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By Dateline staff

The incoming vice chancellor of research, Harris A. Lewin, has been named a co-recipient of the 2011 Wolf Prize in Agriculture, sharing the $100,000 award wiith James R. Cook of Washington State University.

The UC Board of Regents voted last October on Lewin’s appointment to the Office of Research, but he is not due to take up the post until March 31

Lewin received his doctorate in immunology at swag���� in 1984 and then joined the faculty at the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign. He has been there since, becoming a respected interdisciplinary researcher and academic leader.

He is an animal science professor, holder of the Gutgsell Endowed Chair in the College of Agricultural, Consumer and Environmental Sciences. He is the founding director of the Institute for Genomic Biology, which was established in 2003, and participated on an international team that sequenced the cow genome in 2009.

Lewin established the immunology program in the animal sciences department at the University of Illinois to study genes associated with immune responses of cattle to infectious diseases. Research from that program led to the identification of genes that confer resistance to the bovine leukemia virus and to a patent on a method for detecting animals that can pass resistance to the disease to their offspring.

His research group pioneered technology for functional genomics in cattle, and he has made significant contributions to the understanding of mammalian chromosome evolution.

He is a member of the Royal Swedish Academy of Agriculture and Forestry, and is a fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science.

In selecting Lewin, the committee wrote: “Through studies on genetics and genomic studies in cattle, Prof. Lewin has greatly expanded our understanding of immunogenetics and disease resistance. Lewin has led efforts to establish research and programs that ensure training of the next generation of animal scientists.”

The Wolf Foundation awards prizes annually in the fields of agriculture, chemistry, physics, mathematics, medicine and the arts. This year’s prizes went to 11 people around the world.

Ricardo Wolf, inventor, diplomat and philanthropist, established the foundation in 1975. The German-born Wolf, a resident of Cuba for many years, served as Fidel Castro's ambassador to Israel, where he lived until his death in 1981.

This year’s Wolf Prize laureates are due to receive their awards May 29 from the president of Israel and Israel’s minister of education during a ceremony at the Knesset Building in Jerusalem.

— Pat Bailey

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Fellows and more fellows:

• Mark Asta, adjunct professor, Department of Chemical Engineering; and Niels Gronbech-Jensen and Francois Gygi, professors, Department of Applied Science — Elected fellows of the American Physical Society. The society’s Division of Materials Physics nominated Asta for “fundamental contributions to the physics of materials through ab initio density functional theoretical studies.” The Division of Computational Physics nominated Gronbech-Jensen and Gygi in recognition of their work in computational modeling of matter. Specially, the nominations cite Gronbech-Jensen for his development and application of new computational algorithms and tools in biological and condensed matter physics, and Gygi for work leading to methods for calculating the electronic structure of a variety of systems.

• Ronald A. Hess, professor, Department of Mechanical and Aeronautical Engineering — Elected as a fellow of the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics. The induction ceremony is set to take place during the Aerospace Spotlight Awards Gala, May 11, at the Ronald Reagan Building and International Trade Center, Washington, D.C.

• Dallas Hyde, professor, Department of Anatomy, Physiology and Cell Biology in the School of Veterinary Medicine, and director, California National Primate Research Center — Named a fellow of the American Association of Anatomists. Hyde’s laboratory studies lung diseases such as asthma, pulmonary fibrosis and emphysema, using nonhuman primates as models for understanding human disease. The induction ceremony is scheduled during the association’s annual meeting, April 9-13, in Washington, D.C., as part of this year’s Experimental Biology meeting.

• Laura Marcu, professor of biomedical engineering — Elected to the College of Fellows, American Institute for Medical and Biomedical Engineering, in recognition of her work on light-based instruments for diagnosing and treating cancer and atherosclerosis (heart disease). The induction ceremony is scheduled for Feb. 21 in Washington, D.C., during the institute’s 20th “annual event.”

• Anna Scaglione, professor, Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering — Named a fellow of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, the world’s leading professional association for advancing technology.

— Andy Fell

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Dateline UC Davis welcomes news of faculty and staff awards, for publication in Laurels. Send information to dateline@ucdavis.edu.