Faculty, staff and students gathered at the UC Davis Bodega Marine Laboratory today not for their weekly seminar, but to remember their colleague Susan Williams who died in a car crash Tuesday (April 24) while en route to the Davis campus to teach.

Before delving into the world of endocrinology, Assistant Professor Rebecca Calisi Rodríguez, wasn’t following the path of a traditional scientist. She’d studied studio art and psychology at both Skidmore College and Boston College and thought she wanted to pursue the artist’s life.

In a Q&A style article appearing in The Conversation, UC Davis researchers, including Professor Susan Williams, Department of Evolution and Ecology, talk about science and public engagement.

In an article appearing in Scientific American, Assistant Professor Rebecca M. Calisi Rodríguez, Department of Neurobiology, Physiology and Behavior, gives a firsthand account of the difficulties facing working mothers in the science community.

Grace Ha is a Ph.D. candidate in marine ecology at UC Davis, where her thesis focuses on the analysis of camouflage in marine ecosystems. She is participating in the Leaders for the Future program, a five-month cross-campus collaboration between the Office of Research, the Internship and Career Center, GradPathways (Graduate Studies) and our institute. She recently participated in the Food, Ag + Health Entrepreneurship Academy as our 2018 Harkins Fellow.

Briana Rocha-Gregg, a biochemistry, molecular, cellular and developmental biology Ph.D. student, was recently featured in Stockton's The Record promoting the Young Scientist Program, which is dedicated to enhancing K-12 science education.

A group of female academics is calling on scientific conferences to do more to accommodate nursing mothers and parents to help normalize parenthood in academia — removing a significant barrier to women beginning their careers in science.