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Starts Here: UC at the Frontier
When it first opened its doors in 1869, the University
of California had just 10 faculty members and 38 students.
Today, the UC system includes more than 220,000 students
and more than 170,000 faculty and staff, with more than
1.5 million alumni living and working around the world.
From its inception 20 years after the California Gold
Rush, UC faculty and students have looked to cross the
horizons of what we know about our selves and our world,
and what we can do in it. That was the vision of the
pioneers living at the farthest frontiers of the American
continent when they created a University for the Golden
State. As we chart our course through the 21st century,
the University of California is still at the frontier.
UC researchers are pioneers in agriculture, medicine,
technology and the environment. Thousands of California
jobs, billions of dollars in revenues, and countless
everyday household items – from more plentiful
fruits and vegetables to compact fluorescent light bulbs
– can be traced back to UC discoveries. Similarly,
many of the state’s leading businesses have connections
to UC. Those companies were either based on technology
developed by the university, were founded by our faculty
or alumni, or are headed by UC graduates.
UC’s ten campuses at Berkeley, Davis, Irvine,
Los Angeles, Merced, Riverside, San Diego, San Francisco,
Santa Cruz and Santa Barbara provide exciting environments
that foster world-class educational and research opportunities
and generate a wide range of benefits and services that
touch the lives of Californians every day. more…
Besides world-class classrooms and labs, UC has dozens
of museums, concert halls, art galleries, botanical
gardens, observatories and marine centers – academic
resources but also exciting gathering places for the
community. Another half million people benefit from
UC Extension’s continuing education courses and
from Cooperative Extension’s agricultural advice
and educational programs located throughout the state.
UC also manages three U.S. Department of Energy national
laboratories. The Lawrence Berkeley laboratory was founded
on the Berkeley campus in 1931 as an interdisciplinary
research center. Some years later, the Livermore and
Los Alamos laboratories were established to serve U.S.
defense needs; they continue today in new aspects of
that mission, including response to terrorism and homeland
defense. With nearly 19,000 employees, the three labs
have become unparalleled research and development centers
whose programs and activities address national interests
and concerns in areas such as energy, environment, and
health. more...
UC’s five medical centers support the clinical
teaching programs of the University's medical and health
sciences schools and handle more than three million
patient visits each year. The medical centers provide
a full range of health care services in their communities
and are sites for the development and testing of new
diagnostic and therapeutic techniques. Collectively,
these centers comprise one of the largest health care
systems in California. more…
UC is also actively involved in locations beyond its
campuses, national labs and medical centers —
in places throughout California, around the world and
online. More locations…
The University of California is part of your life, every
day. From health care to our children’s schools
to our communities to the economy to the environment,
UC is at the frontiers of our future.
UC organization charts
