Events

A Sacred Witnessing: A Trans Day of Euphoria Event
2026-03-31 18:00 - 20:00 (America/Los_Angeles) | Diversity Center, 1117 Soquel Ave, Santa Cruz, CA, 95062, United States
Join the Cantu Queer Center and the Diversity Center for an intergenerational Trans Day of Visibility gathering rooted in euphoria, joy, and sacred witnessing. Trans, nonbinary, Two-Spirit, and gender-expansive people of all ages are invited to share their stories, create art, and witness each other’s full humanity in a moment of dangerous hypervisibility and harm to our community. The event will include intergenerational story sharing, protest sign art, gentle restorative offerings, live performance, tabling with local organizations, and light refreshments.
This event is open to students, faculty, staff, alums, and the wider Santa Cruz community.
RSVP in advance.
You Belong Here: The programs and services described here are open to all, consistent with state and federal law, as well as the University of California’s nondiscrimination policies. Every initiative—whether a student service, faculty program, or community event—is designed to be accessible, inclusive, and respectful of all identities. To learn more, please visit UC Nondiscrimination Statement or Nondiscrimination Policy for UC Publications.

FINS: Fisheries Insights Narratives and Stories seminar series featuring Dr. Randi Solhjell
2026-04-01 10:30 - 12:00 | Ocean Health Building, McAllister Way, Santa Cruz, CA, 95064
Please join us for the first talk in the FINS: Fisheries Insights Narratives and Stories seminar series featuring Fulbright Fellow Dr. Randi Solhjell. Her talk, “Managing a Fishy Business: Norway’s foreign aid and its impact on global fisheries governance” will discuss how Norwegian actors shape global fisheries policy through diplomacy, regulatory innovation and engagement in international institutions such as the UN FAO. She will also discuss how she studies fisheries from a social/political science lens.
FINS: Fisheries Insights Narratives and Stories Seminar Series
Dr. Randi Solhjell, Fulbright fellow, University of Oslo
Title: Managing a Fishy Business: Norway’s foreign aid and its impact on global fisheries governance
When: Wednesday, April 1st from 11am-12pm
Where: Ocean Health Building Rm 118, 115 McAllister Way, Santa Cruz, CA 95060 and on Zoom
Agenda:

10:30 am – 11:00 am – Professional Networking Session (in person only – light snacks and refreshments provided)
11 am to 12 pm – presentation followed by Q & A
12 pm – 1pm – student lunch with the speaker in OHB courtyard → sign up here

Zoom Meeting Registration: https://ucsc.zoom.us/meeting/register/NwH0_qUbSeuIm3A76DY-Dg
Randi Solhjell is a postdoctoral researcher at the Department of Criminology and Sociology of Law, Faculty of Law, The University of Oslo, and visiting Fulbright scholar at the Science and Justice Research Center, the University of California, Santa Cruz. She holds a PhD in Political Science from the London School of Economics.

CSE Colloquium - Messages from across the event horizon: AI Agentic Design for Computer Architecture (and more generalizable learnings)
2026-04-01 11:00 - 12:15 | Engineering 2, Engineering 2 1156 High Street, Santa Cruz, CA, 95064
Presenter: Christopher Fletcher, UC Berkeley
Abstract:
It is difficult to escape the hype of agentic coding. Is the hype real? Are we still living in ~Summer 2025 — when AI coding would accomplish little more than upset its human supervisor? Or has a level shift in technology finally arrived?
In this talk I will argue the latter. I will describe a self-imposed experiment to discover modern AI coding tools’ capabilities (starting mid February 2026). I will try (my best) to communicate my utter and sheer surprise at where the state of the art actually is. Then I will do a deep dive and try to relay everything I have learned about this new engineering discipline—based on my attempts to push the technology as hard as I can for the past 1.5 months. I will conclude by pontificating about the future of computer architecture and academic research more generally.
Bio:
Christopher Fletcher is an Associate Professor of EECS at UC Berkeley. He is a computer architect whose research spans architecture, security, and domain-specific acceleration, especially at their intersections from cryptography and hardware attacks to algorithm-to-hardware co-design. His work has received 31 paper recognitions and several other honors, including the NSF CAREER Award, Intel and Google faculty awards, UIUC research and promotion awards, election to DARPA ISAT, and MIT’s George M. Sprowls Award, with related work also recognized by Scientific American as one of ten “World Changing Ideas.”
Hosted by: Professor Alvaro Cardenas
Location: Engineering 2, Room E2-180 (Refreshments such as fruit, pastries, coffee, and tea will be provided.)
Zoom Option: https://ucsc.zoom.us/j/93445911992?pwd=[REDACTED]

Engineering Teaching Community (Faculty)
2026-04-01 12:00 - 13:00 | Jack Baskin Engineering, Baskin Engineering 1156 High Street, Santa Cruz, CA, 95064
During the chaos of a quarter, is it hard to find time to reflect and improve as an instructor? Would you like to be a part of an inclusive, supportive group of engineering instructors who do this in community? ETC is for sharing teaching experiences, classroom ideas, research on learning, and methods that support instructors and students. All are welcome, and lunch is provided. Please reach out to Jenny Quynn with questions.

VMCC Talk with Maggie Cao—Sepia: Biotic Media and Ocean Worlds
2026-04-01 16:00 - 17:30 | Porter College, D-Building, Santa Cruz, CA, 95064
Sepia is a term used to describe inks of a rich, brown color, but few know that this artistic usage is taken from the animal world, where sepia refers to a genus of cuttlefish—a nod to the long history of extracting melanin fluid from cephalopods for drawing and writing. This talk uses cuttlefish ink as a vehicle for rethinking human-ocean relations in the mid nineteenth century, tracing flows between Victor Hugo’s maritime drawings made in the Channel Islands to paleontological discoveries and scientific illustrations on nearby coastlines. During the nineteenth century, the expansion of fisheries and the growth of marine biology fostered public interest in the strangeness of cephalopods, or “devil fish,” whose inkiness was associated with artistic creation. Experiments with biotic media, the talk argues, were efforts to conceptualize the nonhuman environment of the ocean.
This event is presented as part of the Visual & Media Cultures Colloquium (VMCC) Series.
—
ADMISSION
– FREE and open to the public
– Located in Porter College Rm. D245
—
PARKING
– Lot 124 & 125 are the closest parking lots to the event.
– Parking is by permit or ParkMobile.
– Refer to TAPS for more parking information.
—
This program is open to all members of the public consistent with state and federal law.

Your AI Advantage: Tools, Skills, and Career Paths
2026-04-01 18:00 - 19:00 | Silicon Valley Campus, 3175 Bowers Avenue, Santa Clara, CA, 95054, United States
Transform your workplace with practical AI skills.
Explore how to lead with AI—whether you want to build it or apply it. In this information session, discover two dynamic pathways: AI Business Practices, for professionals seeking practical AI tools to boost productivity without coding, and AI Engineer, for those ready to design and deploy production-ready AI systems. Learn how generative AI, automation, and intelligent agents are transforming today’s workplace—and how you can be part of that change.
Speaker
Join Hien Luu, Program Chair and Head of Machine Learning Infrastructure at Zoox, for an inside look at how our courses help you build prompt‑engineering know‑how, ethical AI awareness, and productivity‑boosting workflows—so you can lead AI‑driven change in your organization.
Learn more
This spring info session is sponsored by the AI Business Practices and Engineering programs.

Claim your seat today.

Drop-in Figure Drawing
2026-04-01 19:00 - 21:00 | Elena Baskin Visual Arts Center, Baskin Service Road, Santa Cruz, CA, 95064
Drop-In Draw provides a live model and room monitor. There is no formal lesson and only dry media is allowed (no paints).
—
ADVISORIES
– These events contain mature content and nudity.
– Drop-In Draw is subject to the possibility of last-minute cancellation without notification, and sessions are not guaranteed.
—
ADMISSION
– FREE and open to the public
– UCSC Art Department Room M-101
—
FULL SCHEDULE OF EVENTS
This series occurs weekly on Wednesday evenings during spring quarter, including the following:
Wednesday April 1, 2026, 7:00–9:00 p.m.
Wednesday April 8, 2026, 7:00–9:00 p.m.
Wednesday April 15, 2026, 7:00–9:00 p.m.
Wednesday April 22, 2026, 7:00–9:00 p.m.
Wednesday April 29, 2026, 7:00–9:00 p.m.
Wednesday May 6, 2026, 7:00–9:00 p.m.
Wednesday May 13, 2026, 7:00–9:00 p.m.
Wednesday May 20, 2026, 7:00–9:00 p.m.
Wednesday May 27, 2026, 7:00–9:00 p.m.
—
PARKING
– Parking by permit or ParkMobile.
– Arts Lot #126 is the closest parking lot to the event.
– Visitors with DMV placards or plates may park for free in DMV spaces, Medical spaces, or ParkMobile spaces without additional payment, or in timed zones for longer than the posted time.
– More information provided by UCSC Transportation & Parking Services (TAPS).
—
This program is open to all members of the public consistent with state and federal law.

Learn to use the UCSC Genome Browser
2026-04-02 09:00 - 11:00 | Engineering 2, Engineering 2 1156 High Street, Santa Cruz, CA, 95064
The UCSC Genome Browser is hosting a free workshop for new and advanced users!

Beginner session starts at 9 and will include:

How to understand genome annotations
How to find annotation data
Overview of training resources

Intermediate + advanced session starts at 10, covering

Custom tracks
Track hubs
BLAT
And more!!

Join us and be the FIRST to see a brand new feature! At the end we’ll have free stickers and a chance to ask the team questions.

Bring your laptop to follow along, and we encourage questions. See you April 2nd in E2 180.

Younger Lagoon Reserve Tours
2026-04-02 10:30 - 12:00 | Seymour Marine Discovery Center, 100 McAllister Way, Santa Cruz, CA, 95060
Younger Lagoon Reserve tours are free and open to the public. Space is limited to 18 participants. Call 831-459-3800 or sign-up online. Virtual tours are available online. seymourcenter.ucsc.edu.

Wellness in Action: Healthy Metabolism, Healthy Heart Workshop
2026-04-02 12:00 - 12:30 | CA
Thursday, April 2, 12:00 PM -12:30 PM
Register for the Zoom link.
Healthy metabolism and heart health play a key role in overall energy, resilience, and long-term well-being. This workshop will highlight simple, everyday habits that support metabolic function and cardiovascular health.
This new Wellness in Action workshop series is designed to help you improve your health with a short session with simple tips you can try in your own life.
Register here for the Zoom link. The workshop will be recorded, and a link to the recording will be sent out after the first session.
In the follow-up session on Thursday, April 16 from 12:00 PM -12:30 PM, you will have the opportunity to share your experience and learn from others in the group. This session will not be recorded.
For questions, please reach out to Ashley Parker, Health and Well-being Specialist, at aseparke@ucsc.edu.

Digital Accessibility: Presentations and Visual Aids
2026-04-02 12:00 - 13:00 | https://UCOP.zoom.us/meeting/register/NM6IpEiSSWmZmGkUONGYYA
Presenter: Brian McNeilly – Web Accessibility Specialist – UCOP
Presentations often contain a unique hybrid of static documents and an accompanying live presentation or talk. This interface of live discussions along with a displayed visual document creates a unique tension for accessibility. In this session we will discuss ways to ensure not long that your slide deck is accessible, but that the whole presentation experience is as accessible as possible.
Learning Objectives:

Design slides using accessible layouts
Adjust the reading order of content within a slide deck
Ensure sufficient font size & color contrast
Understand how animations should be used for digital accessibility
What to include on screen vs in the spoken presentation

M.F.A. Exhibition for Environmental Art & Social Practice (EASP)—"Picking up Shells Amid a Tsunami"
2026-04-02 12:00 - 2026-05-02 17:00 | Mary Porter Sesnon Art Gallery, Baskin Service Road, Santa Cruz, CA, 95064
The culminating exhibition of the Environmental Art and Social Practice (EASP) M.F.A. program at UC Santa Cruz presents new projects—Picking up Shells Amid a Tsunami 쓰나미가 밀려오는데, 조개나 줍고 있네—developed through concentrated inquiry over a two-year period and offers a window into the artists’ unique long-term research projects that expand beyond the gallery space.
—
FULL SCHEDULE OF EVENTS
– Ongoing Exhibition: Thurs.., April 2–Sat., May 2, 2026
– Opening Celebration: Thurs., April 2, 5:00–7:00 p.m.
– Artist Roundtable: Thurs., April 23, 5:00–6:00 p.m.
—
ADMISSION
– FREE and open to the public
– Gallery hours are Tues.–Sun.noon–5:00 p.m (closed Mondays)
—
PARKING
– Lot 124 & 125 are the closest parking lots to the event.
– Parking is by permit or ParkMobile.
– Refer to TAPS for more parking information.
—
ABOUT THE EXHIBITION
Notes from the EASP cohort:
“The phrase evokes a scene in which, amid an approaching catastrophe, someone appears to be idly picking up seashells. In South Korea, it gained political currency during the 2017 presidential impeachment protests, when feminist, disability rights, and animal rights groups were criticized for bringing their demands into the demonstrations. Their interventions were dismissed as distractions—acts of “picking up shells” at a moment when the sole priority was said to be the president’s removal.
“We choose to pick up shells nonetheless. Not because the crisis is small, but because the shells matter. They are the body of the future, what accumulates slowly, what endures. One day, shells become mountains, and mountains become home. To pick up shells is not to turn away from urgency, but to insist on a future beyond it.
“This exhibition comes together through an insistence on the opposite premise: that picking up shells while disaster is at our doorstep is not a distraction, but a necessity. What gets dismissed as marginal, secondary, a mere luxury, or mistimed, is precisely where social and political life becomes livable and where dreams, desire and the imagination open lines of flight towards other worlds.
“Waves can level buildings once on the shore, dragging and revealing the damage as they recede. Rather than turning away from the storm, we acknowledge the multilayered and epistemic devastation caused by centuries of colonial, patriarchal, racist violence upon people, earth and more than human life. We witness the ongoing bifurcation of human and nature that is sedimented into our lives, languages and social, material, infrastructures.
“The act of bending down to gather shells, ردم, fragments, sounds, 뼈, blue bottles, grotta, relationships, bodies, cries—composes a score that moves towards forms of care through minor gestures, embodiment, ritual, ofrendas, listening and beholding. Mundane and everyday poetics do not negate the scale of devastation and loss, nor do they refuse engagement. Rather, they bear witness. They reveal pathways towards endurance, negotiation, memory and imagination beyond colonial catastrophe. In this sense, the exhibition reframes the tsunami not as a singular event or metaphor, but an invitation us to behold, actively look, to sit within the textures of tectonic plates and energy flows, at the conjuncture where plates meet, in the flow of energy through tempo, liquid, movement, land, sound, ecotone.
“The wave does not demand one unified response. It forms part of a condition, a form of everyday accretion, a movement in and out of different temporalities. Picking up shells while the tsunami unfolds, amid the tsunami, alongside the water’s ebbs and flows, calls us to pay attention to overlooked lives, stories, bodies, memories, flows and relations, to transform materials so that they become reconstituted and are able to hold new and ongoing narratives that refuse to remain silent.”

Black on the Block
2026-04-02 13:00 - 14:00 | Crown Provost House, 660 Crown Service Road, Santa Cruz, CA, 95064
Join the African American Resource & Cultural Center every Thursday from 1–2 p.m., at the front of the Ethnic Resource Center for Black on the Block, a weekly tabling and engagement space.
Stop by to learn about campus resources, upcoming programs, and ways to get involved. It’s a casual, welcoming space to ask questions, make connections, and build community. All are welcome.
You Belong Here: The programs and services described here are open to all, consistent with state and federal law, as well as the University of California’s nondiscrimination policies. Every initiative—whether a student service, faculty program, or community event—is designed to be accessible, inclusive, and respectful of all identities.
To learn more, please visit UC Nondiscrimination Statement or Nondiscrimination Policy for UC Publications.

Beyond public and private: Collaborative governance in global education reform with Antoni Verger and René Espinoza Kissell
2026-04-02 17:00 - 18:30 | McHenry Library, 1156 High St, Santa Cruz, CA, 95064
We are excited to invite you to join us for a hybrid research talk on collaborative governance with international education scholar and sociologist Dr. Antoni Verger (Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona) in conversation with Dr. René Espinoza Kissell (UCSC) on Thursday, April 2, 2026 at 5pm.
Neoliberal educational policies aimed at efficiency through competition have often resulted in greater inequality and fragmentation. Can empowering new stakeholders through collaborative networks challenge market logics? Professor of Sociology Antoni Verger will present evidence on international cases of collaborative governance, where education leaders aim to convene stakeholders, co-design supports, and steer improvement collaboratively. Assistant Professor of Education René Espinoza Kissell will provide a local case study of school choice markets in Oakland, California, examining the racial politics of school closures and charter school regulation. This will be followed by a discussion on the opportunities and contradictions in global governance shifts, as well as the tensions between public and private coordination in addressing enduring political challenges.
Thursday, April 2nd, 2026, 5-6:30PM
: McHenry 3170 or via Zoom (Meeting ID: 980 6836 8045; Passcode: [REDACTED]
Please complete this RSVP form if you plan to attend (food will be provided).

About the Speakers:
Antoni Verger is Professor of Sociology at the UAB and research fellow at the Catalan Institution for Research and Advanced Studies (ICREA). With a cross-disciplinary training in sociology and education studies, his research examines the relationship between global governance institutions and education policy – i.e. how education policies are internationally disseminated and enacted in different institutional settings, and what effects this has on education quality and equity. In recent years, he has specialized in the study of public-private partnerships, school autonomy and accountability policies in education. He is one of the lead editors of the World Yearbook of Education and the Journal of Education Policy, and academic director of the Erasmus Plus awarded Master programme Education Policies for Global Development – GLOBED.
René Espinoza Kissell is an Assistant Professor of Educational Policy Studies at UC Santa Cruz. Her scholarship brings together policy, politics, and political economy to study issues of power and governance in education. Drawing on critical theories and qualitative methods, her work centers on school choice and community engagement, as well as the creation, management, and racialized surveillance of school district debt. She recently served as a research expert for the 2025 international evaluation of New Public Education Reform/La Nueva Educación Pública (NEP) in Chile. Her research has been published in Journal of Education Policy, Educational Policy, Urban Education, and Educational Administration Quarterly.
We hope you can join us in welcoming international education scholar Antoni Verger to the UCSC campus!

Opening Celebration for EASP M.F.A. Exhibition—"Picking up Shells Amid a Tsunami"
2026-04-02 17:00 - 19:00 | Mary Porter Sesnon Art Gallery, Baskin Service Road, Santa Cruz, CA, 95064
The culminating exhibition of the Environmental Art and Social Practice (EASP) M.F.A. program at UC Santa Cruz presents new projects—Picking up Shells Amid a Tsunami 쓰나미가 밀려오는데, 조개나 줍고 있네—developed through concentrated inquiry over a two-year period and offers a window into the artists’ unique long-term research projects that expand beyond the gallery space.
—
FULL SCHEDULE OF EVENTS
– Ongoing Exhibition: Thurs.., April 2–Sat., May 2, 2026
– Opening Celebration: Thurs., April 2, 5:00–7:00 p.m.
– Artist Roundtable: Thurs., April 23, 5:00–6:00 p.m.
—
ADMISSION
– FREE and open to the public
– Gallery hours are Tues.–Sun.noon–5:00 p.m (closed Mondays)
—
PARKING
– Lot 124 & 125 are the closest parking lots to the event.
– Parking is by permit or ParkMobile.
– Refer to TAPS for more parking information.
—
ABOUT THE EXHIBITION
– More exhibition information here.
—
This program is open to all members of the public consistent with state and federal law.

The toughest challenges in advanced IC development
2026-04-02 18:00 - 19:00 | Silicon Valley Campus, 3175 Bowers Avenue, Santa Clara, CA, 95054, United States
Explore the expanding career opportunities in semiconductors
The modern economy is powered by silicon and the demand for skilled professionals in semiconductor design and engineering continues to grow.
In this live-online discussion with Jignesh Shah, principal STA & CAD engineer and UCSC Extension instructor, we’ll explore how Timing Closure in Silicon IC Design prepares engineers to meet one of the toughest challenges in advanced IC development.
Our expert instructors and carefully designed courses are here to help you achieve your career goals. Bring your questions about how AI is transforming the industry and gain insights into the essential skills needed to build a standout resume.
This info session is sponsored by the Silicon Chip Design & Semiconductor Engineering Certificate program at UCSC Silicon Valley Extension.
Claim your seat!

Colm Toibin – The News From Dublin
2026-04-02 19:00 | Hay Barn, 94 Ranch View Road, Santa Cruz, CA, 95064, United States
Bookshop Santa Cruz and The Humanities Institute at UC Santa Cruz welcome acclaimed author Colm Tóibín (Long Island, Brooklyn) for a discussion about The News from Dublin, a brilliant collection of nine short stories, many never-before-published, set across Ireland, Spain, and America—about the complexities of family, longing, loss, and love.

Celebrated as “his generation’s most gifted writer of love’s complicated, contradictory power” ( Los Angeles Times), Colm Tóibín is a master of short fiction as well as the novel, able to summon an extraordinary intensity of emotion in a brief tale. The eleven stories transport readers across continents and eras.
In The Journey to Galway, a mother who has learned of the death of her son, a fighter pilot in World War I, travels to Galway to inform his wife and their three now fatherless children. “Sleep,” originally published in The New Yorker, explores the rift between two lovers as one of them cannot reckon with his grief and fear after the death of his brother. Death, again, is a central character in the title story, “The News from Dublin,” as Maurice Webster travels to Dublin to try to save his younger brother who is dying of tuberculosis. Maurice must petition the health minister for access to a new experimental drug, and this is the only hope.
Colm Tóibín is the author of eleven novels, including Long Island, an Oprah’s Book Club Pick; The Magician, winner of the Rathbones Folio Prize; The Master, winner of the Los Angeles Times Book Prize; Brooklyn, winner of the Costa Book Award; and Nora Webster, winner of the Hawthornden Prize, as well as three story collections and several books of criticism. He is the Irene and Sidney B. Silverman Professor of the Humanities at Columbia University and was named the 2022–2024 Laureate for Irish Fiction by the Arts Council of Ireland. In 2021, he was awarded the David Cohen Prize for Literature.
More information at: Bookshop Santa Cruz – Colm Tóibín

Co-sponsored by The Humanities Institute at UC Santa Cruz.

Movie Night Under the Stars: Screening "Castle in the Sky"
2026-04-02 20:00 - 22:00 | Oakes Lower Lawn, Oakes College, Santa Cruz, CA, 95064
The DSAS Office of Leadership and Involvement invite you to join us for our Movie Night Under the Stars event screening the Studio Ghibli movie “Castle in the Sky”:

Date: Thursday, April 2nd
Screening Time: 8:00 p.m.
Location: Oakes Lower Lawn

*Bring your own blanket*
There will be free ramen, candy, drinks and activities! For any questions or accommodations, please email involved@ucsc.edu
You Belong Here: The programs and services described here are open to all, consistent with state and federal law, as well as the University of California’s nondiscrimination policies. Every initiative—whether a student service, faculty program, or community event—is designed to be accessible, inclusive, and respectful of all identities.
To learn more, please visit UC Nondiscrimination Statement or Nondiscrimination Policy for UC Publications.

Oceans of Dissent: Towards a Feminist Commons Workshop
2026-04-03 00:00 - 2026-04-04 23:59 | Humanities 1 Building, 257 Cowell-Stevenson Road, Santa Cruz, CA, 95064, United States
We gather to forge new vernaculars of the geopolitical, to assemble spatial imaginaries of the “oceanic” that refuse rather than relent to the insistent march of capital and empire. To dissent here is an invitation to think more about the messiness and stuckness of our intellectual labors across histories of slavery, indenture, colonialism and more. This event is open to the campus community. Further details about registration to come. With questions email Sadie Lynn at sklynn@ucsc.edu
This workshop put on by the chair of Feminist Studies. Co-sponsored by the Humanities Division, the Center for South Asian Studies, and the Center for the Middle East and North Africa.

UC Santa Cruz Alumni at the Sacramento Kings
2026-04-03 19:00 - 22:00 | Golden1 Center, 500 David J Stern Walk, Sacramento, 95814, United States
Head to a Sacramento Kings game with fellow UC Santa Cruz alumni on Friday, April 3. Sit together, cheer loudly, and connect with Sacramento Slugs at Golden1 Center!
Click here to purchase tickets in our section.

First Saturday Tour at the Arboretum
2026-04-04 11:00 - 12:00 | Arboretum, 122 Arboretum Road, Santa Cruz, CA, 95064
First Saturday Tours are a wonderful way to introduce yourself to the Arboretum or to deepen your knowledge of the Arboretum’s plant collections. Each tour is a little different depending on the time of year, the interests of the tour guide, and the people who join in. For example, you might learn about the birds and mammals that make this land their home or about the amazing physical adaptations that plants have evolved to better deal with our extreme weather and climate conditions. Tours are free with paid admission.

Suzanne Simard – When the Forest Breathes
2026-04-04 14:00 - 15:00 | Hay Barn, 94 Ranch View Road, Santa Cruz, CA, 95064, United States
Bookshop Santa Cruz welcomes bestselling author Suzanne Simard (Finding the Mother Tree), a scientist who pioneered the concept of sophisticated communication between trees. Simard will share her highly anticipated new book When the Forest Breathes, in which she offers a powerful vision for saving our forests based on nature’s deep-rooted cycles of renewal.
“A masterclass on the inner workings of forests. . . . This is science as an act of love for the world.” —Zoë Schlanger, author of The Light Eaters

Raised in a family of loggers committed to sensible forest stewardship, trailblazing ecologist Suzanne Simard has watched as timber companies leave forests at higher risk for wildfires, water crises, and plant and animal extinction. But her research has the potential to chart a new course. The forest, she reveals, is a symphony of finely honed cycles of regeneration—from mushrooms breaking down logs to dying elder trees passing their genetic knowledge to younger ones—that hold the key to protecting our forests. Working closely with local Indigenous communities, whose models of responsible forestry have been largely dismissed, Simard examines how human interventions—particularly destruction of the overstory’s mother trees—endanger new growth and longevity. If we can honor the tools that trees have honed for sharing intergenerational wisdom, she argues, we can protect these sacred places for many years to come.
Dr. Suzanne Simard is the New York Times bestselling author of Finding the Mother Tree. She is a Professor of Forest Ecology at the University of British Columbia, where she leads The Mother Tree Project and co-directs the Belowground Ecosystem Group. Dr. Simard has earned a global reputation for pioneering research on tree connectivity and communication and the productivity, health, and biodiversity of forests. Her work has been published widely, with over 170 scientific articles in peer-reviewed journals, including Nature, Ecology, and Global Biology, and she has co-authored the book Climate Change and Variability. Her research has been communicated broadly through three TED Talks, TED Experiences, as well as articles and interviews in The New Yorker, National Geographic, NPR, CNN, and many more. She lives with her family in the mountains around Nelson, British Columbia.
More information at: Bookshop Santa Cruz – Suzanne Simard
This event is cosponsored by the UC Santa Cruz Arboretum & Botanic Garden and The Humanities Institute at UC Santa Cruz

Tax Workshops for International Students & Scholars
2026-04-06 12:30 - 14:00 | Graduate Student Commons, 420 Hagar Drive, Santa Cruz, CA, 95064
International Student Services and Programming (ISSP) will be hosting two tax-related sessions for international students and scholars in the coming months, including a hands-on workshop for anyone who wants support while working through the filing process. We understand that filing taxes can be daunting, so our office is here to provide resources to make this process easier.
GLACIER tax prep staff from and graduate peer mentors will be available to help you one-on-one as you complete your tax filing steps.

Hands-on Tax Workshop #1
Date: Monday, March 9
Time: 12:30 – 14:00
Location: Graduate Student Commons (entrance next to Cafe Iveta)

Workshop #2 will take place on Monday, April 6, at the same time and location

Have any tax questions or topics you’d like us to address at the beginning of each workshop? Submit your questions here, and we’ll highlight them with the group. Even if you can’t make it to either session, feel free to still ask us your general questions, and we’ll update everyone with common themes we’re noticing.
Please note that ISSP staff are not tax experts and are legally prohibited from giving you tax advice. It is your responsibility to determine how to file your taxes and/or find a tax preparation service.

Film Screening: Sotong and Against this Messy World
2026-04-06 14:00 - 16:00 | Humanities 1 Building, 257 Cowell-Stevenson Road, Santa Cruz, CA, 95064, United States
On April 6, 2026, the Graduate Training in Southeast Asia (GETSEA) consortium and UCSC’s Center for Southeast Asian Coastal Interactions will host two short films highlighting the challenges to art and expression in Malaysia’s complex political, legal, and societal landscape.
Sotong follows four fierce local drag queens who were part of the 2022 Halloween party raided by the authorities. One of them, Juan, was arrested for ‘a man dressing up as a woman’. Two years later, they revisit on the fallout of that night as they continue to perform underground and nurture the Malaysian drag scene in all its beauty, joy, and pain.
Against This Messy World is a deeply introspective and visually captivating short documentary that delves into the heart and soul of artistic expression in Malaysia. A personal exploration, narrated by Malaysian artists, this documentary takes viewers on an evocative journey to understand the essence and purpose of being an artist in a world marked by chaos and uncertainty and piece together conversations and unfiltered moments in their lives.
Universities from across North America will come together to watch the films simultaneously, then connect via Zoom with the filmmakers for a post-screening discussion. Please join us in conversation!

AM Seminar: The Thinking Eye: AI That Sees, Reads, and Reasons in Medicine
2026-04-06 16:00 - 17:00 | Baskin Engineering, 372
Presenter: Yuyin Zhou, Assistant Professor, UCSC
Description: Medical AI is undergoing a profound transformation, evolving from simple pattern recognition to systems capable of complex clinical reasoning. This talk will chart this evolution across three dimensions: data, models, and evaluation. I will first highlight the shift from limited, unimodal datasets to massive multimodal resources. In particular, I will introduce MedTrinity-25M—a novel collection of over 25 million richly annotated medical images that serves as a foundation for multimodal tasks such as visual question answering and report generation. Building on this, I will describe how grounding decision processes in a structured medical knowledge graph enables the generation of high-fidelity reasoning chains. Using these chains, we construct a large-scale medical reasoning dataset, which in turn allows us to develop a new class of reasoning models. These models not only achieve state-of-the-art performance on multiple clinical Q&A benchmarks but also produce reasoning outputs that physicians across seven specialties have independently verified as clinically reliable, interpretable, and more factually accurate than existing large language models. Finally, the talk will offer a deep dive into the critical evaluation of these advanced models, moving beyond standard benchmarks to expose their current limitations—particularly in interpreting dynamic clinical scenarios such as tracking disease progression from temporal image sequences. To foster a holistic understanding of the mechanisms underlying these reasoning models, I will introduce a new evaluation framework that examines performance from two complementary perspectives: their grasp of static knowledge versus their capacity for dynamic reasoning. Together, these advances point toward a future where AI systems can holistically analyze patient information and function as true collaborative partners in complex medical decision-making.
Bio: Yuyin Zhou is an Assistant Professor of Computer Science and Engineering at UC Santa Cruz. Her research interests lie at the intersection of machine learning and computer vision, with a primary focus on AI for healthcare and scientific discovery. Her work (70+ peered-reviewed publications with18,000+ citations) has been recognized with honors including 2025 Google Research Scholar Award, Best Paper Award at KDD 2025 Health Day and at Computerized Medical Imaging and Graphics 2024, 2023 Hellman Fellowship, Best Paper Honorable Mention at DART 2022, and finalist recognition for the MICCAI Young Scientist Publication Impact Award in 2022. Beyond her research, Yuyin has organized over 20 workshops and tutorials at major conferences including ICML, MICCAI, ML4H, ICCV, CVPR, and ECCV, with coverage in media outlets such as ICCV Daily and Computer Vision News. She serves as a regular Area Chair for CVPR, ICLR, MICCAI, CHIL, and ISBI, an associate editor for SPIE medical imaging, Image and Vision Computing, and was the Doctoral Consortium Chair for WACV 2025.
Hosted by: Applied Mathematics Department

Statistics Seminar: Some Recent Results on Transfer Learning
2026-04-06 16:00 - 17:00 | CA
Presenter: Oscar Hernan Madrid Padilla, Assistant Professor, University of California, Los Angeles
Description: In the first part of the talk, I will introduce TRansfer leArning via guideD horseshoE prioR (TRADER), a novel approach enabling multi-source transfer through pre-trained models in high-dimensional linear regression. TRADER shrinks target parameters towards a weighted average of source estimates, accommodating sources with different scales. Theoretical investigation shows that TRADER achieves faster posterior contraction rates than standard continuous shrinkage priors when sources align well with the target while preventing negative transfer from heterogeneous sources. Extensive numerical studies and a real-data application demonstrate that TRADER improves estimation and inference accuracy over state-of-the-art transfer learning methods. In the second part of the talk, I will discuss some ongoing work involving transfer learning in nonparametric regression with ReLU networks
Bio: Oscar Madrid Padilla is a tenure-track Assistant Professor in the Department of Statistics at the University of California, Los Angeles. Previously, from July 2017 to June 2019, he was a Neyman Visiting Assistant Professor in the Department of Statistics at the University of California, Berkeley. Before that, he earned his Ph.D. in Statistics from The University of Texas at Austin in May 2017 under the supervision of Professor James Scott. He completed his undergraduate degree, a B.S. in Mathematics, at CIMAT in Mexico in April 2013.
Hosted by: Statistics Department

Coffee with Provost Aims
2026-04-07 09:00 - 11:00 | Merrill College Office, 641 Merrill Road, Santa Cruz, CA, 95064
Warm greetings and hot coffee are served by Provost Aims and Poppy the Merrill Chihuahua each Tuesday in April. Breakfast snacks, tea, and cocoa too.
Stop by and say “hi”
Outside of the Merrill Mailroom, Merrill College

Community Day: Free Admission at the Arboretum
2026-04-07 09:00 - 17:00 | Arboretum, 122 Arboretum Road, Santa Cruz, CA, 95064
The first Tuesday of each month, the Arboretum is open without charge to visitors. See dates and times UC Santa Cruz Arboretum & Botanic Garden is open. NOTE: Due to limited parking at the Arboretum and the popularity of Community Day, we greatly encourage visitors to carpool, bike, walk or use public transportation as much as possible.

Next Wave of Faculty in Genomics Symposium
2026-04-07 11:40 - 13:15 | Jack Baskin Engineering, Baskin Engineering 1156 High Street, Santa Cruz, CA, 95064
The BME Department and Genomics Institute are once again hosting our annual Next Wave of Faculty in Genomics Symposium, which will be held on April 7th from 11:40–1:15 in E2 180. Please join us to hear cutting-edge genomics talks from outstanding postdocs from around the country!
A burrito reception catered by Alebrije’s will follow immediately after the talks. Registration is free, but required, so please RSVP HERE!
This year’s speakers include:

Dr. Yutong Wang, UC San Francisco
Talk title: “A genome-wide CRISPR activation screen of surface protein expression in primary human CD4 T cells”
Dr. Ian Traniello, Princeton
Talk title: “The Making of a Queen: Neurogenomic Building Blocks of Social Dominance in Bee Societies”
Dr. Alex Cope, Vanderbilt University
Talk title: “Unlocking the rules of proteome evolution by integrating evolutionary theory, mechanistic models, and functional genomics”
Dr. Conner Langeberg, UC Berkeley
Talk title: “Interpreting RNA Foundation Models to Reveal Structure, Function, and Biological Organization”

Indigenous Language Revitalization
2026-04-07 17:30 - 19:30 | Hay Barn, 94 Ranch View Road, Santa Cruz, CA, 95064, United States
Join the American Indian Resource Center for Indigenous Language Revitalization on April 7, 2026, from 5:30-7:30 p.m. at the Cowell Ranch Hay Barn. This presentation explores the history of land, language, and cultural loss, alongside current efforts in revitalization and everyday practice. We will share perspectives on language curriculum, cultural resurgence, and mechanisms sustaining this work. Featuring speakers Tracy Eastman and Dr. Sandhya Narayanan, the session will transition into a panel conversation on pre-colonial transcontinental trade, communication, and their relevance today.
Register for the Indigenous Language Revitalization event

You Belong Here: The programs and services described here are open to all, consistent with state and federal law, as well as the University of California’s nondiscrimination policies. Every initiative—whether a student service, faculty program, or community event—is designed to be accessible, inclusive, and respectful of all identities.
To learn more, please visit UC Nondiscrimination Statement or Nondiscrimination Policy for UC Publications.
