The Hispanic National Bar Association has presented its highest honor, the Lincoln-Juarez Award, to Professor Emeritus Cruz Reynoso, recognizing him as “a lifelong trailblazer who is dedicated to helping those of humble beginnings have access to the legal system.”

Reynoso joined the law school faculty in 2001 and was the first to hold the Boochever and Bird Chair for the Study and Teaching of Freedom and Equality.

From civil rights attorney representing California farmworkers, Reynoso rose to become an associate justice of California’s 3rd District Court of Appeal and the state Supreme Court. President Clinton appointed him to the Commission on Civil Rights and subsequently presented him with the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the nation’s highest civilian honor.

Reynoso co-founded the Hispanic National Bar Association, which named its highest award after Abraham Lincoln and Benito Juarez, the presidents of the United States and Mexico, contemporaries, both lawyers who fought injustice.

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Lydia Pleotis Howell, professor and chair of the Department of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine, has taken office as president of the American Society of Cytopathology.

The society, which celebrates its 60th anniversary in 2012, is the oldest professional organization in cytopathology, which is a minimally invasive diagnostic cellular method.

“Dr. Howell is recognized nationally for her work to improve diagnostic tests and protocols for the evaluation of breast and cervical cancer,” said Claire Pomeroy, vice chancellor for Human Health Sciences and dean of the School of Medicine.

Howell’s induction as president took place Nov. 6 during the society’s annual scientific meeting, held this year in Baltimore. Her predecessors include George Papanicolaou, inventor of the Pap test, which has reduced deaths from cervical cancer by more than 70 percent in the United States and other countries.

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Dean Simmonton, professor of psychology, is the co-recipient of the 2011 Mensa Award for Excellence in Research, given by the Mensa Education and Research Foundation and Mensa International Ltd.

He shared the award with one of his former graduate students, Anna V. Song, for “Eminence, IQ, Physical and Mental Health and Achievement Domain: Cox’s 282 Geniuses Revisited,” published in 2009 in Psychological Science.

Song, who received her doctorate in 2006, is an assistant professor at UC Merced.

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Music department lecturer Sam Nichols is one of two recipients of 2011 Suzanne and Lee Ettelson Composer Awards for New Chamber Works.

Honoring the best in American music, each award comes with a $1,000 prize and a prominent forum: a performance in the Composers Inc. concert season in San Francisco.

The Left Coast Chamber Players are set to perform Nichols’ award-winning work, Refuge, for string quartet, during the Concerts Inc. Rifts and Refuge concert April 24. More information.

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Two weeks after he received a “young investigator award” for medical imaging, Abhijit J. Chaudhari emerged as the winner in the still image category of the American College of Rheumatology’s 2011 image competition.

Chaudhari, assistant professor of radiology, investigates advanced clinical imaging technologies for studying the pathogenesis of arthritis and cancers. He concentrates on early detection of disease and early monitoring of response to treatment.

On Oct. 26, he received the 2011 Bruce H. Hasegawa Young Investigator Medical Imaging Science Award, given by the Nuclear Medical and Imaging Sciences Council of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers. Judges evaluate the award nominees based on the technical merit of their contributions and the creativity of their research.

Then, last week, Chaudhari received his award for the image contest. The winning image came from a research project for which he is the principal investigator, “PET-CT Imaging of the Finger Joints in Psoriatic Arthritis.” The image is due to be featured in an upcoming issue of the journal Arthritis and Rheumatism, and on the Rheumatology Image Bank website.

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The Sacramento County Tobacco Control Coalition has recognized UC Davis Health System faculty and staff for leadership in state-funded efforts to help people quit smoking.

According to a health system news release, Maeola Doran, Cheryl Richards and Elisa Tong spearheaded efforts targeting underserved populations — making them aware of the free California Smokers Helpline and distributing free vouchers for nicotine patches.

Tong is an assistant professor of medicine; Doran, operations analyst for Ambulatory Clinical Operations; and Richards, staff member in the Division of General Internal Medicine.

The health system and community clinics around Sacramento County started their outreach efforts in January. Other counties participated as well, with Sacramento posting the highest response: More than 740 smokers called the help line for counseling, for referrals to stop-smoking programs and for free nicotine patches.

The help line: (800) NO-BUTTS or (800) 45-NO-FUME (Spanish).

Sacramento did not track the callers, to see how many of them may have quit smoking. But Tong said there is strong evidence that smokers who use both counseling from the help line and nicotine replacement therapy, such as a patch, can double their chances of quitting for good.

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