URAP

Diag Davenport - Professor, Information, School of

Status: Open     Weekly Hours: 9-11 hrs     Location: On Campus

Local laws shape housing, policing, business activity, public health, and everyday interactions with government. Yet these laws are scattered across thousands of websites, databases, and poorly structured PDFs, making them surprisingly difficult to find, compare, or study systematically. The Local Laws Observatory is building research infrastructure for collecting, organizing, searching...

Diag Davenport - Professor, Information, School of

Status: Open     Weekly Hours: 6-8 hrs     Location: On Campus

Institutions influence behavior through more than incentives. They shape what people notice, how they interpret information, what they value, and when they feel responsible for acting. This project brings together several behavioral and experimental studies that will be developed or prepared for publication during Fall 2026. The studies examine questions...

Diag Davenport - Professor, Information, School of

Status: Open     Weekly Hours: 6-8 hrs     Location: On Campus

The Berkeley Public Interest Technology Clinic works directly with public agencies and nonprofit organizations on consequential operational and policy problems. Rather than beginning with a preselected technology, the Clinic helps partners clarify the decision they need to make, determine what evidence is available, and develop a technically credible and institutionally...

James Davies - Professor, Music

Status: Open     Weekly Hours: 3-5 hrs     Location: On Campus

Does music make us human? This cataloguing project forms part of a broader research initiative on racial and decolonial humanisms. It focuses on the deep-level goldfields of Johannesburg and the archives of the 1948 University of California African Expedition, tracing the historical entanglement of early ethnomusicology and apartheid-era...

Brian DeLay - Professor, History

Status: Open     Weekly Hours: to be negotiated     Location: Off Campus

Guns and power go together. Like today, most forms of inequality in the global 19th century depended on a weapons gap. The unequal distribution of firearms helped determine power relations both between countries and within countries. Where did all those guns come from? And why did some have so many...

Dzovinar Derderian - Professor, History

Status: Open     Weekly Hours: 3-5 hrs     Location: On Campus

Armenian Studies at UC Berkeley and the Bay Area Community Armenian Studies on the UC Berkeley campus has informally existed since the 1980s and more formally since the 1990s. This project is aimed at conducting research (oral and textual) on the history of Armenian Studies at UC Berkeley and histories...

Robert Dudley - Professor, Integrative Biology

Status: Open     Weekly Hours: 6-8 hrs     Location: On Campus

Flying insects are the most diverse and abundant form of animal life in the terrestrial biosphere. However, the origins of insect flight remain obscure given the absence of a transitional fossil record. This project will involve construction of a small robot that mimics the likely morphology of early insects, and...

Ethan Elkind - Director, Climate Program, Center for Law, Energy and the Environment

Status: Open     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...

Jan Engelmann - Professor, Psychology

Status: Open     Weekly Hours: 9-11 hrs     Location: On Campus

To apply, please fill out this Google form: https://forms.gle/9iweDwC2JrRNP82a8 We address questions about the evolution and development of socio-cognitive skills by comparing humans to other animals (mostly chimpanzees, our closest living relatives) and by studying how children develop. How do children reason? How strongly is reasoning embedded...

Joline Fan - Professor, UC San Francisco

Status: Open     Weekly Hours: to be negotiated     Location: Off Campus

Our research focuses on deciphering the network mechanisms underlying the rich relationship between sleep and epilepsy. As human sleep networks have been largely studied using surface EEG with low spatial resolution and PET/fMRI, we employ recording modalities with high spatial-temporal resolution of whole-brain functional activity, e.g. magnetoencephalography...

Charles B. Faulhaber - Professor, Spanish and Portuguese

Status: Open     Weekly Hours: 3-5 hrs     Location: On Campus

Conversion of the PhiloBiblon relational database of ca. 420,000 records to the netgraph architecture of FactGrid: a database for historians. The software used is Wikibase, the same software used for Wikipedia. PhiloBiblon is a database of the Spanish, Portuguese, and Catalan primary sources (manuscripts and early printed books) of medieval...

Ronald Fearing - Professor, Electrical Engineering and Computer Science

Status: Open     Weekly Hours: 12 or more hours     Location: On Campus

We are looking for students interested in robot design, fabrication, and testing of pouch-based robots, for applications in minimally invasive surgery and beyond. Current surgical tools cannot navigate tortuous anatomical corridors, and as a result, accessing certain locations requires extensive tissue removal, general anesthesia, and a full operating room...

Aaron Fields - Professor, UC San Francisco

Status: Open     Weekly Hours: 9-11 hrs     Location: Off Campus

The Orthopaedic Biomechanics and Biotransport Laboratory at UCSF conducts research related to structure-function relationships in musculoskeletal tissues, with a particular focus on the mechanisms of nutrient transport in bone and cartilage and harnessing nutrient transport for tissue repair and regeneration. The lab combines engineering and biology approaches for (1...

Seth Finnegan - Professor, Integrative Biology

Status: Open     Weekly Hours: to be negotiated     Location: On Campus

For tens of millions of years large parts of California’s Central Valley were flooded by the ocean, creating an inland sea with a unique ecosystem including now-extinct species of clams, snails, sand dollars, corals, and other groups familiar from modern California beaches. Some of the species that lived in...

Seth Finnegan - Professor, Integrative Biology

Status: Open     Weekly Hours: to be negotiated     Location: On Campus

The formation of the Isthmus of Panama separated the Caribbean Sea from the Pacific Ocean, and the marine ecosystems on either side of the isthmus have diverged substantially over the last several million years as a result of this split. Compared to the strong coastal upwelling zones present in the...

Gordon Frankie - Professor, Environmental Science, Policy and Management

Status: Open     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...

Mia Fuller - Professor, Institute of European Studies

Status: Open     Weekly Hours: 3-5 hrs     Location: On Campus

This is the ideal URAP for students interested in a career in international diplomacy and/or foreign affairs. The Institute of European Studies seeks to enrich America's understanding of Europe -- its people, culture, languages, and politics -- through the generation and dissemination of distinguished scholarship. As the University's focal point for...

Liz Galvez - Professor, Architecture

Status: Open     Weekly Hours: 9-11 hrs     Location: On Campus

This research project investigates weaving as both a structural and environmental strategy for architecture. Students will develop and construct a series of physical models that combine lightweight wood structures with woven surfaces. These models will be used as experimental prototypes to study how variations in weaving pattern, density, geometry, and...

Liz Galvez - Professor, Architecture

Status: Open     Weekly Hours: 9-11 hrs     Location: On Campus

Project Description: This project addresses the challenges posed by extreme weather conditions and growing energy instability by exploring experimental approaches to managing interior environments. The research proposes architectural strategies that allow for multiplicity of indoor climates and environmental management. To bridge academic exploration with real-world applications, the project culminates...

Liz Galvez - Professor, Architecture

Status: Open     Weekly Hours: 9-11 hrs     Location: On Campus

This research project explores how a single interior can produce multiple thermal environments through architectural form, material, and passive environmental strategies. Organized as a loft containing distinct climatic zones, the project investigates how differences in temperature, air movement, solar exposure, thermal mass, and enclosure might allow occupants to move between...

Stephen Gaughran - Professor, Integrative Biology

Status: Open     Weekly Hours: 6-8 hrs     Location: On Campus

Monk seals are the world’s only tropical seals, with two distinct species living in Hawaii and the Mediterranean Sea. Despite intensive conservation efforts, only about 1,000 individuals survive in each species. My lab is using whole genome sequencing data from hundreds of individuals and population genetic analyses to study the...

Paul Gertler - Professor, Business, Haas School

Status: Open     Weekly Hours: 9-11 hrs     Location: On Campus

Interested in field experiments, primary data collection, and research management? Join a research team at UC Berkeley studying how to support student mental health at scale. Laura Chioda, Paul Gertler, and Gautam Rao are leading a randomized evaluation of a new approach to wellness support for students at UC Berkeley...

Paul Gertler - Professor, Business, Haas School

Status: Open     Weekly Hours: 9-11 hrs     Location: On Campus

This research project examines the landscape of GLP-1 (glucagon-like peptide-1) medication access and availability in the United States, with particular focus on how policies, insurance coverage, and healthcare infrastructure shape patient outcomes. Undergraduates will contribute to a comprehensive policy analysis that traces the evolution of GLP-1...

Paul Gertler - Professor, Business, Haas School

Status: Open     Weekly Hours: 9-11 hrs     Location: On Campus

Join a dynamic research team conducting multiple randomized controlled trials (RCTs) studying financial inclusion, digital credit, and entrepreneurship training in East Africa and around the world. This position offers hands-on experience with active field experiments and completed studies now in the analysis phase—ideal preparation for predoc positions and...

Bethany Goldblum - Professor, Nuclear Engineering

Status: Open     Weekly Hours: 9-11 hrs     Location: Off Campus

Organic scintillators are materials that emit light when excited by ionizing radiation. They are particularly attractive for fast neutron detection with applications in fusion diagnostics, nuclear security and proliferation detection technologies, and curiosity-driven science. Our group works on a wide range of aspects of scintillator science and engineering, from...

Bethany Goldblum - Professor, Nuclear Engineering

Status: Open     Weekly Hours: 9-11 hrs     Location: Off Campus

Scintillators emit light when excited by ionizing radiation. They are used in a variety of applications including basic science measurements, medical imaging, nuclear security and proliferation detection technologies, fusion-energy system diagnostics, etc. A database of scintillator properties is hosted by Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (scintillator.lbl.gov) containing a variety of...

Xiaohua Gong - Professor, Optometry

Status: Open     Weekly Hours: to be negotiated     Location: On Campus

The research in the lab has been directed to study molecular and cellular mechanisms that regulate the development of the eye and the lens and to investigate the underlying mechanisms of different eye diseases including cataract and retinal degeneration by using techniques from the fields of molecular and cellular biology...

Yan Gong - Professor, Plant and Microbial Biology

Status: Open     Weekly Hours: 9-11 hrs     Location: On Campus

Floral nectar attracts pollinators as a sugary reward, thereby promoting plant reproductive success. Nectar is produced by a specialized multicellular structure termed the nectary. Across angiosperms, nectaries have evolved independently more than 100 times, resulting in striking diversity in their structures and positions. However, our understanding of nectary development is...

Alison Gopnik - Professor, Psychology

Status: Open     Weekly Hours: 9-11 hrs     Location: Off Campus

All research in the Gopnik Cognitive Development and Learning Lab is broadly focused on children's development of cause and effect reasoning and how they learn from and about other people. We are looking for dedicated and motivated undergraduate students interested in pursuing a graduate degree in developmental psychology or a...

Heather Gray - Professor, Physics

Status: Open     Weekly Hours: 9-11 hrs     Location: Off Campus

The Large Hadron Collider (LHC) is the most powerful particle accelerator ever built and researchers use its data to study what the universe was like shortly after the big bang. Researchers at Berkeley and the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (LBNL) play a key role in all aspects of the ATLAS...

Karsten Gronert - Professor, Optometry

Status: Open     Weekly Hours: 12 or more hours     Location: On Campus

Our lab is looking for a motivated, organized undergraduate student to help manage our daily operations and assist with mouse research projects. This is a fantastic opportunity to get hands-on experience in a biomedical research environment...

Karsten Gronert - Professor, Optometry

Status: Open     Weekly Hours: 12 or more hours     Location: On Campus

Assist in the preparation of biological samples, carry out solid phase extractions for isolation of bioactive lipids. Learn, assist and eventually run an HPLC-mass spectrometry system. The position requires a high degree of motivation and organizational skill as well as the ability to operate complex and state-of-the...

Karsten Gronert - Professor, Optometry

Status: Open     Weekly Hours: 12 or more hours     Location: On Campus

We are focused on elucidating the role and molecular mechanisms of neuroprotective lipid mediators essential for inhibiting the death of retinal ganglion cells in glaucoma. We use wide range of techniques in lab including single-cell transcriptomics, morphOMICs, and lipidomics as a tool to investigate and understand the protective mechanisms...

Yangnan Gu - Professor, Plant and Microbial Biology

Status: Open     Weekly Hours: to be negotiated     Location: On Campus

Plant's responses to external stimuli are highly dependent on the shuttling of intracellular signals to the nucleus, where the genome is reprogrammed to drive transcriptome changes to combat stress. A fundamentally important aspect of this process is the nuclear transport of stress-related signaling cargos mediated by nuclear transport receptors...

Junko Habu - Professor, Anthropology

Status: Open     Weekly Hours: to be negotiated     Location: On Campus

At our East Asian Archaeology Laboratory, we are analyzing artifacts and faunal/floral remains excavated from Jomon period sites in Japan. Jomon is the name of a prehistoric hunter-gatherer culture in Japan, which lasted from approximately 13000 to 2300 years ago. Unlike many other hunter-gatherer cultures, the Jomon...

Richard Harland - Professor, Molecular and Cell Biology

Status: Open     Weekly Hours: 12 or more hours     Location: On Campus

The focus of the lab is to understand development; that is, the molecular mechanisms that orchestrate how a single cell (the egg) transforms into an adult animal with a multitude of functioning organs, following a specific body plan. The first milestone in the establishment of the body plan is to...

John Harte - Professor, Energy and Resources

Status: Open     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...

Christine Hastorf - Professor, Anthropology

Status: Open     Weekly Hours: 3-5 hrs     Location: On Campus

This project uses contemporary botanical and biogeographical information (recorded in Spanish) from herbarium specimens to characterize the ecological niches and associations of wetland plants. Herbaria, repositories of preserved botanical specimens, act as “plant libraries” that allow researchers to closely examine the characteristics of plant species and communities over space and...

Barbara Haya - Research Fellow, Public Policy

Status: Open     Weekly Hours: to be negotiated     Location: Off Campus

Mangrove restoration offers some of the greatest promise for directing private funding into projects with climate change mitigation, ecosystem, and resilience benefits. However, only a small portion of the close to 10,000 projects on the current voluntary carbon market supports mangrove restoration. This study brings together an interdisciplinary team of...

Barbara Haya - Research Fellow, Public Policy

Status: Open     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: Open     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 advanced undergraduate students in updating the database code in Python...

Lin He - Professor, Molecular and Cell Biology

Status: Open     Weekly Hours: 12 or more hours     Location: On Campus

Transposable elements (TEs) are DNA sequences capable of “moving” (transpose) within a genome. RNA transposons (retrotransposon) use RNA intermediate and a “copy and paste” mechanism to transpose. Retrotransposons, with their “copy and paste” mechanism, have accumulated and become abundant in our genome, comprising ~38% of the human and mouse genome...

Peng He - Professor, UC San Francisco

Status: Open     Weekly Hours: to be negotiated     Location: Off Campus

This project provides a hands-on introduction to benchmarking or advancing state-of-the-art computational tools used in single-cell and spatial transcriptomics analysis. With the rapid growth of available software and datasets, there is a pressing need to evaluate, compare, and optimize tools across a wide range of...

Peng He - Professor, UC San Francisco

Status: Open     Weekly Hours: to be negotiated     Location: Off Campus

The map of cells in our body is far from being complete. This project is a computational and conceptual exploration of human biology through the lens of integrated single-cell atlases. Students will collect and reanalyze published single-cell and single-nucleus RNA-seq datasets to discover rare or underappreciated...

Peng He - Professor, UC San Francisco

Status: Open     Weekly Hours: to be negotiated     Location: Off Campus

This project investigates how cells behave and interact in their native environments by analyzing spatial gene expression data. Interns will use Visium and Xenium spatial transcriptomics datasets to identify tissue microenvironments, reconstruct 3D spatial maps, and apply computational tools like NicheFormer, and contribute to research articles by generating publication-grade...

Peng He - Professor, UC San Francisco

Status: Open     Weekly Hours: 9-11 hrs     Location: On Campus

This project focuses on the discovery, optimization, and interpretation of gene signatures in massive single-cell and spatial transcriptomics datasets. Students will contribute to the development of scalable computational methods to extract meaningful biological patterns across thousands of samples and millions of cells. The research involves both algorithm development and...

Todd Hickey - Professor, Ancient Greek and Roman Studies

Status: Open     Weekly Hours: 3-5 hrs     Location: On Campus

The Center for the Tebtunis Papyri is seeking assistance with a cataloging project in 2026/27. This will mainly involve inventorying, measuring, describing, and foldering papyrus fragments from the collection. Updating the Center’s database of papyri will also be part of this project...

Julian Hong - Professor, UC San Francisco

Status: Open     Weekly Hours: to be negotiated     Location: Off Campus

The Hong lab is part of the UCSF Department of Radiation Oncology and Bakar Computational Health Sciences Institute. We focus on combining clinical domain knowledge with data science to generate insights from real world data, develop actionable computational tools, and evaluate the benefit of these advances for personalized cancer care...

Guo Huang - Professor, UC San Francisco

Status: Open     Weekly Hours: 12 or more hours     Location: On Campus

As shown in our recent publication (Hirose*, Payumo*, et al Science 2019), we aim to understand the divergent regenerative potential in ontogeny and phylogeny. For example, heart regeneration is remarkably robust in adult zebrafish and newborn mice while very limited in adult mammals. We use the heart as a model...

Guo Huang - Professor, UC San Francisco

Status: Open     Weekly Hours: 12 or more hours     Location: On Campus

We aim to study whether there are extreme physiological phenomena among identical twins that can not be explained by any known biological mechanism. We will exploit classical and non-classical model systems to explore this uncharted area. If you have identical twin brother/sister, your prior personal experiences would be...