This year’s graduate student awards emphasize the importance - and success - of mentoring younger scientists, and demonstrate the UC Davis commitment to collaboration, support and partnership that define interdisciplinary science. Graduate student awards support travel, research and professional development opportunities, and are made possible by generous philanthropic contributions to the college.

The Dean’s Mentorship Award recognizes graduate students who have demonstrated excellence in the mentorship of undergraduate students.

Six top graduating seniors were honored for their achievements at a luncheon on Monday, June 6, 2022, in the Green Hall courtyard. College leadership, faculty, friends and family attended the celebration of the students’ individual and collective accomplishments. Each received awards that recognized their research, community service and academic achievements.

We often say that our students have weathered not just an unconventional two years but an unconventional college career. And it’s true. The class of 2022 has persevered through a truly unconventional and challenging time, and they’ve come out the other side having completed a remarkable feat.

There are many reasons to take pride in being an Aggie, and perhaps the most significant is when we get to see students who have spent the last four years in the lab, the classroom and the field take their well-deserved bow and cross the graduation stage.

With the close of the academic year just around the corner, many in the college are being recognized for the previous year’s accomplishments by campus units. With awards for undergraduate students, as well as postdocs and faculty, CBS was well-represented across campus award and honor ceremonies. The full list of recipients can be found on the respective award websites.

A new study shows how the brains of Egyptian fruit bats are highly specialized for echolocation and flight, with motor areas of the cerebral cortex that are dedicated to sonar production and wing control. The work by researchers at the University of California, Davis, and UC Berkeley was published May 25 in Current Biology.

For the past two years, Population Biology Ph.D. Candidate Victoria Watson-Zink hasn’t solely spent her time at the UC Davis College of Biological Sciences studying the intricacies of land crab genetics. When she wasn’t in the lab, conducting fieldwork or teaching classes, Watson-Zink, a first-generation college student, dedicated her time to making the college a more welcoming and equitable place for its underrepresented students.

A new film is in the works with more than one UC Davis connection.

Weeping Rocks, a feature-length documentary that focuses on the role of insects in our ecosystem, spotlights the work of Professor Art Shapiro in the College of Biological Sciences and is produced by Jackii Chun ’10. The film is in production now and raising funds on Kickstarter.

Plants aren't passive. Though we step on grass, brush against branches and pick petals, plants aren't just immobile organisms. And no one knows this better than Tim Metcalf, the director emeritus of the UC Davis Botanical Conservatory.

"They have their own personality," said Metcalf, who was initially hired as a laboratory assistant at the conservatory back in 1971. "Plants do crazy things and they surprise you." 

Sharon Strauss, a Distinguished Professor emerita in the Department of Evolution and Ecology, was among the three UC Davis faculty who have been elected as members of the National Academy of Sciences. They are among 120 new members and 30 international members announced by the academy on Tuesday, May 3.

Less than a week ago I was in the University Credit Union Center for the Dean’s Circle Undergraduate Research Conference. In the image above, you can see what a success the event was. Over 200 CBS undergraduates attended the conference and shared their research posters with peers, visitors and CBS faculty. And each student received a certificate in recognition of their hard work. My congratulations to all of them.