College of Biological Sciences News & Media Links

Look here for links to research news, faculty awards, student awards, college rankings, alumni news and more!

• August 2009 - Eric Conn and Larry N. Vanderhoef received 2009 Fellow of ASPB Awards.


• July 2009 - Cameron Carter, MD, professor of psychiatry and psychology at the UC Davis School of Medicine, has been named interim director of the UC Davis Center for Neuroscience.
  
  
  
  
• June 2009 - Kimberley McAllister, associate professor at the UC Davis Center for Neuroscience, co-authored a study that discovered how a protein called neuroligin, implicated in some forms of autism, is critical to the construction of a working synapse.





• June 2009 - Graham Coop, assistant professor of evolution and ecology, co-authored a study finding that genetic differences in humans are shaped by geography and history. The study was published in the online journal PLoS Genetics.





• June 2009 - Graduate student Maureen Ryan and postdoc Jarrett Johnson in the Center for Population Biology, along with alumni Ben Fitzpatrick, coauthored a paper in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences about the effects of hybrid animals on native plants and animals. An article about the research appears in The New York Times.





• June 2009 - Venkatesan Sundaresan, professor of plant biology, published a paper in the journal Science that solves a mystery about how plants make eggs.






• May 2009 - Charles Langley, distinguished professor of genetics, was named the 2009 Faculty Research Lecturer, the highest award presented by the UC Davis Academic Senate.





• April 2009 - Artyom Kopp, associate professor of evolution and ecology, has been selected to receive a 2009 Guggenheim Fellowship Award.







• April 2009 -Siobhán Brady, assistant professor in the Department of Plant Biology and at the UC Davis Genome Center, was selected to receive the 2009 Early Career Award by the American Society of Plant Biologists (ASPB).





• March 2009 - John Roth, Distinguished Professor in the Department of Microbiology, was awarded the 2009 Thomas Hunt Morgan Medal by the Genetics Society of America.





• March 2009 - Alex Mogilner, professor of neurobiology, physiology and behavior, fuses math and physics to unlock biology’s secrets (spotlight feature.)




• March 2009 - Listen to Dr. Charan Ranganath from the UC Davis Center for Neuroscience talk about memory research on Capital Public Radio's INSIGHT program on March 11, 2009.


• February 2009 - Graham Coop, assistant professor of evolution and ecology, has been selected as a 2009 Sloan Research Fellow.






• January 2009 - Stephen Kowalczykowski, distinguished professor of microbiology, and Ron Baskin, professor emeritus of molecular and cellular biology, along with other researchers published in the January 13 issue of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences about the role played by Rad51 protein in human DNA repair.




• January 2009 - Henning Stahlberg, associate professor of molecular and cellular biology, has been chosen as a 2008 UC Davis Chancellor's Fellow.






• December 2008 - Venkatesan Sundaresan, professor of plant biology, has been elected as a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) for his distinguished contributions to the field of plant genomics and plant developmental biology.





• November 2008 - Karen Zito, assistant professor in the Neurobiology, Physiology and Behavior Department and at the UC Davis Center for Neuroscience, received a Society for Neuroscience "Next Generation" award.





• October 2008 - Luca Comai, professor of plant biology at the UC Davis Genome Center, was awarded a $2 million National Science Foundation grant to study new genetic variations in crop plants. The project will apply ultra-high throughput sequencing to TILLING (Targeting Induced Local Lesions IN Genomes), a general method for the discovery of induced mutations in genes.



• September 2008 - Tom Rost, professor emeritus of plant biology, received a 2008 Botanical Society of America Merit Award.




• August 2008 - Jodi Nunnari, chair of the molecular and cellular biology department, was appointed to the post of senior editor of the Journal of Cell Biology.






• June 2008 - Peter Marler, birdsong expert, was elected to the Royal Society. Founded in 1660 by King Charles II, the Royal Society is the British equivalent of the National Academy of Sciences. Past and current fellows include Isaac Newton, Charles Darwin and Stephen Hawking.





• July 2008 - Neelima R. Sinha, professor of plant biology, and her research group discovered that parasitic dodder vines take up RNA molecules from the host plant's vascular system (phloem) - and could be manipulated to kill the parasite. The article will be published in New Phytologist.





• June 2008 - UC Davis professors Wainwright and Doi, and lecturer Shaffrath, awarded for teaching excellence.






• March 2008 - Gabrielle Nevitt, professor of neurobiology, physiology and behavior, is co-author on the study that discovered that wandering albatrosses rely heavily on their sense of smell to find food several miles away. This study was published on the cover of the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. Discuss this article.





• February 2008 - Jonathan Eisen, professor of evolution and ecology at the UC Davis Genome Center, was named the new Academic Editor-in-Chief for PLoS Biology.






• February 2008 - Jodi Nunnari, professor of molecular and cellular biology, and collegues published research in the journal Developmental Cell about a new compound that blocks an early step in cell death that could lead to a novel class of drugs for treating heart attacks and stroke.





• December 2007 - New Waters Mass Spectrometry Facility opens within Dr. Julie Leary's laboratory, expanding infectious disease research capabilities at UC Davis.






• November 2007- Stephen C. Kowalczykowski, professor of microbiology; Maria Spies, Ichiro Amitani, and Ronald J. Baskin have published a paper in Cell magazine explaining that the DNA helicase RecBCD's translocation velocity reduces when it reaches recombination hotspots known as Chi sites because RecBCD changes which one of its two motor subunits is in the lead.





• November 2007 - A paper published in the Nov. 8 issue of Nature describes the genomes of 12 species of the Drosophila fly. Four researchers from UC Davis, evolution and ecology professors David Begun and Chuck Langley, graduate student Carolyn McBride and postdoctoral scholar Sourav Chatterji are among about 100 coauthors on the paper.
  
  Begun and Langley’s groups have also published two other related papers recently, in the open-access journals PLoS Biology and PLoS Genetics.
  
  
• November 2007 - Oliver Fiehn, associate professor of molecular and cellular biology and a member of the UC Davis Genome Center, discusses his work as the chair of the Metabolomics Standard Initiative in the November issue of Genome Technology (subscription only). The journal Metabolomics recently featured papers describing this initiative.
  
  
• October 2007 - Mark L. Wheelis , senior lecturer, microbiology received the 2006-2007 College of Biological Sciences Teaching Award. Microbiology Chair Doug Nelson and Dean Ken Burtis presented the award at the 2007 CBS Fall Welcome reception.
  
  
• October 2007 - Bradley Shaffer, professor of evolution and ecology and former UCD doctoral student Benjamin Fitzpatrick published important findings for the future of California tiger salamanders in the online edition of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. Their research contradicts prevailing scientific thought about what happens when animal species interbreed.


• October 2007 - Kim McAllister, associate professor of neurobiology, physiology and behavior, was named a 2007 UC Davis Chancellor's Fellow.


• August 2007 - Sharon Strauss, professor of evolution and ecology and former doctoral student Richard Lankau published research in the journal, Science. The research is one of the first studies to show that genetic diversity and species diversity depend on each other and are necessary to maintain diversity within a species.


• August 2007 - Stacy Harmer, assistant professor of plant biology and colleagues have published research in the journal, Public Library of Science Biology, showing that the plant growth hormone auxin is controlled by circadian rhythms within the plant. The researchers hope to understand exactly why having a functional internal clock is important for plant health.


• July 2007 - Rita Mehta, postdoctoral researcher in the lab of Evolution and Ecology Professor Peter Wainwright, reveals the creepy truth about moray eels. National Public Radio interviewed Rita about her research. See video of the eels pharyngeal jaw in action and listen to Rita Mehta's interview with NPR's Joe Palca.


• June 2007 - Jonathan Eisen, professor, UC Davis Genome Center, has coauthored a new textbook, Evolution, that unites the most recent developments in genomics and molecular biology with traditional evolutionary biology.


• June 2007 - Neil Hunter, associate professor of microbiology, and colleagues have published an article in the journal, Cell, about the gene Sgs1's role in preventing aberrant crossovers during meiotic DNA double-strand-break repair in yeast cells. Sgs1 is the budding yeast homolog of the human gene defective in patients with Bloom’s Syndrome, an inherited disease associated with chromosome instability and increased cancer risk that is most prevalent in Ashkenazi Jews. The findings from the Hunter group shed light on how lack of this protein results in chromosomal damage.


• June 2007 - Julin Maloof and Stacey Harmer, assistant professors of plant biology, and colleagues have recently published an article in Nature describing how a plant's genes coordinate internal and environmental signals to regulate its daily growth cycle.


• June 2007 - John Harada, Professor of Plant Biology, was awarded an Academic Senate 2007 Distinguished Undergraduate Teaching Award.


• June 2007 - William Lucas, distinguished professor of plant biology, has been selected as Fellow of American Society of Plant Biologists (ASPB) Award in 2007, the award's inaugural year.


• May 2007 - Barbara Horwitz, distinguished professor of neurobiology, physiology, and behavior, has been appointed Interim Provost and Executive Vice Chancellor for UC Davis.


• May 2007 - Erwin Bautista, Lecturer in Neurobiology, Physiology and Behavior, was awarded an Academic Federation 2007 Excellence in Teaching award.


• May 2007 - Charles Langley, distinguished professor of evolution and ecology, was elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in April 2007.


• May 2007 - Stephen Kowalczykowski, Distinguished Professor of Microbiology, was elected to the National Academy of Sciences in May 2007.


• February 2007 - Barbara Horwitz, distinguished professor of physiology and Vice Provost of Academic Personnel, was selected the 2007 recipient of the Bodil M. Schmidt-Nielsen Distinguished Mentor and Scientist Award.


• February 2007 - Edward (Ted) Jones, director of the UC Davis Center for Neuroscience, published digital atlases of the brains of humans, monkeys, dogs, cats, mice, birds and other animals online at brainmaps.org.


• January 2007 - Susan Williams, director of UC Davis Bodega Marine Laboratory and professor of evolution and ecology, has been elected as a fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science.


• January 2007 - John Stachowicz, professor of evolution and ecology, was named a 2006 UC Davis Chancellor’s Fellow.


• January 2007 - John Harada, professor of plant biology, was elected as fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science.


• December 2006 - Hybrid Butterflies High in the Sierra - Arthur Shapiro, Professor of Evolution and Ecology, is co-author on a paper in Science about the discovery of an animal formed by crossing two existing species.
  


• November 2006 - Study About Seafood Extinction - John Stachowicz, Professor of Marine Biology, is co-author on a paper in Science that asserts that every seafood species now fished will collapse by 2048.
  


• September 2006 - Watching DNA Repair in Real Time - Stephen Kowalczykowski, Distinguished Professor of Microbiology and of Molecular & Cellular Biology, is senior author on a paper in Nature about how direct observations of DNA are giving new insights into how genetic material is copied and repaired.


• October 2006 - Jodi Nunnari, Professor of Molecular and Cellular Biology, is co-author on a paper in Cell about how mitochondrial inner-membrane fusion and crista maintenance requires the dynamin-related GTPase Mgm1. (Nunnari Lab)


• October 2006 - Simon Chan, assistant professor of Plant Biology, was awarded the American Society of Plant Biologists 2006 Early Career Reward.


• August 2006 - Professor Kim McAllisterrecognized as an outstanding young neuroscientist by the Society of Neuroscience .


• July 2006 - Ken Burtis appointed Dean of the College of Biological Sciences.
  
  
• July 2006 - Deborah Kimbrell studies how gravity affects immune response, using flies from "Discovery" space mission as subjects.


• June 2006 - Undergraduates earn highest campus awards at 2006 Commencement. Read about it in the summer 2006 College Newsletter (pdf)!


• June 2006 – College of Biological Sciences faculty members win campus academic awards:
  
  • Professor H. Bradley Shaffer, Evolution and Ecology, is honored with the 2006 Academic Senate Distinguished Scholarly Public Service Award for his work protecting reptiles and amphibians worldwide.
  
  
  • Professor Susan L. Keen, Evolution and Ecology is the recipient of the 2006 Academic Federation Award for Excellence in Teaching.
  
  
  • Professor Charles Gasser, Molecular and Cellular Biology, received the 2006 Academic Senate Undergraduate Teaching Award.


• May 2006 - Distinguished Professor Roy Doi joins other nationally recognized faculty members in the National Academy of Sciences.
  


• May 2006 - U.S. News and World Report ranks UC Davis ecology and evolutionary biology graduate programs No. 1.


• April 2006 - Gina Holland, Academic Coordinator for the College of Biological Sciences receives Diversity and Principles of Community Award.
  
  
• February 2006 - Professor Patrice Koehl Awarded 2006 Sloan Fellowship.
  
  
• February 2006 - Genetics majors Kelechi Chikere and Geoffrey Lovely receive Special Merit Awards.
  
  
• February 2006 - Oliver Fiehn takes research right to the students, breaking the model of a linear hierarchy in biology.
  
  
• February 2006 - Intelligent Science - Backed by illustrations of the rich diversity of life on Earth, Evolution & Ecology Chairwoman, Maureen Stanton, addressed a sold-out audience at the Sacramento Zoo on February 22. Her talk covered the history of scientific and social debate surrounding Darwin's theory of evolution.
  
  
• January 2006 - Carole Hom received Meyer Award for Outstanding Achievement.
  
  
• November 2005 - Robotics "opens up a whole new world" to animal behavior research, according to professor of evolution and ecology Gail Patricelli.
  
  
• October 2005 - CLIMBing to New Heights - UC Davis Faculty Combine Biology, Math, UC Davis, faculty from across campus have come together to shape the future of biological science training.
  
  
• October 2005 - Graduate student Regina Faulkner (B.S., Neurobiology, Physiology, and Behavior, ‘03) named recipient of an Achievement Rewards for College Scientists (ARCS) Foundation prize.
  
  
• October 2005 - Science Finds New Patterns - Stacey Harmer, assistant professor of plant biology, is using new math tools to find the genes that control a fundamental pattern of the living world-the daily rhythm of activity by night and day.
  
• September 2005 - Neelima Roy Sinha, professor of plant biology, has been elected as a fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science for her work showing that the same basic set of genes control the growth and development of leaves in all land plants. In plants with complex leaves, such as tomato, carrot, fennel, cycads and ferns, KNOX genes are switched on during plant development. In plants such as maize, rice, tobacco and Arabidopsis, which have simple leaves, KNOX genes are switched off. Sinha's work gives insight into the evolution of land plants.
  
  
• September 2005 - Alumni Voices: Bio Sci alumni rate the UC Davis experience - Read full article.
  
  
• September 2005 - Professor of molecular and cellular biology, Jodi Nunnari of the Center for Genetics and Development has published groundbreaking work on mitochondrial fusion, an event related to programmed cell death. Her work appears on the September 26 cover of the Journal of Cell Biology. Nunnari was also appointed to the editorial board of the Journal of Cell Biology in August.
  
  
• September 2005 - Chancellor Recognizes Ted Powers and David Begun.

• September 2005 - Su-Ju Lin of the Center for Genetics and Development and assistant professor of microbiology, worked with researchers at Harvard Medical School to identify new genes that extend lifespan. The work was published in the September 16 issue of Science.
  
  
• September 2005 - Biological Sciences Undergraduates take honors.
  
  
• August 2005 - Kenneth C. Burtis appointed interim dean.
  
  
• August 2005 - Anemone Armies Stand-off - Clashing colonies of sea anemones fight as organized armies with distinct castes of warriors, scouts, reproductives and other types, according to a study by professor of evolution and ecology, Rick Grosberg and collaborators fromthe University of Wollongong, Australia.
  
  
• August 2005 - Maureen Stanton, professor and chair of the Section of Evolution and Ecology, received the 2005 UC Davis Prize for Undergraduate Teaching and Scholarly Achievement.
  
  
• August 2005 - Former Dean Phyllis M. Wise becomes provost at University of Washington.
  
  
• July 2005 - New research findings from the lab of Jonathan Scholey reveal how motor protein defects are the basis of Bardet-Biedl syndrome (BBS), affecting about one in 100,000 births. The research is published in the July 28 issue of Nature . Scholey is a professor of molecular and cellular biology and a member of the Center for Genetics and Development.
  
  
• July 2005 - One Step Closer: Following approval by the Regents in July, the UC Davis Academic Senate has authorized faculty to organize the College of Biological Sciences.
  
  
• March 2005 - Chancellor recognizes Sergey Nuzhdin.
  
  
• January 2005 - Sciences Lab Building opens for classes.
  
  
• Summer 2004 - Faculty and Staff E-Newsletter
  
  
• February 2004 - Faculty and Staff E-Newsletter