By M.R.C. Greenwood

For people around the world, the arrival of Year 2000 onJanuary 1 represented a milestonein human history. As chancellor ofUC Santa Cruz, it provided me with a special opportunity to reflect on the state of the campus, its people, and its programs as we move from one millennium to the next. More specifically, this transition prompted me to reflect on one simple but important question: To what extent is our campus, through its teaching, research, and public service, prepared to help society tackle the tremendous challenges it will face in the early years of the new millennium? One way for campuses like ours to answer that question is by participating in cross-institutional measurements that gauge quality. By these statistical assessments alone, it's clear that UCSC--in its relatively short 35-year history--has become a campus of great distinction. In the most recent survey to come to my attention, a 1999 assessment of Association of American Universities schools, UCSC is ranked 15th for the rate at which recipients of its bachelor's degrees go on to achieve doctorates.	Photo: Don Harris	Numerous other statistical com-parisons also speak to UCSC's quality: The 1997 analysis of more than 200 top American universities that ranked UCSC 11th in the nation among public campuses in the overall quality of its research productivity; or the one-time survey measuring the quality of undergraduate instruction, published in 1995 by U.S. News & World Report, which ranked UCSC 13th among U.S. universities. But the more revealing answer to my Year 2000 question is found by taking a closer look at the UCSC people behind these impressive statistics--and at the important contributions they are making in a large number of academic fields. In this issue of the Review, we focus on some of the fields that, in the early years of the new millennium, will challenge our resolve and stimulate our imagination: the environment, biotechnology, race relations, K­12 education, communications, global economics, artistic expression, and the frontiers of space. In the process, we turn the spotlight on only a few of the many UCSC scholars whose work is helping shape these critical areas of inquiry. M.R.C. Greenwood Chancellor
	The fields to which UCSC makes significant contributions are diverse indeed. But the people behind those achievements have much in common. Their scholarship is innovative, collaborative, and distinguished by the difference it will make in our knowledge and quality of life.