Dear Campus Community, 

 

I am excited to announce the appointment of Djurdjica Coss as Associate Vice Chancellor for Research and Economic Development (AVC-RED). Her first day in this role will be September 1, 2023.

 

Djurdjica has a deep connection to UC Riverside (UCR), evident in her history within the UC system, from her time as a graduate student to serving as a faculty member for the last ten years. Prior to her faculty position at UCR, Djurdjica was a research scientist and faculty member at UC San Diego for twelve years.

 

Djurdjica leads a NIH-funded lab that focuses on understanding the regulation of reproductive function. The work aims to uncover core processes behind pubertal development, reproductive cyclicity, and infertility-related conditions like premature ovarian failure and polycystic ovarian syndrome (PCOS), using integrated genomic and cellular analyses, in vitro methods, and in vivo mouse models.

 

Djurdjica has served as the Chair for the Academic Senate Committee on Research. She has served as a member of grant review panels for NSF, NIH, and the Endocrine Society. And, she has trained multiple postdoctoral fellows and research scientists and served as primary mentor for several graduate students.

 

Djurdjica received a BS in Biology from Novi Sad University, Serbia, Yugoslavia, a PhD in Biomedical Sciences, here at UC Riverside, and completed postdoctoral studies at UC San Diego.

 

I look forward to Djurdjica's contributions and the unique faculty perspective she'll bring to enhance our collaborative RED team.

 

I would like to thank the members of the search committee for their active engagement in helping to select our new AVC-RED:

 

Kathryn Uhrich, Dean, CNAS (Chair)

Krassimir Bozhilov, Director, Central Facility for Advanced Microscopy and Microanalysis

Gloria Gonzalez-Rivera, Associate Dean of Social Science, CHASS

Charles Greer, Associate Vice Chancellor for Research Compliance and Administration, RED

Kimberley Lakes, Professor of Clinical Psychiatry and Neuroscience, SOM

Laura Manor, Chief Financial and Administrative Officer, RED

Ashok Mulchandani, Distinguished Professor, Chemical and Environmental Engineering, BCOE

Rosibel Ochoa, Associate Vice Chancellor for Technology Partnerships, RED

Qingfang Wang, Professor of Public Policy, SPP

Bri Cates, HR and Administrative Policy Manager, RED (Committee Staff)

 

I also briefly want to mention that we began this search with the intention of hiring two new associate vice chancellors, however, due to budget considerations and future restructuring that will take place within RED, we have decided to hire only one AVC at this time. A new search with possibly a different job description may be announced in the future.