Armando Lagunas conducts research on equipment in the California NanoSystems Institute as an EPSEM program participant.


Professor David Valentine, far right, with his students aboard a research vessel in the Santa Barbara Channel.

One of Dr. Valentine's students inspects material brought up from the sea floor.

Classroom Learning

is Only Part

of a Great Education!

The other half is undergraduate research in labs, libraries, studios, and in the field — hands-on experiences that will give you an extra edge when you apply for graduate school or a great job after graduation.

When you participate in undergraduate research, you engage in learning experiences beyond the classroom and gain new perspectives and insights while helping to create new knowledge. You’ll learn how to work on a team in a close-knit interdisciplinary community, improve your oral and written communication skills and have a chance to discover what really interests you.

You’ll develop marketable skills such as time management, critical thinking and problem-solving, specialized training and leadership. And you’ll meet faculty researchers and graduate students who can help open doors to future opportunities. So why research? Why not?

Check out the College of Letters and Sciences' Undergraduate Research and Creative Activities (URCA) Web site for detailed information about research opportunities and potential funding.

The links to the left will give you more information on how to get involved.

Undergraduate Research Blog

Nine UCSB students from across campus are blogging about their experience with research.

Undergraduate Research Brochure

The Office of Research publishes an undergraduate research brochure featuring profiles of current UCSB undergrads and recent graduates. Please contact Kelly Pillsbury at pillsbury@research.ucsb.edu if you would like a print copy.

View the brochure

"There are few experiences better suited to prepare a student for lifelong learning than an active participation in research early in his or her education. The only 'prerequisites' are curiosity, the willingness to learn something not contained in the standard curriculum, and to work on questions to which the answers are not known yet."

—UCSB Professor Herb Kroemer, winner of the Nobel Prize in Physics, 2000