component with the appointment of plant physiologist Kenneth V. Thimann as the first provost of Crown College. Thimann developed UCSC's early Division of Natural Sciences and recruited other well-known science faculty and graduate students to the fledgling campus. Immediately upon its founding, UCSC was also granted administrative responsibility for the Lick Observatory, which established the campus as a major center for astronomy research. Founding members of the Social Science and Humanities faculty created the unique History of Consciousness graduate program in UCSC's first year of operation. Famous former UCSC faculty members include Judith Butler and Angela Davis. UCSC's organic farm and garden program is the oldest in the country, and pioneered organic horticulture techniques internationally. As of 2015, UCSC's faculty include 13 members of the National Academy of Sciences, 24 fellows of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, and 33 fellows of the American Association for the Advancement of Science. The Baskin School of Engineering, founded in 1997, is UCSC's first and only professional school. Baskin Engineering is home to several research centers, including the Center for Biomolecular Science and Engineering and Cyberphysical Systems Research Center, which are gaining recognition, as has the work that UCSC researchers David Haussler and Jim Kent have done on the Human Genome Project, including the widely used UCSC Genome Browser. UCSC administers the National Science Foundation's Center for Adaptive Optics. Off-campus research facilities maintained by UCSC include the Lick and Keck Observatories and the Long Marine Laboratory. From September 2003 to July 2016, UCSC managed a University Affiliated Research System (UARC) for the NASA Ames Research Center under a task order contract valued at more than $330 million. Rankings UC Santa Cruz was tied for 58th in the list of Best Global Universities and tied for 83th in the list of Best National Universities in the United States by U.S. News & World Reports 202 rankings. In 2021, UC Santa Cruz is ranked No. 3 public university in the nation for "making an impact" and No.4 for promoting social mobility. In 2023, the university was ranked No. 5 in game/simulation development and No. 2 among the best public game design colleges in the U.S. UC Santa Cruz is ranked top 10 in excellence in undergraduate teaching in 2022 and third in research influence in 2018. In 2017 Kiplinger ranked UC Santa Cruz 50th out of the top 100 best-value public colleges and universities