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

Francisco Javier Guevara-Pantoja
Epilepsy research rewarded with fellowship and grant
Viji Santhakumar’s lab is the recipient of both
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Steve Choi
NASA grant to allow in-depth study of cosmic microwave background
Physicist Steve Choi will analyze satellite data to focus on reionization, one of the least understood epochs in cosmic history
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Campus belltower view
Early-career faculty win fellowships
Eight UC Riverside assistant professors, whose research spans innovations in computer science to discoveries in Latin American history, have been awarded competitive 2025–26 Hellman Fellowships that support promising early-career faculty on the path to tenure.
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Highlights from UCR’s 71st Commencement
UC Riverside concluded its 71st Commencement season on June 17, with UCR’s Class of 2025 walking at eight discipline- or degree-based ceremonies. Approximately 6,100 graduates, 35,000 in-person guests, 32,000 online streamers, and about 375 volunteer staff participated in the celebrations, which started on June 6. Highlanders belonging to specific groups also took part in additional micro celebrations organized by various student resources like the University Honors Cording, and year-end celebrations hosted by UCR’s ethnic and gender centers.
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mitochondria
Chemical shield stops stressed DNA from triggering disease
Stressed DNA sets off a cascade of failures in the body linked to heart conditions, neurodegeneration, and chronic inflammation. A new, UCR-designed tool interrupts this process, preserving DNA before the damage causes disease.
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overheating worker
Cleaner East Asian air unmasks a much hotter planet
As China slashed sulfur dioxide emissions by roughly 75 percent, a new study finds Earth began warming much, much faster.
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futuristic central processing unit
Scientists find new way to control electricity at tiniest scale
Researchers have uncovered how to manipulate electrical flow through crystalline silicon, a discovery that could lead to smaller, faster, and more efficient devices by harnessing quantum electron behavior. 
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greenhouse plants
Sugar, the hidden thermostat in plants
For a decade, scientists have believed that plants sensed temperature mainly through specialized proteins, and mainly at night when the air is cool. New research suggests that during the day, another signal takes over. Sugar, produced in sunlight, helps plants detect heat and decide when to grow.
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