Faculty and staff from UC Davis are earning accolades around the region, among their peers and beyond. Dateline UC Davis this week is sharing news of a wide variety of honors.

Champions for DEI

The Sacramento Business Journal has named two from UC Davis as Champions for Diversity, Equity and Inclusion. Renetta Garrison Tull, vice chancellor of Diversity, Equity and Inclusion, and Hendry Ton, associate vice chancellor for Health Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion, were among the six people and seven organizations the publication honored.

“Now in its third year, the Sacramento Business Journal's Champions for Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Awards honor some of the most exceptional organizations and individuals making a difference in DEI in the Sacramento region,” Associate Editor Lindsay Oxford wrote.

National Academy of Inventors

The National Academy of Inventors, or NAI, has conferred senior membership to Soheil Ghiasi, a professor of electrical and computer engineering, as part of its 2024 class of emerging innovators.

Senior memberships recognize active faculty, scientists and administrators at partner institutions like UC Davis who have achieved success in the patenting, licensing and commercialization of technologies with real-world impacts or that promise positive change to the welfare of society. 

Ghiasi's research focuses on embedded computing technologies, which are computer systems designed to complete one function under specific constraints. One example of Ghiasi's innovative work in this area is his transabdominal fetal oximetry technology, a non-invasive monitor for directly measuring the blood oxygen saturation levels of a baby during labor and delivery.

NSF CAREER Award

Assistant Professor of Computer Science Isaac Kim has received the National Science Foundation Faculty Early Career Development, or NSF CAREER, Award.  

The CAREER Award is offered to early-career faculty who demonstrate the potential to act as academic role models in research and education by performing innovative research at the forefront of their field and through their commitment to diversity, equity and inclusion in STEM.   

Kim's research focuses on how easy or hard it is to simulate and predict properties of quantum mechanical systems. By leveraging the insights from quantum computation and information theory, Kim aims to develop novel methods that can accurately predict the properties of strongly entangled quantum mechanical systems. 

—  Jessica Heath

EduAdAwards

Communications and marketing staff members from UC Davis have earned 11 accolades in this year’s Educational Advertising Awards, or EduAdAwards. Organizers say the competition, now in its 39th year, is the largest educational advertising awards competition in the country. It drew 2,000 entries from more than 1,000 colleges, universities and secondary schools from the U.S. and abroad.

The projects honored this year, all produced by the Office of Strategic Communications, were:

Gold

• 2023-24 UC Davis Calendar, in the category Calendars
• Unfold, in the category Podcasts
• University of California Office of the President Marketing Event, in the category Special Event Materials
• A Day in the Life of Marine Science Student Researchers, in the category Special Video

Silver

• Congrats Class of 2027 Game Plan, in the category TikTok Content

Bronze

• Lake Tahoe Clarity Report Reel, in the category Instagram Content
• UC Davis Magazine, in the category Publication (External)
• Dateline UC Davis, in the category Publication (Internal)
• Aggies Viral Spotify Wrapped K-Pop Moment, in the category TikTok Content

Merit

• How to Navigate Bike Circles, in the category Facebook Content
• Communicators Summit, in the category Special Event Campaign