Nine faculty from UC Davis are among 564 newly elected fellows of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, announced today (Jan. 26). AAAS fellows are scientists, engineers and innovators who have been recognized for their achievements across disciplines ranging from research, teaching and technology, to administration in academia, industry and government, to excellence in communicating and interpreting science to the public.

Here are the new fellows from CBS, listed with their AAAS commendations:

There are myriad ways to view the world. Some people view it through the lens of art, others through the lens of anthropology or psychology. But Connie Rojas views the world through the lens of biology.

“Everything around you—the tree outside, how tall it is, the bark—everything makes sense  when viewed through the lens of biology,” said Rojas, who was selected to join UC Davis this year as a 2021-2022 Chancellor’s Postdoctoral Fellow. “That type of thinking was very intuitive for me growing up.” 

Five students from the College of Biological Sciences have been selected for a prestigious global fellowship program that focuses on social impact projects, an achievement that was first announced by UC Davis Global Affairs earlier this fall.

The Millennium Fellowship is a highly selective semester-long global leadership development program run by United Nations Academic Impact and the Millennium Campus Network. Fellows convene to learn from and challenge each other, both at their home campuses and with peers at other institutions.

Aldrin Gomes, a professor in the Department of Neurobiology, Physiology and Behavior, is interested in how commonly used drugs like ibuprofen affect the heart. His lab has helped advance our understanding of how commonly used drugs damage our cells, and has recently been recognized for an exceptional commitment to safety.

University of California, Davis, evolutionary biologist Rachael Bay has been awarded a 2021 Packard Fellowship in Science and Engineering by the David and Lucile Packard Foundation. The fellowship offers Bay, assistant professor in the Department of Evolution and Ecology, College of Biological Sciences, an opportunity to advance her work on the role of human action on evolutionary trajectories of species.

Gerald Quon, an assistant professor in the Department of Molecular and Cellular Biology and the Genome Center, has received a New Innovator Award from the National Institutes of Health (NIH). The award will support the development of a computational framework for characterizing how genetic variants associated with the risk of psychiatric diseases like schizophrenia and bipolar disorder work at the at the cellular level.

Four UC Davis postbaccalaureate researchers returned to campus this fall as both graduate students and fellows of the prestigious National Science Foundation (NSF) Graduate Research Fellowship Program (GRFP). The NSF GRFP supports outstanding scholars in STEM fields, providing a three-year annual stipend of $34,000 along with a $12,000 cost of education allowance for tuition and fees.

Four members of the UC Davis College of Biological Sciences are recipients of 2021 Chancellor’s Awards for Excellence in Undergraduate Research. Two undergraduate students, a faculty member and a postdoctoral researcher were among those honored by UC Davis Chancellor Gary S. May at the virtual awards ceremony.

Rishi Sharma’s passion for community service can be traced back to his parents. While growing up in Dubai, Sharma watched his parents, who are both doctors, hone their expertise in the medical field. According to Sharma, as his parents advanced in their careers, they never forgot about the people around them.

“As they moved up the ladder, they used more of their experience to invest in the community,” said Sharma, a biochemistry and molecular biology major in the UC Davis College of Biological Sciences. 

Aldrin Gomes, a professor in the Departments of Neurobiology, Physiology and Behavior, and Physiology and Membrane Biology, can still recall the reality he faced when he came to the United States to conduct postdoctoral research. Growing up in Trinidad and Tobago, Gomes was accustomed to the cultural diversity of the island. But shortly after stepping on American soil, he started experiencing things he didn’t understand.