Latest College News

The College of Natural & Agricultural Sciences (CNAS) at UC Riverside welcomed 13 new faculty members in 2026, bringing expertise across seven academic departments in fields ranging from quantum science and neuroscience to sustainable agriculture, environmental chemistry and ecology. The new faculty members will advance the college's research, teaching and public service missions, addressing scientific...

Across a patchwork of green research plots at UC Riverside, thousands of experimental grasses are being put to the test. Some are subjected to weeks without irrigation. Others are evaluated for disease resistance, winter color, heat tolerance or their ability to stay healthy with less water. Most will never leave the research field. A select...

On a September morning at the UC Riverside Botanic Gardens, family, friends, former students and colleagues gathered to celebrate the life of Jodie Holt in a place that had become one of the great passions of her life. They came from different chapters of Holt’s life — childhood friends, graduate school classmates, faculty colleagues, former...

For hundreds of new students arriving at UC Riverside this fall, their introduction to the College of Natural & Agricultural Sciences (CNAS) began with a simple message: You are part of a community, with people and opportunities ready to help you make the most of your UCR experience. CNAS welcomed new students and their families...

Dear CNAS Community, Welcome to a new academic year at UC Riverside’s College of Natural & Agricultural Sciences. There is always a special energy across CNAS at the start of fall quarter, and we have already seen it throughout Welcome Week. On Sunday, hundreds of our newest students and their families joined us for the...

It is with profound sadness that we mourn the sudden and unexpected passing of our colleague and friend, Professor Meng Chen, on September 10, 2026. Meng was attending the international EMBO Workshop on Plant Photobiology in Les Diablerets, Switzerland. The meeting brought together leading scientists working on plant light signaling and environmental responses and focused...

How does research happening at UC Riverside make its way into a middle or high school classroom? By connecting the researchers with the people teaching the next generation of scientists. Local science teachers returned to the classroom Aug. 4-5 — this time at UC Riverside — for the second annual CNAS Summer Science Symposium, a...

For Sarah Fan, figuring out that she wanted a future in research also meant figuring out what kind of research she wanted to pursue. The UC Riverside student had already experienced undergraduate research through the RISE program, where she worked in ecology. As a scholar in UCR's Maximizing Access to Research Careers, or MARC, program...

After 10 weeks studying everything from sustainable housing and climate change to genetics and antimicrobial resistance, nearly 100 undergraduate researchers gathered at UC Riverside on Aug. 26 to share what they had discovered. For many, the RISE & MARC Summer Research Symposium marked their first opportunity to present scientific research before faculty members, graduate students...

For 11 undergraduate students, summer research at UC Riverside meant counting butterflies, tracking bumblebees, studying forest ecosystems, monitoring desert tortoises and spending long days — and sometimes nights — conducting research in some of Southern California’s most distinctive natural environments. The students gathered at UC Riverside on Aug. 14 to share what they learned through...

For community college students considering a future in science, spending a day in a university research laboratory can help them see what that future might look like. This fall, UC Riverside's Sequencing to Success program will once again invite community college students to campus for a free, two-day molecular biology workshop that combines hands-on research...

More than 50 community college and visiting university students spent their summer inside UC Riverside research labs, working alongside faculty and graduate student mentors and gaining firsthand experience with life at a major research university. On Aug. 12, 53 students capped that experience at the first RISE 8-Week Summer Research Symposium, presenting research conducted across...

On a balcony outside the House Committee on Agriculture hearing room in the Longworth House Office Building in Washington, D.C., congressional staff, agricultural leaders and policymakers gathered around displays showcasing the future of American agriculture. Representing six universities, each display featured agricultural innovations made possible through decades of scientific research. Participating institutions included The Ohio...

When UC Riverside Distinguished Professor of Geology Mary Droser began conducting research in South Australia's Flinders Ranges 25 years ago, the remote fossil site where she worked was part of a cattle station. Today, it is part of Nilpena Ediacara National Park, an internationally significant research site containing some of the world's best fossil evidence...

Standing before fellow freshwater scientists at the Society for Freshwater Science Annual Meeting, UC Riverside Evolution Ecology & Organismal Biology (EEOB) doctoral student, Ria Ghosh, presented research examining the health of one of Southern California's most important—and heavily altered—river systems. The Society for Freshwater Science Annual Meeting brings together freshwater scientists, students, agency researchers, practitioners...

For many incoming students, college doesn't begin on the first day of classes—it begins the moment they start building the relationships, confidence and support network that will carry them through their first year. During the first of seven CNAS Summer Orientation sessions on July 6, hundreds of incoming students and their families took those first...

Artificial intelligence is transforming the way scientists explore the universe—from designing more sensitive instruments and accelerating complex simulations to uncovering patterns hidden within enormous datasets. But at the Science x AI Summit held at UC Riverside, one idea surfaced again and again: the greatest breakthroughs won't come from technology alone. They will come from the...

Nobel Prize-winning physicist Adam Riess visited UC Riverside on June 4 to deliver the latest installment of the Frontiers of Cosmology Lecture Series, offering a public exploration of one of the most profound mysteries in modern science: why the universe’s expansion is accelerating. Hosted by the UCR Center for Experimental Cosmology & Instrumentation (CECI) in...

On April 21, 2026, the California Agricultural Day at the Capitol brought together leaders from across the state’s agricultural ecosystem—farmers, industry partners, policymakers, and universities—on the grounds of the State Capitol in Sacramento. Among them, the University of California, Riverside’s College of Natural & Agricultural Sciences (CNAS) stood out, not only for its research and...

The Department of Earth & Planetary Sciences at the University of California, Riverside has launched the new UCR Experimental Landscapes Facility, an innovative research space designed to help scientists better understand how landscapes evolve over time. Led by Eric Barefoot, Assistant Professor of Earth & Planetary Sciences, the facility allows researchers to recreate scaled-down versions...