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Awards and Honors

November 14, 2024
Creating enchantment in Senegal
UC Santa Cruz Humanities Professor Gina Athena Ulysse was invited to participate as a featured artist for the prestigious Dakar Biennale (Dak'Art), which the New York Times called “Africa’s hottest art event” and “Africa’s most prominent cultural gathering.”
November 05, 2024
American Mathematical Society names Professor Chongying Dong a 2025 Fellow
Chongying Dong, distinguished professor of mathematics at UC Santa Cruz, is among 41 mathematical scientists around the world who were recently named to the American Mathematical Society’s class of fellows for 2025.
October 17, 2024
California Academy of Sciences Honors Dan Costa with Fellows Medal
The California Academy of Sciences presented UC Santa Cruz’s Dan Costa, distinguished professor of ecology and evolutionary biology, with its highest honor at an awards ceremony on October 15.
October 17, 2024
Former UC Santa Cruz physicist Michael Riordan honored for historical narratives of his field
The American Physical Society awarded former UC Santa Cruz physicist Michael Riordan on October 15 with its Abraham Pais Prize for History of Physics.
October 16, 2024
Dickens Project gets prestigious $200,000 NEH grant to host institute for high school teachers
A $200,000 grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities is funding a new Dickens Project initiative, an in-person institute for 25 high school teachers from across the United States. The institute will help teachers consider bold new approaches to teaching Charles Dickens' classic 1861 novel Great Expectations
September 18, 2024
UC Santa Cruz astronomer delivers keynote speech for Mexico's National Council of Humanities, Sciences and Technologies
The council chose Enrico Ramirez-Ruiz as the final speaker in the series, which leads up to the inauguration of Mexico's new president on October 1, in honor of his distinguished career and accomplishments that followed his public education and training in Mexico.
September 18, 2024
Postdoc Will Steinhardt wins early-career award for innovative earthquake-physics research
The American Geophysical Union (AGU) has presented UC Santa Cruz postdoctoral scholar Will Steinhardt with its 2024 Jason P. Morgan Early Career Award honoring outstanding and significant contributions to tectonophysics through a combination of research, education, and outreach activities.
September 17, 2024
2023 astronomy Ph.D. graduate honored for dissertation work, mentoring and leadership
The Astronomical Society of the Pacific has honored recent UC Santa Cruz Ph.D. graduate Maggie Thompson for research "considered unusually important to astronomy."
September 16, 2024
ARCS Foundation 2024 scholarships support outstanding graduate students in science and engineering
Sixteen outstanding UC Santa Cruz graduate students in science and engineering fields earned scholarships worth a total of $180,000 from the Achievement Rewards for College Scientists (ARCS) Foundation for the 2024-25 academic year.
September 12, 2024
Celebrating the 2024 UCSC Alumni Awards recipients
The UC Santa Cruz Alumni Association is proud to present this year’s UCSC Alumni Awards honorees: George M. Kraw, Keith Curry, Jacob Martinez, Kamari Maxine Clarke, Paul Fielder, and Neroli Devaney.
September 12, 2024
National Academy of Education awarded Josephine H. Pham the Spencer Postdoctoral Fellowship
Josephine H. Pham, Assistant Professor of Critical Studies in Education at the University of California, Santa Cruz, has been awarded the prestigious National Academy of Education Spencer Postdoctoral Fellowship.
August 30, 2024
Getoor wins major data mining award
Lise Getoor, UC Santa Cruz Distinguished Professor of Computer Science and Engineering, was honored with the ACM SIGKDD Innovation Award.
August 29, 2024
Genomics Institute researcher Melissa Cline to lead efforts to facilitate diagnosis of genetic diseases
Genomics Institute associate research scientist Melissa Cline will serve as the co-lead of the Global Alliance for Genomics and Health’s Genomic Knowledge Standards Work Stream.
August 28, 2024
Math professor awarded fellowship at the Institute for Advanced Study
Kasia Jankiewicz, assistant math professor at UC Santa Cruz, has been awarded a fellowship at the Institute for Advanced Study (IAS) in its School of Mathematics for the 2024-25 academic year. This prestigious membership allows for focused research and the free and open exchange of ideas among an international community of scholars.
August 27, 2024
UC Santa Cruz professor honored by American Chemical Society for natural-products discovery
Phil Crews, distinguished research professor of chemistry and biochemistry, is being honored by the American Chemical Society for outstanding work in the analysis, structural elucidation, and chemical synthesis of natural products.
August 14, 2024
Dan Costa to accept Monterey Bay marine sanctuary award with lecture on September 25
The Monterey Bay National Marine Sanctuary will present its Ed Ricketts Memorial Award to Dan Costa, distinguished professor of ecology and evolutionary biology, and former director of UC Santa Cruz's Institute of Marine Sciences. As part of the honor, Costa will deliver a free lecture at the sanctuary's Exploration Center starting at 6:30 p.m.
August 05, 2024
Fisheries Collaborative staff honored for excellence and impactful work
The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) is honoring multiple employees of UC Santa Cruz's Fisheries Collaborative Program for their contributions as members of NOAA's Southwest Fisheries Science Center (SWFSC) community.
July 31, 2024
Genomics Institute’s Research Mentoring Internship recognized with ‘Inspiring Programs in STEM’ award
The UC Santa Cruz Genomics Institute’s Research Mentoring Internship program was recognized with the ‘Inspiring Programs in STEM’ award from Insight Into Diversity magazine.
July 23, 2024
Biochemist Carrie Partch selected as Howard Hughes Medical Institute investigator
Carrie Partch, professor of chemistry and biochemistry at UC Santa Cruz, is among 26 top scientists chosen by the Howard Hughes Medical Institute (HHMI) to be HHMI investigators and receive the support needed to move their research in creative new directions and make groundbreaking discoveries.
July 22, 2024
2023-24 Excellence in Teaching Awards announced
The award, launched in 1996, highlights the university’s long tradition of innovative and creative teaching and honors UC Santa Cruz instructors who have demonstrated exemplary and inspiring teaching.
July 22, 2024
International body honors UC Santa Cruz physicists with Frontiers of Science Award
UC Santa Cruz physicists Stefania Gori and Wolfgang Altmannshofer were honored by the International Congress of Basic Science (ICBS) at a July 14 ceremony in Beijing with a Frontiers of Science Award in the category of particle-physics phenomenology.
July 18, 2024
U.S. ATLAS collaboration names UC Santa Cruz alum ‘Outstanding Graduate Student’
The organization representing the U.S. contingent of the international ATLAS experiment conducted with the world's most powerful particle accelerator has presented its 2024 Outstanding Graduate Student Award to Yuzhan Zhao, who graduated from UC Santa Cruz with a Ph.D. in physics this year.
July 16, 2024
Professor Emeritus Daniel Friedman elected as Economic Science Association fellow
Professor Emeritus of Economics Daniel Friedman was among 18 esteemed economists in the inaugural class of fellows of the Economic Science Association (ESA). The designation recognizes his lifetime of contributions advancing the frontier of knowledge in economics through the use of laboratory and field experiments.
July 12, 2024
Researchers win best paper award for introducing new AI method for minimum-effort materials engineering
UC Santa Cruz researchers devised a new method for materials engineering that incorporates novel mathematical and deep learning techniques which won them the prestigious 2024 O. Hugo Schuck Best Application Paper Award from the American Automatic Control Council.
July 11, 2024
Environmental toxicologist wins funding to use feathers to test for lead exposure in birds
Myra Finkelstein, adjunct professor in microbiology and environmental toxicology, was one of nine researchers nationwide honored on July 8 by the Animal Welfare Institute (AWI) for developing humane solutions to human-wildlife conflicts. Each researcher will receive a grant of up to $15,000 as part of the Christine Stevens Wildlife Award, which honors AWI's late founder and longtime president.
July 09, 2024
UC Santa Cruz Foundation celebrates 50 years
Julie Packard, Narinder Kapany awarded Foundation Medals during gala event, while Packard also recognized with the University of California’s top honor, the Presidential Medal
July 09, 2024
UC Santa Cruz astrophysicists honored for advancing research on the mysterious FRB
Fast radio bursts are sudden flashes of radio waves coming from random parts of the sky. Each one is on only for a few milliseconds, but they are extraordinarily bright: In those few milliseconds, they put out more energy than our sun does in an entire year. We also know that they come from objects in distant galaxies, sometimes billions of light years away.
June 18, 2024
G. William Domhoff and Catherine Cooper receive Dickson Emeriti Professorships
Distinguished Professor Emeritus G. William Domhoff, who was a member of both the psychology and sociology departments at UC Santa Cruz, and Professor Emerita of Psychology Catherine Cooper recently won Edward A. Dickson Emeriti Professorships.
June 13, 2024
Associate Teaching Professor Nathan Altice wins Distinguished Teaching Award
Nathan Altice, an associate teaching professor of computational media at the Baskin School of Engineering, has been recognized with the UC Santa Cruz Committee on Teaching’s 2023-24 Distinguished Teaching Award.
May 31, 2024
Humanities Distinguished Undergraduate Alumni Award recipient John Rickford is a world-renowned scholar of Black Talk and social justice advocate
John Rickford (Stevenson, ‘71, sociolinguistics), this year’s Humanities Distinguished Undergraduate Alumni Award recipient, is a world-renowned scholar and champion of African-American Vernacular English (AAVE), also known as Black Talk.
May 16, 2024
Francis Nimmo elected to prestigious fellowship of UK's Royal Society
Francis Nimmo, professor of earth and planetary sciences, has been named a fellow of the Royal Society, the UK’s national academy of sciences. The society announced today the election of 90 researchers from around the world as new fellows, citing their "invaluable contributions to science."
May 14, 2024
Championing Native American DNA
Kimberly TallBear, this year’s recipient of the University of California, Santa Cruz Distinguished Humanities Graduate Student Alumni Award, is being honored for her work in championing indigenous rights and protecting Native American DNA from exploitation.
May 08, 2024
Diane Gifford-Gonzalez elected to the National Academy of Sciences
Distinguished Research Professor Emerita of Anthropology Diane Gifford-Gonzalez was recently elected as a member of the National Academy of Sciences. Gifford-Gonzalez is a trailblazer in the field of zooarchaeology, which uses animal remains to gain new insights into the deep history of humans and animals.
April 30, 2024
Ecological Society of America names Dan Costa a lifetime fellow
Dan Costa, distinguished professor of ecology and evolutionary biology and director of UC Santa Cruz's Institute of Marine Sciences, has been named a 2024 Fellow of the Ecological Society of America.
April 26, 2024
Three UC Santa Cruz faculty members elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences
Three professors at the University of California, Santa Cruz were elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, one of the nation’s oldest and most prestigious honorary societies.
April 23, 2024
UC Santa Cruz physics department honored for improving undergraduate experience
The Physics Department has been honored by the American Physical Society (APS) for improving undergraduate physics education. At its April meeting, APS announced UC Santa Cruz as one of just three universities nationwide whose physics departments share in this year’s award.
April 18, 2024
Three UC Santa Cruz faculty members named 2023 AAAS fellows
Three UC Santa Cruz faculty members have been named 2023 fellows of the American Association for the Advancement of Science: Diane Gifford-Gonzalez, emerita distinguished research professor of anthropology; longtime journalist Robert Irion, emeritus director of UC Santa Cruz’s science communication master’s degree program; and acclaimed paleo-geneticist Beth Shapiro, professor of ecology and evolutionary biology.
April 17, 2024
UC Santa Cruz ‘Shadow the Scientists’ program honored for astronomical DEI efforts
A science-inclusion program based at UC Santa Cruz that has allowed thousands of school-age children, educators, and inquisitive individuals to look through world-class telescopes alongside trained astronomers has been honored for opening up scientific exploration to those from underrepresented backgrounds around the world.
April 15, 2024
Chancellor’s innovation awards honor excellence in research, creativity
The 2023 recipients include innovators who have created breakthroughs in knowledge and technology that are improving our world, creators bringing forgotten history to life by merging storytelling, augmented reality, and holographic filmmaking, and community partners transforming lives and providing nourishment through job training, transitional employment, and organic farming.
April 02, 2024
The Science Division announces recipients of Distinguished Alumni Awards
Dr. José de Jesús González, Dr. Maximiliano Mateo Cuevas, and Dr. Charles A. Lawson are this year’s Distinguished Alumni Award recipients for the Science Division.
March 21, 2024
Kat Gutierrez wins LEAD California's 2024 Richard E. Cone Award for Emerging Leaders in Community Engagement
In acknowledgment of her dedication to community engagement, LEAD California awarded Kat Gutierrez, assistant professor of history at the University of California, Santa Cruz, the prestigious 2024 Richard E. Cone Award for Emerging Leaders in Community Engagement.
February 20, 2024
UC Santa Cruz awarded SEA Change Bronze Award for Diversity, Equity and Inclusion
UC Santa Cruz has been awarded a 2024 STEM Equity Achievement (SEA) Change Initiative Institutional Bronze Award. The award recognizes the university’s commitment to long-term, sustainable institutional transformation in support of diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) in science, technology, engineering, mathematics and medicine (STEMM) through self-assessment.
February 20, 2024
Two UC Santa Cruz scientists named 2024 Sloan Research Fellows
Assistant Professors Roxanne Beltran and Jacqueline Kimmey have been awarded Sloan Research Fellowships, one of the most prestigious honors bestowed on early-career scientists, each receiving $75,000 to delve into new areas of research in their respective fields of marine ecology and microbiology.
February 15, 2024
UC Santa Cruz earns national acclaim: awarded NAFSA’s 2024 Senator Paul Simon Award for Comprehensive Internationalization
In recognition of excellence in internationalization efforts, the University of California, Santa Cruz has been selected to receive the prestigious 2024 Senator Paul Simon Award for Comprehensive Internationalization from NAFSA: Association of International Educators.
February 13, 2024
Protein designer awarded $2.5M to develop bioluminescent protein for deep tissue imaging
Assistant Professor of Biomolecular Engineering Andy Yeh was awarded a nearly $2.5 million grant from the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative to develop completely artificial enzymes that can produce bioluminescence in the body for deep tissue imaging.
January 22, 2024
Terrie Williams honored with 2024 National Academy of Sciences Daniel Giraud Elliot Medal
The National Academy of Sciences will honor 20 individuals with awards recognizing their extraordinary scientific achievements in a wide range of fields spanning the physical, biological, social, and medical sciences. Among the esteemed awardees is Terrie M. Williams, a comparative ecophysiologist from the University of California, Santa Cruz, who will be honored with the 2024 NAS Award in the Evolution of Earth and Life - Daniel Giraud Elliot Medal.