Stand Out

Sustainability: Human Factors

RESEARCH SPOTLIGHT

Effective technology is available to move the needle on sustainability. The challenge is to implement these solutions quickly and at scale.

That’s why USC Dornsife is thinking differently. Our researchers explore how to overcome the economic, political, and psychological challenges that stand in the way of a sustainable future.

Public Exchange’s Monica Dean (wearing USC hat) and Carling Monder plant a tree in L.A.’s West Adams neighborhood with help from staff and volunteers from the Koreatown Youth and Community Center and L.A. Sanitation and Environment.

Social Impact

A Tree Grows in LA: Urban Trees Initiative Achieves Its First Planting

USC Dornsife Public Exchange program is now bringing much needed shade to Los Angeles neighborhoods in need of greenery.

Watch the Video

Faculty

USC Dornsife’s Percival Everett Wins National Book Award for ‘James’

Celebrated author and Distinguished Professor of English earns one of the literary world’s top honors for his reimagining of a classic American tale.

Health

How USC Dornsife Pioneered Wellness for Inner-city Grade School Kids

As schools nationwide embrace mindfulness programs, USC Dornsife’s Joint Educational Project has been helping local students manage stress and find focus through yoga for more than a decade.

Elementary school student practices yoga with USC Dornsife's Little Yogini's program.

A no symbol over a child eating marshmallows.

Restricting sugar before birth and in early childhood greatly reduces risk of chronic disease later in life

A group of students in a classroom with a teacher at the front of the room

Record USC grant funds study of program on how to handle controversial topics in the classroom

Nobel laureate Arieh Warshel invested into the American Academy of Sciences and Letters

A collage og photos featuring a photo of homeless tents and a for rent sign

Homelessness, high rents weigh heavily on Angelenos, USC Dornsife study finds

Captive tigers can help the wild ones according to new research

An illustration featuring rows of emojis expressing different emotions

Mixed emotions – neuroscience is exploring how your brain lets you experience two opposite feelings at once

Two side-by-side photos of Los Angeles, one of a treelined street and the other of a street with concrete sidewalks and a dried plant in the foreground.

As climate disparities divide LA, researchers aim to heal the scars of environmental injustice

Professor Peter Kuhn sits in his office.

‘Cancer detective’ wants to use liquid biopsy to change how the disease is diagnosed and treated

A 2022 drone image of the Yukon River and its floodplain downstream from Beaver, Alaska, shows accumulations of sediments, which harbor the toxic metal mercury.

‘Mercury bomb’ threatens millions as Arctic temperatures rise

Water color painting of coastal wetlands

What is ‘blue carbon’? Inside USC’s research on carbon capture in Upper Newport Bay

An illustration of a doctor talking to a patient

Going beyond the diagnosis, narrative medicine can transform patient care

An illustration of honey bees with exes over their eyes

Keeping native bees buzzing requires rethinking pest control

Two prestigious grants fund PhD research in marine and molecular biology

From left: USC Dornsife professor Jessica Marglin, PhD students Katie Googe and Jordan Chancellor, and lecturer Nina Kang earned Fulbright awards.

Fulbright Scholar awards go to USC Dornsife professor and 2 PhD students

Composite image of Earth and nature elements.

USC Dornsife Public Exchange and the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP) work together to advance use of nature-based solutions to tackle climate change

A family having a meeting at a table with a white board

Moms think more about household chores − and this cognitive burden hurts their mental health

An illustration of butterflies on map points

When it comes to butterflies, people prefer pretty ones. That’s a problem for scientists.

A man in a suit in the stacks of a library

From witnessing oppression to investigating resistance

Volunteers tend to an insect trap in Los Angeles.

Bugs thrive in urban Los Angeles – volunteers’ traps reveal biodiversity hot spots for city insects and spiders

Students in building walking up the stairs

Stand Out, Together

At USC Dornsife you’ll study the things you love the most. You’ll explore ideas that you’ve never thought about before. You’ll learn how to make sense of the world from all different angles. And, as part of our community, you will help to define a dynamic academic environment focused on improving lives and the world around us.

Meet the Students

USC Dornsife students demonstrate an impressive combination of academic excellence, accomplishment, creativity, and hard work. Each and every student is hand-selected because they bring something special and unique to our community.

Discover what makes our USC Dornsife community strong

A Brighter Future Isabella Pangilinan Environmental Studies major

The Power of “And” Joshua Senior Biological Sciences major, East Asian Languages and Cultures minor

A Trojan Family Like No Other Victoria Quon-Chow Human Biology major, Nutrition and Health Promotion minor

A Brighter Future

Isabella Pangilinan Environmental Studies major

USC Dornsife student Isabella Pangilinan is passionate about finding solutions to some of our world’s most pressing challenges like climate change and social and economic inequity. The multidisciplinary courses offered through her major are preparing her for a career in environmental law.

The Power of “And”

Joshua Senior Biological Sciences major, East Asian Languages and Cultures minor

USC Dornsife student Joshua Senior is studying to become a neurosurgeon. He explains how his liberal arts education at USC Dornsife prepares him for his career goals – and for life.

A Trojan Family Like No Other

Victoria Quon-Chow Human Biology major, Nutrition and Health Promotion minor

As a student at USC Dornsife, Victoria Quon-Chow is bouyed by the support of the Trojan Family as she prepares to become a doctor.

Public Exchange

Unprecedented Access to Academic Expertise

Public Exchange fast-tracks collaboration between academic researchers and the public and private sectors to define, analyze, and solve complex problems that organizations face. Through our first-of-kind model, we amplify social impact by making academic expertise more easily accessible than ever before.

Partner with Public Exchange

Life in L.A.

man using pipette in lab coat and safety goggles

Experiential Learning

group of students linked in line, laughing together

Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, & Belonging

News and Events

Six students outside in conversation with eachother

Gifted Young Authors Get Career Boost through New Endowment Honoring Fellow Writer

The Jimmy Gauntt Memorial Award Endowment honors its namesake while giving talented USC Dornsife students a leg up on their writing careers.

Marble statue from Greek mythology overlaid with images from computing - circuits and a cursor

Dec 5

Rethinking Intelligence: AI in Research & Teaching

4:00 pm Taper Hall 309K Artificial Intelligence (AI) is rapidly reshaping the landscape of education and research, challenging long-held ideas about what it means to be human. This talk by Jennifer Devereaux (NEH postdoctoral fellow, and Visiting Postdoctoral Fellow, Department of Classics) will begin by exploring the cognitive, cultural, and biological reasons humans are drawn to creating and interacting with artificial agents—why we strive to replicate and enhance our own capabilities.