News Articles

Abigail Morris first visited the Peruvian Amazon when she was 6 years old. Now, as a Ph.D. candidate in the Animal Behavior Graduate Group, she has returned to study how seasonal flooding affects the behavior, diet and population genetics of two species of monkey: monk sakis (Pithecia monachus) and large-headed capuchins (Sapajus apella macrocephalus).

Venkatesan Sundaresan, a Distinguished Professor of plant biology and plant sciences at the University of California, Davis, has been awarded a Gates Foundation grant to develop self-cloning crops for Indian farmers.

Coral reefs make up less than 1% of ocean habitat but are home to at least 25% of marine species. These incredibly biodiverse ecosystems are increasingly threatened by human actions, including anthropogenic climate change.

California’s Tule Fog is always thick, but not always as persistent as it has been lately. With finals concluded last week and the students home, campus has been grey, cold and dreary – until today. For the first time in almost two weeks, blue sky was visible, the sun was out, and we were reminded of how beautiful our region is.

Two College of Biological Sciences faculty members—Keith Baar, professor of neurobiology, physiology and behavior, and Laura Bogar, assistant professor of plant biology—received a STAIR Grant and a Hellman Fellowship, respectively.

Two researchers at the University of California, Davis have been awarded a VinFuture Prize in recognition of their work developing self-cloning crops, a breakthrough for sustainable agriculture. 

Ecological medicine is a new approach to health science that draws on a very old idea: connecting with each other, with animals and plants, and with the natural world fosters health and well-being for people and the planet.

Sebastian Smith is making less of a career pivot than a total revamp. At age 48, he is getting his B.S., with the goal of earning  a doctorate and becoming a scientific researcher. Just three years ago, he was retiring after a 20-year career in the Air Force. 

Mutations drive evolution, but they can also be risky. New research led by plant biologists at the University of California, Davis, published Nov. 10 in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, reveals how plants control mutation rates in different stem cells to balance adaptability with safety and stability. The findings have implications for breeding some of the world’s most important fruit and vegetable crops, such as potatoes and bananas.

We are in the tail-end of the year. The quarter is in full swing, midterms are behind us and campus continues to bustle. There’s been no shortage of activity this fall, and I was very pleased to see UC Davis recognized as one of the top 10 public universities in the nation.