The College of Biological Sciences celebrated its annual Fall Welcome event last Friday, commemorating the start of a new academic year. Faculty, staff, students, friends and family gathered in the Life Sciences Courtyard for food, beverages and celebration.

Professor Mariel Vazquez has been appointed as the new faculty director of the Center for the Advancement of Multicultural Perspectives on Science, or CAMPOS, succeeding the founding faculty director, Mary Lou de Leon Siantz, professor emeritus at the Betty Irene More School of Nursing.

The BioLaunch Mentor Collective helps make the transition to the UC Davis campus easier for freshmen and transfer students. New students are paired with a returning UC Davis student, who can offer them advice and support across many areas of campus life.

This fall, the College of Biological Sciences will launch the Advancing Diversity in Neuroscience Research (ADNR) Program to help grow diversity in biomedical, behavioral and clinical neuroscience research professions.

Chancellor Gary S. May issued the following statement on Kendra Chan, a UC Davis alumna, and her father Raymond “Scott” Chan, of Los Altos, who were among the victims of the tragic Conception dive boat fire off the coast of Southern California.

Professor Paul Knoepfler, UC Davis Genome Center, studies the epigenetic and transcriptional control mechanisms that direct stem cell fate and tissue growth. He's also a writer, recently co-authoring the book How to Build a Dragon or Die Trying: A Satirical Look at Cutting-Edge Science with his daughter Julie Knoepfler. Helen Pilcher recently reviewed the book in Nature.

Plant Biology Graduate Group student Leonardo Jo thought his anxiety was normal, an expected part of the graduate school experience. His peers grappled with similar issues: imposter syndrome, researcher pressures and financial insecurity, to name a few. And they all seemed to suffer in silence at the cost of their own mental health.

Two student groups at UC Davis have each won competitive $5000 awards through the VentureWell Foundation’s Stage 1 E-Team program. These awards help early-stage innovators create ventures and provide training that helps students explore ways to bring their solutions to market.

After six years serving as the Executive Associate Dean of Academic Affairs for the College of Biological Sciences, Professor John Harada stepped down from the post at the end of June. He'll continue his research on seeds and the gene networks governing their development.

An assistant professor of teaching in the Department of Molecular and Cellular Biology, Marina Crowder teaches hundreds of UC Davis students each quarter. From BIS 101 "Gene and Gene Expression" to MCB23 "History of Cancer," Crowder doesn't just want her students to learn the material from class; she wants them to engage with it.