With support from a UCOP Early Career Faculty Research Excellence Award, sociologist Tina Law is constructing and analyzing a database of more than 50,000 YouTube videos to learn how they contribute to the general public’s understanding of AI and the potential for broader oversight.
Welcome to Books of the Month: The list kicks off with a newly published collection by Zinzi Clemmons, associate professor of English and director of creative writing at UC Davis. "Freedom: Essays" was published on June 9, 2026, just a month ahead of the 250th birthday of the U.S.
From a mountaintop in Chile, under clear dark skies, NSF–DOE Vera C. Rubin Observatory has begun the revolutionary Legacy Survey of Space and Time (LSST). The ten-year survey is Rubin’s signature campaign to create the most comprehensive, cinematic record of the Universe in history.
David E. Olson, a professor of chemistry, and biochemistry and molecular medicine at the University of California, Davis, was recently appointed editor-in-chief of ACS Chemical Neuroscience, a transdisciplinary publication of the American Chemical Society that focuses on the use of chemical and molecular tools for understanding the nervous system and identifying new neurotherapeutics.
Every day faculty and students from the College of Letters and Science at UC Davis are highlighted in the news media, having their research featured and commenting on the most pressing issues facing the world. Check out some of these news media highlights from the past month.
UCDavisDelivers was launched by the College of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences, College of Letters and Science, College of Biological Sciences and the Office of Research just after Memorial Day 2025, as federal research funding was threatened in Washington, D.C. The campaign wrapped up at the end of May with more than 335 social media posts spread across Instagram, LinkedIn, BlueSky, Facebook and other platforms.
The University of California, Davis, is pleased to announce new awards totaling $1.2 million from the Bridge Funding Initiative supported by the W. M. Keck Foundation. This investment will provide critical resources to six high‑impact basic science projects during a period when early‑stage research often faces significant funding uncertainty. The funded projects include one from Associate Professor of Chemistry Jesús M. Velázquez.
The American Geosciences Institute, or AGI, recently announced that paleontologist Sandra J. Carlson, a Professor Emerita in the Department of Earth and Planetary Sciences at the College of Letters and Science at UC Davis, has been named the 2026 recipient of the William B. Heroy Jr. Award for Distinguished Service to AGI. This award is given in recognition of exceptional and beneficial long-term service to the AGI.
This month's Books of the Month list features works authored or edited by faculty, focusing on gender, sexuality and societal norms. Learn more about queer theory, the history of hormone replacement therapy and how topics like gender and sexuality are treated in rural areas.
The UC Davis Library has honored Rianna Herrera, a major in sociology, with a 2026 Norma J. Lang Prize for Undergraduate Information Research. She placed third in the Arts, Humanities & Social Sciences category for her honors thesis that explores the college experiences and aspirations of Filipina and gender-non-conforming Filipinx Americans.
