This year’s top graduating senior at the University of California, Davis is Avantika Gokulnatha. She just earned a degree in genetics and genomics, she’d like to help make aging more manageable for people, she values her art classes in the campus Craft Center, and she prizes research. “Research has always been what I define to be American,” she says, and on today’s Davisville she explains what she means, what brought her to Davis, and where she’s headed next.

This UC Davis photo by Gregory Urquiaga shows Avantika Gokulnatha with Jack McGruder of Fairfield as they talk about how to use an app on an iPhone