July 16, 2002

UCSD dedicated its new UCSD Center for Functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging in ceremonies July 15, 2002.  The Center is the largest and most comprehensive brain imaging facility dedicated to research in the western  U.S. and the third largest in the nation.

Cutting the ribbon to open the Center are, left to right, Richard Buxton, Ph.D., Director, Center for FMRI and professor of radiology; Robert C. Dynes, Ph.D., UCSD chancellor; Roderic Pettigrew, M.D., Ph.D., director, NIH's National Institute of Biomedical Imaging and Bioengineering; and Edward Holmes, M.D., vice chancellor for health sciences and dean, UCSD School of Medicine.	Nearly 100 UCSD faculty, researchers from Salk, and community members attended the dedication at the Center for FMRI.

Chancellor Robert Dynes told attendees that "our greatest research challenges lie within the 3-pound mass of cells we call the human brain."  He added that "when we announced plans for this center in October 2000, we were determined to unlock the secrets of the brain, and we knew a state-of-the art FMRI facility was crucial...This center will produce hope that new knowledge will lead to new treatments of neurological disorders and to a new understanding of what makes us human."

For more on the UCSD fMRI facility: http://health.ucsd.edu/news/2001/10_31_fMRI.html