Student News

An economics doctoral candidate in the College of Letters & Science at UC Davis has been studying how 25 corporate mega-projects have affected local markets. Among the findings so far are that tax breaks and other incentives often don’t pay off by creating jobs as they were meant to.

Encouraging Latinx adolescents of Mexican origin to embrace their ethnic pride, cultural values, and connections to their cultural community contributes to positive development and better adjustment during adolescence, a new University of California, Davis, psychology study suggests.

“We found evidence suggesting that increasing ethnic pride and connection to cultural values may significantly improve psychological well-being for Mexican-origin adolescents,” said Lisa Johnson, lead author and doctoral student in the Department of Psychology and the Center for Mind and Brain.

A program that gets students into labs as early as their first year at UC Davis transforms lives — leading many to pursue careers in research. Accelerating Success by Providing Intensive Research Experience, or ASPIRE, has begun reaching out to a wider pool of students. “We wanted to find the students who, given this opportunity, would go the farthest relative to where they started,” says co-founder Steve Luck, Distinguished Professor of Psychology.

A UC Davis doctoral candidate investigating the hydrochemistry of southern Africa’s largest and most precious freshwater wetland was recently selected as a winner of the National Geographic Society’s 2023 Wayfinder Award. Goabaone Jaqueline Ramatlapeng joins 14 other trailblazers who were selected for their exemplary achievements in exploration through science, education, conservation, technology and storytelling.

A new program in the College of Letters and Science helps first-year and transfer students thrive by matching them with the experts on navigating life at UC Davis — upperclass students.

Working in the lab of Professor of Earth and Planetary Sciences Ryosuke Motani, doctoral candidate Benjamin Faulkner is exploring how plant-eating developed in diapsids, a lineage that includes dinosaurs and modern day lizards, snakes, turtles, birds and crocodilians.

An aspiring psychologist who aims to improve mental health care for people on the autism spectrum and a political science/English double major who plans to be a legal advocate for marginalized communities are the recipients of the College of Letters and Science’s top prizes for graduating seniors at UC Davis.

At this year’s Arts and Humanities Graduate Exhibition, on view June 8-25 at the Jan Shrem and Maria Manetti Shrem Museum of Art, students in history, performance studies and English as well as design and art will take part. A free, public opening celebration will take place June 8 from 6 to 9 p.m. Art history students will present their research the following day. In all, 30 Master of Fine Arts, Master of Arts and doctoral students are participating. 

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.

Two UC Davis chemistry graduate researchers have been selected to spend several months to a year conducting research at U.S. Department of Energy national laboratories. Anna Csencsits Kundmann and Anna Wannenmacher are among the 87 awardees from 58 universities selected to participate in the Office of Science Graduate Research (SCGSR) program. According to the DOE, graduate researchers selected to participate in the program are working on research projects “that addresses critical energy, environmental and nuclear challenges at national and international scales.”