Heat is a universal experience, but in a world where climate change pushes temperatures higher every year, it’s becoming deadly. A group of UCLA students is making it their mission to understand how heat impacts our bodies, communities and planet.

The UCLA Heat Lab, founded in 2020 and led by Bharat Venkat, an associate professor with appointments in history, anthropology and at the UCLA Institute for Society and Genetics, is an interdisciplinary research collective that explores how heat affects people — especially those who are most vulnerable to it. The lab’s research asks pressing and complex questions about who bears the brunt of rising temperatures and how thermal inequality reveals broader systems of vulnerability and injustice.

From the outset, the lab has been deeply student-focused. What began with five undergraduates has grown to roughly 20, with students playing a central role in shaping research directions. 

“This style of lab is very distinctive. These kinds of interdisciplinary, undergraduate-focused labs that integrate mentorship, pedagogy and research — it’s a unique model that really allows students to contribute meaningfully to both scholarly conversations and the world,” Venkat said. “The Heat Lab has become a model of thinking about how you might do interesting research that genuinely engages undergraduates and offers a chance to mentor them. It’s a unique, powerful combination.”

Many of the Heat Lab’s projects are student-driven and deeply connected to the needs and concerns of the broader community. Research questions often emerge organically from students, Venkat or the lab’s community partners.

For Aishwarya Nair, a fourth-year molecular, cell and developmental biology major, her question was rooted in medicine: How do pharmaceuticals affect thermoregulation — the body’s way of maintaining its internal temperature — under extreme heat? By analyzing Medicare data, she and her team found that elderly populations face a higher risk of heat vulnerability because they are more likely to be on medications for chronic illnesses. The team is in the data analysis stage of their research with the long-term goal of creating a drug-heat risk index, mapping where medications that increase this risk are most prescribed. 

“I think that’s one of the nice things about these lab spaces — they open doors and encourage people to think differently,” Nair said. “This kind of research makes you think about health from a broader perspective.”

How students are finding new ways to think about heat research

That intersectional, interdisciplinary approach is core to the Heat Lab’s identity. It’s not unusual to find students combining data science with cultural analysis or biology with public health policy. 

For instance, Sara Ghanbari, a fourth-year human biology and society major, was inspired to explore whether fire department response times vary based on socioeconomic status after experiencing a house fire herself.

In another student-led project, Heat Lab researchers launched a study in 2023 that examined working conditions inside L.A. food trucks. Using heat sensors and conducting interviews, undergraduates uncovered dangerously high interior temperatures that posed serious risks to workers. Their findings sparked conversations about labor protections in the face of rising heat.

It’s not just about research, however. It’s about storytelling and public education, too. That’s where the lab’s education team and its student-produced podcast, “Hot Takes,” comes in. Hosted and developed by undergraduates, the podcast unpacks topics like shade inequality, metropolitan heat, and, more recently, an episode about the January 2025 Los Angeles wildfires.

Professor Venkat and some of the UCLA Heat Lab student researchers are the latest guests on the UCLA College podcast “Tell Us What You Know.” Tune in and learn more about the lab's work surrounding heat and thermal inequality.

“Heat is approached very passively, like, ‘Oh, I guess it’s hot out now,’” said Natalie Gurzeler, a third-year human biology and society major and one of the podcast’s producers. “But I think that part of the core mission of the Heat Lab is to raise awareness and solutions and reasons behind why extreme heat has gotten to the point where it is in society.”

For Gurzeler, joining the lab shattered her preconceived notions of research.

‘I do have a place in research’

“Coming into college, I had this really clear-cut image of research as standing in a wet lab, wearing goggles, working with pipettes,” she said. “But research is so much more than that. My time with the Heat Lab has made me realize that I do have a place in research.”

That kind of inclusion and mentorship is a guiding principle for the lab. Students don’t just receive guidance from Venkat; they’re encouraged to lead, collaborate and develop real-world skills that will carry into their future careers.

“UCLA is such a big place, and finding your niche can be hard,” said Shimona Gupta, a third-year human biology and society major. “But ever since I stepped into the Heat Lab, I’ve felt supported and encouraged — not just as a student, but as a researcher.”

Gupta is part of two Heat Lab projects. The first is a data analysis effort examining Cal/OSHA data to better understand heat-related violations throughout the state. The other is an independent research project that will explore how extreme heat impacts student-athletes.

“One solution never fits everyone,” Gupta said. “That’s what the Heat Lab has taught me, that solutions need to be tailored to the communities you're working with. That’s a mindset I hope to take with me into medicine.”

As climate change accelerates, Venkat believes heat will become one of the most urgent public health and civil rights issues of the 21st century.

“It’s a question of who is most exposed and who isn’t — and why we have these inequalities,” he said. “Understanding the impacts and implications of heat is interdisciplinary by nature. It’s impossible to do this research any other way.”

Heat is more than a temperature — it’s a lens through which we can examine systems of inequality, resilience and care. The Heat Lab isn’t just asking how we stay cool — it’s asking who gets to and why that matters.

Interested in learning more? The undergraduates featured in this article are presenting their work at UCLA’s Undergraduate Research Week, May 19–23.

Read more about UCLA’s efforts to combat the effects of extreme heat.