Leading in the 21st Century

Reputation for Excellence: In its 45 years, UC Santa Cruz has earned national and international recognition for quality research and world-class teaching. Faculty include two of the University of California’s honored University Professors, 24 members of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, 14 members of the National Academy of Sciences, and 33 members of the American Association for the Advancement of Science.

Recognition of outstanding research has resulted in steady increases in contracts, grants, and private funding across all five divisions. UCSC faculty and researchers have received more than $100 million annually in external funding over the past five years, totaling nearly $1 billion in 10 years.

Research Impact

• The computer engineering Ph.D. program was rated 1st nationally for publication impact by the National Research Council in 2010.
• UCSC was rated 3rd in the world for research influence in 2011 by the Times Higher Education World University Rankings.
• In 2010, the UCSC Economics Department was ranked 7th in the world--and 6th among all academic departments--for research in international finance, according to Research Papers in Economics (RePEc).
• In 2011, Physics World magazine rated UC Santa Cruz researchers' discovery of pristine clouds of gas from the Big Bang as one of the "top 10 breakthroughs for 2011."
• In 2010, the British publication Times Higher Education ranked UCSC 18th in the world for research impact in geosciences.
• In 2011, a study by Centre for Science and Technologies Studies at Leiden University in the Netherlands ranked UC Santa Cruz 21st in the world for research impact, based on contributions in the sciences and social sciences.
• In 2011, a team of UC Santa Cruz researchers working to find new drugs to fight cholera won a $10,000 Award for Innovation sponsored by Deloitte and the California Institute for Quantitative Biosciences (QB3).

Faculty Honors and Awards

• Professor of astronomy and astrophysics Jerry Nelson was awarded the 2012 Benjamin Franklin Medal in Electrical Engineering from the Franklin Institute.
• Literature Professor Karen Tei Yamashita and Assistant Professor of Film and Digital Media John Jota Leaños won United States Artists awards for 2011.
• Michael Dine, distinguished professor and chair of physics at UC Santa Cruz, received the 2010-11 Outstanding Faculty Award from the Division of Physical and Biological Sciences.
• The U.S. Department of Energy awarded the 2011 E. O. Lawrence Award in Biological and Environmental Sciences to Tom Guilderson, a lecturer in ocean sciences at UC Santa Cruz.
• In 2010, Jerry Nelson, professor of astronomy and astrophysics, shared the $1 million Kavli Prize in Astrophysics with two other researchers for their innovations in the field of telescope design.
• In 2010, professor of Earth and planetary sciences Gary Glatzmaier was elected to the National Academy of Sciences, one of the highest honors that can be accorded a scientist or engineer in the U.S.
• UCSC literature professor Nathaniel Mackey was awarded a 2010 Guggenheim Fellowship for poetry.
• Four UCSC faculty members were elected fellows of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 2010: Michael Dine, distinguished professor of physics; Gary Glatzmaier, professor of Earth and planetary sciences; Susan Strome, professor of molecular, cell and developmental biology; and John Thompson, professor of ecology and evolutionary biology.
• In 2010, Professor Faye Crosby, a social psychologist and expert on affirmative action, received the Alice and Clifford Spendlove Prize in Social Justice, Diplomacy and Tolerance, presented by UC Merced.

College Guides, Surveys, and Magazines

• In 2011, the Atlantic Magazine ranked Santa Cruz and nearby Watsonville Number 5 on a list of the Most Artistic Cities in America.
• UCSC was listed as one of the 100 "best values in public colleges" in 2011 by Kiplinger's Personal Finance.
• In 2011, UCSC was rated 29th nationally among public doctoral universities by U.S. News & World Report.
• In 2010, Parade Magazine listed UCSC as #10 among "Large State Schools" in their "College A-List", based on a survey of top high school counselors across the nation.
• UCSC was named one of the "100 Happiest Colleges" by the Daily Beast Online in 2010.
• In 2010, Forbes Magazine listed UCSC as one of the 23 most beautiful campuses in the world.
• UC Santa Cruz was among 25 colleges featured in Newsweek Magazine's special fall 2009 college issue, which called the campus a place for "Overachievers Who Need to Stop and Look Around."
• Paste Magazine named alumna Gillian Welch's album The Harrow and the Harvest among the 50 best albums of 2011.

Making a World of Difference

• PETA2, the young adult division of People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals, rated UC Santa Cruz as the number-one most vegan-friendly college in 2011.
• UC Santa Cruz's "green" lighting retrofit of the Science & Engineering Library won a Best Practice Lighting Award for 2011.
• In 2011, UCSC won a $2.6 million grant for organic farming research.
• In 2011, UCSC brought a delegation of students and staff members to a Taiwanese university to share green tips.
• UC Santa Cruz ranked 6th in the medium-school category for alumni participation in the Peace Corps in 2011.
• In 2011, Sierra Magazine ranked us #7 among America's 10 Greenest Schools.
• UCSC was listed in The Princeton Review's Guide to 286 Green Colleges in 2010.
• UCSC has won several awards for its innovative transportation programs, including a bike shuttle, vanpools, student bus passes, and the Zipcar carsharing program.
• Fifty-five percent of campus land is designated as protected natural landscape.
• Approximately 25% of produce served in dining halls is organic, with much of it coming from local providers, such as the Farm and Garden run by UCSC's Center for Agroecology & Sustainable Food Systems (CASFS).