Professors Sarah Blaffer Hrdy and Alexandra Navrotsky elected to the American Philosophical Society.

Dateline staff

Alumni couple Meg and Tom Stallard are the recipients of the 2011 Charles J. Soderquist Award, given by the UC Davis Foundation in recognition of volunteer leadership and philanthropic support for the university.

The foundation’s board of trustees established the award in 2005, the year after Soderquist’s death, honoring the entrepreneur and educator for his philanthropy and support of his alma mater.

“Tom and Meg are extraordinary individuals who are most deserving of this award,” Kevin Bacon, chair of the UC Davis Foundation, said in presenting the award during a May 13 meeting of the board of trustees.

The award comes with a $5,000 prize that the recipients give to the university program or area of their choice. The Stallards chose Picnic Day, to assist the student organizers in their efforts to refocus the event on its original purpose — to provide a day of fun that unites campus and community and showcases the many important contributions that UC Davis is making in the region, across the nation and around the world.

Read more about the Stallards and Soderquist.

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One hundred years after Marie Curie received the Nobel Prize for chemistry, Susan Kauzlarich is being recognized as a 2011 Distinguished Woman in Chemistry or Chemical Engineering.

The International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry named Kauzlarich to the list that coincides with the International Year of Chemistry, which in turn coincides with the centenary of Curie’s Nobel Prize.

Kauzlarich, a distinguished professor of chemistry, is due to be recognized in Puerto Rico in August, during the international union’s world congress.

The Iota Sigma Pi, the national honor society for women in chemistry, also is honoring Kauzlarich this year — presenting her with a National Honorary Member Award. The award ceremony is scheduled to take place in Cleveland in June, during the society’s convention.

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Christine Bruhn, a Cooperative Extension consumer food marketing specialist, will receive the 2011 Carl R. Fellers Award for service to the field of food science and technology, the Institute of Food Technologists announced.

The award, which comes with a $3,000 honorarium, is sponsored by the institute’s honorary society, Phi Tau Sigma. The award presentation is scheduled to take place in New Orleans in June, during the institute’s annual meeting.

Bruhn, elected as an institute fellow in 2002, is an authority on consumer attitudes toward food irradiation and other technologies.

She presents overviews of food safety and risk to national and international audiences and encourages the scientific community to consider research-based perspectives of consumer attitudes. She also has served on advisory boards and as a consultant for numerous state, national, and international agencies and organizations.

She was the only food-sector representative appointed to the inaugural U.S. Food and Drug Administration Risk Communication Advisory Committee, which shaped the FDA’s strategic plan for risk communication.

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The American College of Veterinary Internal Medicine has dubbed Peter Dickinson a Hero in Medicine.

Dickinson, a professor of surgical and radiological sciences in the School of Veterinary Medicine, and a board-certified veterinary neurologist, treats dogs suffering from lethal forms of brain cancer, which historically have been extremely difficult to treat.

He is collaborating now with researchers at UC Davis and UC San Francisco to help test the effectiveness of several potential treatments for dogs with naturally occurring brain tumors. These clinical trials not only provide the animals with the potential for longer and higher-quality lives, but also contribute to new developments in human medicine.

For example, some of the drugs and methods of delivery that were first tested on canine patients are now being advanced for use in potential phase 1 clinical trial for humans, reinforcing the concept that human and veterinary medicine actually comprise one, comprehensive medical field.

"For most of the history of veterinary medicine we have relied on therapeutic approaches and techniques developed in the field of human medicine essentially isolated from the veterinary arena," Dickinson said.

"Valuable information is now beginning to filter back from veterinary to human medicine, and the power of 'One Medicine' to alter the lives of human patients, animals and their owners is no longer theory. It is reality,” he said.

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The American Chemical Society has awarded its F. Albert Cotton Award in Synthetic Inorganic Chemistry to Alan Balch for distinguished lifetime achievement in his field of science.

Balch, a distinguished professor of chemistry, received the award during the society’s spring meeting.

“Alan is an outstanding scientist who has made seminal contributions to inorganic chemistry in at least three major areas,” wrote Richard Eisenberg, the Tracy H. Harris Professor of Chemistry at the University of Rochester, in supporting Balch’s nomination for the award. “I cannot think of a more deserving candidate.”

Professor Susan Kauzlarich described Balch as an “excellent, innovative and energetic colleague” in nominating him for the award.

The Cotton award recognizes Balch’s pioneering work on fullerenes, metal clusters, metalloporphyrins and polynuclear iron complexes — all complicated geometric molecular structures that incorporate metal atoms. For example, fullerenes, or “buckyballs,” are made up of 60 or more carbon atoms arranged in a spherical cage.

These molecules can have interesting and useful properties, with potential applications ranging from batteries and microelectronics to contrast agents for medical imaging.

Iron porphyrins (hemes) are key component in hemoglobin, which allows the blood to carry oxygen. Balch has extensively studied the chemical and biological destruction of hemes, which produces the purple, green, and yellow colors associated with bruising of human flesh.

In the area of metal clusters, Balch received wide attention for his discovery that clusters of three gold atoms could “store” light and release it when exposed to a solvent. This discovery could have applications in detecting chemicals and perhaps in lighting technology.

Among the many former students whom Balch has mentored are Catherine Hunt, a former president of the American Chemical Society, and Fred Wood, vice chancellor of Student Affairs at UC Davis.

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