When COVID-19 reached pandemic level in March, two researchers in the UC Davis College of Letters and Science rapidly switched their focus to combatting the new coronavirus.
Annaliese Franz, professor in the Department of Chemistry, is one of seven scientists at UC Davis who are receiving grants to advance research and innovations with commercial potential. The recipients are addressing an important range of challenges — from cancer to climate change — with unique solutions.
Jane-Ling Wang, distinguished professor of statistics, has received a Humboldt Research Award in recognition of her lifetime achievements in statistics.
Two UC Davis student teams are taking part in the international Biodesign Challenge June 15–19. They are among 45 finalists from 12 countries who will present their projects during the virtual Biodesign Challenge Summit 2020. This is the first year UC Davis has had two teams in the competition. Five of the seven students are in the College of Letters and Science.
To stay a step ahead of the virus, an interdisciplinary team of UC Davis researchers will use mathematics, data science and experimental biology to predict potential mutations of the novel coronavirus. The proposed research was recently funded by a $200,000 RAPID grant from the National Science Foundation.
The ichthyosaurs were sleek, dolphin-like marine reptiles that roamed the oceans while dinosaurs ruled on land. But the earliest known member of the group was a short, seal-like animal that could likely pull itself onto land.
Now, scanning of that animal’s skull shows that it likely fed on hard-shelled animals such as shellfish and crabs. The appearance of similar teeth in other ichthyosaurs gives insight into how these animals were evolving in the wake of the mass extinction at the end of the Permian era, 250 million years ago.
The 2016 Dishchii’bikoh meteorite fall in the White Mountain Apache reservation in central Arizona has given scientists a big clue to finding out where so-called LL chondrites call home.
