The National Academy of Sciences has elected Jeffrey Ross-Ibarra, professor in the Department of Evolution and Ecology at University of California, Davis, as a member. His election was announced April 28.
Ross-Ibarra is one of 120 members and 25 international members elected this year in recognition of distinguished and continuing achievements in original research. Membership in the academy is considered one of the highest honors a scientist can achieve.
Four faculty from the University of California, Davis, have been elected as Fellows of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, class of 2025. They are among nearly 500 scientists, engineers and other innovators that the society recognized this year for their scientifically and socially distinguished achievements.
Here are the new fellows, with their fellowship citations:
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.
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.
Claire Murphy, a fifth-year Ph.D. candidate in the Population Biology Graduate Group, wants everyone to feel like they belong in research. Based at the Bodega Marine Laboratory (BML), Murphy studies how tiny seagrass crustaceans avoid being eaten by fish, crabs, and other predators. Since coming to UC Davis in 2020, she’s mentored 11 UC Davis undergraduates, including five independent summer research projects.
Three faculty affiliated with the College of Biological Sciences are among the eight UC Davis faculty newly elected as fellows of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, announced March 27. They are: Frédéric Chédin, a professor and chair in the Department of Molecular and Cellular Biology; Dario Cantù, a professor in the Department of Viticulture and Enology; and Huaijun Zhou, a professor in the Department of Animal Science.
Victoria Watson-Zink, Ph.D. ’22, a postdoctoral evolutionary marine biologist, received the Howard Hughes Medical Institute’s Hanna H. Gray Fellowship last month. This year’s fellowship supports the transition of 25 early-career scientists to leading labs and becoming tenured faculty.
Three members of the CBS faculty community have been named Center for the Advancement of Multicultural Perspectives on Science (CAMPOS) scholars. The prestigious honor provides mentorship, support and community to new faculty members.
The work of 12 early-career faculty members will get a boost as this year’s class of Hellman Fellows. They will receive grants ranging from $16,000 to $49,000, for a total of $330,000 awarded.
Their work covers a wide range of topics, from the educational experiences of Venezuelan immigrants to a wireless device that monitors for seizures.
