Six associate professors recently added a new title to their curricula vitae: Chancellor's Fellow, designating faculty who, early in their careers, already have distinguished themselves in teaching, research and public service.

The new fellows are Nicole Baumgarth, pathology, microbiology and immunology; Milmon Harrison, African American and African studies; Robert Irwin, Spanish; Kai Liu, physics; Kimberley McAllister, neurology, and neurobiology, physiology and behavior; and Richard McElreath, anthropology.

Each fellow receives a $25,000 prize from private contributions to the UC Davis Annual Fund and Davis Chancellor's Club, with the money to be used for research, teaching or service activities. The honored professors are allowed to use the "Chancellor's Fellow" title for five years.

Vanderhoef said the young faculty represent UC Davis' future. "They are the best of the best, and I couldn't be more pleased or encouraged."

The chancellor launched the fellows program in 2000-01, and 54 fellows have been named so far. Fellows from years past are among those invited to a reception to honor the newest fellows. The reception is planned for Feb. 11 at the chancellor's residence.

Here are brief descriptions of the 2007-08 fellows:

Nicole Baumgarth, Center for Comparative Medicine, and the Department of Pathology, Microbiology and Immunology — Using mouse models, the cellular immunologist has been working on basic aspects of immune response regulation to infectious diseases, most notably an influenza virus.

"Potentially of greatest significance is that her research over the last six years has identified the earliest activation signals for local B cells required to achieve maximal protective antibody responses to this virus," wrote Professor Stephen Barthold, director of the Center for Comparative Medicine, and Professor Dennis Wilson, chair of pathology, microbiology and immunology.

They noted that Baumgarth "exudes a love of science and is always interested in helping students and faculty." Indeed, Professor John Pascoe, executive associate dean of the School of Veterinary Medicine, wrote that Baumgarth "has taken on an increasingly active role in the governance of graduate groups … particularly the Graduate Group in Immunology, for which she is chair."

Milmon Harrison, African American and African Studies Program — Dean Jessie Ann Owens of Humanities, Arts and Cultural Studies said Milmon's writing in his first book, Righteous Riches: The Word of Faith Movement in Contemporary African American Religion, is "refreshingly free of jargon" as he documents the growth of these congregations and positions the movement within the greater context of black Christianity.

Professor Moradewun Adejunmobi, director of the African American and African Studies Program, said Milmon's research into the sociology of religion has demonstrated "why understanding American Protestantism is important for making sense of African American religion, and why understanding African American religion is important for making sense of contemporary American religion."

Adejunmobi noted that Milmon received his undergraduate degree at UC Davis and as such "holds himself as an example to students" in MURALS (Mentorship for Undergraduate Research in Agriculture, Letters and Sciences), a program that Milmon has directed since 2000.

Robert Irwin, Department of Spanish and Classics — His first three books focused on gender, sexuality and race in Latin America, especially Mexico, and he has since expanded his research to Mexican and Latin American mass and popular culture, with an emphasis on film and comic books.

His recent writings "show the importance of popular culture for the better understanding of a society in a specific period of time," wrote Professor Emilio Bejel, chair of the Department of Spanish and Classics.

Bejel noted Irwin's research on Mexico's best-loved comic-book character, a black caricature named Memin Pinguin — a depiction that U.S. critics assailed as racist in 2005 when the decades-old Pinguin made it onto a series of Mexican postage stamps.

The department chair lauded Irwin's work on curriculum development, and his promotion of interdisciplinary connections between the Spanish department and other departments across campus at the undergraduate and graduate levels.

Kai Liu, Department of Physics — Professor Shirley Ciang, chair of the Department of Physics, described Liu as a condensed matter experimentalist with a specialty in materials synthesis, identified for high priority in the campus's NEAT initiative, with NEAT standing for Nanomaterials in the Environment, Agriculture and Technology.

Chiang stated that Liu is "an international leader" in fundamental research on spin-dependent electron transport and magnetic phenomena at the nanometer scale, two areas that Chiang said are likely to be critical in ongoing improvements in the transmission and storage of information.

As part of NEAT, Liu "has been acting synergistically with faculty in physics, chemistry, geology, and chemical and electrical engineering," Chiang wrote.

The department chair noted Liu's role as a graduate student adviser and his service as a member of the department's colloquium and community committees.

Kimberley McAllister, Center for Neuroscience, and the departments of Neurology, and Neurobiology, Physiology and Behavior — Since starting her lab in 2000, she has focused most of her efforts on a brand-new field of research: understanding the cellular and molecular mechanisms of synapse formation.

"Using a combination of cutting-edge techniques, her lab has done some of the most solid work in the field in determining the initial steps in for the formation of glutamatergic synapses between cortical neurons," wrote Kenneth C. Burtis, dean of the College of Biological Sciences.

Besides her research and teaching, Burtis lauded McAllister as "a wonderful citizen of the university." He said her energy and enthusiasm were largely responsible for growing the Neuroscience Graduate Group "from a small, sleepy enterprise to a world-known program, and she has made major contributions to the success of the Center for Neuroscience."

Richard McElreath, Department of Anthropology — Social Sciences Dean Steven M. Sheffrin said he considers McElreath "a key element" in UC Davis' effort to build an outstanding evolutionary anthropology program.

He focuses his research on fundamental questions about human society and behavior, exploring the role of culturally transmitted variation in generating behavioral variability within and among populations.

McElreath and his contemporaries "take the strengths and accomplishments of various social and natural science disciplines and weld them together into a common enterprise using sophisticated theory and sophisticated quantitative tests of that theory," Sheffrin wrote.

"Their efforts will remake the social sciences and facilitate a much-needed synthesis with the natural sciences, in topic areas of great human concern."

Sheffrin noted McElreath's "masterpiece" graduate course: Modeling the Evolution of Social Behavior, and said students from different graduate groups are "flocking to this new offering."