The Art-Science Loop: Creating Worlds with Evolution, Ecology and Biodiversity Undergraduate Megan Ma
There are worlds inside Megan Ma’s journal. On one page, a cartoon girl teeters through a rocky field filled with tall mushrooms. On another, a study-stressed cow sits at a desk staring at a laptop marked “UCD.” And on another, droplets of blue and purple watercolors have morphed into bunny-like avatars.
But there are more than imaginings in Ma’s journal. Flip through it and eventually, you’ll stumble upon sketches of millipedes in anatomical detail. There are anterior and posterior views, ventral and lateral views and even sketches of single body segments. All the drawings are labeled, with detailed notes about millipede biology written alongside them.
“ I would like to think that art, like just drawing things out, is the purest form of observation,” said Ma, a student majoring in evolution, ecology and biodiversity. “Me trying to figure out how to draw something is also an opportunity for me to learn more about that organism and its structures that I’d otherwise look past.”
Since enrolling at UC Davis nearly four years ago, Ma has lent her artistic talent to the Aggie community in many ways. She’s taught scientific illustration for the Bodega Science Communication Collective, provided artwork for the BIS 2C lab manual and currently works as a graphic designer for the Center for Leadership Learning, all the while taking classes and rotating through research labs, among many other activities. She even provided the illustration for this year’s holiday card from the College of Biological Sciences.