UC Davis students earned two awards and multiple special merit and honorable mentions at the National Science Foundation California Alliance for Maximizing Potential’s 2026 CAMP Symposium at UC Irvine on Feb. 20 and 21. 

The symposium was a two-part presentation experience. In January, students provided virtual video presentations and also met with a panel of UC faculty judges. Awards in Life Sciences, Physical Sciences, Computer and Information Sciences, Engineering and Mathematical Sciences were announced at the symposium’s poster session.

From funded scholar programs to an annual research conference, the UC Davis Undergraduate Research Center connects students to hands-on research experiences.

Last year, more than 1,000 students participated in the center’s programs, courses, workshops and annual research conference.  With the start of the fall quarter, the center offers new ways students can build skills that go far beyond the classroom — such as learning transferable research skills — and may open doors to career pathways.

Undergraduate students find pathways to research in traditional and avant-garde ways at the University of California, Davis. For many undergraduates, early exposure to research sculpts their career journeys in new direction. Every year, the Undergraduate Research Center introduces and connects students to hands-on research through programs, conferences, workshops, awards and mentor-mentee opportunities.

Over 1,000 student researchers presented projects on topics ranging from accelerating jalapeno growth to studying links between Alzheimer's disease and Type 2 diabetes at the Undergraduate Research, Scholarship and Creative Activities Conference on April 25 and 26.

Several research-related awards honor UC Davis undergraduate students.  The Undergraduate Research Center manages three awards:

UC Davis student Natasha Bibbs of Sacramento has already gone places with academic research — and she hopes to go even further.

The fourth-year student travelled about 2,000 miles to Louisiana and more than 150 years back in time to discover how someone she believes is an ancestor — perhaps her great-great-grandfather — became one of the first Black doctors in his community and used his status to contribute to the African American community.

The current Crowdfund UC Davis project offers donors the opportunity to support undergraduate students. The Undergraduate Research Center and experiential learning programs seek financial support from alumni, faculty and the community to enhance student learning experiences, near and far.

The UC Davis Undergraduate Research Center recently launched a new initiative to support arts, social sciences and humanities undergraduates with $1,000 stipends and research mentorship. Applications close Feb. 27. 

More than 100 undergraduate students filled the Teaching and Learning Complex Learning Lab Nov. 14 to learn how to find research projects that matter to them. The Undergraduate Research Center and University Honors Program invited award-winning Stanford University author Thomas S. Mullaney to lead the event.

UC Davis undergraduate students who want to conduct research can meet with more than 37 faculty at the second-ever Undergraduate Research Fair Oct. 10.

The fair, which runs 3 to 5 p.m. Oct. 10 in the ARC Ballroom and Courtyard, provides students information about how to participate in research projects, learn about research programs and explore opportunities to work in labs.

Faith is a 3rd year English and Design major who is passionate about design and how it can revolutionize everyday objects. Madilynn is a 3rd year landscape and architecture design student who focuses on community involvement and connection to landscape. 

Both Faith and Madilynn’s research is called “OppoSits” excerpt below:

OppoSits

By Faith Arnett and Madilynn Abe

Ember is a 4th year Psychology student who transferred from a small community college in  San Jose California. Embers’ research takes place at the  T-PAL (Translational Psychophysiology and Assessment Lab) lab at the Center for Mind and Brain Institute which focuses on working with people with intellectual disabilities. 

Ember found this specific area of research through a Psychology newsletter and applied there. 

Albatool is a 5th year Neurobiology, Physiology, and Behavior major and a Psychology minor from Saudi Arabia. She moved from Saudi Arabia to the United States in 2019 for her undergraduate education at UC Davis. Albatool’s field of research is neurobiology of pair bonding in the Bales Lab.

Among the coastal dunes at the UC Davis Bodega Marine Laboratory or the fields of wildflowers at McLaughlin Natural Reserve, you might find Lauren Ward, a senior undergraduate student with the Gremer lab collecting plants and soil for research where her passion resides in plant-microbe interactions and finding answers to bigger questions in ecology.

At the end of October, SACNAS held its National Diversity in Stem Conference, where UC Davis Graduate student Jasmine Esparza won the SACNAS Life Sciences award for her poster presentation. 

With over 1,000 other poster presentations, Esparza won for her “MCAF2 directs meiosis-specific regulation of H3K9 methylation,” a research project she had worked on the past year.