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2023 Prospective Student News

June 08, 2023
UC Santa Cruz joins Hillel International’s Campus Climate Initiative
The initiative provides campus leadership with a comprehensive program to foster a campus climate in which Jewish students feel comfortable expressing their identity free of antisemitism, harassment, or marginalization.
June 08, 2023
UCSC team wins third place in first-ever Amazon SimBot challenge
A team of UC Santa Cruz computer science and engineering (CSE) Ph.D. students won third place in the first-ever Amazon Alexa Prize SimBot Challenge, a university competition focused on advancing virtual assistant technology.
June 08, 2023
Alumna Stephanie Foo discusses her newest book, examining the interconnection between dissecting complex-PTSD with entering a new period of healing
Stephanie Foo, longtime journalist and radio producer released her first book, What My Bones Know: A Memoir of Healing from Complex Trauma, in February 2022
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 06, 2023
New exhibitions at the Institute of the Arts and Sciences bring innovative, socially engaged art to the Central Coast
Carolina Caycedo and David de Rozas: The Blessings of the Mystery and Sadie Barnette: Family Business, a multi-sited exhibition with the San José Museum of Art, will be on view at the Institute of the Arts and Sciences April 28 - September 3, 2023.
June 02, 2023
UC Santa Cruz announces recipients of Chancellor’s Innovation Impact Awards
The Chancellor’s Innovation Impact Awards celebrate the university’s talented faculty, researchers, staff, students, and community partners for their outstanding contributions to innovation and creativity.
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 31, 2023
Crucial organic farming issue addressed by UC workshops, collaborations
UC Santa Cruz-based organic production specialist Joji Muramoto collaborated on a UC Cooperative Extension workshop series for organic vegetable and fruit growers on how to manage nitrogen.
May 30, 2023
Students find support, success through Next Generation Scholars in Applied Mathematics program
Students have found success through the Next Generation Scholars in Applied Mathematics program, which provides students scholarships and additional support such as counseling and career readiness workshops
May 23, 2023
UC Santa Cruz engineers join major transportation cybersecurity project
Researchers from UC Santa Cruz will play an important role in protecting the United States’ transportation systems against cybersecurity threats as part of a new national center
May 18, 2023
Karen Miga named 2023 Searle Scholar to study uncharted regions of the human genome
Karen Miga, assistant professor of biomolecular engineering at UC Santa Cruz, has been named a 2023 Searle Scholar.
May 17, 2023
Comb jellies proven to be the sibling group to all other animals
New research proves comb jellies are a unique lineage or “sibling group” whose ancestors diverged before the common ancestor of all other animals.
May 16, 2023
UCSC ranked number two on Wall Street Journal list for top public colleges for high-paying jobs in engineering
New rankings from the Wall Street Journal place UC Santa Cruz as the number two public school for high-paying jobs in engineering, just behind UC Berkeley, and the number nine public school for high-paying jobs in data science and software.
May 16, 2023
Excellence in Action: Celebrating UCSC’s 2023 Distinguished Graduate Alumni Award Recipients
Now in its seventh year, the Distinguished Graduate Alumni Award welcomes its 2023 cohort.
May 16, 2023
Meeting with California lawmakers, UC Santa Cruz leaders highlight impact of teaching, research
UC Santa Cruz leaders met last week with California lawmakers to highlight the University of California's critical role in educating the state's students, conducting cutting-edge research, and ensuring the state remains a worldwide economic powerhouse.
May 16, 2023
Mark Fathi Massoud awarded Berlin Prize
Massoud's Berlin Prize fellowship will allow him to focus on research about perceptions and experiences of shari‘a in the United States.
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.
May 10, 2023
Human pangenome reference will enable more complete and equitable understanding of genomic diversity
UC Santa Cruz scientists, along with a consortium of researchers, have released a draft of the first human pangenome—a new, usable reference for genomics that combines the genetic material of 47 individuals from different ancestral backgrounds to allow for a deeper, more accurate understanding of worldwide genomic diversity.
May 09, 2023
UC Santa Cruz honored for innovative online Orientation Course
UC Santa Cruz’s online summer Orientation Course has been recognized for its innovative and inclusive approach to preparing entering students. The Orientation Course was awarded the 2023 Regional II Innovative Program Award from the Association for Orientation, Transition and Retention in Higher Education.
May 09, 2023
UC Santa Cruz to lead data collection center for major federal project on genetic underpinnings of neurological conditions
The UC Santa Cruz Genomics Institute will run the Data Coordination Center for the Scalable and Systematic Neurobiology of Psychiatric and Neurodevelopmental Disorder Risk Genes (SSPsyGene) Consortium.
May 05, 2023
UCSC prepares alumna for Peace Corps path
Alyssa Scarsciotti (Stevenson ’20, Sociology and Linguistics) dreamed of joining the Peace Corps since she was a child. After graduating from UCSC, Scarsciotti is making her dream a reality.
May 04, 2023
Center for Agroecology will support new USDA Regional Food Business Center
The University of California, Santa Cruz will support the establishment of a U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) Regional Food Business Center to support resilient food systems.
May 03, 2023
Ed Green named QB3-Santa Cruz Scientific Director
Richard (Ed) Green, professor of biomolecular engineering, has been selected to serve as the next director of the California Institute of Quantitative Biosciences (QB3) at UC Santa Cruz.
May 02, 2023
Deep neural network provides robust detection of disease biomarkers in real time
Holger Schmidt's lab has developed a deep neural network that improves the accuracy of their unique devices for detecting pathogen biomarkers.
May 02, 2023
Meet UCSC’s new Chief of Police Kevin Domby
UC Santa Cruz’s newly appointed Executive Director of Public Safety and Chief of Police Kevin Domby credits his high school art teacher with introducing him to the idea of a career in public service. "Throughout my career, whether it was when I was a teacher or as a peace officer, I've enjoyed mentoring, training and teaching," Domby said.
May 02, 2023
UC Santa Cruz and United Way invest in youth perspective in researching mental health throughout local communities
Beginning in early 2021, UC Santa Cruz partnered with the United Way of Santa Cruz County’s Youth Action Network, seeking to support youth empowerment and leadership. As part of that vital work, the partners were recognized as the United Way Partner of the Year.
April 24, 2023
Electrical engineer wins award to support improvement of efficient, low-cost agricultural soil sensor systems
UC Santa Cruz Assistant Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering Colleen Josephson is a recipient of the Foundation for Food & Agriculture Research’s (FFAR) 2022 New Innovator in Food & Agriculture Research Award.
April 21, 2023
New stable isotope map of Angola helps archaeologists trace individual life histories across the African Diaspora
UCSC researchers' methods could provide significantly more detail and certainty in identifying first-generation enslaved individuals in the Americas and tracing back their origins within Africa than was previously possible through strontium isotope analysis work or genetic analysis.
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 17, 2023
Banana Slugs seek to advance conversational AI in all three Amazon Alexa Prize challenges
Three teams of UC Santa Cruz Baskin School of Engineering students are developing next-generation, multimodal AI-powered systems for a chance to win $500,000 or more per challenge.
April 17, 2023
Annual climate change event takes aim at heat and human health for 2023
The ninth annual Confronting Climate Change event gathered top scholars to discuss the health impacts of climate change and the social and economic transformations needed to address them.
April 14, 2023
Rebecca London testifies in support of bill that would guarantee recess for California students
Associate Professor of Sociology Rebecca London testified before the California State Senate Education Committee on April 12 in support of SB 291, which would guarantee at least 30 minutes of recess per day for California students in kindergarten through eighth grade.
April 12, 2023
Naming system for transfer RNA fragments will increase research productivity, standardization
UC Santa Cruz Professor of Biomolecular Engineering Todd Lowe and his group created a new naming scheme for tRNA fragments aimed at standardizing research.
April 12, 2023
Undergrad Samantha Contreras wins prestigious Goldwater Scholarship
Samantha Contreras, a junior majoring in physics at UC Santa Cruz, has been named a 2023 Goldwater Scholar by the Barry M. Goldwater Scholarship and Excellence in Education Foundation.
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 06, 2023
Two major stem cell research projects supported with more than $2.6 million in funding
The California Institute for Regenerative Medicine (CIRM) will provide more than $2.6 million in total funding for two major stem cell research projects led by scientists at UC Santa Cruz, the organization announced.
April 05, 2023
Food system researcher Julie Guthman wins distinguished career award
Professor of sociology and community studies Julie Guthman was recognized with the Distinguished Career Award by the Cultural and Political Ecology speciality group of the American Association of Geographers.
April 04, 2023
White House cites Rob Fairlie’s research in annual economic report
Economics Professor Rob Fairlie’s research on race and ethnicity in higher education was cited in the 2023 Economic Report of the President.
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 28, 2023
A scholar in his own community: Kevin Weatherwax
Computational Media Ph.D. student Kevin Weatherwax's research is supported through the Piatt Fellowship, a scholarship for doctoral students from Santa Cruz County.
March 28, 2023
Improving access to Early Start Summer Edge Program
This year, to advance access to a summer start, the Division of Undergraduate Education has removed the Summer Edge $50 registration fee, which is one of several initiatives taken to encourage new admits, and particularly transfer students, to take advantage of the opportunity to make degree progress before their first fall.
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 25, 2023
Pedroza received Russell Sage Foundation Pipeline Grant
Assistant Professor Juan Manuel Pedroza aims to learn more about these challenges and speak to them, with the help of a recently awarded grant from the Russell Sage Foundation.
March 21, 2023
Center for Labor and Community opens on UC Santa Cruz campus
Scholars studying the economic and social impacts of a variety of labor and employment issues facing workers in Santa Cruz and the Monterey Bay Area just announced the opening of a new center on campus that will provide timely and policy-relevant labor research, will educate the next generation of labor and community leaders and will advance labor, community, and occupational health initiatives.
March 21, 2023
Computer engineering research prompts bug fixes, updates to major GPU frameworks
A new suite of GPU tests developed by Assistant Professor of Computer Science and Engineering Tyler Sorensen and his students led to changes to an important GPU framework for programming web browsers.
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.
March 14, 2023
Researcher solves nearly 60-year-old game theory dilemma
Dejan Milutinovic has solved a nearly 60-year-old game theory dilemma called the wall pursuit game, with implications for better reasoning about autonomous systems such as driverless vehicles.
March 09, 2023
New project will develop safer, highly accurate GPS alternative
Ricardo Sanfelice, UCSC professor of electrical and computer engineering, and his team of graduate students and researchers are designing a new and resilient Position, Navigation, and Timing (PNT) system.
March 07, 2023
SpikeGPT: researcher releases code for largest-ever spiking neural network for language generation
Assistant Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering Jason Eshraghian and two students recently released the open-sourced code for the largest language-generating spiking neural network ever, named SpikeGPT.
March 02, 2023
Leaf wetness sensor will enable better plant disease forecasting and management
An interdisciplinary team of researchers created a new type of sensor for more accurately measuring leaf wetness which will enable better plant disease forecasting and management.
February 24, 2023
UC Santa Cruz sees record number of first-year applications
The University of California, Santa Cruz has begun the process of building the fall 2023 class of students seeking to learn and thrive at an institution that leads at the intersection of innovation and social justice. The competition to earn a spot at UC Santa Cruz remains strong this year, with a record number of applications received.
February 21, 2023
Researcher wins inaugural NHGRI award for DEIA Innovation in the Genomics Workforce
Ann McCartney received the National Human Genome Research Institute’s (NHGRI) inaugural Staff Award for DEIA Innovation in the Genomics Workforce.
February 13, 2023
Arts Division to break ground on new state-of-the-art Social Documentation Lab
UC Santa Cruz’s Division of the Arts will soon begin construction of a world-class production and post-production facility in support of its Social Documentation (SocDoc) MFA program.
February 13, 2023
Designing the digital user experience to meet research needs - Meet Jessica Waggoner
Jessica Waggoner, the user experience librarian, and her students work to understand information-seeking behaviors so the campus community can easily access the resources they need to be successful in their classes and push the boundaries of research.
February 10, 2023
Big data expert to headline MLK Convocation
Dr. Talithia Williams, a mathematician and big data expert who seeks to “STEMpower” underrepresented groups to enter STEM fields, will address the 39th annual Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial Convocation, a virtual event on February 21.
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 07, 2023
UCSC joins FAA/ UAS Collegiate Training Initiative
UC Santa Cruz is now the first UC- or CSU-member of the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA)/ Unmanned Aircraft Systems’ (UAS) Collegiate Training Initiative program.
February 03, 2023
UCSC receives NEH awards that will further research in anthropology and musicology
On January 10, the NEH announced $28.1 million in grants toward 204 humanities projects nationwide. Two of this year’s recipients are part of the Slug family themselves, and their new grants will help to further their research in both anthropology and musicology at UC Santa Cruz.
January 31, 2023
Three UCSC faculty named 2022 AAAS fellows
Three UC Santa Cruz professors received the distinction of 2022 fellows of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS), the association announced today.
January 31, 2023
Improving the student experience: aligning Colleges, Housing, and Educational Services within the Division of Student Affairs and Success
In an effort to improve the student experience, Colleges, Housing, and Educational Services (CHES) is moving from the Division of Finance, Operations, and Administration (FOA) to the Division of Student Affairs and Success (DSAS).
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 31, 2023
John Bollard named associate vice chancellor for student health and wellness and chief well-being officer; joins Division of Student Affairs and Success
The Division of Student Affairs and Success is excited to announce John Bollard has been hired as the associate vice chancellor for student health and wellness and chief well-being officer. He will begin his appointment Thursday, February 2.
January 31, 2023
Learning-Aligned Employment Program Launches; provides 100% funding for on-campus, student research positions
LAEP is a nine-year, state-funded, work-based learning program similar to federal work-study. The program offers eligible students the opportunity to earn money to help defray their educational costs while gaining education-aligned, career-related employment.
January 31, 2023
The university invites campus community to come together for SlugUnity: A Space for Healing
In the wake of numerous, horrific acts of violence that have recently unfolded across the country, UCSC invites students, staff, and faculty to gather together in the Quarry Amphitheater this Thursday, February 2 from noon to 1 p.m..
January 23, 2023
Five student teams embark on tech for social good projects
Five student teams will take on tech for social good projects with funding from the UCSC CITRIS and the Banatao Institute and the UCSC Institute for Social Transformation.
January 17, 2023
Researchers produce first-ever toolkit for RNA sequencing analysis using a ‘pantranscriptome’
Researchers at UC Santa Cruz introduce the first-ever method for analyzing RNA sequencing data genome-wide using a “pantranscriptome.”
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 17, 2023
Announcing Teenie Matlock as special adviser to the chancellor for Indigenous matters
Teenie Matlock, most recently Vice Provost for Academic Personnel at UC Merced, has officially joined UC Santa Cruz as Special Adviser to the Chancellor on Indigenous Relations.
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.