UC Davis graduate student Grace Ha at Bodega Bay

Leaders for the Future Fellow Grace Ha Makes Nature Real and Meaningful

Grace Ha is a Ph.D. candidate in marine ecology at UC Davis, where her thesis focuses on the analysis of camouflage in marine ecosystems. She is participating in the Leaders for the Future program, a five-month cross-campus collaboration between the Office of Research, the Internship and Career Center, GradPathways (Graduate Studies) and our institute. She recently participated in the Food, Ag + Health Entrepreneurship Academy as a 2018 Harkins Fellow.

Originally from Pennsylvania, Ha holds a B.S. from Cornell University and is a former Fulbright Fellow to South Korea. After obtaining her Ph.D., she plans to pursue a data science career in either tech or the nonprofit sector, using her statistical and problem-solving skills for a broad range of applied issues. Ha says she discovered marine ecology “almost by accident” when she took a field biology class on a whim as an undergraduate and fell in love.

“I had always been interested in the idea of nature, but this course was my first experience actually touching, smelling and exploring nature as a real subject. To this day, I am fascinated by how the natural world can be more diverse and more extraordinary than any one person’s imagination.”

In addition to her research, Ha is passionate about mentoring, fostering diversity in the workplace—and Agatha Christie murder mysteries.

Read more about Grace on the UC Davis Mike and Renee Child Institute for Innovation and Entrepreneurship website.


About Leaders for the Future

A cross-campus collaboration between the Office of Research, the Internship and Career Center, GradPathways and the Mike and Renee Child Institute for Innovation and Entrepreneurship, this five-month program helps Ph.D. students and postdoctoral scholars connect with applied experiences beyond academia through immersives (internships, job shadowing, projects) while supporting business skills development.

For more information, visit the Leaders for the Future webpage.

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