For roughly five years, Alba Rodríguez Padilla, a doctoral student in the Department of Earth and Planetary Sciences, has studied the physics and geology underlying earthquakes. Her research will help inform policymakers and engineers responsible for creating earthquake insurance policies and building new infrastructure.
Design2Data is a course-based undergraduate research experience (CURE) that teaches students an enzyme design-build-test workflow, allowing them to contribute knowledge to an open access database. Since its launch, the course has been rolled out to 25 institutions across the nation.
There’s no word in Bao Vue’s native language for “chemistry.” The science subject is not easily expressed in Hmong vocabulary. In fact, the same can be said for the concept of “science” itself. But when Vue was 9 years old, she and her family fled their home for safety.
Today, she's a chemistry doctoral candidate in UC Davis Professor of Chemistry Jacquelyn Gervay-Hague’s lab, which is focused on developing sustainable methods to produce antiviral and anticancer agents from natural products.
In a Western world that suppresses Indigenous culture, members of the Navajo Nation actively engage in artistic cultural revival as a means to keep their history alive and to create vibrant futures. During a fellowship, Shawna Yazzie, a doctoral student in Native American studies has been looking at and learning the ongoing rug weaving practices at a Body of Water in a Sunken Area, also known as Piñon, Arizona, her family’s homeland.
Goabaone Jaqueline Ramatlapeng can vividly remember when she would go without water from domestic pipes for days. Growing up in Kopong, a rural village in Botswana, Ramatlapeng and her family faced a plight that those in surrounding villages knew as well: water scarcity. And when the water did flow, it was salty. Ramatlapeng’s research could help inform the development of sustainable water management policies in the region.
As a college freshman, Mya Ajanel’s dreams of a veterinary degree were nearly derailed by chemistry. “I barely passed the first quarter, so I definitely had fear of just finishing the general chemistry series,” she said. “I remember crying and thinking I’m not going to be a vet, it’s too hard.”
The spark for science was always within Jessica Ortiz-Rodríguez. As a child growing up in Puerto Rico, she loved visiting the Discovery Channel Store. And when the holidays rolled around, Ortiz-Rodríguez’s parents always knew there’d be something there that they could gift their daughter. Telescopes, microscopes, chemistry sets, the list went on and on.
Two students and three alumni of the UC Davis College of Letters and Science have been awarded Fulbright U.S. Student Program grants to study and teach in other countries.
A UC Davis psychology major who hopes to someday work as a clinical psychologist with clients on the autism spectrum has been awarded a Barry M. Goldwater Scholarship, the nation’s leading scholarship for undergraduates pursuing research careers in the natural sciences, mathematics and engineering. Lynnette Hersh is one of two UC Davis students and among 417 sophomores and juniors nationwide selected from a pool of more than 5,000 applicants to receive the prestigious STEM scholarship
Two UC Davis College of Letters and Science students will travel to Morocco and Brazil this summer for intensive foreign language and cultural studies as part of a U.S. Department of State program. Charles Sills, a history doctoral student, and Carlie Whiteman, an undergraduate communication major, are among five UC Davis students selected by the State Department as 2022 Critical Language Scholars.
Tom Lin, who came to UC Davis in 2019 to study literature, joined Chancellor Gary S. May on this month’s installment of "Face to Face With Chancellor May" to talk about his debut novel, "The Thousand Crimes of Ming Tsu."
Two students in the College of Letters and Sciences gained real-world experience through virtual internships on research and technology projects in fall 2021. They were among 148 undergraduates who interned at national laboratories through the U.S. Department of Energy’s Science Undergraduate Laboratory Internships program. Here are their stories, plus advice on finding internships as an undergraduate.
Energy economics studies at UC Davis recently received an investment in its future with a power industry group’s creation of a graduate student fellowship. The Western Power Trading Forum (WPTF), a Sacramento-based association that advocates for competitive market rules in Western states, funded the fellowship for five years to help cultivate the next generation of energy thought leaders.
Tom Lin, a UC Davis doctoral student in English, has won the American Library Association's Andrew Carnegie Medal for Excellence in Fiction for his debut novel The Thousand Crimes of Ming Tsu. At 25, Lin is the youngest writer to ever win the award.
