In honor of UC Santa Cruz’s upcoming 60th anniversary year, UC Santa Cruz Magazine editors and designers dug through the archives to present some notable campus milestones and achievements during each of the university’s six decades.
During the 2015–2024 decade, we discovered significant recognitions for the campus, faculty, students, and alumni; legacies established with openings and namings; momentous gifts that will resound for generations; research breakthroughs that put UC Santa Cruz on the world stage; historic events; and more.
Put on your best Slug pride gear, close your eyes and imagine your favorite misty trail through the redwoods, and take a tour with us through the years.
Research breakthroughs
Confronting COVID
From developing faster tests to building prediction models for the spread of the infection, campus researchers applied their skills in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. The campus also expanded COVID-19 testing during one of the pandemic’s early surges to support community needs. A gift from longtime supporters Bud and Rebecca Colligan increased testing capacity and helped fund a new, dedicated space to house the diagnostic lab at the Westside Research Park.
Human genome leaps
Karen Miga, assistant professor of biomolecular engineering, was among the leaders of an international team of scientists that completed the first gapless sequence of the human genome. (Photo by Carolyn Lagattuta)
In 2022, UCSC researchers co-led an international team to sequence the first complete, gapless sequence of a human genome—a landmark for science. Parts of the human genome that became available to study for the first time are important for understanding genetic diseases, human diversity, and evolution.
The following year, UC Santa Cruz scientists, along with a consortium of researchers, released the first human “pangenome,” which better represents human genetic diversity—and ultimately could help to diagnose disease and guide treatments.
And later in 2023, scientists completed the first full sequence of a human Y chromosome, completing the set of end-to-end human chromosomes and helping researchers to better understand human reproduction, evolution, and population change.
Significant recognitions
Pulitzer pride
Alumni Martha Mendoza and William Finnegan took home 2016 Pulitzer Prizes for public service and biography, respectively. Alumnus Andrew E. Kramer won in 2017 as part of a team of New York Times reporters and editors that published an investigative series on Russia’s covert projection of power. Alumnus Jeffrey Conrad Stewart won in 2019 for biography. Alumna Julia Calderone won in 2021 as part of a team of New York Times reporters and editors that published a package of stories about the coronavirus pandemic. Lookout Santa Cruz, founded by alumnus Ken Doctor (Merrill ’71, sociology), won in 2024 for breaking news coverage of the devastating floods that hit Santa Cruz County in January 2023.
Breakthroughs and increased prominence
Biologist Harry Noller won the prestigious $3 million Breakthrough Prize in 2017 for his discoveries about the ribosome, the tiny structure of the cell that Noller called the “mothership of life.”
In 2019, UC Santa Cruz joined some respected company when it was elected to the prestigious Association of American Universities, a membership limited to institutions at the forefront of scientific inquiry and educational excellence.
In 2022, UCSC joined with 19 leading universities to form the Alliance of Hispanic Serving Research Universities, aiming to increase Hispanic doctoral students and the Hispanic professoriate. Later that year, the campus earned the prestigious Seal of Excelencia certification for its work as a Hispanic-Serving Institution.
Emmy eminence
Alumna Martha Mendoza, a two-time Pulitzer Prize winner, won an Emmy for her work on the documentary Kids Caught in the Crackdown. And alumna Maya Rudolph won two Emmy awards—one for her impression of former California senator and then–Democratic vice presidential candidate Kamala Harris on Saturday Night Live, the other for her voice-over work in the animated Netflix series Big Mouth.
Slug excellence
Alumna Garima Desai became UC Santa Cruz’s first Rhodes Scholar in 2020.
And in 2023, alumna Kathryn Sullivan—who was the first American woman to walk in space, the first woman to reach the deepest point of the ocean floor, and the only person ever to do both—was enshrined in the National Aviation Hall of Fame in Washington, D.C.
Openings and namings
Campus expands, renovates
In 2016, UC Santa Cruz opened its Silicon Valley Campus, showcasing the new multidisciplinary teaching and research hub.
In 2017, the Quarry Amphitheater was ready to rock again after an $8 million renovation brought the storied amphitheater back to life. Also that year, UC Santa Cruz’s new Coastal Biology Building—part of an evolving Coastal Science Campus—opened for the business of studying and researching coastal sustainability.
In 2023, UC Santa Cruz’s Institute of the Arts and Sciences opened state-of-the-art, off-campus galleries to showcase its groundbreaking exhibitions and programs, highlighting the work of major national and international artists and drawing a focus on the arts and social justice.
Naming for inspiration, representation
Wisdom Cole (Oakes ’15, chemistry), national director of the NAACP Youth and College Division, addressing the crowd at the dedication of John R. Lewis College. (Photo by Carolyn Lagattuta)
In 2016, the former College Eight became Rachel Carson College, recognizing the environmental pioneer and celebrating the first college at UC Santa Cruz to be named in 35 years—and the first named after a woman.
College Ten became John R. Lewis College in spring 2022—and the campus committed to the hard work to live up to the “extraordinary honor and responsibility” of naming the living-and-learning community for the late congressman and civil rights icon.
Also in 2022, the campus’s Research Center for the Americas was named in honor of social justice icon Dolores Huerta, whose legacy has influenced the center’s work and values.
Transformative gifts
Photographic memories
In 2016, UC Santa Cruz received the largest gift in campus history at that time—the photography collection of Pirkle Jones and Ruth-Marion Baruch, plus works by Ansel Adams, Dorothea Lange, and Edward Weston. The extraordinary archive of photographs documenting California in the mid-20th century was worth an estimated $32 million.
Fear and loathing at UC Santa Cruz
Hunter S. Thompson Archives at McHenry Library (photo by Miranda Powell)
Hunter S. Thompson Archives at McHenry Library (Photo by Miranda Powell)In 2018, Special Collections & Archives received an 800-volume collection of works by famed author and journalist Hunter S. Thompson.
Uplifting a generation
The late alumnus Richard “Rick” Sabatte established a scholarship fund with an estimated $20 million gift that will provide full four-year scholarships and living expenses to hundreds of student-scholars with demonstrated financial need over the next three decades. The donation was the single largest monetary gift the university has ever received.
Leadership shifts
In 2019, Chancellor George Blumenthal, whose career at the University of California has spanned more than 47 years, retired. In July of that year, Cynthia Larive, a professor of chemistry and the executive vice chancellor at UC Riverside, took office as UC Santa Cruz’s 11th chancellor.
Historic events
The big 5-0 … and the big 6-0
In 2015, UC Santa Cruz turned 50, celebrating with a yearlong commemoration of its trailblazing history and groundbreaking impact on the world. In 2024, the campus began preparations to celebrate its 60th.
Farewell to a great friend
In 2020, engineer and philanthropist Jack Baskin died at age 100. Baskin was an entrepreneur and major philanthropic supporter of UC Santa Cruz and the Santa Cruz community.
Fire on the mountain
In August 2020, the CZU Lightning Complex fire—sparked by a dry lightning storm— scorched nearly 80,000 acres in the Santa Cruz Mountains, destroyed hundreds of homes, and forced more than 70,000 people to evacuate. With the wildfire coming within a mile of campus, over a thousand students, staff, and faculty were evacuated from their homes on campus and in the surrounding communities, and some lost their homes.
Creating change, from the molecular level up
In 2020, UC Santa Cruz welcomed its first Nobel laureate to the faculty—eminent biologist Carol Greider, known for her pioneering work on telomeres and for her powerful advocacy for increasing women and minorities in the sciences.