Welcome

The Ocean Sciences Department is an inclusive, supportive, and innovative community of people involved in oceanography and other marine sciences. We offer undergraduate and graduate courses in these disciplines. Students have access to a wide variety of research facilities and equipment through faculty sponsors. In addition to research and instructional activities along the California coast, interests of the core faculty and their students include biological, chemical, and physical oceanography; sediment, marine, organic, and trace metal biogeochemistry; marine plankton, phytoplankton ecology, paleoceanography, aquatic microbial ecology, ecological modeling, and remote sensing (satellite oceanography); numeric modeling of coastal and basin-scale dynamics; midwater ecology and climatology, among others.

Ocean Sciences faculty, graduate students and postdocs prior to seminar

Ocean Science faculty members are recognized as among the world leaders in their fields. As individuals, our faculty members have received many honors and awards – from selection to the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) and the California Academy of Sciences, to prestigious recognition of new discoveries.


We are here to help

Christopher Edwards, Department Chair, cedwards@ucsc.edu

Amy Kornberg, Department Manager, amylkorn@ucsc.edu

Sandy De Lenferna, Graduate Advisor, sdelenfe@ucsc.edu

Phone: 831-459-2563
osadmin@ucsc.edu
Earth & Marine Sciences Bldg. A312


Graduate student presenting her research during a seminar

Ocean Sciences Seminars

The Ocean Sciences Department seminars are held throughout the Academic year on Fridays at 10:40AM in the Nat Sci Annex Building.

We invite speakers who are conducting research that will expand our knowledge and are recognized experts in their respective fields and whose research programs have broad appeal to scientists working within and across our subdisciplines.

Support Us

UC Santa Cruz is a global research university—whose idyllic location along the shores of Monterey Bay and within the surrounding redwood forests inspires the transformative nature of our educational and research missions.

Last modified: Sep 22, 2025