A mathematician, a linguist, a chemist and a physicist are among this year’s cohort to receive Incentives for Large Grant Awards from the College of Letters and Science at UC Davis. The Incentives for Large Grant Awards program provides faculty with up to $80,000 in support over two years to pursue large grants over $1 million. “Large proposals require a significant investment of time and resources,” according to the Strategic Initiatives team behind the Incentives for Large Grant Awards program. “Often, our faculty are unable to pursue large grants because there is simply insufficient time to devote to proposal development and submission.” The Incentives for Large Grant Awards program aims to ease that difficulty.
If you missed the most recent Winston Ko Professorship in Science Leadership Lecture, you still have the opportunity to check out the presentation. On May 15, Squire J. Booker, an esteemed biochemist from Pennsylvania State University, presented a lecture titled “A Radical Approach to Antibiotic Resistance.” Check out the lecture!
Led by researchers from UC Davis, Digestiva is developing a cutting-edge solution of specialized enzymes to enhance the nutritional efficacy of dietary proteins. Their goal is to make proteins more easily digestible, which may allow people to access the full health benefits of proteins without compromising their cultural and personal connections to food.
We’ve all heard the advice, “Eat more fiber.”
But the reality behind that seemingly simple recommendation is much more complex when it comes to human health. As part of a $3.7 million National Institutes of Health-funded project, UC Davis scientists are building a library of biomarkers associated with specific fiber food sources as they pass through the gut. The goal is to build a comprehensive understanding of the structural diversity of fibers and how those structures influence digestive health.
The Mahoney Institute for Neurosciences at the University of Pennsylvania recently gave David Olson, founding director of the UC Davis institute, its Rising Star Award in Neurobiology of Psychedelics. The award, according to Penn, honors a researcher “at the forefront of unraveling the mechanisms underlying the actions of psychedelics in the brain or translating these discoveries into interventions that preserve, restore and enhance brain function.”
Two UC Davis chemistry graduate researchers have been selected to spend several months to a year conducting research at U.S. Department of Energy national laboratories. Anna Csencsits Kundmann and Anna Wannenmacher are among the 87 awardees from 58 universities selected to participate in the Office of Science Graduate Research (SCGSR) program. According to the DOE, graduate researchers selected to participate in the program are working on research projects “that addresses critical energy, environmental and nuclear challenges at national and international scales.”
Distinguished Professor R. David Britt and Distinguished Professor Emeritus Phillip R. Shaver are among UC Davis’ newest members of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.
Squire J. Booker, an esteemed biochemist from Pennsylvania State University, will visit UC Davis for a free, in-person event on Monday, May 15 at 4 p.m. in the ARC Ballroom. His presentation is titled “A Radical Approach to Antibiotic Resistance.”
Beneath the concrete world discernible to our senses is a world of building blocks. A world of molecules, and beneath that, atoms. The organization of these individual parts dictates the properties of materials. In Professor of Chemistry Davide Donadio's lab, Frank Cerasoli, a postdoctoral researcher, uses computer simulations to model materials at the molecular level, with the hope of discovering new materials that can advance our technologies.
Three College of Letters and Science graduate students will test their research communication prowess at the upcoming 2023 UC Davis Grad Slam. Created and organized by Graduate Studies, the competition provides 10 graduate students the opportunity to present a three-minute pitch about their research. The competition will be held at the UC Davis Graduate Center on April 6 from 1 p.m. to 3 p.m.
