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Tag: University of California at Santa Barbara
UCSB — The Current — ‘Early complex life clung to oxygenated seafloors for hundreds of millions of years’ and more news, events
The oldest eukaryotes that have been found lived exclusively on the seafloor and already used oxygen. The discovery overturns certain long-held assumptions about the group while corroborating others.
Read more about the discovery
UCSB — The Current — ‘Yuheng Bu seeks a better way to ensure the trustworthiness of AI-generated text’ and more news, events
The assistant professor of computer science has received a prestigious Early CAREER Award from the National Science Foundation for his project to advance watermarking.
UCSB — The Current — ‘Global studies professor wins Fulbright to study energy geopolitics in Taiwan’ and more news, events
Jia-Ching Chen will spend a year in Taiwan on a Fulbright U.S. Scholar Award to study geopolitical intersections of energy transition and environmental governance.
Read more about Chen’s research
UCSB — The Current — ‘Zoot Suit with Live Orchestra (May 8)’ and more news, events
Friday, May 8
A screening of the 1981 landmark adaptation by Luis Valdez features accompaniment by a live orchestra.
UCSB — The Current — ‘On Fire Talk: Mass Deportation as Racial Engineering (May 7)’ and more news, events
Thursday, May 7
Ahilan T. Arulanantham of the UCLA School of Law discusses the role of race discrimination in immigration and refugee policy.
UCSB — The Current — ‘Clean’ beauty products for textured hair often contain hidden hazards’ and more news, events
New research suggests that for consumers with textured hair, the “clean” label may not always equal “chemical-free.”
UCSB — The Current — ‘How information disorder shapes global politics’ and more news, events
n a media environment where creating content and spreading false or misleading material is easy, perception is everything. Political scientist Julia Morse examines how these dynamics play out in the international arena.
UCSB — The Current — ‘To advance quantum technology, miniaturization is the name of the game’ and more news, events
UC Santa Barbara’s Top News & Featured Events
April 9, 2026
? Top News
Daniel Blumenthal in his lab
To advance quantum technology, miniaturization is the name of the game
Daniel Blumenthal’s research group is working to shrink large lasers, optical components and quantum optical light-matter experiments down to the size of a deck of cards.
UCSB — The Current — ‘Using mechanical inputs to enhance quantum states in sensors’ and more news, events
Researchers in Ania Bleszynski Jayich’s lab use a mechanical resonator to enable greater entanglement for potentially more powerful sensors.
Read more about the diamonds
UCSB — The Current — UCSB professors honored by the American Association for the Advancement of Science and more news, events
The organization has elected Shelly Gable, David Morrison, Javier Read de Alaniz and Kelly Caylor to its 2025 class of fellows.
UCSB — The Current — ‘New study explores links between early-life gut microbiome and neurodevelopment’
Researchers join an international effort to better understand early biological influences on neurodevelopment.
UCSB — The Current — ‘Regional leaders discuss education, industry, energy and housing’ and more news, events
At a partnership summit hosted by the nonprofit REACH, leaders from across Santa Barbara and San Luis Obispo counties convened on campus with an eye toward collaboration and innovation.
UCSB — The Current — ‘New dashboard maps bike safety across Santa Barbara County’ and more news, events
The Santa Barbara County Active Transportation Dashboard brings together bike and pedestrian safety data to reveal patterns, trends and hotspots for collisions and near-misses across the county.
UCSB — The Current — ‘Tiffany Chung’s exhibition at the AD&A Museum maps history within deep geological time’ and more news, events
The first comprehensive museum survey of the Vietnamese American artist brings together more than 70 works spanning 25 years of research-driven practice.
Read more about the exhibition
UCSB — The Current — ‘Could quantum computers protect privacy and security?’ and more news, events
With a new NSF award, computer science associate professor Prabhanjan Ananth will study the foundations of quantum computing as a cryptographic tool.
UCSB — The Current — ‘Hair-width LEDs could replace lasers — and a UCSB doctoral student is helping make it happen’ and more news, events
New research co-authored by Roark Chao demonstrates a new micro–light-emitting diode design that improves both efficiency and beam directionality.
UCSB — The Current — UCSB historian (Mario T. García) publishes testimonio of consequential Chicano artist Rupert García
The book by Mario T. García, a distinguished professor of Chicano/a studies and of history, is the first comprehensive text on Rupert García’s life and art.
UCSB — The Current — ‘Moving beyond money to measure the true value of Earth science information’ and more news, events
Researchers have mapped out methods for assessing its societal benefits, an effort that could lead to more effective uses of remote sensing technology while increasing benefits to people at large.
UCSB — The Current — ‘UCSB scientists bottle the sun with liquid battery’ and more news, events
A new bio-inspired molecule captures solar energy and releases it as heat on demand, outperforming lithium-ion batteries.
UCSB — ‘UCSB among the world’s most influential research universities for science impact’ and more news, events
The campus ranks first among U.S. public universities, third among all U.S. institutions and seventh worldwide for scientific impact.
UCSB — The Current — Special Edition: Celebrate International Day of Women and Girls in Science
While social media addiction hasn’t been officially recognized as a mental health condition, it shows up in brain scans, according to Kylie Falcione, a graduate student at UCSB’s Media Neuroscience Lab.
UCSB — The Current — ‘Mexican-American Dreamer Julissa Arce wins Luis Leal literary award’ and more news, events
“In today’s environment, it’s a community win that our writing and work in Chicano literature is recognized at this level,” said Arce, who will formally receive the award Thursday, Feb. 4.
Read more about Arce’s writing
UCSB — The Current — ‘How ‘Clueless’ used costumes to create its characters’ and more news, events
The iconic looks for the 1995 classic comedy, created by costume designer Mona May, helped define a generation and solidified fashion as a key character in the story.
UCSB — The Current — ‘Faculty Research Lecturer Alan Liu ponders ‘good’ knowledge in the age of AI’ and more news, events
The English professor discusses how AI judgement, good or bad, can reflect knowledge and social values when implemented in our personal, work and public life.
UCSB — The Current — ‘Old diseases return as settlement pushes into the Amazon rainforest’ and more news, events
The growing border between forested and urban areas is causing an alarming uptick in human cases of yellow fever, a disease that had become rare in South America.
UCSB — The Current — ‘Even brief lapses in attention can weaken memory’ and more news, events
UCSB — The Current — Scientists create a system for tracking underwater blackouts and more news, events
Marine science professor Bob Miller helped create the first framework to identify and compare marine blackouts, which can severely impact kelp forests, seagrass beds and other light-dependent marine life.
UCSB — The Current — ‘$750,000 Schmidt Sciences grant uses AI to transform Black press archives’ and more news, events
While searching for exoplanets, scientists observe the first-ever impacts between large objects in a nearby star system.
Read more about the discovery
UCSB — The Current — A stormy ocean voyage yields insights on the global carbon cycle
Scientists overcame storms and bureaucratic setbacks to investigate the ocean’s carbon cycle, revealing more about how tiny organic particles, known as marine snow, transport carbon.
UCSB — The Current — ‘NIH backs UCSB virtual reality project to help older adults build real social connections’ and more news, events
The $3.8 million grant supports professors Tamara Afifi and Nancy Collins in their research goals: extending lifespan and improving quality of life.
UCSB — The Current — ‘¡David Avalos, Presente!’ at UCSB’s Art, Design & Architecture Museum on Dec. 5
The Art, Design & Architecture Museum hosts a celebration of the late artist’s legacy and his impact on the Chicano Art Movement in California.
UCSB — The Current — ‘ParalympicsGB makes UCSB its training base for LA 2028’ and more news, events
Slated for summer 2028, in the runup to the Paralympic Games in Los Angeles, the team’s Preparation Camp at UCSB is expected to be one of its largest ever.
UCSB — The Current — ‘New student housing projects at UCSB progressing on schedule’ and more news, events
The East Campus project won approval from the UC Regents in their November meeting, while the San Benito project, under construction since May, is on track for completion in 2027.
UCSB — The Current — Big Bang Beat L.A.: Environmental Communications and the city as canvas and more news, events
The Art, Design & Architecture Museum revisits the visionary 1970s collective Environmental Communications, whose multi-media documentation of Los Angeles reimagined the city as a living ecosystem — and reshaped how we see the built environment today.
Read more about the exhibition
UCSB — The Current — ‘Hotter than your average spa: Rising temps in Amazon lakes sound alarm over climate change’ and more news, events
UCSB researchers contribute to an international account of extreme droughts and water temperatures in the Amazon basin.
UCSB — The Current — ‘Vast collection of historic American music released via UCSB Library partnership with Dust-to-Digital Foundation’ and more news, events
Thousands of rare and uniquely American songs from the Jazz Age and the Great Depression are available for free listening.
UCSB — The Current — ‘Michael Gurven reframes aging as evolutionary success’ and more news, events
In his new book, the anthropologist redefines aging as an evolutionary achievement, challenging a youth-obsessed culture to see the later decades of life as vital to our collective survival.
UCSB — The Current — ‘Poet Robert Krut on the oblivion between tectonic plates’ and more news, events
Krut, who teaches in the Writing Program and the College of Creative Studies, draws inspiration from Raymond Carver and the Beat Poets for his new book.
UCSB ‘The Current’ — ‘Why Classic Maya cities rose and fell’ and more news, events
The forces that precipitated the rise and fall of ancient urban centers echo in today’s urban challenges.
UCSB — The Current — ‘How artistic research preserves cultural memory and care’ and more news, events
Artist Kim Garcia’s new LA show “Tender Material” connects family stories with Philippine cultural history.
UCSB — The Current — ‘Novel membrane gel from UCSB offers new tool for breast cancer research’ and more news, events
Researchers created an algae-based gel for studying mammary epithelial cells, which form milk-producing ducts and glands in healthy breast tissue and can transform into cancer cells.
UCSB — The Current — ‘Hotshots, history and the human choices behind megafires,’ more news, events
In his book “When It All Burns,” Jordan Thomas sets out to answer a straightforward question: What led to today’s megafires? What emerged was an immersive account of a changing world.
UCSB — The Current — ‘UCSB praised for excellence, access and value in national rankings’ and more news, events
Painting a rich picture of a campus known for its innovative spirit, dynamic culture and vibrant community, a host of recent rankings uphold UC Santa Barbara’s status as a leading university across a range of categories.
UCSB — The Current — ‘Chip-scale cold atom and trapped ion experiments can unleash the power of quantum science in the field’ and more news, events
Researchers are working to bring highly sensitive quantum experiments outside of the laboratory.
UCSB — The Current — ‘UCSB physics professors John Martinis and Michel Devoret win 2025 Nobel Prize in Physics’
Selected for the honor alongside UC Berkeley physicist and former advisor John Clarke, they were lauded for work that, according to the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences, “revealed quantum physics in action.”
UCSB — The Current — ‘Modern Mexican printmaking at UCSB’ and more news, events
“Mexican Prints” at the Art, Design & Architecture Museum features José Clemente Orozco, David Alfaro Siqueiros, Rufino Tamayo, and fellow artists who shaped 20th-century printmaking.
UCSB — The Current — ‘Welcome home, Gauchos’ and more news, events
From move-in activities to a first-ever spirit rally, UC Santa Barbara kicks off a new year with a week’s worth of fun.
The Current — ‘UCSB-designed soft robot intubation device could save lives’ and more news, events
The innovative tool, designed specifically for non-expert users, improves airway access and raises survival odds in critical medical emergencies.