National & International Faculty Honors

UC Davis is home to globally renowned visionaries in the arts and education, law and letters, engineering, and the physical and life sciences, assuring its place as one of the top public universities in the country. Click through the categories on the right to view a sampling of the many premier faculty honors received. For more faculty distinctions by discipline and related stories, visit the colleges and schools linked here.

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Premkumar Devanbu, Distinguished Prof. of Computer Science, has been elected a Foreign Member of the Academia Europaea. (Image: Elena Troncoso/UC Davis)
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Simon Cherry, Distinguished Prof. Emeritus of the departments of Biomedical Engineering and Radiology, has been elected a Fellow of the Royal Society, UK.
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Ermias Kebreab, Prof. of Animal Science, Assoc. Dean in the College of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences, and Dir. of the World Food Center, received three honors in 2026 from the American Dairy Science Association (ADSA), including ADSA Fellow election, the Journal of Dairy Science Highly Cited Award, and the Zinpro Award for Excellence in Dairy Science. (Photo: UC Davis-CAES)
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Marisol de la Cadena, Professor of Anthropology, has been elected a member of the Class of 2026 American Academy of Arts and Sciences.
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Jeffrey Ross-Ibarra, Professor of Evolution and Ecology in the College of Biological Sciences, has been elected a member of the National Academy of Sciences. (Photo: Sasha Bakhter / UC Davis).
The research team of V. Sundaresan and I. Khanday in plant laboratory
Venkatesan Sundaresan, Distinguished Professor of Plant Biology and Plant Sciences (right), and Imtiyaz Khanday, Assistant Professor of Plant Sciences, were awarded the VinFuture Special Prize for Innovators with Outstanding Achievements in Emerging Fields. (Photo: UC Davis)
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Huaijun Zhou, Professor of Animal Science and Chancellor’s Leadership Professor, received the 2026 ASAS Innovation in Breeding and Animal Genetics Award.
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Philip H. Kass, Vice Provost for Academic Affairs and Distinguished Professor of Population Health and Reproduction in the UC Davis Weill School of Veterinary Medicine, received the 2026 American Veterinary One Health Society Gold-Headed Cane Award.
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Mary Ziegler, Martin Luther King, Jr. Professor of Law, has received the 2026 Organization of American Historians Award for Contributions to Public Policy.
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The following faculty have been elected Fellows of the Class of 2025 American Association for the Advancement of Science: From left to Right, Joanna Chiu, Prof. and Chair of Entomology and Nematology; Gitta Coaker, Prof. of Plant Pathology, the Fiddyment Endowed Chair and Graduate Program Chair; Janine LaSalle, Prof. of Medical Microbiology & Immunology; and David Segal, Prof. and Chair of Biochemistry and Molecular Medicine.
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Jesús Velázquez, Assoc. Prof. of Chemistry, has received a Bridge Award from the Research Corporation for Science Advancement, an emergency grant to help continue research due to abrupt Federal funding changes.
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Five faculty have been named to Wiley Publishing’s Index of Inspiring Black Scientists, including (from left to right) Chancellor and Distinguished Prof. of Electrical and Computer Engineering Gary S. May; Diane Beckles, Prof. of Plant Sciences; Aldrin Gomes, Prof. of Neurobiology, Physiology and Behavior and Physiology and Membrane Biology; Theanne Griffith, Asst. Prof. of Physiology and Membrane Biology; and Crystal Rogers, Assoc. Prof. of Anatomy, Physiology and Cell Biology.
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Prof. Ramsey Badawi of Biomedical Engineering and Radiology (left), and Prof. Lifeng Lai of Electrical and Computer Engineering, were elected Fellows of the Class of 2026 Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers.
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Heghnar Zeitlian Watenpaugh, Professor of Art and Architectural histories, has been appointed by the Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation to the Visiting Chair of Excellence of the International Master’s in Armenian Studies Program (INALCO-IMAS).
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Ava L.J. Kim, Asst. Prof. of Gender, Sexuality and Women’s Studies and affiliate faculty member in the Cultural Studies Program at UC Davis, received the GL/QT Caucus Crompton-Noll Best Essay in LGBTQ Studies Prize.
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Isaac Kim, Assistant Professor of Computer Science, has received a Sloan Fellowship for 2026 from the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation.