If you told freshman-year me that research would become one of the most meaningful parts of my time at UC Davis, I would be shocked. As a STEM major on the more computational side of things, I never pictured myself working in a lab. In my head, doing research involved white lab coats, chemical experiments, and petri dishes.
Stepping onto the UC Davis campus as a first-generation college student can be daunting to say the least. It is incredibly difficult to navigate the extreme academic and social changes happening all around you. As I explored Davis, feeling like a lost and anxious first-year student, my guide was the Student Transition and Retention (STaR) program.
Finding an internship is not an easy task – it is overwhelming, tedious, and often seems impossible. You have to take into consideration the location, time commitment, and requirements, while also worrying about fulfilling your degree and maintaining a campus job.
Distinguished Professor Emeritus Alan Balch, with more than 590 academic publications to his name and numerous accolades, is the longest serving tenured professor at UC Davis and is being celebrated with the Balch Symposium on Nov. 14. The symposium will consist of lectures from academics around the globe who will highlight Balch’s contributions to the field of chemistry.
At first glance, computer science and cinema & digital media (CDM) might seem worlds apart. In practice, though, they’re deeply connected. From game design to website development, innovation often comes from blending artistic creativity with technical expertise. For me, a love of games sparked an interest in game development, and that became my gateway into computer science.
The National Endowment for the Humanities awarded a $500,000 grant to launch and fund the UC Davis Center for Artificial Intelligence and Experimental Futures to a center focused on developing solutions to complex problems brought on by the rise of Artificial Intelligence (AI) and imagining a future where it is utilized in innovative, ethical and accessible ways.
Did you know that the UC Davis College of Letters and Science was founded with just five major departments: Botany, Chemistry, Zoology, English, and History? Letters and Science was established as the second college at UC Davis in 1951, alongside the College of Agriculture.
Ron Austin of Fairfield, California, is proud he has finally completed the requirements for a Bachelor of Arts in political science, but he sees his life as a cautionary tale that he shares with first-year students. What he didn’t know is that he was just seven units short of meeting the requirements for his degree.
The 2025 UC Davis Medal will be awarded to Michael C. and Renée Z. Child. Mike Child is a member of the Chancellor’s Board of Advisors and emeritus member and former chair of the UC Davis Foundation Board. Renée Child has served on the College of Letters and Science Dean’s Advisory Council.
The University of California, Davis, ushered in a new era for the arts with the grand opening of the Maria Manetti Shrem Art District made possible by philanthropist Maria Manetti Shrem through her transformative gift of over $20 million, the largest gift ever to the College of Letters and Science and the largest to the arts at UC Davis.
When transfer students arrive at UC Davis, it has always taken months before they get their academic credits evaluated. Without evaluation, they don’t know what courses they will need to graduate on time. Academic advisor Colin Goulding recently led a cross-campus effort so new transfers could plan their classes before fall registration closed. For this work, UC Davis honored Goulding with this year’s Outstanding Campus Collaborator Academic Advising Award.
Temporary Building 9, or TB 9, a metal structure constructed from old military surplus materials, has been the main creative space at UC Davis since the 1960s. The building is where the first-generation art faculty at the university’s first art department created a place to work.
Celeste Turner Wright was the first chair of the Department of English and the first woman to serve on the UC Davis faculty. She was a prolific scholar and played a fundamental role in developing the humanities at UC Davis.
The year 1969 was the beginning of what would become African American and African, Asian American, Chicana/o and Native American studies programs. Since then, these programs have been a catalyst for social and political action on campus and beyond, and cultivated a lifelong commitment to making a difference.
