Research news from the College of Letters and Science

L&S FACULTY CALL FOR 2023 DEAN'S FACULTY FELLOWS

April 2023

$4M Grant Helps Expand Open Education Platform Founded by UC Davis Professor

L&S FACULTY CALL FOR LARGE GRANT PROPOSALS

Welcome to the UC Davis College of Letters and Science monthly research newsletter. In each issue, we highlight stories about cutting-edge research and celebrate new grants and prestigious awards for our faculty and students. I hope you’ll be as inspired as I am by the brilliant minds in the College.

Sincerely,

Estella Atekwana, Dean

Climate Trends in the West Today and 11,000 Years Ago

People often say things like Phoenix has always been dry; Seattle has always been wet; and San Francisco has always been foggy. But “always” is a strong word. A study from the UC Davis Department of Earth and Planetary Sciences synthesizes climate trends across the Western U.S. during a relatively young and lesser-studied period of Earth’s history — the Holocene Era, which stretches from the present day to the past 11,000 years.

UC Davis-Led Startup Develops Novel Tech to Increase Dietary Fiber's Health Benefits

The consumption of dietary fiber is linked to many health benefits, including a reduction in cancer, chronic inflammatory disease, metabolic disease, cardiovascular disease and even depression. Distinguished Professor of Chemistry Carlito B. Lebrilla and other UC Davis researchers are paving a path to commercialize a new technology they hope will make dietary fiber easier to add into food and more acceptable to the consumer.

11 College of Letters and Science Faculty Members Receive Research Revitalization Grants

Eleven faculty members from the College of Letters and Science at UC Davis were recently awarded Revitalization Research Program Grants. Intended to support faculty whose research programs have been impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic, the college-funded grants support the continuation or completion of stalled, high-priority projects.

Davis Science Café Creates

Conversations Between Community and Researchers

Created over 10 years ago by Professor of Chemistry Jared Shaw, the Davis Science Café meets on the second Wednesday of each month to provide an avenue for the community to learn about the current state of science across its many disciplines. It’s a modern-day version of the intellectual salons of the past where science and the community meet face-to-face for a conversation.

Mobile App Founded by UC Davis Physics Student Empowers Socially Responsible Investors

An app founded by physics graduate student Daniel Naim is poised to revolutionize financial investing for the socially conscious. Fennel, a mobile investing app that gives users insights into a company’s environmental, social and governance metrics, was recently named one of Fast Company’s “10 most innovative companies in personal finance of 2023" and has raised roughly $8.5 million in seed funding.

23rd Annual R. Bryan Miller Symposium To Be Held April 13-14

Featuring a stellar lineup of high-profile speakers and leading-edge researchers in chemical biology, organic, medicinal and pharmaceutical chemistry, the R. Bryan Miller Symposium creates a pipeline between academia and industry, allowing students to network, present their research and learn skills pivotal to their future professional careers. The free event, which will be both in-person and livestreamed on Zoom, will be held at the UC Davis Conference Center.

MORE RESEARCH NEWS

HONORS

R. David Britt, a distinguished professor of chemistry, was recently named the 2023 American Chemical Society National Award recipient of the Alfred Bader Award in Bioinorganic or Bioorganic Chemistry. The award, sponsored by the Alfred Bader Fund, honors Alfred Bader, a Canadian chemist who was named one of the "Top 75 Distinguished Contributors to the Chemical Enterprise.”

Two faculty in the College of Letters and Science at UC Davis have been recognized by their campus peers for outstanding teaching. Camelia Hostinar, associate professor of psychology, is a recipient of the Academic Senate Distinguished Teaching Award: Undergraduate. Tim Brelinski, a continuing lecturer in classics, received the Academic Federation’s Excellence in Undergraduate Teaching Award.

Marianne Page, a professor of economics, was recently honored by Napa Valley winemaker Kira Ballotta. Page appears on the label of The Sage, an organic red blend wine created by Ballotta for her Cantadora brand that celebrates Page and two other women “doing extraordinary things in support of their communities.”

Jaimey Fisher, professor of German and cinema and digital media, and David Masiel, continuing lecturer in the University Writing Program, have been recognized for their outstanding global engagement work with Chancellor’s Awards for Excellence in Teaching of Study Abroad Awards.

English professors Tobias Menely and Elizabeth Miller were recently recognized for their books. Menely's book Climate and the Making of Worlds: Toward a Geohistorical Poetics recently won the Michelle Kendrick Book Prize from the Society for Literature, Science, and the Arts and the Robert Penn Warren-Cleanth Brooks Award for literary scholarship and criticism. Miller's book Extraction Ecologies and the Literature of the Long Exhaustion recently won the 2022 Stansky Prize from the North American Conference on British Studies and received an Ecocritical Book Award Honorable Mention from the Association for the Study of Literature and Environment.