UC Davis achieved significant milestones in 2024 while furthering our mission in research, teaching and public service.  

We became eligible for designation as a Hispanic-Serving Institution as fall numbers surpassed the 25% enrollment criteria, demonstrating our efforts to bridge disparities in higher education.

Our fundraising campaign, “Expect Greater: From UC Davis, for the World,” raised over $2.25 billion, expanding scholarships and resources for students while supporting critical research.

UC Davis is tackling the world’s most wicked problems, fostering an environment where students, faculty, and staff thrive, delivering world-class healthcare, enriching the arts and culture in our region, and advancing excellence in teaching, research, and public service. This report highlights what our incredible Aggies have achieved over the last year. We are very proud that the people of UC Davis are driven to improve and enhance the lives of people in our community, and far beyond.

2024 was filled with groundbreaking research and milestones for UC Davis. The following five stories reflect some of our proudest work this year.

A UC Davis-led study spurred efforts to conserve Skywalker gibbons in Myanmar, where they are threatened by habitat loss and political strife. The endangered monkeys have become somewhat of a “cause célèbre” because of their distinctive mating songs, which scientists from UC Davis and other institutions followed to locate 44 new groups of Skywalker gibbons in two regions of Myanmar.

UC Davis and SETI Institute scientists held a remarkable 20-minute “conversation” with a humpback whale named Twain, an interaction designed to eventually help us communicate with extraterrestrials. It is believed to be the first such communicative exchange between humans and humpback whales in the humpback “language.”

For years, UC Davis has been close to the critical threshold of 25% enrollment of Latinx students to join more than 600 colleges and universities officially deemed Hispanic-Serving Institutions by the U.S. Department of Education. Fall enrollment numbers crossed the threshold for HSI status for the first time — which would be more than a point of pride; it also would qualify the university for federal grants.

Dozens of streams and rivers in Alaska’s Brooks Range are undergoing radical changes, turning from a crystal clear blue into a cloudy orange. College of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences, National Park Service and U.S. Geological Survey researchers documented, sampled and investigated these impaired waters for answers. The likely culprit: thawing permafrost exposing minerals to weathering. More than 400 news outlets cited the research and the related video was viewed 111,000 times.

The college achieved global recognition. Siobhan Brady was named an HHMI Investigator for research on climate-resilient crops and Venkatesan Sundaresan received a 2024 Wolf Prize for his work on plant reproduction. Savithramma Dinesh-Kumar and Walter Leal were elected to the National Academy of Sciences for contributions to plant immunity and insect scent communication, respectively. Research spanned bumblebee cognition, origins of pancreatic cancer and fertility insights from glowing worms.

From honoring the anniversary of our iconic Egghead sculptures to celebrating our renowned faculty, the College of Letters and Science built upon its arts legacy this year. L&S arts programs received more grants, funding and gifts than ever, including a transformative gift of more than $20 million from globally recognized arts patron Maria Manetti Shrem, who, like L&S, understands the value of arts education.

Enrollment Management empowers students from elementary school through graduation to achieve their chosen futures. Last year, UC Davis attracted its largest undergraduate applicant pool to date and continued to expand the diversity of our undergraduate classes. Financial Aid and Scholarships awarded more than $760M to students. Our Office of the University Registrar worked with Undergraduate Admissions to improve the transfer enrollment process by completing transfer evaluations by September.

The School of Education and director/founder Kevin Gee established the School Policy, Action, and Research Center (SPARC) to address challenges such as bullying, absenteeism, and child welfare involvement, providing actionable insights to improve outcomes for vulnerable youth.

UC Davis Law provides a comprehensive legal education inside and outside the classroom. In 2024, students helped the Immigration Law Clinic win vital protections for detained youths through a groundbreaking class action lawsuit. Professor Karrigan Börk’s popular “Cases & Places” course, which takes students to sites of key court decisions, was a highlight of our top-ranked environmental law curriculum.

Our life-changing BrainGate clinical trial brain-computer interface translates brain signals into speech with up to 97% accuracy — the most accurate system of its kind. This is great progress in restoring communication for people who can’t speak due to paralysis or neurological conditions. We also celebrated the graduation of a healthy 2-year-old from his in-person follow-up testing phase of our CuRe trial, the world’s first stem cell treatment for spina bifida during fetal surgery. 

Factors like jobs, stable housing, healthy food and clean air have huge impacts on health. UC Davis Health’s new Believe in Better brand platform and associated campaign highlight our work in the community to improve these circumstances. We’re also working to offer world-class care more readily across our 65,000-square-mile service area, with a focus on attracting the best and brightest care providers and an expansion of our facilities — plus new digital tools and regional partnerships.

The Betty Irene Moore School of Nursing at UC Davis offers the UC system’s first DNP-NA program. This hybrid, three-year program blends online learning, on-campus experiences and clinical practice to prepare CRNAs to lead in sustainable anesthesia care. With CRNA demand projected to grow nearly 38% by 2032 nationally, the program addresses this need and provides clinical rotations across UC Health campuses, exposing students to diverse care settings statewide.

Nutrition scientists and economists at the UC Davis Institute of Global Nutrition and international partners developed an approach to reduce malnutrition and child mortality in West Africa by adding vital micronutrients to bouillon cubes. Bouillon is consumed by the vast majority in the region, regardless of socioeconomic status or location, offering an equitable pathway for impact. The strategy, as adopted by the Nigerian government, could save the lives of 57,000 children by 2030.

A part of the university’s most ambitious housing construction program, Orchard Park opened its doors for the 2023-24 academic year to welcome students and their families to 1,500 new beds on campus. The new residences surpass the student housing benchmark UC Davis agreed to with the city of Davis. With the completion of this $330 million project, UC Davis now has capacity for 15,000 students, including apartments for students with families, to live on campus.

In its inaugural year, the Interdisciplinary Graduate Research Exhibition (sponsored by the Graduate Alumni Network) brought current and former graduate students together to showcase the innovative research happening on campus, while providing a platform for stronger community engagement. Graduate Studies continues to build more opportunities for graduate students and postdoctoral scholars to thrive in UC Davis’ comprehensive graduate education landscape.

UC Davis raised over $290 million through 53,829 gifts and pledges from 27,705 donors in FY23-24, fueling the successful final year of our historic Expect Greater comprehensive campaign. Aggies took center stage at the campaign’s finale celebration on Oct. 18, showcasing a transformative effort that raised more than $2.25 billion to support students, advance research at UC Davis and UC Davis Health, and elevate the university’s vibrant culture, public service and world-class facilities.

The numbers speak for themselves. 2024 was a year of great diversity and growth.

2024 was surely a year worth celebrating! Our annual year-in-review video showcases the many milestones and accomplishments of our Aggie colleagues.