This past Sunday, we welcomed more than 1,000 College of Biological Sciences students to the UC Davis alumni ranks ( view the event photo album).

As I shook the hand of each new graduate, I reflected on the diversity of experiences that brought them to this momentous day. 

Despite the many paths our graduates walked as students, one trait is shared in common: they are well-prepared for success. They participated in research labs, held internships and some even had their work published in scientific journals. 

One outstanding example comes from Emily Eijansantos, a neurobiology, physiology and behavior graduate who researched heart disease in the lab of Associate Professor Aldrin Gomes. Emily was honored with the University Medal as the top graduating senior at UC Davis (marking the second year in a row that a student from our college received this campus-wide honor). I encourage you to read her story. 

We are extremely proud of each of our graduates, and we look forward to the impacts they will make in our world.

Go Ags!

During her second year of undergraduate research in the lab of Aldrin Gomes, Emily Eijansantos felt ready for a solo project. She’d spent her sophomore year learning the lab’s techniques and shadowing more experienced undergraduates. But like many things in life, the project had its hurdles.

There’s a lot to see on the UC Davis campus, and Department of Evolution and Ecology faculty Sharon Strauss and Laci Gerhart-Barley designed “Wild Davis” with a simple goal: to connect new students with the plants and animals that also call UC Davis home.

Tiny lizards in the Bahamas are providing scientists with new insights into evolution in isolated environments. In a new paper in the journal Science, Distinguished Professor of Evolution and Ecology Thomas Schoener and his colleagues analyzed the risk-taking actions of the brown anole to better understand how natural selection influences animal behavior.

Pew Charitable Trusts has announced Kassandra Ori-McKenney as a 2018 Pew Biomedical Scholar, one of the most prestigious honors of its kind. With a four-year, $300,000 grant, Ori-McKenney, an assistant professor of molecular and cellular biology, will investigate the role of a protein called tau in traumatic brain injury.

In winter 2014, Professor Sean Burgess, Department of Molecular and Cellular Biology, decided to create The Aggie Transcript, a life sciences publication featuring undergraduate writing. After winning the UC Davis Advancing Academic and Career Goals Award, the publication recently released its second print issue.

Hearing loss is a substantial problem for society. It’s the third most common physical condition and about 30 percent of adults between ages 65 and 74 and nearly half of people over 75 experience some difficulty hearing. Recanzone learned firsthand the limits of his own hearing while performing an experiment.