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.
Catalysts of Discovery
USC researchers are pushing the boundaries of what’s possible—using AI and genomics to personalize cancer treatment, advancing quantum computing for future breakthroughs, and uncovering a new way to fight brain cancer by targeting the body’s circadian clock. These discoveries reflect USC’s commitment to creating knowledge that drives progress in health, science and technology.
How AI and Genomics are personalizing cancer treatment
USC launches $12 million Institute on Ethics & Trust in Computing
The institute, supported by funds from the Lord Foundation of California, is the next step in the university’s effort to enhance research and education on the development and applications of artificial intelligence and other technologies that are now commonplace across business and finance, health care, national security and science.
Knowledge Leaders
Marine & Oceanic Studies
USC Sea Grant funds marine and coastal research, communicates research results to leaders in government and local communities, and is a leader in integrating current research with new education initiatives to increase science literacy among urban students and to encourage teachers to adopt science education curricula.
Journalism & Justice
Founded in 2022, the Charlotta Bass Journalism & Justice Lab at the USC Annenberg School for Communication and Journalism is USC’s first media studies center that is dedicated to saving, studying and sharing the work of prominent and hidden figures who have been central to Black social justice movements in America.
Advanced Genocide Research
The USC Dornsife Center for Advanced Genocide Research (previously USC Shoah Foundation Center for Advanced Genocide Research) mission is dedicated to advancing innovative interdisciplinary research on genocide and mass violence, promoting use of the Visual History Archive testimonies in academic research and teaching, and transforming the way we understand the origins, dynamics and consequences of mass violence, as well as the conditions and dimensions of resistance.
Environmental Studies
Founded in 1995 and based on USC’s Los Angeles campus and Catalina Island, the USC Wrigley Institute for Environment and Sustainability educates students, conducts public-facing and policy-facing outreach, and produces solutions-focused research at the intersection of people and the planet.
Equity & Immigration
Through its work, the USC Equity Research Institute promotes forward-looking narratives that support the integration of diverse immigrant and U.S.-born communities, lift up the intersection of racial justice and immigrant rights, and strengthen the base for intersectoral collaborations.
Arts and Social Change
The USC Institute for Theatre & Social Change provides a research and development forum for expressive and interactive dramatic art practices, relative to education, therapy, and social justice, that disrupts oppression and engages communities in meaningful dialogue for social change.
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.
AI farming expert has one foot in the field and the other in the cloud
Kirk Stueve is combining his farming roots with his USC education to help shape a more sustainable future through smart farming technology.
The great apes’ guide to human nature
In the giant beasts, anthropologist Craig Stanford — who came to USC at the invitation of noted primate researcher Jane Goodall — finds compelling insights into humankind.
Trojan’s long fascination with molecular biology inspires stem cell career
Guanyi Huang — now associate principal scientist at MerckBodye — credits his USC training with putting him at the forefront of biological research breakthroughs.
The secret life of deep Earth microbes
A vast, previously unknown world of microbial life thrives in some of the planet’s harshest environments. USC experts explain.
How AI is reshaping the job market
Researchers at USC’s Information Sciences Institute analyzed job postings and AI-related patent filings to measure which jobs are most exposed, and where those changes are happening first.
USC scientists are unlocking the brain’s ‘filing cabinet’
Their research has discovered how the human brain organizes visual memories through precise neural timing.