UC Davis is launching two new series that take a deep dive into how our researchers are meeting the challenge of COVID-19. They will explore how UC Davis scientists, clinicians, engineers and others, often working across disciplines, are turning their knowledge to tackle COVID-19, from its origin to our communities and hospitals.

In the new UC Davis LIVE: COVID-19 series, host Soterios Johnson of the Office of Strategic Communications will interview researchers from across campus who are creating vaccines and ventilators, tracking the virus as it spread around the world, and looking for solutions in unexpected places. They will also take and answer audience questions.

UC Davis LIVE: COVID-19 will debut this week with guests Prasant Mohapatra, vice chancellor for research; Allison Brashear, dean of the School of Medicine; and Michael Lairmore, dean of the School of Veterinary Medicine. They will present an overview of how UC Davis is working to find solutions to the problems presented by the pandemic.

The second series, Deans Discuss: COVID-19, will be a weekly video podcast in which Lairmore and Brashear talk about what’s going on across the Davis and Sacramento campuses in COVID-19 research, from bench to bedside and beyond. As one of a few top research universities with both a medical school and a veterinary medicine school, UC Davis is uniquely positioned to make major contributions.

In a freewheeling conversation, the deans will talk about what’s got their interest that week, from new initiatives and collaborations to discoveries and results. Deans Discuss: COVID-19 will be available on YouTube and as a podcast, and the first episode will be available in late May.

Next week: “Food Shortages in a Pandemic,” a panel discussion, online, 5 p.m. Tuesday, May 12. Sponsored by the Robert Mondavi Institute for Food and Wine Science and the UC Davis Library.

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