Awards & Laurels

Biological Sciences Ranked Among World’s Top 50, Nation's Top 20 by QS World University Rankings

In the 2022 QS World University Rankings by Subject released on April 6, UC Davis ranked 43rd in the world and tied for 18th in the nation in the broad category of the life sciences and medicine. Demonstrating its strength across the disciplines, UC Davis was also ranked globally and nationally in each of the other broad categories: natural sciences, engineering and technology, arts and humanities, and social sciences and management. 

Kenneth Burtis Honored for Role in Healthy Davis Together Program

Professor Emeritus Kenneth C. Burtis, who served as the dean of the College of Biological Sciences (CBS) from 2006-2011, has been named the 2021-2022 UC Davis Distinguished Emeriti by the UC Davis Emeriti Association.

Burtis was recognized for his essential contributions to the Healthy Davis Together (HDT) program, including extending COVID-19 testing to the city of Davis and the broader Yolo County community.

Donors Support 12 New Chancellor’s Fellows, 1 from CBS

Earlier this week, UC Davis named a new class of Chancellor’s Fellows — faculty members who will carry the chancellor’s imprimatur for five years in recognition of their outstanding work in academia.

“These 12 newest fellows represent our university at its very best,” Chancellor Gary S. May said. “They are now part of a proud 22-year history for the Chancellor’s Fellows program. These fellows are making advances that help solve complex and critical issues, while also helping our students become critical thinkers and problem-solvers.”

9 Elected as AAAS Fellows, 2 from CBS

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:

Researcher Studying the Microbiome and Chemical Communication of Cats Named a Chancellor’s Postdoctoral Fellow

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.” 

CBS Students Among 2021 Recipients of Prestigious Global Fellowship

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.

UC Davis Ecologist Awarded Packard Fellowship

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.

Assistant Professor Gerald Quon Receives NIH New Innovator Award

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.