Life sciences industry expert Deborah Neff ’76 is giving $8 million to the UC Davis College of Biological Sciences for two endowments, one for the deanship and the other for the Center for Neuroscience for research into Alzheimer’s disease and other dementias. The gift is the largest by an individual in the college’s history.
The UC Davis community provided glowing support for this year’s Give Day over a sunny Picnic Day weekend. With more than 4,800 online and in-person donations, the 2023 giving event raised nearly $3.4 million dollars. Showing their tremendous dedication and commitment, more than 650 UC Davis employees donated this Give Day.
Sophomore Alexandra Sarimsakci took it all in, her face beaming: A food truck on her campus was offering meals for free or whatever students wanted to pay.
The international relations major was one of the first dozen students to be served during last week’s practice runs for the new AggieEats food truck — believed to be the first and only one in the nation to serve free meals on a college campus.
“This is perfect,” Sarimsakci said when her order of pasta with sauce and zucchini was ready. “I just don’t get time to cook, and I’ve been learning about budgeting this year.
University of California, Davis, scientists are teaming up with UC Berkeley and UC San Francisco researchers on a $70-million donor-funded initiative that aims in part to cut climate change-causing emissions from cattle by using the genome-editing tool CRISPR on microbes in the cows’ gut.
Donor support is helping students, staff and volunteers adapt the UC Davis campus tree canopy — much of which may be vulnerable to climate change — for the next 100 years. Support for this work has come from:
• Learning by Leading Support Fund, an Aggie Launch program
• UC Davis Oaks Fund
• Saratoga Horticultural Research Endowment
• Excelerate Foundation
• The Green Initiative Fund
Lunds donating $800,000 to create Center for Watershed Sciences endowment
The endowment will support multidisciplinary water research by grad students
Lund, a faculty member since 1987, has had a lifelong passion for water
Jay Lund, distinguished professor of civil engineering, and his wife, Jean Lund, have given $800,000 to endow graduate student fellowships at the Center for Watershed Sciences, or CWS.
February 15, 2023 — Internationally recognized pain management expert Scott Fishman is the inaugural holder of the Jacquelyn S. Anderson Endowed Chair in Wellness at UC Davis. Fishman, who directs the UC Davis Center for Advancing Pain Relief, was inducted during a ceremony on Jan. 31
An American studies professor in the UC Davis College of Letters and Science has received a $1.5 million award from the Mellon Foundation for a project to explore the intersection of research on disability and chronic illness. The three-year project in partnership with Yale University aims to develop a national network of scholars, culture workers and organizers who will bring disability justice approaches to the study of chronic illness.
Sēvā (ਸੇਵਾ), a Punjabi word that means “service,” was the motivation behind alumni couple Kamaljeet “Kamal” Singh-Khaira and Dr. Ravinder “Ravi” Khaira’s recent $1 million gift to the College of Biological Sciences.
The Khairas’ gift will provide support for the college’s top priorities, and they feel confident in the leadership of Mark Winey, dean of the College of Biological Sciences, to best utilize the funding to further enhance student success initiatives, faculty excellence and advances in life sciences research.
Eadie is a distinguished professor with the Department of Wildlife, Fish and Conservation Biology and is this year’s winner of the UC Davis Prize for Undergraduate Teaching and Scholarly Achievement, given annually to honor faculty who are both exceptional teachers and scholars.
