Dr. Regis Kelly, a former executive vice chancellor and professor emeritus of biochemistry and biophysics at the University of California San Francisco was appointed Dec. 1 as a special advisor to Janet Napolitano for innovation and entrepreneurship. Kelly will also continue his role directing the California Institute for Quantitative Bioscience (QB3) while serving as advisor for a year.
With his new position, Kelly says he is “dedicated now to serving what some think is the most neglected of our three UC missions: public service.”
”I believe our university has largely untapped resources that are uniquely capable of taking on the ‘wicked’ problems … whose complexity requires the assembly of talent and expertise from a wide variety of disciplines,” he furthered. “Think of water, the cost of health care, the problems of an aging population. Connecting its experts … is something that makes sense for UC leadership to do.”
While involved with QB3, Kelly helped students start their own businesses in their local communities. The program was successful, receiving $520 million return from the Bay Area from an $800,000 investment. His plan as an advisor will be to build off this model to extend it to all ten UC campuses.
Working closely with the UC system and community, Kelly stated that, “We need to share with the California public and its legislature the (societal) impacts of research universities if we want to argue effectively for an increased share of the budget.”
