News Article

Each spring, the College of Biological Sciences celebrates graduating students whose achievements exemplify the spirit of discovery, leadership, and service that define UC Davis. At the college’s annual undergraduate awards ceremony, students are recognized for exceptional accomplishments in research, academics, mentorship, and community engagement.

Being a single mother of 20 is no joke, especially if the survival of a whole species depends on it. 

A queen bumblebee faces this very challenge when she lays her first eggs in the spring: She is utterly alone, with no worker bees to help.

She flies miles each day, collecting nectar to feed her young. She builds a protective nursery from wax. When she’s not out foraging, she climbs atop her larvae and buzzes to warm them. 

UC Davis fourth-year neurobiology, physiology and behavior major Rogelio Castillo did not expect undergraduate research to open a path for him to create change in his community.  His family’s past experiences with rushed and impersonal medical care led him to turn to science to ask the questions that improve both health outcomes and quality of patient-provider relationships. 

Four faculty from the University of California, Davis, have been elected as Fellows of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, class of 2025. They are among nearly 500 scientists, engineers and other innovators that the society recognized this year for their scientifically and socially distinguished achievements.

Here are the new fellows, with their fellowship citations:

J. David “Dave” Furlow, a professor in the Department of Neurobiology, Physiology and Behavior, has been named the new Associate Dean of Undergraduate Academic Programs for the College of Biological Sciences. He will step into the role on July 1, 2026.

Two College of Biological Sciences faculty members—Keith Baar, professor of neurobiology, physiology and behavior, and Laura Bogar, assistant professor of plant biology—received a STAIR Grant and a Hellman Fellowship, respectively.

Ecological medicine is a new approach to health science that draws on a very old idea: connecting with each other, with animals and plants, and with the natural world fosters health and well-being for people and the planet.

A new study by the University of California, Davis, shows how cells work together to avoid a sudden drop in blood sugar. Understanding these feedback loops could improve the lives of people with diabetes and help them avoid dangerous hypoglycemia.

The work was published Sept. 16 in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

The mind of a fruit fly encompasses 125,000 nerve cells, squeezed into the space of a poppy seed. At first glance, the fly brain looks nothing like a human brain. But many of the underlying neural circuits are surprisingly similar.

Fumika Hamada, a professor of neurobiology, physiology, and behavior, is using fruit flies to study a critical but oft-overlooked brain function: the regulation of our body temperature in a consistent daily rhythm.

Each year, more money is spent in the U.S. on musculoskeletal pain than on heart disease and diabetes combined. Exercise physiologist Keith Baar, a professor of Neurobiology, Physiology and Behavior and Physiology and Membrane Biology, is working to change that.