2025 Mathias Symposium

Kathleen Wong, UC Nature

UC Nature invited recent recipients of its Mildred E. Mathias Graduate Student Research Grants to the 2025 Mathias Symposium to present their findings and network with other scientists. The event was held at Bodega Marine Reserve and Laboratory in Sonoma County Mar. 7–9.

Twelve graduate student fellow, awarded grants from 2021 to 2024 to support their field research at reserves, participated in the symposium. They were joined by UC Nature Executive Director Steve Monfort, UC Merced UC Nature Associate Director Jessica Malisch, UC Merced environmental systems professor Joshua Garcia, and UC Davis clinical neuroscientist Philippe Goldin. UC Nature Field-based Learning Coordinator Cristina Soto Balderas organized and led the event.

The event kicked off with a tour of the White Abalone Captive Breeding Laboratory at Bodega Marine Laboratory. Attendees learned that overfishing decimated numbers of the endangered shellfish starting in the 1970s, then took a second hit from the withering syndrome disease that continues to threaten the mollusks’ return. As broadcast spawners, white abalone need a critical mass of individuals close by to ensure eggs are fertilized. With the population too small rebound on its own, the laboratory has been culturing the iridescent-shelled snails as an insurance against extinction, and eventually hopes release individuals back into the wild. Students got to take “shellfies” with young abalone spawned in captivity, and admire the marine lab’s extensive facilities.

Over wine and snacks, attendees introduced themselves while taking in the spectacle of waves and wildlife at Horseshoe Cove.

An early evening hike over the reserve dunes took participants to dinner at the housing facilities and dinner. After dessert, everyone pulled the dining tables together for a roundtable chat. Students shared heartfelt reflections on their field experiences and the significance of UC Nature and the Mathias Grant to their research. The guests described how their interests and research led them to their current positions.

“There was a lot of trial and error, and a lot of failure, which was really hard for the first three years. And I’m in my fourth year, so most of it was really, really hard…. So getting the Mathias grant made me feel really validated,” said Lydia Dean, a doctoral student at UC Irvine. Dean has used her 2023–24 and 2024–25 Mathias funding at UC Nature’s San Joaquin Marsh Reserve to study whether insect-eating birds use distress chemicals emitted by plants as hunting cues.

“Getting this grant was really helpful for my confidence, and definitely has contributed a lot towards my growth in graduate school and of course the success of my project. That was a really huge help over a big speed bump at the very beginning of my research, but it definitely gave me the momentum to continue on and complete my project,” said former UC Riverside master’s student Jamie Irby. Irby received a 2022–23 Mathias grant to support her research into how precipitation levels affect nitrogen availability in desert soils at UC Nature’s Boyd Deep Canyon Desert Research Center.

Over the next two days, the graduate student fellows gave talks about the research supported by the Mathias grant, while invited guests discussed their career trajectories and current work. On Saturday afternoon, Bodega Marine Reserve Director Suzanne Olyarnik led participants on a scenic hike around the reserve.

The grant program honors Mildred E. Mathias, a professor of botany at UC Los Angeles who served as chair of UC Nature’s advisory body during the reserve system’s formative decades. Since its establishment in 1988, the Mathias Grant program has awarded more than one million dollars in funding to more than 550 UC graduate students. Funding for the grant comes from the Kenneth S. Norris Endowment Fund for the California Environment, provided to UC Nature by the David and Lucile Packard Foundation.