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Eileen Conrad
(805) 893-8726
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Margaret Connors
NCEAS
(805) 892-4728
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Sept. 28, 2006

ECOLOGY CENTER AWARDED $21-MILLION BY NATIONAL SCIENCE FOUNDATION

(Santa Barbara, Calif.) - The National Science Foundation (NSF) has  
renewed and increased funding for The National Center for Ecological  
Analysis and Synthesis (NCEAS), which is based at UC Santa Barbara.   
Over the next five years, the unique national think tank for  
ecologists will receive a total of $18.4-million, an increase of $1.6- 
million over the previous award.

In addition, the NSF will provide $2.6-million to advance the  
center's research on the management of complex ecological information.

NCEAS is widely recognized as the premier international center for  
collaborative research in ecological synthesis.  This is the second  
time that the NSF has renewed and increased funding for the  
pioneering center, which has been in operation for 11 years.

“NCEAS has made it possible for thousands of ecological researchers  
to study the big picture in a way that was impossible just a decade  
ago,” said Michael Witherell, UCSB vice chancellor for research.   
“The NSF renewal recognizes the fact that NCEAS has transformed the  
study of ecology, and the field cannot succeed without it.”

The National Science Foundation established the National Center for  
Ecological Analyses and Synthesis in 1995.  Recognizing the potential  
value of utilizing existing data on ecology and the environment, and  
the need for new approaches to assembling, accessing, and  
synthesizing information, the ecological community rallied around the  
idea of creating a synthesis center.

“The center promotes extensive collaboration among scientists and  
students from many disciplines and their efforts have generated a  
greater understanding of natural systems and the means to conserve  
and manage them,” said Jim Reichman, director of NCEAS and a  
professor of ecology, evolution, and marine biology at UCSB.

In research that spans the spectrum from genes to the biosphere, the  
innovative center provides a fertile arena for interdisciplinary  
collaboration, focusing on novel questions and approaches and  
intensive sustained investigations into core areas of ecology.

“NCEAS has become part of the intellectual infrastructure of ecology  
and allied disciplines,” said Reichman.  “The success of the  
collaboration and synthesis at the center is facilitated by the  
excellent staff, the strong support from the administration and  
faculty of UCSB's Marine Science Institute, and the campus.”

Ecological data are widely dispersed and profoundly heterogeneous,  
such that researchers face major obstacles when using existing data  
to address important ecological questions.  NCEAS has become a leader  
in developing collaborations and technical solutions to overcome  
these obstacles by providing generic access tools for more efficient  
and powerful access and analysis of ecological data.

Thus far, more than 3,100 scientists have participated in NCEAS  
research activities.  In addition to 25 scientists in residence at  
NCEAS for between one to three years, more than 500 scientists,  
graduate students, and postdoctoral fellows visit NCEAS over the  
course of each year to work together and use its high performance  
computing capabilities, bringing their own data.

As a reflection of the ecological community's commitment to solving  
problems that meet societal needs, more than a quarter of the  
projects at NCEAS also seek to inform environmental policy and  
management.  Its new Conservation and Resource Management Program-a  
cluster of research projects funded primarily by private foundations- 
is applying the NCEAS research model to address important  
environmental issues such as loss of biotic diversity, habitat  
decline and fragmentation, and the over-exploitation of ocean resources.

NCEAS ranks in the top one percent of more than 38,000 scientific  
institutions worldwide in the total number of citations in research  
publications in ecology and the environment.

In addition to support from the NSF, the national center receives  
funding from the State of California, UC Santa Barbara, and private  
foundations. It is located in downtown Santa Barbara.

Note to Editors:
For more information contact Jim Reichman at (805) 892-2504, e-mail:  
[log in to unmask] or Michael Witherell at (805) 893-8270, e- 
mail: [log in to unmask] Visit NCEAS at www.nceas.ucsb.edu/ 
fmt/doc?/frames.html

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