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UC Davis News

UC Davis to host first gubernatorial debate

Republican Meg Whitman and Democrat Jerry Brown have agreed to participate in a live broadcast debate at the University of California, Davis, in September. The event is sponsored by Capital Public Radio, KCRA-TV Sacramento, The Sacramento Bee and UC Davis. The debate is scheduled to be held on Sept. 28. It will be the first gubernatorial debate and one of only three planned before the November election.

"UC Davis, with its proximity to Sacramento and its strong focus on public policy, is the ideal choice to host this historic debate," said UC Davis Chancellor Linda Katehi. "We're proud to partner with three of California's leading media organizations to make this event possible. We especially hope that by having the debate on a public university campus, more college students will be inspired to learn what is at stake in November's gubernatorial election."

Cheryl Dell, publisher and president of The Sacramento Bee, added, “We want to thank the candidates for agreeing to participate in this debate. It is an important and difficult time for California voters and I’m proud of your efforts to help educate them. Secondly, thank you to our partners -- a diverse and impressive group -- for working together to make this happen.”

California’s voters have identified jobs and the economy as their two biggest concerns, followed by issues including the state budget deficit, education and healthcare. The debate will give candidates the opportunity to tell Californians how they would address these concerns and lead the state out of the recession.

“KCRA 3 has an ongoing commitment to provide voters of Northern California with the information they need to make informed decisions, especially at this critical time in our state’s history,” said KCRA 3 President and General Manager Elliott Troshinsky. “The decision by Meg Whitman and Jerry Brown to accept our debate offer is another opportunity for us to fulfill that commitment. We appreciate that opportunity. We look forward to a spirited and meaningful exchange that will allow each candidate to express their positions and benefit each voter who watches.”

"Debate is essential in an election. Californians need to hear the candidates talk about their ideas and positions,” said Rick Eytcheson, Capital Public Radio president and general manager. “We're pleased to help present this important discussion about the future of our state."

Details of the debate, including the length and format, will be worked out in the coming weeks.

Cow death prompts call for emergency protocol

In response to the tragic July 27 shooting death of a cow at the California State Fair, David Wilson, a veterinarian and the director of the William R. Pritchard Veterinary Medical Teaching Hospital at the University of California, Davis, is calling for a complete review of animal use and handling procedures for all animals intended for public exhibition at the state fair.

Wilson has also requested that the Veterinary Emergency Response Team at UC Davis develop a plan and training module to help prepare public-safety officials at the fair and other large, public venues for incidents involving unrestrained large animals in public places or roadways.

Veterinarian John Madigan, an expert in emergency veterinary medicine and director of the Veterinary Emergency Response Team said: “Loose cows or horses in crowded public places can threaten public safety. We must ensure that our animal handling procedures are designed to minimize the risk of animals escaping into public areas and that plans are in place for an effective and humane emergency response in the unlikely event that a large animal does escape.”

Madigan, who is also associate director of the teaching hospital’s large animal clinic, noted that a July 4 parade incident in Iowa, in which horses pulling a carriage stampeded and killed one person and injured more than 20 people, is an example of the risk and potential for injury that can result when livestock and horses are loose in public places.

Cow put down at fair; vet school to review animal handling procedures

A Cal Expo official said fairgrounds police shot and killed an agitated, pregnant cow the morning of July 27 after she got loose while being taken to the UC Davis-run livestock nursery at the state fair.

Brian May, deputy general manager, said the cow bolted twice through the fairgrounds over a 1½-hour period starting at about 9:30 a.m. On one run, the 1,200- to 1,500-pound cow knocked over a bicycle-riding police officer.

The fair had not yet opened, but, by the time police put down the cow, at about 11 a.m., hundreds of employees had begun showing up — making the cow a threat to public safety, May said.

Today (July 28), the director of the university’s William R. Pritchard Veterinary Medical Teaching Hospital called for a review of animal use and handling procedures for all animals intended for public exhibition at the fair.

The hospital director, David Wilson, who is a veterinarian, also asked UC Davis’ Veterinary Emergency Response Team to develop a plan and training module for public safety officials who may deal with unrestrained large animals at public venues like fairgrounds, and on roads.

Wilson said the tragedy did not make him rethink the livestock nursery exhibition, which he said will continue through the fair’s last day Aug. 1.

He spoke today by cell phone from Cal Expo, in a midday interview that took place around the same time that a small group of people gathered outside the main gate to protest the birthing exhibition.

Connecting the public to the world of food

Wilson defended the nursery, which is now in its 34th year.
“It’s a very popular exhibition,” he said, noting that fairgoers — and young people in particular — may not have many other opportunities to see and interact with livestock.

“It brings the whole world of food, and where it comes from, closer to home,” he said. “It also recognizes the fact that the fair was established as an agricultural exhibition.”

Answering critics who object to putting livestock on display while they give birth, Wilson said: “The animals for the most part take it all in stride, and are very well cared for.”

He added that the exhibition not only serves as a training ground for veterinary students, but inspires future vets as well.

Read more about the livestock nursery in this Dateline feature from 2006.

Wilson said the nursery brings in 25 to 30 cows a year for the birthing display. That works out to a total of 850 to more than 1,000 cows over a 34-year period — “and this is the first time a cow escaped.”

'Fighting to get over the barriers'

The cow bolted the first time while UC Davis veterinarians unloaded her from a trailer, May said. The veterinarians and Cal Expo police corralled the cow in a tunnel near the main gate.

Veterinarians calmed her some by giving her food, Wilson said, but she got away again.

This time, police and veterinarians corralled her in the area of the Golden One concert stage. “She was fighting to get over the barriers that we were using,” May said.

Fearing for the health of the fetus, the veterinarians at first opted against using a tranquilizer gun on the cow. Then, when they opted to use the tranquilizer gun, it would not fire.

The fair was still an hour away from its noontime opening. Nevertheless, employees, vendors and exhibitors made the fairgrounds a crowded place.

Therefore, Cal Expo police, in consultation with UC Davis veterinary staff, decided to put the cow down, May said. He said three officers fired their handguns; the fetus died along with the cow.

Wilson said “very, very rapid action” possibly could have saved the calf's life, but the circumstances were not conducive to such a surgery, especially with the fair’s opening just about an hour away, Wilson said.

“Obviously, we're in a caring profession and the last thing we want to do is see an animal euthanized,” he said. “Every attempt was made to handle this differently, and those attempts were unsuccessful.”

"We made a very difficult choice," Wilson said. "It was absolutely the last resort.”

Wilson told The Sacramento Bee that he does not suspect that the incident stemmed from any missteps in procedure, but added that officials will review those guidelines to look for improvement. Fair officials promised similar reviews, according to The Bee.

Cow had been screened for good disposition

Vic Lukas, campus veterinarian, said the cow belonged to a San Joaquin Valley farmer, who had loaned the animal to UC Davis for the livestock nursery exhibit. Wilson said the cow had been screened for good disposition — in the same screening process that UC Davis uses for all animals in the livestock nursery exhibition.

Wilson said the cow did not behave in a manner that is typical of pregnant cows, but added that any domesticated animal has the potential to react violently when threatened.

“If they get into a frenzied situation where they want to escape, they will charge fences, they will charge people,” Wilson said. “So people can be badly injured or killed even by a cow.”

Lukas said the cow’s pregnancy may have had something to do with her agitated state. He said three UC Davis veterinarians witnessed the incident, and one of them reported seeing signs of milk fever, a pregnancy-related calcium imbalance that can affect the brain.

“That and the excitement of the fairgrounds may have contributed to the cow’s agitation,” he said. “Fortunately, the cow did not hurt anybody.”

Professor John Madigan, director of the Veterinary Emergency Response Team and associate director of the Veterinary Medical Teaching Hospital’s large-animal clinic, said: “Loose cows or horses in crowded public places can threaten public safety.

“We must ensure that our animal handling procedures are designed to minimize the risk of animals escaping into public areas and that plans are in place for an effective and humane emergency response in the unlikely event that a large animal does escape.”

Madigan noted this year’s Fourth of July tragedy in Bellevue, Iowa, where two horses stampeded and killed one person and injured more than 20 people. The horses had been pulling a carriage in the town’s Independence Day parade.

This is an example of the risk and potential for injury that can result when livestock and horses are loose in public places, Madigan said.

Pat Bailey, a senior public information representative with the UC Davis News Service, contributed to this report.

 

Passion for science led Ronald Baskin from lab to surgical discovery

Ronald Baskin, professor emeritus of molecular and cellular biology, firmly believed that it is never too early to ignite a love for science in a young mind. For the highly respected University of California, Davis, biophysicist, that was not merely a philosophy; it was his life story.

An authority on the molecular basis of muscle contraction, Baskin, 74, died July 3 in his Davis home of Parkinson’s disease. A celebration of his life will be held at 2 p.m. Saturday, July 31, at the Episcopal Church of St. Martin on Hawthorne Lane in Davis.

His family recalls that he was intrigued with science from an early age, making a communications system out of spare parts when just in the fourth grade and setting up his own home chemistry lab as a teenager. In high school, he bridged the fields of biology and physics with an experiment that exposed plates of bacteria to an electrical field generated by a Tesla coil.

“Ron was keenly interested in the physical aspects of biological processes,” said Baskin’s colleague Stephen Kowalczykowski, distinguished professor of microbiology. “He had a talent for building complex instrumentation that permitted very sophisticated analysis of biological molecules, a talent that ultimately enabled him and his collaborators to visualize individual molecules of proteins and DNA in action.”

In 2001, Baskin and colleagues caught the attention of the research community when they released a brief video that captured images at the microscopic level of an enzyme “unzipping” a strand of DNA. The techniques used in preparing the video are important to research aimed at repairing DNA in patients with genetic illnesses.

Born Nov. 25, 1935, in Joliet, Ill., he attended elementary school on the south side of Chicago and later moved with his family to Los Angeles. He graduated in 1953 from Dorsey High School in Los Angeles. It was at Dorsey that he met Lydia Lendl, who eventually would become his high school sweetheart and wife of 52 years.

The first in his family to attend college, Baskin earned three degrees from UCLA: a bachelor’s in biophysics in 1957, a master’s in physiology in 1959 and a doctorate in zoology in 1960. While at UCLA, he built one of the earliest 3-D models of DNA — the spiral-staircase-shaped molecule that carries life’s genetic code.

After graduate school, he was hired as an assistant professor at Rensselaer Polytechnic University in Troy, NY, where he served from 1961 to 1964. He joined the UC Davis zoology department faculty in 1964.

At UC Davis, he taught courses in molecular and cellular biology, and established a research program focused on developing a better understanding of the molecular basis of muscle contraction. In relation to this work, he also studied the function of motor proteins, which play a critical role in muscle contraction.

Although fundamental in nature, his research led to a very practical application in human medicine. In 1985, Baskin and a colleague at UC San Diego designed and patented a laser-based device called a “myometer,” which accurately adjusted muscles to the appropriate resting length for surgical reattachment. The device was used by surgeons when repairing muscles that had been detached from their tendons due to accidental injury or surgery.

“Ron was always excited by new scientific discovery and was interested in the education and professional advancement of everyone who worked with him,” Kowalczykowski said. “He was a serious, responsible and dedicated individual with a cooperative, positive attitude -- an ideal collaborator and colleague.”

Robert Grey, former UC Davis provost and executive vice chancellor noted, “Ron’s passion for science was evident to all who knew him, especially the graduate students who had the good fortune to work in his laboratory.

“His many contributions to biophysics and cell biology will surely endure,” Grey said. “And his administrative service, which began early in his career, contributed to the development of UC Davis as a world-class university.”

During his career, Baskin guided 15 men and women toward their doctoral degrees and mentored 12 postdoctoral fellows in his laboratory.

He chaired UC Davis’ zoology department from 1971 to 1979 and the graduate group in zoology from 1971 to 1978. He also helped establish UC Davis’ biophysics department and chaired the graduate group in biophysics from 1983 to 1986.

In addition, he served as associate dean of the College of Letters and Sciences and as the first associate dean of the Division of Biological Sciences.

Intent on encouraging future scientists, the Baskins in 2006 established an endowment to support the Ronald and Lydia Baskin Research Award. That scholarship award annually recognizes one graduating senior for excellence in research in the biological sciences.

Baskin also carried his passion for science into the community. While chairing the zoology department, he worked with the Davis Science Center (now Explorit) to sponsor the Science and Math Conference for high school students.

Away from his campus laboratory, he enjoyed family vacations and spent many hours designing and overseeing construction of the family’s Davis home, as well as a vacation home in Lake Tahoe.

In addition to his wife, Lydia, he is survived by his brother, Kenneth Baskin, of Florida; two sons, James Baskin of Washington state and Thomas Baskin of Wisconsin; and five grandchildren.

The family prefers that any memorial donations be made to the Michael J. Fox Foundation for Parkinson’s Research.

California’s olive pioneers highlighted in award-winning book

A new book that captures the heritage of California’ olive industry is now available from the Robert Mondavi Institute for Wine and Food Science at the University of California, Davis.

The book, "California’s Olive Pioneers: Early Essays on Olives and Olive Oil," brings together for the first time 13 early essays on olive culture in California. It has been selected as a finalist in the Benjamin Franklin Awards Program of the Independent Book Publishers Association, in the areas of gardening/agriculture and science. The award recognizes excellence in independent publishing.

“Being selected as a finalist in these two categories is a signal honor for the Robert Mondavi Institute’s publishing program,” said Axel E. Borg, wine and food science bibliographer at UC Davis’ Shields Library. Borg was instrumental in identifying and selecting materials included in the book.

The essays, written by a broad spectrum of authors ranging from university scientists to California boosters to dedicated olive growers, were handpicked from dozens of late-19th-century newspapers, magazines, bulletins, journals, pamphlets and books.

“This is a collector-quality book that will be enjoyed by book lovers, historians, and olive growers and aficionados, alike,” said Clare Hasler-Lewis, executive director of the Robert Mondavi Institute.

Dan Flynn, executive director of UC Davis’ Olive Center noted that the rapid growth of the state’s olive industry closely followed the California Gold Rush in 1849 and the establishment of the University of California in the 1880s.

“Readers will find that the essays compiled in 'California’s Olive Pioneers' really capture the excitement and commitment of those early-day olive producers,” Flynn said. “This is particularly interesting as we are currently seeing something of a rebirth of the California olive industry in our own generation.”

The new olive book includes several rare publications, as well as the most complete copy to date of an address on olives by Benjamin B. Redding, for whom Redding, Calif., was named.

The foreword was written by Judith M. Taylor, author of "The Olive in California: History of an Immigrant Tree."

“Judith’s foreword gives us a glimpse of those early California olive pioneers, their challenges and their contributions,” said Borg.

The new olive book is bound in 19th-century style, featuring endpapers from a rare copy of University of California horticulturist Edward Wickson’s "The Fruits of California and How to Grow Them" (1891).

Copies of "California’s Olive Pioneers" can be purchased for $75 each at the UC Davis Bookstore, through the Robert Mondavi Institute website at http://rmi.ucdavis.edu, or by contacting Kim Bannister at the Mondavi Institute at (530) 754-6349 or kbannister@ucdavis.edu.

The new olive book is the second in the Robert Mondavi Institute’s series of historical agriculture books, which began with the 2008 edition of “The Wine Press and the Cellar” by Emmet Rixford, released at the institute’s grand opening.

Proceeds from the sale of this book and others in the series will be used to support programs at the Robert Mondavi Institute.

About UC Davis

For more than 100 years, UC Davis has engaged in teaching, research and public service that matter to California and transform the world. Located close to the state capital, UC Davis has 32,000 students, an annual research budget that exceeds $600 million, a comprehensive health system and 13 specialized research centers. The university offers interdisciplinary graduate study and more than 100 undergraduate majors in four colleges — Agricultural and Environmental Sciences, Biological Sciences, Engineering, and Letters and Science. It also houses six professional schools — Education, Law, Management, Medicine, Veterinary Medicine and the Betty Irene Moore School of Nursing.

UC Davis experts on Wall Street reform law

UC Davis has the following experts who can comment on the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act, which was signed into law on July 21.

Corporate governance

Steven Currall, dean of the UC Davis Graduate School of Management and professor of management, is a behavioral scientist who has conducted extensive research on corporate governance and boards of directors. He has advised organizations such as Schlumberger, BMC Software, BP and Shell. He is a member of the boards of the University of California Global Health Institute, BioHouston (chair of Governance Committee), Leadership in Medicine Inc., and Nanotechnology Foundation of Texas. Contact: Steven Currall, Graduate School of Management, (530) 752-7366, scc@ucdavis.edu.

Thomas Joo, a professor of law at the UC Davis School of Law, believes the Dodd-Frank Act does little to address the real problems that caused the banking crisis. It does not break up institutions that are "too big to fail" or impose significant limits on risky activities by banks, he says. The act does contain some reforms, Joo notes, but their exact content is unclear because they depend on further rulemaking by the Securities and Exchange Commission. Joo is an expert on corporate governance and the editor of "Corporate Governance: Law, Theory and Policy." Contact: Thomas Joo, School of Law, (530) 754-6089, twjoo@ucdavis.edu.

Accounting, valuation and the role of information

Paul Griffin, a UC Davis management professor and an internationally recognized specialist in accounting, financial valuation and the role of information in security markets, has been discussing the financial reform legislation in one of his classes. Some of Griffin’s most recent work examines the effects of securities fraud litigation on investors and creditors in securities markets. Contact: Paul Griffin, Graduate School of Management, (530) 752-7372, pagriffin@ucdavis.edu.

Treatment of rating agencies

John Patrick Hunt, acting professor of law at the UC Davis School of Law, has written at length on rating-agency reform in a number of published and forthcoming law-review articles. He also maintains a blog at http://ratingagencylawblog.wordpress.com. Although Congress has taken decisive action to reduce reliance on ratings, Hunt believes it missed opportunities to address conflicts of interest and increase accountability. Contact: John Patrick Hunt, UC Davis School of Law, (530) 752-5052 (office), or (530) 231-5523, jphunt@ucdavis.edu.

Commodities

Aaron Smith, a UC Davis professor of agricultural and resource Economics, studies the prices of agricultural, energy and industrial commodities. In particular, he is interested in what makes such prices move. Since June 2009, he has served as a consultant to the Office of the Chief Economist of the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) on issues related to commodity price volatility. In
his most recent work with the CFTC, Smith has sought to identify which traders in commodity futures markets have information about the future direction of prices and which traders tend to affect prices when they trade. Aaron Smith, Agricultural and Resource Economics, (530) 752-2138, adsmith@ucdavis.edu, http://asmith.ucdavis.edu .

About UC Davis

For more than 100 years, UC Davis has engaged in teaching, research and public service that matter to California and transform the world. Located close to the state capital, UC Davis has 32,000 students, an annual research budget that exceeds $600 million, a comprehensive health system and 13 specialized research centers. The university offers interdisciplinary graduate study and more than 100 undergraduate majors in four colleges — Agricultural and Environmental Sciences, Biological Sciences, Engineering, and Letters and Science. It also houses six professional schools — Education, Law, Management, Medicine, Veterinary Medicine and the Betty Irene Moore School of Nursing.

FOOD, ETC.: Gunrock and Silo olive oils hit the shelves

The Olive Center this week unveiled its 2010 blends — Gunrock and Silo — partly made from campus olives.

The olive oils are available at the bookstore in the Memorial Union. On July 22, when they hit the shelves, the 250-milliliter bottles sold at a one-day-only discounted price of $10. Today (July 23), the regular price applies: $12 a bottle.

Proceeds go to the Olive Center for research and education, “cultivating the growth of the California olive industry.”

And, make no mistake, the Olive Center guarantees that what is in the bottles is “extra virgin” oil — just like it says on the labels. (Last week, the Olive Center reported on its analysis of a sampling of imported and California-produced olive oils — research that revealed that 69 percent of the imported oils and 10 percent of the California-produced oils failed to meet internationally accepted standards for extra virgin olive oil.)

UC Davis has been producing olive oils since 2005, when the Grounds Division saw profit in the bountiful fruit from the campus’s many olive trees.

Due to a record-low campus harvest this year, the Olive Center supplemented its own supply with donations from California Olive Ranch, Oroville; Corto Olive, Stockton; The Olive Press, Sonoma; and Sciabica’s, Modesto.

The new Gunrock blend has “a strong kick down the stretch,” according to the label. The Silo extra virgin blend is medium bodied with a mild peppery finish.

How it all started: "Creative use of fallow olive grove greases campus coffers" (April 15, 2005)

 

EXHIBITIONS

• First Ladies and Fashion: Style Icons on a Political Runway — Through summer, first floor, Shields Library. Summer hours, through Sept. 10: 7:30 a.m.-8 p.m. Monday-Thursday, 7:30 a.m.-6 p.m. Friday, and 1-7 p.m. Sunday. Exception: closed Sept. 6.

• Flatlanders 3 — Third biennial survey of the Davis-Woodland-Sacramento-area art community. Five painters, all of whom work figuratively: Suzanne Adan, James Albertson, Patrick Marasso, Irving Marcus and Jack Ogden. Plus: Mitra Fabian, who is making a wall installation using hundreds of office clips; Ianna Frisby, embroidered drawings inspired by dressmaking pattern illustrations; and Michael Stevens, a sculptor who works in wood, often with painted elements. Through Aug. 15, Nelson Gallery, 124 Art Building Hours: 11 a.m.-5 p.m. Monday-Thursday, 2-5 p.m. Saturday-Sunday, and by appointment on Fridays.

• Imps, Pixies and Other Rascals — Ceramics by Craft Center instructor Radomir Schmidt. Through July 30, Craft Center Gallery, South Silo. Hours: 12:30-10 p.m. Monday-Thursday, 12:30-7 p.m. Friday, and 10 a.m.-6 p.m. Saturday.

• In the Wild — Photojournalist Clyde L. Elmore, a retired UC Davis weed scientist, presents a diverse collection of landscape and wildlife images from North America. Through Aug. 31, Buehler Alumni and Visitors Center. Hours: 8 a.m.-5 p.m. Monday-Friday.

• Mural Sketches: 30 Years of Community Muralism — Preparatory drawings from 30 years of the Chicana/o Studies Mural Workshop. At the TANA community art center, 1224 Lemen Ave., Woodland. The Department of Chicana/o Studies conceived of TANA and runs it; TANA stands for Taller Arte del Nuevo Amanecer, or Art Workshops of the New Dawn.

TANA hours: 3-6 p.m. Tuesday through Thursday (the center often opens as early as noon on these days), and 10 a.m.-4 p.m. Saturday.

• A Woman’s Place: An Exhibit on the History of the Women’s Rights Movement — In celebration of the 90th anniversary of the ratification of the U.S. Constitution's 19th Amendment, in August 1920, giving women the right to vote. The exhibit features books, pamphlets, and other documents and ephemera from the Women's History Collection and other research collections held in the University Library's Special Collections. Items on exhibit include 18th-, 19th- and 20th-century publications documenting the growth and development of the women's rights movement. The exhibit offers a special tribute to the campaign for women's suffrage and provides a wide view of the evolution of social and political views of the "place of women" over the last three centuries. The exhibit puts a special focus on the period between the emergence of a women's movement in the United States in the 19th century and continuing through the emergence in the 1960s and 1970s of a second wave of the movement in the form of the women's liberation movement. Exhibit prepared by John Sherlock of Special Collections. Through summer, lobby, first floor, Shields Library. Summer hours, through Sept. 10: 7:30 a.m.-8 p.m. Monday-Thursday, 7:30 a.m.-6 p.m. Friday, and 1-7 p.m. Sunday. Exception: closed Sept. 6.

THE OUTDOORS: At the arboretum

AT THE ARBORETUM

Folk Music Jams — Pull out your fiddles, guitars, mandolins, penny whistles, pipes, flutes, squeezeboxes — you name it! — and join your fellow musicians during the lunch hour for a little bluegrass, old-time, blues, Celtic, klezmer and other world music. All skill levels welcome. Listeners, too! Noon today (July 23), and Aug. 6 and 20, Wyatt Deck.

Tour — Meet the Mighty Oaks, in one of nation’s largest collections of oaks. This tour will highlight an astonishing variety of tree and leaf forms along the new Oak Discovery Trail. Your guide will discuss oak ecology and the importance of oaks in human culture through time and around the world. 10 a.m. July 24, gazebo.

Tour — An Oak Oasis in August. The arboretum's oak collection, one of the largest in the nation, makes for a shady place in summer. On this walk along the new Oak Discovery Trail, your guide will discuss oak ecology and the importance of oaks in human culture through time and around the world. 10 a.m. Aug. 14, gazebo.

All events are free and open to the public. More information: (530) 752-4880 or arboretum.ucdavis.edu (for directions, click on “Plan Your Visit”).

 

LAURELS: 2 professors going into California Floriculture Hall of Fame

Professors Michael Parrella and Michael Reid are due to be inducted into the California Floriculture Hall of Fame on Aug. 8.

Parrella, chair of the Department of Entomology with a joint appointment in plant sciences, develops integrated pest management strategies for ornamental crops, with an emphasis on biological control. He initiated what has become an annual conference on insect and disease management on ornamentals, sponsored by the Society of American Florists and first held in 1985.

Reid, of the Department of Plant Sciences, is an expert in postharvest physiology and handling of ornamental crops, conducting research on the senescence of ornamental plants, particularly cut flowers and potted plants. With a partial appointment in Cooperative Extension, Reid’s work covers the spectrum from studies of the biochemistry of senescence to application, in the field, of new methods in postharvest technology.

The names of hall of fame inductees are engraved on permanent plaques at the San Francisco Flower Market, the Los Angeles Flower Market and the San Diego International Floral Trade Center.

•••

The American Council of Learned Societies recently awarded fellowships to three UC Davis faculty members and a Ph.D. graduate.

The faculty members received grants of up to $60,000 for specified projects, as follows:

• Catherine Kudlick, professor of history — “Disability and the Hidden History of Smallpox in France, 1700-1900”

• David Simpson, professor, Gwendolyn Bridges Needham Chair in English Literature — “Strangers in the House: Home and World in Romantic Literature”

• Claire Waters, associate professor of English — “Translation, Education, and Salvation in the 13th Century”

The council selected Marisol Cortez for its New Faculty Fellow program, under which she received a two-year appointment in the American Studies Program at the University of Kansas — along with annual payments of $50,000 plus $5,000 for research and travel. She received her Ph.D. in cultural studies, with a dissertation titled "The Ecology of Scatology: Excretory Encounters in American Cultural Life."

The American Council of Learned Societies is a private, nonprofit federation of 70 national scholarly organizations, according to its website, which describes the council as “the preeminent representative of American scholarship in the humanities and related social sciences.”

•••

Frederick Meyers, associate executive dean of the UC Davis Heath System, has been named a fellow of the Royal College of Physicians, London.

Three of his UC Davis colleagues, who themselves are fellows of the Royal College of Physicians, nominated Meyers to join them, based on his exemplary service and achievements in palliative care and his extraordinary work as a medical educator.

His nominators: Timothy Albertson, chair of the Department of Internal Medicine; Andrew Chan, associate professor of pulmonary and critical care medicine; and Joseph Leung, professor of gastroenterology and hepatology.

Meyers has distinguished himself in the areas of hospice and “simultaneous care,” in which patients have the opportunity to receive investigative treatments along with palliative care. Also, he led the internal medicine department's expansion of academic medicine.

Among his responsibilities as executive associate dean, Meyers oversees the School of Medicine’s research, teaching, clinical care and community engagement, as well as efforts to foster basic, translational and clinical research.

•••

An international communications organization recently presented a bronze award to Alison Van Eenennaam for an educational video that she produced, Animal Biotechnology.

Van Eenennaam, an extension specialist in biotechnology, in the Department of Animal Science, received the award from the Association for Communication Excellence in Agriculture, Natural Resources and Life and Human Sciences, comprising communicators, educators and information technologists.

College and high school students and interested members of the general public comprise the target audience for Animal Biotechnology. As of the middle of July, the video had drawn more than 22,000 views on You Tube. (You can also see the video here.)

The video addresses biotechnology’s medical and agricultural applications, and some of the science-based and ethical concerns surrounding these applications.

The same association also recognized two UC Davis communicators:

• Diane Nelson, senior writer, Department of Plant Sciences — Gold award in the special publication category, for “Exploring Ecosystem Management,” which appeared in the spring 2009 edition of the department’s biannual magazine, The Leaflet. In addition, Nelson received the association’s award for outstanding professional skill.

• Kathy Keatley Garvey, senior writer, Department of Entomology — Gold award in the newspaper category, for “The Young Bee Crusaders: Working to Save the Honeybees,” about children’s efforts to help save honeybees in the face of colony collapse disorder.

The association presented a silver award to Janet White, executive editor, and Janet Byron, managing editor, of UC Agriculture and Natural Resources’ quarterly journal, California Agriculture. The award honored their work on the April-June 2009 issue, “‘Unequivocal’: “How Climate Change Will Transform California.”

Also, Byron received a regional “pioneer” award, in recognition of the work she has done in the early part of her career — exceptional leadership and technical skills, and significant contributions to the association.

The association gave a bronze award for the online version of California Agriculture.

 

 

Summer program spells m-u-s-i-c-a-l, Sept. 16-26

The posters declare, “If you like (the television show) Glee, you’ll love this Tony Award-winning Broadway musical!”

The musical is The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee, scheduled to be presented Sept. 16-26 as the culmination of a Department of Theatre and Dance Summer Sessions program, open to students, staff, faculty and the general public.

The department has brought in three-time Granada Artist-in-Residence Mindy Cooper as director. The Broadway director, choreographer and performer led the UC Davis productions of Urinetown: The Musical in the spring of 2007 and Oklahoma! in the spring of 2009.

She is due back the spring for another Granada stint, this time as director of The Who’s Tommy.

This summer, though, Cooper is dealing with six teens who are vying in The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee, featuring such numbers as “I’m Not That Smart,” “The I Love You Song“ and “Pandemonium.”

The competition, according to the Department of Theatre and Dance, “is hilariously out of control, with supernatural trances, magic body parts, ulterior motives and peer and parental pressure.”

The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee opened on Broadway in 2005, earning six nominations for Tony Awards — and winning two, for best book of a musical and best featured actor.

Says the Department of Theatre and Dance: “This heartwarming musical captures the carefree spirit of youth while bringing out the nerd in all of us!”

AT A GLANCE

WHAT: The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee

WHEN: 8 p.m. Sept. 16-18 and 23-25, and 2 p.m. Sept. 19 and 26

WHERE: Main Theatre

ADVISORY: The Department of Theatre and Dance rates this production PG-13 (based on the Motion Picture Association of America’s rating system, which says this for PG-13: “Parents strongly cautioned. Some material may be inappropriate for children under 13.)

TICKETS are available in advance through the Mondavi Center box office, (530) 754-2787 or (866) 754-2787, or mondaviarts.org; and, depending on availability, will be sold at door starting one-half hour before curtain time.

 

 

UC Davis technology projects win honors

Two UC Davis initiatives were among 10 efforts named on July 19 as award winners of UC's Larry L. Sautter Award for Innovation in Information Technology.

UC Davis' Cohort Discovery earned a golden award for "innovation in information technology." Developed by the UC Davis Health System, this project allows researchers to more efficiently identify research subjects for clinical trials using patient databases while adhering to patient privacy regulations.

The PhysicianConnect initiative, also launched by the UC Davis Health System, was recognized with an honorable mention award. This tool gives referring physicians the ability to better access patient information.

All Sautter recipients were honored at the annual UC Computing Services Conference on July 19 at UCLA. Other recipents of gold or silver awards this year hailed from UC San Diego, UC Irvine, UC Riverside and the UC Office of the President.

The systemwide award recognizes information technology innovations that advance UC's mission of teaching, research, public service and patient care, or that improve administrative processes. For further details, see www.ucop.edu/irc/itlc/sautter.