For donors Ron and Diane Smith, giving to UC Davis is a natural combination of two passions: their love for and pride in family, and their deep interest in lifelong learning and sharing knowledge.

The first time Steve and Tammy Conston set foot on the UC Davis campus, they felt right at home. That visit was a college tour with their youngest son Jacob (B.S.’15, M.S. ’19), and they all sensed that Davis was the right fit. “We just knew, and Jacob knew,” reminisces Tammy. “I know it sounds sappy, but there’s just something about the atmosphere at Davis. You feel like you’re home.”

College seniors don’t get assigned “what I did last summer” essays for homework, but if they did, Amrit Bains’s summer would have the whole class envious. Bains—a pre-med biological sciences major who is a member of the Phi Sigma Honor Society—traveled to Milan with a program called Doctors in Italy, which lets undergraduates shadow physicians abroad.

In their most significant gift to UC Davis, alumni donors Charles and Nancy Cooper have pledged $1 million to support undergraduate student research opportunities within the College of Biological Sciences, or CBS.

“The gift is really a ‘thank you’ to the place and the people who helped us along the way, both personally and professionally,” said Charles “Chuck” Cooper. “I came to UC Davis with dreams of being a doctor, and I left with my family and my career. I feel like I owe Davis a lot.”

The main building of the Center for Neuroscience (CNS) has a new name: “Robert D. Grey Hall” in honor of Robert D. Grey, Provost and Executive Vice Chancellor Emeritus, who served UC Davis and the University of California system for 37 years. The building dedication ceremony was held October 11, 2023.

Many students who embark on research projects during the academic year face a roadblock during summer break when they leave campus to seek employment and have to shelve their scientific pursuits. To bridge this gap, the CBS Dean's Circle Summer Undergraduate Research Program (SURP) offers an invaluable opportunity.

The program provides undergraduates with mentorship, financial support and enables them to extend their research through a 10-week summer quarter. Generous contributions to the CBS Dean's Circle Fund make this annual initiative possible.

Much has changed at UC Davis since Tracy Irwin Storer (1889-1973) arrived on campus in 1923 as the lone professor of what was then called zoology. Today, both the university and its role as a scientific center have expanded greatly, and the once-tiny zoology department has grown into nationally recognized teaching and research programs in evolution, ecology, and the wider biological sciences.

When the late Judith Simpson Schreider ’76 started giving informal advice to students interested in the health professions, she couldn’t have imagined that nearly 50 years later her generous spirit would live on, serving thousands of UC Davis students annually. Yet it does, in the form of the College of Biological Sciences’ distinctive, holistically supportive Health Professions Advising (HPA) office.

Donors to the University of California, Davis, gave robust support to the university during the last fiscal year, exceeding its annual fundraising goal by more than $27 million. Data announced August 8 show the university raised $253 million in FY22-23 in 56,071 gifts and pledges from 31,078 donors.

Mark Presky (’73, B.S. Biological Sciences; ’74 M.A. Microbiology) didn’t plan to give to the university. As an undergraduate, he fell into a unique category: his parents made enough to send him to college, but too much for him to be eligible for financial aid or scholarships. And, with two other children at UC campuses, his family was strapped. As a result, Presky found himself having to watch every penny.

“I remember one finals week,” said Presky, “when I subsisted on a bag of jellybeans and a package of beef jerky. Probably not the best diet,” he says with a laugh.