Honors and accomplishments for CA&ES faculty, staff and students

Mench named honorary fellow of International Society for Applied Ethology 

Joy Mench, professor emeritus in the Department of Animal Science, has been named an honorary fellow of the International Society for Applied Ethology (ISAE). She is only the third fellow named from the United States in the ISAE’s 52-year history. 

Mench’s research has focused on animal behavior in the context of improving the welfare of animals kept on farms, as companions, and in research laboratories and zoos. Most of her research has been with poultry─examining topics such as handling and transport and understanding the welfare aspects and overall sustainability of conventional and alternative housing systems for egg-laying hens and meat chickens. She has also conducted research evaluating the causes of abnormal behaviors in managed and captive animals, such as feather picking by companion parrots and repetitive movements in zoo-housed elephants and giraffes, and she has explored methods for reducing these behaviors. She has taught courses in animal welfare and the ethics of animal use, and was a member of numerous state, national and international scientific advisory committees and boards on animal welfare.

Three UC Davis students among 2018 Switzer Environmental Fellows

Three UC Davis graduate students are among the 20 environmental scholars chosen as 2018 recipients of the Switzer Environmental Fellowship, a program of the Robert and Patricia Switzer Foundation. The students include: 

• Erik Grijalva (Ph.D., Restoration Ecology) —Restoring tidal marshes in ways that anticipate and prepare for a changing climate
• Lauren Howe (M.S., International Agricultural Development) —Empowering youth and women in developing countries through sustainable, nutrition-sensitive farming          
• Matthew Williamson (Ph.D., Ecology) —Using spatial analysis to assess the probability of future conservation success

The Switzer Foundation supports and nurtures emerging environmental leaders through academic funding, leadership training and preparation for policy impact. Each year, 20 promising environmental leaders are awarded $15,000 each to support the completion of masters and doctoral degrees in New England and California. Fellows are supported in their interdisciplinary and collaborative work, positioning them for leadership in the nonprofit, government, business and academic sectors.  

More information on the 2018 class of Switzer Fellows and the fellowship program is available on the Foundation website.

Two UC Davis graduate students are Nancy Foster Scholarship recipients

Kathryn “Kate” Hewett and Carina Fish, who both study climate change in marine sanctuaries off the California coast, have received a Dr. Nancy Foster Scholarship from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA).

NOAA’s Office of National Marine Sanctuaries awards the scholarship to graduate-level areas of study, such as marine biology, oceanography and maritime archaeology. The scholarship recognizes outstanding graduate students and encourages independent research, particularly by female and minority students.

Hewett’s doctoral studies focus on lack of oxygen in the Greater Farallones and Cordell Bank national marine sanctuaries. She is part of the Hydrologic Sciences Graduate Group and has worked with Professor John Largier, an oceanographer in the Department of Environmental Science and Policy who is stationed at the Bodega Marine Laboratory. Her scholarship will be supported by NOAA’s Ocean Acidification Program. Read more about her research in a story about her 2017 Neal Van Alfen and James MacDonald Graduate Student Support Fund award.

Fish’s doctoral studies focus on tracking climate change impacts on the deep ocean, using deep-sea corals as records of a changing sea in Cordell Bank National Marine Sanctuary. Fish is a Ph.D. geology student (Earth and Planetary Sciences, College of Letters and Science) in the Hill Biogeochemistry Lab group at the Bodega Marine Laboratory. Her work will help inform the management of deepwater habitat in the sanctuary. Read more about Fish and her award.

As recipients of this scholarship, Hewett and Fish become members of the NOAA community, as well as ambassadors for the National Marine Sanctuary System.

Animal Science Ph.D. student Maci Mueller selected as FFAR fellow

Maci Mueller, a Ph.D. student in the Animal Biology Graduate Group, has been selected as a professional development fellow with the Foundation for Food and Agriculture Research (FFAR). She is among 17 graduate students selected nationwide into the inaugural cohort of the program.

The FFAR Fellows Program pairs students with academic and industry mentors to help build professional skills. Mueller will participate in a three-year interdisciplinary training program that will be conducted online and at an annual weeklong retreat.

Mueller studies advanced breeding technologies to improve beef cattle production efficiency and sustainability. Her research is examining the potential for combining advanced breeding technologies like gene editing and the recent isolation of bovine embryonic stem cells to produce surrogate sires. This technology could be used to produce commercial, environmentally adapted bulls that are passing on elite donor genetics.  

FFAR is a nonprofit organization established by Congress in the 2014 Farm Bill that leverages public and private resources to increase scientific and technological research, innovation and partnerships to enhance sustainable food production.

To learn more about Mueller, please visit FFAR’s website.

Nelson and Garvey receive awards for communications excellence

Diane Nelson and Kathy Keatley Garvey are among six communicators affiliated with UC Davis or the UC Division of Agriculture and Natural Resources receiving awards for excellence at the 2018 conference of the international Association for Communication Excellence in Agriculture, Natural Resources and Life and Human Sciences(ACE), held in Scottsdale, Ariz.

Diane Nelson, communication specialist in the CA&ES Dean’s Office, won two golds. One was for promotional writing, Weighing Pig Personality, featuring Professor Kristina Horback's research on the role personality plays in the welfare and sustainable production of pigs. The second gold was for web writing,The Last Stop: When There’s Nowhere Colder to Go, spotlighting research by Professor Anne Todgham and her work on how climate change affects polar species. Both of Nelson's submissions drew perfect scores from the judges.

Kathy Keatley Garvey, communication specialist with the UC Davis Department of Entomology and Nematology, won gold for best news writing, Why These Youngsters Want to Become Entomologists,about children of California migratory workers touring the Bohart Museum of Entomology. Judges awarded the news story a perfect score. Garvey also received a silver in the writing-for-the-web category for her Bug Squad blog post, Once Upon a Monarch. 

Read more about the awards on this blog post by Garvey.