Alumni
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Alumni Reunion Weekend 2026: Celebrating the Class of ’76
UC Santa Cruz’s Alumni Reunion Weekend brought Banana Slugs back to the redwoods for a weekend of celebration.
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On the rise: Alumna August Lee Stevens makes her way in the Bay Area music scene
August Lee Stevens’s music career has taken off since her time at UC Santa Cruz. Stevens wrote her first single in her dorm at UCSC and has gone on to perform at a Warriors playoff game, open for Smokey Robinson, and hold a residency at the SF Jazz Festival.
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Alumnus John Kim receives multiple film festival selections for his debut independent feature film Reunion
John Kim’s (Porter ’84, creative writing and literature) debut independent feature film Reunion follows an Asian American funeral home worker who attends his high school reunion hoping to jump-start his life, only to be mistaken for a successful alumnus from another school—a billionaire whom no one has seen since graduation.
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Alumna and Anthropic co-founder Daniela Amodei and civil-rights activist Dolores Huerta named in Time’s 100 Most Influential People of 2026
Daniela Amodei graduated from UC Santa Cruz in 2009 with a B.A. in literature and a minor in politics. In 2022, UCSC’s Research Center for the Americas was renamed in honor of social justice icon Dolores Huerta; the university continues to collaborate with the Dolores Huerta Foundation.
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UCSC alumna Quressa Robinson expands representation in publishing
As a literary agent, Quressa Robinson (Oakes ‘03, literature) uses her influence to bring diverse, nuanced stories to young adult readers.
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Dr. Ramon Resa: Building a life of service in the Central Valley
Ramon Resa (Crown ’76, biology) grew up picking crops in California’s Central Valley and went on to spend over four decades as a pediatrician in the community he calls home. A UC Santa Cruz alumnus, Distinguished Alumni Award recipient, and author, Resa has built a life defined by service.
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Making ethics accessible
Alumnus Tim Shannon (Cowell ’71, history) has philanthropically supported the Humanities at UC Santa Cruz for 15 years. His support of the Norcal Regional Highschool Ethics Bowl, hosted annually at UC Santa Cruz, has opened doors for public schools across the region.
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Maria Rocha-Ruiz named UC Santa Cruz’s Sea Dubs Wavemaker
Maria Rocha-Ruiz has been named UC Santa Cruz’s Sea Dubs Wavemaker, honoring her leadership expanding educational opportunity and mentoring generations of students across the Central Coast.
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Engineered imagination
UC Santa Cruz alumna Lisa Winter (Porter ’09, art) brings an artist’s eye to the arena of combat robotics—evolving from childhood Robot Wars competitor to BattleBots judge and robotics entrepreneur.
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Alumni-founded biotech firm enters partnership to advance treatment for undruggable targets
Unnatural Products, a biotech company founded by UC Santa Cruz alumni Cameron Pye (Ph.D. ’17, chemistry & biochemistry) and Joshua Schwochert (Ph.D. ’17, chemistry & biochemistry), opens up treatment possibilities for diseases once thought to be undruggable.
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The creation of the Cigarette Surfboard
Alumnus Ben Judkins’s (Kresge ’17, film and digital media) award-winning documentary follows the creation of the Cigarette Surfboard: A surfboard created by friend Taylor Lane from 10,000+ cigarette butts collected off beaches. Judkins’s documentary has helped influence legislation in Santa Cruz County, and will be screened at UC Santa Cruz on March 8.
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‘Petri Dish 2.0’: A new startup is bringing automation to biology’s most tedious tasks
Open Culture Science, a revolutionary new startup out of the UC Genomics Institute’s Braingeneers group, aims to accelerate the pace of biological research with their patented technology.