LAURELS: Applied Chemical Ecology Award, Distinguished Career Award

In this edition of Dateline UC Davis’ Laurels column, find news on honors for UC Davis experts’ work in fields like applied chemical ecology; service-learning and community engagement; international education administration; and more.

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

UC Regents Innovation Awards

Two UC Davis faculty members were honored at a Sept. 16 awards ceremony for the inaugural UC Regents Innovation Awards.

Erika La Plante, an associate professor of materials science and engineering, received the Best Startup Award for her work as co-founder and head of monitoring, reporting and verification and environmental strategy at Equatic. 

Justin Siegel, a professor with appointments in biochemistry and molecular medicine and chemistry, was recognized with the Distinguished Lifetime Achievement Award. Siegel also serves as associate director of the UC Davis Genome Center and faculty director of the Innovation Institute for Food and Health.

— Dateline staff

Applied Chemical Ecology Award

Distinguished Professor Walter Leal of the Department of Molecular and Cellular Biology is the recipient of the 2026 Applied Chemical Ecology Award from the International Society of Chemical Ecology, or ISCE, for his applied research targeting insect pests that damage plants, spread diseases, and destroy crops. 

Leal, a former chair of the UC Davis Department of Entomology — and celebrated for his work on insect chemical communication involving mosquitoes, navel orangeworms, Asian citrus psyllids, citrus borer moth and other pests — delivered his Applied Chemical Ecology Award presentation at the recent ISCE conference held at Cornell University. 

—  Kathy Keatley Garvey

Distinguished Career Award

Michael Rios, professor of landscape architecture and environmental design, has received the Distinguished Career Award from the International Association for Research on Service-Learning and Community Engagement, or IARSLCE.

“The Distinguished Career Award acknowledges and celebrates intellectual leadership through a body of work that has broad and deep impact on the study and-or practice of service-learning and community engagement, including the communities, cultures, and systems within which it is undertaken,” the association says on its website. It praised Rios for being “engaged in a rigorous examination of questions central to our field such as how participatory design, community engagement and institutional transformation can advance justice by imagining equitable futures, expanding inclusion, strengthening public participation and fostering democratic communities and institutions”

— Dateline staff

Presidential Fellows Mentor

Joanna Regulska, vice provost and dean of Global Affairs, has been selected as a mentor for the 2026–27 Presidential Fellows Program of the Association of International Education Administrators, or AIEA.