Research impact
New grants received
FY26
$152 million
Researchers complete the largest high-resolution 3D map of the universe
Alexie Leauthaud, a professor of astronomy and astrophysics at UC Santa Cruz, is one of the leaders of an international experiment known as the Dark Energy Spectroscopic Instrument (DESI) that involves more than 900 researchers from over 70 institutions. DESI is one of the most extensive surveys of the cosmos ever conducted and finished all observations for its originally planned 3D map of the universe in April 2026.
Researchers are using that map to explore dark energy, the fundamental ingredient that makes up about 70 percent of our universe and is driving its accelerating expansion. By comparing how galaxies clustered in the past with their distribution today, researchers have traced dark energy’s influence over 11 billion years of cosmic history.
As America celebrates 250 years, history reveals conflicting notions of freedom
Historian Gregory O’Malley published a new book that uses archival materials to tell the story of David George, an enslaved man who repeatedly escaped from captivity against the backdrop of the American Revolution. O’Malley timed the release of his book just before the 250th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence, with the goal of prompting readers to rethink their notions of freedom and the values underlying the American Revolution itself. After all, David George made his final escape from slavery by running to the British Army during the Revolutionary War.
“From David George’s perspective, the rebelling Americans were not on the side of freedom,” O’Malley explained. “Living behind British lines after their escape, David George and his family feared every advance of American forces that brought the danger of re-enslavement. That’s uncomfortable for American mythology, but it’s essential to reckon with.”
NIH-funded study explores how food insecurity sets the stage for chronic disease
Researchers at UC Santa Cruz’s Center for Economic Justice and Action are conducting a multiyear study to understand how food insecurity among college students affects risk factors for the development of cardiovascular and metabolic health disorders like diabetes and high blood pressure. Amidst a national push to tackle chronic disease, this research shines a spotlight on the often-overlooked social determinants of health and will help researchers identify crucial interventions for young people.
College students often fall through the cracks in public food security programs, not only because they are no longer eligible for the National School Lunch Program, but also because they are generally excluded from Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) benefits. The team hopes the study will equip individuals, policymakers, and medical practitioners with new ways of thinking about nutrition for long-term health, providing further rationale to increase funding for programs that improve nutrition among college students.
Film exhibition bends time to help audiences envision possibilities for the future
In October 2025, acclaimed artist, filmmaker, and Distinguished Professor of the Arts and History of Consciousness Isaac Julien launched an innovative, new 10-screen film installation that unfolded within the historic rooms of Palazzo Te, a renaissance-era Italian palace.
The installation was called All That Changes You. Metamorphosis, and it featured internationally celebrated actors who appear as prophetic figures, seemingly conjured from frescoes, slipping fluidly across time and space. Julien’s work received rave reviews across the art world for how it “bridges Renaissance myth with contemporary visions of ecology, identity, and technology” to “speak across centuries about the possibility of co-existence in a damaged world.”
Misleading text in the physical world can hijack AI-enabled robots
As driverless cars and delivery robots become a familiar site in many cities, security researchers are anticipating and mitigating potential safety risks from these new technologies. Professor of Computer Science and Engineering Alvaro Cardenas and a student team found that the same AI systems that allow autonomous vehicles to read and respond to the words on a street sign may expose that car to hijacking attacks from bad actors—without hacking their software.
The project explores how these vulnerabilities may appear in different autonomous vehicles and settings, including drones and driverless cars. Cardenas’s group plans to explore how to create defenses against these kinds of attacks to ensure that operations are aligned with the robot’s mission and safety.
Directory of reforestation groups helps maximize the impact of philanthropy
Environmental Studies Professor Karen Holl and Postdoctoral Researcher Spencer Schubert launched a new global directory of reforestation organizations in partnership with nonprofit environmental media organization Mongabay. The directory provides standardized information about the public commitments and transparency of more than 125 major tree-planting organizations.
Each organization received a score for its availability of information in four main categories developed based on Holl’s prior research. Scores reflected the ecological, social, and operational factors that tend to set reforestation campaigns up for success, including efforts to follow scientific best practices, avoid common mistakes, and monitor results.The overarching goal of the directory is to help donors compare reforestation organizations in order to support those that best match the benefits they hope to achieve—from climate impact to conserving biodiversity to improving quality of life for people.
Digitization of a key library in the Amazon preserves cultural heritage
Associate Professor of Literature Amanda Smith helped preserve one the world’s most important collections of primary sources on Amazonian history, culture, and politics. At the Biblioteca Amazónica in Iquitos, Peru, maps, photographs, newspapers, and regional journals were at risk from fire, outdated electrical wiring, humidity, and rodents.
A team of graduates and current students worked with library specialists in Iquitos to preserve these resources, at least in electronic format, by developing the first open-access online archives at the Biblioteca Amazónica. Smith helped train collaborators in Peru in digitization, digital equipment, editing software, and metadata generation, and the local community was able to keep all the digitizing equipment.
Discovering the “factory settings” in our brains
Humans have long wondered when and how we begin to form thoughts: Are we born with a preconfigured brain, or do thought patterns begin to emerge only in response to our sensory experiences of the world around us? Assistant Professor of Biomolecular Engineering Tal Sharf made strides toward answering that question with a new study that finds that the earliest firings of the brain occur in structured patterns without any external experiences—suggesting that the human brain is preconfigured with instructions about how to navigate and interact with the world.
Sharf is a member of the Braingeneers group at UC Santa Cruz, which is pioneering methods to grow and take measurements from brain organoids—3D models of tissue grown from human stem cells in the lab. Their experiments provide unique insights into brain development and disorders—challenging topics for scientists to study as the early developing human brain is protected within the womb.
Art builds public engagement in ecology and environmental issues
Art Professor Jennifer Parker launched a new Arts & Ecology Festival on Earth Day 2026 at the Digital Arts Research Center at UC Santa Cruz. The festival brought together interdisciplinary research, visual and sonic practices, and performance to engage the public on environmental issues through shared experience and collaboration.
Parker’s goal was to position the arts as “essential to climate response, as a space for collective thinking, public engagement, and imagining alternative futures.” The festival was part of Parker’s OpenLab Collaborative Research Center. It was supported by the Art Department and the University of California Climate Action Arts Network, a new systemwide initiative to support creative research, scholars, students, and community partners to address the climate crisis through the transformative power of the arts.
First cases of highly pathogenic avian influenza in California marine mammals
Scientists at UC Santa Cruz and UC Davis led a statewide effort to monitor and lay the groundwork for ongoing research into an alarming outbreak of highly pathogenic avian influenza H5N1 among northern elephant seals at Año Nuevo State Park. UC Santa Cruz scientists and students in the lab of Assistant Professor Roxanne Beltran first detected symptomatic seals in February 2026.
The team then temporarily pivoted from standard research tasks to focused disease surveillance, working in close collaboration with the UC Davis Center for Pandemic Insights, the Marine Mammal Center, the California Academy of Sciences, the UC Santa Cruz Stranding Network, and multiple state agencies. The elephant seal outbreak ended on May 6. Genetic testing of the H5N1 virus revealed markers of mammalian adaptation, but luckily, the risk to humans was very low.