IN THIS COLUMN

• Jennifer M. “Jenni” Higgs, School of Education
• Mukund Rangamani, College of Letters and Science

Jennifer M. “Jenni” Higgs, an assistant professor in the School of Education, has been selected to receive a National Academy of Education/Spencer Postdoctoral Fellowship — one of 25 awarded in a pool of 258 applicants for 2022.

The program — administered by the academy, an honorary society, with a grant from the Chicago-based Spencer Foundation —  offers early-career scholars the opportunity to focus on their research and attend professional development retreats. Each fellowship is supported by an award of $70,000 intended for salary replacement and expenses.

Higgs is a scholar of learning and mind sciences and language, literacy, and culture. Her faculty webpage states: “Drawing from sociocultural learning theories and employing methodologies such as design-based research and survey research, she investigates young people’s and teachers’ sense-making of digital tools and ecologies that invite new forms of reading, writing, and participation; support structures that can help teachers facilitate equitable uses and understandings of digital technologies; and the spread and scale of educational innovations in our advanced digital age.”

She received her fellowship for the research topic “Computing Education for the People: Broadening Participation Through Sociotechnical Awareness in Secondary English Language Arts and Civics Classrooms.”

Professor Mukund Rangamani, a theoretical physicist in the Department of Physics and Astronomy, has been named a fellow of the International Society on General Relativity and Gravitation for his “groundbreaking contributions to the gauge-gravity duality and the fluid-gravity correspondence.”

Rangamani specializes in string theory, quantum field theory, quantum gravity and quantum information. He is a member of the UC Davis Center for Quantum Mathematics and Physics.

Dateline UC Davis welcomes news of faculty and staff awards, for publication in Laurels. Send information to dateline@ucdavis.edu.