2026 Koret Application Closed
Letter of recommendation from the mentor
- Mentors must be a UC Santa Cruz faculty, or graduate student with a CruzID.
- The applicant must add the email address of their mentor in the application. The mentor will receive a link to upload their recommendation.
- The letter is to be no more than 300-400 words and should specifically address the following:
- 1. Provide a brief (100-200 word) description of the research project being performed by the student.
- 2. Assess the likelihood of success in this project by this student.
- 3. Describe your plan for mentorship of this student (type of engagement and frequency).
Research project requirements
- Research projects can be student, or mentor-originated.
- Research projects must be completed prior to the student’s graduation.
- The scholarship is intended to support you in a research project outside of a course. As such, research projects can not be assignments in regular courses.
- Projects and mentors must be affiliated with UCSC (faculty, lecturers, postdocs, researchers, etc.).
- Koret Scholars agree to present their project in the “Koret Research Slam” at the end of spring quarter.
Group projects
For group projects, each student in the group submits a separate application. In the project description question of the application, it should be made clear what specific role the applicant will be performing in the group project.
Additional details:
- You must be an undergraduate student enrolled in the winter and spring quarters at UC Santa Cruz during the 2025-2026 academic year and be in good academic standing.
- Previous Koret Scholars are not eligible to apply.
- You must have a UC Santa Cruz faculty or UC Santa Cruz graduate student who has agreed to be a mentor for your project.
- It is recommended, but not required, that Koret Scholars work with their mentor in a 2 or 5 credit Individual Studies course.
2026 Koret Scholars (by Division)
Arts
Sadie Abed Millman The System That Eats: A Multimedia Exploration in Critical Animal Studies through Visual Culture Mentor: Dorothy Santos
Gabriel Schwartz Virtual Realms, Art and Activism Mentor: Dani Wright
Baskin Engineering
Ziyan Batada Cost-Effectively Optimizing Expression of Two Medically Relevant, Heterologous Proteins in Komagataella phaffii. Mentor: Rebecca DuBois
Madelyn Flores Production of pure HAstV (human astrovirus) spike protein in yeast for vaccine production Mentor: Rebecca DuBois
Mia Gallardo Improving HAstV Spike Protein Purification for Vaccine Production Mentor: Rebecca DuBois
Sarah Huerta Uncovering the cause of age-related platelet overproduction and hyperactivity from hematopoietic stem and platelet progenitor cells. Mentor: Camilla Forsberg
Tejasvi Kondapally Improving HAstV Spike Protein Purification for Vaccine Production Mentor: Rebecca DuBois
Piper Mahn Uncovering Novel RNA Isoforms in Extracellular Vesicles from Triple-Negative Breast Cancer for Biomarker Discovery Mentor: Daniel H. Kim
Jason Vu Ancestry-Specific Pharmacogenomic Variation using the All of Us Biobank Mentor: Alexander Ioannidis
Humanities
Michaela Barker The Visual Making of the Pajaro and Salinas Valley: A Comprehensive Report on Ecological Damage and Toxicity as Contextualized Through Research Photography Mentor: Dimitris Papadopoulos
Juan Pablo Calvo Huerta Evidentials in Paraguayan Guaraní and Paraguayan Spanish Mentor: Roumyana Pancheva
Victoria Choi Expectations related to the current limit and possibilities of robotics and AI technosystems and how that affects current and future development. Mentor: Zac Zimmer
Mia Collins Zionism and Anti-Zionism Among Jewish Students at UCSC Mentor: Anne Kreps
Sofia Dicesare-Bystrowicz Paper Promises, Paper Loss: Eulalia Pérez, Rancho San Pascual, and the Selling of Longevity in Early Los Angeles Mentor: Grace Peña Delgado
Araceli Rojas Nunez Neoextractivism in Mexico’s “Cuarta Transformacion” Mentor: Fernando Leiva
Physical and Biological Science
Luca Boretto Synthesis of small-molecule active site models for the biosynthetic metalloenzyme MbnH Mentor: Timothy Johnstone
Yetzi Garcia-Martinez Psilocybin’s Rescuing Effects on Stress-Induced Anhedonia Mentor: Emily Kogan
Aarna Garg The Clustering of Little Red Dots Mentor: Stefano Profumo
Melodi Hernandez Pacheco Controls on Monterey Bay Surface Stoichiometry Mentor: Allison Moreno
Jonas Holmes Exploring drivers of low-frequency variability in the northeast Pacific boundary currents Mentor: Jerome Fiechter
Shayna Kaplan Uncovering the Origin of Jupiter’s Banded Atmosphere Mentor: Xi Zhang
Sadie Kolackovsky Evaluating the Food Web of Restored Tidal Wetlands Using Stable Isotope Analysis Mentor: Michael Polito
Asritha Kota Modeling 436 Mutation to Investigate Cortical Development Defects in SATB2 associated syndrome Mentor: Yanzhen Nie
Hailey Lizarraga The Effect of Satb2 Overexpression on Cortical Development Mentor: Bin Chen
Arian Moghni Galactic Rain: Tracing Gas Streams Feeding Supermassive Black Holes in Red Geyser Galaxies Mentor: Kevin Bundy
Keeley Parker The Function of Protease and Protease Inhibitors in Extracellular Matrix Remodeling Mentor: Jordan Ward
Luis Mario Ramirez Cruz Comparing the performance of statistical vs mechanistic models of range dynamics of shortbelly rockfish in California Mentor: Alexa Fredston
Linnea Rydell Investigating the Role of Anthocyanin in Climatic Stress Tolerance of Leptosiphon parviflorus Mentor: Kathleen Kay
Maria Serikova California Sea Lion Osmoregulation Mentor: Garrett Shipway
Kate Wang Bioavailability of Iron Particles to Antarctic Phytoplankton Mentor: Katherine Mateos
Alison Weber Determining the Distance to the Virgo Cluster using Type Ia Supernovae Mentor: Ryan Foley
Jordan Yee New Negative Selection Circuit for Continuous Evolutions Mentor: Jaron Mercer
Social Sciences
Juan David Alvarez The Influence of Mycophagy on the Nitrogen Isotope Values of Primates at Issa Valley Mentor: Vicky M. Oelze
Amaya Aquino Preconscious Bias and Disgust Sensitivity: A Breaking Continuous Flash Suppression Study Mentor: Hannah Raila
Annie Bleveans Idealizing lithic fracture predictability using glass Mentor: Jay Reti
Veler Brown Comparing the Efficacy of Multiple Forensic Sex Estimation Methods Using UCSC’s Collection of Donated Human Skeletons Mentor: Emily Schach
Kendall Byers Examining Mono- and Multiracial Children’s Neural and Behavioral Responses to Racial Ingroup and Outgroup Individuals Mentor: Hyesung Grace Hwang
Abby Clinton Educator Perception and Reflection Toward District Budget Deficit and School Consolidations Mentor: Rebecca London
Sofia Donaldson Florez Analyzing the Legal Frameworks of Reproductive Justice in the Americas Mentor: Carlos Martinez
Katherine Heck Mapping Space: The anthropological lens of accessibility, social design, and universal access at UC Santa Cruz Mentor: Carla Hernández Garavito
Chloe McGuire The Effects of Learner-Control on Knowledge Acquisition: A Meta-Analytic Review Mentor: Hannah Hausman
Elliot Meyer A Quantitative Study of Administrative Attitudes in Prisons in Relation to Rates of Recidivism Mentor: Craig Haney
Psi Padhya Democracy, Data, and Decarbonization: Urban Climate Interventions and the Internet of Things Mentor: David Gordon
Maya Shomaker Infants’ Brain-Behavioral Responses to People of Different Races Mentor: Samantha Fong
Christina Spencer Racialized Adultification: Media Portrayals of Late Adolescent Males in School Shooting Cases (2012-2022) Mentor: Heather Bullock
Kyla Spencer In the Name of “Defending Women”: Unpacking the conservative construction of white femininity and its perception of autism Mentor: Madhavi Murty
Kayson Tang After Neoliberalism? The Contestation of Economic Ideas in the Era of Populism Mentor: Roger Schoenman
Miles Walton The exploration of in field DNA extractions. Mentor: Lars Fehren-Schmitz
Lauren Williams Retrospectives on K-12 Tracking and Student-Staff Dynamics Mentor: Saskias Casanova
Forest Woodman Fidget Toys: How They Impact Emotional Regulation in Adults and Build Communities Mentor: Rebecca London