This article lists notable faculty (past and present) of the

University of California, Santa Barbara The University of California, Santa Barbara (UC Santa Barbara or UCSB) is a public land-grant research university in Santa Barbara, California with 23,196 undergraduates and 2,983 graduate students enrolled in 2021–2022. It is part of the U ...

Nobel laureates

Current faculty

David Gross David Jonathan Gross (; born February 19, 1941) is an American theoretical physicist and string theorist. Along with Frank Wilczek and David Politzer, he was awarded the 2004 Nobel Prize in Physics for their discovery of asymptotic freedom. ...

, Nobel Prize recipient, Physics, 2004 *

Alan Heeger Alan Jay Heeger (born January 22, 1936) is an American physicist, academic and Nobel Prize laureate in chemistry. Heegar was elected as a member into the National Academy of Engineering in 2002 for co-founding the field of conducting polymers a ...

, Nobel Prize recipient, Chemistry, 2000 *

Walter Kohn Walter Kohn (; March 9, 1923 – April 19, 2016) was an Austrian-American theoretical physicist and theoretical chemist. He was awarded, with John Pople, the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 1998. The award recognized their contributions to the unde ...

, Nobel Prize recipient, Chemistry, 1998 *

Herbert Kroemer Herbert Kroemer (; born August 25, 1928) is a German-American physicist who, along with Zhores Alferov, received the Nobel Prize in Physics in 2000 for "developing semiconductor heterostructures used in high-speed- and opto-electronics". Kroemer ...

, Nobel Prize recipient, Physics, 2000 *

Finn Kydland Finn Erling Kydland (born 1 December 1943) is a Norwegian economist known for his contributions to business cycle theory. He is the Henley Professor of Economics at the University of California, Santa Barbara. He also holds the Richard P. Simmons ...

, Nobel Prize recipient, Economics, 2004 *

Shuji Nakamura is a Japanese-born American electronic engineer and inventor specializing in the field of semiconductor technology, professor at the Materials Department of the College of Engineering, University of California, Santa Barbara (UCSB), and is rega ...

, Nobel Prize recipient, Physics, 2014

Former faculty

Edward C. Prescott Edward Christian Prescott (December 26, 1940 – November 6, 2022) was an American economist. He received the Nobel Memorial Prize in Economics in 2004, sharing the award with Finn E. Kydland, "for their contributions to dynamic macroeconomics: ...

, Nobel Prize recipient, Economics, 2004 *

John Robert Schrieffer John Robert Schrieffer (; May 31, 1931 – July 27, 2019) was an American physicist who, with John Bardeen and Leon Cooper, was a recipient of the 1972 Nobel Prize in Physics for developing the BCS theory, the first successful quantum theor ...

, Nobel Prize recipient, Physics, 1972 *

Frank Wilczek Frank Anthony Wilczek (; born May 15, 1951) is an American theoretical physicist, mathematician and Nobel laureate. He is currently the Herman Feshbach Professor of Physics at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), Founding Direc ...

, Nobel Prize recipient, Physics, 2004

Pulitzer Prize

Fredrik Logevall Fredrik Logevall is a Swedish-American historian and educator at Harvard University, where he is the Laurence D. Belfer Professor of International Affairs at the John F. Kennedy School of Government and professor of history in the Harvard Facult ...

, Pulitzer Prize for History recipient, 2013 *

N. Scott Momaday Navarre Scott Momaday (born February 27, 1934) is a Kiowa novelist, short story writer, essayist, and poet. His novel ''House Made of Dawn'' was awarded the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction in 1969, and is considered the first major work of the Native ...

, Pulitzer Prize for Fiction recipient, 1969 * Jeffrey C. Stewart, Pulitzer Prize for Non-Fiction recipient, 2019

Anthropology

* James F. Brooks, historian, Native Americans * Napoleon Chagnon, pioneer of biologically based interpretation of human reproductive and aggressive behavior *

Brian Fagan Brian Murray Fagan (born 1 August 1936) is a prolific British author of popular archaeology books and a professor emeritus of Anthropology at the University of California, Santa Barbara. Biography Fagan was born in England where he received hi ...

Garrett Hardin Garrett James Hardin (April 21, 1915 – September 14, 2003) was an American ecologist. He focused his career on the issue of human overpopulation, and is best known for his exposition of the tragedy of the commons in a 1968 paper of the same t ...

, Professor of Human Ecology from 1963 until his (nominal) retirement in 1978; most known for his papers "The Tragedy of the Commons" and "Lifeboat Ethics: the Case Against Helping the Poor" * Stuart Tyson Smith, best known for his reconstruction of the ancient Egyptian language for the films '' Stargate'' and '' The Mummy'' * John Tooby, pioneer of

evolutionary psychology Evolutionary psychology is a theoretical approach in psychology that examines cognition and behavior from a modern evolutionary perspective. It seeks to identify human psychological adaptations with regards to the ancestral problems they evol ...

Art

* Ann Bermingham, art historian * Kip Fulbeck * Gary Hugh Brown, Professor '' Emeritus'' of Art at UCSB (1966-2006)

Botany

Katherine Esau Katherine Esau (3 April 1898 – 4 June 1997) was a German-American botanist who received the National Medal of Science for her work on plant anatomy. Personal life and education Esau was born on 3 April 1898 in Yekaterinoslav, Russian Empire ...

Chemical engineering

* Jacob Israelachvili

Chemistry and biochemistry

* Thomas C. Bruice, coined the term "bio-organic chemistry", member of National Academy of Science *

Craig Hawker Craig Jon Hawker (born 11 January 1964) is an Australian-born chemist. His research has focused on the interface between organic and polymer chemistry, with emphasis on the design, synthesis, and application of well-defined macromolecular struc ...

Bruce H. Lipshutz Bruce H. Lipshutz (born 1951) is an American chemist. He is a professor at the University of California, Santa Barbara. Biography Lipshutz received his undergraduate degree in chemistry from Binghamton University in 1973. His graduate work was supe ...

, professor, made significant contributions to copper catalyzed organic reactions * Ralph G. Pearson, ''Emeritus'', coined the concepts of "hard" and "soft" for acids and bases * Galen D. Stucky, early researcher in the field of materials chemistry

Chicano studies

* Luis Leal * Horacio Roque Ramírez

Computer science

Tao Yang Tao Yang is a Chinese-American computer scientist. Yang is the Chief Scientist and Senior Vice President of Ask.com for web search. He is also a tenured professor in Computer Science at the University of California, Santa Barbara. Biography Yang ...

Counseling, clinical, and school psychology

* Shane R. Jimerson, 2003 co-recipient of the Lightner Witmer Award from the American Psychological Association; noted for his work in school psychology and traumatic stress *

Tania Israel Tania Israel (born 1966)Tania Israel.' (n.d.). Psychology's Feminist Voices. Retrieved July 29, 2020. is an American psychologist and professor in the Gevirtz Graduate School of Education at the University of California, Santa Barbara (UCSB). He ...

expert in LGBTQ intervention research and dialogue across political disagreement

East Asian languages and cultural studies

John Nathan John Weil Nathan (born March 1940) is an American translator, writer, scholar, filmmaker, and Japanologist. His translations from Japanese into English include the works of Yukio Mishima, Kenzaburō Ōe, Kōbō Abe, and Natsume Sōseki. Nathan ...

Ecology, evolution, and marine biology

* Benjamin Halpern – marine biologist, ecologist, and 2016 A.G. Huntsman Award for Excellence in the Marine Sciences winner * William W. Murdoch, population ecologist known for his research in population regulation and predator-prey relationships

Electrical and computer engineering

* Lawrence Rabiner * Petar V. Kokotovic

English

* Hugh Kenner, literary critic *

Shirley Geok-lin Lim Shirley Geok-lin Lim (born 1944) is an American writer of poetry, fiction, and criticism. Her first collection of poems, ''Crossing The Peninsula'', published in 1980, won her the Commonwealth Poetry Prize, a first both for an Asian and for a ...

, poet and literary scholar *

Marvin Mudrick Marvin Mudrick (1921–1986) taught at UC Santa Barbara from 1949 until his death in October 1986. He created the university's College of Creative Studies in 1967 and was its provost until forced out by Chancellor Robert Huttenback in 1984. He wr ...

, literary scholar

Feminist studies

* Leila Rupp * Jacqueline Bobo *

expert in LGBTQ intervention research and dialogue across political disagreement

Film and media studies

Dick Hebdige Dick Hebdige (born 1951) is an expatriate British media theorist and sociologist, and a professor of art and media studies at the University of California, Santa Barbara. His work is commonly associated with the study of subcultures, and its ...

Geography

* Reginald Golledge, pioneer in

behavioral geography Behavioral geography is an approach to human geography that examines human behavior by separating it into different parts. In addition, behavioral geography is an ideology/approach in human geography that makes use of the methods and assumptions of ...

Michael Frank Goodchild Michael Frank Goodchild (born February 24, 1944) is a British-American geographer. He is an Emeritus Professor of Geography at the University of California, Santa Barbara. After nineteen years at the University of Western Ontario, including th ...

, most known for work on GIS, or computer mapping * David Lopez-Carr * Waldo R. Tobler, known for his

first law of geography The First Law of Geography, according to Waldo Tobler Waldo Rudolph Tobler (November 16, 1930 – February 20, 2018) was an American-Swiss geographer and cartographer. Tobler's idea that "Everything is related to everything else, but near things ...

Geology

Tanya Atwater Tanya Atwater (born 1942) is an American geophysicist and marine geologist who specializes in plate tectonics. She is particularly renowned for her early research on the plate tectonic history of western North America. Early life and education At ...

, instrumental in the development of the theory of

plate tectonics Plate tectonics (from the la, label=Late Latin, tectonicus, from the grc, τεκτονικός, lit=pertaining to building) is the generally accepted scientific theory that considers the Earth's lithosphere to comprise a number of large ...

* Stanley Awramik * George R Tilton, pioneer in the measurement and application of isotopes to

geology Geology () is a branch of natural science concerned with Earth and other astronomical objects, the features or rocks of which it is composed, and the processes by which they change over time. Modern geology significantly overlaps all other Ea ...

Germanic, Slavic, and Semitic studies

* Laurence Rickels

Global and international studies

* Alison Brysk, Mellichamp Chair in Global Governance *

Mark Juergensmeyer Mark Juergensmeyer (born 1940 in Carlinville, Illinois) is an American sociologist and scholar specialized in global studies and religious studies, and a writer best known for his studies on comparative religion, religious violence, and global ...

Paul Orfalea Paul Orfalea ( ar, بول أورفلي) (born November 28, 1947) is an American businessman who founded the copy-chain Kinko's. Orfalea was born in Los Angeles, California to Lebanese parents. He is currently a philanthropist and a visiting pr ...

, founder of the copy-chain

Kinko's FedEx Office Print & Ship Services Inc. (doing business as FedEx Office; formerly FedEx Kinko's, and earlier simply Kinko's) is an American retail chain that provides an outlet for FedEx Express and FedEx Ground (including Home Delivery) shippin ...

History

* James F. Brooks, Professor of History and Anthropology, Native American history * Alexander DeConde, Professor Emeritus of History, US diplomatic history * Dimitrije Đorđević, late Professor of History, Modern Balkan History * Mary O. Furner, Professor of History, 20th century US * Tsuyoshi Hasegawa, Professor of History, Russian and Soviet history *

C. Warren Hollister Charles Warren Hollister (November 2, 1930 – September 14, 1997) was an American author and historian. He was one of the founding members of the University of California Santa Barbara history department. He specialized in English medieval histor ...

, late Professor of History, Medieval Europe * Immanuel C. Y. Hsu, late Professor of Chinese history * Wilbur Jacobs, late Professor of History, Native American and Frontier History * Nelson Lichtenstein, Professor of History, US Labor * Albert Lindemann, Professor Emeritus of History, Modern European history *

Harold Marcuse Harold Marcuse (born November 15, 1957 in Waterbury, Connecticut) is an American professor of modern and contemporary German history and public history. He teaches at the University of California, Santa Barbara.Pat Dowell"German Filmmaker Tackle ...

, Associate Professor, Modern European history *

Joachim Remak Joachim Remak (1920 Berlin – Santa Barbara, Cal., 2001) was a historian of Modern Europe, especially of Germany and World War I. Born in Berlin, Germany, he fled Nazi Germany in 1938 for the United States. He earned his B.A. and M.A. in history ...

, late Professor of History, Modern European History *

W. Patrick McCray W. Patrick McCray (born 1967) is a historian at the University of California, Santa Barbara. He researches, writes about, and teaches the history of science and the history of technology. Life McCray grew up in rural southwestern Pennsylvania a ...

, Professor of History, History of Science * David Rock, Professor Emeritus of History, Latin American history *

Jeffrey Burton Russell Jeffrey Burton Russell (born 1934) is an American historian and religious studies scholar. Early life Russell received his undergraduate degree from the University of California, Berkeley in 1955 and his PhD from Emory University in 1960. Care ...

, Professor Emeritus of History, Medieval European history * Paul Spickard, Professor of History, 20th-century US, world, and ethnic history * Jeffrey C. Stewart an American Professor of Black Studies

Linguistics

* Mary Bucholtz *

Wallace Chafe Wallace Chafe (; September 3, 1927 – February 3, 2019) was an American linguist. He was Professor Emeritus and research professor at The University of California, Santa Barbara. Biography Chafe was born in Cambridge, Massachusetts. He was a ...

Bernard Comrie Bernard Sterling Comrie, (; born 23 May 1947) is a British-born linguist. Comrie is a specialist in linguistic typology, linguistic universals and on Caucasian languages. Early life and education Comrie was born in Sunderland, England on 23 ...

* Stefan Th. Gries *

Marianne Mithun Marianne Mithun (born 1946) is an American linguist specializing in American Indian languages and language typology. She is professor of linguistics at the University of California at Santa Barbara, where she has held an academic position since 19 ...

* Sandra A. Thompson

Materials

* Arthur Gossard *

Mathematics

* Michael G. Crandall, winner of the Leroy P. Steele Prize for Seminal Contribution to Research * Glen Culler, early innovator in the development of the interactive computing and ARPAnet *

Yitang Zhang Yitang Zhang (; born February 5, 1955) is a Chinese American mathematician primarily working on number theory and a professor of mathematics at the University of California, Santa Barbara since 2015. Previously working at the University of New ...

Mechanical engineering

* Henry T. Yang, Chancellor

Media arts and technology

Curtis Roads Curtis Roads (born May 9, 1951) is an American composer, author and computer programmer. He composes electronic and electroacoustic music, specializing in granular and pulsar synthesis. Career and music Born in Cleveland, Ohio, Roads studied com ...

Molecular and cellular biology

* Jamey Marth, molecular and cellular biologist, Director of the Center for Nanomedicine, professor in the Department of Molecular, Cellular and Developmental Biology

Music

* Julia Banzi, Ph.D. Ethnomusicology, member of the Al-Andalus Ensemble, expert on Andalusian music and women's ensembles of the Arab world *

John Dearman John Dearman is a Grammy Award-winning classical guitarist and one of the founding members of the Los Angeles Guitar Quartet (LAGQ). Known to LAGQ fans as the group's seven-string virtuoso who supplies the deep-bass lines for numerous pieces i ...

Grammy Award The Grammy Awards (stylized as GRAMMY), or simply known as the Grammys, are awards presented by the Recording Academy of the United States to recognize "outstanding" achievements in the music industry. They are regarded by many as the most pr ...

-winning classical guitarist, member of the Los Angeles Guitar Quartet (LAGQ), Director of Guitar Studies *

Alejandro Planchart Alejandro Enrique Planchart (29 July 1935 – 28 April 2019) was a Venezuelan-American musicologist, conductor, and composer. He was considered to be one of the leading scholars on the music of Guillaume Du Fay; more broadly, he was a specialist ...

, ''Emeritus'', professor of musicology, expert on

Guillaume Dufay Guillaume Du Fay ( , ; also Dufay, Du Fayt; 5 August 1397(?) – 27 November 1474) was a French composer and music theorist of the early Renaissance. Considered the leading European composer of his time, his music was widely performed and repr ...

Philosophy

* C. Anthony Anderson *

Nathan Salmon Nathan U. Salmon (; né Nathan Salmon Ucuzoglu on January 2, 1951) is an American philosopher in the analytic tradition, specializing in metaphysics, philosophy of language, and philosophy of logic. Life and career Salmon was born January 2, ...

Physics

David Awschalom David D. Awschalom (born 1956 in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, United States) is an American condensed matter experimental physicist. He is best known for his work in spintronics in semiconductors. Awschalom graduated from the University of Illinois a ...

, best known for his work in spintronics in semiconductors *

James Hartle James Burkett Hartle (August 20, 1939) is an American physicist. He has been a professor of physics at the University of California, Santa Barbara since 1966, and he is currently a member of the external faculty of the Santa Fe Institute. Hartle ...

, together with Stephen Hawking, proposed the Hartle-Hawking wavefunction of the universe, a specific solution to the Wheeler-deWitt equation meant to explain the initial conditions of the Big Bang cosmology *

James S. Langer James S. Langer is Professor of Physics at the University of California at Santa Barbara. Born in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania in 1934, Langer graduated from Taylor Allderdice High School in 1951. He attended Carnegie Institute of Technology and the ...

Joseph Polchinski Joseph Gerard Polchinski Jr. (; May 16, 1954 – February 2, 2018) was an American theoretical physicist and string theorist. Biography Polchinski was born in White Plains, New York, the elder of two children to Joseph Gerard Polchinski Sr. (1929 ...

Political science

* M. Kent Jennings, one of the founding fathers of

political socialization Political socialization is the process by which individuals learn and frequently internalize a political lens framing their perceptions of how power is arranged and how the world around them is (and should be) organized; those perceptions, in turn ...

research and theory. * Benjamin Cohen, leading scholar in the field of international political economy * Leah Stokes, political scientist specializing in environmental policy

Psychological and brain sciences

* Daphne Bugental, psychologist known for her research on parent-child relationships, infant and child maltreatment, and family violence * Leda Cosmides, helped pioneer the field of

Michael Gazzaniga Michael S. Gazzaniga (born December 12, 1939) is a professor of psychology at the University of California, Santa Barbara in the USA, where he heads the new SAGE Center for the Study of the Mind. He is one of the leading researchers in cognitiv ...

, pioneer of

cognitive neuroscience Cognitive neuroscience is the scientific field that is concerned with the study of the biological processes and aspects that underlie cognition, with a specific focus on the neural connections in the brain which are involved in mental process ...

Religious studies

* Walter Capps * J. Gordon Melton * Birger A. Pearson *

Ann Taves Ann Taves (born 1952) is Distinguished Professor of Religious Studies at the University of California, Santa Barbara. She is a former president of the American Academy of Religion (2010).

Sociology

Donald Cressey Donald Ray Cressey (April 27, 1919 – July 21, 1987) was an American penologist, sociologist, and criminologist who made innovative contributions to the study of organized crime, prisons, criminology, the sociology of criminal law, white-collar ...

* John Foran * Ralph Larkin * William I. Robinson * France Winddance Twine *

Howard Winant Howard Winant (born 1946) is an American sociologist and race theorist. Winant is Distinguished Professor of Sociology at the University of California, Santa Barbara. Winant is best known for developing the theory of ''racial formation'' along wi ...

References

{{UCSB Santa Barbara faculty