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CAMPOS Faculty Scholars

CAMPOS Faculty Scholars by Cohort  
2023-2024  
2022-2023 2018-2019
2021-2022 2016-2017
2020-2021 2015-2016
2019-2020 2014-2015

2023-2024

Daniah Beleford

Assistant Professor, Pediatrics and Physiology & Membrane Biology

Daniah Beleford

Dr. Beleford's research program within the Department of Physiology and Membrane Biology and Department of Pediatrics studies molecular genetic causes of vascular anomalies - disorders of arterial, venous, and lymphatic formation. Dr. Beleford's group is interested in genetic modifiers of rare vascular conditions such as Hereditary Hemorrhagic Telangiectasia and in clarifying molecular signals and interactions that cause vascular disease. The lab utilizes mouse disease modeling and basic molecular biology techniques.


Alexander Gamero-Garrido

Assistant Professor, Computer Science

Alexander Gamero-Garrido

Gamero-Garrido's research focuses on the intersection of computer networking systems and public policy with an emphasis on online privacy. His work yields methodologies and analyses that provide empirical evidence on contentious questions in technology policy. He use conventional methods from both computer networking (large-scale Internet measurements) and the social sciences (surveys). Prior to joining UC Davis, he was a Ford Foundation Post-Doc Fellow at Northeastern University. Gamero-Garrido received his Ph.D. in Computer Science from UC San Diego in 2021. 

 

Anne Iaccopucci

Assistant Professor of teaching, Human Ecology

Anne M Iaccopucci

Iaccopucci comes to UC Davis with over 10 years of experience supporting the development of educators, children, and community-based programs in both formal and informal educational settings. Her work is grounded in developmental theory with interdisciplinary collaborations in the fields of education and public health. Iaccopucci has led curriculum development, program design, implementation, evaluation, and has taught for several educational institutions, including the University of Agriculture and Natural Resources and the California State University of Sacramento. Her award-winning mindfulness curriculum is used nationally to support healthy social-emotional development. Iaccopucci’s research interests include examining innovative educational models that may improve learning outcomes and positive behavioral changes. Specifically, examining educational methods that best support student access, engagement, and development of positive trajectories. Further, Iaccopucci is interested in exploring the impacts of institutional supports that promote student health and well-being on academic achievement, retention, and long-term positive outcomes.

Victoria Keeton

Assistant Professor, School of Nursing

Victoria F. Keeton

Victoria Keeton is a nurse scientist with a research focus on the social causes and health consequences of stress in caregivers and children, especially in Latinx families and communities of color who experience socioeconomic disadvantage. Specifically, she studies stress as a physiologic contributor to metabolic disease and emotional dysregulation, and mechanisms of maternal-fetal programming that may predispose children to metabolic or mental health conditions.

Dr. Keeton received a Bachelor of Arts in psychology at UC San Diego, a Master of Science in nursing at UC San Francisco, and a PhD in nursing and healthcare leadership at UC Davis. Following her doctoral training, she spent two years as a postdoctoral transdisciplinary research fellow with the UCSF California Preterm Birth Initiative. In addition to being a nurse scientist, Dr. Keeton is an advanced practice nurse with almost 20 years of pediatric clinical experience, primarily serving Latinx and under-resourced populations in urban community and school-based health settings. She is also an experienced nurse educator and is committed to increasing the number of Latinx-identifying scholars in nursing science, and to promoting diversity, equity, inclusion, and justice in all aspects of healthcare.

Felicity Muth

Assistant Professor, Neurobiology, Physiology & Behavior

felicity muth

Muth is broadly interested in animal behaviour and cognition, especially aspects of learning and memory that have a clear function in the natural world. Her lab works primarily with bumblebees, both in the lab and in the field. Originally from London, Muth carried out her undergraduate and PhD in Scotland at the University of Edinburgh and the University of St Andrews, working on nest construction in birds. After earning her PhD she switched to working on bumblebee cognition in postdoctoral positions at the University of Arizona and University of Nevada, Reno where she was funded by L’Oreal for Women in Science , the AAUW and the USDA.

Muth is a strong proponent of science communication in all its forms and recently wrote a children’s book on bee diversity - for more info see www.amievenabee.com. She has been interviewed on NPR’s Science Friday and on KUNR, talking about bee cognition and the challenges faced by women in science. Dr. Muth will join UC Davis in spring 2024.

Maike Sonnewald

Assistant Professor, Computer Science

Maike Sonnewald

Sonnewald leads the Computational Climate and Ocean Group (www.compClimate.com). Her work targets grand challenges to improve ocean and climate understanding and resilience. Solutions to the challenges humanity, and the world, face are inherently interdisciplinary, and so is her lab. Sonnewald's interests include sea level, climate modes (such as the El Nino Southern Oscillation), basin-scale ocean dynamics, and biogeochemistry. Blending cutting-edge computational tools with Earth Science knowledge, she combines theory, observations, and numerics to pioneer methods and create insight. Sonnewald focuses on data mining, sparse data inference, and physics-driven machine learning, as well as generating fundamental insight into the climate and ocean system.  Ultimately, she aims to improve long-range forecasts (weeks to months) and climate projections.

The impact of Sonnewalds' work spans academia and policy. It is featured in the NOAA AI strategy 2021-2025, and used in the science basis for New Zealand's Marine Protected Area legislation. She is cited by the European Parliament and the World Meteorological Organization. Her over 60 invited talks include the United Nations ITU, NOAA Research, and the DOE, as well as colloquia and major conferences. She is an Associate Editor for the 'Artificial Intelligence for the Earth Systems' (AIES) journal by the American Meteorological Society and has authored numerous review articles. 

Martine Therrien

Assistant Professor, Molecular and Cellular Biology, Center for Neuroscience

 

2022-2023

Luis Diaz-Garcia

Assistant Professor, Viticulture and Enology

Diaz-Garcia

Luis Diaz-Garcia was recently appointed as an Assistant Professor and Grape Breeder in the Department of Viticulture and Enology at UC Davis. Luis grew up in Aguascalientes, Mexico, a state previously recognized as one of the most important wine-growing regions in the country. He completed his bachelor's and master’s degrees in Agronomy at Universidad Autonoma Chapingo and CINVESTAV-LANGEBIO, respectively. In 2018, Luis obtained his Ph.D. in Plant Breeding and Plant Genetics at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, working in the laboratory of Juan Zalapa. During his Ph.D., Luis integrated a variety of phenomics and genomics tools for studying cranberry fruit quality traits and their underlying genetic mechanisms. Then, in 2018, Luis joined INIFAP Mexico as a lead scientist, where he worked in several crops, including maize, chili pepper, and guava.  

At UCD, the Diaz-Garcia lab (https://diazgarcia.github.io) will apply novel phenomics and genotyping approaches for accelerating the breeding of wine grapes and rootstocks. Genetic solutions for growing high-quality grapes under current and future climate challenges are likely hidden in the germplasm collections made by previous grape breeders at UC Davis. Therefore, the primary goal in the Diaz-Garcia lab is to find these genetic solutions and identify optimal ways to express and combine them to develop superior winegrape cultivars and rootstocks. Moreover, the Diaz-Garcia lab will implement cutting-edge strategies for gathering high-dimensional, high-quality information at the vineyard, vine, and organ levels, which will be integrated with genomic data to identify genes associated with relevant traits. All combined, these methods will allow the optimal allocation of resources and acceleration of the grape breeding process.

Alyssa Griffin

Assistant Professor, Earth and Planetary Sciences

Alyssa Griffin

Griffin is a marine biogeochemist researching carbon cycling in coastal ecosystems and working towards a more just, equitable and inclusive earth science community. She has spent the last two years as a UC Davis Chancellor’s Postdoctoral Fellow splitting her time between Davis and the Bodega Marine Lab. Dr. Griffin’s research bridges geochemistry, biomineralization, and climate change, working on questions of biomineralization and the marine carbon cycle, mineral precipitation/dissolution dynamics under conditions of changing ocean chemistry, carbon storage in ocean systems (blue carbon) and climate mitigation strategies, the interactions of sediment biogeochemistry and carbonate mineralogy, and human relationships with earth systems. Her work also includes developing climate solutions that promote sustainability and environmental justice. Griffin has an outstanding record of working to attract and support minoritized scientists and has received multiple awards for this work including a UC San Diego-wide Inclusive Excellence award, and she co-developed an initiative to increase diversity in the scientific diving program at Scripps Institution of Oceanography.

Alan Lombard

Assistant Professor, Biochemistry and Molecular Medicine and Urologic Surgery

Alan_Lombard

Alan Lombard is a recently appointed Assistant Professor focused on identifying and targeting the mechanisms of prostate cancer progression, with the goal of enhancing therapeutic efficacy and designing novel strategies to improve patient outcomes. Alan received his bachelor’s degree from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute and his doctorate from UC Davis studying in the lab of Maria Mudryj where he studied mechanisms of progression of both prostate and bladder tumors. Alan remained at UC Davis after graduation and went on to specialize in prostate cancer as a postdoctoral scholar in the lab of Allen Gao and now he likes to say that he’s becoming an “Aggie lifer.” Through the support of the UC Davis family, Alan has won several awards, including a Department of Defense postdoctoral training fellowship and most recently, a K01 career development award from the NCI. As a CAMPOS scholar, Alan is excited to pay it forward working not only to better understand cancer and its treatment, but also to train the next generation of diverse scientists. The Lombard Lab employs a multi-pronged strategy including 1) development and utilization of in vitro and in vivo models, 2) molecular/cellular biological, biochemical, and omics approaches, and 3) bioinformatics to understand the underlying mechanisms of tumor biology and response and resistance to therapy. The lab’s goal is to incorporate novel findings into the design of efficacious treatments.

María Maldonado

Assistant Professor, Plant Biology

Maria Maldonado

Maldonado's research focuses on understanding the respiratory chains of photosynthetic organisms. She undertook postdoctoral research at MCB UC Davis with Dr James Letts, where she studied respiratory complexes and supercomplexes of mung bean and Tetrahymena using biochemical and cryoEM approaches. During her PhD, she studied the regulation of chromosomal segregation in mammalian cells with Dr Tarun Kapoor at the Rockefeller University. She holds undergraduate and postgraduate degrees in biochemistry and biotech commercialization from the University of Cambridge. María also worked in the consulting and financial industries for several years between her PhD and postdoc. 

Adeola Oni-Orisan

Assistant Professor, Family and Community Medicine

Adeola Oni-Orisan

Adeola Oni-Orisan is a medical anthropologist and family physician whose research engages critical race theory, Black feminist studies, and science and technology studies to examines how ideas about Blackness, gender, and health are reinforced, deployed and resisted in struggles for health and well-being. She has conducted research on issues related to reproductive health in Nigeria, Zambia, and the United States. Her book project, "To Be Delivered: Pregnant and Born Again in Nigeria" is an ethnographic and historical exploration of the lived experiences of pregnant Nigerians as they navigate intersecting yet competing systems of care proposed by state, church, and international development organizations in search of successful deliveries. 

Kenjiro W. Quides

Assistant Professor, Microbiology and Molecular Genetics

Kenjiro Quides

Dr. Kenji Quides is a microbial evolutionary ecologist with broad interests in microbial symbioses. As an Assistant Professor of Teaching, he consistently draws from his research background studying the legume-rhizobium symbiosis. From conceptually thinking about cooperation, to the various ways microbes impact our daily lives, his research background remains influential in his approach to education. At UC Davis, Dr. Quides will continue his passion for teaching and mentorship that accelerated as a teaching and research postdoctoral fellow in the Grand Challenges Initiative at Chapman University (2019-2022). There he taught project-based learning courses, which gave him an appreciation for innovative curriculum development that positively impacts students from diverse backgrounds.

2021-2022

2020-2021

2019-2020

2018-2019 Cohort

2016-2017 Cohort

2015-2016 Cohort

 

2014-2015 Cohort