Five faculty members receive entomology team award.

By Dateline staff

The Emeriti Association recently presented its 2013 Distinguished Emeritus/a Award to geology professor Eldridge Moores. The award recognizes outstanding contributions following retirement in the areas of teaching, research, and service.

Moores

Moores retired in 2003, then served for four years, 2004-08, as vice president of the International Union of Geological Sciences, traveling the equivalent of 16 times around the world to encourage international cooperation in the earth sciences and the sustainable use of resources.

He served as a member of the UC President’s Science and Mathematics Initiative; helped establish an earth science program at Napa College; and continues to be engaged in a multiyear effort, supported by the National Science Foundation and the Geological Society of America, to increase offerings in geoscience nationwide.

His scholarly accomplishments since retirement include publishing the second edition of his co-authored textbook, Structural Geology, which, in the update process, went from 532 pages in 1992 to 736 pages in 2007.

He co-edited Bedrock: Writers on the Wonders of Geology, which came out in 2006 and rated a mention in a Wall Street Journal feature in which physicist Frederick Seitz offered his list of the five best science books.

Moores played cello in the university’s Symphony Orchestra for 28 years, stepping down in 2010. 

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Carl Winter, a food safety expert, is stayin’ on topic with his combination talks-performances around the country — including his May 2 appearance at the University of Minnesota.

He’ll be giving the third annual Hayes and Phillips Lecture, and he’s calling it “Stayin’ Alive: A Musical Look at Food Safety Issues.”

Winter, a Cooperative Extension food toxicologist and director of the FoodSafe Program in the Department of Food Science and Technology, substitutes his food safety messages for lyrics in contemporary music, like the Bee Gees’ Stayin’ Alive.

Listen and watch.

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The Alliance for Work-Life Progress has awarded a 2013 Seal of Distinction to UC Davis for its commitment to supporting employees in all major aspects of work-life integration.

Credit goes to the campus’s WorkLife and Wellness unit — manager Barbara Ashby, coordinator Sandy Batchelor and lactation specialist Shirley German — for programs and services that promote balanced living, so employees can be effective in all of life’s facets: self, work, significant others and community.

WorkLife and Wellness, part of Human Resources, offers information and referral on such topics as workplace flexibility, child care and youth programs, and elder and adult day care, and presents the WorkLife and Wellness Brown Bag Series.

The Breastfeeding Support Program is widely recognized; in fact, Ashby has been invited to contribute a chapter to the book Breastfeeding Practices in Higher Education, scheduled for publication at the end of 2013.

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New fellows:

• Kenneth Brown, professor, Department of Nutrition — In being named a fellow of the American Society of Nutrition, he receives the society's highest honor. Brown, who is also a pediatrician, has focused his research career on improving nutrition and health, especially among young children and women in developing countries. He is particularly interested in the relationship between infection and nutrition, and control of specific deficiencies in micronutrients, including zinc, iron and vitamin A.

• Thomas Lanini, Cooperative Extension specialist, Department of Plant Sciences — Elected a fellow of the Western Society of Weed Science. A weed ecologist, Lanini has influenced weed management strategies in forest plantations, aquatics, roadsides, rangeland, wildlands, agronomic crops, orchards and vegetable crops. He is considered an expert on dodder management and over the years has given more than 1,000 extension presentations. Lanini has been with UC Davis for 27 years.

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Psychology postings:

Two professors have been appointed to study sections of the National Institutes of Health: Susan Rivera, a member of the core faculty at the Center for Mind and Brain, to the cognition and perception study section; and Matt Traxler to the language and communication study section.

Professor Charan Ranganath of the Center for Neuroscience recently received the Parke-Davis Exchange Fellowship in Biomedical Sciences from Cambridge University.

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The Graduate Student Association has presented its 2013 Awards for Excellence in Service to Graduate Students:

• Kevin Grimm, associate professor, Department of Psychology

• Christal Wintersmith, student affairs officer and graduate student coordinator for the Biomedical Engineering graduate group

The GSA presented the awards April 5 during the Interdisciplinary Graduate and Professional Student Symposium.

Dateline UC Davis welcomes news of faculty and staff awards, for publication in Laurels. Send information to dateline@ucdavis.edu.

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