Campus Origins
This oceanographer, later UC San Diego’s first Dean of Sciences, is considered the “father” of UC San Diego and was an early voice warning about climate change.
Who is Roger Revelle?
This chancellor built a distinguished career in electrical and computer engineering before taking the helm at UC San Diego in 2012. The ‘K’ in his name stands for this.
What is Kumar?
This alum, class of 1960, co-founded Qualcomm and created the Viterbi algorithm, a cornerstone of wireless communications.
Who is Andrew Viterbi?
Over the years, students voted multiple times to bring this varsity sport back to campus, most recently in 1995, but it has never returned since its brief appearance in the 1960s.
What is football?
UC San Diego Medical Center surgeons made history in 1968 by performing the region’s first transplant of this organ.
What is a kidney?
This philanthropist, one of the richest women of her era and namesake of many San Diego landmarks, gave $150,000 in 1909 to support the marine laboratory that became Scripps.
Who is Ellen Browning Scripps?
Marye Anne Fox was a renowned chemist and made history as UC San Diego’s first female chancellor, serving from this year to this year.
What is 2004 to 2012?
This PhD alum, class of 1991, founded a company in 1995 that revolutionized the craft-beer world by producing high-quality liquid yeast strains.
Who is Chris White?
This quirky event at Revelle College in 1978 featured Dr. Seuss himself, who gave his speech entirely in verse.
What is commencement?
In 1999, UC San Diego oceanographer Walter Munk became the first in his field to win this prestigious Japanese award.
What is the Kyoto Prize?
Much of UC San Diego’s current campus footprint was once part of this U.S. Marine Corps base, which closed in the 1960s and was transferred to the university.
What is Camp Matthews?
This chancellor famously refused the position unless the campus was promised one of the UC system’s “great libraries” and oversaw planning for what became Geisel Library.
Who is John Galbraith?
This alum, class of 1997, earned a degree in Visual Arts and later turned his passion for photography and travel into early business ideas before becoming a tech entrepreneur.
Who is Nick Woodman?
Initiated in 2001 by Muir College, this music festival features indie and up-and-coming artists and has inspired similar events at other UC San Diego colleges, becoming a staple of the campus cultural calendar.
What is MuirStock?
Started in 1958 by a scientist who later joined UC San Diego, this record at Mauna Loa Observatory tracks the steady rise of atmospheric carbon dioxide.
What is the Keeling Curve?
In 1959, the UC Regents approved La Jolla as the site for the new UC campus, which was originally called this.
What is the University of California, La Jolla?
Herbert York previously worked on national defense projects and played a key role in establishing the university’s early research programs. Before taking the helm, he was trained in this scientific field.
What is physics?
This alum duo, class of 1978, co-created the goofy cult classic Attack of the Killer Tomatoes, which was filmed at UC San Diego and other San Diego locations.
Who are John DeBello & Steve Peace?
This is the year the first annual Watermelon Drop at UC San Diego’s Urey Hall began, starting the tradition of tossing a watermelon to measure its velocity and mark the end of the school year.
What is 1965?
This chemist, awarded the 1934 Nobel Prize for discovering deuterium—a heavy isotope of hydrogen—was recruited to UC San Diego in the late 1950s and played a key role in building the campus’s early faculty.
Who is Harold Urey?
In 1970, UC San Diego began moving books into this William Pereira (puh-RAY-ruh)–designed building, originally called this before it was renamed in 1995.
What is the Central Library?
Eight leaders have guided UC San Diego since its founding, each serving as chancellor in this chronological sequence.
Who are
Herbert York (1961–1964)
John Galbraith (1964–1968)
William McGill (1968–1970)
Herbert York (acting, 1970–1972)
William McElroy (1972–1977)
Robert Dynes (1996–2003)
Marye Anne Fox (2004–2012)
Pradeep K. Khosla (2012–present)
This PhD alum, class of 1973, won the 1993 Nobel Prize in Chemistry for inventing the polymerase chain reaction (PCR), a technique that allows scientists to make millions of copies of a specific DNA sequence.
Who is Kary Mullis?
This is the year UC San Diego students held their first large annual campus festival, inspired by a Stewart Collection sculpture and marking its one-year anniversary.
What is 1984?
In 1978, UC San Diego assistant professor Ivor Royston and his research assistant Howard Birndorf co-founded this company, San Diego’s first biotechnology firm, inspiring hundreds of startups by faculty, staff, and alumni.
What is Hybritech?