Professor Louie Yang, recipient of Distinction in Student Mentoring Award, sponsored by the Pacific Branch, Entomological Society of America.

"Louie is known for being a strong advocate for his students and fostering creative and critical thinking," wrote nominator Steve Nadler, professor and chair, UC Davis Department of Entomology and Nematology. "Whether they be undergraduates, graduates, high school students or members of the community, he engages and challenges students in his lectures, in the lab, and in the field. He attends to the unique needs and interests of each student, respecting their perspectives and ideas. He epitomizes what makes a great professor and advisor: his command of the subject matter, his ability to stimulate discussions and involvement, and his kindly concern for their education, welfare, and success."

The award will be presented at PBESA's annual meeting, set April 2-5, in Seattle. PBESA encompasses 11 Western states, plus parts of Mexico and Canada and U.S. territories.

Yang, who received his bachelor's degree in ecology and evolution from Cornell University in 1999, and his doctorate in population biology from UC Davis in 2006, joined the UC Davis faculty in 2009. Since then, he has mentored an estimated 300 persons, including three PhD students who have graduated from his lab; his current five students; 20 undergraduates associated with his lab; students in three UC Davis graduate groups, Entomology, Graduate Group in Ecology, and Population Biology (40), and 140 community members (nearly all high school students), in the Monitoring Milkweed-Monarch Interactions for Learning and Conservation (MMMILC) project.

In providing her support, Helene Dillard, dean of the UC Davis College of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences (CA&ES), wrote:  "Professor Yang is an enthusiastic advisor/mentor, he has a strong commitment to student diversity, and he is dedicated to helping students achieve their academic and career goals. He has developed (or co-developed) innovative programs that provide guided mentoring experiences that encourage students to explore their individual skills and interests.  These programs and Professor Yang's guidance provide critical pathways for recruiting and retaining undergraduate students in STEM fields. Professor Yang has made valuable contributions to student success in our college and campus-wide and we are proud to strongly support his nomination for the PBESA Distinction in Student Mentoring Award."

Professor Yang has welcomed and mentored students from UC Davis and from around the country with the National Science Foundation Research Experiences for Undergraduates Program and the UC Davis-Howard University Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCU) Ecology and Evolution Graduate Admissions Pathways (EEGAP) program.

He co-directs and mentors students in the Research Scholars Program in Insect Biology (RSPIB), a campuswide program that he and Professors Jay Rosenheim and Joanna Chiu co-founded in 2011 to help students learn cutting-edge research through close mentoring relationships with faculty. The program crosses numerous biological fields, including population biology; behavior and ecology; biodiversity and evolutionary ecology; agroecology; genetics and molecular biology; biochemistry and physiology; entomology; and cell biology. The goal: to provide academically strong and highly motivated undergraduates with a multi-year research experience that cultivates skills that will prepare them for a career in biological research.

Rosenheim, a UC Davis distinguished professor of entomology, praised Yang's innovative teaching. "Some years ago, as part of my department's standard program of mentoring pre-tenure faculty, I had the privilege of visiting Louie's ENT105 course to observe his teaching methods. His class sessions were impeccably organized, his presentations deeply insightful, and the discussions highly engaging. Louie alternated lectures with class sessions in which large blocks of time were devoted to structured debates. For the debates, Louie drew names at random and assembled two 3-person teams of students, one arguing the 'pro' side of the issue, the other arguing the 'con' side. After an initial period when positions were presented and rebuttals given, the whole class was invited to join in the discussion. What was truly remarkable was the high level of participation that Louie is able to elicit, both during the debates and during his lectures. Louie inspires the confidence of his students, and they reciprocate with their willingness take risks during class by contributing, even when discussing topics that are new to them.This is not an easy thing to accomplish; Louie's ability to gain such strong student participation is perhaps the strongest evidence of Louie's talent in connecting with students.I was so impressed with the success of Louie's methods that I decided to incorporate structured debates into one of my own classes as well."

Professor Yang primarily teaches Insect Ecology and Field Ecology. Since joining the UC Davis faculty, he has taught some 665 students.  Unsolicited comments on Rate My Professors all show him as “awesome.” Wrote one student: “Professor Yang is enthusiastic, engaging, and overall, one of the best professors I have had. I got the feeling that he wanted to connect with us as ecologists and future scientists, not just as students. He was great at 'show, not tell' and used videos, demonstrations, and discussions to great effect.”

Yang believes that  “science progresses by confronting our assumptions, ideas, and hypotheses with data. This dynamic process of confrontation requires a powerful combination of logic and objectivity that is widely recognized as the domain of science. However, the raw material of scientific creativity—the fundamental wellspring for the scientific process—depends on variability in the way people think about how the world works. This diversity of human perspectives allows the scientific community to ask new questions, imagine new solutions to problems, and reconsider entrenched assumptions—all of which accelerate scientific progress. New ideas are the engine of science and that is why I encourage diversity in science.” 

In his research, Yang is involved in monarch conservation science and planning in collaboration with the Western Monarch Conservation Science Group, US FWS, the Xerces Society of Invertebrate Conservation, Monarch Joint Venture, Environment Defense Fund, the Monarch Summit in DC.   Yang was interviewed about his monarch-milkweed research on Science Friday, National Public Radio, in February 2022.

He launched the Monitoring Milkweed-Monarch Interactions for Learning and Conservation (MMMILC) project in 2013 for high school students in the environmental science program at Davis Senior High School or those associated with the Center for Land-Based Learning's Green Corps program. Their tasks: monitoring milkweed-monarch interactions in a project funded by the National Science Foundation.  Yang organized and led a 135-member team, all co-authors of the paper, “Different Factors Limit Early- and Late-Season Windows of Opportunity for Monarch Development,” published in July 2022 in the journal  Ecology and Evolution.  The 107 co-authors included high school students, undergraduate and graduate students, and community members. (See News Story)

Other student-involved publications include:

• A Meta-Analysis of Single Visit Pollination Effectiveness Comparing Honeybees and Other Floral Visitors, American Journal of Botany, November 2021 
• The Complexity of Global Change and its Effects on Insects, Insect Science 2021
• Species-Specific, Age-Varying Plant Traits Affect Herbivore Growth and Survival, Ecology 2020
• Artificial Light Increases Local Predator Abundance, Predation Rates, and Herbivory, Environmental Entomology, Sept. 26, 2019

In mentoring, Yang follows several goals:

1. To be honest to the unique needs and interests of each student. He aims to assess the advising needs of each student individually, recognizing that these needs can change quickly. He listens and watches, tries not to make too many assumptions, and reminds himself to expect the unexpected. “Science is a human endeavor, and the same diversity of ideas and perspectives that fuels scientific progress means that each scientist needs different advising to succeed." In many cases he has found that the primary task of mentorship is helping students “identify the questions that they want to ask. I seek to respect each student's unique perspective and interests, and to believe what they said.”
2. To facilitate intellectual independence. His aim is to help students transition from being consumers of knowledge to becoming producers of knowledge. “This transition requires giving students the intellectual freedom to learn from their own decisions. I am to maintain appropriate humility when I provide advice; when working at the limits of available knowledge, I believe that we usually recognize the best decisions only in hindsight, and the best outcomes often result from a willingness to capitalize on unexpected events.  “As a research advisor, I am committed to the long-term success of each student but encourage students to exercise their intellectual courage and curiosity, even at the risk of short-term failures. We develop as scientists by making our own mistakes, and using those mistakes to improve our judgment. I remind myself to allow enough gaps in my advising to allow students to learn first from their interactions with nature.”
3. To learn from his students. “I believe that mentorship should be a two-way street, and I expect my students to develop the knowledge and confidence to teach me things that I don't know. As scientists, we are motivated by learning new things, and this is a model of advising that is intellectually engaging and sustainable over the long term. More important, it gives my students the opportunity to become experts and teachers, and to view themselves as intellectual colleagues and contributors.

The nomination packet for the Distinction in Student Mentoring Award included two group letters: one from current students and the other from alumni.   Doctoral candidate Elizabeth Postema wrote in part: "I have been one of Louie's students since 2018, and could not have dreamed of a better mentor-mentee relationship. It is unusual, and truly special, to find a mentor that perfectly balances generous, unwavering support with a deep appreciation for his students' independence. Over the years, I have become convinced that Louie is able to warp spacetime; he appears to have more hours in the day than the average human. Regardless of how many projects he's taken on, essays he has to grade, or recommendation letters he's promised to write, he seems to always have an extra hour just to 'shoot the breeze' or think about new experiments. I can be assured of his quick reply to nearly any question, concern, or brainstorm; his turnaround on feedback is blindingly fast (e.g., detailed comments on 20+ pages of writing within a day or two); and I know I can poke my head into his office for advice at any point, even when he's in the middle of something important. This level of support has been remarkably consistent throughout my academic career--from my first year as a PhD student (when I was his only student) to now. His supportive advising style, almost paradoxically, allows his students to develop a high degree of independence and self-motivation."

RSPIB scholar Gwen Erdosh described him as an “incredible scientist, educator, and role model…He has always been there for all of his students, providing all the support we need to flourish as scientists. The most important lesson he has taught me is to always keep pushing forward with an experiment, and always be open to new ideas if one idea fails. He teaches us to see failure as an opportunity for improvement, and always think outside the box. He encourages students to pursue grad school and do their own research in his lab. He takes the time to meet with his students one-on-one to talk through experiments, ideas, and questions. He gives us opportunities to work with his graduate students and gain experience in the field. He is one of the best professors at UC Davis, by far, and it is a delight to be a member of his lab. I am grateful for all that Louie has done for me and the other students in his lab and classes.”

Alumna Meredith Cenzer,  now a member of the University of Chicago faculty, wrote: "As an advisor, Louie is supportive, accessible, and engaged in helping his advisees meet their goals. He is responsive and committed to improving himself as a mentor of students at all levels. He fosters independent intellectual development in his advisees and was indispensable to my own growth as a scientist.” 

Wrote alumna Shahla Farzan, a science podcast editor with American Public Media: “He supported me throughout my PhD, challenging me to think critically about the ways in which my research answered broader ecological questions. Later, when I decided to pursue a career in science journalism, he was enthusiastic and encouraging. Louie has nurtured and supported countless undergraduate and graduate students over the course of his career and I have no doubt he will continue to be a positive force in the field for many years to come."

Highly honored by his peers and students, Yang received the 2017 Eleanor and Harry Walker Academic Advising Award from CA&ES. In 2018, he received the regional (Pacific Region 9, California, Nevada and Hawaii) Outstanding Faculty Academic Advisor from NACADA, also known as the Global Community for Academic Advising, and then went on to win NACADA's international award for the Outstanding Faculty Academic Advising Award.  

Yang writes on his website: "As a lab, we work to maintain an open, supportive and encouraging environment to do good science. We are open to multiple research areas and approaches, and encourage students and postdocs to develop their own innovative ideas and creative questions along the way. Our lab values straightforward communication, intellectual independence, determined problem-solving, constructive persistence, helpfulness, integrity, humility and humor. Although we aim to maintain a small lab group, we always welcome inquiries from prospective graduate students, postdocs and undergraduates. If you are interested in joining the lab, please send an email to Louie H. Yang at lhyang@ucdavis.edu."

The complete list of 2023 PBESA winners is posted here. The archived list of mentoring award recipients dates back to 2012 and includes UC Davis forensic entomologist Robert Kimsey, who won in 2020 and UC Davis distinguished professor Jay Rosenheim, the 2018 recipient.