When Gene Block was hired as UCLA’s new chancellor, the university was pleased to welcome him, but the campus’ scientific community was uniquely excited.
An accomplished sleep researcher whose expertise is biological clocks, Block directs a research program at his own lab on campus, according to Vivek Shetty, the immediate past chair of the Academic Senate.
Block’s lab is located in the Semel Institute, said Frisca Yan-Go, medical director of the UCLA Sleep Disorders Center.
Block is still in the process of transitioning to UCLA and setting up his lab here, Shetty said.
Shetty said Block’s current research is on the circadian rhythm, a topic that is “particularly relevant to students.”
The circadian rhythm is a constant biological clock that is paramount to people’s survival, Yan-Go said.
“(The circadian rhythm) is linked to … all the other functions for survival,” Yan-Go said. “If it’s out of sync, we don’t think well, we don’t learn well, our mood is not good.”
Because sleep affects people’s circadian rhythms, Shetty said the chancellor has an exceptional understanding of the repercussions of students’ sleep disturbances and sometimes unhealthy habits.
Stress is another factor that impacts circadian rhythms and is relevant to students, said Ronald Harper, a neurobiology professor at the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA.
Harper said students will benefit from a chancellor who understands stress’s effects on their health and lives.
“The issues, the pressures that students are under at UCLA to perform and the kinds of timing situations that they get themselves into ““ daily timing situations are vital to student performance,” Harper said. “(His knowledge) really contributes significantly to how he’s able to manage student-relation issues and (understand) survival through the college years.”
His research experience also helps his overall position as a leader, Shetty said, because it has helped Block develop a logical sensibility.
In addition, it helps him support and understand research at UCLA more effectively, Shetty said.
“To be the leader of a prominent research institution, it helps if the leader himself has done research,” he said.
Shetty added that Block’s research experience can be compared to a coach’s experience as an athlete: Both contribute to understanding how to lead in their respective fields.
Block also leads researchers more directly, Shetty said.
“He has a couple of fellows, so … not only does he take on the responsibilities of chancellor, but he’s also in the trenches with faculty, trying to sustain and grow a research program,” he said.
Holding he position of chancellor is no easy task, Shetty said, and Block’s devotion to research amid competing demands for his time is both rare and admirable.
“Unlike other people who become chancellors and just focus on (those duties) ““ I admire his desire and his ability to continue with his science,” Shetty said.
Harper said Block’s previous scientific accomplishments through research have yielded significant contributions to the health care field.
Shetty also said Block’s accomplishments will contribute to his overall success as chancellor.
“I think from a faculty viewpoint we were delighted to be able to recruit a distinguished scientist scholar as the leader of our campus,” Shetty said. “We look forward to a very productive tenure.”