UC Davis Professors Leal, Yang and Chiu: Distinguished Awards

(Note: The main UC Davis Department of Entomology news page is at https://entomology.ucdavis.edu.)

UC Davis Distinguished Professor Walter Leal: Third Academic Senate Award

The saying, “Good things come in threes,” or “Omne trium perfectum,” rings true.

The UC Davis Academic Senate today announced that 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 the recipient of the Faculty Distinguished Research Award.

And with that award, comes Academic Senate history.
Leal is the first UC Davis faculty member to be honored by the Academic Senate for all three of its awards celebrating outstanding teaching, public service and research.  In 2020, the Academic Senate awarded him the Distinguished Teaching Award for Undergraduate Teaching, and in 2022 Distinguished Scholarly Public Service Award.

“Dr. Leal is an internationally recognized entomologist and a world leader in his field for his groundbreaking and transformative research in insect olfaction and chemical ecology,” said nominator UC Davis distinguished professor Bruce Hammock of the Department of Entomology and Nematology, who won the Academic Senate's Faculty Research Award in 2001 and its Distinguished Teaching (Graduate Students/Professional) Award in 2008.

Leal said he's honored and humbled to receive the award, but emphasized that “it's a team effort.” See more.

Professor Louie Yang Receives Academic Senate's Distinguished Teaching Award

Community ecologist Louie Yang, a UC Davis Department of Entomology and Nematology professor known as  “a phenomenal  teacher, mentor and an incredibly strong advocate for students” is the recipient of the UC Davis Academic Senate's 2024 Distinguished Teaching Award, Undergraduate Student Level.

“I have watched him engage, inspire, and challenge his students, fostering creative and critical thinking like no one else I've ever seen,” Joanna Chiu, professor and chair of the department, wrote in her nomination letter. “We deeply appreciate and admire his innovative and inclusive teaching, his exemplary work ethic, his welcoming demeanor, his dedication to his students, and his nationally recognized ecology expertise. Louie has received many well-deserved teaching and mentoring awards for his teaching contributions on and off campus.” See more.

Professor Joanna Chiu: PBESA's Student Mentoring Award 

Described as a “mentor extraordinaire,” molecular geneticist and physiologist Joanna Chiu, professor and chair of the UC Davis Department of Entomology and Nematology. is the 2024 recipient of the Distinction in Student Mentoring Award from the Pacific Branch, Entomological Society of America (PBESA).

Professor Chiu will receive the award at the PBESA meeting, set April 14-17 in the city of Waikoloa Beach, Hawaii. PBESA encompasses 11 Western states, plus parts of Canada and Mexico, and U.S. territories.

Nematologist Steve Nadler, professor and former chair of the department, nominated her for the mentoring award. He praised her as “an incredible mentor, inspirational, dedicated and passionate about helping her students succeed, as exemplified by her receiving the 2022 UC Davis Academic Senate Distinguished Teaching and Mentoring Award for her contributions to graduate student and professional mentoring, and the 2023 Chancellor's Award for Excellence in Mentoring Undergraduate Research. See more.