Selected from a global field of composers, #UCSB professor João Pedro Oliveira has received a 2025 commission from the Fromm Music Foundation at Harvard University 🎼 🌎 Born in Portugal, Oliveira is one of jusyt 12 composers worldwide in this year’s cohort. Full story: https://ow.ly/tk5550Y9EuE

UCSB grad students: Grad Slam 2026 registration deadline is TODAY. Refine your pitch and compete for the grand prize and the title of UCSB Champion: https://ow.ly/T2Rr50Y9znm

Researchers at UCSB have discovered that conditions inside small, naturally forming droplets could have accelerated the development of early life 🔍🤯 Full story: https://ow.ly/7FjH50Y8RhI

Exciting news from OCAQpi! Researchers @ucsbengineering.bsky.social @ucsantabarbara.bsky.social have advanced photonics with PZT-integrated SiN microcomb resonators. 🌟 Dive into this innovation: https://tinyurl.com/258gp9x4

From Wall Street executive to best-selling author: Julissa Arce has been awarded the 2026 Luis Leal Award for Distinction in Chicano/Latino Literature at UCSB 📚🏆 The ceremony will be held at 4 p.m. on Feb. 4 and is free. Full story: https://ow.ly/j9bV50Y7V8F

For the first time, UCSB will host Douglass Day, a transcription birthday party structured around the chosen birthday of Frederick Douglass. The collective endeavor involves transcribing and enriching a collection of digitized materials drawn from Black history: https://ow.ly/fj7k50Y7H9I

In the 1940s & '50s, books about electronic brains introduced readers to machines that were inaccessible outside of government and industrial laboratories 💻📚 In a new book #UCSB's W. Patrick McCray examines the role books played in familiarizing Americans with computers: https://ow.ly/O9xl50Y5JSo

So exciting!! Tanya is an amazing person (I was SO fortunate to have her for plate tectonics during my time at UCSB). Her stories about going to sea before women were accepted on ships are 🤯 and she's an inspiration for seagoing women scientists.

"Breakthroughs don’t happen in silos; they happen at the boundaries." — Dean Shelly Gable Kicking off the 90th Birthday Symposium for Nobel Laureate Alan Heeger. Honoring the pioneer who cemented @ucsantabarbara.bsky.social's reputation as a global titan in materials research. 🧪

Following a free screening of the now-classic film "Clueless" at UCSB's Pollock Theater, the film's costume designer and author Mona May will discuss her memorable costuming choices 👗 🛍️ Full story: https://ow.ly/zRzU50Y4CMN

UCSB's Jenni Sorkin has received a prestigious Arts Writers Grant from the Andy Warhol Foundation, supporting her her book-in-progress, "Deviant Scale: Cloth at the Body's Margins," a critical re-evaluation of textile-based art production in the U.S. between 1985 and 2000: https://ow.ly/JNeS50Y446z

It feels like AI is everywhere right now but questions surrounding its merits remain at the center of ongoing debate. #UCSB's Alan Liu will discuss "AI Virtue: What’s 'Good' Knowledge in the Age of Artificial Intelligence?" in a free event on Feb. 9. Full story: https://ow.ly/23jl50Y1RlP

#UCSB materials professor Stephen Wilson found an innovative way to engineer unusual magnetic states, which could be impactful for quantum technologies 🧲 "It's meant to probe what physics may be possible for future devices," Wilson said. Full story: https://ow.ly/oRKy50Y0PnV

Researchers at UCSB have found an alarming uptick in diseases in the Amazon basin, which could be driven by the changes in land. "These emerging infectious diseases are indicators of broader environmental issues." Full story: https://ow.ly/XtJF50Y0oUe

In a new National Science Foundation-funded study, #UCSB's Susannah Scott and her collaborators examine how a little-studied catalytic phenomenon can have outsized effects on chemical efficiency and selectivity. Full story: https://ow.ly/qn8S50XXlKC#UCSB

#UCSB researchers on an international team have created the first framework to identify and compare marine blackouts—introducing the concept of a marine darkwave 🪸 🌊 Full story: https://ow.ly/IPeX50XWUj6

A smartwatch that detects disease? Yes, it's real, thanks to #UCSB alum Deblina Sarkar's latest invention, CircTrek. Sarkar has spent her career designing impactful nanoelectronics like CircTrek, including the first-ever autonomous, nonsurgical brain implant 🧫 Full story: https://ow.ly/y3HG50XVNxM

New year, new discoveries. We are proud to welcome our newest faculty to the Division of Mathematical, Life, & Physical Sciences at @ucsantabarbara.bsky.social. 🧵 Meet the researchers joining us this year:

New UCSB research shows that drifting attention can leave "cracks" in memory 🧠📉 Experience sampling was used during a memorization task to reveal that when the mind wandered, important details were missing—meaning subtle shifts in attention can change what we remember: https://ow.ly/Q3mz50XWhaF

The most important thing tennis taught her was how to lose, says former tennis prodigy, Ania Jayich. Now a physics professor at UCSB and co-founder of the Quantum Foundry she works to create sensitive sensors from engineered defects in diamonds 💎 Full story: https://ow.ly/mRH450XU5vT

Mentored by UCSB students in the Bren Environmental Leadership fellowship & Kids in Nature program, 45 Lompoc high schoolers recently took a field trip to the Dangermond Preserve 🌿🔍 All of the UCSB students were in training to teach natural science in the great outdoors: https://ow.ly/CQh050XTvsA

Mentored by UCSB students in the Bren Environmental Leadership fellowship & Kids in Nature program, 45 Lompoc high schoolers recently took a field trip to the Dangermond Preserve 🌿🔍 All of the UCSB students were in training to teach natural science in the great outdoors: https://ow.ly/CQh050XTvsA

By merging data from the Gun Violence Archive with geolocated mobile-device data, #UCSB sociologist Masoud Movahed has quantified how gun violence affects and reduces foot traffic in impacted neighborhoods. Full story: https://ow.ly/jo8E50XSJ1I

#UCSB researchers found that exposure to hot, humid conditions during pregnancy is more dangerous than high temperatures alone 🌡️ This heat stress can even induce premature labor. Full story: https://ow.ly/ZHWq50XSff1

Aiming to give current undergraduate students a competitive edge in the job market, #UCSB has introduced a new, high-impact, no-cost career readiness initiative that integrates real-world experience and professional certification directly into their academic curriculum: https://ow.ly/36zx50XS95x

Wish you were here 🌊🏖️ Sprinkle in some holiday magic from UCSB and send these festive postcards to your friends and family to remind them that bikes and the beach are celebrated all year long when you're in Santa Barbara ✨

Faster, safer emergency intubation when every second counts: UCSB mechanical engineers invented a device that takes the guesswork out of maintaining a patient’s airway 🚑 More on this monumental invention and other discoveries out of the University of California in 2025: https://ow.ly/5FM250XMGgw

Scientists have discovered the first-ever impacts between large objects in a nearby star system 💫 "We have witnessed what we believe to be a collisional event between two comet-like bodies in the Fomalhaut system," said #UCSB's Maxwell Millar-Blanchaer. Full story: https://ow.ly/nFM050XLGnM

If reading more is one of your New Year's resolutions, #UCSB's Mona Damluji has an impactful list of suggestions for you 📚 The author shares five books that continue to shape her perspective—and remind her of the power of story to bring light, laughter and understanding: https://ow.ly/hUqb50XK2Ak

UCSB graduate students: Grad Slam 2026 registration opens on Jan. 5! The annual competition is a chance to showcase your research to a wider audience—and win some cash. The top presenter also wins an invite to present at the UC systemwide competition 🏆 Full story: https://ow.ly/49Wb50XMGsc

Wish you were here 🌊🏖️ Sprinkle in some holiday magic from UCSB and send these festive postcards to your friends and family to remind them that bikes and the beach are celebrated all year long when you're in Santa Barbara ✨

As much of the early Black press remains scattered or difficult to access, UCSB's Jim Casey is leading a project to recover and share 19th-century African American newspapers—using artificial intelligence 📰 Full story: https://ow.ly/osRA50XLvEo

A stormy ocean voyage produced a wildly productive study led by UCSB researchers, revealing important insights for our understanding of Earth’s climate 🌊 It presents some of the first findings to predict fluxes of carbon into the deep sea: https://ow.ly/WIUc50XKXZf

Throwback to #UCSB in 1976 💙 Did you know Kinko’s has roots in Isla Vista?

Shifting focus on a visual scene without moving our eyes—think driving—is a behavior known as covert attention. #UCSB researchers have uncovered the foundation of covert attention, finding new, emergent neuron types, with assistance from A.I 🧠 Full story: https://ow.ly/BAMX50XJMVP

A new study out of #UCSB found that global assessments systematically underestimate hunger—finding one in five may go uncounted. "This matters because these metrics are used to trigger funding for emergency relief." Full story: https://ow.ly/lUKP50XIC17

While social media addiction hasn’t been *officially* recognized as a mental health condition, it shows up in brain scans, according to #UCSB grad student Kylie Falcione, who works in René Weber's Media Neuroscience Lab: https://ow.ly/fA6S50XIBNE

3/ Awardee @mixotrophe.bsky.social aims to uncover how mixotrophs (marine microbes that harness energy from the 🌞 & organic matter) strategize their metabolisms. Her project may be key to understanding our changing ocean. 🎉 Congrats Dr. Moeller! @ucsantabarbara.bsky.social 🙏 #HFScout Ginger Armbrust

Thanks @thetransmitter.bsky.social for the feature! In our dementia work: 🧠 We predict cognitive decline by detecting early molecular signs. 🤖 We use LLM-augmented XAI to map key proteins to literature & accelerate biomarker discovery. @louisacornelis.bsky.social G Bernardez R Saloner K Casaletto

✨Announcing our newest awardees, who are taking scientific leaps to uncover new knowledge across microbial ecology, marine microbiology, and mammalian genetics. Learn about their projects: bit.ly/HFAwardees Meet our awardees and hear from their #HFScouts in our 🧵/1

The new issue of UC Santa Barbara Magazine is out now, with our cover story on #UCSB professors Michel Devoret and John Martinis reacting to their Nobel Prize in Physics 🎉🏆 It also features a soccer star who overcame a heart condition, marine scientist Ben Halpern & more: https://ow.ly/ArK450XIvXU

#UCSB's John Martinis & Michel Devoret officially accepted their Nobel Prize awards this week in Sweden 🤝🏅 They were selected for the prize "for the discovery of macroscopic quantum mechanical tunnelling and energy quantisation in an electric circuit." Full story: https://ow.ly/3syu50XHACH

A new $3.8 million grant from The National Institutes of Health is helping #UCSB scholars reimagine how virtual reality can support older adults who are aging at home—and the family members and professionals who care for them. Full story: https://ow.ly/em3O50XH255

For the first time ever, we're playing at ucsantabarbara ✨ More info: ussoc.cr/santabarbara

Snaring—a hunting method that uses wire, rope or cable loops to trap animals—is contributing to wildlife declines across Africa. A team of researchers led by UCSB revealed just how common the practice is, along with the major consequences. Full story: https://ow.ly/xY2150XGyXS

UCSB’s new Engineering + Technology Management Fellows Program offers undergrad engineering students guaranteed admission & a grad fellowship to the Master of Technology Management program—as well as support that adds management and entrepreneurial skills to their training: https://ow.ly/TcRA50XG1yF

Drawing on decades of fieldwork in Bulgaria, #UCSB anthropologist Elana Resnick's new book offers a rare view of how sustainability policies unfold in the daily lives of some of Europe’s most marginalized communities ♻️ Full story: https://ow.ly/IWnh50XFORs

In a step toward better understanding how the ocean sequesters carbon, new findings from UC Santa Barbara researchers and collaborators challenge the current view of how carbon dioxide is "fixed" in the sunless ocean depths 🌊 Full story https://ow.ly/ZWUz50XAZR9

On Wildlife Conservation Day, let's hear it for the frogs: Once-endangered mountain yellow-legged frogs have leaped back to life in Yosemite 🐸 A study led by #UCSB details the endeavor comprising 24 reintroductions over more than 17 years. Full story: https://ow.ly/Nfb150XC0lF

#UCSB scientists work together 🤝🏆 The Times Higher Education Interdisciplinary Science Rankings for 2026 have #UCSB at No 12. 🎉 Created to celebrate interdisciplinary science in higher education, the list includes 911 institutions from 94 countries: https://ow.ly/GPhM50XBpwn