Three professors who made geology come alive for all audiences, who reduced Californians' exposure to toxins, and who tirelessly advocated for immigrants are the winners of this year's Distinguished Scholarly Public Service Awards at the University of California, Davis.
They are geology professor Eldridge Moores, professor of medicine Jerold Last and professor Bill Ong Hing of the School of Law and Asian American Studies. The awards were announced today and will be presented at a ceremony on May 21.
The UC Davis Academic Senate, representing all tenured faculty at the campus, makes the awards annually to recognize significant contributions to the world, nation, state and community through distinguished public service.
Eldridge Moores has worked throughout his career to promote the field of geology. He edited Geology, the journal of the Geological Society of America, from 1981 to 1988, turning it into one of the leading international journals in earth sciences. He has served on numerous committees for the society and as president in 1996, when he developed the society's first comprehensive strategic plan.
Moores has frequently advised U.S. government agencies on matters related to earth sciences. He has served on a number of National Science Foundation committees and panels on subjects such as graduate education in earth sciences and the Ocean Drilling Program. Most recently, he helped evaluate Earthscope, a major research initiative proposed by the National Science Foundation, NASA and the U.S. Geological Survey.
During the state budget crisis of the early 1990s, Moores served on the University of California Committee on Planning and Budget (1989-91), chairing the committee from 1992-93. He has served on numerous other committees at UC Davis and systemwide, including the Planning Committee for the Tenth Campus, which began the work leading to the establishment of UC Merced.
Moores has been deeply involved with public school education in Davis, Sacramento and Yolo County. He was a member of the Science Curriculum Steering Committee of the Davis Joint Unified School District from 1984-90 and has made numerous visits to local schools to talk to students and their parents about geology.
In nominating Moores for the award, his colleagues wrote: "We know of no other geologist world-wide who has given greater service to their science or their community."
Moores received his Ph.D. in geology from Princeton University in 1963 and joined the UC Davis faculty in 1966.
Jerold Last, a UC Davis professor of pulmonary medicine and critical-care medicine, has directed the University of California's Toxic Substances Research and Teaching Program for over 15 years. Since coming to UC Davis in 1976, he has provided scientific expertise to federal and state legislative committees and administrative agencies on many complex environmental health issues.
In his first major public-service project, he helped staff members at the Mare Island Naval Shipyard, near Vallejo, learn to clean up longstanding environmental health hazards when the yard was decommissioned.
Under a commission from the California governor and legislature in 1998, Last organized a UC systemwide competitive-grants program to study the impacts of MTBE on human health and the environment, and helped write the executive report. His leadership was recognized as meeting the highest scientific standards for formulating public-health policy. As the UC report recommended, MTBE is being eliminated from gasoline sold in California.
In 2000, Last was asked by the California Environmental Protection Agency to lead a panel to recommend public health goals for chromium-6 in drinking water. Last also served as an invited member of the National Toxicology Programs Advisory Committee on chromium-6.
Last currently directs an NIH-sponsored Fogarty International Center research and training program on environmental issues focusing on South America, especially Uruguay. This center has sponsored short courses and workshops in Montevideo and Santiago (for example, on the replacement of lead in gasoline).
He received his Ph.D. in biochemistry from Ohio State University in 1965.
Bill Ong Hing, who teaches in both the School of Law and the Asian American Studies program, has been an advocate for immigrants and encouraged philanthropy within the Asian American community for more than two decades.
In 1980, he established the Immigrant Legal Resource Center, a nonprofit support program for community agencies, and he volunteered as executive director for almost 20 years. Today, he continues to serve as the center's general counsel.
Hing also provides leadership to two of the most prominent Asian American civil rights organizations in the country, the Asian Law Caucus of San Francisco and the National Asian Pacific American Legal Consortium. As a member of the board of trustees of the Migration Policy Institute, he advises the non-partisan think-tank on policy position papers and fundraising.
The professor's work on various government and bar commissions, advisory panels and councils has also contributed to better monitoring of Border Patrol conduct, reform of immigration laws, increased attention to the health needs of immigrant families, and a specialist designation for immigration lawyers. He is also a frequent media commentator on immigration issues.
As a director of the Rosenberg Foundation and Emma Lazarus Fund of the Open Society Institute, he helps allocate funds to organizations assisting low-income workers and immigrants. He also serves on the board of directors of the Asian American/Pacific Islanders in Philanthropy and the Asian Pacific Fund.
Hing received his Juris Doctor degree from the University of San Francisco in 1974.