Among UC Davis’ associate professors, they are rising stars who shine as teachers and campus citizens, and whose scholarly work already puts them at the top of their fields — garnering attention far and wide.

They are duly recognized at home, too, where they comprise the newest class of Chancellor’s Fellows, as announced by Chancellor Linda P.B. Katehi.

The new fellows (and department or school): Christopher Cappa (Civil and Environmental Engineering), Ricardo Castro (Chemical Engineering and Materials Science), Gitta Coaker, (Plant Pathology), Cody Gilmore (Philosophy), Benjamin Houlton (Land, Air and Water Resources), Michal Kurlaender (Education), Beth Levy (Music), Andrew Marshall (Anthropology), Elizabeth Miller (English) and Gail Patricelli (Evolution and Ecology).

“We owe our standing as a world-class university to our esteemed faculty,” Katehi said. “The chancellor’s fellows have distinguished themselves in their early careers even beyond the high standards set by our faculty. We are indeed proud of their achievements in the sciences, social sciences and humanities, and the excellent work they are doing in our classrooms and labs with our students.”

In a program supported by the UC Davis Chancellor’s Club and the Annual Fund, each fellow receives a $25,000 award and the “Chancellor’s Fellow” title for five years. With this year’s 10 fellows, 88 faculty members have been named Chancellor’s Fellows since the program began in 2000. See the complete list.

An invitation-only reception for the new fellows will be held later in the academic year.

More about the new fellows:

Christopher Cappa, Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering — In field and laboratory studies, he “is focused on advancing our understanding of the behavior and properties of atmospheric aerosols and their impacts on air pollution and climate,” wrote his department chair, Professor Sashi Kunnath, in nominating Cappa for a chancellor’s fellowship. His CV lists “an incredible” 56 publications to date, including four in Science and four in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. His research papers are “highly cited”: about 1,600 times, including more than 50 citations from each of nine publications. “He has made an incredible start,” Kunnath wrote. “Dr. Cappa is a rising star, has already made an impression worldwide for his research and will continue to do so in the future.” He received a doctorate in physical chemistry from UC Berkeley in 2005 and joined the UC Davis faculty in 2007.

Ricardo Castro, Department of Chemical Engineering and Materials Science — Dean Enrique Lavernia, in his nomination letter, noted how Castro achieved a rare feat when he received not one but two early-career awards — from the National Science Foundation and the Department of Energy — for two remarkably distinct research projects in thermochemistry in 2005. That was the year he spent six months in Professor Alexandra Navrotsky’s laboratory at UC Davis before receiving his doctorate from the University of São Paulo, Brazil. Four years later he returned to UC Davis as a faculty member, where, Lavernia wrote, Castro and Navrotsky make a formidable team with different yet complementary research directions. In course evaluations, students give him high marks for his teaching skills and passion for the material. And lest you think he has no time for fun, he initiated the Materials Magic Show at the 2013 Picnic Day.

Gitta Coaker, Department of Plant Pathology — With a background in plant genetics and molecular biology (Ph.D., Ohio State University, 2003), she was not an obvious fit for a position in microbial ecology, according to Mary Delany, interim dean of the College of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences. However, Delany wrote in her nomination letter, Coaker impressed the search committee with her achievements and ability to show how her expertise could be applied in novel ways to the study of plant-associated microbes — and she got the job. That was in 2007, and she has continued to impress in her research of plant-microbe interactions, an important aspect of global food security. Delany also pointed out Coaker’s “engaging presentation skills,” noting that she has established herself as an outstanding educator both in the classroom and as a mentor of graduate and undergraduate students and post-doctoral scholars.

Cody Gilmore, Department of Philosophy — Dean George Mangun, in his nomination letter, called Gilmore “one of the leading scholars of his generation worldwide” in analytical metaphysics, among those who will lead the debates and set the standards in the field for the next 20 to 25 years. Specifically, Gilmore’s research deals with fundamental issues about the nature of objects, properties, space and time, and also with important traditional issues such as the idea of death and the possibility of life after death. One of his papers, “Time Travel, Coinciding Objects, and Persistence” earned him the 2005 Young Scholars Prize from Oxford Studies in Metaphysics. Gilmore’s research and teaching are all of the highest quality, a standard rarely attained even by the best scholars at the same stage in their careers, Mangun said. Gilmore received his doctorate from Princeton in 2004 and came to UC Davis in 2006.

Benjamin Houlton, Department of Land, Air and Water Resources — “His research is big and bold, challenging paradigms in the areas of global climate change and global nitrogen pollution using integrated field and modeling tools,” Mary Delany, interim dean of the College of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences, wrote in her nomination letter. At the global scale, Houlton’s research has contributed a unifying framework for nitrogen fixation in the terrestrial biosphere, which has tremendous implications for global climate change (Nature, 2008). At the regional scale, he is providing evidence of the importance of geologically based nitrogen inputs to forest productivity. Delany described Houlton as a gifted instructor who is doing an excellent job of teaching programmatically important and highly interdisciplinary classes. He received a doctorate in ecology and evolutionary biology from Princeton in 2005 and joined the UC Davis faculty in 2007.

Michal Kurlaender, School of Education — Her research focuses primarily on education policy and evaluation, particularly on the circumstances and social-academic processes that result in racial-ethnic and socioeconomic disparities for students at various stages of the educational attainment “ladder.” She has a record of more than a dozen peer-reviewed articles (most often in top-tier journals), one co-edited book and seven book chapters. “Her scholarship is outstanding, and has attracted attention both in California and nationally,” Dean Harold Levine wrote in nominating Kurlaender for a chancellor’s fellowship. She has received grants totaling more than $3 million, “an impressive amount in the social sciences at this relatively early stage in her career,” Levine wrote. Kurlaender received a doctorate in education from Harvard in 2005 and joined the UC Davis faculty the same year.

Beth Levy, Department of Music — “She has established herself as one of the leading scholars of American music,” Dean Jessie Ann Owens wrote in nominating her fellow musicologist for a chancellor’s fellowship. Indeed, the American Musicological Society recently presented its Music in American Culture Award to Levy, for her book Frontier Figures: American Music and the Mythology of the American West. A lead review in the Times Literary Supplement called Levy’s scholarship “impeccable,” noting how she “listens carefully, analyzes music with subtlety, and writes about it in nuanced prose.” Colleagues commented on the uniformly high quality of Levy’s lectures and her excellent preparation. She also proved herself an adept administrator, serving for a year as interim director of the UC Davis Humanities Institute (2011-12). Levy holds a doctorate in historical musicology from UC Berkeley (2002) and joined the UC Davis faculty the next year.

Andrew Marshall, Department of Anthropology — “He pursues questions of deep theoretical significance, and of vital applied importance, such as the conservation of great apes,” Dean George Mangun wrote in his nomination letter. “His approach is to apply the modern tools of theoretical ecology. This allows him to address issues of public importance while remaining engaged with basic research in population biology.” In his teaching, Marshall is “industrious and admired,” and in his service to the campus and the international community of science, he goes beyond what is normally expected of someone of his rank, Mangun wrote. In recommending him for a chancellor’s fellowship, the dean cited Marshall’s research productivity, ability to maintain an overseas field site (in Asia), and active service and participation in the intellectual life of UC Davis. He holds a Ph.D. from Harvard (2004) and joined the UC Davis faculty in 2007.

Elizabeth Miller, Department of English — She took on the duties of department chair in July, appointed by Dean Jessie Ann Owens despite the dean’s usual reluctance to put an associate professor in such a post. “But all evidence to date indicates that she is one of those rare individuals who can take on a challenging administrative task while also maintaining an active agenda of research, teaching, and professional and campus service,” Owens wrote. In 2009, Miller received the highly competitive Charles A. Ryskamp Research Fellowship from the American Council of Learned Societies, “a telling indication of her national stature,” the dean wrote. Miller’s newest book, Slow Print: Literary Radicalism and Late-Victorian Print Culture, explores what has been described as “an exciting emerging area of interdisciplinary culture.” She holds a Ph.D. in English literature from the University of Wisconsin-Madison (2003) and joined the UC Davis faculty in 2008.

Gail Patricelli, Department of Evolution and Ecology — Her research in animal signaling “is universally recognized as pushing the boundaries of science both conceptually and technologically, and has rapidly made her one of the leaders in her field,” department Chair Peter Wainwright wrote in his nomination letter. Patricelli also is known as an inspiring instructor and active mentor (having mentored 140 students in her lab since joining the UC Davis faculty in 2004). She received the Chancellor’s Award for Mentoring Undergraduate Research in 2012, and, according to Wainwright, “deserves much of the credit for taking our tradition of undergraduate research to new heights.” In addition, she is one of UC Davis’ “most visible and effective scientific envoys to the broader public,” in her work with more than 30 state agencies, nongovernmental organizations and environmental consulting companies. She holds a Ph.D. in biology from the University of Maryland-College Park (2002).

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