2012

The JMIE community congratulates Drs. Jean VanderGheynst and Qing-Zhu Yin, two of this years awardees of the UC Lab Fees Research Program. These awards, which provide up to three years of funding, engage UC faculty and graduate student researchers with laboratory scientists, facilities and resources, and promote the development of projects and collaborations which advance the missions of both the national laboratories and UC. Information about the program is available at http://www.ucop.edu/labresrfp/ . The program received 490 applications, representing over $520 million in funding requests, and proposing outstanding collaborations and research projects in all fields across the UC system and the national labs. Proposals were reviewed and ranked by panels of experts from around the nation. Funds are available to award only the top 10% of proposals. A list of the new awardees is available at the following link: http://www.ucop.edu/labresrfp/awards.html .

Congratulations to Peter Moyle, PhD, Associate Director of the Center for Watershed Sciences. He has been selected for an Award of Distinction by the UC Davis College of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences. The Award of Distinction is the highest recognition presented by the college to individuals whose contributions and achievements enrich the image and reputation of the college and enhance its ability to provide public service. CA&ES will bestow the Awards of Distinction at its 24th annual College Celebration in October. The event is held each year at harvest time to celebrate the advancement and accomplishments of the college and its impact on agriculture and the environment.

Rosenstiel Award 2012 Winner--James Sanchirico: The 2012 Rosenstiel Award Selection Committee announced the awarding of the 38th Rosenstiel Award to Dr. James Sanchirico for his research into the economics and ecology of spatial-dynamic processes in renewable resources management and MPA design. The Rosenstiel Award was created by the Rosenstiel Foundation to recognize persons who make outstanding contributions either towards the development of ocean science in general, or through personal research and publications towards advancement of the understanding of the oceans, including their boundaries and interfaces, and the underlying phenomena. Dr. Sahchirico is a Professor of Environmental Science and Policy at the University of California, Davis and Nonresident Fellow for Resources for the Future, Washington DC.

The phrase “dull as dirt” does not apply to professor Randy Dahlgren’s soil science classes. Time and again on his student evaluations, the words “enthusiasm,” “passion” and “energy” pop up. His distinctive teaching abilities were recognized April 5, 2012 when UC Davis Chancellor Linda P.B. Katehi interrupted his “Crisis in the Environment?” class with a cake to announce that he is the recipient of the 2012 UC Davis Prize for Undergraduate Teaching and Scholarly Achievement. The prize was created to honor faculty who are both exceptional teachers and scholars. The $40,000 prize is believed to be the largest of its kind in the country and is funded through philanthropic gifts managed by the UC Davis Foundation. The winner is selected based on the nominations of other professors, research peers, representatives from the UC Davis Foundation Board of Trustees, and students. Dahlgren is chair of the UC Davis Department of Land, Air and Water Resources and director of the Kearney Foundation of Soil Science.

CABA is pleased to announce Rob Lusardi among the winners of its 2012 scholarships. Rob Lusardi was awarded one of two scholarships from the Marin Rod and Gun Club, through theUC Davis Center for Aquatic Biology and Aquaculture. Mr. Lusardi is a doctoral student under Drs. Peter Moyle and Jeffrey Mount and works at the UC Davis Center for Watershed Sciences. His proposal title is "Spatial Proximity to Source Springs: Effects of Habitat and Resources on Steelhead Growth".

2011

Jeff Loux, co-director of the UC Davis Extension Land Use and Natural Resources Program will accept the Distinguished Leadership Award from the 2011 American Planning Association, California Chapter. The program was honored for sustained and significant contributions to the planning profession and for the important role it plays in the overall economic and social health of the region. The extension program has been directed for many years by Jeff Loux, an adjunct professor of landscape architecture, and is now co-directed by Julia Johnston. Loux and other leaders who have helped shape the program will accept the award at the annual meeting of the California American Planning Association to be held in Santa Barbara in September.

Professor Graham Fogg of the Department of Land, Air and Water Resources, as well as the Department of Geology and the Hydrologic Sciences Graduate Group, has been named winner of the O.E. Meinzer Award by the Geological Society of America (GSA), Hydrogeology Division. The award is presented annually to the author(s) of the research publication that has most significantly affected the course of the science of hydrogeology. Fogg will be honored in October at the annual GSA meeting in Minneapolis. Fogg is a groundwater expert whose research interests include groundwater contamination from agricultural, urban, and industrial pollutants, mathematical modeling of groundwater phenomena, the effect of groundwater on stream flows, and new paradigms for subsurface storage of water under future climate change scenarios.

Professor David Neale's Conifer Translational Genomics Network Coordinated Agricultural Project was one of two sustainable agricultural projects led by UC Davis plant scientists have received 2011 U.S. Department of Agriculture Secretary's Honor Awards, the most prestigious awards given by the USDA secretary. The award is designed to recognize exceptional leadership in science, public policy and management, which are vital to guiding the nation's rapidly evolving food and agricultural system. The conifer project is an integrated research, education and extension project aimed at maintaining or restoring healthy forests and ecosystems in the U.S. through genomic-assisted plant breeding. It is a multistate, multi-institution project, funded by the USDA National Institute for Food and Agriculture and the USDA Forest Service. The project involves virtually all conifer genomics scientists and tree breeders in the U.S.

For a paper published in 1997, James Wilen recently received the Publication of Enduring Quality award from the Association of Environmental and Resource Economists. Wilen joined UC Davis in 1979; he is a professor in the Department of Agricultural and Resource Economics, and director of the Center for Natural Resource Policy Analysis. He shared the award with Frances Homans of the University of Minnesota, for “A Model of Regulated Open Access Resource Use,” published in the Journal of Environmental Economics and Management. The paper showed how the dynamics of resource exploitation are driven by the interplay among biological mechanisms, economic incentives and regulatory behavior. The association presents the Publication of Enduring Quality award annually for a work of seminal value and lasting impact on the profession. “A Model of Regulated Open Access Resource Use” provided “surprising conclusions that change the prevailing view, together with an elegant explanation for the mechanisms at work that lead to new views about important policy issues,” according to the association.

Professor Jonathan London of the Department of Human and Community Development received the 2011 Award of Merit for the Natural Resources Research Group (NRRG) of the Rural Sociological Society. Each year, the NRRG Award of Merit is presented to recognize exceptional contributions to the sociology of natural resources. The award may be given in recognition of a collective body of work, or in recognition of a particularly significant single piece of work. Recipients are honored for outstanding research and scholarship, outstanding applied sociological work, such as work with a natural resources agency, and other contributions to the NRRG or sociology of natural resources. This year, the NRRG commended London for being both a traditional scholar and an active contributor to social justice.

Jay Lund, Professor of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Director of the UC Davis Center for Watershed Sciences, and the current Ray B. Krone Chair of Environmental Engineering, received the 2011 Julian Hinds Award. The American Society of Civil Engineers has presented this most prestigious award in the field of water resources planning, development and management since 1975.

2010

Stockholm University has awarded Professor Alison Berry an honorary Doctorate for her exemplary research in plant biology, work that is helping integrate human and natural ecosystems worldwide. Berry is an expert in the field of nitrogen-fixing actinorhizal plant microbe interactions and has recently expanded her research to bioenergetics and conflicts in the interface between man and environment. Professor Berry has a long-standing collaboration with the Stockholm University Department of Botany, where she was a visiting professor in 2008-09. The conferment took place in a ceremony at Stockholm City Hall on September 24, 2010.

Peter Belafsky, Kent Pinkerton and Suzette Smiley-Jewell, faculty members from the Center for Health and the Environment, were part of a team selected for the 2010 UC Davis School of Medicine's Dean's Team Award for Excellence for outstanding multi-disciplinary team contributions. The award includes a prize of $5000 and a recognition ceremony in March.

Dr. Marc B. Schenker, MD, MPH, Professor in the Department of Public Health Sciences, and Director of the UC Davis Center for Occupational and Environmental Health, received the Jean Spencer Felton Award for Excellence in Scientific Writing at the annual conference of the Western Occupational Medical Association on October 1, 2010 in Newport Beach, CA. The award is given annually by the Western Occupational Medical Association to the author of a book, journal article or other written work important to the field of occupational health.

UC Davis Professor Peter Moyle’s dedication to fish conservation over the past 40 years was rewarded when he received the 2010 Brown-Nichols Science Award to recognize his significant scientific contributions to the San Francisco Estuary and watershed. In particular, Moyle was recognized as being California’s most broadly knowledgeable fish expert and for his long engagement in management and public policies regarding fisheries and the preservation of native fishes.

Daniel Sperling, Ph.D., founding director of the Institute of Transportation Studies at UC Davis (ITS-Davis), is one of ten national environmental innovators to receive a prestigious Heinz Award. The Heinz Award honors Sperling's significant contributions to revolutionary transportation and energy research through a unique academic approach that merges research, policy studies, and entrepreneurship in pursuit of clean, equitable transportation options. "Dr. Sperling is a research and policy leader in reducing the carbon footprint of our vehicles and fuels," said Heinz, chairman of the Heinz Family Foundation. "His vision to meet today's transportation needs matched with the environmental concerns of the future will have a profound effect on policy for years to come."

James N. Sanchirico and James E. Wilen, of the University of California, Davis and Martin D. Smith, now at Duke University, have been awarded the 2010 Quality of Research Discovery Award from the Applied Agricultural Economics Association. The award was granted in recognition of the significant contribution to the field of knowledge in agricultural and applied economics in the publication "The Economics of Spatial-dynamic Processes: Application to Renewable Resources," Journal of Environmental Economics and Management (January 2009).

Cheryl Smith, Assistant Director of JMIE from 2000 to 2010, received a 2010 Citation for Excellence Award in the area of Supervision for her outstanding work at the University of California, Davis.

JMIE alumni, Benjamin Young Landis, was awarded a national Walter B. Jones Sr. Award from National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) in a ceremony in June of 2010. The Walter B. Jones Sr. Award hallmarks innovation, resourcefulness, leadership and a commitment to balancing the human use of America's coastal and ocean resources with the needs of the resources themselves. Landis earned his Bachelor of Arts in evolution and ecology, with minor in education, from UC Davis and worked in the John Muir Institute of the Environmnet's Aquatic Ecosystems Analysis Laboratory, under the direction of Michael Johnson. Landis received his master's from Duke, with a focus on policy and science communications. He currently is the North Carolina Sea Grant science communications fellow. As a mass media fellow for the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS), he worked for the Orange County Register in California last year.

Mark Schwartz, director of the John Muir Institute of the Environment and professor in the Department of Environmental Science & Policy, has been awarded a 2010 Distinguished Teaching Award by the Academic Senate. This award is one of the most prestigious granted on the UC Davis campus and recognizes consistent outstanding teaching and commitment to student success.

Sam Luoma, research professor at the John Muir Institute of the Environment, has received the American Society of Limnology and Oceanography’s Ruth Patrick Award for outstanding research by a scientist in the application of basic aquatic science principles to important environmental problems - 2010. The citation from the committee reads “ To Sam Luoma, for his passionate dedication to the solution of environmental problems in San Francisco Bay and his distinguished record of innovative research, leadership, and inspirational mentoring in trace metal ecotoxicology and water resource management”.

Professor Susan Ustin has been awarded an honorary doctorate from the University of Zurich, the largest university in Switzerland, in recognition of her career research achievements. Ustin is a professor of environmental and resource sciences in the Department of Land, Air and Water Resources.

Louise Kellogg, professor of geology, has been named a Fellow of the American Geophysical Union. Nominated fellows must have “attained acknowledged eminence in the Earth and space sciences.” New fellows are chosen by a committee of other fellows, and the honor is conferred on not more than one-tenth of 1 percent of the society’s membership in any year.

Mark Francis, Professor of Landscape Architecture in the Department of Environmental Design, has been elected to the Academy of Fellows of the Council of Educators in Landscape Architecture (CELA). He was selected in recognition of his teaching, research and creative work on spatial democracy “sustained over an extended period of time that is truly inspiring and significant”. This award will be presented at the annual CELA Conference in Maastricht, The Netherlands on May 14, 2010. He is also an elected Fellow of the American Society of Landscape Architects and the Institute for Urban Design in New York City. For additional information contact Shannon Tanguay (satanguay@ucdavis.edu; 530 752-1127) or Mark Francis (mofrancis@ucdavis.edu; 530 7526031)

Jill Falman, administrative assistant and docent volunteer coordinator for the UC Davis Tahoe Environmental Research Center in Incline Village, NV, and Jim Markle, a volunteer docent at the center’s Thomas J. Long Foundation Education Center, received Community Service Awards from the North Lake Tahoe Chamber of Commerce.

Professor Will Horwath, vice chair of the Department of Land, Air and Water Resources, was named a 2009 fellow of the Soil Science Society of America. A soil biogeochemist, Horwath is internationally known for his work in soil organic matter and sustainable agriculture. The 6,000-member Soil Science Society of America selects up to 14 members each year as fellows, recognizing outstanding contributions in research, teaching, extension, and administration. Horwath and other fellows were recognized at the SSSA annual meeting in Pittsburgh.

Professor Peter Moyle, an expert on native freshwater and anadromous fishes (such as salmon) of California, was recently enshrined in the Fresh Water Fishing Hall of Fame and recognized for his contributions, dedication and service to the freshwater sportfishing industry. Moyle is in the UC Davis Department of Wildlife, Fish and Conservation Biology.

William Casey, a professor of chemistry, has received the inaugural Stumm Medal/Science Innovation Award for 2010, awarded by the European Association for Geochemistry. It recognizes mid-career scientists who have made oustanding and innovative contributions to geochemistry.

2009

Stephen Wheeler has been awarded the 2009 William R. and June Dale Prize for Excellence in Urban and Regional Planning. This national award is given annually by Cal Poly Pomona to one planning scholar and one practitioner, who receive awards of $5,000 each and participate in two days of symposia, class presentations, and dialogue with students. The practitioner this year is Gail Goldberg, Planning Director for the City of Los Angeles and former Planning Director for the City of San Diego. Events held at Cal Poly February 4 and 5 focused on the theme "The Future of California's Communities and Regions in an Era of Resource Constraints and Climate Change."

Bryan Jenkins, biological and agricultural engineering, was awarded the 2009 Linneborn Prize for "outstanding contributions to the development of energy from biomass" on 29 June, in Hamburg, Germany.

2008

Sam Luoma, Ph.D., outreach and policy coordinator at the John Muir Institute of the Environment, was named as the first recipient of the Brown-Nichols Science Award, in recognition of his outstanding contributions to science in the San Francisco estuary and watershed. The Brown-Nichols Science Award was established to honor the substantive contributions of Randall Brown and Frederic Nichols to science, their facilitation of good science by others, and their communication of science to managers and policymakers.

Valerie Eviner, a rangeland ecologist in the Department of Plant Sciences was selected, along with 66 other researchers from throughout the United States, to receive the Presidential Early Career Awards for Scientists and Engineers, the nation's highest honor for professionals in the early stage of their independent scientific research careers.

Professor James Sanchirico, Department of Environmental Science and Policy, testified before a U.S. Senate committee about the use of economic incentives to restore fishery health through cooperatives and individual fishing quota systems. Sanchirico was invited to speak in July before a subcommittee of the U.S. Senate Committee on Commerce, Science and Transportation on the topic of restoring the economic and ecological health of depleted fisheries.

Julie Sze, associate professor of American studies, has been awarded the John Hope Franklin Award for her book "Noxious New York: The Racial Politics of Urban Health and Environmental Justice" (MIT Press, 2007). The award, marking the year's best published book in American Studies, is given every year by the American Studies Association, the country's leading professional association of scholars in the field and is accompanied by a prize of $750.

Randy Dahlgren, professor, Land, Air and Water Resources was the recipient of a Distinguished Teaching Award from the UC Davis Academic Senate. Dahlgren, his citation reads, "takes the most pedestrian of topics, the soil under our feet, and elevates it to one of the most scintillating courses on campus." A senior colleague who also is known as an outstanding teacher said he has seen no one with Dahlgren's mix of enthusiasm, energy and mastery of speaking. Dahlgren developed the environmental track in the Science and Society Program and a course to help teach nonscience majors how science is used to understand and solve environmental issues. Furthermore, he instituted the first undergraduate internship program at the Kearney Foundation of Soil Science.

The UC Davis Academic Federation gave its Excellence in Research Award to Christoph Vogel, assistant professional researcher, Environmental Toxicology, and the Center for Health and the Environment — Vogel is "an exceptional scientist who has made outstanding contributions to critical issues in molecular toxicology and environmental health," said adjunct professor Norman Kado in nominating Vogel for the award. In particular, Vogel has improved understanding of the impacts of environmental pollutants on the development of cardiovascular diseases and lymphoma. His research on the health effects of airborne particulate matter has provided a foundation for understanding the molecular mechanisms involved and for advancing the ability to evaluate air pollutants as health risk factors.

The School of Veterinary Medicine gave its highest honor to six distinguished alumni at the 2008 commencement, including Bill Lee Lasley (Ph.D. 1972), professor emeritus and associate director of the Center for Health and the Environment, University of California, Davis. Lasley is recognized for his contributions to research and education in the field of comparative endocrinology.

JMIE Writer Suanne Klahorst was awarded a 2008 Citation for Excellence in the category of Individual Campus Service for her outstanding work on UC Davis Focus the Nation 2008.

2007

Peter J. Richerson, a professor in the Department of Environmental Science and Policy, was elected as a fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science "for distinguished contributions to the newly emerging field of evolutionary social science, particularly for the development and application of cultural evolutionary theory." Richerson's pioneering work, almost all in collaboration with Professor Robert Boyd at UCLA, applies concepts and methods of evolutionary biology to the phenomena of cultural change in humans. Recently, he and UC Davis colleagues Richard McElreath, associate professor of anthropology, and Mark Lubell, associate professor of environmental science and policy, have developed laboratory investigations of culture transmission and cultural evolution.

Peter Moyle, the foremost expert on native freshwater fishes of California, recently received the Award of Excellence from the American Fisheries Society and the Outstanding Achievement Award from the American Institute of Fishery Research Biologists. Both are the top national awards of each organization given to just one person each year.

Mark Francis, professor of landscape architecture and environmental design, has been elected chair of the jury for the International Design Competition for Sejong, a new administrative city planned for a rural area in South Korea. Planners expect to move the Korean prime minister's office and much of the national government to the city by 2012. The city will include a series of urban villages clustered around a large park, twice the size of New York City's Central Park.

Kent Pinkerton, Department of Anatomy, Physiology and Cell Biology, School of Veterinary Medicine, was the recipient of a 2007 UC Davis Academic Senate Distinguished Graduate Teaching Award. Dr. Pinkerton strives to present his lectures in as clear a manner as possible, wrote Professor Robert Hansen, the acting department chair, who added that Pinkerton's more important contribution to student learning takes place in the many laboratory sessions that he leads. "It is in the laboratory where one-on-one learning can take place, and he is marvelous in that role," Hansen wrote. He noted Pinkerton's creation of a virtual heart teaching tool, and he recalled this quote that he said he has heard Pinkerton use: "Thoracic structures will never change, but the ways this material can be presented to the student are endless."

Agronomist Chris van Kessel is one of six UC Davis faculty members elected as fellows of the American Association for the Advancement of Science. Dr. van Kessel is professor and chair of the Department of Plant Sciences. His lab conducts research focused on the basic concepts and principles behind agricultural ecosystems, in order to understand how food can be produced more efficiently and sustainably.

2006

UC Davis entomologist William Reisen, a mosquito specialist at the Center for Vectorborne Diseases, is this year's recipient of the John N. Belkin Award, international recognition for contributions to mosquito biology. The Belkin Award, given by the American Mosquito Control Association, is for meritorious contributions to mosquito systematics -- the processes involved in describing a species -- and/or biology. Reisen works in the Arbovirus Research Program, and serves as an adjunct professor with the Department of Pathology, Microbiology and Immunology at the UC Davis School of Veterinary Medicine. His focus now is the Culex mosquito and its ability to transmit arboviruses, including West Nile.

Mark Francis, professor of landscape architecture and environmental design at UC Davis, has been elected a fellow of the Institute for Urban Design in New York City. The fellowship recognizes his contributions to urban design and regional planning.

Kent Pinkerton has received the School of Veterinary Medicine Faculty Teaching Award. While a professor-in-residence in the Department of Anatomy, Physiology and Cell Biology, Pinkerton taught veterinary anatomy, toxicology and development courses, especially as those subjects relate to the lungs and their function. He directs the Center for Health and the Environment, a research group that studies environmental health and toxicology issues across the disciplines of medicine, engineering, agriculture and the sciences.

Walter Boyce, co-director of the Wildlife Health Center and professor in the Department of Pathology, Microbiology and Immunology, received the Carl Norden-Pfizer Distinguished Teacher Award in appreciation of his ongoing, distinguished teaching performance. Boyce's ability, dedication, character and leadership have led to significant contributions to instruction and graduate clinical programs.

Diana Cummings, financial manager at JMIE's Center for Watershed Sciences, received a 2006 TGFS (Thank Goodness for Staff) Citation for Excellence for her excellent work at the John Muir Institute of the Environment.

Louise Kellogg, Department of Geology, received the Academic Senate Award of the Chancellor's Achievement Awards for Diversity and Community. Chancellor Vanderhoef recently recognized several employees and community members for their exemplary achievements in support of our diverse campus community.

Dan Chang, Ray B. Krone Professor of Environmental Engineering in the UC Davis Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, received the Lyman A. Ripperton Environmental Educator Award from the Air and Waste Management Association. The award is presented for distinguished achievement as an educator in some field of air pollution control. It is awarded to an individual, who by precept and example, has inspired students to achieve excellence.

William Casey, professor of chemistry at UC Davis, was elected a geochemistry fellow by the Geochemical Society and the European Association for Geochemistry. The title is "bestowed upon outstanding scientists who have, over the years, made a major contribution to the field of geochemistry."

Charles Goldman, professor in the Department of Environmental Science and Policy, was awarded a Green Scholarship for two years by the UC Scripps Institution of Oceanography. The Green Scholar program, named for Cecil and Ida Green, started in 1972 and pays the expenses of visiting scholars to the Institute of Geophysics and Planetary Physics within the Scripps Institution in La Jolla, Calif.

2005

Economist Stephen Vosti and his collaborators received the Science Award for Outstanding Partnership 2005, given by the Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research (CGIAR), for efforts to save tropical rain forests and reduce poverty by addressing the economic and social needs of rain forest farmers.

Deb Niemeier, a professor of civil and environmental engineering at UC Davis, was named a 2005 Leopold Leadership Fellow. Based at the Stanford Institute for the Environment, the Aldo Leopold Leadership Program provides 20 scientists annually with intensive communications and leadership training to enhance their ability to communicate complex scientific information to non-scientific audiences, especially policy makers, the media, business leaders and the public.

Jeff Mount was was named as one of four recipients of the 2005 UC Davis Academic Senate's Distinguished Public Service Award. The annual awards recognize significant contributions to the world, nation, state and community. Mount, a geology professor, is founding director of the UC Davis Watershed Sciences Center. Among his advisory work, he was a member of a National Research Council committee to evaluate endangered species issues in the politically explosive Klamath River Basin. He is a member of the first Independent Science Board for the California Bay-Delta Authority, which helps the authority spend billions of public dollars in accordance with scientific knowledge, and of the National Environmental Advisory Board, which advises and oversees the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers.