Campus & Community


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two men stand in front of a tri-fold scientific presentation
Photo Credit
Courtesy
UCSB Professor Haewon Jeong's PhD student Neel Sankaran (left) with Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory scientist Min Sang Cho (right).

UCSB, Lawrence Livermore collaborate to accelerate fusion plasma simulations with AI
a photo of servers in a stack
Photo Credit
Matt Perko

UC Santa Barbara Named 2026 AWS Champion
Mother and child in her lap
Photo Credit
Michel Chaplin
A mother and child in Bangladesh, where UCSB anthropologist Kathrine Starkweather conducted field research.

For working mothers, flexibility may not be enough
a hand cradles a lit lightbulb against a sunset sky
Photo Credit
iStock

Six UCSB junior faculty members selected for 2026 NSF CAREER awards
A truck unloads waste on a landfill as a landfill compactor moves material nearby.
Photo Credit
Djedzura via iStock
Despite the known problems with plastic, society produces more of it every year. Scientists hope that mandatory measurement and reporting can help us address the issue.

Want a solution to plastic pollution? Scientists urge UN to require global reporting
The sun bursts through the trees on UC Santa Barbara's campus
Photo Credit
Matt Perko

New fund supports student projects connecting Indigenous studies and environmental action
Iris Holzer
Photo Credit
Matt Perko
Iris Holzer's expertise in enhanced rock weathering and soil carbon storage makes her a shoe-in to help lead the IPCC methodology report.

UCSB professor to lead IPCC methodology report on carbon capture, storage and utilization
A researcher in protective gear works near a tall, cylindrical scientific instrument with visible wiring. The walls surrounding it are reflective Teflon.
Photo Credit
Matthew Kapust/Sanford Underground Research Facility
The LUX-ZEPLIN main detector in a surface lab before installation underground.

LZ sees surprising result in search for dark matter
A young scientist holds a pipette over a flask with orange liquid as another looks on.
Photo Credit
Matt Perko
Undergraduate Collin Vergel de Dios inoculates a culture to purify optogenetic proteins under the guidance of graduate student Alex Maynard.

UCSB professor lands DARPA award to develop mini DNA factories
collage of stone sculpture of David with colored organs
Photo Credit
Photo illustration by Matt Perko

How the heart, lungs and brain work together to shape experience
Satellite imagery shows the difference between current and average sea surface temperatures in the Eastern Pacific Ocean as a literal heatmap.
Photo Credit
NOAA Satellites
Sea surface temperatures in the tropical Pacific Ocean were already far higher than average by the first week of June 2026 due to El Niño.

El Niño has become more intense over last 40 years than the previous 1,000 years
Three pumpjacks silhouetted by the setting sun.
Photo Credit
TebNad via iStock
The conflict with Iran provides the perfect circumstance to usher out the era of oil and gasoline now that renewable energy is cheap and ubiquitous.

The war in Iran is the perfect opportunity to kick fossil fuels, and we’re missing it
Dolly Parton the icon with platinum blond hair helmet, blue eye shadow and yellow chiffon dress
Photo Credit
Harry Langdon; Copyright Rock Negatives / MediaPunch 2026
Dolly Parton in 1977

We’ll always love Dolly Parton, Dollyologist explains
an image of a glioblastoma tumor in the brain
Photo Credit
iStock
Glioblastoma tumors are aggressive and difficult to access for treatment

Light-triggered stress response suppresses glioblastoma spread in 3D models
a concept illustration of a person coding with AI

A field guide for the Wild West of AI-assisted science
two humans in white lab coats and hair caps are working in a lab
Photo Credit
Lili Walker
Arin Abed qualifies the newly installed semiconductor packaging equipment at UCSB's Protofab.

UCSB launches prototyping hub for packaging microchips and photonics
A white building with blue steeples and red doors lit up at night
Photo Credit
Courtesy Ensemble Theatre Company
The New Vic Theatre in downtown Santa Barbara

UCSB’s LAUNCH PAD, Ensemble Theatre Company partner on new play readings at the New Vic
An artist's impression of a runaway supermassive black hole that was ejected from its host galaxy.
Photo Credit
NASA, ESA, Leah Hustak (STScI)
The rogue super-massive black hole compresses gas in its wake, forming a long “contrail” of young, blue stars. This unusual event happened when the universe was approximately half its current age.

Physicists reconstruct the collision that launched a runaway black hole
color photo of a UCSB grad student and a local junior high teacher in the classroom
Photo Credit
Maria Zate / UCSB Gevirtz Graduate School of Education
Teacher Education Program graduate Isabella Garcia-Bernasconi (left) with La Colina Junior High School teacher Cameron Hatcher-Day

Back to school: UCSB teacher candidates assist local K-12s
a picture of smoke rising from a wildfire in the hills behind a coastal city
The Palisades Fire of January, 2025, burned watersheds in the Santa Monica Mountains, subsequently impacting water quality at several Southern California beaches

Researchers link wildfires in California’s coastal watersheds to the water quality at the beach
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