Campus bird count

Campus birders, along with volunteers from around the region, will conduct the first UC Davis Winter Bird Survey on Jan. 25. Organizer Andy Engilis Jr., curator of the Museum of Wildlife and Fish Biology, said the count has been a dream of his since his days as an undergraduate here.

“The campus is unusual in that it has a very large and diverse land base. There is a seven-mile stretch of Putah Creek, agricultural lands and even wetlands. Also, the campus arboretum and ornamental trees harbor exciting vagrants each winter.”

Engilis said the three dozen volunteers doing the Sunday count will be walking in the footsteps of John Emlen, a UC Davis faculty member in the then-Department of Zoology, who did annual winter bird counts with colleagues on the University Farm in the 1920s.

State of Minds

Neuroscience research at UC Davis is among the topics in the winter edition of UCTV’s State of Minds, presented on cable television and online.

The program’s debut on UCTV is set for 10 a.m. Jan. 26, with subsequent presentations scheduled at various times daily through Feb. 1.

The UC Davis segment highlights the Center for Neuroscience, where 66 faculty members carry out interdisciplinary studies in cellular, molecular, systems, cognitive and translational neuroscience. Of the faculty, 25 are in-house, and the other 41 are associates drawn from the university at large and from the UC Davis Medical Center.

The State of Minds winter edition also includes segments on KUCI, the student radio station at UC Irvine; UC Berkeley’s Richard Muller, discussing what future presidents need to know about physics; and a forest of “solar trees” at UC San Diego.

More information: uctv.tv.

Soccer player drafted

UC Davis men’s soccer player Quincy Amarikwa was taken with the 32nd pick by the San Jose Earthquakes in the third round of the 2009 Major League Soccer SuperDraft. Amarikwa becomes the first-ever Aggie to be chosen in the SuperDraft and the second player since Ryan Shaw in 2004 to be drafted into the country’s top professional soccer league.

Amarikwa capped his senior year by earning second-team All-America and first-team All-Far West Region accolades as well as Big West Offensive Player of the Year honors. He finished as the conference leader in goals scored (15) and was second in points (31). Both are career highs and put him into the top five all-time at UC Davis.

2009 student awards

Nominations are sought for the following university student recognition awards: Mary Jeanne Gilhooly Award for Outstanding Graduating Senior Woman, Veloyce Glenn Winslow Jr. Award for Outstanding Graduating Senior Man, and Margarita Robinson Student Leadership Award for Juniors. The deadline is 5 p.m. Feb. 6, and nomination forms are available at studentawards.ucdavis.edu.

Live auction to benefit student-run clinics

The UC Davis Chapter of the American Medical Student Association will hold its 29th annual Wine Tasting and Auction Benefit from 6 to 10 p.m. Jan. 24, in the Education Building, 4610 X Street, Sacramento. Proceeds will support the UC Davis student-run community health clinics. These clinics provide free health care to underserved communities in the greater Sacramento area.

Tickets are $50 and $25 for students; $40 for residents and interns. For more information, go to wineandauction.ucdavis.edu or send a message to ucdaviswineandauction@gmail.com.