CCS was honored to showcase 50 individuals and activities during our 50th Anniversary in 2017-2018 to share our rich history. Take a look at the amazing people responsible for making our unconventional College possible! 

In 2009, molecular biologist Carolyn “Carol” W. Greider (CCS Biology ‘83) was awarded the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for the discovery of the enzyme telomerase and elucidating its role in protecting the ends of chromosomes. She is the only UCSB alumni Nobel Laureate to date as the other 6 Nobel Laureates associated with UCSB are faculty. Greider’s discovery while a graduate student with Professor Elizabeth Blackburn at UC Berkeley had significant implications for our understanding of age-related degenerative disease, and cancer. Greider shares this Nobel Prize with colleagues Blackburn and Jack Szostak. She attributes the CCS undergraduate experience, including her hands-on research in the lab, as key to her basis for her graduate studies at Berkeley where she earned her Ph.D. in Molecular Biology in 1987. 

Greider is the Bloomberg Distinguished Professor, Daniel Nathans Professor, and Director of Molecular Biology & Genetics at Johns Hopkins University.

Grieder returned to UCSB in 2016 as the CCS Commencement speaker, addressing the graduates not on her professional successes, but on her failures and their importance in lifelong learning. In this CCS 50 for 50, you can see Greider’s commencement insights which UCSB Chancellor Yang called ”one of the most inspiring commencement addresses I have ever heard.”