Pete Siegel, the chief information officer and vice provost for Information and Educational Technology at UC Davis, has been elected to the new Research Advisory Council of Internet2, a U.S. advanced networking consortium that focuses on education and research.

Sarah Blaffer Hrdy, professor emerita of anthropology, is one of four recipients of Harvard University's 2007 Graduate School of Arts and Sciences Centennial Medal. The Graduate School of Arts and Sciences awards the medals, the school's highest honor, each June to alumni selected for their contributions to society as they have emerged from graduate education at Harvard. Hrdy, who earned a bachelor of arts degree in 1968 and doctorate in anthropology in 1975 from Harvard, is a former Guggenheim fellow and a member of the National Academy of Sciences, the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and the California Academy of Sciences.

C.-Y. Cynthia Lin, assistant professor of agricultural and resource economics at UC Davis and a research associate at Harvard's John F. Kennedy School of Government, has been appointed to the California State Controller's Council of Economic Advisors. As one of seven economists on the newly created council, Lin will advise state controller John Chiang on emerging strengths and vulnerabilities in California's economy, major issues and trends that may affect the state's fiscal health.

Mark Francis, professor of landscape architecture and environmental design, has been elected chair of the jury for the International Design Competition for Sejong, a new administrative city planned for a rural area in South Korea. Planners expect to move the Korean prime minister's office and much of the national government to the city by 2012. The city will include a series of urban villages clustered around a large park, twice the size of New York City's Central Park.

Brad Barber, professor in the Graduate School of Management and director of the UC Davis Center for Investor Welfare and Corporate Responsibility, received the Moskowitz Prize for Socially Responsible Investing for his paper, "Monitoring the Monitor: Evaluating CalPERS' Shareholder Activism." Barber showed that CalPERS activism created $3.1 billion in the short term, and up to $89.5 billion in the long term. The prize is awarded by the Center for Responsible Business at the UC Berkeley Haas School of Business.

Benjamin Houlton, assistant professor of terrestrial biogeochemistry, won the best published paper award in the biogeosciences written by a junior scientist in 2006. This recognition by the Ecological Society of America was announced at the society's meeting in San Jose this summer. The paper was titled "Isotopic evidence for large gaseous nitrogen losses from tropical rainforests."

Ted Hsiao, professor emeritus of hydrologic science, was selected to receive the 2007 American Society of Agronomy's honorary membership award. The special award is a career award, recognizing Hsiao's accomplishments on plant physiological response to environmental stresses.

Mel George, crop and ecosystems specialist in Cooperative Extension, has been selected as the recipient of the 2007 James H. Meyer Distinguished Achievement Award. The Meyer Award is one of the most prestigious awards granted by the Academic Federation at the Davis campus. A public dinner reception will be held honoring George on Nov. 1.

Jorge Dubcovsky, professor in the plant sciences, will receive the USDA's third annual National Research Initiative's Discovery Award for his research on wheat applied genomics. Only one award per year is made. The award recognizes outstanding researchers in agriculture who have worked on NRI-funded projects.

Professor William Lucas, chair of the Section of Plant Biology, and Deborah Delmer, professor emeritus and former chair of plant biology, were named as fellows of the American Society of Plant Biology at the society's annual meeting in July. This is the first year that this award, which recognizes distinguished, long-term contributions to plant biology and service to the society, has been presented. Lucas and Delmer were among 51 fellows named in the inaugural class.

Peter Moyle, the foremost expert on native freshwater fishes of California, recently received the Award of Excellence from the American Fisheries Society and the Outstanding Achievement Award from the American Institute of Fishery Research Biologists. Both are the top national awards of each organization given to just one person each year.

Walter Leal, professor and chair of the Department of Entomology, was tapped for the International Society of Chemical Ecology's 2007 Silverstein-Simeone Lecture Award. It was given to him for his innovative research on how insects detect smells and communicate within their species. Leal, a noted chemical ecologist, received the award at the scientific society's annual conference in Jena, Germany.

W. Douglas Gubler, Cooperative Extension specialist in the Department of Plant Pathology, was elected president of the 721-member Pacific Division of the American Phytopathological Society, beginning his term this summer. Gubler will serve until June of 2008.

Rand Conger received the first Institute for Social and Behavioral Research Recognition Award at Iowa State University. A professor in the Department of Human and Community Development, Conger was founder of the ISBR and served as director from 1989 to 2000, when he came to UC Davis. The ISBR's mission is to support interdisciplinary social science research that increases our understanding of important social problems and improves the quality of people's lives.

Professor Edward DePeters of the Department of Animal Science was awarded the American Dairy Society Association's 2007 American Feed Industry Association Award at the annual meeting held in San Antonio, Texas. The basis for this award is the "best original published work on dairy cattle nutrition during the prior 10 calendar years."

Arboretum Director Kathleen Socolofsky was awarded the 2007 Professional Citation award at the annual meeting of the American Public Gardens Association in Washington, D.C., in June. One of the highest awards in the field of public horticulture, the APGA Professional Citation recognizes the accomplishments of a mid-career professional who has excelled in one of the disciplines generally associated with public gardens.

UC Davis Extension's Green Building and Sustainable Design Certificate Program was recently awarded Outstanding Credit Program (Region West) from the University Continuing Education Association (UCEA), the principal U.S. organization for continuing higher education. Developed as a joint program between Gene Crumley, business and technology vice-chair, and Jeff Loux, land use and natural resources director, the 10-course program addresses the trend of developing healthier communities through sustainable design.

Simon Cherry, professor of biomedical engineering, has received a Distinguished Basic Scientist Award from the Academy of Molecular Imaging. The award was presented by Academy President Johannes Czernin at the 2007 Joint Molecular Imaging Conference held in Providence, R.I., on Sept. 8. Cherry delivered an invited lecture on his research in developing imaging technologies, and received $7,500 in recognition of his outstanding achievements in the field of molecular imaging.