Student Researchers

Each year, the CBS Dean’s Summer Undergraduate Research Program (SURP) supports students who wish to stay on campus—and in the lab—over the summer term.

Normally, undergraduates leave campus for the summer if they are not enrolled in classes. They often do this to work and save funds for the start of the next academic year. SURP consists of several different donor-funded undergraduate research awards and allows students to continue their research projects over the summer.

A new study by the University of California, Davis, shows how cells work together to avoid a sudden drop in blood sugar. Understanding these feedback loops could improve the lives of people with diabetes and help them avoid dangerous hypoglycemia.

The work was published Sept. 16 in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. 

When a woman becomes pregnant, the outcome of that pregnancy depends on many things — including a crucial event that happened while she was still growing inside her own mother’s womb. It depends on the quality of the egg cells that were already forming inside her fetal ovaries. The DNA-containing chromosomes in those cells must be cut, spliced and sorted perfectly. In males, the same process produces sperm in the testes but occurs only after puberty.

It’s early—almost too early to be out walking. But Leo Konefat, a rising third-year undergraduate at UC Davis and one of the 2025 EVE Scholars, has an urgent appointment with a low tide. On that first morning, getting up at dawn to reach the field site on time, the fog was low, the stars were overhead, and the foghorn’s low bleat in the distance offered a first glimpse of the coastal world he would be immersed in for the next ten weeks.

Nobody knew that badgers were inhabiting an ecosystem near Davis until recently — and finding them is the kind of discovery that would excite any seasoned biologist. But that’s not who identified the rare species just last year. It was spotted by undergraduates in Laci Gerhart’s popular “Wild Davis” course (EVE 16), who have also had rare glimpses of ringtails and other species. 

Driven by a passion to heal and discover, two UC Davis third-year biological science students received the prestigious Barry Goldwater Scholarship for their research focused on the improvement of care for critically ill children and tissue regeneration.

Rather than petri dishes or microscopes, in Brie Tripp’s lab you’ll find diverse undergrads gathered around laptops, carrying out the lab’s unique mandate of studying how to promote social and racial justice in science classrooms.

The development of maternal egg cells is pivotal for survival – but also precarious. During meiosis, the DNA-containing chromosomes can easily be broken or lost, causing infertility, miscarriage, or genetic disorders. Scientists have struggled to study these crucial cellular events in humans and other mammals.

At UC Davis, undergraduates have opportunities to dive into independent research at the Bodega Marine Laboratory (BML) through the EVE Scholars Program. Students like Aishu Santosh and Caroline Donohew are pushing the frontiers of marine science while discovering a lot about themselves in the process.

Each year, the Dean’s Summer Undergraduate Research Program (SURP) helps provide vital support to students wishing to stay on campus —and in the lab — over the summer term.