@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

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

Neighbors! Get the scoop on what your local Nobel laureate is working on now to reveal the roots of cancer and other diseases. Our NEW "Science in the Neighborhood" public lecture series kicks off w/ UCSC's Carol Greider! Sign up now. It's free and starts at 6pm on Dec. 11 at our coastal campus 🌊

Our Degree-Defining Experiences program at @ucscscience.bsky.social is now a year old, and the results have been transformational! As Zimin Cohen puts it: “This is the kind of science I want to do.” Read more: news.ucsc.edu/2025/11/degr...

Twenty-five UC Santa Cruz researchers earned a spot on the 2025 Highly Cited Researchers, placing their work among the top 1% most cited globally. The list included faculty and staff from across @baskinengineering.bsky.social, @ucscscience.bsky.social and @ucscgenomics.bsky.social ⬇️

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...

It’s Giving Day at UC Santa Cruz! Support high-impact science by giving to the projects that inspire you most. With 40+ initiatives in the Science Division, from student experiences to equity and access, every gift makes a difference. See all projects here: sites.google.com/ucsc.edu/giv...

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...

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...

It was very inspiring last night to hear from @ucscscience.bsky.social professor @roxannebeltran.bsky.social about her research, in which she uses tagged seals to explore our oceans. Just fourteen tagged seals can provide detailed data on 1% of the entire 3D volume of the world’s oceans every year!

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...

"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 👏🏾👏🏼👏

Congratulations to NEXTies Earth + Sea winners: UCSC professor Andrew Fisher won the "Brainwave Award" for his work as a scientist in the field of hydrogeology, and Darryl Wong and Gage Dayton shared the honor of winning the "Big Idea Award" for their environmental project work. 🏆👏

From @ucscscience.bsky.social, Danny Cruz (Porter, biomolecular engineering and bioinformatics) is a Cellular and Molecular Biology Ph.D. Student at the University of Michigan, and Ciara Bolt (Kresge, B.S. Molecular, Cell and Developmental Biology) is a research associate at Natera.

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-...

Congratulations to Fitnat Yildiz, distinguished professor of microbiology and environmental toxicology at UC Santa Cruz, for receiving $7.7 million in funding from the NIH to conduct precision research aimed at preventing cholera – a global health problem. Read more: news.ucsc.edu/2025/10/yild...

New research from UCSC’s Center for Coastal Climate Resilience puts a dollar value on the storm protection mangroves provide—showing they reduce hurricane property damages by millions to billions. Read more: news.ucsc.edu/2025/10/mang...

Nobel laureate Carol Greider has been named an @americancancersoc.bsky.social Professor 🎉 Her work at @ucsantacruz.bsky.social aims to overcome longstanding barriers to new cancer treatments—understanding how telomere length is regulated and accurately measuring it. 🔗 news.ucsc.edu/2025/10/grei...

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

Just one year after graduating from UC Santa Cruz, Ciara Bolt (Kresge ’24, MCD biology) is thriving as a research associate at Natera, a global leader in cell-free DNA testing. “UCSC greatly prepared me for my career path,” Bolt said. Read the full article: news.ucsc.edu/2025/09/ciar...

A powerful gathering at the Communicating Climate Solutions Symposium in mid-September, hosted by UCSC's Science Communication Program and the Center for Coastal Climate Resilience, focused on how we share and shape solutions to climate challenges. 🌍 Read more: news.ucsc.edu/2025/09/crea...

🌊🌍 This Friday, Oct 3, at the Seymour Center, the NEXTies: Earth + Sea honors the environmental pioneers who’ve made Santa Cruz a leader in climate resilience, including amazing UC Santa Cruz faculty and staff. Don’t miss it! 🎟️ seymourcenter.ucsc.edu/calendar_eve...

🌫️ UC Santa Cruz researchers Peter Weiss-Penzias and Eyal Rahav have recently been awarded a $737k grant from the Heising-Simons Foundation to find out what’s really in the fog that rolls across California’s coast and how a warming climate might affect it. Learn more: bit.ly/42cycyu

When the new year starts, we come out as one to greet new first-year and transfer students. A warm hello helps them feel seen, supported and stoked about their young journey in the sciences. The chats b/w the students and folks across our division was a true warm-up for the start of classes today!

Out @ Friday Harbor Labs with our drone team conducting intertidal habitat surveys for colleagues from @ucscscience.bsky.social as part of an @waseagrant.bsky.social project. Back to Seattle tomorrow. #drone #drones #dronesforconservation

Congratulations to Valery Ortiz, currently a graduate student at the Scripps Research Institute (@scripps.edu) and former undergraduate in my lab @ucscscience.bsky.social @ucsantacruz.bsky.social, funded through the ACCESS and MARC programs run by the STEM Diversity Program!🥳🎉🎊

Our new paper on population genomics of black surfperch. I am incredibly happy, decades in the making.... onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...

On Oct. 3, the Seymour Marine Discovery Center and Event Santa Cruz will host "The NEXTies: Earth and Sea," an evening celebrating the environmental pioneers who’ve made Santa Cruz a leader in climate resilience. Submit your nominations by Aug. 3 & get tickets: seymourcenter.ucsc.edu/calendar_eve...

Weather and the Whale is a major exhibition project featuring immersive displays of original science research and newly commissioned contemporary artworks at UC Santa Cruz @ucscscience.bsky.social #sciart

Just saw the exciting news that Enrico Ramirez-Ruiz (prof at @ucscscience.bsky.social and my PhD advisor) was named the president of the @astrosociety.org!! 🎉🔭 news.ucsc.edu/2025/06/enri...

A new UC Santa Cruz study found that horizontal "living levees" - gently sloped, planted barriers - can protect against rising seas and storm surge when added in front of existing levees. @ucscscience.bsky.social #naturebasedsolutions #sanmateo #sealevelrise Illustration: Punto Aparte 🧵 1/3

Here’s a pic for @ucscscience.bsky.social

94% of California's Chinook salmon die on their way to sea. A UCSC-led team has created a playbook to help water managers adjust flows—timing, temp, volume—to boost survival and restore balance in human-managed waterways. #salmon #conservation Read more: news.ucsc.edu/2025/07/faci...

Upasna Sharma, professor of molecular, cell, & developmental biology at UCSC, has received the 2025 McKnight Foundation neurobiology award, which will advance her research on how a father’s life experiences & environment can influence the health of his future children. news.ucsc.edu/2025/07/upas...

What can a 28-eyed jellyfish teach us about the ~wild~ evolution of vision? 👀🧬 Genomics Institute affiliate @aidemm.bsky.social and collaborators have sequenced the genome of a rare 28-eyed jellyfish to find out! news.ucsc.edu/2025/06/jell...

Genome BC is expanding environmental DNA monitoring across British Columbia—particularly in remote and Indigenous communities. One of the tools they're investing in is eDNA Explorer—a genomics platform that began as a research project at UC Santa Cruz and is led by ecology professor Rachel Meyer.

Congrats Carli and Jason on your #ASMS2025 awards!! 🥳😎🤩 @ucscscience.bsky.social

It’s Genome June at the Santa Cruz Museum of Natural History— in partnership with the UCSC Genomics Institute! Check out the line up of events throughout the month, most of which feature UC Santa Cruz scientists, researchers, and genomics experts. 🦣🧬🐺🌲 santacruzmuseum.org/series/genom...

Check us out at #ASMS2025 at our posters, Carli is also speaking during the Tuesday Night Young Mass Spectrometrist workshop @ucscscience.bsky.social Find me if you want a sweet Sanchez Lab logo sticker

A team of scientists, artists, engineers, and students have joined forces at UC Santa Cruz to help promote the use of stored rainwater as a resource for growing food close to home. news.ucsc.edu/2025/05/inno...

Congrats to Dr. Anne Dattilo, a @ucscscience.bsky.social student with Prof. Natalie Batalha, who got her PhD this afternoon! She is an expert in exoplanet demographics, with a focus on sub-Neptunes.

@ucscscience.bsky.social at #CBBADay2025 #Sluglife #noknownpredators thanks for hosting Cal, great day of chemical biology and professional presentations!

Congratulations to this year’s UCSC Science Distinguished Alumni! Enjoy these “then and now” photos spanning back as far as 1989, and read more about the winners and their accomplishments here: news.ucsc.edu/2025/04/the-...

One of my favorite papers of my career is out in @science.org Science Advances, and we're on the cover! In this study, we introduce a new ecological process called keystone interdependence, where the loss of one keystone species can extend across ecosystems to indirectly affect another... (1/8)

First study from my new grad lab in marine mammal brain and behavior @marmamsci-ncf.bsky.social : www.nature.com/articles/s41.... They said our beat keeping sea lion (UC Santa Cruz Pinniped Lab's Ronan) wasn't as good as humans. Oh realllly? Master's student Carson Hood did the hard work on this one

In a literal head-to-hand competition that explores the fascinating field of “biomusicality,” the smart and playful California sea lion at UC Santa Cruz named Ronan has proven her rhythm is just as precise—if not better—than us humans. Read more: news.ucsc.edu/2025/05/rona... (Photo permits #23554)

Congratulations to Beth Shapiro, UC Santa Cruz professor and acclaimed evolutionary biologist, who was elected to the National Academy of Sciences yesterday! 🏆 🤩 news.ucsc.edu/2025/04/beth...

Tomorrow 4/29 at 10:30am PST is the UC Grad Slam 2025, where UC campus champions face off to explain their graduate research in under 3 minutes! PhD candidate Jenna Myers will be representing UC Santa Cruz & presenting on her stem-cell research. Tune in and vote! gradslam.universityofcalifornia.edu

If you're a student or researcher, how are you dealing with all the uncertainty and disruption? How do the proud families who sent you to college to find your passion and make a positive impact on the world feel about it? It's so important that we hear from all of you!