Dean Paul Koch

Paul Koch is a Distinguished Professor of Earth and Planetary Sciences and the Dean of Physical and Biological Sciences (PBSci) at the University of California, Santa Cruz. Koch is internationally known as an innovator in the use of chemistry as a forensic tool to determine the diets, habitats and physiological states of individual fossils or extant animals.

Since the 1980s, his research has explored how physical and biological factors drive extinction and evolutionary changes in vertebrate animals, both past and present. This includes the extinction of large animals at the end of the last ice age, the pulse of evolutionary and ecological change triggered by a dramatic global warming event 55 million years ago, the rise of prairie grasslands in North America, and the ecology of the transition from land to sea in whales, sea cows, and crocodiles. More recently, his work has focused on gleaning information that is useful for conservation efforts from the fossilized remains of living species, including California condors, the lemurs of Madagascar, and pinnipeds in the Pacific Ocean and Antarctica.

As Dean of PBSci, Koch has focused on attracting high-caliber faculty, providing world-class facilities, and building innovative research and teaching programs that reach across departments and disciplines. Thanks to these strong investments, PBSci has helped transform how UC Santa Cruz approaches teaching, especially for first-generation college students and students of diversity.

Dean Paul Koch

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