Rankings Highlights

#2 among public universities in percentage of eligible junior faculty who received prestigious NSF Early CAREER Awards in the past five years (FY 2020-FY 2024).

14 straight years ranked in the top two among public universities in the world for research impact, Leiden University rankings for research citation impact in engineering and physical sciences, 2011-'24.

#2 Materials and #9 Chemical Engineering graduate programs among public universities, US News 2025

All graduate programs ranked in the Top 8, NRC 2010

3 Nobel Laureates among our accomplished faculty and researchers

#4 among public universities in highest percentage of faculty who are elected members of the National Academy of Engineering (NAE) 

In the top 2 percent of the engineering programs in the world in overall excellence, research influence, and innovation, Times Higher Education's 2022 World University Rankings

Faculty Distinctions

• Total faculty: 172 (Fall 2024)
• Nobel Prizes: 3
• Members, National Academy of Engineering: 18 *
• Members, National Academy of Inventors: 15 *
• Members, National Academy of Science: 6 *
• Winners, National Medal of Technology: 2 
• Winners, Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers: 6 *
• Members, Royal Society of London: 2
• Members, Royal Academy of Engineering: 3
• Members, Royal Society of Sweden: 2
• Winner, Queen Elizabeth Prize: 1 *
• Winners, Millennium Award: 1 *
  NOTE: * = Current faculty and researchers ​

Research Highlights

• We are home to the nation's first NSF-funded Quantum Foundry, a center for development of materials for quantum information-based technologies. 
• We operate as the West Coast hub of the American Photonics Manufacturing Institute launched by the White House in 2015.
• We are one of several research institutions within the federal initiative Next Generation Power Electronics Institute.
• Professor Shuji Nakamura received the 2014 Nobel Prize in Physics for inventing blue-LED technology.
• Professors Herb Kroemer and Alan Heeger, both Nobel Prize recipients of 2000, are pioneers in semiconductor heterostructures, the basis for modern photonics.
• UCSB is home to the Materials Research Laboratory, widely regarded as one of the top five materials research facilities in the world. 
• Arthur Gossard and Herb Kroemer were early pioneers in molecular beam epitaxy. 
• The world's largest student "capture the flag" hacking competition is held by the UCSB Computer Security group.
• UCSB was one of the first nodes of ARPANET, the first transmission of the Internet.

Industry Distinctions

• One of the most successful public-private research partnerships in the country, with a nearly 1:1 patent-to-publication ratio, Mitsubishi Center
• #1 in patents issued, utility licenses, and start-up companies per $100M in funding
• Among Top 50 schools for venture-capital-backed entrepreneurship, Forbes 2014