From the Chancellor

By M.R.C. Greenwood

When the new millennium arrives in a short 18 months, UC Santa Cruz will be halfway through its 35th year of existence. In the world of higher education, where some U.S. campuses are nearly as old as the country in which we live, that is young indeed.

Despite its age, UCSC has already attained national stature in a number of significant ways. The quality of its faculty and academic programs, the value it places on undergraduate instruction, the caliber of its many and varied research activities, and, of course, the scholastic achievement of its students are important reasons why UCSC--in the words of a recent national assessment--is considered a "rising star" among American research campuses.

Even before I assumed the position of UCSC chancellor two years ago, I had become aware of one other important measure of UCSC's greatness: the contributions its alumni are making in every facet of our society. The interactions I've had with Santa Cruz graduates in my time here have only deepened my respect for the quality of our alumni.

Even before I assumed the position of UCSC chancellor two years ago, I had become aware of one other important measure of UCSC's greatness: the contributions its alumni are making in every facet of our society. The interactions I've had with Santa Cruz graduates in my time here have only deepened my respect for the quality of our alumni.

Over the years, this publication has shined the spotlight on just a fraction of these distinguished graduates: high-flying astronauts Kathryn Sullivan, the first American woman to walk in space, and Steven Hawley, who helped deploy the Hubble Space Telescope; world-class conductor Kent Nagano, music director of France's Lyon Opera, whom critics have hailed as "the next Bernstein"; award-winning journalists Laurie Garrett and Annie Wells, whose reporting and photography won them Pulitzer Prizes in consecutive years.

The Review has featured Brent Constantz, an inventor whose revolutionary compound holds great promise in the treatment of broken bones and osteoporosis; Lindsay Doran, the president of United Artists Pictures and producer of the Oscar-winning film Sense and Sensibility; Patricia Nelson Limerick, a MacArthur fellow and widely respected "New West" historian; and Geoffrey Marcy, part of a two-person astronomical team recognized worldwide for its Lick Observatory sightings of planets outside our solar system.

In this issue, we add a dozen profiles to the stories we've already told. Like their predecessors in these pages, the alumni featured in our cover story are making the most of the education they received on our campus--and, in the process, making all of us in the UCSC family very proud.

M.R.C. Greenwood
Chancellor