Honors & Awards
2008
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.
Cheryl Smith, assistant director of the UC Davis John Muir Institute of the Environment, was honored with a 2005 TGFS (Thank Goodness for Staff) Citation for Excellence for her efforts to make UC Davis a better place. Smith received the award in the category of General Contributions/Supervision.