Bryan Gaensler

UCSC professor Aide Macias-Muñoz receives a $2M grant from the NIH to investigate how jellyfish regrow their eyes. 🪼 By studying the genetics behind these complex traits, her team aims to unlock evolutionary insights that could inspire new human gene therapies. 🔬🧬 news.ucsc.edu/2026/09/jell...

We are extremely grateful to Neerav Handa, whose generous gift supports students pursuing cancer research in @ucscscience.bsky.social. The Manjusha Handa Memorial Scholarship is in memory of Neerav's wife Manjusha, who passed away from breast cancer in 2020.

I'm excited to announce that @ucscscience.bsky.social has established five new research centers! A big welcome to the Center for Marine Genomics, Geohazards Center, Materials Innovation Center, UCSC RNA Center, and Santa Cruz Center for Astrobiology! 🧪

Best 10-wicket hauls of all time in men’s Test matches: 1. GD McGrath: 10/27 (2000) 2. JM Anderson: 10/45 (2016) 3. FE Woolley: 10/49 (1912) 4. MA Starc: 10/51 (2026)

I’m very proud of my PhD student Ariel Amaral, who defended her thesis in astrophysics last week, and on Sep 1 starts her dream job as a data scientist for the Buffalo Sabres! 🧪📡🏒

I’m excited to announce that you can all now enroll now for our new online course, "Science Communication I: Sharing Science with a General Audience”, taught by the team from the renowned UC Santa Cruz Science Communication Program! It’s a 10-week course, which you can complete at your own pace.

Now hanging in my office! #bigthings

Today’s the day 😬🤖

This breakthrough result is the culmination of many years of work; I'm honored to have played a small role in it. Congratulations and thank you to Alec Thomson on his leadership!

A fantastic partnership between NVIDIA and @ucscscience.bsky.social, led by Brant Robertson, is revealing the entire history of the Universe. blogs.nvidia.com/blog/ai-gpu-...

Yesterday I got to visit @ucsantacruz.bsky.social’s newest natural reserve, Strathearn Ranch. A spectacularly beautiful 2400-acre site serves as the ultimate classroom for @ucscscience.bsky.social’s ecology undergraduate students. Truly a degree-defining experience!

A special day today at a sacred place. My first visit to the summit of Maunakea, host to some of the world’s largest telescopes, and a site of profound spiritual meaning for Native Hawaiians. Thank you to the @keckobservatory.bsky.social team for hosting our @ucscscience.bsky.social delegation.

Completely on-point analysis from @minaskar.bsky.social. Required reading for every astrophysicist (and scientist).

I was visiting this elephant seal colony just a couple of weeks ago, and the seals were healthy and happy. Now our seal researchers are literally working around the clock as a devastating virus tears through this fragile population. www.nytimes.com/2026/02/25/s...

I was visiting this elephant seal colony just a couple of weeks ago, and the seals were healthy and happy. Now our seal researchers are literally working around the clock as a devastating virus tears through this fragile population. www.nytimes.com/2026/02/25/s...

Congratulations to @ucscscience.bsky.social professor Edgar Shaghoulian, who has been named a 2026 Cottrell Scholar! This is fantastic recognition of his mind-bending work on quantum cosmology. rescorp.org/2026/02/rcsa...

Three of our @ucscscience.bsky.social superstars presented their extraordinary work to the UCSC Foundation Board today! Thanks to Rachel Meyer, Roxanne Beltran, and Elizabeth Howard for changing students lives, while at the same time finding solutions to our most pressing challenges.

Forty years ago today. We will never forget you.

Congratulations, Ray Jay! Caltech are very fortunate. Ray Jay has been an amazing mentor to so many people at every level (including me), and now he will be able to expand and propagate his vision and values at one of the world's very best institutions. www.caltech.edu/about/news/r...

The passing of University of Melbourne Vice-Chancellor Emma Johnston is shocking news. Emma was a cyclone of energy and ideas, and was an inspiration to us all. She had only just started in this role. My thoughts are with her family as they confront this unimaginable loss.

21 years ago today, I was lucky enough to get a front-row seat for the brightest explosion in history (and got the word “whoppingly" into the @nytimes.com. www.nytimes.com/2005/02/19/h...

Would you like to join an inspiring team that's helping scientists, staff, & students do extraordinary things? I'm looking for a new executive assistant in the dean's office of @ucscscience.bsky.social. Go to www.ucsc.edu/careers/ and search for job ID 83154. Initial review date is Jan 12, 2026.

Yesterday we launched @ucscscience.bsky.social’s new undergraduate research program with a fantastic planning retreat. More than 100 faculty, staff, and students came together to help design our approach and our programs!

It was a packed house for the launch of @ucscscience.bsky.social’s new “Science in the Neighborhood” public lecture series this week. No surprise given that the speaker was our superbly eloquent Nobel laureate, Professor Carol Greider.

We have lost a giant. Rest in peace, Joel.

I completely changed my listening habits this year!

After 45 years of principled resistance to polishing my shoes, I finally gave in, and OMG, it’s the most satisfying and relaxing experience ever! Why did nobody tell me about this?? What other amazing activities like this are out there?

Come hear a Nobel Laureate talk about her cutting edge research! Free and open to all.

Our Degree-Defining Experiences program at @ucscscience.bsky.social is now a year old, and the results have been transformational! As Zimin Cohen puts it: “This is the kind of science I want to do.” Read more: news.ucsc.edu/2025/11/degr...

Not only did we launch the @ucsantacruz.bsky.social campaign in fine style this weekend, but I also fulfilled my lifelong dream of meeting SAMMY THE SLUG. Now the work begins, to create new projects that will transform the lives of our students and make the world a better place.

Joel Primack was an extraordinary human being along so many axes. I treasured our interactions on so many topics, and can’t believe he’s gone. My thoughts are with Nancy, Samara, and their family. May his memory be a blessing. 🔭

Well this is awesome. @clarivate.com has looked at the affiliations of those named “highly cited researchers” 11 years in a row. An incredible 24% listed a primary affiliation with @ucsantacruz.bsky.social - the highest of any public university on the planet. Details: clarivate.com/academia-gov...

It was very inspiring last night to hear from @ucscscience.bsky.social professor @roxannebeltran.bsky.social about her research, in which she uses tagged seals to explore our oceans. Just fourteen tagged seals can provide detailed data on 1% of the entire 3D volume of the world’s oceans every year!

4.5 out of 5 stare to “On The Calculation Of Volume” (books 1 & 2) by Solvej Balle. Yes, it’s a 24-hour time loop, but this is not the fun version of Groundhog Day or the second chances take of Palm Springs, but of descents into madness. Recommended. www.goodreads.com/book/show/21...

This is amazing news! 🎉 🎊 Michele's science contributions 🔭🧪 include space missions llike NASA's Cassini, and being astronomer royal places her in an ideal position to educate and inspire the public about astronomy!

One of the greatest scientist communicators of all time has passed on. The Science Division at UCSC was so fortunate to have had Tom Lehrer on our faculty for almost 30 years. www.nytimes.com/2025/07/27/a...

The Ramans do everything in threes. 👀 arstechnica.com/space/2025/0...

4.5 out of 5 stars to “The Mercy of Gods” by James A. Corey. A great story of alien invasion and of timid scientists learning how to fight back. There is clearly lots of action and world building to come. Looking forward to the next instalment!

So grateful for our amazing staff!

UCSC put on a special “Inspire NYC” event last night in New York, hosted by our Chancellor Cynthia Larive. It was such a privilege to do a deep dive into how the brilliant minds of my @ucscscience.bsky.social colleagues Kristy Kroeker and Heather Tallis work, and I enjoyed meeting many UCSC alums.

Or in plain English: our telescope, which spans the continent, has pinpointed a flash that's 130 million light years away and that lasted for less than a millisecond, to a precision better than the size of a guitar pick viewed from 60 km away. 🤯

The dawn of a new era: the very first sub-arcsecond localization of a fast radio burst using the CHIME telescope and its outriggers. 
 Congratulations to the amazing group of students and postdocs who have led this incredible achievement over the past frenetic 11 days!