Professors James Carey, entomology, and Peter Wainwright, evolution and ecology, are among 12 new fellows of the California Academy of Sciences, whose public face is the physical academy — an aquarium, a planetarium, a natural history museum and a four-story rainforest — in San Francisco’s Golden Gate Park.
Behind the scenes, the academy has a staff of more than 50 professional educators and Ph.D.-level scientists, supported by more than 100 research and field associates, and more than 300 fellows, who govern the academy.
Carey specializes in invasion biology and insect biodemography, addressing questions of life span, male-female mortality differentials and the gender gap, aging in the wild, behavioral gerontology, dynamics of morbidity and mortality, and the biology and demography of disability.
Wainwright is broadly interested in the evolution of organismal design. His research seeks to identify general patterns, repeating themes, and principles of how the complex muscle-skeleton system of fishes is modified during evolution to produce the diversity we see in function and ecology.
The California Academy of Sciences is at the forefront of efforts to understand and protect the diversity of Earth's living things. It conducts research in 11 scientific fields: anthropology, aquatic biology, botany, comparative genomics, entomology, geology, herpetology, ichthyology, invertebrate zoology, mammalogy and ornithology.
•••
Music professor Anna Maria Busse Berger is the recipient of a Lise Meitner Fellowship for a 15-month residency in Vienna.
During the fellowship, from 2011 to 2012, she intends to conduct research for a book, Between Orality and Literacy: Music in the Moravian Missions, 1732-2009, investigating the vibrant music traditions of German Moravians — traditions based primarily on singing and improvisation of chorales.
Busse Berger hopes to explain how the Moravians transmitted their music and how it became altered during Moravian missionaries’ travels around the world.
Moravians used improvisation for religious purposes because they felt that only through the unpredictability of improvisation could they become close to the Holy Spirit.
As part of her fellowship, Busse Berger intends to examine Moravian archives in Tanzania and Greenland.
•••
The Brown-Nichols Science Award, which promotes the practice of good science in regard to the San Francisco Estuary and watershed, has once again found a home at UC Davis, this year going to fish biologist Peter Moyle, recognizing his long engagement in management and public policy.
Moyle is a professor in the Department of Wildlife, Fish and Conservation Biology, and associate director of the Center for Watershed Sciences. Over his four-decade career, he has become known for documenting the declining status of many native California species as well as invasions by alien species.
Upon hearing the announcement of Moyle’s selection for the award, the audience at the sixth annual Bay-Delta Conference stood in ovation — underscoring Moyle’s status as California’s most broadly knowledgeable fish expert.
The Brown-Nichols award is given every two years. The first award, given in 2008, went to Sam Luoma, outreach and policy coordinator at the John Muir Institute of the Environment.
•••
Professor Ning Pan recently received an honorary doctorate from the Technical University of Liberec, Czech Republic, for his "extraordinary contributions to the development of scientific research in the field of fibrous materials.”
Pan holds a dual appointment in the Division of Textiles and Clothing, and the Department of Biological and Agricultural Engineering. His research in textile engineering focuses on the physical properties of fibers and fibrous structures, on carbon nanotube synthesis and nano supercapacitors, and on biomechanics and physiology of textile-body interactions.
•••
UC Davis Extension recently presented outstanding service awards to six faculty members:
• Jean Xavier Guinard, whose online courses in the Sensory Science and Consumer Testing Certificate Program continue to draw students from around the world. Guinard, a professor in the Department of Food Science and Technology, recently became director of the UC system’s Education Abroad Program.
• Karen McDonald, professor and associate dean in the College of Engineering, described as being instrumental in creating cutting-edge programs and establishing relationships with top-ranked universities in East Asia and India.
• Michael Hill, associate professor, Department of Mechanical and Aeronautical Engineering, who has taught the flagship course in UC Davis Extension’s Emergency Aviation Safety Management Certificate Program for the past five years, attracting more than 150 students from throughout the United States and abroad.
• Tingrui Pan, assistant professor, Department of Biomedical Engineering, and the academic director of UC Davis Extension's GREAT (Global Research Experience in Advanced Technologies) Program, which brings Asian university undergraduates to UC Davis for three-month periods of research and study.
• Charles Shoemaker, professor, Department of Food Science and Technology, acknowledging his contributions to the growing partnership between Jiangnan University (China) and UC Davis Extension’s Center for International Education.
• Peter Yellowlees, professor, Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Scinces, chair of the Health Informatics Graduate Program, and director of Academic Information Systems at the UC Davis Health System, recognizing his collaboration with UC Davis Extension in developing an online program in health informatics.
•••
Professor Nathan Kuppermann, a nationally recognized expert in pediatric emergency medicine, has been elected to the Institute of Medicine, as announced at the institute’s 40th annual meeting.
Although it is part of the National Academies of Sciences, the institute is independent — working outside of government to provide unbiased and authoritative advice to decision-makers and the public.
The institute elects 65 new members and five foreign associates each year. With their election, members make a commitment to volunteer their service on the institute’s committees, boards and other activities.
Kuppermann holds the Bo Tomas Brofeldt Endowed Chair in the Department of Emergency Medicine and serves as department chair.
•••
Dateline welcomes news of faculty and staff awards, for publication in Laurels. Send information to dateline@ucdavis.edu.
Media Resources
Dave Jones, Dateline, 530-752-6556, dljones@ucdavis.edu