In the College of Biological Sciences, principles of diversity, equity and inclusion are guiding principles. As such, an array of special DEI-related programs led by graduate students, each of whom was awarded a Graduate DEIJ Leader Fellowship for the 2022-23 academic year, will culminate in an open house event highlighting their achievements from 1:00-3:00pm on June 8, in Walker Hall. 

Life sciences industry expert Deborah Neff ’76 is giving $8 million to the UC Davis College of Biological Sciences for two endowments, one for the deanship and the other for the Center for Neuroscience for research into Alzheimer’s disease and other dementias. The gift is the largest by an individual in the college’s history.

This week saw rain here in Davis. After a week of 90-degree heat, we’d gotten used to summer feeling closer. Seasons seem to last only a few days at a time now. It’s more like winter again, and though campus is on alert because of recent events in our community, I am glad to say that our spring quarter has seen many notable achievements.

Growing up, Majken Horton (pronounced MY-ken; B.S. ’22) always wanted to know how things worked. She’d study the property she lived on with her parents in Loomis, Calif., and spend summers exploring Alaska with them. Her parents, both UC Davis alumni and salmon biologists, encouraged her to investigate the tiny ecosystems she found and look them up in books to learn their ways.

The final round of the UC Davis Grad Slam had a flurry of PowerPoint slides, a giant deck of cards and a stuffed monkey, but in the end the top prize went to someone talking about genetic “ghosts.”

We are in the final quarter of this academic year, which started at the beginning of this month. I know we’ve all said it ourselves in our own ways, but it really does amaze me how quickly the time passes. It feels like just a few weeks ago we were welcoming a new year and beginning the winter quarter. Now here we are, and it’s spring already.

“Do relatives make good neighbors?” UC Davis Distinguished Professor Emerita Sharon Strauss will answer this question and provide additional thoughts on species diversity in natural communities at the spring Emeriti Lecture in person and online on Monday, April 17, at 3pm.

Three graduate students in the College of Biological Sciences are among this year’s finalists for the UC Davis Grad Slam competition.

Though animals respond well to music, humans are usually the ones to choose it. To change this, a senior design team in the College of Engineering developed a device that lets horses choose which music they want to listen to.

This past month has been a great one for our faculty. With recognition from the National Academy of Inventors, the Alfred P.

When UC Davis student Madison “Madi” Burns joined the Davis Rewilding Society during her freshman year, it helped bring her future into focus. The second-year landscape architecture major said she has developed a much better understanding of the importance of native plants from her involvement with the student-run organization.

“Being part of the club has really expanded my knowledge and has made an impact on what I want to do with my life and my career,” Burns said. “I want to design spaces to incorporate native species.”

Early this year, graduate students in the Scientific Filmmaking course (ECL 290/PBG 298) shared their short films at the Ecology Film Festival, which was held at both the Bodega Bay Grange Hall and at the Veterans Memorial Theatre in Davis.

Wilsaan Joiner, a professor in the Department of Neurobiology, Physiology and Behavior, was among this year’s cohort of Chancellor’s Fellows.

“Our newest fellows represent the very best of UC Davis and I congratulate them,” Chancellor Gary S. May said in announcing the new fellows. “The knowledge, expertise and excellence these faculty demonstrate across a range of disciplines positively impacts our university’s mission of research, teaching and public service.”

In 1988, a 90-year-old alumna and former faculty member gave $648,000 to UC Davis to establish an endowment that would fund plant research fellowships in perpetuity. Still driving discovery today, her gift demonstrates the power of an endowment to benefit the world for generations.

Katherine Esau Ph.D. ’31 is widely known as one of the most influential plant biologists and professors in history. Esau’s pioneering work on plant anatomy and structure laid the groundwork for much of today’s research in the field—and her impact on campus reaches even further.

Winter quarter is rolling right along. In fact, we’re somehow already in the second month of what still feels like an hours-old year. That’s the sign of having been busy. On campus, students are all around us. Our faculty are teaching, publishing and mentoring, and in the Dean’s Office we’ve been hard at work on several notable things.