The UCR Undergraduate Research Journal Turns 20!

The UCR Undergraduate Research Journal Turns 20! The 20th volume of the UCR Undergraduate Research Journal was published this spring and featured articles from 17 student authors. The Student Editorial Board and Faculty Advisory Board worked diligently to review and select articles on topics ranging from treatments for bacterial biofilms to the impact of smoke on hummingbird lungs to translation gaps between Korean and English language.

The Journal’s cover (pictured above) was unveiled at a celebration on June 5, 2026. The cover features sunflowers photographed at the UCR Agricultural Operations Center and which are part of research on how plants adapt to their local environments. To celebrate the 20th volume, Dr. Jennifer Kavetsky and members of the Student Editorial Board reached out to alumni who participated in the Journal over the last 20 years. We heard back from over 100 student editors and authors who shared updates about their personal and professional lives.

Highlights include: Paul Jacques, who was a student editor on the first volume of the Journal and now is a Professor of Theater; Michelle (Murphy) Mariscal, who published an article in the 2009 issue and is now an ecologist at Puente Hills Habitat Preservation Authority; Geoffrey Pronovost, who served as a student editor in 2015 and 2016 and now is a Senior Scientist at a biotech company, and Camila Reyes, who published an article in the 2020 issue and is now Ph.D. candidate in English at USC. Updates from even more of our alumni can be found in the digital edition of the Journal available on our website