Chemistry is in the spotlight this March with the celebration of the 24th Annual R. Bryan Miller Symposium. The event, scheduled for March 14 and 15, features a lineup of lectures from prestigious scientists working at the cutting-edge of chemistry, its subdisciplines and related fields. Registration for the event, which is free, is now open.
The College of Letters and Science is investing $5 million in its instructional equipment and facilities to improve the educational experiences of students in L&S and across UC Davis. These investments have already transformed learning opportunities.
As a UC Davis associate professor in the Department of Chemistry at the College of Letters and
Science, Jesús Velázquez employs his chemistry expertise to synthesize
materials useful for environmental remediation, transforming carbon dioxide-based
waste streams, and energy conversion and storage. With his sights set on transforming
the world for the better through chemistry, Velázquez, ever humble, never fails to thank
the family members and academic mentors who guided his life path. Their imprint
echoes into today, informing how he mentors and teaches.
Shellfish, along with other marine organisms, are facing a crisis, one that affects the
integrity of their shells. As carbon dioxide emissions increase in the atmosphere, so too
does the amount of carbon dioxide absorbed by our oceans, leading to ocean
acidification. Graduate student Meghan Zulian has devoted her doctoral studies to
understanding how ocean acidification, and more broadly climate change, affects
culturally, economically and ecologically important shellfish, including abalone
For his contributions to the development and application of atomistic and first principle simulations to understand the physical properties of materials and nanostructures, Professor of Chemistry Davide Donadio was recently named a fellow of the American Physical Society.
Four faculty members have received the 2023 College of Letters and Science Teaching Awards. The awards recognize outstanding teaching on the undergraduate and graduate levels, both inside and outside the classroom.
After a full day of teaching, research and meetings, Annaliese Franz dons a brown cotton jacket and indigo pants, cinches her black belt into a tight knot and, bowing, steps barefoot onto the wooden floor of a karate dojo near campus.
Beneath the concrete world discernible to our senses is a world of building blocks. A world of molecules, and beneath that, atoms. The organization of these individual parts dictates the properties of materials. In Professor of Chemistry Davide Donadio's lab, Frank Cerasoli, a postdoctoral researcher, uses computer simulations to model materials at the molecular level, with the hope of discovering new materials that can advance our technologies.
Mark your calendars because the R. Bryan Miller Symposium returns this April for its first in-person event since 2020. Featuring a stellar lineup of high-profile speakers and leading-edge researchers in chemical biology, organic, medicinal and pharmaceutical chemistry, the 23rd annual symposium creates a pipeline between academia and industry, allowing students to network, present their research and learn skills pivotal to their future professional careers. The free event is scheduled for April 13 and 14 at the UC Davis Conference Center.
Location, location, location is the key for psychedelic drugs that could treat mental illness by rapidly rebuilding connections between nerve cells. In a paper published Feb. 17 in Science, researchers at the University of California, Davis, show that engaging serotonin 2A receptors inside neurons promotes growth of new connections but engaging the same receptor on the surface of nerve cells does not.