Office of Research

  • $4 million in federal funding secured for two major UCSC research programs

    Funding for two major interdisciplinary research programs led by the University of California, Santa Cruz, has been included in a federal appropriations bill for fiscal year 2006. The bill includes about $2 million for each of the programs: the Center for Integrated Marine Technologies (CIMT), an ongoing effort to improve long-term monitoring of ocean ecosystems,…

  • Genome sequencing aids investigation of an ancient and mysterious life-form

    Researchers at the University of California, Santa Cruz, are using the latest in genetic technology to investigate an ancient form of life–the poorly understood microorganisms known as Archaea. Many Archaea live in hostile environments, from salt lakes to acidic hot springs, but they can be very difficult to grow and study in the laboratory. So…

  • Rapidly accelerating glaciers may increase how fast the sea level rises

    Satellite images show that, after decades of stability, a major glacier draining the Greenland ice sheet has dramatically increased its speed and retreated nearly five miles in recent years. These changes could contribute to rapid melting of the Greenland ice sheet and cause the global sea level to rise faster than expected, according to researchers…

  • UCSC physicists deliver detector for NASA’s GLAST telescope

    After more than a decade of work, a team led by physicists at the University of California, Santa Cruz, has completed a major detector subsystem for NASA’s Gamma-ray Large Area Space Telescope (GLAST). Completion of the tracking detector is a significant milestone for the telescope project, scheduled for launch in 2007. GLAST will give astronomers…

  • UCSC and Los Alamos National Laboratory to form partnership for scientific data management

    The University of California, Santa Cruz, and Los Alamos National Laboratory have agreed to establish a new collaborative institute for research and education in the area of scientific data management. The Institute for Scalable Scientific Data Management (ISSDM) will address looming issues of data storage and management for projects that involve large-scale simulation and computing.…

  • UC Santa Cruz professor receives $200,000 grant to fund summer institute in Venice, Italy

    UCSC professor of English and comparative literature Murray Baumgarten has been awarded a $195,452 grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities to fund a summer institute for college and university teachers in Italy. Titled “Venice, the Jews and Italian Culture: Historical Eras and Cultural Representations,” the institute is scheduled to take place in Venice…

  • California’s oak woodlands face a new threat: climate change

    California’s iconic oak woodlands have endured many assaults over the years–they’ve been cut for fuel, cleared for vineyards and housing developments, and their seedlings face intense grazing pressure and competition from invasive grasses. But the future will bring a new threat–climate change–which could drastically reduce the areas in which oaks can grow. Researchers at the…

  • Organic rose care demystified in new book by UCSC Garden Manager Orin Martin

    Master gardener Orin Martin cuts a lush bouquet of fresh, organically grown garden roses for his eldest daughter each year on her birthday. What’s unusual is that she was born November 9. Better yet, when Martin sits down to Thanksgiving dinner, a rose-based bouquet often adorns his table. Impossible, you say? Not so, replies Martin,…

  • Kids with access to a home computer are more likely to graduate, digital divide study finds

    Access to a home computer increases the likelihood that children will graduate from high school, but blacks and Latinos are much less likely to have a computer at home than are whites, according to a new study by a researcher at the University of California, Santa Cruz, that also found the digital divide is even…

  • Fisheries management study focuses on small-scale fishing cooperatives in the Gulf of California

    The David and Lucile Packard Foundation has awarded a major grant to researchers at the University of California, Santa Cruz, and other institutions to study fisheries in the northern Gulf of California. The $1.3 million grant funds a collaborative project to help local Mexican fishers and government officials understand and manage marine resources using cutting-edge…

  • Joseph Miller steps down as director of UC Observatories/Lick Observatory after 14 years at the helm

    Joseph S. Miller has resigned as director of the University of California Observatories/Lick Observatory (UCO/Lick), a position he held for 14 years. Miller will return to full-time teaching and research at UC Santa Cruz, where he is a professor of astronomy and astrophysics. Michael Bolte, also a professor of astronomy and astrophysics at UCSC, will…

  • Mystery Spot demonstrates power of perception, UC Santa Cruz psychologist explains

    SANTA CRUZ, CA–For years, UC Santa Cruz psychology professor Bruce Bridgeman has taken college students to the Mystery Spot, a popular local tourist attraction, to demonstrate how the human brain works. Tourists flock to the Mystery Spot to enjoy the “puzzling variations in gravity, perspective, height and more,” leaving baffled and perplexed by the apparent…

Last modified: Mar 18, 2025