News

Eight UC San Diego Researchers Elected 2025 AAAS Fellows

March 26, 2026

Eight researchers at the University of California San Diego have been elected 2025 Fellows of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS): Andrew D. Chisholm, Farinaz Koushanfar, Albert P. Pisano, Ravi Ramamoorthi, JoAnn Trejo, Emily Troemel, Meenakshi Wadhwa and Sheng Zhong. Full Story

Ten Pieces of Non-Technical Career Advice for Engineering and Computer Science Students

March 25, 2026

At a new event focused on student success and career readiness at the Jacobs School of Engineering, alumni and faculty shared non-technical career advice with current students. Full Story

New Creative Robotics Course Merges Engineering and Art

March 19, 2026

Engineering and visual arts students channeled and evoked emotions through robots they created as part of an experimental Creative Robotics course at UC San Diego. Full Story

Sound Waves Could Be Used to Remotely Reprogram Material Stiffness, Study Shows

March 18, 2026

A team of researchers co-led by UC San Diego engineers has demonstrated a new way to remotely control how a material behaves — using sound. The findings could lead to the development of protective gear, robotic muscles or medical implants that adjust their stiffness on demand. Full Story

Data, Fire and the Fight to Keep California Insurable

March 11, 2026

On February 12, the University of California San Diego Qualcomm Institute (QI) hosted the CalIT2 “Symposium on Disaster Resilience: Data-Driven Insurability.” The full-day event brought together leading disaster and fire professionals, the insurance and risk modeling industry, government agencies, regulators, researchers and academics to explore the latest challenges and advances in climate and disaster technology innovation. In addition, U.S. Senator Alex Padilla and California State Senator Steve Padilla contributed statements via video. Here are excerpts from the gathering (edited for length and clarity). Full Story

Press Clips

UCSD researcher to lead international team probing cancer mutations

The San Diego Union-Tribune | March 9, 2026

UC San Diego professor Ludmil Alexandrov will lead an international team of scientists awarded $25 million to research cancer mutations. The award comes from Cancer Grand Challenges, a collaboration of Cancer Research UK and the U.S. National Cancer Institute, which has invested more than $400 million in multidisciplinary research teams designed "to solve cancer's toughest challenges." Full Story

Think You're Too Young for Colon Cancer? Think Again.

Men's Health | February 25, 2026

Scientists are racing to understand and respond to the rise in early-onset colorectal cancer, which has nearly doubled since 1995, to help find patients sooner. Recently, a fascinating new discovery has gotten researchers closer to identifying who to screen, and it's redefining the research landscape. Researchers at the University of California San Diego set out to look for differences in who got this cancer and who didn't by sequencing the DNA from colorectal cancer tumors. They discovered what is called a "mutational signature" in earlier onset cases. Full Story

Data centers guzzle Arizona's water and power. We calculated how much

Arizona Republic | February 4, 2026

The proliferation of data centers in Arizona raises concerns about the strain on the state's water and power resources. While power is a more immediate concern, the water usage of data centers varies widely depending on their cooling technology. Some data centers have operated for decades using water-intensive evaporative cooling, while others are investing in air-cooled systems. But these systems won't be able to keep up with future data center needs, said Renkun Chen, who researches heat transfer and cooling at the University of California San Diego. Full Story

A Cooler Data Center

American Society of Mechanical Engineers | February 3, 2026

As use of AI increases, the need for data processing and the home that allows it to happen is creating a "surge" in data center construction. That data processing generates tremendous amounts of heat, requiring cooling to prevent failure, and that cooling need accounts for up to 40 to 50 percent of a data center's overall energy use. This growth is expected to increase the total energy consumption used for data center cooling. Research by UC San Diego engineers shows that a new fiber membrane may hold the key to more efficient cooling in data centers. Full Story

Plant Viruses: The Unsung Heroes That Deliver Drugs and Destroy Tumors

The Scientist | January 28, 2026

Before picking up a pipette, Nicole Steinmetz, today a biomedical engineer at the University of California San Diego, picked up a pair of skates gifted by her grandmother. Her affinity for skating caught the attention of coaches, and in her early teens, she was drafted for the German National Team in Artistic Roller Figure Skating. But skating was far from her only love. She aspired to be a scientist. Now, Steinmetz engineers plant virus nanoparticles into versatile drug-delivery platforms. This work expanded into cancer vaccines and immunotherapy. Full Story

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