Marie Heffern, assistant professor of chemistry, was awarded a prestigious CAREER grant from the National Science Foundation (NSF) this month. The NSF Faculty Early Career Development (CAREER) program funds junior faculty who perform outstanding research, are excellent educators and include outreach in their work. Heffern is the third faculty member in the UC Davis Department of Chemistry to receive a CAREER award in 2021.

Two undergraduate students, a professor and a graduate student in the UC Davis College of Letters and Science recently received 2021 Chancellor’s Awards for Excellence in Undergraduate Research. Since 1994, these awards have recognized outstanding undergraduate students for their research, scholarship or creative activity and faculty, graduate students and postdoctorate individuals for excellence in mentorship.

Camelia Hostinar, an assistant professor of psychology, will receive an American Psychological Association early career award for her research investigating how poverty influences children’s development.

As part of a $1.8 million award from the UC Office of the President, Assistant Professor of Chicana/o Studies Ofelia Ortiz Cuevas will examine how artists around the world have created public protest art. She plans to bring artists from Cuba, Vietnam, the Middle East, Africa and other places together for a symposium, create a graphic publication and organize an exhibition of their work.

Four doctoral candidates in the UC Davis College of Letters and Science have been awarded yearlong fellowships from the American Council of Learned Societies to research and write their dissertations.

Northeastern China is home to one of the world’s most remarkable collections of dinosaur fossils. The Jehol biota contains fossils of dinosaurs, plants, insects and fish, many of them preserved in unusual detail with traces of skin and feathers, dating back to the Early Cretaceous period 101 to 143 million years ago.