IN THIS COLUMN
- Mike Henderson, College of Letters and Science
- Barbara D. Metcalf, College of Letters and Science
- Gozde Goncu-Berk, College of Letters and Science
- Tina Jeoh, College of Engineering
- Peter Lee, School of Law
- Graduate Program Advising and Mentoring Awards
Mike Henderson, professor emeritus of art, was awarded the Margrit Mondavi Arts Medallion during the Jan Shrem and Maria Manetti Shrem Museum of Art’s fall fundraising gala Oct. 22 in recognition of his many contributions over decades of teaching at UC Davis.
“At a time when students of color on this campus did not have ready mentors, Mike Henderson fostered the arts as a shelter, a place of freedom and expression, for his students,” said Provost and Executive Vice Chancellor Mary Croughan, who presented the award. “I can think of no better reason for an award than the profound work of fostering creativity and lifting up student voices.”
Henderson taught art at UC Davis for 43 years, retiring in 2012. The museum will present “Mike Henderson: Before the Fire, 1965-1985,” in January 2023.
“Thanks to all the brave women and men who thought art should be a part of life and education,” Henderson said as he accepted the award from Croughan and Rachel Teagle, the museum’s founding director. “Thank you, everyone, for making this special. Thank you very much.”
The Arts Medallion honors the spirit of Margrit Mondavi, the late Napa Valley patron of the arts who made the museum’s initial founding gift.
India’s Aligarh Muslim University last week presented its 2022 Sir Syed Excellence International Award to Barbara D. Metcalf, professor emerita of history and the first dean of the Division of Social Sciences, College of Letters and Science.
She accepted the award and delivered an acceptance speech virtually in a ceremony on Sir Syed Day, Oct. 17, the 205th anniversary of the birth of the award’s namesake and the founder of the university, Sir Syed Ahmad Khan (1817-98).
Metcalf taught at UC Davis from 1986 to 2003 and afterwards at the University of Michigan. She is an expert on the modern history of the South Asian ulama, or the religious scholars of Islam, according to her biography on the American Historical Association’s website. She was president of the AHA in 2010.
In a recent international design competition, Gozde Goncu-Berk, associate professor, Department of Design, won a best of category award for her “novel reactive smart clothing” called CalmWear, which provides tactile stimulation to relieve the symptoms of anxiety disorder.
The Advanced Textiles Association, formerly Industrial Fabrics Association International, honored CalmWear in the association’s 76th annual International Achievement Awards program. CalmWear won an award of excellence in the subcategory of protective and functional apparel and was judged the best of all entries in the category of advanced textiles.
CalmWear features embedded pneumatic actuating and vital sensing systems that can deliver tactile stimulation through dynamic compression. It switches on automatically in response to changes in heart rate and respiration.
Graduate student researchers Ruoyu Zhang (doctoral student in electrical and computer engineering) and Rova Cigdem Yilmaz (design) assisted on the project.
Tina Jeoh, professor, Department of Biological and Agricultural Engineering, recently received the Danisco Foundation Science Excellence Medal, recognizing her work in developing industrially scalable microencapsulation technologies. The award came with a $35,000 prize.
In presenting two medals Sept. 20 — one to Jeoh as the 2021 recipient and the other to Phil Baran of Scripps Research as the 2022 recipient — International Flavors and Fragrances Inc., or IFF, carried on the Danisco awards program for DuPont’s Nutrition and Biosciences, which merged with the former in 2021. The medal is presented annually in honor of scientific and operational excellence and a remarkable track record of accomplishments in research and collaboration with industry.
“I’m very grateful to have been collaborating so fruitfully with IFF scientists and engineers,” Jeoh said. “Several students from my lab received valuable training and mentorship in addressing ‘real world challenges’ through working with IFF. I am also grateful for the award money, which will be used to support new and existing students in my group.”
According to International Flavors and Fragrances, Jeoh is focused on using sustainable and non-toxic ingredients such as alginates and proteins as carriers to stabilize and control the delivery of bioactive ingredients including enzymes, lipids, polysaccharides and microbes for food, feed, nutraceuticals, pharmaceuticals and sustainable agriculture applications.
Jeoh was also recognized for her dedication to applied/practical research without losing sight of experimental work to investigate the fundamentals. Her lab has received numerous grants from industry in this area, and her work has been used in food, cosmetics, bacterial delivery and sustainable agriculture.
Read the complete article by Noah Pflueger-Peters, content specialist, College of Engineering.
Peter Lee, a Martin Luther King Jr. Professor of Law, has been elected to the American Law Institute. The nation’s most prestigious nongovernmental legal-reform organization, the institute oversees projects that often form the basis of laws and become standards cited in judges’ opinions, legal briefs and scholarly articles.
According to Lee’s faculty webpage, he teaches and writes in the field of intellectual property law, particularly focusing on patent law, innovation and technology transfer, and his current scholarship explores the institutional context of innovation and the intersection of intellectual property law and the structure of innovative and creative industries.
A member of the law school faculty since 2006, he received the school’s Distinguished Teaching Award in 2016 and was a Chancellor’s Fellow from 2012 to 2017.
Graduate Studies recently announced the recipients of Graduate Program Advising and Mentoring Awards for 2022. "Mentorship and advising are critical aspects of graduate student success and pillar of the UC Davis Graduate Studies’ strategic plan,” said Jean-Pierre Delplanque, vice provost and dean of Graduate Studies. "These faculty are truly living this mission through their energy and effort. We are so grateful to them for sharing their time and talents with our graduate students and postdocs.”
The award recipients, listed by college and school:
College of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences
- Helen Dahlke, Hydrologic Sciences
- Anna Denicol, Animal Biology
- Matthew Gilbert, Horticulture and Agronomy
- Cassandra Swett, Plant Pathology
- Richard Sexton, Agricultural and Resource Economics
- Jay Rosenheim, Entomology
- Andrew Whitehead, Pharmacology and Toxicology
College of Biological Sciences
- Siobhan Brady, Plant Biology
- Ele Grandi, Molecular, Cellular and Integrative Physiology
- Tonya Kuhl, Biophysics
- Marilyn Ramenofsky, Animal Behavior
- Anna La Torre, Biochemistry, Molecular, Cellular and Developmental Biology
College of Engineering
- Zhaojun Bai, Computer Science
- Michele Barbato, Civil and Environmental Engineering
- Coleman Kronawitter, Chemical Engineering
- Alan Jenn, Transportation Technology and Policy
- Omeed Momeni, Electrical and Computer Engineering
- Scott Simon, Biomedical Engineering
- Yayoi Takamura, Materials Science and Engineering
College of Letters and Sciences
- Kyle Crabtree, Chemistry
- Frances Dolan, English
- Bo Feng, Communication
- Eugene Gorsky, Mathematics
- James Griesemer, Philosophy
- Meaghan O’Keefe, Religion
- Thomas Lee, Statistics
- Andrew Wetzel, Physics
- Georgia Zellou, Linguistics
School of Medicine
- Diana Cassady, Public Health
School of Veterinary Medicine
- Damian Genetos, Integrative Pathobiology
Read the complete story on the Graduate Studies website.
Dateline UC Davis welcomes news of faculty and staff awards, for publication in Laurels. Send information to dateline@ucdavis.edu.
Media Resources
Dateline Staff: Dave Jones, editor, 530-752-6556, dateline@ucdavis.edu; Cody Kitaura, News and Media Relations specialist, 530-752-1932, kitaura@ucdavis.edu.