All systems are "go" for the "Celebration of the Life and Legacy of Bruce Hammock."
It's scheduled for 1 p.m., Saturday, Oct. 10 in the California Hall, UC Davis campus.
There will be tears, laughter, and a room filled with cherished memories of the legendary UC Davis Distinguished Professor Bruce Hammock (1947-2026). His passing on Jan. 5, 2026 was a huge loss for our Department of Entomology and Nematology, the UC system, the country, and the world.
As Joanna Chiu, professor and chair of the department said: "We lost a legend."
UC Davis Chancellor Gary May will deliver the opening remarks, and Ashley Stokes, dean of the UC Davis College of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences, will present "a dean's reflections."
Tributes from friends and colleagues will follow. The list, as announced by UC Davis Distinguished Professor Walter Leal, memorial organizer, includes:
Colin Cameron, UC Davis; Gino Cortopassi, UC Davis; Version Aditi Das, Georgia Tech; Matthew Edin, National Institute of Environmental Sciences, National Institute of Health; Sumanta Goswami, Charles River Laboratory, San Francisco; Lawrence Harshman, University of Nebraska, Lincoln; Denise Manker, Bayer Crop Science, retired; Dipak Panigrahy, Harvard Medical School; Glenn Prestwich, University of Utah and University of Stony Brook; Harold Schmitz, The March Group; Justin Siegel, UC Davis; Thomas Sparks, Agrilucent; Gang Sun, UC Davis; Jeanette Van Emon, American Chemical Society Board of Directors; Rosemary Walzem, Texas A&M; Craig Wheelock, Karolinska Institutet; Keith Wing, Keith D. Wing Consulting; Chengpeng Xu, UC Davis; Ting Xu, China Agricultural University; Tilahun Yilma, UC Davis; and Lin Zhang, UC Davis.
An open microphone session will follow. Tom Hammock, son of Bruce and Lassie Hammock, will give the family remarks and acknowledgment. Joanna Chiu, professor and chair of the UC Davis Department of Entomology and Nematology, will deliver the closing remarks.
The memorial will conclude with a reception. Attendees will have the opportunity to write memories in the Bruce Hammock Memory Book, said UC Davis Distinguished Professor Walter Leal, coordinator of the memorial. The event will be broadcast live on YouTube. To register to attend the memorial, access https://forms.gle/eRssVnZyVZBV6is9A. This is the Zoom link to register to see the live webinar on YouTube.
Leal, former chair of the Department of Entomology, says "B.R.U.C.E." stands for:
B: Brilliant scientist
R: Relentlessly curious
U: Unassuming;
C: Champion of Colleagues
E: Extraordinary Mentor.
Internationally renowned, Hammock co-discovered soluble epoxide hydrolase (sEH)--an enzyme in the human body that breaks down regulatory fatty acids--and his 50 years of research on sEH inhibitors led to therapeutic drug discoveries targeting such diseases as pain, eye and kidney disease, traumatic brain injury and stroke, Parkinson’s and Alzheimer's disease.
"Bruce Hammock spent decades uncovering the biology of soluble epoxide hydrolase and demonstrating its potential as a therapeutic target,” said UC Davis doctoral alumna Cindy McReynolds Brown, chief executive officer of EicOsis Human Health LLC, the company that the two co-founded in 2011 to fulfill Hammock’s commitment to find safer and more effective ways to treat chronic pain.. “He is remembered not only for his scientific accomplishments, but also for the strong collaborations he built and the many scientists he brought together throughout his career.” Hammock was her major professor.
A native of Little Rock, Ark., Hammock received his bachelor's degree, magna cum laude in entomology from Louisiana State University with minors in zoology and chemistry in 1969. He obtained his doctorate in environmental toxicology at UC Berkeley in 1973.
Hammock career included public health medical officer with the U.S. Army Academy of Health Science, San Antonio, and postdoctoral fellow at the Rockefeller Foundation, Department of Biology, Northwestern University, Evanston, Ill. He joined the UC Riverside faculty in 1975 and five years later, the UC Davis faculty. At UC Davis, he taught biochemistry, endocrinology, toxicology, and pharmaceutical discovery and development. He held a joint appointment with the Department of Entomology and Nematology and the UC Davis Comprehensive Cancer Center
Over his nearly five decades at UC Davis, he published some 1300 research articles. He held more than 80 patents. Hammock held a joint appointment with the Department of Entomology and Nematology and the UC Davis Comprehensive Cancer Center. His chemistry, toxicology, biochemistry, entomology and human health research led to elected membership in the National Academy of Sciences and the National Academy of Inventors; scores of professional honors and awards; and accolades from administrators, colleagues, researchers, alumni and students.
For 35 years, Hammock directed the UC Davis Superfund Program, a multidisciplinary program funded by the National Institutes of Health’s National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences that crossed multidisciplines, including engineering, soil and water contamination, toxicology and analytical chemistry. Hammock supported scores of pre- and postdoctoral scholars in interdisciplinary research in five different colleges and graduate groups on campus. For 14 years, he directed an NIH Training Grant in Biotechnology at UC Davis for cross-training in physical and biological sciences.
Hammock said his No. 1 criteria for selecting scientists in his lab was that they be "curious." He also believed that science should be "fun." Once every summer for nearly a decade, he sponsored water balloon battles on the Briggs Hall lawn, urging other labs to join his lab. Away from the lab, he loved rock-climbing, hiking and kayaking.
Hammock is survived by his wife, Lassie; sons Bruce and Tom; daughter Frances; and two grandchildren Max and Lelia Ioana.
Resources:
- Bruce Hammock Tribute, UC Davis Department of Entomology and Nematology
- UC Academic Senate website
