Students in a summer field school in Benin uncovered centuries of history and discovered a passion for archaeology along the way. See how community-engaged research is forging career paths and new historical narratives: https://bit.ly/3XTX9fw

Need a new read? 📚 In First Contact, literature professor Zac Zimmer uses speculative fiction to interrogate colonial silences, challenge myths of “firstness,” and imagine alternative possibilities for early encounters between European explorers and Indigenous peoples: https://bit.ly/4q7RbDH

2025 has been a challenging year for science and education, but the work hasn’t stopped. Thanks to our faculty, staff, students, and supporters, UC research continues to expand knowledge, protect communities, and improve lives, and we’re celebrating nine major wins from 2025: bit.ly/4p7MqJj

In a warming world, bold solutions can’t wait. We’re leading climate solutions grounded in community partnership & equity. Inspiring Change: The Campaign for UC Santa Cruz is accelerating this work for generations to come and shaping a healthier planet for everyone: https://bit.ly/3XihNFU

A life in sound, shaped by curiosity and community 🎧 Porter alum Cuauhtemoc Martinez (’95) reflects on his journey from UC Santa Cruz to leading sound production at Warner Bros. and why mentorship matters: https://bit.ly/4rPxouF

Our creativity, curiosity, and compassion continue to move us forward, and our incredible campus community inspires the positive change we want to see in the world. Wishing you a holiday season filled with hope, kindness, and renewed possibility. 💫

In his latest book, @baskinengineering.bsky.social Professor of Computational Media Noah Wardrip-Fruin explores why Animal Crossing: New Horizons became the comfort game of 2020, and what it revealed about comfort, community, care, and capitalism: https://bit.ly/4q4ck1J

Indigenous leaders gathered at the Economic Futures Summit to reshape how we think about environmental sustainability, economics, and climate resilience, from restoring land rights to new financing tools for nonprofits. Read more: https://bit.ly/4rSEJJF

As this year’s Nobel Prizes are awarded today, our own Nobel laureate Carol Greider is reflecting on her 2009 win—and sounding the alarm. Federal cuts to research funding threaten the discoveries that make breakthroughs like hers possible. #StandUpForUC & scientific discovery: bit.ly/4qcOSjE

Resilience looks like: losing your home in a fire, then helping others rebuild theirs. Green Heart Award recipient and alumna, Tonje Switzer, earned the award for her years of service to the Santa Cruz community. Read more: https://bit.ly/4rMgugc

Three years after a devastating fire threatened the Biblioteca Amazónica in Iquitos, Peru, UC Santa Cruz Associate Professor of Latin American Literature Amanda M. Smith and her collaborators have completed the library’s first open-access digital archive.

A class that’s also a road trip? Yes, please. Photo Field Research Quarter is UC Santa Cruz is an immersive, art-filled road trip across CA, where students create work shaped by the landscapes they travel through. https://bit.ly/49PrrqY 📸Jack Chapman

Congrats to the 2025 @ucsantacruz.bsky.social iGEM team for placing 2nd at this year's iGEM competition!🥈 The team of #BaskinEngineering undergraduates developed a novel, accessible method for removing aflatoxin B1—a common microtoxin—found in fruits, nuts, rice and grains. Read on: bit.ly/4pmdjdH

Mentioned by @forbes.com! 50 student innovators at @ucsantacruz.bsky.social spent two days developing #AI powered solutions for wildfire mitigation and climate resilience at the “Reboot the Earth” hackathon co-hosted by the United Nations and #BaskinEngineering. bit.ly/4rE8iyt

🧠The brain is the most complex organ we’ve got, and our researchers are helping uncover its biggest mysteries from aging & mental health to cutting-edge work on misophonia. If you value research and education that help keep minds healthy & communities thriving, #StandUpForUC: https://bit.ly/48ChJ93

In memoriam: UC Santa Cruz honors the passing of physicist and cosmologist Joel Primack, co-developer of the cold dark matter theory and a leader in linking science with public policy. Please join us in honoring the life of a dedicated mentor and truly seminal scientist: bit.ly/4rDCZ7e

@ucscscience.bsky.social is reshaping what learning looks like, taking students down to Alaskan kelp forests, up to mountaintop observatories, and into cutting-edge cancer research labs. The skills and courage they build go far beyond graduation. Photo credit: 1. Dave Benet, 2. Sofia Orelind

We’re at the forefront of inspiring health & healthy communities. Our researchers are asking questions that lead to cures, and we’re building pathways for anyone to become a changemaker in public health. Help us continue asking bold questions for a better tomorrow: https://bit.ly/49zBNLv

We’re at the forefront of inspiring health & healthy communities. Our researchers are asking questions that lead to cures, and we’re building pathways for anyone to become a changemaker in public health. Help us continue to build a better tomorrow: https://bit.ly/49zBNLv https://bit.ly/3KmZVXl

Three fellows in the Humanities EXCEL Program partnered with local Santa Cruz organizations to gain hands-on, real-world experience. Using disposable cameras, they captured moments of creativity, confidence, service, and joy at their paid internships. Read their reflections: https://bit.ly/3JJ357H

“There’s really no evidence that having kids tethered to chairs for six hours a day is the best way to have them learn,” said Rebecca London, a professor of sociology at the University of California, Santa Cruz, who advocates for more access to recess.

UC Santa Cruz was ranked the #1 public research university in the world for highly cited researchers over the past 10 years (2014-2024) by Clarivate.

Not only did we launch the @ucsantacruz.bsky.social campaign in fine style this weekend, but I also fulfilled my lifelong dream of meeting SAMMY THE SLUG. Now the work begins, to create new projects that will transform the lives of our students and make the world a better place.

#Scialog: Early Science with the #LSST continues! Thanks to Enrico Ramirez-Ruiz @ucsantacruz.bsky.social for a terrific keynote talk, “The Calm Before the Boom: Astrophysical Transients & Stellar Stories with the Vera C. Rubin Observatory.”

"Accurate knowledge is actually far more important than the reasoning capabilities," said @ucsantacruz.bsky.social's Yuyin Zhou on the development of #AI reasoning models. Read the recap of her SRG Pillar Meeting at @ucsfci2.bsky.social.

Inspiring Change: Help us invest in expanding life-changing educational opportunities and advance world-changing ideas and solutions that benefit all of us💫

Is your school mascot genome-sequenced? 🧬 If not… maybe it’s time! 👀🧬 Big news from UCSC — researchers have just completed the first end-to-end reference genome of the Pacific banana slug 🐌🍌, an iconic resident of California’s redwood forests (and UCSC’s beloved mascot 🌲). @ucsantacruz.bsky.social

Well this is awesome. @clarivate.com has looked at the affiliations of those named “highly cited researchers” 11 years in a row. An incredible 24% listed a primary affiliation with @ucsantacruz.bsky.social - the highest of any public university on the planet. Details: clarivate.com/academia-gov...

Interested in what "Ending AIDS" means? Attend our online roundtable on Dec 3 with key voices, including Justin Perez from @ucsantacruz.bsky.social and author of Queer Emergent: Scandalous Storytelling from the Twilight of AIDS in Peru. Register today: www.eventbrite.com/e/1825853279...

Nearly every day for the past 20 years, UC Santa Cruz and NOAA scientists have waded into Scott Creek in search of endangered coho salmon. Their long-term research could hold the key to the species’ recovery across California. 🐟 Read more: news.ucsc.edu/2025/10/cali...

Thank you Andrew Olander and Shaheen @ssikandar.bsky.social for inviting me to visit the MCD Biology Department at @ucsantacruz.bsky.social! I love the insightful comments at my talk and the engaging conversations throughout. Hopefully I can come back, and maybe even get to see a real banana slug!

Can a species ‘de-evolve’? Beth Shapiro, a professor of ecology and evolutionary biology at University of California, Santa Cruz, said she finds the term to be a great way to engage more people in the concept of evolution. www.cnn.com/2025/10/30/s...

Your Giving Day gifts made a real difference—almost 2M+ in donations by 8k donors—supporting students, research, and programs that keep UC Santa Cruz moving forward. Here’s to 10 years of generosity, community, & impact 💛

It’s Giving Day at UC Santa Cruz! 🎉 You have 24 hours to make an impact and support scholarships, research, student orgs, & more. Every gift adds up + unlocks bonus funding 💙✨#give2ucsc Give now: bit.ly/43NYt6O

6,000+ exoplanets and counting—just this year. This Thursday, Nov. 6, hear from Natalie Batalha, UC Santa Cruz’s director of astrobiology & former NASA Kepler scientist, on the search for life beyond Earth. 🌌 Free talk, hybrid format, and open to all. More info here: events.ucsc.edu/event/59th-f...

Ocean sciences prof Andrew Moore @ucsantacruz.bsky.social receives AGU’s Edward A. Flinn III Award for “unselfish cooperation in research,” for decades of work w/ peers @rutgersu.bsky.social on one of the world’s most widely used community ocean models 🌊 Read more: news.ucsc.edu/2025/10/moor...

The LMB was saddened to hear of the death of #LMBAlumni Bill Scott, who was a postdoc at the LMB working with Aaron Klug from 1993-1996. During this time he won the LMB’s postdoctoral prize for outstanding research. Read more about Bill from @ucsantacruz.bsky.social: news.ucsc.edu/2025/10/in-m...

🎉 @curiossorg.bsky.social members from @ucsantacruz.bsky.social #OSPO & the #UnitedNations are collaborating on the next #RebootTheEarth #hackathon to tackle wildfire detection, response and impact solutions through #OpenSource collaboration. 📆 Nov 7-8 ℹ️ bit.ly/43Bsrec #AcademicOSPOs #AcademicSky

Ari Friedlaender, an ecologist and professor at the University of California, Santa Cruz, who monitors whale migrations, said it could be that changing ocean conditions may be pushing the whales’ prey closer to shore: insideclimatenews.org/news/2410202...

Some scholars at UC Santa Cruz are exploring what scares us and why. Michael Chemers, with the Center of Monster Studies at UC Santa Cruz explained how researchers are looking at monsters all throughout history. Watch now: www.ktvu.com/video/1732134

UC Santa Cruz innovations have been named among TIME’s Best Inventions of 2025!🚀✨

Today’s undergraduate STEM majors are tomorrow’s K-12 teachers, and Cal Teach is preparing them to transform how students see science, math, and their own potential. 🌱 This #GivingDay, your gift helps fund scholarships & training for future math + science educators: give.ucsc.edu/giving-day-2...

Over the past 60 years, marine biologists at UC Santa Cruz have studied the behavior of northern elephant seals that journey to nearby Año Nuevo Natural Reserve with help from the National Science Foundation. 🦭 Image credit: Dan Costa; photos taken under research permit NMFS 23188

" @ucsantacruz.bsky.social research has changed the world—whether it’s proving that commercial strawberry agriculture can be done organically, peering deep into space to understand our universe, or documenting the dehumanizing effects of solitary confinement." news.ucsc.edu/2025/10/from...

"Data shows that expansion of those who participate in academic science produces better science that has a wider impact." From a new research-backed defense of DEI programs published today by Needhi Bhalla @ucsantacruz.bsky.social and peers @ucsdmedschool.bsky.social and @uofmass.bsky.social 👏🏾👏🏼👏

The Class of 2024 is already leaving its mark! From public service and research labs to tech, communications, and venture capital, Slugs are making an impact across California and beyond. Read their stories in Life Beyond the Redwoods: bit.ly/4mIEgpU

Behind each new research advancement or insight at UC Santa Cruz is a passionate, dedicated team that made it all happen. Get to know five of our researchers who are committed to making the world a better place. ⬇️

Need proof that the Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History is worth preserving? Here are century-old fish preserved in essentially rum–a sweet twist that kept their DNA intact 🧬 What that DNA is telling us today is surprising even the most seasoned scientists: news.ucsc.edu/2025/10/rum-...

In the wake of Jane Goodall’s passing last week, many of our researchers here at UC Santa Cruz shared fond memories of Goodall and appreciation for her role as a champion of the natural world. Hear from a few faculty members who have been and will continue to be inspired by her legacy ⬇️

🔬Our 8-foot-tall cryoEM microscope is one of only 232 in the world—helping researchers fight influenza, RSV & more. Through global partnerships, we’re breaking down cost + distance barriers so scientists everywhere can accelerate discovery. 🌍✨ bit.ly/4nz9ml4 @ucsantacruz.bsky.social