Graduate Programs

Opportunities for Graduate Students Abound at CNAS

Graduate students looking to pursue an advanced degree through the College of Natural and Agricultural Sciences have an opportunity to work with and learn from some of the top minds in their fields.

 


Taking Advantage


CNAS is a unique and diverse learning environment. It crosses disciplines, providing chances for graduate students to tailor their learning experience and explore ideas that they have never dreamed of. If what you want isn't happening in your department or lab, it's happening down the hall or in the next building. For example:

  • Professor Tom Perring in Entomology is creating a chemical duplicate of a moth's sex pheromone and figuring out how to spray it most effectively on date palms.
  • Prof. John Baez in Mathematics is researching mind-bending topologies as two-tangle surfaces embedded in four-dimensional space.

These are just a few of the hundreds of research programs waiting for you here at UCR.

 

The Next Step

The CNAS Graduate Student Affairs Center provides assistance to both applicants and enrolled graduate students. The seven-member staff of GSAC supports all the departments and graduate programs in the college, with the exception of the Departments of Chemistry, Mathematics, and Physics & Astronomy, which have their own graduate advising staff. As a first step, visit the website of the appropriate graduate advising office:
 

 

Graduate Programs in Detail

To explore further, check out the links below to see the college's master's and doctoral degree offerings. Some are department based; others are interdisciplinary. Follow links to the faculty members' own laboratory pages to see what specific work they are doing and how that fits into your interests. Don't hesitate to email a professor if you have questions.

 

Graduate Programs

CNAS Headline News

NSF GRFP Logo
5 Highlanders receive 2026 NSF Graduate Research Fellowships
Five UC Riverside Highlanders have been selected for the 2026 National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowship Program, or NSF GRFP. The fellowship supports students pursuing full-time, research-based master’s and doctoral degrees in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics, or STEM, fields at accredited U.S. institutions.
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Timothy Su
UCR chemist wins $100k Dreyfus teacher-scholar award
Chemist Timothy Su proves compatibility of innovative research and excellent teaching 
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Brain with blood vessels
One protein, two roles
The communication network in the developing brain builds when neurons partner up to form contact points called synapses, allowing signals to pass form one cell to another. At the same time, a web of blood vessels builds the brain’s life support system, delivering oxygen and nutrients and controlling what can enter the brain.
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Student presents at Grad Slam
Neuroscience student plays winning game at Grad Slam
David Nikom found the right metaphor to explain his research about the high incidence of Alzheimer’s in women by looking back at his childhood playing video games with his older brother. Nikom, a doctoral student in neuroscience, took first place in the 12th annual UCR Grad Slam Final on April 10 at the School of Business Building. The event, hosted by UCR’s Graduate Division, featured 11 finalists who each distilled their research into a three-minute presentation before a general audience.
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Illustration of the brain region
Scientists identify brain circuit that helps us “change gears”
UC Riverside study shows how the brain abandons outdated strategies and adapts to new rules
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Scissor-tailed nightjar on the ground
Birds clap in the dark to flirt
In northern Argentina, one bird courts romance by snapping its wrists together, producing a sound scientists have puzzled over for decades. Now, researchers have captured the behavior in detail, revealing how scissor-tailed nightjars create one of the most curious sounds in the avian world.
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Astronomers produce most detailed map of the cosmic web
International study used data from the James Webb Space Telescope
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Rendering of our solar system
New method sharpens the search for alien biology
New UCR research shows that the search for life beyond Earth could benefit from a statistical approach that prioritizes patterns rather than searching for individual chemical or molecular traces.
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