Read R. Paul Singh's Q&A with The Sacramento Bee, in connection his being selected to receive the 2015 GCHERA (Global Confederation of Higher Education Associations for the Agricultural and Life Sciences) World Agriculture Prize. Read the UC Davis news release (June 24).

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By Dateline staff

The Royal Entomological Society, having already elected Professor Walter Leal as a fellow, is now according him an even higher status: "honorary fellow," by appointment of the president and officers in recognition of outstanding contributions to entomological science.

Leal

His new title will be conferred in September during the society’s international symposium Ento ’15 in Dublin.

Leal, a chemical ecologist, is a pioneer in the study of insect communication, investigating the molecular basis of olfaction, and the biochemical and physiological interactions among insects. His research is aimed at finding environmentally friendly alternatives to control insects of medical importance, as well as agricultural pests. 

He is a faculty member in the Department of Molecular and Cellular Biology, having moved there from the Department of Entomology and Nematology, where he had served as department chair.

He is a fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, and the Entomological Society of America. He is an elected member of the Brazilian Academy of Sciences in his native country.

He is a past president of the International Society of Chemical Ecology and received the society’s highest honor — a silver medal — in 2012.

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Amanda Guyer, an associate professor and Chancellor’s Fellow, has been named to the Psychosocial Development, Risk and Prevention Study Section at the Center for Scientific Review, National Institutes of Health.

Guyer

Study sections review grant applications submitted to the NIH, make recommendations on these applications to the appropriate NIH national advisory council or board, and survey the status of research in their fields of science. Guyer is serving a serving a six-year term, through June 2021.

Guyer is a faculty member in Human Development and Family Studies, Department of Human Ecology; and at the Center for Mind and Brain.

As a developmental psychologist, she studies biological, cognitive, social-emotional, health and mental health factors in early childhood, middle childhood, adolescence and emerging adulthood.

Chancellor Linda P.B. Katehi named Guyer a Chancellor’s Fellow in 2014-15. The fellowship program recognizes associate professors who are considered rising stars as teachers and campus citizens, and whose scholarly work already puts them at the top of their fields.

Indeed, as she was being considered for promotion to associate professor (she attained the rank in 2013),, a letter of recommendation from outside the university declared Guyer to be among the top five people in the country in her cohort, and another said “her work is original and leading-edge to redirect the field toward early disease markers and sociological contributing factors.”

Guyer joined the UC Davis faculty in 2009 after six years of postdoctoral work at the National Institutes of Health. She received a Ph.D., M.Phil. and M.S., all in developmental psychology, from Yale University, and did her undergraduate work at Skidmore College (New York).

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Professor Steve Greco, professor and chair of the Landscape Architecture and Environmental Design Program, has joined the board of directors of the Tuleyome conservation organization.

Focusing on conservation and ecological design, he has studied a variety of organisms and landscapes, including yellow-billed cuckoos, tule elk, California riparian systems and valley oaks.

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

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