Graduate students from around UC are bound for the state Capitol on Wednesday (March 16) to meet with lawmakers for UC Graduate Research Advocacy Day. The students will be talking up the important and audacious research that is taking place every day across UC campuses and graduate programs — research that is relevant in California and beyond.

Here are the UC Davis representatives:

Jacqueline Barkoski, doctoral student in epidemiology, is investigating a possible link between a common household pesticide and an increased risk for autism. She’s testing 170 pregnant women for traces of pyrethoid pesticide, a common substance in household and industrial sprays, to see if the women’s exposure to the pesticide while pregnant has an effect on their unborn children, in terms of them having an increased likelihood of developing autism.

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