2024 reflections: The year in review

As we head into the holidays and prepare to usher in 2025, it's a natural time to consider the year that was. UCLA has much to celebrate - 2024 was a year filled with tremendous accomplishments by our faculty, students, alumni and staff, a year in which members of the Bruin community excelled in their fields, added to our collective knowledge and continued to strive to make the world a better place.

The university set new standards of inclusive excellence, made significant strides toward a more just and sustainable future, deepened its local and global engagement, and further enhanced its reputation as one of the world's preeminent public research institutions.

At the same time, 2024 was a year of challenges - challenges Bruins have been working together to address through a firm commitment to safety and well-being, engagement across differences, mutual respect and empathy.

In January, UCLA will welcome a new chancellor in Dr. Julio Frenk, who considers himself "boundary spanner and a bridge builder," and understands that "the strength of institutions of higher learning - socially, academically and intellectually - comes from their diversity and from a willingness to cross boundaries."

In anticipation of this new chapter in UCLA's history, Newsroom takes a look back at the events and achievements of 2024 and at what makes the Bruin community - both here in Westwood and around the globe - so extraordinary.

Why UCLA is No. 1, again and again...

For the eighth year running, UCLA was named the No. 1 public university in the nation in U.S. News & World Report's influential "Best Colleges" rankings. The campus was again rated the best public university for veterans and also earned the top public university ranking from college-review website Niche.com.

"We often talk about being a great research university, and of course U.S. News & World Report has said that we are the best public university," said Interim Chancellor Darnell Hunt. "But we really aspire to be the most impactful - to have the greatest positive influence on the real world, to shape society in beneficial ways, to make a difference … With our firm commitment to inclusive excellence, UCLA is continuing to redefine what it means to be a great public institution."

The newest class of Bruins testifies to that inclusive excellence. While other highly ranked universities saw the diversity of their student bodies decline significantly in the wake of the Supreme Court's 2023 ban on affirmative action, the number of historically underrepresented students at UCLA grew, with the campus enrolling one of its most academically accomplished and racially, ethnically and socioeconomically diverse classes in recent history.

And faculty, students and alumni continued to cement UCLA's reputation as a global leader in academia through their profound accomplishments in a range of disciplines. Professor and alumnus Jason De León won the National Book Award for Nonfiction, following professor Justin Torres' win last year in the fiction category; thirty-eight faculty members were named among the world's most influential researchers; two alumni received prestigious MacArthur "genius" grants; UCLA was honored as top producer of international Fulbright scholars; and Mohammed Alharthi became the first-ever international student at UCLA to be awarded a Rhodes scholarship.

Other top honors Bruins had to be proud about in 2024:

A new era in leadership: Welcoming Julio Frenk

When Dr. Julio Frenk, an acclaimed global health researcher and then-president of the University of Miami, was announced as UCLA's chancellor-designate in June, the praise rolled in from leaders and luminaries across Los Angeles, the U.S. and beyond.

Frenk, who will begin his tenure in Westwood on Jan. 1, 2025, brings with him a packed resume, having served as the national health secretary of Mexico, dean of the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, an executive director at the World Health Organization and a senior fellow at the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. As he prepares to take the reins, he and his wife, Felicia Knaul, a globally recognized health economist, have been making frequent trips to campus to familiarize themselves with the new terrain. Frenk said he grows more excited by the day.

"At this crucial moment for higher education, returning to the public sector to lead one of the top research universities in the world - including one of the 10 largest academic health systems - is an exciting opportunity and a great honor for me," he said. "I look forward to adding my lifelong commitment to public service in education and health care to the vibrant, diverse and cosmopolitan community that is Los Angeles."

Since former Chancellor Gene Block stepped down on July 31 after 17 years of service, the role of chief executive has been held on an interim basis by longtime campus leader Darnell Hunt, who has also served as executive vice chancellor and provost, dean of social sciences and chair of the sociology department.

More on UCLA leadership:

From the Big Ten to sports' biggest stage

In August, UCLA ushered in a brand-new era of sports rivalries and traditions by joining the Big Ten Conference, a historic move aimed at creating new competitive opportunities and a broader national media platform for UCLA student-athletes to showcase their talents, along with enhanced resources to support the long-term health of the campus's athletics program.

UCLA wasted no time making their presence felt, with the women's soccer team capturing a Big Ten title in its first year of play. That followed on the heels UCLA's two NCAA championships in 2024 - during the Bruins' final Pac-12 campaign - a men's volleyball title and women's water polo title, bringing the overall tally of national championships to 123, second-most in the nation.

In the midst of the Big Ten move, 49 Bruins - 40 athletes and nine coaches - were writing a new chapter in UCLA's storied history of international competition at the Olympic Games in Paris. Across more than a dozen sports, these Bruins collected 14 medals, including five golds, three silvers and six bronzes.

And while some UCLA athletes' accomplishments on the field of play may have seemed beyond human, one actually was: Two robots designed by engineering professor Dennis Hong and his team at the Robotics and Mechanisms Laboratory at UCLA notched a sixth win for the lab in the RoboCup soccer world championships.

At the same time, UCLA's athletes and athletic history continued to inspire:

A year of extraordinary giving and impact

UCLA received nearly $857 million in new gifts and pledges in fiscal year 2023-24, representing a 24% increase over the previous year and the second-highest total in UCLA history.

Donors in all 50 U.S. states and 60 additional countries contributed more than 68,000 gifts, 94% of which were less than $10,000. Alumni accounted for nearly 50% of individual donors. The philanthropy will provide support across campus, benefitting students, faculty, researchers, patients and programs, as well as local and global communities.

"Our broad community of supporters, both alumni and friends, stepped up this year in truly remarkable ways," Interim Chancellor Darnell Hunt said. "Through their giving, they showed their continued confidence in UCLA's role as a catalyst for transformation and positive change. Our donors' gifts will elevate our work and power the university forward so that UCLA can make an even greater impact in California, our nation and the world."

A sampling of philanthropy in 2024:

Research excellence, from immunology to the elections

The kickoff to 2024 couldn't have been any bigger - on Jan. 3, the university announced it had acquired the former Westside Pavilion shopping mall, which it is in the process of transforming into the UCLA Research Park, an engine of innovation, discovery and economic growth.

The 700,000-square-foot property will initially host two multidisciplinary research centers - the California Institute for Immunology and Immunotherapy at UCLA and the UCLA Center for Quantum Science and Engineering.

"California is the epicenter of global innovation - from the creation of the internet to the dominance of artificial intelligence, humanity's future happens here first," said California Gov. Gavin Newsom. "Leveraging the next waves of technology and science - quantum computing and the immense potential of immunology - the UCLA Research Park will cement California's global economic, scientific and technological dominance into the 22nd century, and beyond."

Meanwhile, UCLA's train of discovery rolled on throughout the year, fueled in part by nearly $1.7 billion in external research funding. Astrophysicists' discovery of a 350,000-mile-long gas tail trailing a giant exoplanet promised new insights into the physics that shape thousands of other planets. Chemists managed to synthesize a molecule that scientific theory said couldn't exist. Biologists made strides toward an "off-the-shelf" cancer immunotherapy that could treat multiple patients. Engineers developed an AI-assisted wearable device that could aid those who have lost the ability to speak.

And in this election year, a variety UCLA researchers, from psychologists and political scientists to historians and enviromental experts, contributed to our understanding of the evolving electorate and the issues at stake.

Read more about the groundbreaking research conducted in 2024:

Supporting sustainability, combating climate change

When it comes to sustainability, UCLA has an ambitious agenda of institutional goals for how the campus operates, leads, teaches, conducts research and engages within the community. This April, the university provided a sustainability update showing the significant progress that has been made in energy efficiency, food systems, water use, transportation and more over the past two years.

And thanks to a recent $20 million grant, the university will not only be able expand and electrify its entire BruinBus fleet by the time the 2028 Olympics come to campus but will roll out the first electrical vehicle-charging roadway in the state of California - an example that could help advance transit electrification and efficiency across the state's transportation infrastructure.

When it comes to California and Los Angeles, UCLA is contributing in other ways as well. In November, the campus signed a memorandum of understanding with the Port of Los Angeles aimed at fostering sustainability-focused learning and research in collaboration with port-adjacent communities. Much of that work will be centered at the new UCLA South Bay campus, which is gearing up to offer a curriculum based on sustainability, climate change and environmental justice.

Additional sustainability collaborations with government agencies and community organizations continued 2024 - those efforts included evaluating Los Angeles' plan to invest billions in wastewater recycling and leading a project to help the city's residents cope with extreme heat.

On the research front, UCLA faculty continued to lead. Engineering professor Gaurav Sant was named one of 2024's biggest drivers of climate action worldwide by Time magazine for his role in building North America's first commercial-scale, ocean-based carbon removal facility. Other engineering teams developed a process that could significantly reduce greenhouse gas emissions in cement production and discovered a new mechanism for cooling buildings while saving energy.

Other ways in which UCLA advanced work and research on sustainability and climate change in 2024:

The pivotal role of the arts in L.A. and beyond

While many museums in the U.S. and Europe have resisted repatriating items in their collections to their original owners, the Fowler Museum at UCLA has been among the vanguard of what has become known as "ethical return."

Over the course of six months in 2024, the museum made headlines by voluntarily repatriated nearly 30 objects of significant cultural importance to the Asante kingdom in Ghana and to members of the Warumungu community of Australia.

"In the case of pieces that were violently or coercively taken from their original owners or communities, it is our ethical responsibility to do what we can to return those objects," said Erica P. Jones, the museum's senior curator of African arts and manager of curatorial affairs. "It is a process that will occupy generations of Fowler staff, but it is something that we are unwavering in our commitment to accomplish."

At UCLA Arts' other renowned museum, the Hammer, significant changes were also taking place. Zoë Ryan was announced as the museum's new director; she'll begin her tenure Jan. 1, 2025, succeeding Ann Philbin, who over nearly 25 years helped transform the Hammer into one of the city's landmark institutions and a leading space for contemporary art in the world. The museum also announced in September an innovative collaboration with the Los Angeles County Museum of Art and the Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles, in which the three institutions will jointly own and manage a new collection of contemporary art.

Both the Hammer and Fowler are also contributing to UCLA's major role in the Getty's PST ART "Art & Science Collide" initiative - the nation's largest art event - which will feature UCLA artists, research centers, public arts programs and the museums in its programming, which runs through June 2025, throughout Southern California.

Other major arts-related stories from 2024:

'You have earned today': UCLA's 2024 commencement

UCLA's class of 2024 faced a number of hurdles that at times seemed insurmountable, starting with a pandemic that robbed them of their high school graduation ceremonies. But on June 14, these resilient Bruins carried the day.

Beginning in the morning, scores of jubilant graduates-to-be and their families and friends began gathering outside Pauley Pavilion for the first of three UCLA College commencement ceremonies that together hosted some 6,700 graduating College seniors and more than 26,000 guests. After hugs, a few tears and some final words of praise and encouragement from their loved ones, students made their way into the arena.

Inside, keynote speaker Sean Astin, the award-winning actor, mental health advocate and UCLA alumnus, spoke about the tough road the newly minted graduates had traveled.

"You are a storied group, the ones who came of age during the most extraordinary time, when so much of the planet seemed to slow to a near stop. The COVID pandemic … stole from you a proper sendoff from your high school experience," he said. "You deserve today, you have earned today, today is your day … This is your moment, and I am so happy to bask in it with you.

"You are surrounded by people with a shared experience, one that you will carry for the rest of your days," he continued. "Look at each other. You are together. We must protect each other. We are a team, whether it's hard to remember at any given moment because we are filled with moral outrage or political animus. We are a family."

More on commencement:

Continuing to build a more effective and engaged institution

One of the primary goals of the UCLA Strategic Plan is to build a more effective institution. With the divisiveness created by the ongoing wars in the Middle East and the recent U.S. presidential election, creating a safer campus and bringing empathy to the fore also become firm priorities over the past year.

A major part of that effort is helping to build bridges of understanding among the diverse members of the Bruin community. In September, the campus introduced a framework for creating a safer and stronger campus, one that featured vast array of new programs and initiatives to foster empathy and respectful dialogue among Bruins who find themselves on opposite sides of difficult issues.

Along the same lines, 2024's Common Experience book, psychologist Jamil Zaki's "The War for Kindness: Building Empathy in a Fractured World," complements efforts across campus to foster and elevate a culture of engagement, active listening, discourse and compassion. To that end, the Common Experience program has also partnered with the UCLA Bedari Kindness Institute and the Dialogue across Difference initiative on a series of empathy-related events.

UCLA also continued to build effectiveness and elevate its academic instruction by embracing new technologies. In September, the campus became the first university in California to incorporate OpenAI's ChatGPT Enterprise into its operations and issued an open call to students, faculty, staff and researchers to submit proposals for projects that use the platform to improve to improve efficiency and accelerate innovation in teaching, learning and research. Additionally, UCLA hired Chris Mattmann as the campus's chief data and artificial intelligence officer - the first position of its kind at any University of California campus and one of just a few at universities in the U.S.

More on how UCLA boosted its effectiveness, engagement, teaching and learning in 2024:

Goodbye to 'the luckiest guy in the world'

In May, Bill Walton, one of the greatest stars in the history of UCLA basketball and the self-described "luckiest guy in the world," died after a prolonged battle with cancer.

Walton led UCLA to back-to-back NCAA titles in his sophomore and junior years (1972, 1973), was charter member of the UCLA Athletics Hall of Fame and was inducted into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame after a 13-year NBA career.

Following his playing days, Walton became familiar to a new generation of basketball fans as a broadcaster, known for his zany sense of humor, his unbridled enthusiasm and his infectious love for the game.

"Bill Walton was one of UCLA's greatest icons, a towering figure on the basketball court who also maintained an immense presence in our community," said UCLA Chancellor Gene Block. "He had incredible passion for life, for learning, for the game of basketball and for supporting environmental causes and advancing social justice. He was warm and generous, and he embodied the qualities of a true Bruin - excellence, perseverance and a profound commitment to making the world a better place."

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