URAP

Jim Bishop - Professor, Earth and Planetary Science

Status: Current Term Now Closed     Weekly Hours: to be negotiated     Location: Off Campus

California Coast is dominated by streams, creeks, and ephemeral surface and groundwater flows that terminate in bar-built estuaries, many of which become seasonally isolated from direct flow to the ocean. Flowing water often seeps directly into the sand and may undergo significant reaction before entering the ocean; furthermore, there...

Carl Boettiger - Professor, Environmental Science, Policy and Management

Status: Full- no new appr needed     Weekly Hours: to be negotiated     Location: Off Campus

Become familiar with the mathematical, statistical, and computational tools used in the group and learn how to apply these methods to answer questions in ecological research and conservation decision making. Emphasis on the use of deep reinforcement learning and best practices in data science software development...

Carl Boettiger - Professor, Environmental Science, Policy and Management

Status: Full- no new appr needed     Weekly Hours: to be negotiated     Location: On Campus

Develop, test, and visualize methods for forecasting ecological variables such as carbon flux, beetle abundance, or indicators of aquatic ecosystem health...

Carl Boettiger - Professor, Environmental Science, Policy and Management

Status: Current Term Now Closed     Weekly Hours: 6-8 hrs     Location: On Campus

Arid ecosystems such as the Mojave Desert are undergoing rapid shifts in climate and fire activity, with major implications for ecological resilience and species conservation. The Schmidt Center for Data Science and Environment (DSE) is currently collaborating with the National Park Service to develop ecological models that simulate vegetation response...

Justin Brashares - Professor, Environmental Science, Policy and Management

Status: Full- no new appr needed     Weekly Hours: to be negotiated     Location: On Campus

Monitoring the status of wildlife populations is critical to assessing ecosystem health. Rapid advances in machine learning and engineering have recently allowed researchers to deploy acoustic recorders that autonomously capture and classify population trends for vocalizing species, such as birds. Currently, UC Berkeley is preparing to launching the first ever...

Justin Brashares - Professor, Environmental Science, Policy and Management

Status: Full- no new appr needed     Weekly Hours: to be negotiated     Location: Off Campus

Several aspects of global change are changing the dynamics of fire ecology across California and around the world. Recent fires have had devastating effects on livelihoods across the state, but little remains known of the direct and indirect impacts of these fires on wildlife species and the implications of those...

Justin Brashares - Professor, Environmental Science, Policy and Management

Status: Current Term Now Closed     Weekly Hours: to be negotiated     Location: On Campus

Non-invasive techniques are increasingly valuable for ecologists to be able to collect data on the distribution, population sizes, behavior, and diet of wildlife species. The California Wolf Project led by Arthur Middleton and Justin Brashares at UC-Berkeley is teaming up with the California Department of Fish and Wildlife...

Tamma Carleton - Professor, Agricultural and Resource Economics

Status: Current Term Now Closed     Weekly Hours: 9-11 hrs     Location: On Campus

We are looking for highly motivated students interested in conducting research and analyses on a project investigating the impacts of climate change on human migration at global scale. This research initiative aims to leverage large historical datasets to empirically quantify how human migration responds to climate change, both within and...

Alejandra Echeverri - Professor, Environmental Science, Policy and Management

Status: Current Term Now Closed     Weekly Hours: 6-8 hrs     Location: On Campus

Traditional biodiversity monitoring tools, such as camera traps and acoustic recorders, are limited in scope, require frequent maintenance, and often fail to capture the full spectrum of wildlife activity. This project aims to transform how we monitor biodiversity by developing solar-powered, AI-assisted monitoring stations that can simultaneously detect...

Bethanie Edwards - Professor, Earth and Planetary Science

Status: Current Term Now Closed     Weekly Hours: 3-5 hrs     Location: On Campus

Help develop an improved lipidomic workflow that is optimized for marine compounds, specifically those found in suspended and dissolved organic matter throughout the world’s oceans (0-4000 m deep). Marine lipidomics allows oceanographers to analyze thousands of lipid compounds in a single mass spectrometry run. Lipids serve a multitude of roles...

Meredith Fowlie - Professor, Agricultural and Resource Economics

Status: Current Term Now Closed     Weekly Hours: 3-5 hrs     Location: On Campus

As global temperatures rise, more and more people are being exposed to extreme heat. Coping with heat-related risks is particularly stressful for households with limited access to cooling technologies such as fans and air conditioners. We have been working in India where it's estimated that over 300...

Meredith Fowlie - Professor, Agricultural and Resource Economics

Status: Current Term Now Closed     Weekly Hours: 3-5 hrs     Location: On Campus

As the climate changes, households are increasingly exposed to both physical and financial risks. From a homeowner’s perspective, one of the clearest manifestations of this shift is the rising cost of property insurance in high-hazard areas. Insurance premium increases can convey important information about risk exposure and create incentives...

Gordon Frankie - Professor, Environmental Science, Policy and Management

Status: Current Term Now Closed     Weekly Hours: 3-5 hrs     Location: On Campus

Under the direction of Dr. Gordon Frankie, the UC Berkeley Urban Bee Lab is monitoring diversity and abundance of California native bee species (1600 species state-wide) and their plant preferences at various locations throughout the state. In addition to studies in California, the Lab also investigates native bee diversity...

Rosemary Gillespie - Professor, Environmental Science, Policy and Management

Status: Current Term Now Closed     Weekly Hours: to be negotiated     Location: On Campus

This project asks, "What defines the "health" of an ecological community, and can the signatures of "health be detected from communities of insects and spiders? And to what extent is that signature captured across scales, from plants, on to imagery – drones, helicopters, and satellites? The work aims to show how...

Rosemary Gillespie - Professor, Environmental Science, Policy and Management

Status: Full- no new appr needed     Weekly Hours: 6-8 hrs     Location: On Campus

No matter the size, all organisms interact with the world via their senses. Sensory input dictates reactions to stimuli, and the ability of organisms to adapt their neurological and sensory structures is critical to success and survival. Web building spiders in particular use webs as an extension and enhancement of...

Rosemary Gillespie - Professor, Environmental Science, Policy and Management

Status: Current Term Now Closed     Weekly Hours: to be negotiated     Location: On Campus

Hawaii is well known for its unique biodiversity – rather like the Galapagos, but much more extreme. This is particularly true of insects and spiders, where almost all the native species are unique to the islands. However, the environments of Hawaii are suffering at the hand of invasive species and climate...

Rosemary Gillespie - Professor, Environmental Science, Policy and Management

Status: Full- no new appr needed     Weekly Hours: to be negotiated     Location: On Campus

This project focuses on the biodiversity of insects and spiders on Pacific islands. Biodiversity surveys often accumulate a ton of specimens, but it is usually hard to figure out what the species actually are. Many species cannot be identified because they are immature, or are not yet described. In this...

John Harte - Professor, Energy and Resources

Status: Current Term Now Closed     Weekly Hours: 6-8 hrs     Location: On Campus

Students will work with Prof. Harte to formulate and explore mathematical models describing ecosystems that are far from steady state as a consequence of human and/or natural disturbance. Testing of model predictions with available data sets will also be carried...

John Harte - Professor, Energy and Resources

Status: Full- no new appr needed     Weekly Hours: 6-8 hrs     Location: On Campus

Vegetation and microclimate data collected from Sierran red fir forest will be used to assess the role of environmental parameters (e.g., temperature, soil moisture) in successful establishment of conifer tree seedlings. The project will advance niche theory by examining spatially-explicit relationships between the environmental parameters and measures of seedling...

Barbara Haya - Research Fellow, Public Policy

Status: Current Term Now Closed     Weekly Hours: to be negotiated     Location: Off Campus

Carbon offsets are being widely used to meet carbon neutrality goals. Improved forest management offset projects have generated around 45% of credits from projects based in the United States but research has shown that programs are grossly over-estimating project benefits. We are working with an interdisciplinary team of researchers...

Barbara Haya - Research Fellow, Public Policy

Status: Current Term Now Closed     Weekly Hours: to be negotiated     Location: Off Campus

Carbon offsets are being widely used to meet carbon neutrality goals. Many offset credits sold on the offset market represent significantly less climate benefit than they claim. We are conducting a series of studies of major offset project types to better understand their impact and quality...

Barbara Haya - Research Fellow, Public Policy

Status: Current Term Now Closed     Weekly Hours: to be negotiated     Location: Off Campus

The Berkeley Carbon Trading Project's Voluntary Registry Offsets Database is an important source of information and transparency in the carbon offset market and has been widely used by researchers, offset credit raters, offset buyers, and others. We welcome help from two or three advanced undergraduate students in updating the database...

Cesunica Ivey, Civil and Environmental Engineering

Status: Current Term Now Closed     Weekly Hours: 9-11 hrs     Location: On Campus

Healthy Martinez is a grassroots community group created to hold Martinez Refining Company (MRC), their parent company (PBF Energy) and other refineries in our area accountable for fires, flaring, and daily emissions that are polluting our air, water and soil. Apprentices will support personal measurements of speciated PM2.5 and time...

Cesunica Ivey, Civil and Environmental Engineering

Status: Current Term Now Closed     Weekly Hours: 9-11 hrs     Location: On Campus

Marin City Climate Resilience is dedicated to safeguarding the environment and promoting sustainability. We focus on implementing strategies to enhance climate resilience and mitigate environmental risks in Marin City, CA. By engaging with the community and advocating for sustainable practices, we aim to create a more resilient and environmentally conscious...

Christopher Jones - Director, California Institute of Energy and Environment

Status: Full- no new appr needed     Weekly Hours: to be negotiated     Location: On Campus

California has committed to fully eliminate carbon pollution from electricity by the year 2045, by passing landmark state bill SB100. Alongside, several bills have been passed to move towards deep emissions reduction in all sectors, including buildings and transport. Decarbonizing existing buildings (around 13 million residential homes along with large...

Christopher Jones - Director, California Institute of Energy and Environment

Status: Full- no new appr needed     Weekly Hours: to be negotiated     Location: On Campus

The technological basis for launching and operating orbiting solar generating plants is rapidly improving due to decreases in the cost of rocket launches ($/kg of payload), and improvements in durable thin-film solar and microwave beaming technology. The project is to build data-sets to inform a series of projections...

Christopher Jones - Director, California Institute of Energy and Environment

Status: Current Term Now Closed     Weekly Hours: 6-8 hrs     Location: On Campus

The purpose of this project is to collect, analyze and visualize data on energy, transportation, greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, GHG drivers, household carbon footprints, climate action planning, and equity into a single, data-driven climate action portal for all California cities and communities...

Christopher Jones - Director, California Institute of Energy and Environment

Status: Full- no new appr needed     Weekly Hours: to be negotiated     Location: On Campus

This project focuses on assessment of energy system resources, GHG balances and design of regional opportunities for expansion of distributed generation and micro grids in urban-agriculture interface zones across regions in California and regions with similar geo-physical resources and socio-economic features. The project will use Geographic Information...

Matt Kondolf - Professor, Landscape Architecture and Environmental Planning

Status: Current Term Now Closed     Weekly Hours: 6-8 hrs     Location: On Campus

Conservation groups estimate that half of the 5,000+ riparian meadows in the Sierra Nevada have become “degraded”, or converted from wet to dry meadows as indicated by the dominance of non-meadow vegetation species (e.g. lodgepole pines or sagebrush). Meadows cover less than 1% of Sierran forests, but have an...

Matt Kondolf - Professor, Landscape Architecture and Environmental Planning

Status: Current Term Now Closed     Weekly Hours: 6-8 hrs     Location: On Campus

In wet meadows of the Sierra Nevada, seasonal productivity of hydrophytic species depends on near-surface groundwater to sustain photosynthesis through the region’s summer drought. Seasonal meteorological patterns of energy and water (e.g. temperature, light availability, groundwater levels and humidity) drive plant phenology, the cycles of plant growth, reproduction and...

Layla Kwong - Professor, Public Health

Status: Current Term Now Closed     Weekly Hours: 6-8 hrs     Location: Off Campus

Global warming is increasing ambient temperatures, negatively impacting pregnancy outcomes, as well as a female and male fertility - but to what degree? And what are the mechanisms of effect? We have started integrating extensive research on heat and reproduction from animals with the more limited on humans to answer these...

Layla Kwong - Professor, Public Health

Status: Current Term Now Closed     Weekly Hours: 6-8 hrs     Location: Off Campus

Climate change is increasing ambient temperatures around the globe. In some low- and middle-income countries, existing cooling technologies might be effective, but are difficult to access because of supply chain constraints or policies like tariffs. This project will conduct comparative case studies in four different countries to understand what...

Layla Kwong - Professor, Public Health

Status: Current Term Now Closed     Weekly Hours: 6-8 hrs     Location: On Campus

In large parts of Sub Saharan Africa, health facilities (e.g. hospitals and clinics) lack appropriate energy infrastructure. In the Democratic Republic of the Congo, where much of the continent's unelectrified are exposed to both climate and conflict pressures, the near-total absence of a central grid requires the health sector...

Lu Liang - Professor, Landscape Architecture and Environmental Planning

Status: Current Term Now Closed     Weekly Hours: 6-8 hrs     Location: On Campus

Schoolyard trees are a low-cost, nature-based solution to environmental and social challenges, from reducing extreme heat and improving air quality to supporting student well-being. Research shows that access to trees can lower stress, boost attention, foster social connections, and even improve academic performance. However, many schools lack...

Lu Liang - Professor, Landscape Architecture and Environmental Planning

Status: Full- no new appr needed     Weekly Hours: 6-8 hrs     Location: On Campus

Understanding urban climate dynamics, such as the Urban Heat Island (UHI) effect, requires comprehensive datasets on urban morphology and land cover. Local Climate Zones (LCZs) provide a standardized framework for classifying urban and rural areas based on their physical and surface properties. A global LCZ database is essential for analyzing...

Cynthia Looy - Professor, Integrative Biology

Status: Current Term Now Closed     Weekly Hours: 3-5 hrs     Location: On Campus

Pollinators are essential components of a healthy ecosystem and provide vital benefits to both plants and animals. The student-run pollinator garden on the south side of the Valley Life Science Building (VLSB) supports native insects, spiders, and other wildlife and is an environmental education resource for students. Our goal...

Cynthia Looy - Professor, Integrative Biology

Status: Full- no new appr needed     Weekly Hours: 6-8 hrs     Location: On Campus

Plants are adapted to the physical conditions in their environments, including temperature, precipitation, atmospheric CO2 concentrations, and light level. In cooler and drier habitats, leaves tend to be smaller with condensed venation and toothed margins. While under warmer and wetter conditions, leaves tend to be larger, have ‘drip tips’, and...

Patina Mendez - Lecturer, Environmental Science, Policy and Management

Status: Current Term Now Closed     Weekly Hours: 3-5 hrs     Location: On Campus

Streams in California have a variety of forms including: (a) intermittent streams that only flow for part of the year, and often are dry throughout the summer, (b) protected streams in national, state, regional, and county parts, and (c) urban streams that serve recreational needs and stormwater management. The project...

Patina Mendez - Lecturer, Environmental Science, Policy and Management

Status: Current Term Now Closed     Weekly Hours: 3-5 hrs     Location: On Campus

Studies in ecology and evolution rely on properly curated museum material and access to museum records and specimen. Caddisflies, in the insect order Trichoptera, are aquatic insects closely related to moths and butterflies. In this project, the student will assist with labeling, organizing, and curating caddisflies. The student will also...

Chandra Middleton - Staff Researcher, Center for Law, Energy and the Environment

Status: Current Term Now Closed     Weekly Hours: 6-8 hrs     Location: Off Campus

The Center for Law, Energy, & the Environment’s (CLEE) Climate Break podcast brings listeners stories of climate progress and interviews with climate innovators from California and around the world, in under 2 minutes. Our episodes are solution-oriented and almost entirely produced by Berkeley students—including undergraduates, law students, and journalism...

Chandra Middleton - Staff Researcher, Center for Law, Energy and the Environment

Status: Current Term Now Closed     Weekly Hours: 6-8 hrs     Location: On Campus

Want a chance to help communities adapt to climate change? Want to support people as they engage with environmental law to help make their world more livable and communities more resilient to environmental hazards? Join the Forging Resilience team! Forging Resilience, a project of the Center for Law, Energy, & the...

Daniel Okamoto - Professor, Integrative Biology

Status: Current Term Now Closed     Weekly Hours: to be negotiated     Location: On Campus

Climate change is dramatically altering the oceans. These changes include increases in sea surface temperature, pH, dissolved oxygen, and primary productivity. We use experiments and field data to assess how these changes affect the physiology, growth, reproduction, and behavior of marine animals. We have numerous samples from past experiments and...

Daniel Okamoto - Professor, Integrative Biology

Status: Current Term Now Closed     Weekly Hours: to be negotiated     Location: On Campus

Wild fish populations are often subject to high levels of mortality from industrialized human harvest. Harvest mortality, particularly under certain environmental contexts, may have indirect, unpredictable effects on populations' biology beyond simply the removal of individuals from a population. To study these effects, we are using an experimental model system...

Daniel Okamoto - Professor, Integrative Biology

Status: Current Term Now Closed     Weekly Hours: to be negotiated     Location: On Campus

This URAP opportunity focuses on the energetics of host-parasite interactions in a model zooplankton-fungal parasite system. Over the course of Fall 2025- Spring 2026, we will conduct several experiments that test how variable food resources shape host and parasite fitness. Students will have the opportunity to connect and...

Daniel Okamoto - Professor, Integrative Biology

Status: Current Term Now Closed     Location: On Campus

Seaweeds (e.g., kelp, nori) are important primary producers, food sources, and essential fish habitat around the globe. While many species are resilient to climate change, many important species are also exhibiting declines in recent years and especially in response to marine heatwaves. We are conducting laboratory experiments and fieldwork focused...

Matthew Potts - Professor, Environmental Science, Policy and Management

Status: Current Term Now Closed     Weekly Hours: to be negotiated     Location: On Campus

MycoMaterial Innovation: Repurposing Invasive Eucalyptus into Sustainable Building Materials Project Overview California faces two interconnected challenges: the spread of invasive eucalyptus forests, which increase wildfire risks and displace native ecosystems, and the urgent need for sustainable, low-carbon construction materials in the face of a housing and climate crisis. This...

Matthew Potts - Professor, Environmental Science, Policy and Management

Status: Current Term Now Closed     Weekly Hours: to be negotiated     Location: On Campus

The Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework (GBF) has set ambitious goals for conserving and restoring biodiversity as well as mobilizing public and private sector action and finance to meet these goals. Coupled to this has been the emergence of mandatory (European Union’s [EU] Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive [CSRD]) as well...

Matthew Potts - Professor, Environmental Science, Policy and Management

Status: Current Term Now Closed     Weekly Hours: to be negotiated     Location: On Campus

Faced with ever-increasing anthropogenic pressures, including land use change and climate change, today’s biodiversity is in crisis. Anthropogenically induced species extinction rates have become high enough to prompt researchers to dub this phenomenon the “Sixth Great Extinction”. Meanwhile, emerging voluntary biodiversity markets, in parallel to voluntary carbon markets, hold...

Matthew Potts - Professor, Environmental Science, Policy and Management

Status: Current Term Now Closed     Weekly Hours: to be negotiated     Location: On Campus

Project Overview El Salvador is undergoing rapid transformations shaped by cryptocurrency-driven urbanization (“crypto urbanism”) and the recent lifting of the national metal mining ban. These shifts pose urgent threats to the country’s protected natural regions, including biodiversity hotspots, watersheds, and Indigenous territories. This project investigates the socio-environmental impacts...

Mary Power - Professor, Integrative Biology

Status: Current Term Now Closed     Weekly Hours: to be negotiated     Location: On Campus

The Angelo Coast Range Reserve is a UC Berkeley Natural Reserve System site in Mendocino County, on the South Fork of the Eel River. Angelo is the site of numerous historical and current UC Berkeley research studies, and collections by UC Berkeley Natural History museums. The proposed research project is...