Creating New Knowledge
Across campus, USC faculty and students are developing new ways of learning, thinking, doing, collaborating — all with a forward-looking mindset. Progress begins with a commitment to break new ground, letting go of ideas that constrain our imagination.
Sustainability Across the Curriculum
The concept of sustainability cuts across all disciplines. Faculty from all over campus are developing new courses and modifying their existing syllabi to incorporate sustainability principles, research and applications. Learn more about USC’s Sustainability Across the Curriculum Initiative.
USC’s dramatic expansion of sustainability curriculum
Sustainability education and research at USC
How USC is preparing every student to help protect the planet
USC’s mission is to cultivate engaged human beings who are empowered to have a positive impact on society.
Jill Sohm, Professor of Environmental Studies, USC Dornsife College of Letters, Arts and Sciences; Member of the USC President’s Working Group on Sustainability
Knowledge Leaders
Multiplying Degrees
Ever more intersectional, the USC Jimmy Iovine and Andre Young Academy — which already fuses the arts, technology and the business of innovation — is developing new joint degrees with the USC Annenberg School for Communication and Journalism, the USC Marshall School of Business, the USC Viterbi School of Engineering and the Keck School of Medicine of USC.
Filling the Gaps
Some of today’s most pressing problems don’t just lack answers — they lack the entire infrastructure to approach it. USC experts are agile and quick-moving when it comes to convening the types of thinkers and doers who can help.
Experts Who Take Initiative
USC scholars and researchers are often the first to respond to new widespread crises or reinvent something that benefits society — both phenomena that are becoming markers of the modern world. With meaningful responses about diversity, equity and inclusion, action on new health threats and even developing new musical instruments using biotechnology, our community is eager to take on the new and uncharted.
Keck Medicine of USC and USC’s health sciences schools make sustainability a priority
By upcycling ocean plastics, reducing harmful anesthesia gases and transforming medical supply chains, the USC health system and medical research schools hope to curb pollution.
USC Leonard Davis faculty member receives Vincent Cristofalo Rising Star in Aging Research award
The American Federation for Aging Research recognized Bérénice Benayoun for her research.
Fluoride exposure during pregnancy linked to increased risk of childhood neurobehavioral problems
USC researchers conducted the first U.S.-based study examining the link between prenatal fluoride and childhood social, emotional and behavioral functioning.
A new ‘rule of biology’ may have come to light, expanding insight into evolution and aging
Living things usually prefer stability to conserve energy and resources, but instability might also play a vital role, USC Dornsife molecular biologist John Tower says.
U.S. schools are not racially integrated, despite decades of effort
May 17 marks the 70th anniversary of the Brown v. Board of Education ruling that racial segregation in schools was unconstitutional. To learn how things have changed — and haven’t — read this piece USC Rossier Dean Pedro Noguera wrote in 2022.
Graduating engineer’s seeks solutions for global water challenges
COMMENCEMENT: Ana Luiza Behisnelian is using her environmental engineering degree to take on the mission of protecting one of our planet’s most important resources.
Detecting influence campaigns on social media with AI and network science
USC researcher Luca Luceri is co-leading an effort to identify and characterize influence campaigns on social media.
Jazz innovator named USC Thornton artist-in-residence
Acclaimed jazz pianist/composer Gerald Clayton returns to his alma mater as a role model for the next generation.
USC researcher discovers drug that may delay onset of Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s disease and treat hydrocephalus
Young-Kwon Hong and his team have developed a drug that can help clear fluid and cellular debris from the brain.
Voters underutilizing free tool to track status of vote-by-mail ballots, USC report finds
Less than one-third of voters used the free BallotTrax tracking tool in 2022, USC Price’s Center for Inclusive Democracy says.