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.

Notable alumni

Academia

• William Drea Adams – President of Colby College, Waterville, Maine
• Chester Dunning, - B.A. 1971 - Historian at Texas A&M University who specializes in Russian studies
• Dan Friedman - Ph.D - Professor of Economics at UC Santa Cruz
• Alexander Gonzalez, Ph.D 1979 – President of California State University, Sacramento
• Steven G. Krantz, B.A - Professor of Mathematics at Washington University in St. Louis. Winner of the Chauvenet Prize.
• Annette Lareau, B.A. 1974 - Professor of Sociology at University of Pennsylvania
• 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.

Arts and letters

• Will Bagley, BA 1971 - historian of 1800 West
• Michael A. Bellesiles, BA 1975 - controversial historian
• Susie Bright - Writer, sex activist and sex therapy focus leader
• 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
• bell hooks, PhD 1983 - Feminist social critic
• Miranda July - Filmmaker and writer
• Jayne Ann Krentz BA 1970 - New York Times best selling author
• Deborah Madison BA 1968 - cookbook author, founding chef of the Greens Restaurant
• Martha Mendoza, BA 1987 – AP reporter; shared the Pulitzer Prize for investigative journalism in 2000 for her team's work on the No Gun Ri story
• Kent Nagano, BA 1974 - Conductor of the Los Angeles Opera and the Montreal Symphony Orchestra
• Alan Phinney, BA 1986 - Sunset (magazine), Managing Editor
• Larry Polansky, BA 197 - Composer
• 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
• Michael Scherer, BA 1998 -- TIME Washington correspondent
• Lore Sjöberg - Writer
• Andrea Smith, PhD 2002 - Cherokee activist and author
• Jeremy Strick - BA - Director, Los Angeles Museum of Contemporary Art (MoCA)
• 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".
• Kennan Ward, BA 1980 - Wildlife photographer and author
• Annie Wells, BA 1981 - Photographer, filmmaker, winner of Pulitzer Prize for Spot News Photography in 1997
• Lawrence Weschler, 1974 - Author
• Richard White (historian) – Historian of American West, Native American history, and environmental history; MacArthur Foundation fellowship, 1995
• Daniel James Wolf, BA 1983 - Composer
• Belle Yang - Author
• Laurence Yep – Author

Business

• Andrew "Drew" Goodman, BA, Founder and CEO, Earthbound Farm
• Herb W. Morgan, BA, 1988 Economics - Notable Alumnus, Founder & CEO Efficient Market Advisors
• Vaughn Stakes, BA, Politics - CEO at The Triathlete Store, President at Metropolis Research
• Susan Wojcicki, MS - Vice President, Product Management at Google

Entertainment and broadcasting

• Ashkon, BA - Rapper
• Michael Beardsley, BA 1998, Theater Arts - Actor
• John Brown, BA - Entity who appeared on ego trip's The (White) Rapper Show
• Jello Biafra - Singer and songwriter of the Dead Kennedys
• Brannon Braga, award-winning film writer for Star Trek Generations
• Bill Carter, BA, Politics, Economics - Documentary film director and author
• Brett Dennen, Singer, songwriter
• Cary Joji Fukunaga, BA 1999 - Sundance Award winning filmmaker (Sin Nombre)
• Matthew Gray Gubler, BA – Actor (Criminal Minds), and Director The best actor ever
• Richard Harris - National Public Radio science reporter
• Victor Krummenacher - Bassist for Camper Van Beethoven, Monks of Doom, etc.
• David Lowery, BA 1984 - Singer and songwriter for Camper Van Beethoven and Cracker
• Paul David Magid, BA 1976 - Founding Member of The Flying Karamazov Brothers
• Camryn Manheim, BA 1984 - Actress
• Stephen Mirrione, BA - Academy Award-winning film editor
• Marti Noxon, BA - TV Producer
• Davia Nelson, BA 1975 - One half of The Kitchen Sisters, who are regularly featured on NPR
• Bradley Nowell, Singer and songwriter with Sublime
• Joe Palca, PhD 1982 - National Public Radio science reporter
• Howard J Patterson - Founding Member of The Flying Karamazov Brothers
• Rebecca Romijn - Supermodel, actress
• Maya Rudolph, BA 1995 - SNL cast member
• Jonathan Segel, BA 1985 - Composer/Multi-Instrumentalist for Camper Van Beethoven, etc.
• Andy Samberg, BA - SNL cast member
• Akiva Schaffer, BA -SNL writer, filmmaker
• Tim Schafer - Game designer for Lucasarts and founder of Doublefine Productions
• John D. Scott, BA 1987 - Singer, songwriter, voice instructor
• Nikki Silva, BA 1973 - One half of The Kitchen Sisters, who are regularly featured on NPR
• Chris Tashima - Actor, Academy Award-winning filmmaker
• Jesse Thorn, BS - Host of PRI's The Sound of Young America
• Ally Walker, BS - Actress
• Gillian Welch, BA 1990 - Singer and songwriter
• Rich Wilkes, BA 1988 - Write, Filmmaker (Billy Madison, Stoned Age, Beer Money, XXX, Airheads)

Law

• Ellen Leonida, defense attorney for Scott Dyleski
• Joan E. Donoghue, BA 1978 - judge on the International Court of Justice

Politics and public life

• Bettina Aptheker PhD - leader in the Berkeley Free Speech Movement
• Katherine Canavan, BA - former United States Ambassador to the Republic of Botswana and United States Ambassador to Lesotho
• John Doolittle, BA 1972 - Member, U.S. House of Representatives, California 4th Congressional District
• Ron Gonzales, BA - Mayor of San Jose, California, 1999–2006
• Victor Davis Hanson, BA 1975 - Senior Fellow at the Hoover Institution
• Azadeh Moaveni, BA - journalist and writer
• Timothy Morgan, BA - Republican National Committee Treasurer
• Huey P. Newton, 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

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
• J. Doyne Farmer, PhD 1981 - Physics Researcher at Santa Fe Institute
• Yoav Freund, Phd 1993 - Computer Scientist, Professor at University of California, San Diego, Invented AdaBoost
• John Grinder - PhD 1971 - Linguist, co-creator of Neuro-linguistic programming
• Steven Hawley, PhD 1977 - Astronaut
• Geoffrey Marcy, PhD 1982 - Professor of Astronomy at UC Berkeley and planet finder
• Marc Okrand, BA 1972 - Linguist, creator of the Klingon language
• Julie Packard, BA 1974 - Executive Director, Monterey Bay Aquarium
• Cheryl Scott, BS 1974 - Director of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention operations in Tanzania from 2001 to 2005
• Rob Shaw, PhD 1980–1988 Macarthur Award for work on Chaos Theory
• Pamela Silver, BA 1974 - Professor of Systems Biology at Harvard Medical School, first Director of Harvard University Systems Biology Graduate Program, Synthetic Biologist
• Kathryn D. Sullivan, BS 1973 - Astronaut

Sports

• Anton Peterlin, soccer player
• Matt Seeberger, tennis player

Notable faculty

• Ralph Abraham - Professor Emeritus of Mathematics; notable for founding the Visual Mathematics Institute and for his pioneering work on Chaos Theory
• Luca de Alfaro - designer of reliability rating software that closed Wikipedia from the notion that "anyone can edit" it.
• 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, and one of the few psychologists to win the American Psychological Association's highest honor in all three fields.
• Reyner Banham - late Professor of Art History and a pre-eminent architectural historian, in particular of the modern era.
• Tom Banks - Professor of Physics. Known for work on string theory, elementary particle physics, and cosmology.
• Harry Berger, Jr. – member of the AAAS (elected 2006)
• Norman O. Brown - late Professor Emeritus of Humanities
• Joseph Frederick Bunnett – member of the AAAS (elected 1959); see Radical-nucleophilic aromatic substitution
• James Clifford - Professor of History of Consciousness. Renowned for groundbreaking publications of postmodernist and postcolonial interpretations of anthropology and ethnography: Writing Culture and The Predicament of Culture and Routes.
• 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 and activist
• 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).
• Sandra M. Faber - Professor of Astronomy & 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 Scott Peterson Trial
• Donna Haraway - Professor of History of Consciousness. Doctorate in biology. Often cited author of feminist history of science and culture studies of cyborg. Books: Primate Visions: Gender, Race, and Nature in the World of Modern Science and Simians, Cyborgs, and Women: The Reinvention of Nature.
• David Haussler Professor of Biomolecular Engineering. He and his team assembled the public draft human genome and developed the UCSC Genome Browser as part of the Human Genome Project; member of the AAAS (elected 2006) and the National Academy of Sciences.
• David A. Huffman - Deceased. Founding faculty of the Information and Computer Science Board. Developed the famous Huffman coding
• 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 Paul Kraft – member of the AAAS (elected 1974).
• Tom Lehrer - lecturer in American Studies and Mathematics. Also well known for his satire and songwriting.
• Douglas N. C. Lin – member of the AAAS (elected 2002).
• Christopher Macann - philosopher, author of the metaphysical system, 'Being and Becoming'.
• 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 – member of the AAAS (elected 2002).
• Gordon Mumma - Professor Emeritus of Music, composer
• Richard Abel Musgrave – member of the AAAS (elected 1961).
• Jerry Nelson - Professor of Astronomy & Astrophysics. The scientist who 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 AAAS (elected 1969) and the National Academy of Sciences (elected 1992).
• Donald E. Osterbrock – member of the AAAS (elected 1968) and the National Academy of Sciences (elected 1966).
• Ira Pohl - Professor of Computer Science, Fellow of the ACM; well known for the theory of heuristic search. Author of many CS books, including A Book on C.
• 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 the Cambridge Grammar of the English Language ISBN 0-521-43146-8; member of the AAAS (elected 2003).
• Nirvikar Singh - Professor of Economics. Notable for research on federalism, governance, and economic reform in India.
• Robert L. Sinsheimer - Professor Emeritus of Biology and former Chancellor.
• Michael Ellman Soule – member of the AAAS (elected 2005)
• Ben Stein – Former professor of economics more notable for his work as a comedian, actor and political commentator
• Elizabeth Stephens - Performance artist and longtime partner of artist/sex expert Annie Sprinkle [1]
• Roland G. Tharp - Professor Emeritus of Education. Considered to be the most influential expert in modern social constructivist theories in education.
• Stephen Thorsett - Professor of Astronomy and Astrophysics and Dean of Physical and Biological Science. Known for work on properties of compact stars.
• Hayden White – member of the AAAS (elected 1991).
• Harold Widom – member of the AAAS (elected 2006).
• Stanford E. Woosley - Professor of Astronomy and Astrophysics. Noted for his work on supernova gamma ray bursts. Member of the NAS (elected 2006) and AAAS (elected 2001).