A big congratulations is in order for Professor Gail Patricelli, Department of Evolution and Ecology, who will receive a Distinguished Teaching Award from the UC Davis Academic Senate and Academic Federation.

For her long-term contributions to the plant biology field, Sinha was recently honored by the American Society of Plant Biologists (ASPB) with a Fellow of ASPB Award, which recognizes distinguished members who have contributed to the society for at least 10 years.

For Judy Callis, teaching is about helping students make connections. Those connections led to Callis, professor and vice chair of the Department of Molecular and Cellular Biology in the College of Biological Sciences, being awarded the UC Davis Prize for Undergraduate Teaching and Scholarly Achievement.

For more than a decade, Assistant Professor Richard McKenney, Department of Molecular and Cellular Biology, has dedicated his research to the microscopic world of movement and transportation within cells. Now, a two-year, $150,000 research award from the March of Dimes will support his research to better understand how molecular dysfunction influences prenatal brain development.

For her work, Sarikaya recently received the University of California’s President’s Postdoctoral Fellowship, which is meant to encourage women and minority Ph.D. recipients to pursue academic careers at the University of California.

They are prolific scholars, strong teachers, effective mentors and dedicated contributors to campus. This year, the College of Biological Sciences is pleased to announce that Associate Professor Siobhan Brady, Department of Plant Biology and the Genome Center, was named a Chancellor's Fellow.

During its annual meeting on Dec. 2, the American Society for Cell Biology named Distinguished Professor Jodi Nunnari and Distinguished Professor Emeritus Jonathan Scholey as ASBC Fellows.

Michael Sramek, a genetics and genomics junior in the College of Biological Sciences, received the 2017-2018 Excellence in STEM Award, which honors a UC Davis transfer student with high academic performance.

The UC Davis College of Biological Sciences has named Oliver Fiehn, professor of molecular and cellular biology, to the Paul K. and Ruth R. Stumpf Professorship in Plant Biochemistry. An internationally recognized scholar, Fiehn has more than 220 publications to his name. He has driven significant developments in the field of metabolomics, the study of small molecules known as metabolites. Metabolites are the end products of cellular processes and form the chemistry of all life.

When it comes to plant rhythms, Stacey Harmer, a professor of plant biology at the University of California, Davis, is hip to the groove. Her research, which appeared in the August 5, 2016 journal of Science, describes how sunflowers track the sun, beginning each morning with their heads facing east, slowly swinging west throughout the day and then resetting eastward at night.