Santa Cruz, California

By virtue of (a) its spectacular setting, nestled within 2,000 acres of redwood forest and meadows overlooking the Monterey Bay National Marine Sanctuary of California's beautiful Central Coast, (b) its award-winning architecture, and (c) its network of picturesque bikeways and pathways, the University of California, Santa Cruz is considered one of the most visually appealing campuses in the world.

It's located about 70 miles (115 km) south of San Francisco and 30 miles (50 km) from Silicon Valley, at the north end of Monterey Bay, with the Monterey-Carmel peninsula at the south end of the bay about 40 miles (65 km) away.

Santa Cruz itself (population around 50,000) is a beach resort close to some of the most stunning redwood groves in the U.S.

The weather in the summer usually features bright but mild sunny days with a bit of coastal marine fog burning off by late morning; the maximum daily temperature in August is usually in the 70-79 degrees F range (21-27 degrees C), although days in the mid-80s F (about 29 degrees C) are not impossible, and the low temperature at night is typically about 45-50 degrees F (8-11 degrees C). Rainfall in August is rare.

UCSC was founded in 1965 with two goals: excellence in research in the sciences, and innovation in undergraduate education.

Among other subjects, UCSC has nationally and internationally recognized research programs in astronomy, astrophysics, bioinformatics, biology, chemistry, earth sciences, machine learning, and ocean sciences.

The Baskin School of Engineering, in which the Department of Applied Mathematics and Statistics (AMS) resides, was created in 1997 and strives for research and teaching excellence in biotechnology, information technology, and nanotechnology.

AMS began in 2001 with following main goal: the creation of centers of national and international excellence in Bayesian statistics and in applied mathematical modeling of complex dynamical systems.

Further information about UCSC is available here; maps of various kinds are available here.

Additional details on the Baskin School of Engineering and AMS may be found here and here.