Nov. 3, 2025

Students stride along a stair-filled walkway to the Engineering Plaza during a bright fall morning. (Photo by Steve Zylius / UC Irvine)

UC IRVINE NEWS

Fellows on the front lines of environmental justice

(From left: Inaugural fellows of CEHDR RISE – Karen Valladares, Celina Phillipson and Lynora Garner)

Celina Phillipson, Karen Valladares and Lynora Garner are inaugural fellows of the Center for Environmental Health Disparities Research’s Research Internships for Social & Environmental Health Equity, known as CEHDR RISE. The program pairs students with faculty members and community partners to address pollution and health inequities. “Programs like CEHDR RISE are essential right now because they bring science out of the lab and into the communities where it is most needed,” said Bernadette Boden-Albala, founding dean of the Joe C. Wen School of Population and Public Health Sciences. “These fellows are learning to pair science with lived experience – exactly the kind of leadership public health needs right now.”

Zot the vote

The UC Irvine Vote Center for California’s Nov. 4 special election is open at the Gateway Study Center across from the Langson Library for in-person voting, same-day registration and ballot drop-off. To find additional locations of secure ballot drop boxes, Orange County Vote Centers (for in person voting or to drop off your ballot), or the nearest USPS drop off point, visit the Orange County Registrar of Voters.

Driving ambition

Motor vehicle crashes remain a leading cause of death for teenagers. Dr. Federico Vaca, professor and executive vice chair of emergency medicine, is working to alter this trend with his Brain, Body & Behavior Driving Simulation Lab, which aims to enhance the understanding and prevention of motor vehicle crash risks and injuries in young drivers. Additionally, Vaca’s latest National Institutes of Health-funded study takes this approach to the national level. His “Modeling a National Graduated-BAC Policy for 21- to 24-Year-Old Drivers” project explores whether lowering the legal blood alcohol limit for young adults could reduce alcohol-related crashes and deaths. #SpeakUp4Science

Researchers discover nearby exoplanet

UC Irvine researchers have identified an exoplanet located in a region of our Milky Way Galaxy where surface conditions might exist to support the presence of liquid water – an essential ingredient for all known life. The exoplanet is close to our solar system. It may have a rocky composition like Earth and is several times more massive, making it a “super-Earth.” In this episode of The UC Irvine Podcast, Paul Robertson, associate professor of physics and astronomy, talks about how he and his team discovered the exoplanet and what he hopes to learn in future exoplanet hunting efforts. Funding from NASA and the National Science Foundation helped support the research. #SpeakUp4Science

UC NEWS

UC application tips

Whether students are working on their UC application or just getting started, here is a list of helpful resources and information that can assist them, ranging from writing personal insight questions to getting help with college costs, exploring campuses and selecting a major.

#IamUCI

Where global meets local

Gvantsa Gasviani, a Ph.D. student in global & international studies, has published three peer-reviewed articles about post-Soviet Georgia – her home country – and is writing her dissertation on emigres there who fled Russia after it invaded Ukraine. With grants from the Center for Global Peace and Conflict Studies and the Center for Citizen Peacebuilding, Gasviani has twice traveled to Georgia to interview immigrants about how their lives in Russia changed after the war started, and why they fled their homeland.

#UCIconnected spotlights interesting updates from the UC Irvine community. #IamUCI spotlights profiles of students, faculty, staff and alumni. Send submissions via email or post on social media with the #UCIconnected or #IamUCI hashtags.

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