marshall, Truman, Goldwater, Udall, Fulbright, Flinn, and Soros national scholarships. Among the program’s alumni are biologists, medical and law school students, a published poet, and others pursuing careers in health and environmental policy, ethics and academe.
Major research and outreach programs include
1. History and Philosophy of Science: Conceptual foundations of science; study of knowledge and evidence, including epistemology; decision theory; environmental history.
2. Bioethics, environmental ethics, values and society: Biotechnology and social values, professional conduct of science, intersections with law and justice.
3. (Bio)policy and Law: Biopolicy, politics and economics as they impact bioscience; ethical and legal implications of biosciences; social contexts of science, explored through the social sciences.
4. Communicating Science: staging illness and theater and science; science and medical journalism.
For more information, visit the center in LSC 284, call 480/965-8927, or access the Web site at sols.asu.edu/biosoc.
Center for Film and Media Research
The Center for Film and Media Research at Arizona State University seeks to become a nationally and internationally prominent research environment. Its primary commitment is creating and sustaining innovative activities reflecting the significant cultural, social, and economic roles film and media play in shaping new millennium human values and global communities.
The center’s mission is fivefold:
1. The center supports innovative and entrepreneurially driven research projects focused on the cultural, political, aesthetic, educational, global, and technological aspects of film and new media.
2. Given that film and media studies and film production at ASU are highly transdisciplinary and are located across many departments within the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences and the Herberger College of Fine Arts, the center supplies a central film and media culture space to bring faculty together for the purpose of collaborating on research and pedagogical projects.
3. The center serves the community with outreach projects such as film series organized around timely topics introduced by faculty with discussions led by faculty.
4. The center builds connections with the entertainment industry by maintaining an active industry advisory board and with the position of distinguished fellow in film writing, directing, and producing.
5. The center sponsors special projects such as conferences and festivals at ASU and in the community.
For more information, call 480/965-6747.
Center for Latin American Research
Arizona maintains an ever-growing interest in Latin America that draws upon an extensive experience of historical and geographical ties. The Center for Latin American Research is the focal point for these interests at ASU. Through its program, the center serves the university community and maintains strong ties with various Latin American organizations in the state and the nation. Principal activities are coordinating Latin American studies at the undergraduate and graduate levels; sponsoring student exchange programs; organizing events featuring Latin American arts and culture, numerous seminars, and research conferences; publishing a wide range of professional materials; and undertaking and facilitating research about the region.
The center administers student exchange programs with the Catholic University of Bolivia and three Mexican universities—the Autonomous University of Guadalajara, the Autonomous University of Nuevo Leon, and the University of Sonora. Each spring several ASU students are selected to attend courses at the Latin American universities while Bolivian and Mexican students attend ASU. The center also has an exchange agreement with the Pontific Catholic University of Ecuador for faculty and students as well as summer programs in Quito, Ecuador, and Ensenada, Mexico.
The center is a member of the American Modern Language Association, Consortium of U.S. Research Programs for Mexico, Consortium for Latin American Studies Association, Pacific Coast Council on Latin American Studies, Rocky Mountain Council for Latin American Studies, Consortium of Latin American Studies Programs, and Conference on Latin American History.
The center directly encourages research, not only through its research conferences, but also through close coordination with the Latin American collection of Hayden Library and networking with Latin American universities.
For more information, visit the center in COOR 4450, or call 480/965-5127, or access the center’s Web site at www.asu.edu/clas/latin.
The Center for Meteorite Studies, the largest university-based collection of meteorites in the world, provides access to meteorites for public education and scientific inquiry. As a component of the School of Earth and Space Exploration (SESE), the center facilitates transdisciplinary research on meteorites and related areas of planetary science by the members of the school.
For more information, visit the center in PS C139, or access meteorites.asu.edu.
Center for Solid State Science
The Center for Solid State Science is a research unit within the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences.
The membership comprises faculty and academic professional researchers and research support personnel, most of whom hold simultaneous appointments in affiliated academic units. The Center for Solid State Science is the ASU focal point for interdisciplinary research on the properties and structure of condensed phases of matter at the interfaces between solid-state chemistry and physics, earth and planetary science, and materials science and engineering. It also supports interdisciplinary approaches to science and engineering educational outreach activities.
The center provides an administrative home for large, multidisciplinary, block-funded research projects. These include the NSF-supported Materials Research Science and Engineering Center (MRSEC) and the Interactive Nano-Visualization for Science and Engineering Education (IN-VSEE) project. To support these activities, members of the center operate modern and sophisticated research facilities and organize regular research colloquia and symposia.
Principal topical areas of research in the center include studies of structure and reactivity of surfaces and interfaces, electronic materials, advanced ceramics and glasses, synthesis of new materials, high-pressure research, development of techniques in high-resolution electron microscopy and micro-structural and chemical analysis, development of visualization techniques at different scales of magnification for science education, and community outreach.
The research facilities of the center include the Center for High Resolution Electron Microscopy (CHREM) and the Goldwater Materials Science Laboratories (GMSL).
The center operates several ultra high-resolution and ultra high-vacuum electron microscopes and supports microscopy methods and instrumentation development, including holography, position- and time-resolved nano-spectroscopy, and energy-filtered imaging and diffraction. The center provides high-resolution capability for a large external group from other universities and industry.
1. the Materials Facility (MF), which provides a wide range of synthesis and processing capabilities for preparation of specimen materials. MF also provides thermal analysis for study of solid-state reactions and Auger and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy for analysis of surface compositions and electronic structure of surfaces;
2. the Materials Science Electron Microscopy Laboratory (MSEML), which provides state-of-the-art electron microscopes for analysis of microstructures, including imaging and diffraction, and high spatial resolution chemical analysis using energy dispersive x-ray and electron energy loss micro-spectroscopy;
3. the Ion Beam Analysis of Materials (IBeAM) facility, which provides compositional and structural determination of the surface and near-surface regions (0–2 mm) of solids by ion beam analysis where elemental composition and depth distribution information are needed. Channeling experiments are used to determine crystal perfection and site occupancy;
4. the Secondary Ion Mass Spectrometry (SIMS) laboratory, which provides depth profile and point composition analysis with very high chemical sensitivity, on the order of one part per billion, including isotopic analysis for many materials. SIMS is also used as a chemical microscope, to image elemental distributions on specimen surfaces;
5. the Scanning Probe Microscopy Laboratory (SPM), which provides facilities for nanoscale viewing of solid surfaces using scanning tunneling microscopy (STM), atomic force microscopy (AFM), and related techniques. The SPM laboratory serves as a focus for undergraduate research training programs and educational and outreach activities;
6. the Facility for High Pressure Research, which provides facilities for synthesis of new materials and for geochemistry/geophysics studies at up to 25 Gpa (250,000 atmospheres) and temperatures greater than 2000º C. These facilities are complemented by diamond anvil cells capable of in situ studies at up to one million atmospheres. This laboratory provides a focus for core research projects within the MRSEC;
7. the Goldwater Materials Visualization Facility (GMVF), which consists of a battery of linked workstations for remote operation of instruments and data collection, capture of images in real time, and advanced computing and simulation of materials. The GMVF is used in research and in undergraduate and graduate education, as well as in educational and community outreach; and
8. other specialized laboratories under development, which include high-resolution x-ray diffraction for thin film characterization, optical spectroscopy, and nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy for solid-state studies and research on materials under extreme conditions.
These facilities provide the primary teaching and research resources used by students in the Science and Engineering of Materials interdisciplinary PhD program and the undergraduate option for materials synthesis and processing. The facilities are also used extensively by students in disciplinary programs from affiliated departments.
For more information, visit the center in PS A213, call 480/965-4544, or access the Web site at www.asu.edu/clas/csss/csss.
Center for the Study of Early Events in Photosynthesis
The ASU Center for the Study of Early Events in Photosynthesis was established in 1988 as part of a joint grant program of the Department of Energy, the National Science Foundation, and the Department of Agriculture. Since 1995, it has been funded by the Office of the Vice President for Research and Economic Affairs and the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences. The center consists of about 90 students, postdoctoral associates, and research scientists led by 15 faculty members in the Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry and the School of Life Sciences. These research groups share a common goal: understanding the process of photosynthesis, which is responsible for producing all of our food and filling the vast majority of our energy and fiber needs. The impetus for development of the center was the premise that photosynthesis is a complex problem that will only yield to an investigation using a wide variety of approaches and techniques. Thus, the center serves as an infrastructure supporting individual ASU scientists and fostering multidisciplinary cooperative research projects.
The ultimate objective of the research is the elucidation of the basic principles governing the biochemical and biophysical processes of photosynthetic energy storage. This goal is being realized via investigation of the early events of photosynthesis, including light absorption and excitation transfer in photosynthetic antennas; the mechanism of primary photochemistry in plant and bacterial systems; secondary electron transfer processes; structure and assembly of photosynthetic antennas, reaction centers, and electron transfer proteins; pigment-protein interactions; artificial and biomimetic photosynthetic solar energy conversion systems; and mechanisms of biological electron transfer reactions.
The center is equipped with state-of-the-art instrumentation that allows students to do frontier research in a broad range of disciplines. Equipment includes a variety of pulsed lasers for measurements with time resolution ranging from sub-picoseconds to seconds, a 500 MHz NMR instrument, an EPR spectrometer, a protein x-ray facility, spectrophotometers, fluorometer, a protein sequencer, and an amino acid analyzer.
The center sponsors a weekly Photosynthesis Seminar Series and brings in visiting scientists from around the world to carry out collaborative research. Undergraduate, graduate, and postdoctoral training programs in the Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry and within the Plant Biology curriculum are central components of the center’s activities.
For more information, visit the center in PS D207, or call 480/965-1963.
Center for the Study of Religion and Conflict
The Center for the Study of Religion and Conflict promotes research and education on the nature, causes, and consequences of religious conflicts around the world with the goal of contributing imaginative strategies to their containment or resolution. Committed to a transdisciplinary, problem-solving approach, the center sponsors a broad range of programs and activities that stimulate inquiry and enhance knowledge among students, faculty, policy-makers, religious leaders, and the general public, locally, nationally, and internationally.
The center’s signature programs include interdisciplinary faculty seminars and working groups, faculty and graduate student colloquia, research conferences and seed grants, undergraduate fellowships, and public lectures. Through these research and education initiatives, the center seeks to enhance empirical knowledge of particular cases, analytical and theoretical insights that contribute to broader, comparative understanding, and normative reflection that leads to wiser, more effective responses and interventions.
Major research interests include the following:
1. Conflicts at the borders of religion and the secular. Descriptive, analytic and normative investigations of the role of religion in public life in a global context; constructions of the religious-secular boundary as a focal point for comparative studies of conflicts within and among nation-states.
2. Religion and conflict: Disrupting violence. Empirical and normative studies of the role of religion in fueling conflict, its potential to disrupt violence, and the applicability of group conflict and conflict resolution research to religious conflict.
For more information, visit the center in ECA 385, or call 480/965-7187, or access the center’s Web site at www.asu.edu/csrc.
See Center for Research on Education in Science, Mathematics, Engineering, and Technology.
Exercise and Sport Research Institute
The Exercise and Sport Research Institute (ESRI) is an interdisciplinary research unit located in the Department of Kinesiology and serves, in part, as a research facility for the doctoral program in Kinesiology. Faculty and graduate students within ESRI investigate a wide range of topics concerning physical activity, including different age cohorts, levels of health, levels of ability and fitness, levels and types of training, and physical and emotional stresses, nutrition, and genetic backgrounds. Where applicable, these aspects are studied using an interdisciplinary approach. ESRI is affiliated with a number of clinical and research institutions in the Phoenix area.
ESRI houses numerous specialized research laboratories. Biomechanics applies the laws of mechanics to the study of human movement. Current research examines kinematic and kinetic determinants of locomotion patterns in walking, running, cycling, and swimming; neuromusculoskeletal modeling and computer simulation of locomotion in clinical and sport applications; ergonomics; and mechanisms underlying upper extremity repetitive strain injuries. Exercise physiology is the study of physiologic systems (cardiovascular, respiratory, muscular, endocrine, metabolic) under conditions of stress, particularly exercise stress. Both acute exercise responses and chronic adaptations resulting from exercise training are considered in relation to health and performance and are investigated in several specialized labs. The Exercise Biochemistry Lab examines subcellular systems involved in the provision and regulation of energy transfer during exercise. The Exercise Endocrinology Lab studies interrelationships of exercise and training with stress, hormones, neurotransmitters, and the immune system. Research in the Motor Control Lab investigates how movement is regulated and controlled via the nervous system in normal and pathological populations. Special emphases include motor deficits attributed to basal ganglia dysfunction and upper extremity coordination, particularly finger and hand posture, in reaching and prehensile movements. Motor development studies how human movement is generated and evolves throughout the lifespan. Current research focuses on learning and development of bimanual coordination. Timing and coordination of perceptual-motor skills are measured in normal developing children, persons with Down syndrome, and adults to investigate cerebral asymmetries and specificity of learning. The Sport and Exercise Psychology Lab examines the relationship between psychological constructs and physical activity and the influence of participation in physical activity on psychological phenomena. Current research is designed to examine the influence of physical activity, fitness, and particular sport practices on psychophysiological mechanisms and cognitive functioning; the effect of psychological skills for performance enhancement; motivational aspects of physical activity across the lifespan; and the effects of exercise on mental health.
For more information, visit ESRI in PEBE 159, or call 480/965-8279.
The Hispanic Research Center (HRC) is a university-wide interdisciplinary unit, dedicated to research and creative activities. Administered through the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences, the HRC performs basic and applied research on a broad range of topics related to Hispanic populations, disseminates research findings to the academic community and the public, engages in creative activities and makes them available generally, and provides public service in areas of importance to Hispanics.
Faculty, staff, and advanced graduate students organize into working groups to develop a broad range of specific projects and lines of inquiry within the general categories of Hispanic entrepreneurship, science and technology, information and data compilation and dissemination, the Hispanic polity, and the arts. Ongoing activities of the HRC, primarily funded by external grants, include the Arizona Hispanic Business Survey, the Bilingual Review Press, the Community Art and Research Outreach (CARO), Chicana and Chicano Space: Art Education Web site, Digital Divide Solutions Project, Project 1000, and the Western Alliance to Expand Student Opportunities.
CARO sponsors creative activities and research in collaboration with community-based organizations and ASU faculty.
For more information, visit the HRC in CFS 104, call 480/965-3990, or access the HRC Web site at www.asu.edu/clas/hrc.
Institute for Humanities Research
The Institute for Humanities Research (IHR) is dedicated to promoting excellence and innovation in the humanities and engaging constituents in exploring the human dimensions of emerging and significant social, cultural, technological, and scientific issues.
The institute strives to create a dynamic environment for interdisciplinary and transdisciplinary research and facilitate collaboration among scholars in the humanities, social sciences, and sciences for the purpose of examining issues that confront individual and collective human experience across time.
The IHR promotes scholarship and collaboration in the humanities, and with scholars outside the humanities, through four major programs:
1. IHR Competitive Seed Grant Program,
2. IHR Distinguished Lecture Series,
For more information, call 480/965-3000, or access the Web site at www.asu.edu/clas/ihr.
Institute for Social Science Research
The Institute for Social Science Research (ISSR) provides research development and data support services across the university. It is also the umbrella unit for transdisciplinary research centers that span the university’s colleges, schools, and departments.
1. to encourage leading-edge thinking and help create innovative approaches to research initiatives,
2. to facilitate scholarship and transdisciplinary collaboration among university departments and schools and between university researchers and external agencies, companies, and nongovernmental organizations,
3. to ensure the success and excellence of the university and its faculty in meeting the research potential of a comprehensive metropolitan research university, and
4. to advance knowledge to better serve the needs of the community and humankind.
For more information, call 480/965-5009, or access the Web site at issrweb.asu.edu.
The Institute of Human Origins (IHO), founded in 1981 by Donald Johanson, became part of the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences in 1997. IHO is a multidisciplinary research organization dedicated to the recovery and analysis of the fossil evidence for human evolution. IHO scientists carry out field research at sites in Africa, the Middle East, and Asia. IHO houses the largest collection of Australopithecus afarensis casts (including “Lucy,” a 3.2 million-year-old human ancestor) in the world as well as an extensive collection of other fossil hominid casts. The IHO library contains more than 3,000 volumes, numerous journals, videotapes, audiotapes, and slides related to human evolution and fossil sites. IHO produces periodic newsletters, offers lecture series, conducts tours and workshops, and supports numerous informal science education outreach projects.
For more information, visit IHO in SS 103, call 480/727-6580, or access the IHO Web site at www.asu.edu/clas/iho.
Joan and David Lincoln Center for Applied Ethics
The Joan and David Lincoln Center for Applied Ethics is a university-wide center for applied ethics that is administratively housed in the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences. Its mission is
1. to develop and coordinate a strong focus on theoretical and applied ethics across intellectual disciplines and professional programs within the university,
2. to support teaching and creative research and programming in ethics, especially as applied to a variety of professional fields and careers,
3. to foster collaborative ethics programming that involves the center and its Lincoln Professors and community organization in addressing major ethical challenges that confront individuals, public policy makers, and local, state, national, and international institutions.
For more information, visit the Center in AG 355, call 480/727-7691, or access the Web site at www.asu.edu/clas/lincolncenter.
Russian and East European Studies Center
The ASU Russian and East European Studies Center (REESC) functions within the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences. REESC administers research, training, and outreach programs involving the lands and people of Eastern Europe and Eurasia. More than two dozen ASU faculty from five colleges and University Libraries collaborate in center programming. REESC also works with other postsecondary educational institutions, government agencies, local high schools, and private corporations in coordinating programs of research, study, travel, and exchange relating to Russia, Eastern Europe, and Eurasia. The center is an institutional member of the American Association for the Advancement of Slavic Studies (AAASS). ASU is also a member of the International Research and Exchanges Board (IREX), which administers United States academic exchanges with Russia and Eastern Europe.
The Critical Languages Institute (CLI) offers intensive summer language instruction in the less commonly taught languages of Eastern Europe and Eurasia. Summer practicums and study abroad programs offer students opportunities to take classes and conduct research overseas. REESC/CLI faculty mentor students for competitive national fellowships, including Fulbright and the National Security Education Program.
For more information, call REESC at 480/965-4188 or CLI at 480/965-7706, or access their Web sites at www.asu.edu/clas/reesc and www.asu.edu/clas/reesc/cli.
Virginia G. Piper Center for Creative Writing
The Virginia G. Piper Center for Creative Writing at ASU was created in the fall of 2003. The center’s goal is to elevate the university’s creative writing program to international prominence while enriching the intellectual and artistic life of Arizona and the entire southwest.
The historic ASU President’s House, located at Palm Walk and Tyler Mall on the Tempe campus, serves as the permanent campus home for the center.
Other programs funded by the center include
1. an international writer’s exchange program;
2. funding of an endowed chair that will be used to attract high profile, distinguished authors to campus for extended residencies, authors who will work closely with ASU faculty and students; and
3. creation of the Piper Creative Scholars Program, designed to support ASU faculty and others in the pursuit of research, writing, and other creative activities.
For more information, access the center’s Web site at www.asu.edu/pipercwcenter.
College of Nursing & Healthcare Innovation
Center for the Advancement of Evidence-Based Practice
The Center for the Advancement of Evidence Based Practice (CAEP) is an innovative enterprise that fosters the improvement of healthcare through a culture of best practice. The CAEP leadership team is comprised of interdisciplinary experts in Evidence Based Practice (EBP) who facilitate the integration of research and practice across multiple settings to improve healthcare, patient outcomes, and systems. Initiatives offered through the CAEP focus on:
1. preparing practitioners for EBP through building knowledge and skills;
2. implementing and advancing EBP initiatives;
3. promoting culture changes in organizations to cultivate EBP;
4. synthesizing and disseminating evidence through scholarly practice; and
5. shaping health policy through application of sound evidence.
For more information, access nursing.asu.edu.
Center for Healthy Outcomes in Aging
In response to the rapidly expanding population of older adults in the state of Arizona and throughout the country, the ASU College of Nursing & Healthcare Innovations has launched the Center for Healthy Outcomes in Aging.
The primary purpose of the center is to develop and test interventions that promote the highest level of health and quality of life for individuals who are aging within a culturally diverse society. The center emphasizes multidisciplinary, theory-based interventions across a variety of clinical settings.
For more information, access nursing.asu.edu.
Center for Improving Health Outcomes in Children, Teens, and Families
The changing nature of childhood and adolescent morbidities and mortality over recent decades prompted the creation of the Center for Improving Health Outcomes in Children, Teens, and Families at the ASU College of Nursing & Healthcare Innovations. The center focuses on multidisciplinary research to develop and test interventions that will lead to optimal health outcomes for high-risk children, teens, and families in a culturally diverse world.
Example of current research include
1. evaluating the outcomes of a school-based obesity prevention curriculum for middle school students;
2. determining the outcomes of school-based support groups for adolescents with an addicted parent;
3. testing interventions to improve the mental and physical health of overweight teenagers, school-aged children, and pre-school children at risk for overweight;
4. developing an understanding of factors that influence self management of adolescent asthma;
5. developing an instrument to predict feeding success in premature infants;
6. testing a web-based health promotion for decreasing adolescent risky behaviors; and
7. testing interventions to improve health outcomes for children with Type 1 and Type 2 diabetes.
For more information, access nursing.asu.edu.
The Arizona Real Estate Center (AREC), established in 1980, serves a multifunction research and educational role to foster better understanding of the real estate sector of the Arizona economy. Housing, commercial real estate, and construction activity data for Arizona and Maricopa County are collected by the center and are utilized for a variety of ongoing projects, including the calculation of affordability indexes and the computation of housing appreciation figures for the metropolitan Phoenix area.
For more information, call 480/727-1688, access the AREC Web site at www.poly.asu.edu/arec, or write
Sustainable Technologies, Agribusiness, and Resources Center
The focus of the Sustainable Technologies, Agribusiness, and Resources (STAR) Center is to bring together multidisciplinary researchers whose mission is to study sustainable processes and systems, whether natural or human designed, that will be efficient and less consumptive and will promote conservation of the earth. For more information, call 480/727-1249, or access the STAR Center Web site at www.poly.asu.edu/star.
Center for Nonprofit Leadership and Management
The Center for Nonprofit Leadership and Management (CNLM) promotes the understanding of the nonprofit sector in community life and focuses on effective practices that help organizations meet their mission. The center coordinates a nonprofit sector research program, facilitates educational offerings in nonprofit studies, and serves as a convener on contemporary issues. CNLM provides information and selected technical assistance services pertaining to such topical concerns as philanthropy, effective board governance, and social enterprise. The center facilitates relationships among students, faculty, and community organizations across the range of its research and outreach activities. In addition, the center convenes leaders and managers from the nonprofit, business, and government sectors on issues pertinent to building nonprofit capacity in the region. CNLM is the leading nonprofit academic center in the region. It is nationally recognized for its knowledge and tools that support leader and manager effectiveness. The center promotes understanding of the nonprofit sector in society with a focus on effective practices that help organizations meet their missions. The center facilitates relationships among students, faculty, and practitioners through research, education, and outreach activities on topical issues including philanthropy, board governance, social enterprise, and innovative nonprofit practice. For more information, call 602/496-0500, or access the Web site at nonprofit.asu.edu.
Morrison Institute for Public Policy
Morrison Institute for Public Policy conducts research which informs, advises, and assists Arizona’s leaders and residents. As part of the School of Public Affairs (College of Public Programs), the institute serves as a bridge between the university and the community. Through a variety of publications and forums, Morrison Institute shares research results with, and provides services to, public officials, private sector leaders, and community members who shape public policy. A nonpartisan advisory board of leading Arizona business people, scholars, public officials, and public policy experts assist the institute with its work. Morrison Institute was established in 1982 through a grant from Marvin and June Morrison of Gilbert, Arizona and is supported by private and public funds and contract research. The institute conducts research on a broad range of topics, including education, urban growth, workforce development, economic development, arts and culture, quality of life, and science and technology.
For more information, call 602/496-0900, access the Morrison Institute’s Web site at www.morrisoninstitute.org, or write
MORRISON INSTITUTE FOR PUBLIC POLICY
Southwest Interdisciplinary Research Center
The Southwest Interdisciplinary Research Center (SIRC) conducts multidisciplinary, community-based research on health disparities among the populations of the Southwest, concerning drug abuse, HIV/AIDS, and mental health. Research efforts focus on the needs and strengths of families and youth from diverse communities, and strive to foster a stronger link between practice and research in the social work and service delivery fields. The research center’s goal is to develop a comprehensive interdisciplinary center for culturally oriented research on drug abuse and other health outcomes that will strengthen the university’s capacity as a leader in the Southwest region, nationally, and internationally.
SIRC strengthens the institutional infrastructure of the School of Social Work, enhances the research capabilities of faculty and community social workers, and draws across many disciplines to create dynamic research partnerships. The center’s research affiliates include faculty from nursing, psychology, social work, social family dynamics, and other departments and schools. SIRC is funded through competitive research grants and subcontracts awarded by the National Institute on Drug Abuse, the National Institutes of Health, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and by ASU.
The mission of SIRC is to carry out interdisciplinary research in health disparities with populations of the Southwest, and increase the number and capacity of social work researchers working in the areas of substance abuse, HIV/AIDS, and mental health. The center’s multidisciplinary and community-based research in these priority areas focuses on culturally-grounded prevention research, and culturally responsive and resiliency-focused services research.
SIRC studies the strengths, competencies, and other protective factors that buffer against drug use and risk behaviors of families and youth. Research focuses on the diverse cultural communities of the Southwest and the way that drug use, HIV/AIDS, and mental health are connected to ethnic, gender, developmental, geographic, and other social identity variables.
SIRC provides predoctoral applied research education to graduate students from social work, social and family dynamics, and other departments and schools. In addition, SIRC provides continuing education and research dissemination activities in association with its community advisory board members and partners.
For more information, call 602/496-0700, access the center’s Web site at sirc.asu.edu, or write
southwest interdisciplinary research center
Vice President for Research and Economic Affairs
Biodesign Institute at Arizona State University
The Biodesign Institute at ASU was established to provide an organizational, intellectual, and physical environment for large-scale interdisciplinary research. The institute is focused on improving human health and quality of life, sustaining the environment, and contributing to national security. To meet these grand challenges, it fuses expertise in diverse disciplines, including biology, engineering, and information technology. As a catalyst for innovation, the institute seeks end-to-end solutions that address complex challenges threatening human health in the 21st century. The ambitious goal is use-inspired, translational research that is adopted rapidly by the private sector for societal benefit and commercial applications.
The Biodesign Institute represents Arizona’s largest investment in research infrastructure. The Institute is master-planned as four interconnected buildings with 800,000 square feet of advanced research space. Flexibility is built into every aspect of the facilities, so they can rapidly be adapted to changes in technology. The research programs are clustered into four focus areas of increasing contemporary importance:
The institute’s output is measurable in terms of increased grant funding being brought to the region, the development of highly trained research professionals who are prepared for employment in industry as well as academia, the recruitment of highly-educated newcomers to the community, pioneering discoveries and new technologies that benefit humanity, and generation of new businesses. These important outputs contribute significantly to statewide economic development. The institute is becoming a hub for bioscience research in central Arizona, building collaborative networks among scientists, healthcare providers, industry, and institutions. The Biodesign Institute is located on the Tempe campus.
For more information, access the institute’s Web site at www.biodesign.asu.edu.
Institute for Computing and Information Science and Engineering
The Institute for Computing and Information Science and Engineering (InCISE) fosters interdisciplinary research, education, and entrepreneurship in computing. A collection of basic research activities within the Department of Computer Science and Engineering (CSE) forms the inner core of InCISE, while the activities to which CSE contributes form the outer core of the institute. The three core research groups of InCISE are the Center for Cognitive Ubiquitous Computing, the Intelligent Information Integration core area, and the Information Assurance core area. InCISE also collaborates with five affiliated research groups: the Consortium for Embedded Systems; the Partnership for Research in Spatial Modeling; the Arts, Media and Engineering Program; and the Center for Advancing Business through Information Technology.
In addition, InCISE serves as the focal point for a host of researchers from various disciplines who want to get connected to the computing and information community at ASU. These domains include cognitive sciences, health sciences, social sciences, earth sciences, space sciences, biosciences, disability studies, and linguistics.
For more information, access the institute’s Web site at incise.asu.edu.
Stardust Center for Affordable Homes and the Family
The Stardust Center for Affordable Homes and the Family is a university-wide transdisciplinary center that assists the affordable housing development community of Arizona to produce and manage service-enriched housing in a manner that improves the social stability of neighborhoods, the economic productivity of families, and the educational performance of children, while enhancing the quality of the built and natural environments.
The center provides research, services, and education to increase the quantity and quality of affordable homes produced for Arizona’s families. This is accomplished by the center’s staff in collaboration with ASU faculty, visiting scholars, expert practitioners, members of the broader community, and contributors to the present system for producing and servicing affordable housing and residents in Arizona. The focus of the center’s engagement is the affordable housing system, that is, the public and private individuals and groups who develop and manage affordable homes and communities and who provide services to the families who live in them.
For more information, call the center at 480/727-5456, or access the center’s Web site at www.asu.edu/stardust.
Decision Theater at Arizona State University
The Decision Theater (DT) at ASU is a world-class facility for science-based, informed analysis positioned to connect science, community, and practice. The primary mission of the Decision Theater is to serve as a home for policy makers and the community to participate together in a collaborative process using advanced decision-making tools.
DT research focuses on incorporating group facilitation and mediation services with visual documentation tools to create an integrated framework for supporting and studying decision-making processes. Scientists incorporate and integrate complex, multidimensional data from a variety of public sources, such as numeric and spatial data into models and simulations for display in an immersive 3-D environment. Individuals and groups are able to interact with this information in a truly immersive manner, creating opportunities to make informed decisions about issues facing their environments and communities.
The theater itself consists of an interactive, 3-D environment with computational resources built using state-of-the-art graphics technologies. The core component, called the Drum, is a 260-degree, faceted screen with seven rear projection passive stereo sources that can display panoramic computer graphics or 3-D screen video content. The Drum accommodates 20 people and includes tools for collecting participant input and interaction inside the Drum. The advanced visualization environment enables policy makers and others to see in detailed, 3-D representation the consequences of behavior, decisions, and policy to examine potential scenarios.
The fusion and integration of decision-making tools at the Decision Theater coupled with the vast knowledge network of ASU researchers provides emerging science and social decision makers an unparalleled resource. Examples of projects for the DT include business forecasting; homeland security applications and simulations; tracking regional health issues; land use planning, transportation, and security analysis; food chain management; spatial analysis of service delivery; facility planning; environmental analysis; biomedical and bioengineering models; cognitive and behavioral outcomes.
The Decision Theater is located in the Orchid House in downtown Tempe. Public and group demonstrations can be scheduled by calling 480/965-4098 or 480/965-4808.
For more information, access the DT Web site at www.decisiontheater.org.
Global Institute of Sustainability
The Global Institute of Sustainability brings together life, earth, and social scientists, engineers, and government and industry leaders to share knowledge and develop practical solutions to the environmental, economic, and social challenges of sustainable development, especially as it relates to urban areas. The institute also infuses sustainability into ASU’s educational mission through the innovative School of Sustainability and other units across campus. For more information, access the school’s Web site at schoolofsustainability.asu.edu.
The institute is also home to the Central Arizona–Phoenix Long-Term Ecological Research (CAP LTER) project, one of only two urban sites in the NSF-funded LTER network. The CAP LTER project focuses on an arid-land ecosystem profoundly influenced, even defined, by the presence and activities of humans, and involves more than 50 associated faculty from biology, ecology, engineering, geography, geology, sociology, urban planning, and anthropology. For more information, access the CAP LTER Web site at caplter.asu.edu.
Also part of the institute, the Sustainable Materials and Renewable Technologies (SMART) program officially became the U.S. EPA National Center of Excellence (NCE) on SMART Innovations for Urban Climate and Energy—a partnership with U.S. EPA and industry. The NCE is a research cluster at ASU involving the Global Institute of Sustainability, the Ira A. Fulton School of Engineering, the W. P. Carey School of Business, the College of Design, the School of Geographical Sciences, and other units on campus. NCE is developing and implementing technologies to address issues of rapid urbanization and forming partnerships with the private sector, governmental entities, and international research universities. Associated researchers are developing the next generation of SMART materials for urban energy and climate needs. This vision includes developing and applying materials for renewable energy products, innovative building and pavement materials that reduce energy demand, and materials that can improve regional impacts of urban heat islands.
The institute administers an NSF-funded Integrative Graduate Education and Research Training (IGERT) grant to develop a multidisciplinary program in urban ecology. The program’s research component engages students in wide-ranging investigations into the ecology of cities, with the CAP LTER project providing the research infrastructure. For more information, access the IGERT Web site at sustainability.asu.edu/igert.
The institute is also home to the Decision Center for a Desert City (DCDC), which analyzes the decision processes used to plan and manage water resources and growth, with the goal of advancing sound science as the basis for managing growth in arid regions. For more information, access the DCDC Web site at dcdc.asu.edu.
The institute also facilitates applied environmental research projects undertaken by the Southwest Consortium for Environmental Research and Policy (SCERP), a consortium of five U.S. and four Mexican universities. SCERP develops a research agenda for the study of air and water quality, hazardous waste problems, environmental health issues, and growth management questions in the border region. For more information, access the Web site at www.scerp.org.
For more information, visit the institute in TMPCT 151, call 480/965-2975, or access the institute’s Web site at sustainability.asu.edu. Contents > Top of page > Research Centers