Office of Research

  • UC appoints Michael Bolte director of UC Observatories/Lick Observatory

    The University of California has appointed Michael Bolte, professor of astronomy and astrophysics at UC Santa Cruz, as the director of UC Observatories/Lick Observatory (UCO/Lick). The appointment, effective as of July 1, was announced jointly today (October 27) by UC Provost Rory Hume and UCSC Acting Chancellor George Blumenthal. Michael Bolte (Photo: Tim Stephens) UC…

  • ‘Stunning new memoir’ from UC Santa Cruz professor Bettina Aptheker

    At the age of eight, UC Santa Cruz feminist studies professor Bettina Aptheker watched her father testify on television at the McCarthy Hearings in 1953. The daughter of historian and U.S. Communist Party leader Herbert Aptheker, she grew up in a lively home environment that often included spirited visits by such renowned family friends as…

  • ARCS Foundation scholarships support ten UCSC graduate students

    Ten UC Santa Cruz graduate students have received scholarships worth a total of $100,000 from the Achievement Rewards for College Scientists (ARCS) Foundation for the 2006-07 academic year. The Northern California chapter of the ARCS Foundation is the most generous provider of annual private awards to the UCSC campus and has provided more than $1…

  • Planet hunters wanted to help astronomers in the search for new worlds

    Astronomers at the University of California, Santa Cruz, are seeking the public’s help to find and understand planets outside our solar system. But you don’t need an advanced degree or even a telescope to participate–just a computer, access to the Internet, and an interest in astronomy. The project, called Systemic, enlists volunteers to help astronomers…

  • New book explores culture’s fascination with body modifications

    Tattooing.piercing.anorexia.self-cutting.plastic surgery.body-building.the use of life extension technologies–these are all forms of body modification that have become increasingly prevalent in today’s culture and mainstreamed in popular media. A new book coedited by UC Santa Cruz professors Helene Moglen and Nancy Chen, Bodies in the Making: Transgressions and Transformations, explores our fascination with altering our bodies, offering…

  • UCSC astronomer Constance Rockosi wins prestigious Packard Fellowship

    The David and Lucile Packard Foundation has awarded a Packard Fellowship for Science and Engineering to Constance Rockosi, assistant professor of astronomy and astrophysics at the University of California, Santa Cruz. The Packard Fellowship, worth a total of $625,000, is one of the nation’s most prestigious honors for young faculty members. Rockosi will receive $125,000…

  • Major gift funds UC Santa Cruz endowed chair in environmental studies

    Craig Griswold has fond childhood memories of admiring seashells with his mother on the beach in Santa Cruz, where his family sought relief from the scorching summer heat of the San Joaquin Valley. Now Griswold is honoring his mother, Olga, by establishing an endowed chair in environmental studies at the University of California, Santa Cruz.…

  • NIH award supports research on nanopore DNA sequencer

    William Dunbar, an assistant professor of computer engineering at UC Santa Cruz, has received a career development award from the National Institutes of Health. The Mentored Quantitative Research Career Development Award is designed to encourage researchers with backgrounds in quantitative science and engineering to focus on questions relating to health and disease. William Dunbar Dunbar,…

  • Scientists offer guidelines for coping with climate change in Alaska

    Coping with the devastating effects of climate change in Alaska will require institutional nimbleness and a willingness among those living at lower latitudes to “share the pain,” according to the authors of a paper published this week in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. Erika Zavaleta (Photo: Jim MacKenzie) The interdisciplinary team of…

  • Digital divide leaving immigrants further behind, UC Santa Cruz study finds

    The digital divide between immigrants and the native born is widening in the United States, with some immigrant groups less than half as likely to have computer access at home as nonimmigrants, according to a new study by researchers at the University of California, Santa Cruz. Only 36 percent of Latino immigrant youth have a…

  • Business influence over environmental policy and regulation is targeted, says author of new book

    Business influence over environmental policy and regulation in the United States is strategic and focused, says the author of the new book “Corporate America and Environmental Policy: How Often Does Business Get Its Way?” Sheldon Kamieniecki. (Jim MacKenzie) Business interests are more selective about exerting their influence than is commonly believed, and when they do…

  • California Academy of Sciences honors UCSC botanist Jean Langenheim

    Jean Langenheim, professor emerita and research professor of ecology and evolutionary biology at the University of California, Santa Cruz, has been chosen to receive the 2006 Fellows Medal of the California Academy of Sciences (CAS). This is the highest honor bestowed by the academy, founded in 1853 as the first scientific institution in the western…

Last modified: Mar 18, 2025