“Just like in a honey bee colony, it takes a team to win an award.”

So commented UC Davis distinguished professor Walter Leal, recipient of the UC Davis Academic Senate’s 2024 Faculty Distinguished Research Award, when he delivered his seminar at the Academic Senate’s recent research award lecture luncheon in the UC Davis Conference Center.

It was a gathering of scientific giants.

Five UC Davis distinguished professors, all members of the National Academy of Sciences (NAS),  recently gathered at the home of UC Davis distinguished professor Walter Leal, newly elected member of NAS, to congratulate him, to orient him to NAS, to recommend committee memberships and to detail how the NAS election works.

UC Davis distinguished professor Bruce Hammock, described as “an incredible mentor and legendary scientist,” is a newly announced recipient of the 2024 Graduate Studies Distinguished Graduate and Postdoctoral Mentoring Award. 

UC Davis distinguished professor Walter Leal of the Department of Molecular and Cellular Biology and former professor and chair of the Department of Entomology, is a newly elected member of the National Academy of Sciences (NAS), becoming the second UC Davis entomologist selected for “one of the highest honosr a scientist can achieve.”

An enzyme inhibitor and now drug candidate discovered in the laboratory of Bruce Hammock, University of California, Davis, may help control the often dangerous  side effects of immunotherapy treatments in cancer patients, according to newly published research in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS).