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Office of Research

  • Astronomers trace the evolution of the first galaxies in the universe

    A systematic search for the first bright galaxies to form in the early universe has revealed a dramatic jump in the number of such galaxies around 13 billion years ago. These observations of the earliest stages in the evolution of galaxies provide new evidence for the hierarchical theory of galaxy formation–the idea that large galaxies…

  • UCSC leads astrophysics research consortium

    The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) has awarded a five-year, $9.5 million grant to researchers studying the astrophysics of supernovae and gamma-ray bursts. The Computational Astrophysics Consortium includes researchers at five universities and three national laboratories and is led by Stan Woosley, professor of astronomy and astrophysics at the University of California, Santa Cruz. The…

  • UC Santa Cruz grad students develop new model curriculum for U.S. history

    Graduate students in history at UC Santa Cruz have developed a new globalized model curriculum for college-level survey courses in U.S. history. Under the direction of UC Santa Cruz history professor and UC Presidential Chair Edmund Burke III, four UCSC graduate students recently introduced the new curriculum through a panel titled “Globalizing the U.S. History…

  • Researchers tackle problem of data storage for next-generation supercomputers

    The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) has awarded a five-year, $11 million grant to researchers at three universities and five national laboratories to find new ways of managing the torrent of data that will be produced by the coming generation of supercomputers. The Petascale Data Storage Institute includes researchers at the University of California, Santa…

  • Study confirms ammunition as main source of lead poisoning in condors

    A study led by environmental toxicologists at the University of California, Santa Cruz, has confirmed what wildlife biologists have long suspected: Bullet fragments and shotgun pellets in the carcasses of animals killed by hunters are the principal sources of lead poisoning in California condors that have been reintroduced to the wild. Lead poisoning is a…

  • UCSC appoints Bruce Margon as vice chancellor of research

    The University of California, Santa Cruz, has appointed Bruce Margon to serve as vice chancellor of research. Margon, currently associate director for science at the Space Telescope Science Institute (STScI) in Baltimore, will assume his position at UCSC on October 16. He replaces Robert C. Miller, who is resigning his successful tenure as vice chancellor…

  • Newly discovered gene may hold clues to evolution of human brain capacity

    Scientists have discovered a gene that has undergone accelerated evolutionary change in humans and is active during a critical stage in brain development. Although researchers have yet to determine the precise function of the gene, the evidence suggests that it may play a role in the development of the cerebral cortex and may even help…

  • UCSC posts record growth in research funding in 2005-06

    Researchers at the University of California, Santa Cruz, attracted a record $128.5 million in external grants and contracts to the campus in the 2005-06 fiscal year. The increase continues an upward trend in research funding at UCSC that has brought in almost half a billion dollars over the past five years. “UCSC’s grants and contracts…

  • Study documents the marathon migrations of sooty shearwaters

    Every summer, millions of sooty shearwaters arrive off the coast of California, their huge flocks astonishing visitors who may have trouble grasping that the dark swirling clouds over the water consist of seabirds. Scientists have long known that sooty shearwaters breed in New Zealand and Chile and migrate to feeding grounds in the Northern Hemisphere.…

  • AIDS vaccine expert Phillip Berman to head UCSC Biomolecular Engineering Department

    The University of California, Santa Cruz, has recruited Phillip Berman, a pioneer in the development of recombinant vaccines for AIDS and other infectious diseases, to serve as professor and chair of the Department of Biomolecular Engineering. Berman, who joined the faculty of UCSC’s Baskin School of Engineering in July, has nearly 25 years of experience…

  • Sign language study reveals key finding about short-term memory

    For decades, researchers have misunderstood a key aspect of short-term memory because of shortcomings in the way they compare the memory capacity of deaf people who use American Sign Language (ASL) and hearing people, according to a new study by a psychology professor at the University of California, Santa Cruz. Previous studies suggested that ASL…

  • UCSC collaborating in interdisciplinary center to study marine microbes

    The University of California, Santa Cruz, is one of six partner institutions in a new interdisciplinary science and technology center that will focus on the microbial inhabitants of the sea. Funded by a five-year, $19 million grant from the National Science Foundation (NSF), the Center for Microbial Oceanography Research and Education (C-MORE) is based at…

Last modified: Mar 18, 2025