Research Achievements

Facts and Figures

UC Santa Cruz Fact Sheet

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UCSC in the News

Local, national, and international media feature UCSC research and accomplishments. More UCSC in the news 

Awards and Honors

UC Santa Cruz faculty are frequently recognized for outstanding research achievements and accomplishments. More UCSC awards and honors

Memberships

UC Santa Cruz has 26 members in the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, 13 members in the National Academy of Sciences, and 35 members in the American Association for the Advancement of Science.

Global Recognition

UC Santa Cruz faculty are widely recognized for their research impact. Prestigious national and international awards

Since its founding UC Santa Cruz has been an incubator for new ways of thinking, new ways of learning, new ways of taking action in the world.  UC Santa Cruz has earned national and international recognition for quality research and world-class teaching. 

The core strengths at UC Santa Cruz are cross-disciplinary cooperation, commitment to social and environmental responsibility, and an unparalleled record of innovation. UC Santa Cruz researchers are leaving their unique mark on a rapidly changing world.

Highlights

Center for Coastal Climate Resilience

Sitting on the edge of the Monterey Bay and the Monterey Bay National Marine Sanctuary, UC Santa Cruz is nationally recognized for its marine science and coastal sustainability research. We are uniquely situated to develop innovative strategies to enhance coastal resilience in the face of a rapidly changing climate. Our internationally renowned faculty and researchers bring important and varied expertise connecting Science & Research, Policy and Practice; Training and Engagement. More about the Center for Coastal Climate Resilience

Excellence in Space Sciences

From Earth to the edge of the universe, UC Santa Cruz makes giant impacts in astronomy, astrophysics, and planetary science. We are pioneering new technologies for giant telescopesadaptive optics, and gamma-ray astrophysicsdiscovering planets beyond our solar system and the most distant galaxies in the universe; and reshaping paradigms in cosmologyastrophysics, and particle physics. From NASA missions to the UC Observatories, we help people see what has never been seen before.

Leadership in Genomics

UC Santa Cruz has been a key player in the Human Genome Project and subsequent breakthroughs in genomics research. The UC Santa Cruz Genomics Institute brings together researchers in a variety of disciplines who are deeply involved in efforts to use the information encoded in genome sequences to transform the practice of medicine and our understanding of biology.

The UCSC Genome Browser is used extensively in biomedical research and serves as the platform for several large-scale genomics projects; the UCSC Paleogenomics Lab is a dynamic center for research on ancient DNA and molecular evolution; UCSC is playing a leading role in the exciting and promising field of cancer genomics; and bioinformatics expert David Haussler is a leader in the creation of a global alliance to enable secure sharing of genomic and clinical data. More about genomics at UCSC

Innovative Research in Silicon Valley

The UC Santa Cruz Silicon Valley Campus is a multi-disciplinary teaching and research hub that is home to a master’s degree program in games and playable media, engineering faculty, the new office of industry alliances and technology commercialization, UCSC Silicon Valley Extension, UC Scout, and soon a great deal more.

UC Santa Cruz has ambitious growth plans for its Silicon Valley Campus, with a pipeline of starting with new industry-oriented professional master’s programs planned to launch here in the coming years.

Overall, the vision and goals include creating a portal for championing, catalyzing, and fostering new UC research partnerships, and accelerating the pace of innovation and impact through basic research and knowledge transfer.

Based in Santa Clara, the satellite campus is enabling greater partnerships and collaborations among faculty, students, industry, and government. UC Santa Cruz students are regularly interning at companies throughout the region, and the university’s alumni are an integral part of the highly trained Silicon Valley workforce.

Visit the UCSC Silicon Valley Campus website.