- (Focus Area) Innovation
- Author: Kathy Keatley Garvey
She's right at home with a "Oh, my drawers" of insect specimens, and the live critters in the petting zoo--the Madagascar hissing cockroaches, stick insects, tarantulas and more...She's eager to communicate science and draw interest in insects.
On April 29, Tabatha Yang was at UC Davis Chancellor Gary May's residence to accept the Chancellor's Outstanding Staff Award for Exceptional University Management and Exceptional University Impact with 11 other outstanding staff.
UC Davis distinguished professor emerita Lynn Kimsey, the 34-year director of the Bohart until her retirement on Feb. 1, accompanied her.
Sandy Batchelor, Human Resources WorkLife manager and awards committee chair, earlier said that Yang embodies "the spirit of engagement, innovation, and inclusivity that defines the university. With 15 years of dedicated service at the Bohart Museum, Tabatha spearheads a variety of educational initiatives aimed at demystifying and highlighting insects, spiders, science, and higher education."
"Through open houses, classroom visits, fairs, festivals, and other outreach programs, she helps the museum connect with more than 10,000 people each year. Under her leadership, museum walk-ins, tours and tabling events provide opportunities for students, staff and faculty to engage in science communication, highlight research and connect with others."
Yang annually chairs the committee that hosts UC Davis Biodiversity Museum Day, a “Super Science Day” that showcases 10 to 12 museums or collections and highlights UC Davis' research, collections and biodiversity, drawing thousands to campus.
She is also the founder and director of Bio Boot Camps, an immersive experience that ignites passion and curiosity in teenagers from around the globe. These camps, held annually since 2011, except during COVID, offer a gateway to the wonders of ecology, scientific exploration, and campus life. Campers tour UC Davis and its museums and collections and embark on scientific explorations of the UC Davis Putah Creek Riparian Reserve, Quail Ridge Field Station, Bodega Marine Laboratory and Bodega Marine Reserve and UC Berkeley's Sagehen Creek Field Station. With needs-based scholarships, Tabatha ensures inclusivity, making dreams a reality for aspiring young scientists.
Tabatha, a Cornell University alumna, shares her science educational background with her husband, community ecologist and professor Louie Yang, a Cornell alumnus who received his doctorate from UC Davis. He joined the UC Davis entomology faculty in 2009.
The list of recipients of the inaugural award:
Exceptional University Management
- Nichole Mahaffey, clinical trials data team supervisor and assistant director of PRMS, Comprehensive Cancer Center Office of Clinical Research
- Santana Diaz, executive chef, Food and Nutrition Services
- Morgan Luthi, director of curriculum and educational technology, Office of Medical Education
- Wendy Lilliedoll, director of investigations, Office of Compliance and Policy
- Shannon Tanguay, budget director, College of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences Dean's Office
- Jason Herum, diving safety officer, Bodega Marine Laboratory
Exceptional University Impact:
- Kelly Yurosky, pediatric bone marrow transplant coordinator, Pediatric Hematology and Oncology
- Abigail Borbe, senior clinical research coordinator, Pediatrics
- Leah Galasso, technical project manager, Clinical Informatics
- Bill Tuck, fiscal officer, Physics and Astronomy
- Elizabeth Sturdy, director of mentoring and Academic Success Initiatives, Graduate Studies
- Tabatha Yang, Bohart Museum education and outreach coordinator, Department of Entomology and Nematology
Meanwhile, Yang is busily planning, scheduling and organizing more outreach activities.
Next Open House. The next Bohart Museum open house is from 1 to 4 p.m., Sunday, May 19. The theme: "Bees, Both Wild and Managed." It will feature the research of university professors (more information pending). All open houses are free and family friendly.
The Bohart Museum is located in Room 1124 of the Academic Surge Building, 455Crocker Lane. Professor Jason Bond succeeded Kimsey on Feb. 1 as the Bohart Museum director. He is the Evert and Marion Schlinger Endowed Chair of the Department of Entomology and Nematology, and the associate dean, UC Davis College of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences. He also serves as president-elect of the American Arachnological Society.
- Author: Kathy Keatley Garvey
They'll be safe and dry in the bee observation hives.
The free and family friendly event, co-sponsored by the University of California, Davis, takes place from 10 a.m. to 7 p.m., Saturday, May 4, at the Yolo County Fairgrounds, 1250 East Gum Ave. Parking is free, a spokesperson said.
The festival traditionally takes place in downtown Woodland and draws a crowd of some 40,000.
The California Honey Festival emphasizes the importance of bees and promotes honey and bee products. It features educational presentations, kids' center activities, honey tasting, cooking demonstrations, a beer and mead garden, live music, vendors and more. Beekeeping organizations will answer questions about bees and showcase bee observation hives.
Speakers at presentations in Waite Hall will include GATEways horticulturist Rachel Davis of the UC Davis Arboretum and Public Garden, who will speak from 3:30 to 4 p.m.
“I'll be talking about pollinator gardening, focusing on native bees, butterflies, moths, hoverflies, and hummingbirds,” Davis said. “The My Habit Horticulture Learning by Leading™ and UC Master Gardener team will be tabling about Climate-Ready Gardening, with an emphasis on biodiversity and gardening for pollinators. We want to equip gardeners with tools to create beautiful, habitat-supporting landscapes that are primed to thrive in the face of our changing climate.”
The line-up of speakers at Waite Hall:
11 to 11:30, 2024 American Honey Queen Kaelyn Sumner
11:45 to 12:15: Cache Creek Conservancy, Jolene Jindrich
12:30 to 1 p.m. SugarBee Apples, sponsor of the California Honey Festival
1:1 to 1:45: Hives for Heroes, Charles McMaster
2 to 2:30: California Beekeeping Federation “The Truth About Honey Bees, Almonds and a Partnership That's Sweeter Than Honey" with Trevor Tauzer (Tauzer Apiaries) and Kelli Evans (Blue Diamond Growers)
2:45 to 3:15: SugarBee Apples
3:30 to 4 p.m.: UC Davis Arboretum and Public Garden, Rachel Davis
4:15 to 4:45: Honeybee Discovery Center, Nicole Johansson
5 to 5:30: 2024 American Honey Queen Kaelyn Sumner
The UC Davis-based California Master Beekeeper Program, which uses science-based information to educate stewards and ambassadors for honey bees and beekeeping, will not be participating this year. But science-based information on bees will be provided by the California State Beekeepers Association and the Sacramento Area Beekeepers' Association.
Capsule information on some of the organizations or speakers:
American Honey Queen, Kaelyn Sumner
American Honey Queen Kaelyn Sumner of Cecil, Wisc., is a senior at Kansas State University majoring in agricultural education and minoring in food science and entomology. She traces her interest in beekeeping to the FFA, where she was nationally recognized for her specialty animal production project and her agriscience fair research. The American Honey Bee Program, part of the American Beekeeping Federation, which educates and advocates for beekeepers and United States honey consumption.
Cache Creek Conservancy, Jolene Jindrich
The Cache Creek Conservancy is a non-profit organization founded in 1996. Its mission is to restore, preserve and protect the Cache Creek watershed. The focus of the Conservancy's work has been riparian restoration along a 14-mile stretch of the Lower Cache Creek as mentioned in the Yolo County's Cache Creek Resources Management Plan.
Jolene Jindrich helps care for the Tending and Gathering Center (TGG). She holds a bachlor's degree in microbiology from Humboldt State University, where she studied genetics, plant physiology and cell biology and spent time volunteering in biology and chemistry labs. She works with the Habitat Restoration Manager and the TGG Steering Committee to tend desirable native species, manage non-natives, maintain the trails and generally improve both the visual aesthetics and habitat value.
Hives for Heroes, Charles McMaster
Hives for Heroes® is a national non-profit service organization focusing on sustainability, conservation, and providing a healthy transition from service. Through our national network of beekeepers, we provide connection, purpose, and healthy relationships, through access, resources, and funding for Active Duty, Veterans, and First Responders.
McMaster, of Copperas Cove, Texas, is the connections director of Hives for Heroes, a U.S. Army veteran, and a six-year beekeeper. He devotes much of his time as a member of the board of directors of the Texas Beekeepers Association.
“The UC Davis Arboretum and Public Garden spans the campus's 5300-plus acres and includes the historic Arboretum – a 100-plus acre campus and regional amenity comprised of demonstration gardens and scientific collections as well as the Putah Creek Riparian Reserve – a rare stream and grassland ecosystem managed for teaching, research, wildlife and habitat protection.”--Website
Honeybee Discovery Center, Nicole Johansson
The Honeybee Discovery Center, currently located at 501 Walker St., Orland., Glenn County, Calif., is designed to teach the public about honey bees and the rich history of beekeeping in Northern California, according to its website. "The Center is a place for the public and schools to learn about honeybees and for the beekeeping community to display items that are part of beekeeping and its history."
Northern California is known for its queen bee rearing, with tens of thousands of queen bees produced annually. Orland is considered the “Queen Bee Capital of North America.” Eighty percent of the queen bees raised in the United States are from Butte, Glenn, Shasta, and Tehama counties, "The Golden Triangle.” Orland is also the 40th “Bee City, USA” with a commitment to creating greater awareness and an environment that protects honey bees and other pollinators. Yvonne Koehnen of the C. F. Koehnen & Sons Inc., originated the idea of the Honeybee Discovery Center. The Center, which includes a museum, is open the first consecutive Friday and Saturday of every month from 3 to 6 p.m.
- Author: Kathy Keatley Garvey
Chow, an associate professor in the Department of Human Genetics, University of Utah, will discuss "Flying to the Clinic: Drug Repurposing Screen for Rare Diseases" at 4:10 p.m. in 122 Briggs Hall and also via Zoom.
The Zoom link:
https://ucdavis.zoom.us/j/9 5882849672
"Dr. Chow's research has made a tremendous impact on the lives of patients with rare diseases as well as their families and caretakers," said molecular geneticist and physicist Joanna Chiu, professor and chair of the Department of Entomology and Nematology. "His research program provides a shining example of how one can leverage many of the advantages of the Drosophila fly model to investigate molecular mechanisms disrupted in human diseases and efficiently translate that to medical interventions andFDA-approved drugs." The Chiu lab is hosting the seminar.
Professor Chow says in his abstract: "Our lab is focused on understanding the role of genetic variation on disease outcomes. We employ quantitative and functional tools, in a variety of model organisms, to study how genetic variation impacts basic cellular traits important to human health. Our work in model organisms will help to model and inform studies of genetic variation in the human population. We hope to identify variation that can lead to more precise, personalized therapies, especially for rare disease."
He and his research team "leverage the powerful genetic tools available in the fruit fly (Drosophila melanogaster) to build and study models of rare diseases," according to research news published on the University of Utah website. "The Chow lab has developed a fly model of NGLY1 deficiency, providing many new insights into the biology underlying this devastating autosomal recessive, genetic disorder."
"Using the fly model, the Chow lab discovered NGLY1 deficiency results in the absence of a sugar known as GlcNAc, which is important for different cellular processes," Martha Davis wrote in the news story. "When provided with a dietary GlcNAC supplement, flies with NGLY1 deficiency are healthier and live longer, suggesting this supplement may help NGLY1 patients...The Chow lab hopes to continue to translate basic science research of rare diseases to the clinic. The generosity of donors like the Might Family make this type of work possible. The Might family supports this research in hope that someday a treatment, or even a cure, will be found for NGLY1 deficiency."
Chow expanded on his fruit fly research on a University of Utah website heralding Academia in Action: Treating Patients as Individuals. "Because the fruit fly is small, cheap and fast, we can do massive experiments that people in mouse labs can only dream of. We take a model of a particular rare disease, and we cross it into a couple hundred different genetic backgrounds in the flies. What that gives us is basically a number of fly strains that you can think of as different individuals with different genetic backgrounds, all with the same disorder.”
D. melanogaster is widely used for biological research in genetics, physiology, microbial pathogenesis, and life history evolution. "As of 2017, six Nobel Prizes have been awarded to drosophilists for their work using the insect," according to Wikipedia.
Chow received his bachelor's degree in biology, neurobiology and behavior from Cornell University in 2003. He completed his Ph.D. in human genetics in 2008 in the Department of Human Genetics at the University of Michigan, where he worked with Miriam Meisler. He completed his postdoctoral training as a co-mentored postdoc with Andy Clark and Mariana Wolfner at Cornell University.
For any technical Zoom issues, contact seminar coordinator Brian Johnson at brnjohnson@ucdavis.edu. The full list of spring seminars is here.
- Author: Kathy Keatley Garvey
Visitors received free posters of the colorful butterfly, the state insect; learned how to use an insect net to catch a paper butterfly; and posed for images behind the dogface butterfly face banner.
At the California dogface butterfly table, entomologist Fran Keller, a professor at Folsom Lake College who doubles as a Bohart Museum scientist and a UC Davis doctoral alumna, discussed her children's book, The Story of the Dogface Butterfly, published in 2013.
Popular in kindergarten through sixth-grade classrooms, and in private and public collections throughout the country, the 35-page book tells the untold story of the California dogface butterfly (Zerene eurydice), and how a classroom successfully mounted a campaign to convince the California State Legislature to name it the state insect in 1972.
The book depicts the life cycle of the butterfly and also discusses the larval host plant, false indigo (Amorpha californica). The photos, primarily taken in Auburn on Placer Land Trust private land, are by Bohart associate Greg Kareofelas and Keller. Laine Bauer, then a UC Davis undergraduate student, created the illustrations. The book is available at the Bohart Museum, located in Room 1124 of the Academic Surge Building, 455 Crocker Lane.
The posters, also the work of Keller and Kareofelas, show a male and female dogface butterfly. The male is nicknamed "the flying pansy," and sports a doglike yellow silhouette on its wings. The female is mostly solid yellow except for a single black spot on its upper wings.
In the live petting zoo, visitors held thorny stick insects and tomato hornworm caterpillars. The caterpillars wlll become the five-spotted hawkmoth, Manduca quinquemaculata, family Sphingidae.
The Bohart Museum's Picnic Day display followed the theme, "Bonding with the Bohart," in reference to Professor Jason Bond, the newly announced director, as of Feb. 1. He succeeds UC Davis distinguished professor emerita Lynn Kimsey, who served 34 years as director. Bond is the Evert and Marion Schlinger Endowed Chair of the Department of Entomology and Nematology, and the associate dean, UC Davis College of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences. He also serves as president-elect of the American Arachnological Society.
The next Bohart Museum open house will take place Sunday, May 19 from 1 to 4 p.m. The theme: "Bees, Both Wild and Managed," featuring the research of scientists from the Department of Entomology and Nematology. The event is free and family friendly. Parking is also free.
- Author: Kathy Keatley Garvey
“I got two phone calls almost simultaneously on my two cell phones, so I thought this could not be a prank, but I am still in disbelief,” said Leal, a UC Davis distinguished professor in the Department of Molecular and Cellular Biology, and former professor and chair of the Department of Entomology (now Entomology and Nematology)
The caller: The National Academy of Sciences (NAS)
The message: You've been elected a member of the National Academy of Sciences, the highest honor a scientist can achieve.
"Members are elected to the National Academy of Sciences in recognition of their distinguished and continuing achievements in original research,” a spokesperson related. “Membership is a widely accepted mark of excellence in science and is considered one of the highest honors that a scientist can receive. Current NAS membership totals approximately 2,400 members and 500 international members, of which approximately 190 have received Nobel prizes."
“As they say, many deserving and few lucky ones," Leal commented. "Bruce Hammock told me many years ago that when he was elected to NAS, he looked around and saw many deserving colleagues. Now I understand that feeling very well. It is a tremendous and humbling honor. I hope an imposter syndrome does not kick in.”
Hammock, a UC Davis distinguished professor who holds a joint appointment with the Department of Entomology and Nematology, was elected a NAS member in 1999.
They are the only UC Davis entomologists who are NAS members.
Leal: World Leader in His Field
Leal, a native of Brazil and educated in Brazil, Japan and the United States, joined the UC Davis Department of Entomology in 2000. In 2013, he accepted a position with the Department of Molecular and Cellular Biology. "Walter is an internationally recognized entomologist and a world leader in his field for his groundbreaking and transformative research in insect olfaction and chemical ecology,” Hammock said. “He is truly a renaissance man. He chaired our entomology department from 2006 to 2008, and under his tenure, our department was ranked No. 1 in the country. I've long admired (1) his rigorous fundamental research programs supported by National Science Foundation, National Institutes of Health, and the U.S. Department of Food and Agriculture, and other agencies, (2) how he tackles and solves multiple challenging problems in insect olfaction and chemical ecology, (3) his grasp of how to organize and moderate highly successful worldwide research webinars (4) his generosity in helping other succeed and (4) his finely honed sense of humor."
Leal solves entomological problems spanning agriculture, human health, and welfare. He translates pheromone technology to agriculturists and serves as a principal investigator for the Pacific Southwest Regional Center of Excellence for Vector-Borne Diseases (affiliated with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention). He holds more than 20 patents.
“Walter has been exceptionally conscientious, active, and generous in professional service at UC Davis,” Hammock pointed out. "In August of 2021, he achieved a ‘first' for international science communication when he organized and led the extraordinary virtual conference ‘Insect Olfaction and Taste in 24 Hours Around the Globe.' I especially applaud him for elucidating the mode of action of the insect repellent DEET, developed in 1946 and known as ‘the gold standard of repellents.' Its mode of action remained an enigma for six decades until Walter's discovery. In researching the neurons in mosquito antennae sensitive to DEET, he isolated the first DEET-sensitive odorant receptor, paving the way for the development of better repellents.”
May Berenbaum, professor and head, Department of Entomology, University of Illinois-Urbana-Champaign, National Medical of Science Laureate, NAS member, and editor of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, earlier wrote that “Dr. Leal is indisputably a world leader in the field of insect chemical ecology whose work over the course of his long and distinguished career has transformed basic knowledge of insect olfactory mechanisms and inspired innovative practical applications for sustainable management of insects of importance in agriculture and human health. He has contributed significantly to the current understanding of the structure and function of every component of olfaction, including receptors, binding proteins, and degrading enzymes, revising classic paradigms along the way. No textbook and no course on insect chemical communication could be considered complete without mentioning his landmark research achievements.”
'Just Like in a Honey Bee Colony'
Leal recently was named the 2024 recipient of the UC Davis Academic Senate's Distinguished Research Award, and will present a lecture on “Just Like in a Honey Bee Colony--It Takes a Team in the UC Davis Hive to Win an Award” at the Academic Senate's Faculty Distinguished Research Award Lecture Lunch on Tuesday, May 7 from noon to 1 p.m. in the UC Davis Conference Center.
Leal is the first UC Davis faculty member to receive the Academic Senate's trifecta of awards: outstanding teaching, public service, and research. Leal received the Academic Senate's 2020 Distinguished Teaching Award for Undergraduate Teaching, and the 2022 Distinguished Scholarly Public Service Award.
Among Leal's many honors: Fellow of the Entomological Society of America (2009), American Association for the Advancement of Science (2005), and the National Academy of Inventors (2019). He was elected a trustee of the Royal Entomological Society in February 2024.
Leal holds a Ph.D. in applied biochemistry from the University of Tsukuba, Japan, with subsequent postdoctoral training in entomology and chemical ecology at the National Institute of Sericultural and Entomological Science (NISES) and Cornell University, respectively. He was the first non-Japanese person to earn tenure at Japan's Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry, and Fisheries.