UC Davis Has 10 New Fellows in AAAS, Including Dina St. Clair, Department of Plant Sciences

Ten faculty members have been elected as fellows of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, the association announced today (Nov. 26, 2019). They are among 443 new fellows elected this year, honored for their efforts to advance science or its applications.

Dina St. Clair, a professor in the Department of Plant Sciences, was elected for distinguished contributions to the field of plant breeding and genetics, particularly the teaching and understanding of the dissection of quantitative traits in tomato species. She was elected in the Section on Agriculture, Food, and Renewable Resources.

The new fellows will be formally recognized Feb. 15, 2020 at the AAAS annual meeting, to be held in Seattle.

AAAS Fellows in the Department of Plant Sciences (and its predecessor departments):

• Alan Bennett, 2005
• Fredrick Bliss, 1991
• Eduardo Blumwald, 2010
• Kent Bradford, 2003
• E. Charles Brummer, 2017
• Ken Cassman, 2005 (former faculty)
• Roger T. Chetelat, 2017
• Jorge Dubcovsky, 2004
• Jan Dvorak, 1998
• Shu Geng, 1994; deceased
• Paul Gepts, 2000
• Charles E. Hess, 1972; deceased
• Don Kasarda, 1997 (dept. affiliate)
• J.K. Ladha, 2008
• F. Thomas Ledig, 2002
• David MacKill, 2011
• Richard Michelmore, 2002
• David Neale, 2010
• Calvin Qualset, 1985
• D. William Rains, 1997
• Neil Rutger, 1991 (dept. affiliate)
• Johan Six, 2010
• Dina St. Clair, 2019
• Venkatesan Sundaresan, 2008
• Chris van Kessel, 2006

These are the newly elected fellows from UC Davis, 2019:

Rajeevan Amirtharajah, associate professor

Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, College of Engineering

Elected for distinguished contributions to the field of electronics design and engineering, particularly for developing integrated circuits and embedded systems that harvest energy from the environment.

Nicole Baumgarth, professor

Center for Comparative Medicine, and Department of Pathology, Microbiology and Immunology, School of Veterinary Medicine

Elected for fundamental contributions to the literature of immunological mechanisms that regulate and control immunity to pathogens, and for service to the profession.

Robert F. Berman, professor

Department of Neurological Surgery, School of Medicine, and MIND Institute

Elected for distinguished contributions to the field of brain injury and neurodevelopmental disorders, particularly research on fetal alcohol syndrome, autism, and fragile X-associated disorders.

Cristina Davis, professor

Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering, College of Engineering

Elected for distinguished contributions to non-invasive chemical and biological sensing tools, algorithms, and applications for human and agriculture diagnostics and monitoring.

Jiming Jiang, professor

Department of Statistics, College of Letters and Science

Elected for fundamental contributions to statistical theory, methods and education, particularly in the fields of mixed effects models and small area estimation.

Thomas C.M. Lee, professor

Department of Statistics, College of Letters and Science

Elected for distinguished contributions to the field of statistics, particularly for inference, nonparametric and high dimensional problems and interdisciplinary collaborations.

Kai Liu, professor

Department of Physics, College of Letters and Science (and now at Georgetown University)

Elected for distinguished contributions to the field of nanomagnetism and spintronics, particularly for understanding of magnetic materials and nanostructures.

Dina St. Clair, professor

Department of Plant Sciences, College of Agricultural and Environmental Science

Elected for distinguished contributions to the field of plant breeding and genetics, particularly the teaching and understanding of the dissection of quantitative traits in tomato species. 

Sarah T. Stewart, professor

Department of Earth and Planetary Sciences, College of Letters and Science

Elected for distinguished work advancing the theory of how celestial collisions give rise to planets and moons, which provides a comprehensive basis for understanding planet formation.

Thomas P. Tomich, professor

Department of Environmental Science and Policy, College of Agricultural and Environmental Science, and director, Agricultural Sustainability Institute

Elected for extraordinary contributions to generating sustainable solutions to global food system security through environmental science, effective policy, and collaborative research partnerships with underdeveloped economies globally.

Founded in 1848, the American Association for the Advancement of Science is the world’s largest general scientific society and publisher of the journal Science and a number of related journals.

(Original article from Dateline. Adapted to Plant Sciences by Ann Filmer. November 26, 2019)