RESEARCH CENTERS AND INSTITUTES 

• Cancer Research Center
• Center for Excellence in Developmental Disabilities Education, Research & Service
• Center for Island Sustainability
  • University of Guam Sea Grant
• Marine Laboratory
• Regional Center for Public Policy
• Richard F. Flores Micronesian Area Research Center
  
  • Micronesian Language Institute
  • University of Guam Press
• Water & Environmental Research Institute of the Western Pacific
• Western Pacific Tropical Research Center

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CANCER RESEARCH CENTER

Principal Investigator: Dr. Rachael Leon Guerrero
Location: Dean’s Circle, House #27
Tel: (671) 735-2988/9 | Email: guamcrc@triton.uog.edu

Website: u54.guamcrc.org/ 

The University of Guam Cancer Research Center is the only U.S. cancer research infrastructure established west of Hawaii. It was established as part of a partnership between the University of Guam and the University of Hawaii Cancer Center to address cancer health disparities in Pacific Islanders, a highly underserved and under-researched minority population in regards to cancer. The U54 partnership is currently supported by a CPACHE grant from the National Cancer Institute.

The establishment of the Cancer Research Center has facilitated the development of the Guam Cancer Registry to track cancer incidence and mortality in the region by ethnicity, age, and gender. The data has since informed important legislation, including an increased tax on tobacco products, and has provided data to cancer researchers. The partnership also provides opportunities for faculty as well as pre-doctoral and post-doctoral students to develop and strengthen skills in project design and administration, team collaboration, recruitment and retention, specimen collection, data analysis, manuscript writing, and grantsmanship, among others.

Continued funding will support research projects focused on cancers of regional significance. Early stage and senior investigators at the University of Hawaii Cancer Center will gain opportunities to work with new populations in the Hawaii-Pacific region, including CHamorus, Chuukese, and Marshallese and establish collaborations with UOG faculty who share interests in cancer health disparities research.

 

CENTER FOR EXCELLENCE IN DEVELOPMENTAL DISABILITIES EDUCATION, RESEARCH & SERVICE

Interim Director: June De Leon
Location: Dean’s Circle, House #29
Tel: (671) 735-2481 | Fax: (671) 734-5709 | TTY: (671) 734-6531
Website: www.guamcedders.org 

The University of Guam Center for Excellence in Developmental Disabilities Education, Research & Service (CEDDERS) is one of 67 federally funded university centers of its kind found in every U.S. state and territory.

Its mission is "Partnerships, Pathways, and Well-Being." Through partnerships, CEDDERS creates pathways with individuals with developmental disabilities and their families in support of their well-being. This enhanced mission has guided the organization over the past 30 years and has led to its recognition as a major facilitator of training and technical assistance in the area of support and services to our target population, not only on Guam, but also in the U.S.-affiliated Pacific island entities.

Past and ongoing collaborative efforts include facilitating a wide variety of interdisciplinary training activities at the pre-service, in-service, and community-based levels that enable individuals with disabilities, their families, and service providers to access opportunities to expand their knowledge, skills, and abilities. Community service, technical assistance, training, research, and dissemination activities are carried out through the center’s three major initiative areas:

• Early Intervention/Education
• Quality Assurance, and
• Assistive Technology

In addition, CEDDERS programs and services include the Guam System for Assistive Technology (GSAT) Training Center, located at House #19, Dean’s Circle. GSAT's mission is to increase the community’s access to assistive technology by bringing about awareness of AT devices, services, resources, and vendors. Moreover, GSAT strives to help island residents with the acquisition of AT by providing means and resources to obtain desired AT devices and services.

 

CENTER FOR ISLAND SUSTAINABILITY

Director: Dr. Austin Shelton
Location: Dean’s Circle, House #32
Tel: (671) 734-2918
Website: www.uog.edu/cis 

Island sustainability ensures that the needs of the current generation are met without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their needs. The Center for Island Sustainability (CIS) was established in 2009 to lead and support the transition of island communities toward a sustainable future. CIS has since become a focal institute in our region for conducting sustainability-related research and community outreach, in cooperation and coordination with other appropriate government agencies, non-governmental organizations, and community groups to help meet island needs in the broader areas of environment, economy, society, and education.

As an entity, CIS provides expertise and serves as an honest broker of information on a diverse array of sustainability issues for Guam and Micronesia. CIS develops watershed restoration technologies, surveys island biodiversity, conducts coral reef educational outreach, provides energy audits for small businesses, coordinates recycling efforts, builds local capacity in the marine and environmental sciences, and more. CIS encourages action on sustainability to decrease reliance on imports, improve energy independence, and increase food security, in order to reduce the export of money and build a thriving local economy, more resilient to disasters and global changes.

University of Guam Sea Grant

Director: Dr. Austin Shelton
Location: Dean's Circle, House #25
Tel: (671) 734-5631
Website: www.uog.edu/seagrant 

The University of Guam Sea Grant's mission is to integrate and apply research, extension, and educational activities that sustain and develop island environments while integrating the knowledge and culture of island people. 

Examples of research and programming that UOG Sea Grant helps fund include watershed restoration strategies; blue economic growth opportunities; traditional navigation; climate change adaptation; capacity building in marine and environmental sciences; coral reef genetics; preparation and response to natural disasters; human interactions with the marine environment; and fisheries management. Communication, education, and extension professionals then share the research with stakeholders in a way that is understandable and meaningful.

UOG Sea Grant is one of 34 sea-grant programs in the United States. In 2022, UOG's former coherent area program graduated to institutional status, making UOG a federally designated sea-grant institution, in addition to its federal land-grant status.

The National Sea Grant College Program is a partnership between universities and the federal government’s National Oceanic & Atmospheric Administration, an agency within the Department of Commerce. The Sea Grant network includes more than 3,000 scientists, engineers, public outreach experts, educators, and students from more than 300 institutions across the United States.

 

MARINE LABORATORY

Director: Dr. Laurie Raymundo
Location: Lower UOG campus (See Campus Map)
Tel: (671) 735-2175/6
Website: www.uog.edu/ml/ 

The University of Guam’s Marine Laboratory is a research, teaching, and service facility located on the shore of Pago Bay below the main campus.

The research focus of the Marine Laboratory is tropical coral reef studies. Basic and applied research is conducted by individual faculty members and their students and research associates in the following specialty areas: ichthyology and fisheries biology, evolutionary ecology, molecular genetics, photo-biology, invertebrate zoology, coral physiology and coral disease, restoration ecology, community ecology, population genetics and ecology, taxonomy, and phylogeny.

Marine Laboratory faculty engage in an active internship program, mentoring local high school and undergraduate interns. Marine Lab graduate students and faculty donate their time to give guest lectures and tours for diverse interest groups, including many students and children. In addition, Marine Lab personnel actively engage the community at various environmental events on Guam, such as Earth Day, World Oceans Day, the Guam Coral Reef Symposium, and the annual International Coastal Cleanup.

Research projects are concentrated on Guam but extend throughout the Northern Mariana Islands, Palau, the Federated States of Micronesia, the Marshall Islands, Philippines, Japan, and other locations of the Indo-Pacific region.

The laboratory consists of three buildings, which house a lecture hall; administrative, faculty, and student offices; two outdoor wet labs supplied by a flowing seawater system; a shop for maintenance of boats and trucks and construction of research apparatuses; a biorepository; and ecology and oceanography, molecular and microbiology, and chemical ecology laboratories.

REGIONAL CENTER FOR PUBLIC POLICY

Director: Dr. Gena Rojas

Location: Jesus & Eugenia Leon Guerrero Business & Public Administration Building
Email: rcpp@triton.uog.edu
Website: www.uog.edu/rcpp 

The University of Guam Regional Center for Public Policy under the School of Business & Public Administration was launched in November 2016. Its mission is to innovate and improve governance, leadership, and public policy for the people and institutions of Guam, the Asia-Pacific region, and the world. Through education, research, professional development, and public service, RCPP will serve as the premier catalyst for excellence and a repository of indigenously relevant knowledge.

Pacific Center for Economic Initiatives

The University of Guam Pacific Center for Economic Initiatives under the Regional Center for Public Policy exists to help build local entrepreneurial capacity and local information resource capacity as part of its comprehensive approach toward entrepreneurship and economic development on Guam. UOG PCEI is aligned with the University’s land-grant outreach mission to support economic development on Guam and in the neighboring region. In partnership with the Pacific Islands Small Business Development Center Network and housed within UOG’s School of Business & Public Administration, UOG PCEI serves as a reservoir for resource experts of technical assistance for small-business planning initiatives, local relevant market and industry information for industry development, and readily accessible information through its resource database.

 

RICHARD FLORES TAITANO MICRONESIAN AREA RESEARCH CENTER

Director of Research: Dr. Carlos Madrid
Location: Micronesian Area Research Center Building (See Campus Map)
Tel: (671) 735-2150/1
Website: www.uog.edu/marc/ 

The Richard Flores Taitano Micronesian Area Research Center (MARC) has been a trusted source for information about the islands within the Micronesian region for over half a century. MARC has paved the way for a deeper knowledge of Micronesia, its peoples, and their cultures and assisted a better understanding of both its heritage and its contemporary realities by providing a comprehensive collection of the region’s historical documents and by conducting new research about Micronesia and the surrounding region. 

MARC's research faculty contribute to existing academic literature in fields like archaeology, history, and anthropology. Additionally, MARC responds to community needs through its specialized programs -- the University of Guam Press and the Micronesian Language Institute -- and through partnerships with other entities relevant for the Micronesian region, like the Pacific Center for Island Security (PCIS).

MARC was established to serve as an educational institution that acquires, preserves, and provides access to unique collections about the Micronesian region. Its Guam and Micronesia Reference Collection collects books, manuscripts, periodicals and serials, government documents, reprints, maps, and other documents that were either written about or produced within the region. The Spanish Documents Collection is comprised of original documents as well as full-size and microfilm reproductions that reflect the lengthy presence of Spain in Micronesia. The Manuscripts Collection has extensive documentation reflecting the American presence in Guam. 

MARC adds new information about the region through its faculty research projects, publications, transcriptions and translations programs, and analytic bibliographic listings of important Spanish, German, French, Japanese, and other foreign language documents. MARC faculty have introduced new understandings about the region through archival, historical, and empirical research in the fields of anthropology, archaeology, history, education, political science, economics, and sociology.

MARC’s library collections, research space, office space, and archaeology lab are located in a two-story research wing of the MARC/Computer Center complex.

MARC has also partnered with the Department of CHamoru Affairs and the Guam Museum in the operations of the Guam Cultural Repository, a facility built specifically to preserve and protect the island's archaeological collections that is found at the entrance to UOG's campus in Mangilao. 

MARC oversees the Micronesian Language Institute, established in May 1990, which is tasked with carrying out research, service, and teaching activities that enlarge understanding of the Indigenous languages of Micronesia. MARC faculty and staff provide community service through consultation and cooperation with many government agencies and community organizations as well as through collaborations with other scholars worldwide.

University of Guam Press

Director of Publishing: Victoria-Lola Leon Guerrero
Location: Micronesian Area Research Center/Computer Center, 2nd Floor 
Tel: (671) 735-2154

Email: victorialola@triton.uog.edu
Website: www.uog.edu/uogpress/

E-commerce site: www.uogpress.com

In 2015, the University of Guam re-established the University of Guam Press (UOG Press) to advance regional scholarship, develop cultural literacy, and expand accessibility to knowledge about Micronesia by providing high-quality, peer-reviewed publishing services. 

The publications and projects under UOG Press center community perspectives, safeguard Indigenous languages, document historical and cultural knowledge, and support critical scholarship and discourse within and about the region.

UOG Press publishes an array of academic and literary books and journals under its three major publishing components: 

• MARC Publications began in the 1970s as a community outreach program and publishes research-based, evidence-driven academic texts that focus on historical and contemporary issues that impact the social, political, economic, and sustainable development of Western Pacific islands and communities.
• Taiguini Books, which launched when the Press was revived in 2015, publishes cultural and indigenous literature to help capture, preserve, and promote awareness about the depth and eloquence of the Micronesian storytelling tradition in written form.
• Proa Publications, established in January 2022 in partnership with the Northern Marianas College, is an imprint dedicated to publishing scholarly and creative texts about the Northern Mariana Islands. 

 

WATER & ENVIRONMENTAL RESEARCH INSTITUTE OF THE WESTERN PACIFIC

Interim Director: Dr. Ross Miller 
Location: University of Guam Water Sciences Laboratory, lower campus (See Campus Map)
Tel: (671) 735-2685 | Water Quality Lab: (671) 735-2688
Website: weri.uog.edu/ 

The Water & Environmental Research Institute of the Western Pacific was established as a research unit of the University of Guam in May 1975. It is one of 54 institutes nationwide — one at each of the land-grant universities — established by the federal Water Resources Research Act of 1964. The institutes are charged with:

1. conducting research that addresses local and regional water problems or expands understanding of water and water-related phenomena
2. aiding the entry of new research scientists into the water resources fields
3. helping to train future water scientists and engineers
4. getting results of sponsored research to water managers and the public. 

WERI is one of 12 of the 54 institutes that received the top rating of “outstanding” in the most recent five-year performance review by the U.S. Geological Survey.

Consistent with the regional role of the University, WERI devotes part of its program effort to Western Pacific islands other than Guam, specifically, the Northern Mariana Islands and the Federated States of Micronesia. WERI endeavors to respond to the unique conditions of the region and works closely with community advisory councils composed of water-resources and environmental professionals across the region.

Water resources research is inherently multidisciplinary and includes all the water resource and environmental components of meteorology, climatology, chemistry, geology, biology, engineering, economics, and management. In order to undertake research of this nature, the institute draws from the diverse expertise of its research faculty members, and collaborate with other University of Guam faculty, colleagues from other universities, and local professionals. WERI research is supported through funding from federal and local sources, as well as contracts and grants from federal, local, and private agencies in support of specific projects.

Consistent with its national charter for training new and future scientists, WERI faculty support the University’s graduate Environmental Science Program by teaching courses in their research specialties, advising student thesis research, and supporting graduate research assistantships. WERI also conducts professional development workshops for water-resource professionals and educators, and provides information and data to the professional communities and general public on the WERI website.

The institute is housed in the University of Guam Water Sciences Laboratory, located next to Pago Bay on the lower campus of the University. This facility contains office spaces for faculty, staff and students; a water quality laboratory, a computing and GIS laboratory; and a classroom.

 

WESTERN PACIFIC TROPICAL RESEARCH CENTER

Interim Associate Director: Dr. Adrian Ares
Location: Agricultural & Life Sciences Building, Room 206
Tel: (671) 735-2005 
Website: www.uog.edu/wptrc/ 

The Western Pacific Tropical Research Center (WPTRC) of the College of Natural & Applied Sciences encompasses scientists, supporting personnel, laboratories, three agricultural experimental stations, and the Guam Aquaculture Development & Training Center. The WPTRC’s research agenda is determined by the needs of stakeholders, relevant challenges for Guam and the Western Pacific region, and the pursuit of original scientific knowledge.

Work at WPTRC is aimed to:

1. sustain, protect, and restore the natural environment
2. stimulate economic development using natural resources, and
3. improve the quality of life in the Western Pacific.

Interdisciplinary research at the biomolecular, cell, organismal, community, and ecosystem levels is conducted on native plant extinction prevention, forest inventory analysis, soil conservation, forest health, integrated small-scale farming systems, disease-free plant propagation, crop genetic improvement, human nutrition, obesity reduction, food safety, natural products, ecological restoration, and spatial science, among other topics. These research efforts contribute to improve the sustainable management of land and coastal resources and enhance the quality of life in Guam and the region. Research findings are disseminated through publications in peer-reviewed journals, technical reports, and presentations at regional, national, and international meetings. 

Major funding for WPTRC research is provided through the federal Hatch, multistate Hatch, and McIntire Stennis programs for land-grant universities administered by the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s National Institute of Food & Agriculture. Additional funding comes from the National Science Foundation, USDA Animal & Plant Health Inspection Service, USDA Forest Service, the U.S. Department of Defense, the government of Guam, and the private sector.

WPTRC faculty also teach undergraduate and graduate classes, mentor students, and contribute service to the University and communities in Guam.