The tradition at UC San Diego, both on the general campus and within the Medical School is that of academic excellence. UCSD is ranked among the top twenty research/graduate institutions in the country and is an elected member of the Association of American Universities, an honor reserved for top research institutions. The Department of Psychiatry shares in this tradition of excellence in research. Using any criteria by which scientific productivity is measured, the Department excels, whether it is by numbers of grants or total peer reviewed grant dollars, or numbers and quality of peer reviewed publications, honors and eminence of its faculty, UCSD is among the top handful of psychiatry departments. We have established world-class scientific programs in basic and clinical neuroscience, mood and affect disorders, panic and related anxiety disorders, alcoholism and substance abuse, molecular genetics, cognitive neuroscience and neuropsycholgy, AIDS research, schizophrenia, psychopharmacology, neuropsychoendocrinology to highlight some but not all, of our research programs.

Currently the Department is one of the few in the country, which has three funded NIMH Clinical Research Center programs, one in neurobehavioral effects of HIV (Igor Grant, M.D., Principal Investigator), another one in Geriatric Mental Disorders (Dilip V. Jeste, M.D., Principal Investigator) and a third in Child/Adolescent Health Services (Richard Hough, Ph.D. and John Landsverk, Ph.D.).

The Department has acquired superb scientific resources in terms of wet laboratory research space, laboratory equipment, has three fully equipped sleep laboratories, one of the nation's outstanding biological rhythms research laboratory, a research neuroendocrine and neurochemical markers laboratory, state-of-the-art functional imagining and molecular biology programs and a full primate facility available to the department and its investigators. Most importantly, we have been able to recruit and gather some of the most outstanding scientists in our field. A list of the faculty at the UCSD Department of Psychiatry is a "Who's Who" of scientific scholars, whose research foci are germane to improving our understanding of the diagnosis and treatment of mental disorders across the lifecycle. The end result is an unparalleled ambience in which to conduct science, superb and readily available collaborators together with a very strong central departmental support.

Resident Independent Research Project (ISP)
Residents in our program have the unique opportunity to collaborate with our nationally recognized faculty as they develop and pursue their individual research projects. (A listing of individual faculty research interests is provided at the end of this brochure.) Residents are encouraged to start planning early for their independent study projects and may be given time during their PG3 year to pursue a well devised project. During the PG4 year residents can select a longitudinal elective, several afternoons a week, to finish their research. Completed resident projects are presented to the entire department with the Chairman's Research Prize awarded to the most outstanding research effort. Furthermore, resident's research frequently results in journal publication. The purpose of Independent Study Project is to develop critical thinking skills and provide a basis for continued learning and scholarly pursuit of which will last throughout the trainee's career. This project represents an opportunity for residents to work closely with UCSD faculty who conduct leading research programs in every major area of psychiatry.

Research Tract
A Research Tract for up to two to three qualified residents has been developed. Residents selected for this tract are assigned a research mentor before beginning their training. In PGY2, residents begin meeting with their mentors regularly, attend neuroscience/ research seminars, and begin planning for more concentrated research time in later years. During PGY3, research tract residents will have approximately 20 - 40 percent of their time dedicated for research. Generally, the research tract residents will begin their Psychobiology/Neuropsychopharmacology research fellowship in PGY4, may be Chief Resident for Research, and can expect to have about 75-80 percent of their senior resident time reserved for research.

OTHER RESOURCES
Geographic and climate desirability have been responsible for progressive growth of San Diego county over the past 15 years, and the city of San Diego has become a focal point for health sciences and facilities for the 1.5 million residents. There are 37 hospitals containing 4,000 acute, short-term beds, and 61 nursing care facilities serving the immediate area. The San Diego Psychoanalytic Institute offers programs in psychoanalytically oriented psychotherapy and full psychoanalytic training. In addition, San Diego has become a center for biomedical research as a result of the development of UCSD, the Salk and Scripps Research Institutes. There are two medical libraries at UCSD. The Biomedical Library housed in the Basic Science Building, serves students, staff and faculty of the School of Medicine and those graduate programs in biology. The collection numbers 75,000 volumes and 4,000 journal subscriptions. The Medical Center Library located at the UCSD Medical Center, contains over 21,000 volumes as well as slides, cassettes and other informational material.