IN THIS COLUMN

• Anita Oberholster, College of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences
• Satya Dandekar, School of Medicine
• Leticia Saucedo, School of Law
• Joanna Regulska, Global Affairs
• Jason Lowe-Power, College of Engineering
• Archana Venkatesan, College of Letters and Science
• Karrigan Börk, School of Law

The California Association of Winegrape Growers recently presented its Leader of the Year Award to Anita Oberholster, associate Cooperative Extension specialist, Department of Viticulture and Enology.S

Since 2017, Oberholster has researched smoke exposure in wine grapes, investigating the absorption of volatile phenols on grapes and its effect on wine composition and quality.

The association described Oberholster as “a leading voice as an educator and expert on the complicated issues surrounding wildfire smoke and wine grapes.”

“Her relentless drive to help by sharing her expertise and frequent communication have been incredibly beneficial to growers and vintners, and CAWG appreciates all that she has done for California’s winegrowers.”

The following honorary societies named UC Davis faculty members as new fellows:

• American Academy of Microbiology, an honorific leadership group within the American Society for Microbiology — Satya Dandekar, professor and chair, Department of Medical Microbiology and Immunology, School of Medicine, for scientific achievement and original contributions that have advanced microbiology. Fellows are elected annually through a highly selective, peer-review process. Dandekar’s pioneering research on HIV/AIDS revealed the direct and devastating impact of the virus on the gut very early in the infection. Within just a few days to weeks, the virus damages the gut epithelial lining and impairs the gastrointestinal mucosal lymphoid tissue. Both are critical for generating the body’s immune response for defending against infections. Her findings supported changes in the treatment protocols for HIV, including starting anti-HIV therapy early in the infection to achieve better clinical outcomes. Read more in this UC Davis Health news release.
• American Bar Foundation, a global honorary society of attorneys, judges, law school faculty and legal scholars — Leticia Saucedo, professor of law, an expert in employment, labor and immigration law. The foundation says its fellows demonstrate “outstanding dedication to the highest principles of the legal profession and to the welfare of their communities.” Membership is limited to 1 percent of lawyers licensed to practice in each jurisdiction. Members are nominated by their peers and selected by the foundation board.

Professor Archana Venkatesan has been awarded another prize for Endless Song, her English translation of the ninth-century Tamil opus Tiruvāymoḻi, in which the poet Nammāḻvār sings of his ecstatic devotion to God.

The Association for Asian Studies bestowed her latest award, the A.K. Ramanujan Book Prize for Translation (South Asia).

Venkatesan has a dual appointment in the departments of Religious Studies and Comparative Literature.

Read more about Endless Song in connection with the award she received from the American Literary Translators Association: “Archana Venkatesan Wins Prize for Making Tamil Opus Sing in Translation.”

Joanna Regulska, vice provost and dean of Global Affairs, has been named the recipient of the 2022 Charles Klasek Award for Outstanding Service to the Field of International Higher Education, given by the Association of International Education Administrators, or AIEA.

The award is named after the late “Chuck” Klasek, of Southern Illinois University at Carbondale, a founding member of AIEA and the association’s third president.

Regulska has more than 30 years of experience in higher education and in international education. She has led Global Affairs at UC Davis since 2015, coming to the university from Rutgers, where she established the Centers for Global Advancement and International Affairs. Her work at both schools contributed to each of them receiving the Senator Paul Simon Award for Comprehensive Campus Internationalization, given by NAFSA: Association of International Educators (UC Davis in 2020, Rutgers in 2014).

In 2021, she was named an inaugural member of the National Academy for International Education. And in 2019 she received the first Senior International Officer Award from the Institute of International Education.

The School of Law announced Professor Karrigan Börk, a scholar and teacher of environmental law and policy, as the recipient of the school’s Distinguished Teaching Award for 2022. The award, supported by Bill and Sally Rutter, honors law teachers who give stellar performances in the classroom.

Nominations gushed about Börk’s enthusiasm for environmental law and his effective instruction, according to an announcement on the school’s website. He joined the law school in 2019.

Listen to Professor Bork on the School of Law’s podcast, Justice Defined: Scholars of the Law, discussing “California's Constitutional Right to Fish.”

Jason Lowe-Power, assistant professor, Department of Computer Science, College of Engineering, has received a National Science Foundation CAREER Award. Here is his project:

“Architecting a Hardware-Software Co-Designed Data Management System for Heterogeneous Memory Computers,” to improve the efficiency and performance of a wide variety of applications, including artificial intelligence/machine learning, which increasingly depend on both high memory performance and large memory capacities. To broaden the impact, the techniques developed in this project will be realized in software, as a hardware-software codesign and as hardened logic. Further, the software models, systems and hardware prototypes will be released open-source as they are developed. This CAREER project will also lay the foundation for a sustainable undergraduate research internship program at UC Davis.

CAREER is shorthand for the Faculty Early Career Development Program, which describes the awards as the NSF’s most prestigious in support of faculty members beginning their independent careers and “who have the potential to serve as academic role models in research and education and to lead advances in the mission of their department or organization.”

“Activities pursued by early-career faculty should build a firm foundation for a lifetime of leadership in integrating education and research,” the program’s description states.

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