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2023 All Academics

December 05, 2023
Preparing the next generation of doctors
The University of California, Santa Cruz, an institution renowned for innovation, social justice, and sustainability, announces a unique Premed Postbaccalaureate Program focused on bridging looming healthcare gaps in California.
November 28, 2023
UC Santa Cruz Silicon Valley Professional Education upgrades its Semiconductor and VLSI Engineering Certificate to address skilled professional shortage and industry growth
UC Santa Cruz Silicon Valley Professional Education is proud to announce the upgrade of its Silicon Chip Design & Semiconductor Engineering Certificate program (Formerly known as VLSI and Semiconductor Engineering), aimed at alleviating the shortage of skilled professionals in the industry and meeting the growing demands of the semiconductor sector.
November 28, 2023
Dwarf planet Eris is squishier than expected
University of California, Santa Cruz Professor of Planetary Sciences Francis Nimmo recently co-authored a Science Advances paper about the internal structure of the dwarf planet Eris.
November 21, 2023
New book shares expertise from UC Santa Cruz and beyond on preparing students to tackle environmental justice issues
A new book developed by UC Santa Cruz faculty and staff offers teaching examples, strategies, and classroom tools to help integrate environmental justice into courses in ways that center equity.
November 16, 2023
UCSC doctoral graduate wins prestigious Science & SciLifeLab Prize for Young Scientists
Jessica Kendall-Bar, who received her Ph.D. in ecology and evolutionary biology last year from UC Santa Cruz with co-advisors Terrie Williams and Dan Costa, was named a recipient of the prestigious Science & SciLifeLab Prize for Young Scientists for her research on elephant seal sleep habits while they are at sea.
November 07, 2023
UC Santa Cruz students win three categories at Orange County Sustainability Decathlon
An interdisciplinary team of UC Santa Cruz students, many from the Rachel Carson College Sustainability Minor program, designed and built EcoHus, an innovative, affordable, net-zero house. The EcoHus team was selected to receive a $100,000 grant to participate in the 2023 Orange County Sustainability Decathlon (OCSD) held on Oct. 5-15, where they won first place in three categories, and secured second and third place in other categories.
November 01, 2023
Seeing “One Too Many Racist Musicals” is What Led Preston Choi to be a Playwright
Rebecca Wear, professor of Performance, Play and Design, will direct the student production of "You'll Get Used to It" at UC Santa Cruz on Nov. 3-12, 2023.
November 01, 2023
Irene Lusztig’s Film Richland Explores a Town Grappling with its Ties to the Atomic Bomb
Irene Lusztig's latest film, Richland, tells the story of the town of the same name. The film opened at Tribeca and at the prestigious International Documentary Festival Amsterdam, it was selected to be part of the program "Signed."
October 24, 2023
Remembering the grave injustices to Japanese-Americans in the 1940s through female activism
On Tuesday, Oct. 3, Cowell College’s Eloise Pickard Smith Gallery launched a two-month exhibition entitled “Never Again is Now: Japanese American Women Activists and the Legacy of the Mass Incarceration.” The exhibit — on display through Dec. 2 — features artwork and historical renderings of women’s memories surrounding this time period, including challenges to racial and gender stereotypes, promotions of intergenerational ties, and developed coalitions of years past.
October 23, 2023
Creative Technologies, new online major in Arts Division, first of its kind on any UC campus
The Arts Division’s new Creative Technologies online major is the first of its kind on any UC campus.
October 12, 2023
FUTURE in Biology program receives NSF grant to explore field courses as a tool for equity
A group of researchers at UC Santa Cruz recently received a $1.2 million grant from the National Science Foundation to study the impacts of these field courses and develop best practices for making them more accessible.
October 09, 2023
Cal-Bridge awarded $4 million to diversify STEM
The Cal-Bridge program, which supports students from historically underserved backgrounds in STEM, was recently awarded $4 million in the 2023-2024 California state budget. The funding will provide scholarships, mentorship and professional development opportunities for undergraduate and graduate students around the state in physics and astronomy, computer science, and math.
September 28, 2023
Anthropology faculty members partner on new National Science Foundation Center for Braiding Indigenous Knowledges and Science
UC Santa Cruz anthropology faculty members Tsim Schneider and Jon Daehnke received a more than $500,000 subaward through a new National Science Foundation (NSF) center that aims to address climate change by equitably combining insights from Indigenous knowledges and mainstream "Western" sciences.
September 26, 2023
UC Santa Cruz welcomes new faculty to campus
UC Santa Cruz welcomes 54 new faculty members to campus who bring a wide array of expertise in research and creative scholarship that will open new areas of investigation and expression and expand existing areas of work.
September 18, 2023
UC Santa Cruz Computer Game Design program ranked top five in the nation by U.S. News and World Report
The Computer Game Design program at the University of California, Santa Cruz, was listed in the top five best game/simulation development programs in the nation according to rankings released today by U.S. News and World Report.
September 05, 2023
Campus leaders showcase innovation, entrepreneurship efforts to special Regents committee
UC Santa Cruz Chancellor Cynthia Larive and other campus leaders showcased the university’s innovation and entrepreneurship initiatives to a group of UC regents and external advisors on Monday.
August 15, 2023
UC Santa Cruz’s Institute of the Arts and Sciences presents West Coast Premiere of Maria Gaspar: Compositions
UC Santa Cruz’s Institute of the Arts and Sciences, is opening a new exhibition beginning on September 26, 2023 that goes through March 3, 2024. Entitled Maria Gaspar: Compositions, it is the first West Coast solo exhibition by the Chicago-based, Guggenheim-winning artist.
August 03, 2023
Student-supported global research compares regional relationships with Big Pharma
Recent UC Santa Cruz graduates helped to author a study on the strategies governments use to attract and manage the biopharmaceutical industry, focusing in particular on the different types of economic value and health value that these efforts provide, or fail to provide, to citizens.
July 31, 2023
Golden-crowned sparrows return to overwintering sites in part because of their friends
Golden-crowned sparrows return to the same wintering sites each year after migrating thousands of miles. But their precision — which is often within the tens of meters — depends in part on the return of their friends.
July 06, 2023
UC Santa Cruz’s global impact grows as campus becomes next leader of Right Livelihood College network
As the Global Secretariat of the Right Livelihood College, UC Santa Cruz students and faculty to work directly with some of the world’s leading advocates in social justice and sustainability on education, scientific research, and practical activities that spread and upscale their work.
June 28, 2023
UCSC’s Center for Coastal Climate Resilience awards over $4.6 million to support California coastal projects
The UCSC Center for Coastal Climate Resilience has awarded over $4.6 million in funding to 23 UC Santa Cruz research groups for pilot projects and implementation projects supporting efforts to fight climate change in coastal communities across California and beyond. Funds for these grant programs came from the California State Budget Act of 2022-23.
June 27, 2023
Q&A with John MacMillan, vice chancellor for research
After nearly two years as the interim Vice Chancellor for Research (VCR) for UC Santa Cruz, John MacMillan was appointed to the permanent VCR role on June 1, 2023, after a nationwide search. Here he discusses his vision for UC Santa Cruz and its research enterprise.
June 22, 2023
UC Santa Cruz receives $10 million grant to cultivate diverse food and agriculture professionals
The United States Department of Agriculture awarded the University of California, Santa Cruz a $10 million grant to lead a transformative five-year project. The funding will be leveraged to serve and uplift a broad range of students and community members, ensuring a lasting impact on the food and agriculture sector.
June 20, 2023
Paul Koch stepping down after 12 years as dean of physical and biological sciences
The Division of Physical and Biological Sciences has made exceptional strides in key areas under Dean Koch’s leadership.
June 07, 2023
Astronomers observe giant tails of helium escaping Jupiter-like planet
Heat from the host star is evaporating the atmosphere from a “hot Jupiter” exoplanet, creating some of the longest gas tails ever observed around a planet.
June 01, 2023
UC Santa Cruz offers new major in microbiology
UCSC is offering a new major in microbiology leading to a B.S. degree, administered by the Department of Microbiology and Environmental Toxicology.
June 01, 2023
UC Santa Cruz now offers graduate degrees in materials science and engineering
The interdisciplinary program will serve students interested in developing new materials for next-generation technologies.
May 31, 2023
Judit Moschkovich joins two national leadership programs for mathematics education
Moschkovich is now a member of the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine's U.S. National Commission on Mathematics Instruction and a co chair of the National Academy of Education's Equity in Math Education Research Grants (EMERG) Program.
May 12, 2023
UC Santa Cruz ranked No. 2 Best Public University for Making an Impact by Princeton Review
For the second year in a row, UC Santa Cruz has been ranked as the No. 2 Best Public University for Making an Impact by Princeton Review.
April 18, 2023
Two film and digital media faculty receive 2023 Guggenheim Fellowship Awards
Sharon Daniel and Anna Friz were among 171 artists, scholars, scientists and writers selected from nearly 2,500 applicants for the award.
April 11, 2023
Colombian all-female team uncovers naturalist Elizabeth Kerr’s long-forgotten legacy
Many fields of study have long been dominated by men but a team of eight female Colombian researchers are committed to uncovering the story of naturalist pioneer Elizabeth Kerr, whose legacy had remained invisible despite her vast contributions to ornithology.
April 04, 2023
Milestone land acknowledgement event brings campus, local tribe and community members together
On Wednesday, April 12, the campus will host its first Land Acknowledgment event, recognizing the Amah Mutsun Tribal Band and its place in the local history of the land and the creation of UC Santa Cruz. The event will aim to answer the community’s questions about land acknowledgments, and the importance of such events moving forward.
March 30, 2023
New program advises UCSC Ph.D. students on their path to entrepreneurship and venture capital
Many student-led innovations never make it out of the lab. A new program at UC Santa Cruz aims to change that by mentoring Ph.D. students in the life sciences on alternative career pathways outside academia: entrepreneurship and venture capital.
March 25, 2023
Grant funds Sarker's aquaculture sustainability research
Pallab Sarker received a foundation grant fund from the Cynthia and George Mitchell Foundation, amounting to $170,947 over three years to strengthen his lab’s ecological aquaculture work.
March 17, 2023
Black Studies minor builds momentum
The Black Studies minor at the University of California, Santa Cruz has grown in size and influence at a time when the United States continues to grapple with its long history of racism.
February 15, 2023
UCSC professor building collaborations to shape future minds through ethnic studies
Many believe we are at a pivotal moment in this country regarding anti-racist reforms, police abolition, and restorative justice. And according to Rekia Jibrin, an assistant professor in critical studies of education within UC Santa Cruz’s Education Department, engaging local communities is vital to bringing about transformative change.
February 09, 2023
Bots and Broadway: Technology and theater go hand-in-hand for UCSC professor
Using AI-generated text to produce dialogue during a live performance may seem like a wild idea to some, but not to performance and new media professor Marianne Weems. Weems, co-founder and artistic director of New York-based multi-dimensional theater company The Builders Association, is used to pushing the envelope with her ground-breaking work at the intersection of technology, media, and theater arts.
February 09, 2023
Legal Studies Program, Santa Cruz County Public Defender’s Office partner for National Public Defense Summit
Interested in learning about the importance of public defense and criminal law? The UC Santa Cruz Legal Studies Program, in partnership with the Santa Cruz County Office of the Public Defender, the National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers (NACDL), and the National Association for Public Defense, will host its first-ever National Public Defense Summit on February 24-25 at the Stevenson Event Center.
January 31, 2023
University launches new center, Campus + Community, to facilitate engaged scholarship
After more than 50 years of engagement in the region, UC Santa Cruz is launching a new center to coordinate campus and community connections for action-oriented scholarship that advances social justice.
January 17, 2023
UC Santa Cruz’s Institute of the Arts and Sciences to open new, off campus galleries
The state-of-the-art facility will showcase the Institute of the Arts and Sciences’ groundbreaking exhibitions and programs, highlighting the work of major national and international artists working to address the most pressing issues of our day at the intersection of the arts and social justice.
January 12, 2023
Sensorium, a new project of UC Santa Cruz’s Center for the Study of the Force Majeure, to be an unprecedented experience of the world ocean
A new project in development by UC Santa Cruz’s Center for the Study of the Force Majeure will give the public a transformative opportunity to interact with the world’s ocean ecosystem in a fully immersive work of environmental art entitled Sensorium.
January 03, 2023
UC Santa Cruz Cal Teach program connects area STEM majors with local public schools
Established in fall 2005, the UCSC Cal Teach program is one of nine in the UC system, with a goal to recruit and support undergrads in the STEM field to become teachers in K-12 schools.