UC Davis Professors Bring Chemical Engineering Back to Its Whiskey Roots

Chemical engineering professor Greg Miller and chemistry professor Mike Toney teach the “Chemical and Engineering Principles in Whiskey and Fuel Alcohol” (ECH/CHE 168) course at UC Davis, which teaches undergraduate students the chemical engineering and chemistry of making whiskey.

Physicist Robin Erbacher Makes List of World's Top Female Scientists

Robin Erbacher, a professor in the Department of Physics and Astronomy, College of Letters and Science, has been recognized among the top female scientists around the globe, as assessed by Research.com in its first ranking of the “Best Female Scientists in the World."

Justin Siegel Elected to National Academy of Inventors

Chemist Justin Siegel is one of two UC Davis faculty members elected to the National Academy of Inventors’ 2022 class of fellows. Siegel's work in computational enzyme engineering is focused on discovering catalysts that improve health and environmental outcomes. He holds more than 100 global patents and has co-founded eight startups in the last 10 years.

Color on the Mind

Would you feel less nervous being rolled into an MRI surrounded by an amber glow? Get more out of your meditation sessions bathed in blue light?

Resilience and 'La Familia'

Now in its 16th year, the California Families Project looks at the development of children of Mexican origin and a wide range of characteristics — individual, family, neighborhood, school and culture — that help them succeed in life. The landmark UC Davis study is the most comprehensive longitudinal study of its kind in the United States.

Multicampus Carbon Capture and Conversion Center Launched

Two UC Davis chemistry professors are part of a new multicampus center aimed at developing basic science for converting carbon dioxide into fuels and chemicals. The Center for Closing the Carbon Cycle, 4C, is led by Professor Jenny Yang at UC Irvine and involves investigators from 12 universities along with three U.S. Department of Energy national laboratories. The center is funded with a grant of more than $10 million from the DOE. 

Faculty Develop New Calculus Course for Social Science Majors

Data increasingly drives research and policy on a broad array of pressing global issues, including climate change, misinformation in social media, and the future of the social safety net in our aging society. A new mathematics course in the works at UC Davis will help to prepare the next generation of social scientists to analyze and use data in mathematical models.

Faculty Couple Attend Dutch Royal Reception

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.

Annaliese Franz Named Fellow of the American Chemical Society

Annaliese Franz, professor of chemistry, was recently selected as a 2022 American Chemical Society Fellow. Franz is one of 45 chemists across the country named in August as 2022 fellows for their outstanding contributions to science, the chemistry profession and the ACS.

Scientists Pinpoint 1 Reason Why Women May Not Respond to Depression Treatments the Same as Men

Although treatments for depression exist, sometimes these treatments don’t work for many who use them. Furthermore, women experience higher rates of depression than men, yet the cause for this difference is unknown, making their illnesses, at times, more complicated to treat. UC Davis researchers teamed up with scientists from Mount Sinai Hospital, Princeton University, and Laval University, Quebec, to try to understand how a specific part of the brain, the nucleus accumbens, is affected during depression.