Category: Features

Empowering communities through partnership

UCSC’s Blum Center has partnered with Habitat for Humanity to amplify affordable housing opportunities in Santa Cruz. One of the project's goals is to understand how homeownership affects families in terms of things like parental and child economic stability, health,...

By Haneen Zain (Rachel Carson ’21, politics), August 2023

Splice of life: Merging RNA biology and medicine

UC Santa Cruz researchers are using their deep expertise in the structure and function of RNA molecules to tackle diseases from hemophilia to cancer.

By Sarah C. P. Williams (SciCom ’07), May 2023

Let’s ChatGPT

Artificial intelligence chatbots are all over the news these days, but what exactly are they, and what do they mean for the future of education—and humanity? UCSC experts weigh in.

By Liza Monroy, May 2023

State of the art

UCSC’s Institute of the Arts and Sciences has just opened a new climate-controlled gallery on Santa Cruz’s Westside—the first dedicated space for the institute, and a bridge between the university’s arts community and the greater Santa Cruz arts scene.

By Grace Stetson, March 2023

Monsters among us

The Center for Monster Studies at UC Santa Cruz may have a fanciful name—but its leaders say serious study of these frightful fictional beings shows how much they have to teach us.

By Lisa Renner, March 2023

A journey through Egypt’s past and present

Two UCSC professors took a group of history students to Egypt on a first-of-its-kind trip in December, making classroom lessons come alive in a life-changing experience

By Dan White, March 2023

Waves of resilience

UCSC’s emerging Center for Coastal Climate Resilience is applying scientific research to develop policy around climate change and coastal sustainability, while incorporating the campus’s ideals of social justice and collaboration.

By Liza Monroy, March 2023

Raising the bars

UC Santa Cruz’s Gateways Project provides tech-training programs in Santa Cruz jails and San Quentin State Prison, supporting incarcerated voices and aiming to reduce recidivism

By Grace Stetson, March 2023

Flight pattern

Robotics student Liam Asayag had never even thought of making a drone before—until he witnessed the war zone in Ukraine and made a low-cost prototype in a lab on campus for use by aid groups on the front lines

By Lisa Renner, November 2022