List of University of California, Santa Cruz people

This page lists notable alumni and faculty of the University of California, Santa Cruz; alumni may have attended without graduating.

Academia

 * William Drea Adams – President of Colby College, Waterville, Maine
 * Michelle Anderson, B.A. 1989 – (born 1967) – President of Brooklyn College, and a scholar on rape law
 * Stefano Bloch, B.A. 2001 - Author, graffiti artist, and professor of cultural geography at the University of Arizona
 * Hume A Feldman, BA 1984 – Professor and Chair, Department of Physics & Astronomy, University of Kansas, APS Fellow
 * Gabriel Filippelli, Ph.D, 1994 - biogeochemist and climate change researcher, IUPUI
 * Yoav Freund, Ph.D. 1994 – professor of computer science at the University of California San Diego, winner of the Gödel prize
 * Kristen R. Ghodsee, B.A. 1993 – Professor of Gender and Women's Studies at Bowdoin College; winner of 2012 Guggenheim Fellowship
 * Alexander Gonzalez, Ph.D. 1979 – President of California State University, Sacramento
 * Thyrza Nichols Goodeve, artist and writer, School of Visual Arts
 * Victor Davis Hanson, B.A. 1975 – historian, Professor Emeritus of Classics at California State University, Fresno; Hoover Institution Fellow; 2007 National Humanities Medal recipient
 * Eva Simone Hayward, Women's Studies researcher on faculty at University of Arizona
 * Caren Kaplan, Ph.D. – Professor of American Studies at UC Davis
 * Steven G. Krantz, B.A – Professor of Mathematics at Washington University in St. Louis; winner of the Chauvenet Prize
 * Andrew Jolivette; Ph.D. – Professor of Ethnic Studies, senior specialist Native American and Indigenous Studies at University of California, San Diego
 * Annette Lareau, B.A. 1974 – Professor of Sociology at University of Pennsylvania
 * Lisa Lowe, Ph.D. – Professor of American Studies at Yale
 * Patricia Nelson Limerick – Professor of History at University of Colorado and a leading historian of the American West
 * Tod Machover – MIT Media Lab
 * Austin E. Quigley, Ph.D. – Dean of Columbia College of Columbia University
 * John R. Rickford, B.A. 1971 – Professor of Linguistics at Stanford University and African American Vernacular English or Ebonics expert
 * Sally Sedgwick, B.A. 1978 – Distinguished Professor of Philosophy at University of Illinois at Chicago
 * Jeffrey C. Stewart, B.A. 1971 – Professor of Black Studies at University of California, Santa Barbara
 * Bret Weinstein, B.A. – American biologist and evolutionary theorist

Arts and letters

 * Will Bagley, BA 1971 – historian of 1800s American West
 * Michael A. Bellesiles, BA 1975 – author of a book "Arming America: The origins of a National Gun Culture" which won the Bancroft Prize in 2001; the prize was rescinded by Columbia University in 2002 as for having "violated basic norms of scholarship and the high standards expected of Bancroft Prize winners."
 * Susie Bright – writer, sex activist and sex therapy focus leader
 * Dean Byington, BA 1980 – visual artist
 * Gail Carriger, MA 2008 – steampunk author
 * Maya Chinchilla, BA 2000 – Guatemalan-American poet
 * Fred Cohen, BA 1980 — Director of the School of Music & Dance, San Jose State University
 * David Farley- BA 1995 – Author of "An Irreverent Curiosity", food and travel writer
 * William Finnegan- BA 1974 – 2016 Pulitzer prize author of "Barbarian Days", journalist
 * Laurie Garrett, BA 1975 – Newsday science reporter and author, Pulitzer Prize winner
 * Philip Kan Gotanda – playwright
 * Reyna Grande, BA 1999 – author, American Book Award winner
 * Kira Lynn Harris, MFA 1998 – artist
 * bell hooks, PhD 1983 – author, educator, social critic
 * Miranda July – filmmaker and writer
 * Lori Kay, BA 1986 – artist, sculptor
 * Persis Karim, BA 1985 – poet, editor, educator, scholar of Iranian-Americans
 * Jayne Ann Krentz, BA 1970 – New York Times bestselling author
 * Katerina Lanfranco, BA 2001 – artist
 * Deborah Madison, BA 1968 – cookbook author, founding chef of the Greens Restaurant
 * Steve Martini, BA 1968 – bestselling mysteries author
 * Lou Mathews, BA 1973 – writer, "Best Book" of 1999 for L.A. Breakdown (L.A. Times)
 * Omar Musa – award-winning Australian author, poet and rapper
 * Kent Nagano, BA 1974 – conductor of the Los Angeles Opera and the Montreal Symphony Orchestra
 * Catherine Newman, PhD, memoirist and novelist
 * Jenny Parks – comics artist, fan artist, and scientific illustrator
 * Larry Polansky, BA – composer
 * Johanna Poethig, BA 1980 – visual, public and performance artist
 * Dana Priest, BA 1981 – Washington Post reporter and author; winner of the 2006 Pulitzer Prize for Beat Reporting and 2008 Pulitzer Prize for Public Service
 * Tanya Ragir, BA 1976 – artist
 * Tlaloc Rivas, BA 1995 – theatre director, writer, and professor
 * Joe Safdie, BA 1975 - poet
 * Michael Schennum, BA 2000 – photojournalist
 * Andrea Smith, PhD 2002 – Cherokee activist and author
 * David Talbot, BA – founder of Salon.com, author, journalist
 * Mark Teague, BA 1985 – author and illustrator of children's books
 * Hector Tobar, BA – Los Angeles Times columnist, author, winner of Pulitzer Prize in 1992
 * Bernt Wahl, BA 1984, BS 1986 – author and entrepreneur, Fulbright Fellow. November 1985 coined UC Santa Cruz motto "Fiat Slug"
 * Annie Wells, BA 1981 – photographer, filmmaker, winner of Pulitzer Prize for Spot News Photography in 1997
 * Lawrence Weschler, 1974 – author
 * Richard White – historian of American West, Native American history, and environmental history; MacArthur Foundation fellowship, 1995
 * Daniel James Wolf, BA 1983 – composer
 * Laurence Yep – author
 * Sahar Khoury, BA 1996 – Sculptor

Business

 * Mike Cagney, BA/MS – co-founder and former CEO of SoFi
 * Jonah Peretti, BS 1996 – founder of BuzzFeed and Huffington Post
 * Sage Weil, PhD 2007 – founder of Ceph
 * Susan Wojcicki, MS – former CEO of YouTube

Economics

 * Andréa Maechler, PhD – Swiss economist. The first woman to join the board of directors of the Swiss National Bank

Entertainment and broadcasting

 * Lorin Ashton, aka Bassnectar – free-form electronic music artist and DJ
 * Juliet Bashore, BA English Literature/Film, award-winning filmmaker (Kamikaze Hearts, The Battle of Tuntenhaus)
 * Jello Biafra, singer and songwriter of the Dead Kennedys
 * Matt Bettinelli-Olpin, BA, filmmaker (V/H/S, Southbound) and guitarist for Link 80
 * Brannon Braga – award-winning film writer for Star Trek Generations and an executive producer of 24
 * Bob Byington, BA 1988 – filmmaker (7 Chinese Brothers, Lousy Carter)
 * Bill Carter, BA Politics, Economics – documentary film director and author
 * Rick Carter, BA, Oscar-winning art director and production designer
 * John Craigie, BA Mathematics 2002 – folk singer
 * Dennis Delaney, BA Anthropology 1976 – writer and actor
 * Brett Dennen – singer, songwriter
 * Jacob Aaron Estes, BA 1994 – film screenwriter and director
 * Sven Gamsky, aka Still Woozy BA 2014 – musician, songwriter
 * Anne Flett-Giordano, BA 1976 – television writer and producer (Kate & Allie, Frasier, Desperate Housewives)
 * Cary Joji Fukunaga, BA 1999 – Award-winning filmmaker and showrunner (Sin Nombre, True Detective, Beasts of No Nation)
 * Matthew Gray Gubler, BA – actor (Criminal Minds) and director
 * Richard Gunn, BA 1997 – actor (Dark Angel, Granite Flats, and For the Love of Money)
 * Richard Harris – National Public Radio science reporter
 * Anohni Hegarty – attended in late 1980s – Composer and singer for Anohni and the Johnsons, and visual artist
 * Alice Inoue – former television presenter and author
 * Ethan Klein, BA English Literature 2009 – YouTube video blogger and satirist known for h3h3Productions
 * Elissa Knight, BA Theater & English Literature 1997 - voice actress
 * Victor Krummenacher – bassist for Camper Van Beethoven, Monks of Doom
 * Gretchen Lieberum – singer, songwriter
 * David Lowery, BA 1984 – singer and songwriter for Camper Van Beethoven and Cracker
 * Camryn Manheim, BA 1984 – actress
 * Barry Mendel – film producer (Rushmore, Sixth Sense, Munich, Funny People)
 * Stephen Mirrione, BA – Academy Award-winning film editor
 * Dacoury Natche, aka DJ Dahi – Grammy nominated Hip-hop producer
 * Bradley Nowell, singer and songwriter with Sublime
 * Marti Noxon, BA – TV producer
 * Joe Palca, PhD 1982 – National Public Radio science reporter
 * Jack Passion, BA 2006 – competitive beard grower and star of IFC's Whisker Wars
 * Stephanie Foo, BA 2008 – Radio producer for This American Life.
 * Rebecca Romijn – supermodel, actress
 * Maya Rudolph, BA 1995 – SNL cast member
 * Andy Samberg, BA – Saturday Night Live cast member
 * Tim Schafer – game designer for LucasArts and founder of Double Fine Productions
 * Akiva Schaffer, BA – Saturday Night Live writer, filmmaker
 * Stuart Schuffman, aka Broke-Ass Stuart, BA 2003 – travel writer, poet, host of IFC's Young Broke & Beautiful
 * Amber Sealey, BA - film director and actress
 * Jonathan Segel, BA 1985 – composer, multi-instrumentalist for Camper Van Beethoven
 * Nikki Silva, BA 1973 – one half of The Kitchen Sisters, who are regularly featured on NPR
 * Julie Snyder, BA 1995 – producer of NPR's Serial (podcast) and S-Town
 * Chris Tashima – actor, Academy Award-winning filmmaker
 * Jesse Thorn, BS – host of NPR's Bullseye with Jesse Thorn and co-host of Jordan, Jesse, Go!
 * Omi Vaidya - American actor in Bollywood films known for role in 3 Idiots
 * Rubén Valtierra, BA – keyboardist for "Weird Al" Yankovic
 * Ally Walker, BS – actress known for roles in Profiler, Sons of Anarchy, and The Protector
 * Gillian Welch, BA 1990 – singer and songwriter
 * Kennedy Ashlyn Wenning, musician under the name SRSQ
 * Rich Wilkes, BA 1988 – writer, filmmaker (Billy Madison, Stoned Age, Beer Money, XXX, Airheads)

Law

 * Nate Cardozo, BA 2003 – privacy and civil rights attorney, currently managing privacy at WhatsApp
 * Vince Girdhari Chhabria, BA 1991 – judge, United States District Court for the Northern District of California
 * Joan E. Donoghue, BA 1978 – judge, International Court of Justice
 * Ricardo García, BA 1991 – public defender for Los Angeles County
 * Rachel Goslins, BA 1991 – copyright attorney, Director of the Smithsonian's Arts and Industries Museum, former executive director of the President's Committee on the Arts and Humanities
 * Charles Harder, BA 1991 – entertainment and civil lawyer known for representing President Donald Trump, Melania Trump, and many celebrities.
 * Ellen Leonida, BA 1993 – defense attorney for Scott Dyleski

Politics and public life

 * Jamus Lim, MA 2006, PhD 2006 – Member of the 14th Parliament of Singapore, member of the opposition Workers’ Party of Singapore and associate professor at ESSEC Business School
 * Bettina Aptheker, PhD – leader in the Berkeley Free Speech Movement
 * Claire Pierangelo, BA 1982 — Current US Ambassador to the Republic of Madagascar and Union of Comoros
 * Katherine Canavan, BA – former United States Ambassador to Botswana and United States Ambassador to Lesotho
 * Rebecca Cokley, BA – Former director of the Disability Justice Initiative at the Center for American Progress (CAP)
 * John Doolittle, BA 1972 – Member, U.S. House of Representatives, California's 4th Congressional District
 * Eli Erlick, PhD – writer, transgender activist, founder of Trans Student Educational Resources
 * Ron Gonzales, BA – Mayor of San Jose, California, 1999–2006
 * Victor Davis Hanson, BA 1975 – Senior Fellow at the Hoover Institution
 * James Charles Kopp, BA Biology 1976 – murderer of Buffalo abortion doctor Barnett Slepian in 1998; convicted in 2003 and serving sentence of 25 years to life
 * John Laird, BA 1972 – California Natural Resources Agency Secretary, former California Assemblyman, and Mayor of Santa Cruz
 * Don Lane, former mayor of Santa Cruz, California
 * Nina Milliken, BA 2010, maine state representative
 * Azadeh Moaveni, BA – journalist and writer
 * Huey P. Newton, BA 1974, PhD 1980 – Co-founding member of the Black Panther Party
 * Aaron Peskin, San Francisco Board of Supervisors member
 * Drummond Pike, BA 1970 – Tides Foundation founder, philanthropist, and social entrepreneur
 * Art Torres, BA 1968 – California Democratic Party Chairman, former California State Senator
 * Yvette Quiroga, 1995 BA Psychology, Mayor of Mendota

Science

 * Richard Bandler, MA 1975 – co-creator of neuro-linguistic programming
 * Joseph DeRisi, BA 1992 – molecular biologist, professor at UC San Francisco, MacArthur Fellow, known for work on SARS and malaria
 * Alan Dressler, PhD 1976, staff astronomer at the Carnegie Institution for Science, member of the National Academy of Sciences, cosmologist, author
 * J. Doyne Farmer, PhD 1981 – pioneer in chaos theory, Prediction Company, Santa Fe Institute
 * Judy Fierstein, multiple - American geologist
 * Debra Fischer, PhD 1998, Professor of Astronomy at Yale University, planet finder
 * Yoav Freund, PhD 1993 – computer scientist, professor at University of California, San Diego, inventor of AdaBoost
 * John Grinder, PhD 1971 – linguist, co-creator of neuro-linguistic programming
 * Howard Hang, BS 1998 – Professor of Chemistry at Rockefeller University
 * Steven Hawley, PhD 1977 – astronaut, Professor of Physics at the University of Kansas
 * Holly Jones, BS – restoration ecologist and conservation biologist, associate professor at Northern Illinois University
 * Stacy Jupiter, PhD 2003 — Director of the Melanesia Program for the Wildlife Conservation Society, MacArthur Fellows Program
 * Geoffrey Marcy, PhD 1982 – Professor of Astronomy at UC Berkeley, planet finder, and member of the National Academy of Sciences
 * Lara Mahal, BA 1996 – Professor of Chemistry at New York University
 * Marc Okrand, BA 1972 – linguist, creator of the Klingon language
 * Julie Packard, BA 1974, MA 1978 — Founder and executive director of the Monterey Bay Aquarium
 * Mark M. Phillips, PhD 1978 – staff astronomer at Las Campanas Observatory, inventor of the Phillips relationship, pioneer in supernova cosmology
 * Rob Shaw, PhD 1980 – MacArthur Award for work on chaos theory, 1988
 * Pamela Silver, BA 1974 – Professor of Systems Biology at Harvard Medical School, first Director of Harvard University Systems Biology Graduate Program, synthetic biologist
 * Deborah Steinberg, PhD 1973 – biological oceanographer, Antarctic researcher
 * Kathryn D. Sullivan, BS 1973 – astronaut, science museum CEO (COSI Columbus), Under Secretary of Commerce for Oceans and Atmosphere, NOAA Administrator
 * Nicholas B. Suntzeff, PhD 1980 – Professor of Astronomy at Texas A&M University; cosmologist; co-founder of High-Z Supernova Search Team, which discovered dark energy
 * Bill Woodcock, BA 1993, - best known for his 1989 origination of the anycast routing technique that is now ubiquitous in Internet content distribution networks and the domain name system

Sports

 * Anton Peterlin – soccer player

Notable faculty

 * Martin Abadi - Professor Emeritus, Computer Science and Engineering. Known for Burrows–Abadi–Needham logic and Baby Modula-3
 * Ralph Abraham – professor emeritus of mathematics, notable for founding the Visual Mathematics Institute and for his pioneering work on chaos theory
 * Bettina Aptheker – professor of feminist studies and history
 * Elliot Aronson – professor emeritus of psychology; author of The Social Animal and Nobody Left to Hate: Teaching Compassion after Columbine; creator of the Jigsaw Classroom model; one of the few psychologists to win the American Psychological Association's highest honor in all three fields
 * John Backus – late adjunct professor of Computer Science; Won Turing Award for creating Fortran
 * Reyner Banham – late professor of art history and a preeminent architectural historian, in particular of the modern era
 * Tom Banks – professor of physics. Known for work on string theory, elementary particle physics, and cosmology
 * Gregory Bateson – late lecturer and fellow of Kresge College; anthropologist, social scientist, linguist, visual anthropologist, semiotician and cyberneticist
 * George R. Blumenthal – professor of astronomy and astrophysics, and chancellor of the University of California, Santa Cruz
 * Bakthan Singaram – professor of organic chemistry and former researcher
 * Norman O. Brown – late professor emeritus of humanities
 * William L. Burke – late professor of physics (cosmologist); chaos theory "godfather"
 * James H. Clark – assistant professor of information science, founder of Silicon Graphics and Netscape
 * James Clifford – professor of history of consciousness, known for publications of postmodernist and postcolonial interpretations of anthropology and ethnography
 * David Cope – professor of music; notable for his experiments in A.I. and computer-created musical compositions
 * Angela Davis – professor of history of consciousness, writer, activist
 * Nathaniel Deutsch – professor and Baumgarten Endowed Chair in Jewish Studies
 * John Dizikes – professor emeritus of American studies, author, won the 1993 National Book Critics Circle Award
 * Frank Drake – professor emeritus of astronomy and astrophysics; proposed the Drake Equation; member of the AAAS (elected 1974)
 * William Everson – late lecturer and poet-in-residence
 * Sandra M. Faber – professor of astronomy and astrophysics; instrumental in inventing cold dark matter theory and fundamental work in the field of galaxy formation and evolution; member of the NAS (elected 1985), the AAAS (elected 1989), and the American Philosophical Society (elected 2001)
 * Alison Galloway – forensic anthropologist who worked in identifying the physical remains of Laci Peterson in the trial of Scott Peterson
 * Shelly Grabe – associate professor of social psychology and scholar-activist in women's human rights
 * Craig Haney – professor of psychology and instrumental researcher in the Stanford Prison Experiment
 * Donna Haraway – professor of history of consciousness; doctorate in biology; often-cited author of feminist history of science and culture studies of cyborg
 * David Haussler – professor of biomolecular engineering; he and his team assembled the public draft human genome and developed the Genome Browser as part of the Human Genome Project; member of the AAAS (elected 2006) and the National Academy of Sciences
 * George Herbig – emeritus professor of astronomy and astrophysics, pioneer in the study of star formation, discoverer of the Herbig Ae/Be stars and Herbig-Haro Objects, member of the National Academy of Sciences
 * George Hitchcock – late lecturer, poetry and theater
 * David A. Huffman – deceased; founding faculty of the Information and Computer Science Board; developed Huffman coding
 * Harry Huskey – deceased; Professor of Computer Science; advised many countries on how to establish an academic Computer Science program
 * Frederic Jameson – professor of history of consciousness; cultural critic and theorist of the post-modern; published the essay "Postmodernism, or, the Cultural Logic of Late Capitalism", a significant investigation into contemporary culture and the political economy
 * Jim Kent – associate research scientist in the Department of Biomolecular Engineering; directs the genome browser development and quality assurance staff of the UCSC Genome Bioinformatics Group; created the computer program that assembled the first working draft of the human genome sequence; participates in the public consortium efforts to produce, assemble, and annotate genomes
 * Robert P. Kraft – professor of astronomy and astrophysics, stellar astronomer, member of the National Academy of Sciences
 * Cynthia Ling Lee – professor of theatre arts, known for postmodern and classical Indian dance
 * Tom Lehrer – lecturer in American studies and mathematics; known for his satire and songwriting
 * Darrell Long – professor of computer science and engineering, fellow of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) and the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS)
 * Chip Lord – professor of film and digital media; member of Ant Farm, a groundbreaking, experimental art and architecture collective he founded in 1968 with fellow architect Doug Michels
 * Nathaniel Mackey – poet and editor
 * Dominic W. Massaro – professor of psychology and computer engineering; originator of the fuzzy logical model of perception, one of the leading theories of speech perception
 * Claire Ellen Max – professor of astronomy and astrophysics, member of the AAAS (elected 2002) and the National Academy of Sciences
 * Gordon Mumma – professor emeritus of music, composer
 * Richard Abel Musgrave – member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences (elected 1961)
 * Jerry Nelson – professor of astronomy and astrophysics; pioneered the use of mirror segments, making the Keck telescopes possible; member of the NAS
 * Harry Noller – professor of biology. RNA research; member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences (elected 1969) and the National Academy of Sciences (elected 1992)
 * Donald E. Osterbrock – member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences (elected 1968) and the National Academy of Sciences (elected 1966)
 * Micah Perks – fiction writer and memoirist
 * Larry Polansky – professor of music, composer and performing artist
 * Joel Primack – professor of physics, noted cosmologist; renowned for Cold Dark Matter Theory proposed along with Sandra Faber (see above) and Sir Martin Rees
 * Geoffrey Pullum – professor of linguistics and distinguished professor of humanities; co-author of Cambridge Grammar of the English Language; member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences (elected 2003)
 * Adrienne Rich – late professor, poet and essayist
 * Constance M. Rockosi – chair of the astronomy and astrophysics department
 * Beth Shapiro – professor of ecology and evolutionary biology; author of How to Clone a Mammoth
 * Page Smith – Historian
 * Michael Ellman Soule – member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences (elected 2005)
 * Ben Stein – former professor of economics, more notable for his work as a comedian, actor and political commentator
 * Stephen Thorsett – professor of astronomy and astrophysics; dean of physical and biological science; known for work on properties of compact stars
 * Anna Tsing – professor of anthropology; Guggenheim Fellow and Niels Bohr Professorship
 * Noah Wardrip-Fruin – associate professor of computer science, digital media and interactive fiction researcher
 * Manfred K. Warmuth – Professor of Computer Science, known for Weighted Majority Algorithm
 * Hayden White – member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences (elected 1991)
 * Jim Whitehead – chair of Computer Science and creator of WebDAV
 * Harold Widom – member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences (elected 2006)
 * Gurdon Woods – sculptor, founding chair of the art department at UC Santa Cruz, from 1966 to 1974
 * Stanford E. Woosley – professor of astronomy and astrophysics; noted for his work on supernova gamma ray bursts; member of the NAS (elected 2006) and American Academy of Arts and Sciences (elected 2001)
 * Karen Tei Yamashita – author and playwright, recipient of the National Book Award's Medal for Distinguished Contribution to American Letters in 2021