A National Reputation for Excellence:
UCSC has earned national recognition for the quality of its research and teaching. Some examples of major national rankings follow.
- In a survey of 60 elite Association of American Universities member schools, UCSC ranked 15th for the percentage of its students whose bachelor’s degrees led to doctorates.
- U.S. News & World Report’s rankings for 2009 placed UCSC in the top 22 percent of national public universities.
- UCSC faculty include two of the University of California’s honored University Professors, 20 members of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, 13 members of the National Academy of Sciences, and 28 members of the American Association for the Advancement of Science.
- According to Science Watch (2008), in the field of molecular biology and genetics, UCSC scored highest among leading institutions for the number of citations per high-impact paper.
- UCSC ranked 1st in the nation for its research impact in the field of physics, according to an analysis conducted by Thompson Scientific that was reported in Science Watch in 2007.
- Among universities with 5,001 to 15,000 undergraduates, UCSC ranked 2nd in the number of volunteers who have served in the Peace Corps in 2008.
- In an analysis reported in the Chronicle of Higher Education in 2007, UCSC ranked 3rd nationally on the Faculty Scholarly Productivity Index among doctoral programs in music.
- In the same analysis reported in the Chronicle of Higher Education in 2007, UCSC ranked 3rd nationally on the Faculty Scholarly Productivity Index among doctoral programs in environmental health engineering (environmental toxicology).
- In a survey of U.S. engineering schools reported in ASEE Prism, UCSC ranked 3rd in the nation in the percentage of master’s degrees awarded to women (44.2 percent). The Jack Baskin School of Engineering celebrated its 10th anniversary year in 2007.
- UCSC ranked 5th in the nation for its research impact in the field of space sciences, according to an analysis conducted by Thompson Scientific that was reported in Science Watch in 2007.
- In the area of conservation research, UCSC is the 4th most productive institution in North America, according to a study published the October 2007 issue of Conservation Biology.
- UCSC ranked 11th in the nation among public universities for the quality of its research productivity in The Rise of American Research Universities: Elites and Challengers in the Postwar Era, by Hugh Graham and Nancy Diamond.
- UCSC ranked 1st in the nation among public universities in the Social Sciences in the quality of research productivity, according to the Graham and Diamond publication mentioned above.
- UCSC ranked 6th in the Arts and Humanities index of the same Graham and Diamond publication.
- UCSC is headquarters to UC Observatories/Lick Observatory, which operates Lick Observatory and is a managing partner of the world’s largest ground-based optical and infrared telescopes at the W. M. Keck Observatory in Hawaii.
- The Dickens Project is internationally recognized as the premier center for Dickens studies in the world and is one of the leading sites for research on 19th-century British culture.
- UCSC’s Center for Agroecology & Sustainable Food Systems oversees research, education, and public-service programs that have an international reputation for increasing ecological sustainability and social justice in the food and agriculture system.
- In 2005, Hispanic magazine ranked UCSC 23rd in the nation for Hispanic students.
- In international finance, UCSC was ranked 9th in the world in 2005 (econphd.net).
- In a study of preferences of 3,240 high-achieving high school students, UCSC ranked 16th among the country’s most desirable public colleges and universities (National Bureau of Economic Research, 2004).
- UCSC ranked as the 2nd most influential research institution in the world in the physical sciences, according to a 2001 Institute for Scientific Information report.
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Innovation Rewarded with External Funding:
The following list underscores the excellence of UCSC research, which has resulted in significant increases in contracts, grants, and private funding.
- In 2009, UCSC received a $2.2 million grant from the California Institute for Regenerative Medicine to fund a training program in stem cell research. CIRM funding awarded to UCSC now totals $19.4 million.
- UCSC researchers received $131.1 million in external contracts and grants in 2007-08.
- UCSC received about $30.5 million in private support in the form of gifts and grants during 2008-09, bringing the grand total of private funds to date more than $382.5 million.
- In 2008, the Gordon and Betty Moore foundation awarded UCSC $8.5 million for research in ocean sciences.
- UCSC is managing a national research program valued at more than $330 million under an agreement with UC and NASA announced in 2003. The 10-year contract, a first-of-its-kind for NASA, established a University Affiliated Research Center at the NASA Ames Research Center. The center received an “excellent” rating from NASA in fall 2008.
- With a $2.5 million grant from the National Science Foundation, researchers at UCSC are leading an interdisciplinary team from seven institutions in a project to study the consequences of global warming.
- Implantable microelectronic devices for overcoming blindness, paralysis, and stroke damage are the focus of a new center in which engineers from UCSC are collaborating with scientists at the University of Southern California and the California Institute of Technology. The National Science Foundation (NSF) is providing $17 million to fund the Center for Biomimetic MicroElectronic Systems (BMES), a national Engineering Research Center.
- UCSC faculty are leading a $1.5 million study, funded by the National Institutes of Health, to identify the strengths of programs that encourage underrepresented minorities to pursue biomedical research careers.
- The David and Lucile Packard Foundation has augmented a $17.7 million grant to UCSC and three other institutions studying and monitoring coastal ecosystems with an additional $2.3 million grant to UCSC.
- UCSC environmental studies faculty direct a $2.6 million project to help communities assess the viability of desalination as a method to extend their water supplies. The project has attracted participants and funding from water agencies, environmentalists, consultants, academics, nongovernmental organizations, and a manufacturer of desalination equipment.
- A gift of $350,000 from Talat and Kamil Hasan established the Kamil and Talat Hasan Endowed Chair in Classical Indian Music, which provides ongoing support for UCSC’s Indian arts programs.
- In 1999, a $20-million grant to UCSC from the National Science Foundation established the Center for Adaptive Optics; in 2002, a $9.1-million grant from the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation established the Laboratory for Adaptive Optics; and in 2003, a $17.5-million grant from the Moore Foundation funded the conceptual design for the 30-meter telescope project.
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Quality Attracts Awards and Honors:
The following list includes just a few of the many UCSC faculty and alumni who, through their achievements, have received significant honors:
- Sandra Faber, noted astronomy professor, received the 2009 Bower Award and Prize for Achievement in Science from the historic Franklin Institute in Philadelphia.
- In 2009, Claire Max, a UCSC professor of astronomy and astrophysics, was awarded the James Madison Medal from Princeton University for her work in adaptive optics; in 2008, she was elected to the National Academy of Sciences.
- Brian Catlos, associate professor of history, received a 2009-10 National Endowment for the Humanities Research Fellowship for his upcoming book Muslims of Latin Christendom, 1050-1615.
- In 2009, Judith Habicht-Mauche, professor of anthropology, received the Excellence in Archaeology Award from the Society for American Archaeology.
- In 2008, Alexander Gamburd, professor of mathematics, won a $400,000 Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers; in 2007, he won a Sloan Research Fellowship.
- In 2008, UCSC alumna Dana Priest, a Washington Post reporter, received her second Pulitzer Prize for exposing mistreatment of wounded veterans at Walter Reed Hospital. Priest is the fifth UCSC grad to receive a Pulitzer, and the first to receive two.
- In 2008, Jonathan Zehr, professor of ocean sciences, was elected to the American Academy of Microbiology for his pioneering research in marine biology.
- Heather Bullock, associate professor of psychology, received a 2008 distinguished Publication Award from the Association for Women in Psychology.
- In 2008, alumnus Joseph De Risi, an associate professor of biochemistry and biophysics at UCSF, received a $250,000 Heinz Award in Technology for his cutting-edge work with viruses.
- In 2008, film scholar B. Ruby Rich chaired a panel at the Sundance Film Festival about the increasing frequency of threats internationally against documentary filmmakers; this was her 21st Sundance Festival.
- In 2008, four graduate students in engineering took first place in a national student robotics competition for their design of a solar-powered robot climber, demonstrating a concept essential to a “space elevator” that would transport material into space.
- In 2008, graduate student Tadashi Nakamura’s documentary Pilgrimage was screened during the Sundance Film Festival, one of only 83 short films selected out of 5,107 submissions from around the world.
- In 2007, Harry Noller, Sinsheimer Professor of Molecular Biology, received the Paul Ehrlich and Ludwig Darmstaedter Prize, the most distinguished award in biomedical research in Germany, and also the Gairdner Award for his identification of the detailed structure and function of the ribosome.
- In 2007, Elliot Aronson, professor emeritus of psychology, received the William James Fellow Award for lifetime achievement from the Association for Psychological Science.
- In 2006, associate professor of history Pedro Castillo was appointed to the California Council for the Humanities, an independent, nonprofit state affiliate of the National Endowment for the Humanities.
- In 2006, Jean Langenheim, professor emerita and research professor of ecology and evolutionary biology, received the Fellows Medal of the California Academy of Sciences and a Centennial Award from the Botanical Society of America.
- David Haussler, professor of biomolecular engineering and director of UCSC’s Center for Biomolecular Science and Engineering (CBSE), won the World Technology Award in the IT software category in 2005 in San Francisco. Carnegie Mellon University awarded its prestigious 2005 Dickson Prize in Science to Haussler.
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