Research Core Advisory Council
The Research Core Advisory Council (RCAC) plays a pivotal role in guiding the Research Core Facilities Program (RCFP) by offering informed recommendations to RCFP Director, Associate Vice Chancellor for Research, and Vice Chancellor for Research. These recommendations are instrumental in establishment, maintenance, and expansion of Research Core Facilities in UC Davis.
Monthly meetings of the council are dedicated to developing strategic plans for sustainable operation of core facilities, identifying essential resources such as funding, space, and personnel. RCAC focuses on several key areas, including–
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- Metric Establishment: develop suitable metrics for core evaluation, and suggestion of subsequent actions that emerge from core evaluations.
- Facilities Definition: Define and identify Campus Research Core Facilities eligible for support from RCFP/Office of Research.
- Review: Review funding requests to the RCFP and make recommendations for strategic investments in and direct financial support of individual research cores.
- Business Plan Guidance: Guide centralized core facilities across campus in development of business plans towards sustainable operation.
- Service Optimization: Assist core facilities to ensure that state-of-the-art research services and instrumentation are provided in a cost-efficient manner.
- Operational Enhancement: Define, evaluate and refine functionalities of a new software-based administrative backbone which will facilitate user management, instrumentation reservations, automated monthly centralized billing, ad hoc reporting, definition of recharge rates, online service requests, etc.
Members of the Council
Academic Year 2025 – 2026
Updated October 13, 2025
Bart Weimer (Chair)
Professor, Department Chair, Academic Senate, SVM, UC Davis
Jawdat Al-Bassam
Associate Professor, CBS, UC Davis
Louise Berben
Professor, CL&S, UC Davis
Abhijit Chaudhari
Professor, Director of CMGI, COE/ SOM, UC Davis
Jennifer Curtis
Distinguished Professor, COE, UC Davis
Joseph Dragavon
Director of Core Facilities & Shared Instrumentation, University of Colorado Boulder
Oliver Fiehn
Professor, Director of WCMC, CBS, UC Davis
Kristine Godfrey
Project Scientist, Contained Research Facility, Academic Federation, CAES, UC Davis
Trina Knotts
Associate Project Scientist, Co-Director of MMPC, Academic Federation, SOM, UC Davis
Claudius Mundoma
Director of Shared Instrumentation Facilities, Office of Vice Provost & Dean of Research
Stanford University
Colin Reardon
Associate Professor, Director of HSDAIF, SVM, UC Davis
Emily Sanson-Smith
Principal Budget Analyst, BIA, UC Davis
Dan Starr
Professor, Associate Dean of Research, CBS, UC Davis
Rachel Vannette
Associate Professor, CAES, UC Davis
Isabelle Girard (ex-officio), Director, Research Core Facilities Program, Office of Research, UC Davis
Diana Lazo (ex-officio), Analyst, Research Core Facilities Program, Office of Research, UC Davis
