Society and Culture

Perception Inception: Exploring Decision-Making in the Brain with Rishidev Chaudhuri

Associate Professor Rishidev Chaudhuri’s research sits in the nexus of mathematics, physics and neuroscience. Chaudhuri studies processing strategies in the brain using mathematics and physics. One direction of his research concerns the neural underpinnings of decision-making, an avenue of research that’s making neuroscientists rethink longstanding narratives about how the brain functions.

The Dark Matter of Food: Uncovering the Structures of Carbohydrates

We’ve all heard the advice, “Eat more fiber.” But the reality behind that seemingly simple recommendation is much more complex when it comes to human health. As part of a $3.7 million National Institutes of Health-funded project, UC Davis scientists are building a library of biomarkers associated with specific fiber food sources as they pass through the gut. The goal is to build a comprehensive understanding of the structural diversity of fibers and how those structures influence digestive health.

Self-discovery in an Honors Thesis on an International Crisis

Torn between two academic paths — genetics and political science — graduating senior finds her passion in analysis of world response to Russia’s annexation of Crimea. UC Davis undergraduate Quincy Kumfert was an aspiring scientist participating in a study abroad program in France in December 2021 when world events changed the course of her life.

Anthropological Ally

Liza Grandia, associate professor in the Department of Native American Studies and an internationally acclaimed public scholar, was barely drinking age when she stopped the World Bank and an international oil company from building a pipeline through the rural regions of Guatemala. The lesson Grandia learned then — that one is never too young to become engaged in public scholarship — is something that she emphasizes to her students at UC Davis. 

Scholar Reconnects to UC Davis and His Homeland Through Research on San Francisco Murals

Mauricio Ernesto Ramírez, a postdoctoral scholar in the UC Davis Department of Chicana and Chicano Studies, first walked through Balmy Alley when he was a student at a nearby elementary school in San Francisco’s Mission District. The block-long alley contains the most concentrated collection of murals in a city that’s a tapestry of murals. The alley’s art — which first began appearing in the early 1970s —has long been about issues relevant to the many Mission residents who trace their roots to Mexico and Central America.