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.”

A new UC Davis Health study found that a ketogenic (keto) diet improves muscle function in older animals by preventing muscle mass loss due to age (sarcopenia).

Three UC Davis faculty members are among 125 recipients of this year’s Sloan Research Fellowships, prestigious awards given by the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation to early-career scientific researchers seen as emerging leaders in their fields.

The 2023 fellows, including UC Davis’ Kate L. Laskowski, Jesús M. Velázquez and Alexander S. Wein, “represent the most promising scientific researchers working today,” the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation said in announcing its selections Feb. 15.

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.

Late last year, Justin Siegel, an associate professor at the UC Davis Genome Center, was named a Fellow of the National Academy of Inventors (NAI), the highest professional distinction awarded to academic inventors. The NAI announced the 2022 class of fellows on Dec. 8. 

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.

Sēvā (ਸੇਵਾ), a Punjabi word that means “service,” was the motivation behind alumni couple Kamaljeet “Kamal” Singh-Khaira and Dr. Ravinder “Ravi” Khaira’s recent $1 million gift to the College of Biological Sciences.

The Khairas’ gift will provide support for the college’s top priorities, and they feel confident in the leadership of Mark Winey, dean of the College of Biological Sciences, to best utilize the funding to further enhance student success initiatives, faculty excellence and advances in life sciences research.