UC Davis historian Charles Walker, an expert at searching for clues to Peru’s past, was surprised to discover recently that he was a clue himself — in a crossword puzzle in a Peruvian newspaper.

When Queen Máxima of the Netherlands visited San Francisco this week to celebrate her country’s economic ties with California, a UC Davis couple was on hand to celebrate their own Dutch connections and to represent the campus. Husband and wife psychology professors George “Ron” Mangun, who is American, and Tamara Swaab, who is Dutch, were invited guests at a Sept. 6 royal reception at San Francisco City Hall.

As an economics major with a passion for fashion, Jae Allen conceived a plan to help people declutter their closets and to keep unwanted outfits out of landfills. Before graduating last June, Allen found his way to the UC Davis Student Startup Center, where campus and business mentors helped him flesh out his business plan. As the center’s first entrepreneur-in-residence, he is preparing to launch his company, Ouros.

Scholars from around the globe will gather at UC Davis for a major conference on the study of Jainism, one of the world’s oldest religions, and other South Asian religions. The conference is organized through the recently established Mohini Jain Presidential Chair for Jain Studies in the Department of Religious Studies. It will be held Aug. 11–14.

Charan Ranganath, a professor of psychology and director of the UC Davis Memory and Plasticity Program, has been selected for a Psychonomic Society 2022 Mid-Career Award for his research on the science of human memory. Ranganath is one of three scholars worldwide chosen to receive the award from the international society.

Suad Joseph, Distinguished Research Professor of Anthropology and Gender, Sexuality and Women’s Studies, is among a cohort of three interdisciplinary teams awarded $45,000 each from the American Council of Learned Societies (ACLS) to advance public understanding of global religions. The new award builds on an ongoing UC Davis project on Muslim women and the media, as well as a New York Times media project, both led by Joseph. “Decolonizing the Representation of Muslim Women in the Media: Training Next Generation Journalists” is an extension of Joseph's 25 years as general editor of "Encyclopedia of Women and Islamic Cultures."

The image of young adults living in a hookup culture with emotionally meaningless relationships is a common theme in movies and daytime talk shows. But it seems not to be the norm in real college life, according to a study from UC Davis Psychology led by Paul Eastwick.

Filmmaker Joseph Patel won both an Oscar and a Grammy this spring for the documentary Summer of Soul. The UC Davis economics alumnus credits his success to campus radio station KDVS.

A five-year, National Institutes of Health-funded study that revealed new insights into teen bullying, dating violence and substance use is getting a sequel — this time looking at long-term impacts of racism.