UCLA doctoral students Dave Wernick and Mike Stajura had a critical assignment last week that took them into the heart of state government where they had a chance to tell lawmakers why graduate research makes a difference to the state.

Wernick, who works in a lab engineering bacteria that can convert waste material into usable energy, found himself talking to the governor’s staff and key state legislators about how bacteria, manipulated at the molecular level, could lead to a renewable energy future.

Stajura, an Army veteran and a former foster youth who went to the United States Military Academy at West Point in 1991, shared a few details about his work to develop a system to classify community organizations that work in disaster response and recovery.

A Ph.D. student in chemical engineering, David Wernick does research on producing alternative fuel using a bacteria that can be genetically engineered to eat waste. The research produced by the lab, overseen by engineering professor Jamies Liao, has resulted in 40 patents held by the university and other benefits to the California economy.

Also on the visit to the State Capitol Wednesday, March 12, were 20 other exceptional graduate students from other UC campuses, UC President Janet Napolitano, and Nobel laureate and UCLA alum Randy Schekman of UC Berkeley, and Robin Garrell, UCLA vice provost and dean of graduate education as well as a professor of chemistry.

The message they brought to state elected officials in Sacramento was unassailable.

Graduate students generate billions of dollars in research funding though federal grants and other sources, UC officials told legislators. These students are also a wellspring for new ideas and perform much of the legwork that lead to research breakthroughs.

Lawmakers heard from graduate students involved in a broad swath of research, from the long-term consequences of drought to health disparities in underserved communities and traffic-related air pollution.

A Ph.D. student in chemical engineering, Wernick works with a species of bacterium found only in one remote corner of the world. He’s figured out how to genetically re-engineer this bacteria to eat waste of all kinds, producing an alternative fuel that could go straight into gas tanks. He works in the lab of professor James Liao in the UCLA Henry Samueli School of Engineering and Applied Science.

“My main goal … was to share with them not only the environmental and societal benefits of our research, said Wernick, but to inform legislators about the jobs and spin-off  benefits that have been created as a result of this work.

“Research from our lab has resulted in about 40 patents currently held by the university,” Wernick explained. “Some of these patents are licensed to a start-up company being incubated in CNSI (Californa Nanosystems Institute) on the UCLA campus.” Mitsubishi Chemicals and the U.S. Department of Energy have already begun working with him to reproduce this new energy source on an industrial scale.

Doctoral student Mike Stajura, far left, volunteers with the Los Angeles Fire Department's Community Emergency Response Team. A military veteran and former foster youth, he studies community-based disaster relief efforts in the Fielding School of Public Health.

Legislators learned that UC holds more than 4,200 active patents currently. And these have resulted in the creation of more than 600 companies over time, including such corporate giants as Broadcom and Genentech.

Stajura, an Army veteran and a former foster youth who went to the United States Military Academy at West Point in 1991, is developing a system to classify community organizations that work in disaster response and recovery. A doctoral scholar at the UCLA Fielding School of Public Health, he found his academic focus while in the Army when, after Honduras was hit by a hurricane, he led a search and rescue team to bring fresh water to schools that were secluded in mountains.

In speaking with lawmakers, Stajura said he hoped “to  let them see that UCLA doctoral students are out there putting their research and their academic passion to work for the benefit of the communities we live in. We’re not just studying; we’re living it,” he said. “Also, it takes hard work and constant attention to maintain UC’s standard of excellence and contributions to California. The UC system and its benefits to the state can’t be taken for granted.”

As California's only public research university, UC oversees graduate programs that stand apart both in California and in the nation. UC's 10 campuses educate 26,000 doctoral students annually — more than any other university system in the country — and it awards 8 percent of the nation's Ph.Ds.

One of the hallmarks of UC graduate research is the wide degree of autonomy and ownership that students have over their work, officials said. The result: Graduate students are responsible for an unusually large number of start-ups and inventions, and their names appear frequently on published research.

“UC graduate students get jobs. But more importantly, they create jobs,” President Napolitano said. “They are a huge multiplier for the state.”

A resource that’s under threat

Private industry, the public sector, California schools — all have all reaped the benefits of research carried out by graduate students, UC officials told lawmakers. But UC graduate programs are facing increasing pressure.

Uncertain federal funding has made it harder for graduate students to secure dollars critical to setting up their labs and conducting research. At the same time, faculty have less time for mentoring graduate students because of increased teaching loads. Budget tightening has also made it more difficult for UC to offer competitive stipends to graduate students.

The state legislators also heard that UC is in danger of losing talented graduate students to institutions with big endowments that can afford to help them establish their labs.

It’s not just UC that loses out when talented students chose institutions like Harvard and Yale over the University of California: It’s the state as a whole, Napolitano said.

“I worry in California that we take the UC and its excellence for granted," she said. Graduate students are the drivers “of the quality of research excellence that distinguishes UC among its peers and makes California the economic success and intellectual powerhouse that it is."

In addition to Nancy McFadden, aide to Gov. Brown, the delegation met with Assemblymembers Mike Gatto, D-Burbank; Adrin Nazarian, D-Van Nuys; Al Muratsuchi, D-Torrance; Steve Fox, D-Palmdale; Sebastian Ridley Thomas, D-Culver City; and Reggie Jones-Sawyer, D-Los Angeles. They also talked to staff of Assemblymembers Raul Bocanegra, D-Arleta; Scott Wilk, R-Valencia; and Senators Kevin de Leon, D-Los Angeles; and Carol Liu, D-Glendale.

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