College of Natural and Agricultural Sciences Latest News

National society honors entomology professor

Insect-studying colleagues applaud John Heraty for his leadership

By Jules Bernstein |

UCR alumna and grad student awarded $40,700 grant to fund campus composting

Vanessa Gomez-Alvarado, alumna and public policy graduate student, secured a $40,700 grant in October 2020 to purchase a woodchipper and build the university’s first Aerated Static Pile, or ASP, to reduce green waste and carbon emissions, and fertilize green spaces on campus. Her Aerated Static Pile Compost Project, or ASPCP, gives a nod to UCR’s...

By Erin Staley |

UCR scientists make 2021 'Highly Cited' list

This year, UC Riverside is home to eight of influential individuals included in Clarivate Analytics' Highly Cited Researchers list.

By Jules Bernstein |

New projects create a changed campus landscape

UC Riverside’s campus is a changed landscape for many students and employees who returned last month. Several major new buildings and projects have been completed over the last 18 months, including housing, instructional, parking, and research facilities. “Students and employees came back to a completely different campus,” said Drew Hecht, co...

By Imran Ghori |

UC Riverside receives $7.3 million to support graduate students in areas of national need

Eight Graduate Assistance in Areas of National Need grants totaling $7.3 million will support talented students with financial need

By Holly Ober |

Department of Energy renews quantum condensed matter grant to physicist

The Basic Energy Sciences program of the U.S. Department of Energy has renewed a grant to Michael Mulligan, an assistant professor of physics and astronomy. The three-year grant of $370,000 will support research by Mulligan and UCR graduate students in quantum condensed matter theory. The Basic Energy Sciences program supports basic scientific...

By Iqbal Pittalwala |

Geology professor joins elite class of American Geophysical Union fellows

Andy Ridgwell to be honored as new AGU fellow during December meeting

By Jules Bernstein |

Physicist named a fellow of the American Physical Society

G illian Wilson, a professor of physics and astronomy, has been named a fellow of the American Physical Society, or APS, “for pioneering techniques and significant contributions to clusters of galaxies, massive galaxies and cosmology, as well as for sustained leadership in research administration, broadening participation and outreach.” Wilson is...

By Iqbal Pittalwala |

COVID-19 testing lab moves to larger space

UC Riverside’s COVID-19 testing lab has moved to a larger space at Webber Hall, where the lab team has more than doubled the number of samples it can process. The move was completed Sept. 15, a day before move-in weekend, when the lab tested around 7,000 samples from incoming student residents over a five-day period. The diagnostic lab was created...

By Imran Ghori |

Engineering and chemistry doctoral students receive prestigious DOE fellowships

The funds will support their research in a DOE lab

By Holly Ober |

Equipment grant will support two labs on campus

B oerge Hemmerling and Christopher Bardeen have received an equipment grant of about $214,000 from the Air Force Office of Scientific Research, or AFOSR, for a project titled “High-Flux Source for Aluminum Monochloride with Applications in Material Science.” “We will be creating and studying a new material, made of aluminum monochloride,” said...

By Iqbal Pittalwala |

Electronic cigarette chemicals can damage and inflame human skin

UC Riverside-led research has implications for vape shops

By Iqbal Pittalwala |

Grant supports study of new catalyst structures

M atthew P. Conley, an assistant professor of chemistry, has received a three-year grant of $500,000 from the U.S. Department of Energy in support of fundamental research his lab will perform to generate catalysts on surfaces to activate unreactive bonds. A catalyst is a substance that operates by reducing the energy input for a chemical reaction...

By Iqbal Pittalwala |

UCR entomologists’ reputations soar with new awards

Entomological Society of America honors three from UCR

By Jules Bernstein |

Deep dive into the atomic nucleus

M iguel Arratia, an assistant professor of physics and astronomy, has received a $508,000 grant from the U.S. Department of Energy to perform experiments using the electron accelerator facility at the Jefferson Laboratory, or JLab, in Newport News, Virginia, the world’s premier laboratory for imaging the subatomic structure of matter. “We will use...

By Iqbal Pittalwala |

Use of pure menthol instead of mint oil in e-cigarette fluids may reduce cancer risk

UC Riverside study compared three classes of chemicals in Puff and JUUL e-cigarette fluids

By Iqbal Pittalwala |

Fourteen UC Riverside professors receive NSF CAREER Awards

The number shatters UCR’s record for CAREER Awards set only last year

By Holly Ober |

Department of Energy renewal grant supports student research at Brookhaven National Lab

K enneth Barish, a professor of physics and astronomy, has received a three-year renewal grant of more than $1 million from the Department of Energy, or DOE, to support the activities of the Nucleon Spin Physics Group at UC Riverside. Physicists have made significant theoretical and experimental progress in understanding where the total spin of the...

By Iqbal Pittalwala |

Physicist receives NSF grant to develop instruments for gravitational wave detectors

J onathan Richardson, an assistant professor of physics and astronomy, has received a grant of $480,000 from the National Science Foundation to develop advanced instrumentation for the Laser Interferometer Gravitational-wave Observatory, or LIGO, based at sites in Louisiana and Washington. Completed in 2002, LIGO detects gravitational waves —...

By Iqbal Pittalwala |