Washington, D.C. – February 14, 2025 – The American Academy of Microbiology (the Academy) has elected Maria Marco and 64 peers to the Class of 2025.

Food and wine are more than just great flavors – they reflect the stories of communities and traditions. Darrell Corti, a Sacramento food and wine expert, has spent a lifetime sharing those stories, enriching California’s culinary landscape with his introduction of new tastes, ingredients and varietals.

A big congratulations to Dr. Maria Marco's lab for their Grand Prize win in the UC Safety Services 2024 Laboratory Safety Awards Program!  The Marco lab was the semi-finalist for the College of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences, and won the grand prize against five other semi-finalists; one each from the College of Letters & Science, the College of Biological Sciences, the College of Engineering, the School of Veterinary Medicine and the School of Medicine.

Poll Zhang, an undergraduate in Dr. Alyson Mitchell's lab, presented in the 2024 Summer Undergraduate Research Center Symposium. Poll received an undergraduate fellowship from the Innovation Institute for Food and Health.  This was a six-week fellowship that resulted in her talk, titled “Almond Shells: An Innovative Solution for Winery Wastewater and Their Potential as a Health-Enhancing Food Supplement”, which you can see her presenting in the pictures below.  

The Student Startup Center at the University of California, Davis, shined a spotlight on student-led startups at PLASMA Demo Day, the culminating experience of their 12-week early-stage cohort accelerator program.

Ten teams of undergraduate student entrepreneurs pitched their companies to industry experts in front of a packed California Hall on May 2. Of them, five were awarded more than $25,000 in prizes.

A huge congratulations to Donpon (Dawn) Wannasin on her being awarded the prestigious and competitive IFT Feeding Tomorrow Fund Dr. Elwood F. Caldwell Graduate Fellowship! Dawn, a first-year Ph.D. student in Selina Wang's lab, was awarded the $25,000 fellowship for her research which focuses on the extraction and characterization of phenolic compounds and other important bioactives in agricultural and food byproducts for potential food and supplement application to improve human and planetary health. 

Graduate Studies and Graduate Council are thrilled to honor four extraordinary faculty members with the Distinguished Graduate and Postdoctoral Mentorship Awards. These awards shine a light on the power of mentorship in shaping the academic and professional journeys of UC Davis graduate students and postdoctoral scholars. 

Bruce Hammock, Distinguished Professor
Department of Entomology and Nematology

Congratulations to Dr. Selina Wang for winning the 2024 Timothy L. Mounts award, given by the American Oil Chemists Society Edible Applications Technology Division. The award recognizes research related to the science and technology of edible oils or derivatives in food products, which may be basic or applied in nature. This award commemorates Timothy Mounts as a distinguished scientist and leader who made numerous contributions to the science and technology of edible fats and oils.