- Author: Kathy Keatley Garvey
As mentioned earlier, two members of the Academic Senate's winners' circle are UC Davis Distinguished Professor Walter Leal of the Department of Molecular and Cellular Biology (and former professor and chair of the UC Davis Department of Entomology), and Professor Louie Yang of the Department of Entomology and Nematology (ENT).
Leal won the Distinguished Faculty Research Award (see Feb. 22 Bug Squad blog) and Yang won a Distinguished Teaching Award, undergraduate category (see Feb. 26 Bug Squad blog). UC Davis Distinguished Professor Bruce Hammock of ENT nominated Leal, while Joanna Chiu, professor and chair of ENT, nominated Yang.
The awards reception is Monday, May 13; more information is pending. "In all, 15 faculty members have received awards from the two groups at UC Davis," UC Davis Dateline reports. (See list of the recipients.)
Leal is the first UC Davis faculty member to win all three of the Academic Senate's most coveted awards: in research, teaching, and public service. In 2020, the Academic Senate awarded him the Distinguished Teaching Award for Undergraduate Teaching, and in 2022 Distinguished Scholarly Public Service Award.
“Dr. Leal 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 wrote. "Walter 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."
Wrote Chiu: "I have watched him (Professor Yang) engage, inspire, and challenge his students, fostering creative and critical thinking like no one else I've ever seen. We deeply appreciate and admire his innovative and inclusive teaching, his exemplary work ethic, his welcoming demeanor, his dedication to his students, and his nationally recognized ecology expertise. Louie has received many well-deserved teaching and mentoring awards for his teaching contributions on and off campus.”
Of special note, too, is the James H. Meyer Distinguished Achievement Award, given annually to a member of the Academic Federation for "a distinguished record in research, teaching, and/or public service." This year the award went to Kirsten Gilardi, director of Karen C. Drayer Wildlife Health Center, and a health sciences clinical professor of Medicine and Epidemiology, School of Veterinary Medicine.
Wrote Dateline: "Health Sciences Clinical Professor Kirsten Gilardi has been part of the UC Davis Community since 1989. She is currently the director of the Karen C. Drayer Wildlife Health Center, a research, service and teaching center of excellence. In 2005, she founded the California Lost Fishing Gear Recovery Program, which hires experienced commercial scuba divers to remove gear and other marine debris from near-shore waters in a safe and environmentally sensitive manner. This program continues to help reduce the potential impact of losing fishing gear and marine debris on living marine resources and underwater habitat. Beyond her significant accomplishments in her field, her colleagues around the world highlight her passion for her position at UC Davis 'that expects her to protect wild animals and wild places.'"
Check out the Dateline website which includes a 2013 image of Gilardi with a silverback gorilla (image courtesy of Sandy Buckey.)
They all do UC Davis proud!
- Author: Kathy Keatley Garvey
Congratulations to UC Davis distinguished professor Walter Leal, the recipient of the Academic Senate's highly competitive 2024 Distinguished Faculty Research Award.
That makes three. Good things come in threes.
Leal is the first UC Davis faculty member to win all three of the Academic Senate's most coveted awards: in research, teaching, and public service. In 2020, the Academic Senate awarded him the Distinguished Teaching Award for Undergraduate Teaching, and in 2022 Distinguished Scholarly Public Service Award.
Leal, a member of the Department of Molecular and Cellular Biology since 2013 and former professor and chair of the Department of Entomology, commented: "Faculty at land-grant universities, like the University of California, have three hats labeled Teaching, Service, and Research. A significant challenge is to budget time to wear them equally and avoid the temptation to emphasize one part of the job over others. It is gratifying to be recognized by my peers as excelling in all areas. The Academic Senate Faculty Distinguished Research Award is particularly humbling because more than 3000 eligible faculty excel in all research areas on this campus. Why me? Because of my students, postdoctoral scholars, visiting scholars, collaborators, and colleagues. They deserve most of the credit for this honor. I accept it on their behalf. It is a team effort, like in a honey bee colony.”
"Walter is truly a renaissance man," wrote Hammock. "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."
“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. Inresearching 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.”
Leal is a newly elected trustee of the Royal Entomological Society, the 13-member council that governs the 190-year-old international organization. He is the first UC Davis scientist to be elected a trustee. And he's chair of the Council of the International Congresses of Entomology, the body that ensures the continuity of the international congresses of entomology. He co-chaired the 2016 International Congress of Entomology, which drew 6,682 registrants from 102 countries to Orlando, Fla.
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).
A native of Brazil, Leal joined the UC Davis entomology faculty in 2000, after serving as the head of the Laboratory of Chemical Prospecting, National Institute of Sericultural and Entomological Science (NISES), Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry, and Fisheries, Japan. In 2013, he accepted a position as professor of biochemistry, Department of Molecular and Cellular Biology. (See news story)
Frankly, we don't know how Leal does it all. He not only excels at research, teaching and public service, but he is widely known as "The UC Davis Ambassador," organizing campus-wide celebrations for faculty transitioning to emeriti.
As an aside, two UC Davis entomology faculty members scored two, but not three, of the Academic Senate's coveted awards. Bruce Hammock received the Distinguished Faculty Research Award in 2001, and the Distinguished Teaching Award (graduate student/professional category) in 2008. UC distinguished professor of entomology, James R. Carey, took home the Academic Senate's Distinguished Teaching Award (undergraduate student category) in 2014 and the Distinguished Scholarly Public Service Award in 2015.
Six other entomology faculty members have received Academic Senate awards:
- UC Davis distinguished professor Jay Rosenheim, Distinguished Teaching Award (undergraduate student category) in 2011
- UC Davis distinguished professor Lynn Kimsey (now emerita), Distinguished Scholarly Public Service Award in 2016
- UC Davis distinguished professor Frank Zalom, Distinguished Scholarly Public Service in 2017
- UC Davis professor and now department chair Joanna Chiu, Distinguished Teaching Award (graduate/professional category) in 2022
- UC Davis distinguished professor Diane Ullman, Distinguished Teaching Award (undergraduate category) in 2022
And the latest to join the winner's circle: Professor Louie Yang won the Distinguished Teaching Award (undergraduate category), announced today. More on this amazing teacher and mentor is pending.
- Author: Kathy Keatley Garvey
So says noted chemical ecologist Walter Leal, newly selected recipient of the 2020 Distinguished Teaching Award for Undergraduate Teaching from the UC Davis Academic Senate.
The award recognizes outstanding teaching and dedication to student success. Leal will be honored with other Academic Senate and Academic Federation award recipients at a ceremony in the spring.
"When I started teaching chemistry in high school--while I was a sophomore in college--students were only one to two years older than me," said Leal, a distinguished professor in the UC Davis Department of Molecular and Cellular Biology and former chair of the UC Davis Department of Entomology (now Department of Entomology and Nematology). "Now they are younger than my sons and daughter! My goal remains the same--not only to excite students about the content of my lectures, be it high school chemistry, insect physiology, or biochemistry, but also to trigger their curiosity.
"I don't teach because I have to; I teach because it is a joy to light the way and to spark the fire of knowledge," Leal said. "Teaching is, and out to be, the raison d'etre of a university professor. It is really an honor to receive the Academic Senate Distinguished Teaching Award. Many thanks to my peers, all students, and teaching assistants, particularly Fran Keller and Silvia Hilt who teamed up for insect physiology and biochemistry, respectively, for more than three years."
Nominator J. Clark Lagarias, distinguished professor of biochemistry in the Department of Molecular and Cellular Biology described Leal as an exemplary, innovative and highly respected teacher. “Walter excels in developing new courses, programs and teaching methods. He is a trendsetter whose passion, innovation, dedication and outstanding contributions to teaching inspire us all.”
Distinguished professor James R. Carey of the UC Davis Department of Entomology and Nematology--and the recipient of four teaching awards including the Academic Senate's top teaching award--praised Leal's innovative and dedicated teaching.
"I consider Professor Leal as an exceptional instructor," Carey wrote in the nomination packet. "His exceptionalism is derived from his dedication to student learning, his innovation in content delivery, his engagement with students (including his always-clever touches of humor), and his ability to both motivate them and incentivize their investment in studies. All of these efforts rest on the deep foundation of the disciplinary authority that he brings to the classroom as an eminent basic and applied biochemist, a stature that his students clearly recognize...Walter is a natural teacher who not only speaks with a voice of great authority in the classroom, but with the voice of a person who cares deeply about student learning."
Stanford graduate student Garrison Buss, who studied with Leal ("my research mentor at UC Davis"), said the professor "consistently encouraged active learning at a high level through a variety of modalies. Among these, the most novel and beneficial included having students solve equations by writing them out on an iPad and projecting what they wrote in real time—similar to having a portable overhead projector that any student in the lecture hall could use. This way, the whole class could see and provide feedback by critiquing the problem and solutions together with Dr. Leal. The lecture material itself was also innovative. Dr. Leal would show videos of real life experiments and interviews that he had made with prominent scientists who were subject matter experts in the topic that we were discussing."
"The lecture material itself was also innovative," Buss related. "Dr. Leal would show videos of real life experiments and interviews that he had made with prominent scientists who were subject matter experts in the topic that we were discussing. As an instructor, he challenged the way that I understood my academic performance and through his extra effort showed me that I could achieve much more than I had previously believed. As a mentor, he gave me opportunities and responsibilities that were out of reach for many of my fellow researchers."
A native of Brazil, Leal was educated in Brazil, Japan and the United States in the fields of chemical ecology, biochemistry, insect physiology and olfaction. He joined the UC Davis faculty in 2000, and chaired the Department of Entomology from 2006 to 2008.
The veteran teacher, a member of the Department of Molecular and Cellular Biology faculty since 2013, has taught insect physiology for 13 years and biochemistry for six years. In his classrooms, he employs the strategic use of digital technology, which has led to such unsolicited comments on the “Rate My Professors” website as “best professor at UC Davis.” His tools include Camtasia, PowerPoints, podcasts, e-reviews and Skype for ease of learning and knowledge retention. He generates animated e-reviews by recording a narrative summary of each of his lectures with Camtasia software. In place of a verbal narrative, his students watch videos--featuring animations and illustrations--to review major concepts.
The e-reviews can be time-consuming to produce but he considers them—and rightfully so—valuable for increased student engagement and comprehension. With Skype, Leal also brings noted guests into his classroom: researchers, textbook authors and colleagues who have made landmark discoveries in the field.
Known as a leader and inventor as well as a noted scientist and teacher, Leal co-chaired the 2016 International Congress of Entomology and also served as president of the International Society of Chemical Ecology. He is a fellow of the 7000-member Entomological Society of America, which selected him to deliver the Founders' Memorial Lecture at its recent meeting in St. Louis, Mo. His topic chronicled the life of Tom Eisner, the father of chemical ecology and a role model: “Tom Eisner: an Incorrigible Entomophile and Innovator Par Excellence.” Leal also is a newly selected fellow of the National Academy of Inventors, which honors and encourages academic inventions that benefit society.
Teaching, however is the raison d'etre.
"I don't teach because I have to; I teach because it is a joy to light the way and to spark the fire of knowledge."
- Author: Kathy Keatley Garvey
The award is presented annually to recognize a faculty member's significant public service contributions that benefit the local, regional, national, and/or international community. She will receive the award at the Academic Senate and Academic Federation awards program, set for 5:30 p.m., Monday, May 2 in the AGR Room of the Buehler Alumni Center.
“Dr. Kimsey has made outstanding contributions to public service and education through the numerous programs she has envisioned and directed through the Bohart Museum of Entomology,” said Steve Nadler, professor and chair of the UC Davis Department of Entomology and Nematology. “She is very deserving of this prestigious award.”
Highly esteemed for her public service, teaching and research, Kimsey administers the world-renowned Bohart Museum of Entomology, which houses a global collection of some eight million insect specimens. She consults with international, national and state agencies; identifies thousands of insects every year for scientific collaborators, public agencies and the general public; answers scores of news media calls and insect questions; and encourages a greater appreciation of insects through the Bohart Museum open houses, workshops and lectures.
Kimsey's areas of expertise include insect biodiversity, systematics and biogeography of parasitic wasps, urban entomology and arthropod-related industrial hygiene.
Kimsey, who received both her undergraduate degree (1975) and her doctorate (1979) from UC Davis, joined the entomology faculty in 1989. The director of the Bohart Museum and executive director of the Bohart Museum Society since 1990, she has also served as interim chair and vice chair of the UC Davis Department of Entomology, now the UC Davis Department of Entomology and Nematology.
A two-year past president of the International Society of Hymenopterists, and a former board member of the Natural Science Collections Alliance, Kimsey is active in the Entomological Society of America (ESA) and the Washington Entomological Society. The Pacific Branch of ESA (PBESA) honored her and colleagues Eric Mussen, Robbin Thorp, Neal Williams and Brian Johnson—“the UC Davis Bee Team”--with the outstanding team award in 2013. Kimsey also received the PBESA Systematics, Evolution and Biodiversity Award in 2014.
Nominators spotlighted some of her major accomplishments and activities:
Bohart Museum of Entomology: Kimsey turned a tiny museum, a hole in the wall, into a thriving world- renowned museum through her highly successful leadership, knowledge and dedicated efforts to make the museum the place to be—not only for scientific collaborators but for the public. The museum holds open houses on many weekends during the academic year. It has a gift shop and a live “petting zoo” filled with Madagascar hissing cockroaches, walking sticks and a rose-haired tarantula named “Peaches,” a crowd favorite. Kimsey has written spring, summer, fall and winter newsletters since 1994 and a total of 56 insect/arthropod educational fact sheets, with topics ranging from bed bugs, cockroaches and black-widow spiders to ticks, fleas, scorpions and kissing bugs. “The museum is an incredible wealth of information. Kimsey, unselfish with her time, shares her expertise at workshops and seminars, including the California Center for Urban Horticulture,” her nominators said.
Got an Insect Question? For two decades, the department has asked on its website “Got an Insect Question? Ask It Here!” Kimsey is the key person who answers them. She is widely considered as the most accomplished faculty member in understanding the general knowledge of insects, according to Entomological Society of America fellow Robert Washino, emeritus professor and former chair of the department. Kimsey is not only the go-to entomologist to answer questions about insects on the UC Davis campus and beyond, but is a primary go-to person for the news media. The Los Angeles Times, New York Times, BBC, and Associated Press, among others, seek her out. “Her interviews are always informative, educational and animated,” her nominators said.
Research: Her colleagues refer to her fondly as “The Wasp Woman” for her expertise on aculeate wasps. She is a recognized expert on aculeate wasps and works with some of the most difficult groups, including tiphiids and chrysidids. She is heavily involved in ongoing studies with the endemic insect species of the Algodones Dunes in southern California and with the International Cooperative Biodiversity Groups in Indonesia. “Scientists and students from throughout the world clamor to work with her,” her nominators said.
Teaching: Kimsey is described as “enthusiastic about teaching and highly responsive to students' questions and needs.” She is one of the innovators of One-Minute Entomology, at which students researched and developed one-minute videos on an important insect or arthropod. Her students say she makes entomology both fun and educational and that her sense of humor is contagious.
NASA SPLAT—She was the only entomologist selected for the NASA SPLAT/Boeing team to research how to decrease bug splats on aircraft and thus increase fuel efficiency in commercial jets. NASA engineers developed four different surface treatments designed to repel bugs and Boeing developed wing modifications to test an aircraft at Shreveport, La. A Boeing EcoDemonstrator 575 took flight, reaching an altitude of 5000 feet to maximize bug splats. The panels generated 100 and 500 splats each. Kimsey identified all the insects and found that a relatively small number of species caused the bulk of the splats. They included flower flies, aphids, thrips, muscid flies, midges, mosquitoes and love bugs. “Her work is a great public service to NASA, the airline industry and worldwide passengers who depend on air travel,” her nominators said.
FBI Assist: In a highly publicized, first-of-its-kind criminal case, Kimsey identified the bugs on the radiator and air filter of a new rental car involved in a major murder case. The murder suspect was found guilty of driving the car from Ohio to California, killing his family, and driving back to Ohio. His defense included that he had not driven out of Ohio during that time frame. Kimsey's knowledge and identification of insects proved that some of the bugs on the car are found only in California and/or west of the Rockies. Kimsey testified at the trial in a case that made entomological history: this was the first time someone has used insect identification to prove where a car has or has not been
Bee Garden: As interim chair of the department, Kimsey coordinated the development and installation of the bee garden on Bee Biology Road that was named one of the top 10 garden destinations by the Sacramento Bee. Through her connections, she also obtained the services of a Boy Scout troop to install a fence around the half- acre garden. As a result, the garden (primarily funded by Häagen-Dazs), became a showpiece for the department and is a key educational effort illustrating the importance of honey bees and other pollinators.
Kimsey is the third entomology recipient of the Academic Senate's Distinguished Public Service Award since 2012. James R. Carey, distinguished professor of entomology, won the award in 2015, and Robert Washino, emeritus professor and former chair of the department and former associate dean in the UC Davis College of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences, received the award in 2012.
Related Links:
List of previous recipients
News story on 2016 award recipients
How to make reservations to attend
- Author: Kathy Keatley Garvey
DAVIS--Entomologist James R. Carey, distinguished professor in the UC Davis Department of Entomology and Nematology, is the recipient of a UC Davis Academic Senate Distinguished Scholarly Public Service Award for his “outstanding research, outreach and advocacy program involving invasion biology, specifically his significant contributions on two California insect pest invaders, the Mediterranean Fruit Fly (medfly) and the Light Brown Apple Moth (LBAM).”
Carey will be honored at a combined Academic Senate/Academic Federation awards ceremony on Tuesday, May 5 in the Student Community Center. The event will take place from 5:15 to 7:45 p.m. Other 2014-15 recipients of the Distinguished Scholarly Public Service Award are Harry Cheng, professor in the Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering; and Robert Powell, professor in the Department of Chemical Engineering and Materials Science.
“His public service led to much-needed in-depth discussions and greater understanding of these two agricultural pests; saved California millions in cancelled ineffective programs; and focused national and worldwide attention on how to deal with invasive pests,” wrote nominator Michael Parrella, professor and chair of the UC Davis Department of Entomology and Nematology.
An internationally recognized leader and distinguished scholar in invasion biology, spanning three decades, Carey launched an informed, concerted and widespread effort to reveal the science about the invaders that threaten California's $43.5 billion agricultural industry. Carey's well-documented research in basic and applied aspects of invasion biology shows that these pests are established and cannot be eradicated. They continue to spread, despite more than 30 years of intervention and nearly 300 state-sponsored eradication programs.
In his letter of nomination, Parrella wrote that Carey exemplifies what public service, based on sound science, is all about: integrity, dedication, commitment, enthusiasm, and an eagerness to investigate, serve and share. Carey, who holds a doctorate in entomology from UC Berkeley, joined the UC Davis faculty in 1980.
Carey has published his research in major journals, served on the governor-appointed California Medfly Science Advisory Panel, testified before the U.S. Congress and California state legislators and to other government entities; held workshops with citizenry; developed and disseminated information; and granted more than 200 interviews with major print and electronic news media, including the Los Angeles Times, New York Times and Science. Carey drew state, national and international attention with his groundbreaking paper documenting medfly establishment in California in a 1991 edition of Science, and more recently, with the LBAM invasion.
Carey's public service includes:
Carey testified about the biology and establishment of LBAM to the California Legislature, California Assembly Agriculture Committee, California Senate Environmental Quality Committee, San Francisco Board of Supervisors, California Roundtable for Agriculture and the Environment, Senator Migden hearings, Nancy Pelosi staff meetings, and California Senate Committee on Food and Agriculture. His expertise continues to be highly sought. He collaborated with colleagues Bruce Hammock and Frank Zalom, both distinguished professors in the UC Davis Department of Entomology and Nematology, to write to the U.S. Secretary of Agriculture to point out (1) a lack of evidence that this method would work and (2) that LBAM is not an important pest.
In landmark research (“From Trickle to Flood: The Large-Scale, Cryptic Invasion of California by Tropical Fruit Flies”) published in August 2013 in Proceedings of the Royal Society, Carey and his colleagues (Nikos Papadopoulos, University of Thessaly, Richard Plant, UC Davis) found that at least five fruit flies and as many as nine species of the 17 they studied are permanently established in California and cannot be eradicated.
In July, Carey and Papadopoulos presented the results of this study to an international group of fruit fly entomologists (Tephritid Workers of Europe, Africa and the Middle East) in Crete. One of his papers, “Clear, Present, Significant and Imminent Danger: Questions for the California Light Brown Apple Moth (Epiphyas postvittana) Technical Working Group,” published in October 2013 in the journal American Entomologist, continues to draw worldwide attention. The journal Science sent a reporter to UC Davis to write a major, three-page news story on Dr. Carey's involvement in medfly and LBAM science policy.
Carey is also considered the preeminent global authority on arthropod demography. He has authored more than 250 scientific articles.
Carey is a fellow of the Entomological Society of America (ESA), American Association for the Advancement of Science, the Gerontological Society of America, the California Academy of Sciences. Carey is the first entomologist to have a mathematical discovery named after him by demographers—The Carey Equality—which set the theoretical and analytical foundation for a new approach to understanding wild populations.
His past public service includes chair of the University of California Systemwide Committee on Research Policy; member of the systemwide UC Academic Council; and vice chair of his department. He presently serves as the associate editor of three journals: Genus, Aging Cell, and Demographic Research.
Carey is also known for his digital technical expertise on the UC Davis campus, providing advice and recommendations to key UC Davis administration on educational and information technology in support of instruction, research, administration and public service. He is the adviser of the nine-university CARTA (Consortium for Advanced Research Training in Africa).
Highly honored by his peers, Carey received the 2014 C. W. Woodworth Award, the highest award given by the Pacific Branch of ESA, and a 2014 Academic Senate Undergraduate Teaching Award. He was selected a plenary speaker for ICE 2016, the XXV International Congress of Entomology, to meet Sept. 25-30, 2016 in Orlando, Fla.
Related Links:
James R. Carey Faculty Website
Description of the Award (Download PDF)
Past Recipients of Distinguished Scholarly Achievement Award (Download PDF)
See Video About James R. Carey's Work and the Work of the Other 2015 Recipients