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Anne Middleton, IR/PS Communications: (619) 534-2777

UC San Diego’s Graduate School of International Relations and Pacific Studies (IR/PS) and Center for Magnetic Recording Research (CMRR) last week hosted a reception to show their appreciation to the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation for a $1.75 million grant. This grant, received last year, is being used to establish the Center for Study of the Information Storage Industry (ISIC), which is based at IR/PS.

The reception was a special tribute to Alfred P. Sloan Foundation President Ralph E. Gomory, who visited UCSD to deliver a Regent’s Lecture on "Education Over the Internet," during which he discussed Sloan’s commitment to Asynchronous Learning Networks (ALN). Gomory was IBM’s director of research before joining Sloan in 1989.

"We at Sloan really want to thank all of you for what you are doing in this Center," Gomory told University representatives. "You enable Sloan to succeed by taking these monies and translating them into something worthwhile."

"It was a real honor to have Ralph Gomory on campus not only to share his views about higher education’s commitment to online learning but also to see firsthand the benefits of Sloan’s commitment to ISIC," said Roger Bohn, IR/PS associate professor of management and director of the new Center.

"The storage industry is a key enabling technology for personal computers and the Internet," Bohn added. "There are several academic centers focused on the technical aspects of storage. Thanks to the Sloan Foundation, we are now able to look closely at the industry’s business side as well."

IR/PS was selected to house the ISIC based on the UCSD’s core competence in magnetic recording, its strong links to local industry and a research program that was already underway. Sloan previously provided a $1.1 million grant to IR/PS for the Data Storage Industry Globalization Project. The earlier project, spearheaded by Bohn and Peter Gourevitch, a UCSD political scientist and former dean of IR/PS, found that U.S. companies can successfully run factories in Southeast Asia while maintaining complete control over the production process.

"So much of America’s pattern of living is determined by the health of its industries and its ability to employ people," said Frank Mayadas, program director for the Sloan Foundation, in an earlier interview. "The Sloan Foundation feels that industrial competitiveness can be studied in an academic setting – and can also have practical value for industry and policymakers. That is precisely why we have invested in industry study centers, such as UCSD’s Information Storage Industry Center. Many industries, including autos and semiconductors, rejuvenated their operations after our centers shared their weaknesses."

Digital information storage originated in the United States but globalized extensively in the 1980s. Despite fierce competition from Japanese, Korean and European firms, American firms continue to dominate, Bohn said.

ISIC links IR/PS’s research capacities in economics, management and international public policy with the technical resources of UCSD’s CMRR. It also draws on the intellectual capital of UCSD’s economics, political science and sociology departments; San Diego Supercomputer Center and Irwin and Joan Jacobs School of Engineering. Key project investigators are Bohn, Gourevitch and CMRR Director Sheldon Schultz. David McKendrick serves as ISIC research director.

Established in 1986, UCSD’s Graduate School of International Relations and Pacific Studies (IR/PS) is the University of California’s only professional school of international affairs and the only graduate school in the United States to focus exclusively on the Pacific Rim. More information on the graduate school can be found on its web site at: http://www-irps.ucsd.edu.

CMRR was founded in 1983 by a consortium of the U.S. magnetic recording industry to perform research in magnetic disk and tape storage. CMRR is an organized research unit affiliated with UCSD’s Jacobs School of Engineering.