Professor Jay Lund, who holds the Ray B. Krone Chair of Environmental Engineering and serves as the director of the Center for Watershed Sciences, is the 2011 recipient of the American Society of Civil Engineers’ Julian Hinds Award. It is the most prestigious award in the field of water resources planning, development and management.

Lund accepted the award during the World Environmental and Water Resources Congress in Palm Springs the last week of May.

His award citation reads: “For fundamental contributions to the fields of water resource systems management and resource economics, for leadership that addressed the complex water resource challenges in California and other regions, and for the conceptualization and development of the CALVIN optimization model.”

The CALVIN economic-engineering optimization model of California’s vast water supply system has been developed and applied by Lund and numerous colleagues since 2001 to analyze many water policies, management and scenarios. Studies have examined forms of climate change, water markets, Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta water management, infrastructure capacity expansion, water conservation, water reuse and desalination, and dam removal.

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Professor Wolfgang Polonik, chair of the Department of Statistics, has been elected a fellow of the Institute of Mathematical Statistics. Fellowship is awarded for distinction in research in statistics and probability.

Polonik’s citation recognizes his “many important and mathematically challenging results in nonparametric regression and time series, often involving the rigorous application of nontrivial techniques for handling empirical processes; and for editorial service.”

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Michael A. Savageau, distinguished professor of biomedical engineering, recently received an honorary doctorate from the University of Lleida in Spain.

Savageau is a pioneer in what is now known as systems biology. His work has had a major impact on the definition of this field, which combines computer science, mathematics and engineering with molecular biology, the study of evolution and synthetic biology.

He joined the UC Davis faculty in 2003 and served as chair of the Department of Biomedical Engineering from 2005 to 2008. He is a fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science and a member of the Institute of Medicine, the health arm of the National Academy of Sciences.

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Art Krener, professor emeritus of mathematics, has been appointed a fellow of the International Federation of Automatic Control, which represents engineering and scientific societies concerned with automatic control in about 50 countries.

The federation honored him for his contributions to the geometric theory of nonlinear control and estimation.

The new fellows are due to receive certificates and pins during IFAC World Congress in Milan, Italy, in September.

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The American Society of Plant Biologists announced that it will present awards to Deborah Delmer, professor emeritus of plant biology, and Ravi Maruthachalam, postdoctoral researcher.

The awards presentation is scheduled for Aug. 6 in Minneapolis, during the opening session of the society’s annual meeting.

Delmer, who is due to give an address during the awards symposium, will receive the Leadership in Science Public Service Award, which recognizes an individual who has advanced the mission of the society and its members through significant contributions to plant science and public policy leadership.

A former president of the society, Delmer is recognized for a career that includes groundbreaking research in cellulose biosynthesis, as well as leadership in plant science, food security and related areas for the National Science Foundation, Rockefeller Foundation, and the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.

Maruthachalam will receive the Early Career Award, established in 2005 to recognize outstanding research by scientists at the beginning of their careers. Maruthachalam is recognized for his contributions in plant reproductive biology, in particular his work with Simon Chan, assistant professor of plant biology, on cloning plants.

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Jerrold Bushberg, a clinical professor of radiology and the director of the Health Physics Program, has been elected senior vice president of the National Council on Radiation Protection and Measurements.

The election took place in Bethesda, Md., during the council’s annual meeting, March 6-8.

The council is the nation’s preeminent scientific radiation protection organization, chartered by Congress to evaluate and provide expert consultation on a wide variety of radiological health issues.

For the last six years, Bushberg served as the council’s scientific vice president and chair of the committee on Radiation Protection in Medicine. He continues to serve on the main scientific council, as well as the scientific advisory committee on Nonionizing Radiation Safety.

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