This winter quarter, the EPAP/ESM Mentorship Program hosted two roundtable discussions centered on topics that many students are actively navigating: graduate school, career uncertainty, networking, and building community. Through conversations with professionals and mentors from a variety of backgrounds, students were able to hear honest reflections about the realities of career development, life transitions, and sustaining meaningful relationships both inside and outside of work.

We wanted to take a moment to reflect and share our incredible Fall Quarter. The EPAP/ESM mentorship program reached 100 students, offering them personalized connections with career professionals. Across the quarter, we hosted two incredible Roundtable discussions, the first addressing “Finding Your Environmental Career Pathway”, and the second discussing “Seizing Opportunities and Overcoming Challenges as Members of Minoritized Groups Working or Studying in STEM”.

1. Networking isn't scary, it's just making friends at work: Seriously, stop psyching yourself out about networking.

On April 25th, 2025, the CEPB was incredibly proud of five undergraduate students who were able to convert months of hard work and research into poster presentations at the UC Davis Undergraduate Research Scholarship and Creative Activities Conference. Our students have been working on these projects across the last few quarters in partnership with graduate students completing Masters, Doctorates, and Post-Doc Fellowships. 

Hear from two of our students on their work and experience presenting! 

UC Davis Center for Environmental Policy and Behavior: Post-doctoral Fellowship in Evaluation of Nitrogen Management Extension and Outreach

Position Description

Nature recently published a perspective "Has the ‘great resignation’ hit academia?"  In discussing faculty discontent with academia and shifting to "non-academic" jobs, one factoid they cite is "Forty-one per cent of mid-career researchers — compared with 32% of early-career scientists — reported that organizational politics or bureaucracy frequently or always frustrated their efforts to do a good job".  What is it about the corporate

This report summarizes the results from a survey of California Bay-Delta science enterprise stakeholders conducted in 2021 by researchers from the University of California-Davis, University of Colorado-Denver, and University of Arizona.  You can download the full report here.

In the global economy, COVID seems to have triggered the Great Resignation, which is a transformative event. A punctuated equilibrium. I think a similar phenomena might be happening in the culture of higher education, and I will name it: The Great Disengagement. What are it symptoms? What are its causes? What are its consequences? Is there a cure? I can only offer some speculations here but it think we need global reckoning in the entire higher education system.

As a member of the Delta Science Program's Science Advisory Committe, I'm currently engaged in a planning process called the "Science Needs Assessment" (SNA).

As I promised to the CEPB community in the spirit of #shutdownstem, and also to support the actions in the CEPB statement on Black Lives Matter, I took some time today (tonight...) to read Carolyn Merchant's article "Shades of Darkness: Race and Environmental History."  I wi

The faculty, students, researchers, and staff of the UC Davis Center for Environmental Policy and Behavior stand in solidarity with the Black community. We condemn white supremacy, police brutality, and the politics of racism, fear, and hate. Black Lives Matter. The murders of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, and Ahmaud Arbery are the most recent illustrations of the systemic racism and injustice that permeate every aspect of our society--including academia.

Does the science enterprise in large-scale ecosystems like the California Delta provide a policy laxative, or contribute to policy constipation? This was a perspective offered by a Delta science enterprise stakeholder during a recent workshop facilitated by me and my CU Denver colleague Tanya Heikkila.

Happy New Year 2020!  I went to San Francisco last weekend and saw the amazing musical Hamilton. You should definitely go!  I also spent half of Dec 31, 2019 editing a paper on the spread of conflict in polycentric governance systems, where we are particularly concerned about how conflict and cooperation within one policy forum may spread like a virus to other forums.  I think the idea of "seconds" in the duels performed in Hamilton, may help us think about conflict in polycentric systems, along with the role of "collaborative" governance.

The UC Davis Department of Environmental Science and Policy seeks a post-doctoral fellow in Governance Network Analysis and Climate Adaptation under the mentorship of Dr. Mark Lubell.  The position will be for one year residence with possible second year renewal depending on funding. The position will begin in January 2020, or as soon as possible after that time. Salary ranges from $50,760 to $59,100 annually depending on experience.

Did you know that french fries, climate change, and social networks are closely related? I just had to write about this fascinating story that I heard on NPR about potatoes in Idaho. "In all my years of raising potatoes and trying to squeeze in the harvest before the weather causes damage, this is the earliest we've seen a widespread frost of this magnitude," says the potato farmer being interviewed.