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2020 Gifts and Grants

December 16, 2020
$3.7M NIH grant funds development of novel biosensor technology for diagnosing viral infections
Electrical engineer Ali Yanik is leading a team of infectious disease experts developing a low-cost, easy-to-use platform for diagnosing viral infections in point-of-care settings.
December 15, 2020
UCSC expands COVID-19 testing during surge to support community needs
A gift from Bud and Rebecca Colligan will expand testing capacity and help fund a new, dedicated laboratory space to house the diagnostic lab in the Genomics Institute’s facilities at the Westside Research Park.
December 14, 2020
New cryo-electron microscopy facility a boon for UCSC structural biologists
With major funding from NIH, researchers at UC Santa Cruz have acquired powerful imaging tools for studying the structures of biomolecules and their roles in disease.
December 01, 2020
AXA Chair at UC Santa Cruz funds efforts to build coastal resilience naturally
Marine scientist Michael Beck was awarded the chair to support his work on natural defenses to enhance coastal resilience to flooding, erosion, and sea level rise.
November 19, 2020
Materials theorist Yuan Ping wins grant from Air Force Young Investigator Program
Ping’s research on spin dynamics in two-dimensional materials has applications for spintronics and quantum information technologies.
November 16, 2020
UC Santa Cruz leads interdisciplinary consortium for astrobiology research
With funding from NASA, the UCSC-led team will lay the foundation for detecting the signatures of life in the atmospheres of other planets.
November 12, 2020
Computer scientist Lise Getoor receives research funding from Google
A new project on recommender dialogue systems led by Getoor and her collaborators at UC Santa Barbara and USC will receive $1 million in funding over three years.
November 05, 2020
Computer science grad student wins LaunchPad Fellowship for startup
Fatemeh Mirzaei, a graduate student in computer science and engineering in the Baskin School of Engineering, is one of 40 student entrepreneurs selected for the Fall 2020 LaunchPad Fellowship program.
November 02, 2020
Wildfire brings destruction and opportunity to researcher’s field site
Hydrologist Margaret Zimmer has received NSF funding to study the impact of wildfire on the site where she has been studying how water moves through the landscape.
October 16, 2020
The savior of the opera
With dampened prospects for in-person classes, rehearsals, and performances this pandemic year, UC Santa Cruz’s opera program is adapting with help from donor Scott Lord
October 05, 2020
Chemistry grad student awarded DOE support for research at national lab
Vivien Cherrette, a graduate student in chemistry and biochemistry at UC Santa Cruz, is among 52 outstanding U.S. graduate students to receive support from the Department of Energy’s Office of Science Graduate Student Research Program.
September 28, 2020
Seed funding grants support plans for innovative research centers
The UCSC Office of Research has awarded seed funding to six campus research groups to support their efforts to develop innovative new research centers.
September 15, 2020
UCSC engineers developing all-electric power train for future aircraft
Funding from the Department of Energy for the UCSC team is part of a major effort to develop carbon-neutral hybrid electric aviation.
September 14, 2020
ARCS Foundation scholarships support UCSC graduate students
Sixteen UC Santa Cruz graduate students have received scholarships worth a total of $160,000 from the Achievement Rewards for College Scientists (ARCS) Foundation.
September 01, 2020
New data science institute includes a focus on ethics and algorithms
The Institute for Foundations of Data Science is a collaboration between UC Santa Cruz, University of Washington, University of Wisconsin-Madison, and University of Chicago.
August 27, 2020
UCSC partners in institute to explore the role of AI in education
The NSF AI Institute for Student-AI Teaming envisions intelligent computers in classrooms working side-by-side with groups of students.
August 12, 2020
UCSC historian Greg O’Malley awarded NEH grant for research on slavery in early America
UCSC history professor Gregory O’Malley has received a Public Scholars Grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities to write a biography of David George, who was born a slave in 1743 and whose pursuit of freedom intersects with major events of the Revolutionary Era.
August 12, 2020
UCSC partners with CSUMB for postdoctoral training and mentorship program
A $4.2 million NIH grant to UCSC’s Institute for the Biology of Stem Cells is funding an innovative program to address underrepresentation of minorities in biomedical faculty.
August 07, 2020
County, UCSC partner to expand local testing capacity
UC Santa Cruz has received CARES Act funds from Santa Cruz County to enable the purchase of new equipment for the UCSC Molecular Diagnostic Lab.
August 05, 2020
UCSC linguists receive $400,000 NSF grant for research on rarely studied languages
UC Santa Cruz linguistics professors Maziar Toosarvandani, Ivy Sichel, and Matthew Wagers have been awarded a $411,058 grant from the National Science Foundation to support research on endangered languages.
July 29, 2020
Toy or therapy device? Researchers study effectiveness of fidget tools
The study will assess whether a high-tech fidget device increases focus and relieves anxiety in adults with ADHD, which is particularly relevant during the COVID-19 pandemic.
July 29, 2020
Sparking girls’ interest in computing through ‘social wearables’
NSF grant funds development of a summer camp for middle school girls focused on designing wearable technologies to support social interactions in role-playing games.
July 17, 2020
Is COVID-related reduction in marine traffic reducing stress in whales?
Whale researchers are taking advantage of changes in boat traffic in Monterey Bay during the pandemic to collect data on stress hormones in humpback whales.
July 14, 2020
CITRIS UCSC funds new pandemic-related research projects
The campus seed funding program is providing $40K grants for three new projects to address the challenges of COVID-19.
July 08, 2020
UC Santa Cruz leads research center on botanical dietary supplements
A new $5 million NIH grant supports a collaborative research program to understand the cellular mechanisms by which botanical natural products may affect human health.
June 05, 2020
UC COVID-19 seed funding supports UCSC coronavirus genome browser
The UC Santa Cruz Genomics Institute’s Genome Browser Team has received UC seed funding for its work on the UCSC Genome Browser for SARS-CoV-2.
June 04, 2020
Historian Greg O’Malley awarded ACLS grant to expand Intra-American Slave Trade Database
UC Santa Cruz associate history professor Gregory O’Malley has received a 2020 Digital Extension Grant from The American Council of Learned Societies (ACLS) to expand coverage of the Intra-American Slave Trade Database.
June 03, 2020
NOAA funds new Cooperative Institute for Marine, Earth and Atmospheric Systems
CIMEAS supports the ongoing collaboration between UC Santa Cruz and the National Marine Fisheries Service Southwest Fisheries Science Center.
May 14, 2020
COVID Catalyst Fund supports work on rapid serology test at UC Santa Cruz
Biomolecular engineer Nader Pourmand is evaluating the use of a novel nanosensor to provide rapid, low-cost, and accurate serology tests for coronavirus antibodies.
May 13, 2020
Innovative technologies to address COVID-19 funded by UC’s CITRIS
Three projects led by UC Santa Cruz researchers are among the 25 awards in the initial round of funding from CITRIS and the Banatao Institute.
April 14, 2020
Planetary scientist Myriam Telus wins NASA Early Career Award
Myriam Telus, assistant professor of Earth and planetary sciences, has received funding from NASA through the Planetary Science Early Career Award program to support her research in cosmochemistry, the chemical analysis of extraterrestrial materials.
April 10, 2020
Mathematics Professor Martin Weissman wins 2020 Guggenheim Fellowship
Martin Weissman, professor of mathematics at UC Santa Cruz, has been awarded a Guggenheim Fellowship for 2020.
March 26, 2020
Postdoctoral fellowship supports planetary science research
Elizabeth Bailey has won a 51 Pegasi b Fellowship from the Heising-Simons Foundation for research at UC Santa Cruz on exoplanets and the formation of planetary systems.
March 25, 2020
UCSC grad students win funding for research on salmon and coastal resilience
California Sea Grant has awarded funding to two UC Santa Cruz graduate students for research projects involving restoration of salmon populations and management strategies for resilient coastal communities.
February 27, 2020
UC Santa Cruz leads collaboration to speed wound healing with a novel smart bandage
With up to $16 million in funding from DARPA, UC Santa Cruz engineers will work with doctors and scientists at UC Davis and Tufts University to develop bioelectronic intelligent control of wound regeneration.
February 24, 2020
Heising-Simons Foundation supports exoplanet imaging projects at UC Santa Cruz
Three new grants totaling $2.4 million will fund work at UCSC on new instruments and technologies to support research on planets beyond our solar system.
February 11, 2020
Bringing new perspectives to astronomy
An array of grants from the Heising-Simons Foundation is helping UC Santa Cruz accelerate astrophysics and other sciences while changing what we think an astrophysicist looks like
January 24, 2020
Mathematician François Monard wins NSF CAREER Award
Grant supports research on problems in integral geometry, the mathematics behind medical imaging and other applications.
January 16, 2020
$2.6 million grant funds program to increase diversity of conservation leaders
New funding for the Doris Duke Conservation Scholars Program at UC Santa Cruz builds on the program’s successes in training the next generation of diverse conservation leaders.
January 08, 2020
$1 million gift creates William Wallace Campbell Director’s Fund for Lick Observatory
A new endowment honoring the third director of Lick Observatory will support current and future directors’ priorities for the observatory.