A sediment surge after the Wenchuan Quake offers clues to mountain-building mechanics and reveals long-term hazards.
UCSB — The Current — ‘Years after an earthquake, rivers still carry the mountains downstream’ and more news, events
Tag: UCSB
UCSB — The Current — ‘University of California Annual Commitment to Address Discrimination and Harassment’ and more information
UCSB — The Current — ‘Some young suns are aligned with their planet-forming disks, others are born tilted’ and more news, events
“All young stars have these disks, but we’ve known little about their orientations with respect to the spin axis of the host stars,” said associate physics professor Brendan Bowler, senior author of a study published in Nature.
UCSB — The Current — ‘Both flexibility and persistence make some birds successful in human-made environments’ and more news, events
Corina Logan and her team tease apart the role of behavioral flexibility in great-tailed grackles’ ability to flourish in human-made environments.
UCSB — The Current — ‘How to build global community through Mexican literature’ and more news, events
Distinguished professor Sarah Poot Herrera has built a cross-border scholarly network through her research on Mexican literature, fostering collaboration, mentorship and cultural dialogue across generations and geographies.
Read more about her work
UCSB — The Current — ‘Dr. Dennis Assanis appointed as UC Santa Barbara’s next chancellor,’ and more news, events
Assanis comes to UC from the University of Delaware, where he has served as president since 2016. He will assume his role at UCSB on Sept. 1, 2025.
UCSB — The Current — ‘A nuanced model of soil moisture illuminates plant behavior and climate patterns’ and more news, events
The patterns captured in a newly developed non-linear model reveal whether plants are ‘water savers’ or ‘water spenders.’
UCSB — The Current — Could America break apart? UCSB expert explores the possibility
In his latest book, political economist Benjamin Cohen examines the global and domestic pressures driving nations, including the U.S., toward fragmentation.
UCSB — The Current — ‘Student-led sports-waste recycling initiative takes off at UCSB’ and more news, events
Thanks to a student-led sports-waste recycling program, Gauchos and visiting community members can recycle their old sports gear in the drop-off bin at the Rec Cen.
Read more about the program
UCSB — The Current — ‘What does it mean to be ‘Hapa?’ Artist Kip Fulbeck reflects on 25-year identity project’ and more news, events
An expanded exhibition at San Diego’s Museum of Us revisits Fulbeck’s landmark portraits and the evolving identities behind them.
UCSB — The Current — ‘College of Engineering named for former dean, Robert Mehrabian’ and more news, events
Mehrabian, who served as the fourth engineering dean at UCSB from 1983-1990, was responsible for major growth and advancement of the relatively young college during his tenure.
UCSB — The Current — ‘Mapping space: Largest map of the universe announced’ and more news, events
The COSMOS project, with data collected by the James Webb Space Telescope, consists of all the imaging and a catalog of nearly 800,000 galaxies spanning nearly all of cosmic time.
UCSB — The Current — ‘The atmosphere’s growing thirst is making droughts worse, even where it rains’ and more news, events
Warmer air can suck up more moisture in dry regions and dump more rain in wet regions. New research reveals that the atmosphere’s drying capacity is outpacing increases in rainfall.
UCSB — The Current — UC Santa Barbara commencement events to celebrate 7,460 graduates for 2024–2025
More than 7,400 students — a combination of both undergraduate and graduate — have declared their candidacy to earn degrees in 2025. And they’ll all be honored across nine official events over eight days.
UCSB — The Current — ‘Gender-sensitive data brings more depth to marine spatial planning’ and more news, events
New research shows that, globally, men and women tend to use the ocean in different ways, with implications for how marine spaces are used and valued.
UCSB — The Current — ‘Murphy Niu receives NSF CAREER award for quantum computing innovation’ and more news, events
The physicist and computer science assistant professor explores a hybrid approach to scalable, error-resilient quantum machines.
UCSB — The Current — ‘Ceramic artist connects Taiwan and California with Mingei folk art traditions’ and more news, events
Meiya Sidney ???, a fourth-year College of Creative Studies and art honors student, shares her ceramic practice shaped by summers in Taiwan.
UCSB — The Current — ‘Community science helps reveal population growth among SoCal’s endangered giant sea bass’ and more news, events
Photos from the diving community document around 1,200 adult giant sea bass as the species slowly recovers from decades of overfishing.
UCSB — The Current — ‘Making automation more human through innovative fabrication tools’ and more news, events
With support from a new NSF CAREER Award, Jennifer Jacobs is developing more intuitive, human-centered digital fabrication tools.
UCSB — The Current — ‘Jason De León to speak on May 15,’ and more news, events
The scholar and National Book Award-winning author explores the human consequences of U.S. immigration policies and shares stories of hope and resilience from the border.
UCSB — The Current — ‘Bridge to a Bright Future Undergraduates walk FUERTE’s wild path toward environmental careers’ and more news, events
Building future careers in STEM, students in the FUERTE program travel to the Eastern Sierra to explore nature, gain field experience and learn from top scientists.
Read more about FUERTE in this special multimedia feature.
UCSB — The Current — ALL-VIDEO EDITION: Press Play on Our Research Rewind
Restoring Dunes to Protect Shores
Marine Science Institute researchers have found that restored dunes at Santa Monica Beach can help protect that section of California’s coast from the severe storms and sea-level rise that come with a warming ocean.
Watch to learn about dune restoration
UCSB — The Current — ‘Coralations’ Q&A with author Melody Jue and more news, events
Author Melody Jue, an associate professor of English, departs from common coral narratives in her new collection of essays.
Read more about the book
UCSB — The Current — ‘Alcohol marketing ushered in a golden age of drinking in America’ and more news, events
Cultural historian Lisa Jacobson’s new book tells the complicated and fascinating story of how alcoholic beverages morphed from disreputable habit to ubiquitous facet of American life.
UCSB — The Current — UCSB to host second annual AI Spring Symposium and more news, events
The virtual sessions, which are open to anyone, will tackle topics like chatbots, AI in clinical medical practice and college students’ use of ChatGPT.
UCSB — The Current — Giovanni Batz wins book prize for ‘The Fourth Invasion’ for more news, events
Distilling more than a decade of ethnographic research, the book examines ongoing resource exploitation in Guatemala by multinational corporations that fund and operate hydroelectric projects.
Read more about the “invasion”
UCSB — The Current — ‘New microCT machine unites biologists and materials scientists’ and more news, events
World Music Series
Wednesday, April 16
Los Catanes del Norte will perform music from different regions in Mexico including corridos, rancheras, and boleros norteños.
UCSB — The Current — ‘Scientists discover that fruit fly larvae can sense electric fields’ and more news, events
New research demonstrates that fruit fly larvae navigate toward the negative electric potential using a small set of sensory neurons in their head.
UCSB — The Current — ‘Transparency in government is good for global health’ and more news, events
A field experiment conducted with cities in China demonstrates that an increase in government transparency causes decreases in pollution, with meaningful effects on health.
UCSB — The Current — ‘How feminist witch studies redefine magic and power’ and more news, events
In “The Witch Studies Reader,” scholars Jane Ward and Soma Chaudhuri introduce feminist witch studies, exploring how witchcraft functions as a site of power, persecution and decolonial critique.
UCSB — The Current — ‘Visibility, inclusivity and community: UCSB Women’s Center celebrates 50 years’ and more news, events
Five decades after its founding, the support the center provides — and the community it has cultivated — are as crucial now as they were in 1975.
UCSB — The Current — ‘In Sameer Pandya’s ‘Our Beautiful Boys,’ teenage secrets are the dark heart of suburbia’ and more news, events
The professor’s new novel weaves a tale where truth is slippery, race and class are in flux, and the past refuses to stay buried.
Read more about the book
UCSB — The Current — ‘Sharks are dying at alarming rates, mostly due to fishing. Retention bans may help’ and more news, events
A team led by UCSB researchers highlights the importance of monitoring shark populations and combining different strategies for managing their numbers.
UCSB — The Current — ‘Award-winning documentary explores the unfinished tale of DDT’ and more news, events
The film details Professor David Valentine’s discovery and investigation, with Los Angeles Times reporter Rosanna Xia, of toxic waste dumping off the Southern California coast.
Read more about “Out of Plain Sight”
UCSB — The Current — ‘Spanish-language writers and the making of a U.S. literary tradition’ and more news, events
Professor Emeritus Víctor Fuentes’ new book, “Florilegio,” traces centuries of Spanish-language literature in the U.S. — spanning from the 16th to the mid-20th century — revealing a deep and often overlooked literary tradition.
UCSB ‘The Current’ — ‘Avocado cultivation’s ancient origins hold lessons for a changing climate’ and more news, events
Anthropologists Amber VanDerwarker and Doug Kennett present new research about the history of avocado domestication, highlighting a popular tree crop of major economic importance.
UCSB — The Current — ‘Empathic education’ may unlock STEM learning success for all and more news
Professor Sharon Tettagah demonstrates how considering learner preferences for receiving educational content can create a more inclusive and effective educational experience.
UCSB — The Current — ‘Topological quantum processor marks breakthrough in computing’ and more news, events
Microsoft team led by UC Santa Barbara physicists unveils first-of-its-kind topological qubit, paving the way for a more fault-tolerant quantum computer.
Former Santa Barbara PASF winner Alexander Lipay takes home two Grammy Awards
Lipay won the awards for Best Classical Compendium 2024 and Best Orchestral Performance 2024 at the 67th Annual Grammy Awards ceremony in Los Angeles earlier this month alongside the Los Angeles Philharmonic and conductor Gustavo Dudamel. The awards recognized the orchestra’s recording of Revolución Diamantina, a ballet score by renowned Mexican composer Gabriela Ortiz. Lipay engineered the recording alongside his father, Dmitriy Lipay.
UCSB — The Current — ‘Predicting seasonal changes in river networks’ and more news, events
A team led by research associate Jeff Prancevic provides the first ever predictions for the dynamic flooding and emptying of stream networks.
Read more about their findings