Two University of California, Davis, professors are among seven of the world’s leading biomedical researchers selected to give presentations this year in the Harvey Lecture series that has previously featured most recipients of the Nobel Prize in physiology or medicine.
Stephen Kowalczykowski, Distinguished Professor in the Department of Microbiology, College of Biological Sciences, gave his lecture, “Watching Individual Proteins Working on Single Molecules of DNA: From Biophysics to Cancer,” on March 15.
Jodi Nunnari, chair of the Department of Molecular and Cellular Biology, also in the College of Biological Sciences, is scheduled to give her address on May 17, on the topic “The Behavior of Mitochondria.”
The sponsoring Harvey Society was founded in 1905 by a group of New York scientists and physicians to forge a closer relationship between practical medicine and laboratory experiments. The society’s namesake is William Harvey (1578-1657), the English physician who first proposed that the heart pumps blood around the body.
Each year the society sponsors seven lectures, free public talks, at Rockefeller University in New York. The collected lectures are published in book form every year.
•ĢĢ
Professor Adela de la Torre of the University of California, Davis, has had a new Latino honor society named after her at Northern Illinois University.
ٺƵ alumna Emily Prieto, director of NIU’s Latino Resource Center, founded the honor society and named it after her mentor, a professor in the ٺƵ Department of Chicana/o Studies.
Prieto holds three degrees from ٺƵ: a Bachelor of Arts in community rhetoric (2002), a master’s degree in sociocultural studies (2005) and a doctorate in language, literacy and culture (2007).
She has been director of the NIU Latino Resource Center since August 2007.
The Dr. Adela de la Torre Honor Society aims to recognize and promote excellence among Latinos, build student leaders and help render service through a unified effort, according to the society’s mission statement.
De La Torre, a national expert on Chicano and Latino health issues, last year received a five-year, $4.8 million federal grant for a Central Valley study titled "Niños Sanos, Familia Sana" (Healthy Children, Healthy Family), to discover the best ways to help Mexican-heritage children maintain healthy weights.
The study will take place in the Central Valley towns of Firebaugh and San Joaquin.
•ĢĢ
Professor Emerita Sarah Hrdy of the University of California, Davis, has been awarded the J.I. Staley Prize, often called the Pulitzer Prize of anthropology, for her book Mothers and Others: The Evolutionary Origins of Mutual Understanding.
“The award recognizes innovative works that go beyond traditional frontiers and dominant schools of thought in anthropology and add new dimensions to our understanding of the human species,” states the award website.
Hrdy joined the faculty of the Department of Anthropology in 1984 and took emeritus status in 1996. She is an elected member of the National Academy of Sciences, the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, the American Philosophical Society and the California Academy of Sciences.
The Staley award presentation is planned in November during the American Anthropological Association’s annual meeting, scheduled to be held this year in San Francisco.
•ĢĢ
Ramona Hernandez, a Student Housing administrator at the University of California, Davis, is on her way to becoming president of the Western Association of College and University Housing Officers, or WACUHO.
Hernandez is director of Business Services for Student Housing, after previously serving as an associate director from 2009 to 2011. She joined ٺƵ in 2001 as manager of privatized housing.
She has been active in WACUHO for many years. She served as treasurer for two years (2008-10) before being elected recently as president-elect, to hold office in 2013-14.
She has served on many committees, including finance advisory (five years, including three as chair), legislative affairs and corporate relations.
She was chair of WACUHO’s annual conference in 2008, the year ٺƵ hosted the event (in Sacramento).
•ĢĢ
"Egghead," the campuswide research blog at the University of California, Davis, is “an academic paradise,” one of the “50 Best Must-Read College Campus Blogs,” according to Online Colleges, a website that aims to help students choose where to pursue higher education.
“Featuring research conducted by ٺƵ students and staff, visitors can read up on the latest science news,” states the "Egghead" description in the Online College list.
University Communications science writer Andy Fell writes and compiles "Egghead," which, according to Online Colleges, lives up its name.
The top 50 blogs are broken into eight categories, including dean and administrator blogs, student blogs, sports blogs, political blogs and mixed bag, for “blogs that refuse to be categorized.”
"Egghead" fell into the category of “Learning Beyond the Book: Academic Blogs.”
Media Resources
Dave Jones, Dateline, 530-752-6556, dljones@ucdavis.edu