Joseph Tang

There is a growing need for the development of a clean, sustainable energy supply from renewable sources. Among the many options currently under investigation, a promising route involves the conversion of plant-based biomass into biofuels. In order for this process to be viable at an industrial scale, one of the steps that must be optimized is the conversion of biomass-derived chemicals into products that can be used as additives to existing fuels such as gasoline or diesel. In particular, the optimization of the hydrodeoxygenation of intermediate platform molecules is crucial […]

Wesley Marin

The amount of genomic information being gathered in the NCBI Sequence Read Archive (NCBI SRA) has been increasing exponentially over the past 8 years. Although the volume of genomic data being stored has recently reached the 2000 terabyte mark, methods for analyzing these data have struggled to keep pace, especially in the area of reinterpreting sequence for highly variable genomic regions. My honors thesis work will focus on development of new methods for immunogenetic data analysis, creating interoperable systems based on publicly available data. This summers project involves the integration […]

Melissa Markowitz

The study of reproductive isolation, or the inability of two species to mate and produce fertile offspring, continues to be an area of groundbreaking evolutionary research. Both the mode of reproductive isolation (pre-zygotic or post-zygotic) and the genetic distances between species can tell us a great deal about when and how ancestral species diverged to form clades of distinct species. In order to uncover any patterns in pre-zygotic and post-zygotic isolation as species diverge, I will be studying the stage, timing, and sex-specific nature of reproductive isolation in Drosophila nasuta […]

Bao Nguyen

Alternative splicing is a fundamental mechanism used by higher eukaryotic organisms to produce different outcomes from the same gene transcript through selection of variable splice sites. Alternative splicing gives plants the ability to modulate gene expressions in order to conserve energy resources and optimize interactions with their environment. There are many different plant-specific alternative splicing events and while they have been catalogued on a genome-wide scale, there remains little detailed knowledge about the specific, molecular mechanisms of these pathways. I am interested in studying a plant-specific alternative splicing pathway discovered […]

Lucine Oganesian

Music is often considered a universal language, an important component of every culture. It is a complex natural stimulus, composed of a hierarchy of basic acoustic components. However, not much is known about how the human brain represents these components. This summer I will investigate the cortical representation of low-level acoustic features, such as pitch, tonality, and spectral (frequency) components. I will analyze functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) data and map computational models of music to brain activity to understand the hierarchical organization of basic acoustic features in the human […]

Prithvi Pande

The undergraduate chemistry curricula at UC Berkeley has been undergoing a series of changes in the past years to update the experiments and increase their relevancy to students as they move on through their college careers. The main goals of this curriculum redesign are centered on creating experiments that give students an understanding and appreciation for green chemistry, and designing curricula that embodies authentic practice allowing students to experience science as it occurs outside the classroom setting and giving them insights into how research is realistically conducted. The project I […]

Varun Raj

Neutrinos present some of the greatest mysteries within the Standard Model of Particle Physics. They are nearly massless and electrically neutral, making them very difficult to detect. That said, neutrinos have been observed to oscillate over time between their three flavors. The primary target of the Daya Bay Reactor Neutrino Experiment has been to measure the exact value of the mixing angle 13, which describes this oscillation. The Experiment, which started taking data in 2011, is based in Southeast China. The eight detectors, situated in three experimental halls, analyze antineutrinos […]

Jay Ramsay

Obese individuals have significantly greater amount of damage in their DNA compared to lean individuals, however the consumption of blueberries has been shown to decrease that damage in obese. I will be trying to figure out the mechanism by which blueberries reduce the amount of DNA damage.

David Rothblum

As our society focuses on reducing the drivers of global climate change, a primary goal is to look at the ways in which we can generate and use electricity in a more efficient and environmentally friendly manner. These challenges require broad and complex solutions. However, in order to implement these, it is imperative that broad swaths of the population be well informed in the nuances and technical complexities of electrical power systems. That is where Griddle comes in. The brainchild of researcher Michael Cohen, Griddle is an educational game that […]

Courtney Sarkin

My mother once told me: I tell doctors that my partner is my sister so she can be present during my appointments and hospitalization without prejudice. My mom, who identifies as an LGBT individual, was diagnosed with breast cancer when I was a first year at UC Berkeley. Although the LGBTIQA communities are diverse and represent a wide range of identities, the discrimination and stigma surrounding these social and gendered minorities is common, including in healthcare. In the US context, discrimination and ignorance by health professionals create disparities in LGBTIQA […]