News

Fires commanded headlines and wreaked destruction across California in
2020. Flames devastated the Silverado Canyon area of Orange County,
where multiple UCI scientists were conducting research. But from the ashes,
UC Irvine Charlie Dunlop School of Biological Sciences experts are already developing vital new
lines of inquiry into land conservation, climate change and more. According
to the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection, more than
9,900 !res ravaged over 4.2 million acres of California land in 2020.
Dunlop School is home to the Center of Environmental Biology (CEB). Its worldrenowned faculty tackle questions across disciplines, including genomics,
comparative physiology, microbiology and climate change. Dunlop School scientists
have partnered with local institutions such as the Irvine Ranch Conservancy
to conduct conservation and restoration efforts throughout the county,
including Loma Ridge and Bee Canyon.

The year 2020 will be ingrained in the American psyche for decades to come. The emergence of
the SARS-CoV-2 virus, the causal agent of COVID-19, caught the world’s population off guard. With no
previous immunity to the virus, it quickly spread throughout the United States and impacted millions of
American lives. For most of the year, the primary means of slowing the virus’s spread were mitigation
strategies, physical barriers, social distancing and wearing masks. While capable, these methods
have their limits and require continued compliance by most of the population to be highly effective.