The UC Santa Cruz Kraw Lecture Series presents: Unmasking cancer's complete genetic code
2026-03-04 17:30 - 19:30 (America/Los_Angeles) | Silicon Valley Campus, 3175 Bowers Avenue, Santa Clara, CA, 95054, United States
In this Kraw lecture, Angela Brooks will discuss her work on cancer research.
Current cancer research focuses almost entirely on finding errors—mutations—in DNA. This has given us incredible tools like precision oncology, matching patients with targeted drugs. But cancer cells almost always develop drug resistance, causing treatments to fail and limiting patient survival. An often-overlooked aspect of cancer genes is the messenger RNA, which is copied from DNA, then translated into protein to do the work of the cell. Over 95% of human genes have isoforms, which are different versions of the RNA message created through a process called RNA splicing. These different messages lead to slightly different proteins, and we believe our lack of knowledge of different isoforms is a missing cause of treatment failure.

In-Person Reception: 5:30 p.m.
Lecture: 6–7 p.m.

Unexpected Returns: The Historic Entanglements of Fire, Settlement, and Stewardship in the Santa Cruz Mountains
2026-03-04 18:00 - 19:30 | Institute of the Arts and Sciences, 100 Panetta Ave, Santa Cruz, United States
Join UCSC faculty members Miriam Greenberg and Andrew Matthews as they discuss the deep regional histories of fire, from indigenous burning, settler ranching, fire suppression, and much more.

This event is part of Intersections of Climate Change, a series organized with the Friedlaender Lab in conjunction with Weather and the Whale.

ADMISSION
– FREE and open to the public
PARKING
– The entrance to the Institute of the Arts and Sciences Galleries is on Delaware Street and has an accessibility ramp.
– Convenient and free self-parking is available on Panetta Avenue and High Road, immediately adjacent to the galleries.
– Accessible parking is on High Road.
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This program is open to all members of the public consistent with state and federal law.

Undiscovered Shakespeare: The Two Noble Kinsmen - Episode I
2026-03-04 19:00 - 21:00 | CA
Shakespeare returns to the characters and themes of A Midsummer Night’s Dream in what may have been the last play he had a hand in writing: The Two Noble Kinsmen. This time, however, the story of Theseus and Hippolyta, the disorienting experience of adolescent sexual desire, and the conflict of duties to sovereigns, parents, friends, and spouses are no laughing matter. It’s over-shadowed by the play’s source text — Chaucer’s Knight’s Tale, in which chance foils Theseus’s best efforts to create order out of chaos and meaning out of loss — and by Shakespeare’s own experience writing tragedy and tragicomedy.

Thomas Luxon is Professor of English, Emeritus at Dartmouth College, where he was also the inaugural Cheheyl Professor and Director of the Dartmouth Center for the Advancement of Learning. His teaching and scholarship focus on literature of the English Renaissance and Reformation, with a particular interest in John Milton, John Bunyan, John Dryden, and 17th-century English religion and politics. In his revelatory book, Single Imperfection: Milton, Marriage, and Friendship (Duquesne UP, 2005), Professor Luxon explores the impact of ancient theories of friendship on Milton’s conception of Reformation marriage, and during the pandemic, he contributed a lecture about the rivalry of friendship and marriage in Two Noble Kinsmen to Ian Doescher’s Shakespeare 2020 Project.
Undiscovered Shakespeare is a public arts and humanities series co-produced by Santa Cruz Shakespeare, UCSC Shakespeare Workshop, and The Humanities Institute. It brings professional actors and scholars together with the public for a staged reading and discussion of works by Shakespeare that are rarely produced.

Traveling Film Southasia - Film Screening Festival Launch
2026-03-05 17:00 - 19:00 | Communications Building, 7487 Red Hill Road, Santa Cruz, CA, 95064
Located in Communications 150, Studio C
Join the Center for South Asian Studies (CSAS) for a celebratory film screening event to launch Travelling Film Southasia, a mobile film festival highlighting 19 exceptional nonfiction productions of the last two years, originally screened at Film Southasia 2024 in Kathmandu. This year’s festival encapsulates a range of experiences on the Subcontinent with films from Nepal, Bangladesh, India, Pakistan and Myanmar, including CSAS Faculty Director Dolly Kikon’s recent film, Abundance.
Film Southasia (FSA) is a biennial festival that began in 1997 with the goal of popularizing documentary films so that they entertain, inform, and change lives. In addition to the festival that takes place in Kathmandu every two years, FSA organizes screenings, discussions, and workshops to promote Southasian non-fiction within the Subcontinent and around the world. Film Southasia believes that film is a powerful medium that not only helps better represent the region internationally, but also contributes immensely to introspection and to initiatives that bring change at the local level.
For more information: Traveling FSA 2025.
After the March 5 film festival launch event, the festival films will be available for streaming until March 20. Link and instructions for viewing to follow.
This event is open to all students, faculty, staff, and members of the public consistent with University policy and state and federal law.
Presented by the Center for South Asian Studies and co-sponsored by the Department of Film and Digital Media and The Humanities Institute.

Science in the Neighborhood: Transforming Pacific salmon recovery, from genes to ecosystems
2026-03-06 18:00 - 19:30 | Coastal Biology Building, 130 McAllister Way, Santa Cruz, CA, 95060
Science In the Neighborhood
A public lecture series hosted quarterly by the UC Santa Cruz Science Division
Transforming Pacific salmon recovery, from genes to ecosystems
Presentation by Eric Palkovacs, Professor, UC Santa Cruz
Q&A with Bryan Gaensler, Dean of Science, UC Santa Cruz
Register here.
An endangered Central California Coast coho salmon from the Scott Creek recovery program that UCSC operates in collaboration with NOAA. Photo credit: Joel Sartore / National Geographic Photo Ark.
For millennia, Pacific salmon have been integral to the health of coastal ecosystems and human communities from California to Alaska. Salmon are ecological and cultural keystone species, connecting marine and freshwater food webs and supporting thriving fisheries. Yet, wild salmon have declined precipitously due to a combination of factors including dams, harvest, hatcheries, water use—and now, climate change.
Professor Palkovacs, who leads UC Santa Cruz’s Institute of Marine Sciences and Fisheries Collaborative Program, will describe transformative approaches to recover wild salmon populations by connecting novel insights from the level of genes to ecosystems. Learn how this integrative research program can provide insights to transform the future for wild Pacific salmon and the ecosystems and fisheries they support.
The event is in-person only. Register here.
March 6, 2026 | 6:00–7:30 p.m.
Coastal Biology Building. Rm. 110
UC Santa Cruz Coastal Campus
130 McAllister Way
Santa Cruz, CA 95060
The screenshot below shows where to find the entrance of the Coastal Biology Building.

UCSC Wind Ensemble—Spirits and Legends
2026-03-06 19:30 - 21:30 | Music Center Recital Hall, 400 McHenry Road, Santa Cruz, CA, 95064
UCSC Wind Ensemble presents Spirits and Legends; a concert featuring music for Wind Ensemble on themes of past or present legends or spirit journeys. Featuring music from “Spirited Away” by Joe Hisaishi, “The Dream of Angus” by Rolf Rudin, “Sound and Smoke” by Viet Cuong, and music by Carlos Chavez, Julie Giroux, and Richard Wagner.
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ADMISSION
– General admission.
– Free for UCSC students (ticket required).
– Tickets available online through Eventbrite only HERE.
– Follow the Music Dept on Eventbrite for notices and updates.
– Doors are scheduled to open 30 minutes prior to event start time.
– Ticket holders not seated at least 5 minutes before the advertised start time may forfeit their ticket/seat and no refund will be issued.
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PARKING
– Parking by permit, ParkMobile, or $11 cash/credit via the on-site parking attendant
– 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.
– UCSC affiliates must purchase their permits before arriving at the event in order to receive their discounted UCSC rate. Attendants will only sell the non-affiliate-priced permits.
– More information provided by UCSC Transportation & Parking Services (TAPS)
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This program is open to all members of the public consistent with state and federal law.

First Saturday Tour at the Arboretum
2026-03-07 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.

UCSC Grad Slam Final - March 7th
2026-03-07 18:30 - 21:00 | Kuumbwa Jazz Center, 320-2 Cedar St, Santa Cruz, 95060, United States
What is Grad Slam?

Three Minutes. One Slide. Thousands of Dollars in Prizes!
Grad Slam is a communication contest hosted by the UC Santa Cruz Graduate Division that highlights graduate student research. Participants have a maximum of three minutes to explain their graduate research or artistic endeavor to a general audience.
First Place, Grad Slam Champion: $3000
Second Place: $1500
People’s Choice*: $750
*decided by text message voting, one vote per audience member, both those in person and watching the live stream
Come join the fun and vote for your favorite presentation.
Saturday, March 7th at the Kuumbwa Jazz Center. Doors open at 6:30, talks begin at 7PM
All ten UC Grad Slam champions, 1 from each campus, compete in the UC Office of the President’s Grad Slam. The UC system-wide Grad Slam will take place on Wednesday, April 22, at the UC Center Sacramento.

The Trial of Spock—An Opera Workshop
2026-03-08 16:00 - 18:00 | Music Center Recital Hall, 400 McHenry Road, Santa Cruz, CA, 95064
The creators of The Trial of Spock—An Opera In Three Acts present concert performances of five scenes from an opera-in-progress at the UC Santa Cruz Music Center Recital Hall.
Captain Christopher Pike is gravely injured. Lieutenant Spock is behaving strangely. Charged with protecting Pike in his state of extreme need,Vulcan Commodore T’or suspects that Lieutenant Spock—once Captain Pike’s science officer—is up to no good. Spock’s Captain, James T. Kirk, doesn’t see the trouble until far too late, and soon Spock holds all of them prisoner aboard a ship destined for the “forbidden planet” Talos IV. He refuses to say a word about their fate—not until his superiors agree to give him his trial. Under oath, and with strange evidence, Spock tells the story of Captain Pike’s first visit to Talos IV, where illusion and artificial experiences plunge Pike and fellow captive Vina into uncharted dimensions of their memories, and their concepts of self.
Join sopranos Nicole Koh, Sheila Willey, and Emily Sinclair; tenors Alex Boyer and Nicolas Vasquez-Gerst, baritones Joseph Calzada and Michael Kuo, and the Del Sol Quartet, as they distort the myth of Orpheus, in order to re-think our presumed relationships to freedom and reality, and its augmentations.
Music by Ben Leeds Carson; libretto by Perre DiCarlo & Ben Leeds Carson and Lincoln & Lee Taiz; with contributions from John de Lancie, based on teleplays by Gene Roddenberry.
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ADMISSION
– FREE and open to the public
– Tickets required and available online through Eventbrite
– Follow the Music Dept on Eventbrite for notices and updates.
– Doors are scheduled to open 30 minutes prior to event start time.
– Ticket holders not seated at least 5 minutes before the advertised start time may forfeit their ticket/seat and no refund will be issued.
—
PARKING
– Parking by permit, ParkMobile, or $11 cash/credit via the on-site parking attendant
– 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.
– UCSC affiliates must purchase their permits before arriving at the event in order to receive their discounted UCSC rate. Attendants will only sell the non-affiliate-priced permits.
– More information provided by UCSC Transportation & Parking Services (TAPS)
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FULL SCHEDULE OF EVENTS
Fri, March 8, 4:00 p.m., UC Santa Cruz Music Center Recital Hall
The Trial of Spock—An Opera Workshop
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Fri, March 13, 7:00 p.m., Kuumbwa Jazz Center
How to Live Long and Prosper—Lessons from a Star Trek Opera
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This program is open to all members of the public consistent with state and federal law.

Research Lunch & Learn: PI Eligibility and the Exception to Policy (ETP) Process
2026-03-11 12:00 - 13:00 | https://events.ucsc.edu/event/research-lunch-learn-pi-eligibility-and-the-exception-to-policy-etp-process/
Join us on March 11, 2026, 12-1 p.m. for a session led by Deirdre Beach, Executive Director of the Office of Sponsored Projects, and others as they discuss and review UCSC’s policy on Principal Investigator (PI) eligibility. This session will highlight which appointments are eligible to request an exception, when PIship is necessary to support the work, and the process for submitting an exception request for consideration.
Join: Zoom link for this session.

Global Cafe (Winter 2026)
2026-03-11 14:00 - 16:00 | Classroom Unit, Classroom Unit, Santa Cruz, CA, 95064, Select a Country:
International Student Services & Programming invites you to our monthly Global Cafe, a space for all international-minded community members to connect. Swing by for some refreshments and an opportunity to meet other international students and scholars, as well as Global Engagement staff. Feel free to drop in at any time and stay for as long as you’d like.
Our winter Global Cafe dates:

Wednesday, January 14
Wednesday, February 11
Wednesday, March 11

What's new in AI?
2026-03-11 18:00 - 19:00 | Silicon Valley Campus, 3175 Bowers Avenue, Santa Clara, CA, 95054, United States
Chat with the AI chair
Lead innovation as a machine learning engineer
Want to learn what’s new in AI? Join Praveen Krishna, chair of the Artificial Intelligence Application Development certificate program, in an informal discussion about the AI topic of the month and an open Q&A. You’ll get an insider’s look at what you need to know for where you want to go. Bring your questions. Share your experience. Plan your learning.
Every 2nd Wednesday | Online
Visit our program page for a closer look at our AI App Development courses and offerings.
Register now.

Undiscovered Shakespeare: The Two Noble Kinsmen - Episode II
2026-03-11 19:00 - 23:59 | CA

Success as a digital content creator: From passion to profession
2026-03-12 18:00 - 19:00 | Silicon Valley Campus, 3175 Bowers Avenue, Santa Clara, CA, 95054, United States
Want to turn your creativity into a career?
This session explores how to succeed as a digital content creator — whether on YouTube, TikTok, podcasts, or blogs. Learn how to identify your niche, build an audience, monetize your content, and stay consistent without burning out. We’ll also cover tools, trends, and tips from creators who’ve made it work.

Find and focus your niche.
Grow and monetize your audience sustainably.
Use the right tools and trends to stay competitive.

This is a casual discussion with Dean Agarwal. Be sure to bring your questions and share your experience.
This event is part of the Dean Conversations: Pathways to professional success series.
Join us online or in person. Claim your seat.

UCSC Jazz Combos
2026-03-12 19:30 - 21:30 | Music Center Recital Hall, 400 McHenry Road, Santa Cruz, CA, 95064
Join the UC Santa Cruz Jazz Combos for a winter concert. Directed by Charles Hamilton.
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ADMISSION
– General admission
– Free for UCSC students (ticket required).
– Tickets available here online through Eventbrite only.
– Follow the Music Dept on Eventbrite for notices and updates.
– Doors are scheduled to open 30 minutes prior to event start time.
– Ticket holders not seated at least 5 minutes before the advertised start time may forfeit their ticket/seat and no refund will be issued.
—
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)
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This program is open to all members of the public consistent with state and federal law.

Winter 2026 Open Studios
2026-03-13 12:00 - 16:00 | Elena Baskin Visual Arts Center, Baskin Service Road, Santa Cruz, CA, 95064
Art Department students exhibit their art work throughout studios and classrooms at the Elena Baskin Visual Arts Center at UC Santa Cruz. The Open Studios event features student art work in a variety of media, including:
– Drawing
– Painting
– Print media
– Sculpture
– Photography
– Environmental art
– Electronic art/new media
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ADMISSION
FREE and open to the public.
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PARKING
– Parking by permit, ParkMobile, or $11 cash/credit via the on-site parking attendant
– 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.
– UCSC affiliates must purchase their permits before arriving at the event in order to receive their discounted UCSC rate. Attendants will only sell the non-affiliate-priced permits.
– More information provided by UCSC Transportation & Parking Services (TAPS)
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This program is open to all members of the public consistent with state and federal law.

UCSC Concert Choir
2026-03-13 19:30 - 21:30 | Music Center Recital Hall, 400 McHenry Road, Santa Cruz, CA, 95064
UCSC Concert Choir Performs music by Chris Pratorius, Einojuhanni Rautavarra, and Juhi Bansal. Featured is “Contraponientes,” by Pratorius, a 30-minute piece for choir, three flutes, harp, and cello–a song cycle for choir on texts by Federico Garcia Llorca. “The Rautavaara” also features Llorca texts, while the Bansal reflects some of the pastoral imagery of the Llorca texts. Directed by Nathaniel Berman,
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ADMISSION
– General admission.
– Free for UCSC students (ticket required).
– Tickets available here online through Eventbrite only.
– Follow the Music Dept on Eventbrite for notices and updates.
– Doors are scheduled to open 30 minutes prior to event start time.
– Ticket holders not seated at least 5 minutes before the advertised start time may forfeit their ticket/seat and no refund will be issued.
—
PARKING
– Parking by permit, ParkMobile, or $11 cash/credit via the on-site parking attendant
– 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.
– UCSC affiliates must purchase their permits before arriving at the event in order to receive their discounted UCSC rate. Attendants will only sell the non-affiliate-priced permits.
– 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.

UCSC Chamber Singers
2026-03-14 19:30 - 21:30 | Music Center Recital Hall, 400 McHenry Road, Santa Cruz, CA, 95064
The UCSC Chamber Singers present a winter concert under the direction of Michael McGushin.
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ADMISSION
– General admission $5–12
– Free for UCSC students (ticket required).
– Tickets available here online through Eventbrite only.
– Follow the Music Dept on Eventbrite for notices and updates.
– Doors are scheduled to open 30 minutes prior to event start time.
– Ticket holders not seated at least 5 minutes before the advertised start time may forfeit their ticket/seat and no refund will be issued.
—
PARKING
– Parking by permit, ParkMobile, or $11 cash/credit via the on-site parking attendant
– 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.
– UCSC affiliates must purchase their permits before arriving at the event in order to receive their discounted UCSC rate. Attendants will only sell the non-affiliate-priced permits.
– 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.

Summer Live in the Schedule of Classes
2026-03-15 00:00 - 23:59 | CA
The Summer Session Schedule of Classes goes live today. Explore course descriptions, prerequisites, and meeting times to start planning early for summer enrollment. Email summer@ucsc.edu with questions or call 831-459-5373.

Summer Live in the Schedule of Classes
2026-03-15 00:00 - 23:59 | CA
Summer Quarter courses are now live in the Schedule of Classes. Students can browse offerings, check prerequisites, and begin planning for summer enrollment.

UCSC Jazz Big Band
2026-03-15 15:00 - 17:00 | Music Center Recital Hall, 400 McHenry Road, Santa Cruz, CA, 95064
Join the UC Santa Cruz Jazz Big Band for a winter concert. Directed by Charles Hamilton.
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ADMISSION
– General admission.
– Free for UCSC students (ticket required).
– Tickets available here online through Eventbrite only.
– Follow the Music Dept on Eventbrite for notices and updates.
– Doors are scheduled to open 30 minutes prior to event start time.
– Ticket holders not seated at least 5 minutes before the advertised start time may forfeit their ticket/seat and no refund will be issued.
—
PARKING
– Parking by permit, ParkMobile, or $11 cash/credit via the on-site parking attendant
– 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.
– UCSC affiliates must purchase their permits before arriving at the event in order to receive their discounted UCSC rate. Attendants will only sell the non-affiliate-priced permits.
– 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.

AM Seminar: The Thinking Eye: AI That Sees, Reads, and Reasons in Medicine
2026-03-16 16:00 - 17:00 | CA
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

Karen Russell - The Antidote
2026-03-16 19:00 - 20:00 | Bookshop Santa Cruz
Bookshop Santa Cruz welcomes bestselling author Karen Russell (Swamplandia!) for a discussion about her latest novel The Antidote, which will be available in paperback on the night of the event. “The Antidote blends speculative and fantasy elements with rich language and vivid characters in an effort not to escape reality but to comment even more thoughtfully on it. . . . Russell’s lyrical writing dazzles on every page.” —The New York Times

Your RSVP helps us plan for your arrival and keep in touch with any changes. Thank you for registering!
The Antidote opens on Black Sunday, as a historic dust storm ravages the fictional town of Uz, Nebraska. But Uz is already collapsing—not just under the weight of the Great Depression and the dust bowl drought but beneath its own violent histories. The Antidote follows a “Prairie Witch,” whose body serves as a bank vault for peoples’ memories and secrets; a Polish wheat farmer who learns how quickly a hoarded blessing can become a curse; his orphan niece, a basketball star and witch’s apprentice in furious flight from her grief; a voluble scarecrow; and a New Deal photographer whose time-traveling camera threatens to reveal both the town’s secrets and its fate.
Karen Russell is the author of six books of fiction, including the New York Times bestsellers Swamplandia! and Vampires in the Lemon Grove. She has received MacArthur and Guggenheim Fellowships and was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize. Born and raised in Miami, Florida, she now lives in the Bay Area with her husband, son, and daughter. The Antidote, a national bestseller and a finalist for the National Book Award, is her second novel.
This event is cosponsored by The Humanities Institute.

Undiscovered Shakespeare: The Two Noble Kinsmen - Episode III
2026-03-18 19:00 - 23:59 | CA

Santa Cruz Pickwick Club presents: Bleak House
2026-03-22 13:00 - 15:00 | CA
Spontaneous human combustion! Evil lawyers! Detectives! Family intrigue! These all come together in Charles Dickens’s masterwork, Bleak House. This year, we will spend the year reading the 2026 Dickens Universe novel. Join Dickens enthusiasts and Pickwick Club members on Zoom for a series of discussions about this beloved book.
Register via Zoom
Reading Schedule:

OCT 26: Chapters 8-13
NOV 23: Chapters 14-19
DEC 28: No meeting
JAN 25: Chapters 20-25
FEB 22: Chpaters 26-32
MAR 22: Chapters 33-38
APR 26: Chapters 39-46
MAY 24: Chapters 47-53
JUN 28: Chapters 54-67 (End)

Recommended Edition: We recommend the Penguin Classics edition of the novel for its appendices and notes, but other versions are fine. First-time readers should avoid the Introduction if they don’t want spoilers. Download the novel to read at Gutenburg.org or listen to it at LibriVox.org.
The Santa Cruz Pickwick (Book) Club, a branch of the Dickens Fellowship, is a community of local bookworms, students, and teachers who meet monthly to discuss a nineteenth-century novel. The Santa Cruz Public Libraries provide support for the reading group.

Cultivating A Healthy Work/Life Balance
2026-03-25 12:00 - 13:30 | CA
Is it possible to build a life that feels successful and sane—both professionally and personally? Do you ever feel like there’s always too much to do, at work and at home, leaving you stressed and out of balance? Or maybe you’re not there yet, but you want to ensure you never reach that point.
Be part of a workshop that challenges the notion of a “perfect” work-life balance and creates space for you to consider your personal and professional priorities. You’ll walk away with clear ideas and practical action steps to create a life that feels grounded, enjoyable, and fulfilling—at work and beyond.
Hosted by UCSC, Alumni Engagement virtual events are open to all UC alumni at all career stages.

From upskilling to career shifting: Education that moves you forward
2026-03-26 18:00 - 19:00 | Silicon Valley Campus, 3175 Bowers Avenue, Santa Clara, CA, 95054, United States
Join Dean PK Agarwal in this hybrid session as he explores how professional certificates, bootcamps, and extension programs can create new pathways for career growth. Learn how flexible education models help adult learners and working professionals build momentum and navigate change with confidence.
You’ll gain insight into how to:

Use flexible learning options to support career growth at any stage
Stay competitive through targeted, skills-focused education
Leverage nontraditional pathways to build confidence and move forward with purpose.

This event is part of the Dean Conversations: Pathways to professional success series.
Claim your seat.

Oceans of Dissent: Towards a Feminist Commons Workshop
2026-04-03 00:00 - 2026-04-04 23:59 | Humanities 1 Building, 420 Hagar Drive, Santa Cruz, CA, 95064
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.

Find Your Path! 2026
2026-04-16 12:00 - 14:00 | Digital Arts Research Center, 407 McHenry Rd, Santa Cruz, CA, 95064
Find Your Path! is a two-day professional development event for UC Santa Cruz Arts Division students who are interested in careers in arts and entertainment. Students are invited to network with UC Santa Cruz colleagues, alumni, and creative professionals to find their path to success. Keynote speaker and presentation information to be announced.
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SCHEDULE OF EVENTS
Thurs. April 16, noon–2:00 p.m, UCSC Digital Arts Research Center (DARC) 108 and online (hybrid event)
Fri. April 17, noon–4:30 p.m, UCSC Digital Arts Research Center (DARC) 108 and online (hybrid event)
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ADMISSION
– Attend in person or online (hybrid event)
– Advance registration (link to be announced)
– UC Santa Cruz Arts Division students only
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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)
