DAVIS--Professor Diane Ullman of the Department of Entomology and Nematology is one of six from UC Davis who are newly elected fellows of the American Association for the Advancement of Science in recognition of their contributions to innovation, education and scientific leadership. The announcement was made Monday, Nov. 24.

Ullman, elected to the Section on Agriculture, Food, and Renewable Resources, focuses her research on the interactions among insects, viruses and plants. She also studies the development of strategies for managing disease-causing microorganisms that are transmitted to plants by insects.

Earlier this month she received the 7000-member Entomological Society of America's distinguished achievement award in teaching at ESA's meeting in Portland, Ore.

AAAS will present each of the 401 new fellows in the Class of 2014 with a certificate and gold-and-blue rosette pin on Saturday, Feb. 14, during the association's annual meeting, to be held in San Jose. UC Davis now has a total of 152 AAAS fellows. 

Ullman is the former associate dean for undergraduate academic programs, College of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences, and is the co-founder and co-director of the UC Davis Art/Science Fusion Program.

Highly honored for her work, Ullman was named a fellow of ESA in 2011. She received the UC Davis Chancellor's Achievement Award for Diversity and Community in 2008; the USDA Higher Education Western Regional Award for Excellence in College and University Teaching in 1993; and the Hawaiian Entomology Society Entomologist of the Year Award in 1992, among her many awards.

Ullman joined the UC Davis Department of Entomology (now Entomology and Nematology) in 1995. She served as the department's vice chair from 2001 to 2004, and as the 2004-05 chair. Ullman obtained her bachelor's degree in horticulture from the University of Arizona, Tucson, in 1997 and her doctorate in entomology from UC Davis in 1985.

Ullman is one of 11 fellows from the UC Davis Department of Entomology (now the UC Davis Department of Entomology and Nematology) since 1976. Two have since joined other departments and one is deceased. They are:

• Distinguished Professor James Carey, elected in 2011
• Professor Hugh Dingle, elected in 1976
• Professor Rick Karban,  elected in 2009
• Professor Walter Leal, (now with the UC Davis Department of Molecular and Cellular Biology), elected in 2005
• Professor and former department chair Donald McLean (1928-2014), elected in 1983
• Professor and former chair Robert Page Jr. (now provost of Arizona State University), elected in 2007
• Professor Jay Rosenheim, elected in 2009
• Distinguished Professor Thomas Scott, elected in 2007
• Distinguished Professor Art Shapiro (now with the UC Davis Department of Evolution and Ecology), elected in 1987
• Distinguished Professor Frank Zalom, elected in 2011

In addition, Maurice Tauber (1931-2014), an associate of the Department of Entomology and Nematology at the time of his death, achieved AAAS fellow status in 1981.

According to the website, election as a fellow of AAAS is an "honor bestowed upon a member whose efforts on behalf of the advancement of science or its applications are scientifically or socially distinguished and who has been a continuous member for the four year period leading up to the year of nomination."

Each fellow nomination packet must include a nomination form; a list of the nominee's top ten most significant publications; a comprehensive CV, which includes a complete list of publications; and four from each of the three sponsors.

Related Link
See UC Davis news story on the list of six fellows

DAVIS--Entomological Society of America president Frank Zalom, UC Davis distinguished professor of entomology, is gearing up for the 62nd annual meeting of the ESA, which meets Nov 16-19 in the Oregon Convention Center, Portland, Ore. 

More than than 3,200 insect scientists have already registered, according to the ESA's communications program manager, Richard Levine. It is expected to be one of the largest entomology meetings in recent memory. 

"The Northwest, with its natural beauty and location at the edge of the Pacific rim, is an ideal place to reflect on our Entomology 2014 theme: Grand Challenges Beyond Our Horizons," said Zalom, in an ESA news release "This year, ESA will be launching an effort to identify the most important challenges to which our discipline can make significant contributions.

More than 90 symposia are planned and will cover such topics as bed bugs, honey bees, monarch butterflies, ticks, native pollinators, pesticide regulations, biological control, integrated pest management, genetically-modified crops, invasive species, forestry, entomophagy, organic farming, insect-vectored diseases, and more. In addition, there will be 1,750 papers and posters, Levine reports.

Click here for the full meeting program.

Highlights include:

• Beyond Pesticides: The Conundrum of Bed Bugs
• Insects as Sustainable and Innovative Sources of Food and Feed Production
• Recovering Monarch Butterfly Populations in North America: A Looming Challenge for Science, the Public, Industry, and Legislators
• Classical Biological Control of the Brown Marmorated Stink Bug, Halyomorpha halys (Stål)
• Nutrition and the Health and Behavior of Wild and Managed Bees
• Contributions of Mosquito Research to Science & Society
• Entomological Comics and Their Importance in Education and Culture
• RNAi: Emerging Technology to Overcome Grand Challenges in Entomology
• IPM: An International Organic Farming Strategy on Invasive Insect Species
• New Frontiers in Honey Bee Health Economics: Incorporating Entomological Research and Knowledge into Economic Assessments

Among the scientists to be honored at the ESA meeting are three from UC Davis: Professor Diane Ullman and doctorate recipients Kelly Hamby (2014) and James F. Campbell (1999)

Diane Ullman

Professor Diane Ullman is the recipient of ESA's distinguished achievement award in teaching.  This is the highest honor that the 7000-member ESA presents to its outstanding teachers.

Ullman earlier was named the recipient of the outstanding teaching award from the Pacific Branch of ESA. Ullman chaired the UC Davis Department of Entomology in 2004-2005, and served as an associate dean for undergraduate academic programs, College of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences. from 2005 to 2014. (See more information.)

Kelly Hamby 

Kelly Hamby, recipient of the John Henry Comstock Graduate Student Award from the Pacific Branch of ESA, will be honored, along with the other Comstock award winners from the other branches. (See more information)

Hamby received her doctorate in entomology at UC Davis in March 2014, studying with major professor Frank Zalom. She has just accepted a position with the Department of Entomology at the University of Maryland, College Park. Starting in November, she will be an assistant professor of sustainable agroecosystems and will be involved in integrated pest management research, extension, and teaching. (See more information)

James F. Campbell 

Research entomologist James F. Campbell, who earned his doctoral in entomology from UC Davis in 1999, will receive a special recognition award. The award, sponsored by Syngenta Crop Protection, recognizes entomologists who are making significant contributions to agriculture.

Campbell is a research entomologist with the  Center for Grain and Animal Health Research Service of the USDA's Agricultural Research Service, Manhattan, Kansas.  (See more information)

Three professors who received their doctorates in entomology in the 1980s from UC Davis are among this year's 10 elected Fellows.

They are:

• Nilsa A. Bosque-Pérez, professor, Department of Plant, Soil and Entomological Sciences at the University of Idaho. She received two degrees from UC Davis: her master's degree in 1981 and Ph.D. in 1985.
• Gary Felton, professor and head of the Department of Entomology at Penn State University. He received his doctorate from UC Davis in 1988. In 2010, he delivered the Thomas and Nina Leigh Distinguished Alumni Lecture at UC Davis
• Murray B. Isman, professor of entomology and toxicology at the University of British Columbia, Vancouver. He received his doctorate from UC Davis in 1981. In 2012, he delivered the Thomas and Nina Leigh Distinguished Alumni Lecture at UC Davis

Graduate students in the UC Davis Department Entomology will participate in a debate on neonicotinoids.  The team, coached by Michael Parrella, professsor and chair of the department, is comprised of Jenny Carlson, Anthony Cornel lab; Rei Margaret "Rei" Scampavia, Neal Williams/Edwin Lewis lab; Ralph Washington Jr., Nadler lab; Daniel Klittich, Parrella lab; and Mohammard-Amir Aghaee, Larry Godfrey lab.

ESA, founded in 1889, is the largest organization in the world serving the professional and scientific needs of entomologists and people in related disciplines. Its members are affiliated with educational institutions, health agencies, private industry, and government. Members are researchers, teachers, extension service personnel, administrators, marketing representatives, research technicians, consultants, students, and hobbyists. For more information, visit http://www.entsoc.org.

(Editor's Note: Richard Levine, the ESA's communications program manager, contributed to this report.)

DAVIS--Diane Ullman, professor of entomology at the University of California, Davis, and a longtime administrator, is the 2014 recipient of the Entomological Society of America's distinguished achievement award in teaching. 

This is the highest honor that the 7000-member ESA presents to its outstanding teachers. Ullman earlier was named the recipient of the outstanding teaching award from the Pacific Branch of ESA.

The ESA governing board announced the news today (Sept. 10). Ullman will receive the award at the ESA's 62nd annual meeting, to take place Nov. 16-19 in Portland, Ore.  

Ullman chaired the UC Davis Department of Entomology in 2004-2005, and served as an associate dean for undergraduate academic programs, College of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences. from 2005 to 2014.  There she led curriculum and program development, student recruitment and outreach, and she administrated all undergraduate academic activities.

Ullman is known for innovative, multidisciplinary teaching strategies that connect science and art programs that mentor the next generation of scientists and help undergraduates succeed. Key examples are the Art/Science Fusion Program (using experiential learning to enhance scientific literacy), the Career Discovery Group Program (training mentors to help students explore careers and select majors), and the national Thrips-Tospovirus Educational Network (training graduate students and postdoctoral scholars to mentor new scientists).

Ullman's research revolves around insects that transmit plant pathogens, in particular plant viruses. She is best known for advancing international knowledge of interactions between thrips and tospoviruses and aphids and citrus tristeza virus. Her contributions have played a fundamental role in developing novel strategies for management of insects and plant viruses. She leads a $3.75 million Coordinated Agricultural Project, and has authored more than 100 refereed publications (cited 3,660 times, h-index of 32).

The UC Davis professor was named an ESA fellow in 2011. She is the recipient of numerous awards, including the USDA Higher Education Western Regional Award for Excellence in College and University Teaching (1993), the UC Davis Chancellor's Achievement Award for Diversity and Community (2008), and the 2014 Distinguished Teaching Award from ESA's Pacific Branch.

Ullman received her bachelor's degree in horticulture from the University of Arizona in 1976 and her doctorate  in entomology from UC Davis in 1985. She began her career in 1987 at the University of Hawaii-Manoa, relocating in 1995 to UC Davis' Department of Entomology and Nematology. Ullman also holds a joint appointment with the graduate programs of the Department of Entomology and Nematology, and the Department of Plant Pathology. 

“Dr. Ullman is a world-renowned and highly respected teacher, but she is an outstanding mentor, researcher and administrator who combines innovation, energy, talent and dedication to help students learn, retain that knowledge, and succeed in class, college and life. They cannot praise her enough, and neither can we,” the team of nominators wrote. 

Ullman excels at developing new courses, programs and teaching methods, using traditional and non-traditional means. She employs a unique multidisciplinary approach to teaching. A key example is her Art/Science Fusion Program (which has drawn national and international attention, including a TEDx talk, ESA and AAAS presentations, and scores of speaking invitations all over the world. One of her 2013 presentations was to Lleida University, Spain, where she guided them in setting up an art/science fusion program.

The Art/Science Fusion Program, developed initially in the Department of Entomology and Nematology, is an innovative teaching program that crosses college boundaries and uses experiental learning to enhance scientific literary for students from all disciplines. Her program promotes environmental literacy with three undergraduate courses, a robust community outreach program, and sponsorship of the Leonardo Art Science Evening Rendezvous (LASERs).  

An example of her innovative teaching:  her Entomology 001 students researched honey bees, learned and crafted mosaic ceramics, and then installed the project in the department's honey bee garden. Her ENT 001 and her freshman seminar on Plants in Art and Science led to 12 permanently installed public art projects and one exhibition at the Mondavi Center for the Performing Arts. These projects illustrating student learning at UC Davis, have attracted national attention, including a 16-page article in the November 2013 edition of Works and Conversations.

The Art/Science Fusion Program drew praise for its robust collaboration with the UC Davis Arboretum and its work with the GATEways (Gardens, Art and the Environment) Project, a campuswide project aimed at increased accessibility to UC Davis and its academic enterprise. One of her most visible and “wow!” projects is the 2,500 pound mosaic artwork, Nature's Gallery, showcasing the interaction of insects and plants. A product of her ENT 001 class and community outreach, it was displayed at the U.S. Botanical Garden in Washington D.C. and at the California State Fair and is now permanently installed in the UC Davis Arboretum.

Ullman's nominators singled her out for special praise:

1. Her teaching methods and influence are not just in the classroom. As the associate dean of the UC Davis College of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences (student population 6000), Ullman leads the curriculum and program development, student recruitment and outreach; administrates all undergraduate academic policies ranging from orientation of incoming students; advises and assists students in academic difficulty; and developed campuswide policies with a wide range of academic committees, taskforces and councils at college and campus levels, including the Council of Associate Deans, Undergraduate Dean's Council, and Undergraduate Advising Council.

2. Career Discovery Group. Ullman co-founded the Career Discovery Group Program (180-380 freshmen/year since 2006). This program, essential in training mentors, and obtaining college and private funding for program support and expansion, helps students explore career possibilities, select majors and tailor their academic program to enhance their success. Recently, her leadership resulted in garnering college and private funding for expansion of the program to Educational Opportunity Program students (first in their family to attend college, under-represented minorities) and she contributes throughout the academic year to training and managing the mentors for this program. Undergraduates participating in the program have a faster time to degree, higher GPAs and are less likely to be in academic difficulty.

3. National Online Class. In 2013, Ullman co-directed development and teaching of a national online class on scientific mentoring (Thrips-Tospovirus Educational Network or TTEN) to students and postdoctoral scholars at seven institutions. This effort involved developing an Adobe Connect virtual classroom, a Google Plus site for sharing materials, videos and resources and preparation of curriculum. In addition to this formal teaching, she also trains undergraduates and graduate students to do research in her laboratory. As a researcher, she is best known for translating advances in understanding insect vector-plant virus relationships into novel strategies for preventing vector population growth and epidemics of insect transmitted pathogens. Her success let to a $3.75 million grant; she is the principal investigator.

4. New Techniques and Strategies. Ullman invests a great deal of energy in delivering content and exploring innovative strategies for teaching. In 2012, she revised her strategy for teaching ENT 001, using more online resources, collaborative learning techniques and in-class testing strategies that allowed her to “flip” the classroom and increase discussion, questions and interactive activities in a highly successful project. She continues to innovate and integrate art and science in her teaching, stressing visual literacy and creative confidence.

Unsolicited and anonymous comments from students included:

• “Professor Ullman is wonderful! She is extremely enthusiastic about what she is teaching.”
• “Great professor. She is passionate about what she does and very enthusiastic about insects.”

(Editor's Note: Richard Levine of ESA contributed to this report.)

Related link:
Watch the TEDx talk on YouTube by Diane Ullman, co-founder and co-director of the UC Davis Art/Science Fusion Program.

DAVIS--How do you find justice in a more human world?

Why is there a gap between computational and artistic models of movement?

How does vegetation respond to microclimate?

When science and medicine change, how does that affect us?

Those are some of the topics to be explored Monday, June 2 at the Leonardo Art Science Evening Rendezvous  (LASER) event, part of the UC Davis Art/Science Fusion Program. 

The event, free and open to the public, takes place from 6:30 to 9:30 p.m. in Room 3001 of the Plant and Environmental Sciences Building, UC Davis campus.

The event begins with socializing and networking from 6:30 to 7 p.m. A break is planned from 7:15 to 8:10 p.m. to allow the audience to share their work intersecting art and science (30 seconds each), said moderator/coordinator Anna Davidson, a Ph.D. candidate in the UC Davis Department of Plant Sciences and a teacher with the UC Davis Art Science Fusion Program.

 The speaker schedule:

• Gene Felice, graduate student, at the University of California Santa Cruz, will speak on "Justice in a More Human World" from 7 to 7:25. 
• Michael Neff, associate professor in Computer Science and Cinema and Technocultural Studies at UC Davis, will speak on "The Gap Between Computational and Artistic Models of Movement"
• Danielle Svehla Christianson of the Berkeley Center for New Media, will discuss "The Gap Between: Computational and Artistic Models of Movement, “A Digital Forest: 01100110 01101111 01110010 01100101 01110011 01110100” from 8:10 to 8:35 p.m.
• Joe Dumit, director of Science and Technology Studies and professor of anthropology at UC Davis, will speak on "Haptic Creativity: Seeing, Scaling and Storymaking with the KeckCAVES" from 8:35 to 9 p.m.

Brief Bios
Gene Felice, a graduate student at UC Santa Cruz, is enrolled in the DANM (Digital Arts and New Media) program and is currently working with OpenLab and the Mechatonics Research Group to develop his project Oceanic Scales. He  divides his research between art, design and education. He says this split allows him to develop balance between interactive art, living systems, and the latest available technology for new media. Felice maintains a hybrid practice at the intersection of nature and technology,developing symbiotically creative systems as arts/science research.

About his talk, Felice says: "We, as humans, are enmeshed in multiple and complex interactions within the more-than-human world." He and colleagues Sophia Magnone and Andy Murray, as individuals, "find problematic the ways in which these relationships are so often exploitative or taken for granted. In our independent work, we each address from a different perspective the ways in which humans and nonhumans are intertwined: Sophia inquires into the worlds of animals, cyborgs, objects, and other nonhumans in speculative fiction, tracing unexpected forms of agency, liveliness, and interaction. Gene explores the relationships between living systems and contemporary technology in an attempt to find balance and grace through interactions of art, science and education. Andy focuses on bioengineering, the creation of new complex collaborative relationships, and the effective discard of others. We have come together to merge our work around these topics and produce a shared set of provocative questions. We hope to use these questions as a jumping-off point for an event that will engage a broader community and generate awareness, reflexivity, and affinity."

Michael Neff, as an associate professor in Computer Science and Cinema and  Technocultural Studies at UC Davis, directs the Motion Lab, which he describes as "an interdisciplinary research effort in character animation and embodied input." He also co-directs the program, Cinema and Technocultural Studies. Neff holds a Ph.D. from the University of Toronto and is a certified Laban Movement analyst. His interests include character animation tools, especially modeling expressive movement, physics-based animation, gesture and applying performing arts knowledge to animation. His honors include: National Science Foundation Career Award, the Alain Fournier Award for his dissertation, a best paper award from Intelligent Virtual Agents, and the Isadora Duncan Award for Visual Design.  

 

Danielle Svehla Christianson, a member of the Berkeley Center for New Media, studies microclimate: how vegetation responds to it; how it may occur in a warmer future; and how it scales up to climate represented at coarser spatial and temporal scales that are commonly used in models. She observes tree seedlings and measures the physical environment in Sequoia National Park to address these ecological questions. In addition, Christianson works to improve awareness of science and the natural world via visualizations.  Prior to pursuing her Ph.D. in the Energy and Resources Group with designated emphasis in New Media at UC Berkeley, Christianson co-authored Flora of the Santa Ana River and Environs (Heyday 2007) in which she first mixed natural history and visual communication. She holds a master's degree from Energy and Resources Group as well as a bachelor of science in mechanical engineering from Texas A&M University.

Joe Dumit, director of Science and Technology Studies and professor of anthropology at UC Davis,who will speak on "Hpatic Creativity: Seeing, Scaling and Story-Making with the KeckCAVES." He  is also on the faculty of the Cultural Studies Ph.D program, and on the executive committee of the Performance Studies Graduate Group. Dumit studies how science and medicine change and how the lives of Americans, including consumers, patients, doctors and scientists also change as the nature of facts and evidence change. His first book, Picturing Personhood: Brains Scans and Biomedical America (Princeton University Press, 2004), looked at the development of PET scan brain imaging and what assumptions about brain anatomy, psychology, and human nature needed to be made in order to conduct experiments, and then how the images circulate through popular culture, courtrooms, and patients' lives. Dumit's second book, Drugs for Life: How Pharmaceutical Companies Define Our Health (Duke University Press, 2012), focuses on the way clinical trials are designed in ways that grow pharmaceutical treatments in the latter half of the 20th century.

The UC Davis Art Science Fusion Program was co-founded and is co-directed by two people: UC Davis entomologist/artist Diane Ullman, professor and former chair of the UC Davis Department of Entomology and Nematology, and a former associate dean with the UC Davis College of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences, and self-described "rock artist Donna Billick of UC Davis.

Ullman and Billick began teaching classes in the mid-1990s that led to the formation of the Art/Science Fusion Program. The program today includes design faculty, science faculty, museum educators, professional artists and UC Davis students. “Participants see and feel art and science, hold it in their hands, hearts and memories—in ceramics, painting, photographs, music, and textiles,” Ullman said.

The program, developed initially in the Department of Entomology and Nematology, is "an innovative teaching program that crosses college boundaries and uses experiental learning to enhance scientific literary for students from all disciplines," Ullman said. The program promotes environmental literacy with three undergraduate courses, a robust community outreach program, and sponsorship of the Leonardo Art Science Evening Rendezvous (LASERs).  

For more information:

• UC Davis Art/Science Fusion Program
• Leonardo Art Science Evening Rendezvous (LASER)
• Upcoming Programs, LASER
• Plant and Environmental Sciences Building (map)

 Contact information: Anna Davidson, adavidson@ucdavis.edu.