In this Laurels column, find awards given for excellence, as well as the Stockholm Water Prize and more. Additional honors will be announced in a forthcoming edition of Dateline UC Davis.

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

Stockholm Water Prize

Kaveh Madani, Ph.D. ’09, has won the 2026 Stockholm Water Prize. He is being recognized for integrating game theory and decision analysis into conventional water resources management models and coining the term “water bankruptcy.”

In August, he will travel to Sweden for the honor, given by the king. The Stockholm Water Prize is awarded is awarded annually by the Stockholm Water Foundation in cooperation with the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences and honors those whose work contributes significantly to the sustainable use and protection of the world’s water resources. Madani is the second UC Davis affiliate to receive the honor after Takashi Asano, now professor emeritus, given in 2001.

— Jocelyn Anderson

ACS BIOT Biotechnology and Bioengineering Gaden Award

Distinguished Professor Emerita of Chemical Engineering Karen McDonald was selected for the Biotechnology and Bioengineering Gaden Award from the Division of Biochemical Technology of the American Chemical Society, or ACS. 

The award, presented on behalf of the journal Biotechnology and Bioengineering and John Wiley & Sons Inc., recognized McDonald’s particularly creative and innovative paper, “Techno-economic Modeling and Assessment of Cultivated Meat: Impact of Production Bioreactor Scale.” The study, published in 2023, outlines how advances in scaled-up bioreactors, alternative bioreactor designs and decreased media costs are necessary for the commercialization of cultured meat products. 

McDonald received the award in March at the ACS Spring 2026 Meeting in Atlanta, Georgia. During the meeting, McDonald presented an overview of the research described in the paper and related research from several other papers. She also discussed undergraduate and graduate training programs in techno-economic modeling at UC Davis. 

—Jessica Heath

Association for Psychological Science ‘Rising Stars’

Emorie Beck, Ariel Mosley and Tomiko Yoneda were named among this year’s Rising Stars by the Association for Psychological Science, or APS, for their publications, discoveries and the potentially broad impact of their work.

“We consistently attract top talent to our faculty in psychology at UC Davis,” said Kristin H. Lagattuta, professor and chair of the Department of Psychology in the College of Letters and Science. “We are proud of the remarkable contributions our junior faculty are already making to psychological science, and we are confident that their outsized impact will continue to grow."

APS is the leading international organization dedicated to advancing scientific psychology. The Rising Star designation recognizes early career APS members for innovative research that has already advanced the field and signals high future potential. 

—College of Letters and Science

CUCSA Alumni Award

Lina Layiktez, director of Conference and Event Services, was selected by the Council of UC Staff Assemblies delegation to receive its Alumni Award. With over 32 years of service, Lina is a strong supporter of the UC Davis mission and a strong advocate for the people who make our campus run.

Layiktez’s impact at UC Davis includes over 10 years of service to Staff Assembly, where she enhanced communication between staff and leadership by establishing "Breakfast with the Chancellor." From creating the staff brewing competition and "bakeoffs" to her leadership during the pandemic as operations director for Healthy Davis Together, Layiktez’s career is defined by teamwork. 

—Jeff Heiser

Campanile Excellence in Achievement Award

Chancellor Gary S. May has been awarded UC Berkeley's Campanile Excellence in Achievement Award.

This award recognizes an alum whose remarkable professional achievements reflect the excellence of a UC Berkeley education. A maximum of two awards will be given each year.

May earned a master’s degree and doctorate at UC Berkeley.

-UC Berkeley

WAWH Barbara “Penny” Kanner Award

Professors Talinn Grigor and co-author Houri Berberian are the 2026 recipients of the Western Association of Women Historians’ Barbara “Penny” Kanner Award for excellence in the use of primary sources. The award acknowledges the achievements of scholars whose books, book chapters, articles, or published electronic media illustrate the effective and impressive use of a specific set of primary documents such as diaries, letters and oral histories. Grigor and Berberian’s book The Armenian Woman, Minoritarian Agency, and the Making of Iranian Modernity, 1860-1979 (Stanford Press, 2025) utilized a rich array of archival, textual, visual and oral history sources to challenge conventional notions of “the archive” and transform silences and absences into audible and visual presences.

The Armenian Woman was also named 2025 Outstanding Academic Title Award, sponsored by Choice.

—Department of Art and Art History