It 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