Paul Nicknish
This project hopes to better understand the changes to the Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation (AMOC) that are projected under a warmer climate and higher CO2 concentrations. We will use a variety of model simulations to analyze past and future AMOC behavior and how these behaviors shape the climate. We are particularly interested in shifts and changes to precipitation due to AMOC circulation changes and plan to use the concept of energy flux potential to constrain these changes.
Mackenzie Briscoe
Recent research in social cognitive development suggests that preferences for particular social categories (e.g., race, gender, etc.) over others are present by the early preschool years (e.g., Perszyk et. al, 2019). However, the largely nonverbal sources of these early attitudes are unclear. This summer I will be researching the extent to which preschool-aged children can isolate which specific features of a group are causally relevant to the way that they are treated by others and which are not. Specifically, we want to see if kids are able to ascertain these […]
Madelyn Bernstein
The COVID-19 pandemic has brought about new changes and considerations to our daily lives. The purpose of this project is to study the day-to-day routines of parents and their young children during this unprecedented time. Participants fill out short surveys and submit audio recordings of their child’s bath time for 30-60 days. From this data, we hope to analyze how families’ routines have been affected by the pandemic.
Alexis Wood
What are the legacies of settler colonialism on American political development? Scholars understand settler colonialism as a “structure, not an event,” yet little attention has been devoted to understanding how settler colonialism has impacted the formation of the American state. To this end, our summer project seeks to answer the question: How much legislative activity has been devoted to territory governance in the United States and how has this changed over time? To investigate this question, we will be constructing an original dataset tracking congressional activity from 1789 to 1947 […]
Morgan Lafferty
The prostate-specific antigen test (PSA) is a blood test used primarily to screen for prostate cancer. However, single PSA values can be hard to interpret due to noise and fluctuating baselines. This summer, I will be continuing my work at The Hong Lab at UCSF where we are applying deep learning techniques to EHR data in order to better understand PSA growth in potential prostate cancer patients. By taking into account both a patient’s clinical data over time as well as certain demographic features, we hope to build a tool […]
Ashley Cowell
This project examines how Sierra Nevada snow melt, which is predicted to occur earlier in the year in the future, may impact aquatic insect communities. Using experimental streams at the Sierra Nevada Aquatic Research Laboratory (SNARL), we are examining how community structures and food web dynamics respond to changes in low flow timing. This summer I will be performing stable isotope analysis of macro-invertebrate samples to identify shifts in food web structure and relate those dynamics to changes in community composition. This research is vital to understanding how freshwater communities […]
Maria Calderon
Madeleine (Maddie) Lipscomb
This summer, I will continue assisting Dr. Conis on the research for her book on the history of pesticides in the United States. This entails researching and writing memos on topics ranging from pesticide poisonings of farm workers, to the link between chemical weapons and pesticide innovation, to the funding sources of pro-industry science organizations in the 1980s. Understanding how these phenomena unfolded, including who had a seat at the table, who didn’t, and who was put at risk, will be crucial if we are to protect ourselves and our […]
Henry Thomas
Sunny Malhotra
Dr. Steven K. Vogel and I will be looking at how rules shape market outcomes in a variety of fields. Specifically, we will be looking at the ways formal regulations and informal practices affect inequality in areas ranging from entrepreneurship to labor markets. Through a combination of economics, political science, and political economy literature and theory, we hope to use this information to better understand the ways governments can promote more equitable outcomes.