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East Asian Languages
and Cultures
Economics
Education, Divison of
Electrical and Computer Engineering
Emergency Medicine
Engineering
English
Entomology
Environmental Design
Environmental Horticulture
Environmental Science and Policy
Environmental Toxicology
Epidemiology and Preventive Medicine
Evolution and Ecology
Exercise Science
East Asian Languages and Cultures
The present Department of East Asian Languages
and Cultures dates back to 1964, when Professor Benjamin Wallacker
first offered Chinese language courses at UC Davis. Wallacker, a
sinologist with wide-ranging scholarly interests, had his academic
home in the Department of Anthropology, which housed the first program
in Chinese and Japanese language. Eric Liu, a specialist in Mandarin,
joined him through the second half of the 1960s. Eiko Ihara Taylor
taught modern Japanese courses and assisted Olof Lidin, a specialist
in classical Japanese. Years later, Taylor founded an internship
program that selects up to 14 undergraduates to teach English each
year in Japanese orphanages. Marian Ury replaced Lidin in 1970 as
the Japanese literature specialist but continued to make important
contributions to the program even after her position was transferred
to Comparative Literature in 1975.
By the late 1970s a Program for the Study of East
Asian Culture had been established, with specialists in modern Chinese
and Japanese Donald Gibbs and Janet Shibamoto, respectively. Although
a major was slow in developing, minors in both Chinese and Japanese
were in place by the mid-1980s. Meanwhile, an interdisciplinary
program in East Asian studies began offering undergraduate degrees,
with course work including not only language and literature but
also offerings in political science, history, sociology, art history,
and comparative literature, as well as film.
In May 1987 Donald Gibbs led the initiative that
resulted in the establishment of a Department of Chinese and Japanese,
transforming the service-oriented language and literature program
into an independent department. The first undergraduate majors graduated
in the early 1990s. In 1996, recovering from drastic budget cuts
that reduced the size of the faculty, the department was renamed
the Department of East Asian Languages and Cultures (EALC). The
present department comprises ten lecturers who teach courses in
language study, a small core faculty specializing in literature
(including poetry, drama, fiction, and classics), and faculty with
joint appointments in history, art history, and religious studies (2001).
In the 1990s the department has attracted increasing
numbers of heritage speakers eager to pursue study in advanced literature
and linguistics courses, while continuing to offer intensive introductory
Chinese and Japanese language courses, including courses in Mandarin
for students who speak other Chinese languages. Internship programs,
tutoring opportunities, student cabaret performances, and various
education abroad programs enhance student mastery of the languages
and cultures of China and Japan.
Today the department sponsors colloquia, lectures,
and seminars. With support from Union Bank of California, it also
sponsors the annual Asia Pacific Film Festival, begun under the
leadership of D. Gibbs, whose own film archive is now preserved
in Shields Library. Cumulative annual enrollments in EALC courses
have neared a total of 2,000 in recent years. Students, staff, and
faculty who read Chinese and Japanese enjoy the benefits of Shields
Library's East Asian Collection, headed by Phyllis Wang, which offers
enviable ease of access to more than 52,000 volumes. source
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Economics
The Department of Economics was established
in 1956 out of the former Department of Sociology, Anthropology,
Government, and Economics. Founding members Bruce Glassburner and
Warren Gramm, with help from visiting lecturers, managed to offer
16 different undergraduate courses. Under the leadership of Glassburner
and Frank Child (hired in 1962), the department by the end of the
1960s offered a broad undergraduate curriculum along with programs
leading to M.A. and Ph.D. degrees. The department granted its first
Ph.D. in June 1968. Faculty who played an important role in building
the department include Thomas Mayer, Martin Oettinger, T. Y. Shen,
Elias Tuma, W. Eric Gustafson, Leon Wegge, Andrzej Brzeski, Hiromitsu
Kaneda, Victor Goldberg, John Roemer, and Alan Olmstead.
In 1956 the department served three undergraduate
majors. By 2000 the department was home to about 500 undergraduate
majors, 80 graduate students, and 24 faculty. The department now
offers roughly 70 different undergraduate and graduate courses a
year. As of 2000, the department had produced 142 Ph.D. students,
most of whom now hold academic positions.
A special feature of the undergraduate offerings
is a competitive honors program that gives select students the opportunity
to engage in original research projects under close faculty mentoring.
Eric Gustafson created this program in the early 1970s. It lapsed
briefly in the mid-1980s but was revived by Julie Nelson in 1990,
and has been supervised and expanded by Peter Linden since 1991.
Undergraduates have also had access to a wide array of opportunities
through the Davis-in-Washington Program and the Institute of Governmental
Affairs. Several department faculty have been recognized for their
contributions to undergraduate education with teaching awards.
As the department grew, there were significant
changes in the research interests and reputation of the faculty.
In its early years the department's strength lay in the area of
development economics. By the 1990s the department was highly ranked
in a number of fields, including international economics, macroeconomic
theory, economic history, and micro-theory. Over the past decade
the faculty's research productivity has resulted in departmental
rankings in the mid-20s nationally, and in the mid-teens among public
universities. In important specialized fields, Davis ranked fourth
nationally in economic history, 15th in international economics,
and 19th in applied econometrics.
Several faculty have held important academic and
editorial positions, including Thomas Mayer, honored as President
of the Western Economics Association; Robert Feenstra, an editor
of the Journal of International Economics; Kevin Hoover, an editor
of the Journal of Economic Methodology; Gregory Clark, an editor
of Research in Economic History; and Peter Linden, an editor of
the Journal of Economic History. John Roemer and Joaquim Silvestre
have been elected Fellows of the Econometrics Society. Glassburner,
Child, Kaneda, and Wing Thy Woo have excelled as advisers on economic
development to international agencies and foreign governments. Several
faculty have held important administrative posts, including Steven
Sheffrin, dean of the Division of Social Sciences, and Alan Olmstead,
director of the Institute of Governmental Affairs. The department
has had seven chairs: Glassburner, Child, Goldberg, Sheffrin, Feenstra,
Quinzii, and Hoover. A final distinction is the department's continuing
commitment to diversity, with scholars from more than 15 countries
having served as faculty members. source
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Education, Division of
The history of the Department of Education
has been influenced by two factors: its close ties to the Berkeley
campus and its close relationship with agricultural education and
Cooperative Extension.
Beginning in 1922, a teacher education program
at Davis in the fields of agricultural education and home economics
was administered jointly by the Berkeley campus and the University
Farm. In 1932 Davis began offering the Special Secondary Credential
in Vocational Education. When World War II brought a serious shortage
of vocational agricultural teachers, the university began early
placement of credential candidates in full-time school positions.
This practice eventually developed into internship programs that
became useful tools in teacher education after the war. Offered
through the Department of Agricultural Education, the Special Credential
in Vocational Education program enabled candidates with a few additional
courses to qualify for a General Secondary Credential, usually in
science. The first General Secondary Credential was granted in 1951.
From then until the end of the decade, the department gradually
extended the content areas for earning the secondary credential.
In 1959 a new Department of Education was formed
in the College of Letters and Science, with founding members from
Agricultural Education Margaret Sutherland, Larry Newberry, and
Doug Minnis. Minnis started the General Elementary Teacher Education
program, and both elementary and secondary teacher training was
based on internship programs. This approach to teacher training
continued for the succeeding 10 years.
Many changes took place in the department in 1964.
In addition to new faculty hires, the number of teacher candidates
neared 200. The state legislature passed bills making teacher preparation
a postbaccalaureate program. By 1967 the campus approved the M.A.
in Education with two areas of emphasis: history and philosophy
of education, and educational psychology. By 1974 the department
added advanced credentials in school psychology, reading, and bilingual
education. During the 1970s the department graduated its highest
annual numbers of credential students: 233 in 1974, and nearly 300
in 1977.
The demand for teachers declined during the 1980s,
but the academic reputation of the department grew. Donald Arnstine's
scholarship on the work of John Dewey, and Linea Ehri and Carl Spring's
work on beginning reading, won awards from the American Educational
Research Association. Richard Figueroa and Jonathan Sandoval's research
in school psychology earned national recognition.
During the early 1980s the campus began a long
process of academic planning. After lengthy discussions, the Walker
Committee in 1983 recommended the formation of an intercollege Division
of Education with a graduate group, the consolidation of all credential
programs on campus, and an Organized Research Unit to facilitate
school-based research. In 1988, after years of deliberation, both
the Division of Education and the Center for Collaborative Research
and Extension Services to the Schools (CRESS) were established.
The center is responsible for bringing university research to schools
and identifying school problems appropriate for university research.
Subject matter projects in mathematics, writing, and science have
expanded to include projects in history and arts education. In 1991
the center incorporated the Healthy Start field office, and a new
Ph.D. program in education and a Joint UCD/CSU Fresno Ed.D. program
in educational leadership admitted their first students. In 1998
an additional new collaborative teacher education program, formed
in partnership with Sacramento State University, began to address
the state's serious elementary school teacher shortage. source
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Electrical and Computer Engineering
There is no history currently available
for this department. See College
of Engineering.
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Emergency Medicine
There is no history currently available for
this department. See School of
Medicine.
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English
Instruction in English began at Davis in
1910 at the University Farm School. Classes in writing were required
for the agricultural students, but for the first 12 years the only
literature offered was "Agricultural Literature."
In 1922, the English Division was born, with college-level courses
in composition and literature offered to freshmen and sophomores.
In 1928, 22-year-old Celeste Turner Wright arrived from UC Berkeley
to become chair. In 1933, when the Division of Language and Literature
superseded the former English Division, Wright also began teaching
German and directing student plays. As chair, she shepherded the
division through 22 more years until 1955. By the beginning of World
War II, the division had seven faculty.
With the return of veterans after the war, a spurt
of growth took place in the division with the addition of upper-division
courses (1948), an English major (1952), and graduate courses (1955).
The Department of English, Dramatic Art, and Speech, formed initially
in the College of Letters and Science (1952), became the Department
of English in 1961. A master's degree had already been awarded in
1960, and the first Ph.D. was bestowed in 1964, at which date there
were already 55 graduate students and 195 undergraduate English
majors. The undergraduate program was the second largest in the
College of Letters and Science, the graduate program the largest,
and the faculty had grown to 19 full-time professors.
An infusion of nationally known scholars strengthened
the department in the early 1960s. William Van O'Connor, an established
scholar with a considerable reputation, was brought in to chair
the department, and he recruited a distinguished colleague from
the University of Minnesota, Brom Weber, as well as James Woodress,
the poet Karl Shapiro, and Everett Carter. Despite O'Connor's relatively
early death, the department became a formidable center for the study
of American literature.
Although the department mainly emphasized traditional
literary history and criticism, it also included a decided emphasis
on creative writing. New faculty in English literature established
two journals, the scholarly Eighteenth Century Studies and the California
Quarterly, which published creative writing. In 1972 department
member Jack Hicks organized a summer creative writing program, held
annually in Squaw Valley and taught by such distinguished writers
as Gary Snyder, a well-known poet and member of the faculty.
While American literature continues to be a strength
of the department, other fortes have emerged. Recently, for instance,
the department was ranked tenth in the nation for its expertise
in gender studies. The creative writing program continues to be
strong, while a new area of studies--literature and the environment--has
risen to national prominence. The undergraduate major currently
includes nearly 600 students, and the number of active graduate
students is close to 100. English is the largest department in the
recently formed Division of Humanities, Arts, and Cultural Studies.
Faculty participate actively in interdisciplinary groundbreaking
programs such as Nature and Culture, Women and Gender Studies, Cultural
Studies, and the Environmental Initiative. source
See also Department
of Dramatic Art and Speech.
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Entomology
The Department of Entomology at UC Davis
began as a subunit of the Department of Entomology and Parasitology
at UC Berkeley and was closely entwined with the department at Berkeley
for more than 50 years before it became autonomous. The first record
of entomology being taught at Davis occurred when Professor C. W.
Woodworth from UC Berkeley spoke to the State Farmers' Institute
at the University Farm on October 30, 1907, on the "Whitefly
Situation in California." This was a forerunner to the Farmers'
Short Courses (three to six weeks) that began in the fall of 1908.
In 1913 a two-year nondegree program in entomology was established
at Davis. Degree work in entomology was offered at Davis in 1923-24
when S. B. Freeborn was transferred from Berkeley to Davis to head
the expanding program. At this time a course was also offered in
veterinary parasitology.
Although the department grew slowly between 1928
and 1942, it grew substantially between 1945 and 1947, in part because
of the return of many World War II GI students and the permanent
transfer of faculty from field stations to Davis. Over the next
15 years new developments included the establishment of a separate
entomology curriculum in 1950, when full instruction was offered
leading to the B.S., M.S., and Ph.D. degrees. The first Ph.D. in
entomology at Davis was conferred in 1962.
As the Davis campus began to develop independently
from Berkeley under Provost (later Chancellor) Freeborn after 1952,
the Department of Entomology began to assert its independence from
Berkeley. In 1962 the study of entomology at Berkeley was reorganized
into four major divisions: entomology, insect pathology, biological
control, and parasitology (which included the former Department
of Biological Control). Davis entomologists were made a section
of the reorganized department at Berkeley, but by this time entomology
was functioning smoothly as a fully integrated unit on the Davis
campus. On July 1,1963, the Department of Entomology at Davis was
officially established as autonomous. Course offerings were enlarged
dramatically, and curricular emphasis shifted from agricultural
entomology to a more fundamental biological approach including ecology
and physiology to match increasing sophistication in the entomological
profession.
Research and teaching activities have grown steadily
since 1946, when there were seven academic and five nonacademic
staff. In 1999 the department had 28 academic faculty and 40 academic
staff. The department has continued to evolve, making numerous contributions
to the Davis campus in both teaching and research. Entomology faculty
teach specific courses for limited audiences and garner more student
contact hours than most other departments in the College of Agriculture
and Environmental Sciences.
Research in the department spans the gamut from
basic to applied and molecular to ecological. The diversity and
number of extramural grants derives from an aggressive and multifaceted
faculty working on a wealth of fundamental and applied problems.
The broad interests of the faculty also drive the imaginative teaching
program. Few if any other departments of entomology in the nation
boast the range and extent of teaching, diversity of faculty expertise,
and level of grant support of the Davis department. source
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Environmental Design
Design
The design program at UC Davis began as part of the Division of
Home Economics in the 1930s. Within the general home economics major,
design was a subject matter area that included textiles, costume,
and interior design. Doris Heineman was in charge of textile design
and began the collection of textile and costume artifacts.
In the early 1960s, change in society and the
roles of women led the Davis campus, like many others, to transform
its general home economics program into more highly specialized
fields. During the reorganization, faculty members in design were
realigned into the new departments of Applied Behavioral Sciences
(ABS) and Family and Consumer Sciences. Other design faculty became
core members of the newly established Department of Art, including
Robert Arneson, Richard Cramer, and Daniel Shapiro.
Enrollment rose from 12 design majors in 1967
to 105 by 1970 and 320 by 1980. Since then, enrollments have stabilized
between 250 and 330. New faculty hires in design in 1967 included
Helge Olsen in interior design, Katherine Rossbach in textile design,
and JoAnn Stabb in costume and clothing design. In 1970 Dolph Gotelli
and Frances Butler joined the faculty to lead the visual communication/
presentation area. Other additions to the faculty included architect
Richard Berteaux (1973), Gyongy Laky (1978), Victoria Rivers (1980),
and Barbara Shawcroft (1982). These renowned designers have brought
international recognition to design at UC Davis. Several of them
represented North American design at the 1980 World Crafts Council
conference in Vienna, Austria.
In 1982 the design and landscape architecture
units were incorporated into the new Department of Environmental
Design, officially recognized on March 31, 1983. Architect Patricia
Harrison joined the interior design faculty in 1988. Kathryn Silva
joined the visual communication area in 1996.
The Design Gallery, a major component of the department's
outreach efforts, opened in 1984 under the direction of Dolph Gotelli.
The Design Alliance, a community support group, was established
in 1989. In 1994 the new Master of Fine Arts graduate program in
textile arts and costume design accepted its first group of six
students. The Design Collection, curated by JoAnn Stabb, has grown
to more than 10,000 artifacts and, in addition to enriching the
curriculum through gallery exhibitions, was featured at the Chancellor's
Club celebration of June 1999.
Core programs in interior architecture, textile
and costume design, and visual communications remain the three primary
areas of emphasis within the design major. The Davis design program
is known for its emphasis on environmentally friendly design, its
recognition of multicultural origins and aesthetic diversity, and
its interest in design to meet the needs of underrepresented populations.
Teaching and research efforts seek to develop consumer goods from
agricultural products and to enhance overall quality of life through
socially responsible and environmentally sensitive design solutions
that meet basic human needs for textiles, clothing, shelter, and
communication. source
Landscape
Architecture
In 1950 landscape architect Robert Deering was brought to UC Davis
to teach its first course in landscape design and chair a new specialized
curriculum within the bachelor of science program in the College
of Agriculture. Landscape architecture classes were incorporated
into the new Landscape Management major, subsequently renamed Landscape
Horticulture in 1959.
Landscape architect Robert L. Thayer Jr. was hired
in 1973 as a permanent faculty member in the Department of Environmental
Horticulture. Five new upper-division courses in landscape architecture
were added to the curriculum under the Environmental Planning and
Management program.
In 1980 landscape architects Mark Francis and
Byron McCulley joined the faculty. The landscape architecture program
received full accreditation in 1981 from the American Society of
Landscape Architecture, with the first BSLA degree designation in
1982.
In March 1983 the design and landscape architecture
programs were incorporated into the new Department of Environmental
Design. The same year, Steve McNiel joined the landscape architecture
faculty, and the Center for Design Research, a research and outreach
unit, was established. Heath Schenker and Patsy Eubanks Owens, both
landscape architects, became permanent faculty members in 1990.
In 1993 Dean MacCannell, a social theorist in UCD's applied behavioral
sciences department, petitioned for inclusion and became a member
of the landscape architecture faculty. Landscape architecture received
full budgetary and administrative independence within the Department
of Environmental Design in 1994, and Mark Francis was appointed
program chair. The following year Nigel Allan, a cultural geographer,
was admitted as a faculty member. In addition, a faculty position
in Landscape Ecology/Landscape Architecture was added to the program.
Dean MacCannell became the program chair in 1998.
The landscape architecture program at UC Davis
is the only accredited undergraduate program in the UC system. It
has been ranked in the top five undergraduate programs nationwide
for the past ten years. The overriding goal of the program is to
increase quality of life through development and preservation of
landscapes that are meaningful, relevant, and sustainable: meaningful
in that they reinforce sense of self, sense of place, and sense
of community; relevant in that they provide solutions to environmental
problems rather than contribute to them; and sustainable in that
they embody a long-term permanently beneficial relationship between
human culture and the physical/natural environment. source
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Environmental Horticulture
The Division of Landscape Gardening and
Floriculture was established at Davis in 1922 as an activity of
the Berkeley campus division of the same name. Formal ties with
the Berkeley division were discontinued in 1929. With only one degree
course offered, the main emphasis at Davis was the two-year program.
In the early 1930s the faculty and students planned and installed
what is now the north half of Central Park in Davis.
Research efforts began in 1949 when Robert Deering
was appointed department chair and a member of the staff of the
Agricultural Experiment Station. In 1953 a four-year major in landscape
management was established, and the name of the department reflected
this change. The two-year program was terminated in 1960.
In the mid-1950s, laboratories, a greenhouse,
and land located east of the present Buehler Alumni Center were
available for teaching and research, and emphasis centered on planning
public and private landscaped areas and on the selection, use, and
culture of landscape plants. By 1958 five faculty members offered
courses in landscape design and construction, taxonomy, turf management,
arboriculture, and nursery production. The M.S. in horticulture
and doctoral programs in botany, ecology, genetics, plant physiology,
and soils were available to graduate students. The department name
was changed to Landscape Horticulture in 1959.
After a Cooperative Extension specialist's position
was established in 1960, research and training was carried on with
county Cooperative Extension advisors throughout the state. For
25 years, beginning in 1959, the department sponsored a five-day
Park and Recreation Administrators Institute at Asilomar through
University Extension.
Between 1963 and 1967, five academic floriculture
positions were transferred to Davis from UCLA. Teaching and research
in floriculture and nursery management were greatly strengthened
and the department was renamed Environmental Horticulture.
A major in park administration was established
in 1962 to provide instruction in the planning, development, and
management of environmental resources. Offerings in landscape design
and park administration increased, leading in 1972-73 to a major
in landscape architecture and to the formation of an environmental
planning and management (EPM) program, which also included park
administration, environmental planning, environmental education,
and landscape management. In 1983 the programs in landscape architecture
(EPM) and design (ABS) were merged into a new Department of Environmental
Design. The major in park administration was discontinued and those
courses returned to Environmental Horticulture, while other areas
were assumed by Environmental Science and Policy.
The Western Center for Urban Forest (UF) Research
and Education of the Pacific Southwest Research Station, USDA Forest
Service, moved to the Davis campus in 1992 and was housed in new
quarters with Environmental Horticulture. A major in EH/UF was also
established. source
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Environmental Science and
Policy
The Division of Environmental Studies began
in 1970 as an intercollege unit, funded by a grant from the Rockefeller
Foundation and established to focus on the environment and society.
In many ways the division functioned like a traditional department,
providing undergraduate and graduate instruction, research, and
public service. It was expected to exercise leadership in combining
rigorous analysis of environmental problems, using the best available
tools, with outreach of information and service to decision makers.
Unlike most conventional college departments, however, the division
was supervised by a group of several deans from different colleges.
In 1982 a review committee concluded that for administrative purposes
the Division of Environmental Studies should be incorporated into
the College of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences. In 1998,
the name of the unit was changed to the Department of Environmental
Science and Policy.
Over the past 30 years the department has pursued
a mixture of innovative original basic and mission-oriented activities.
For example, the department's teaching programs include two undergraduate
multidisciplinary majors: environmental biology and management (EBM)
and environmental policy analysis and planning (EPAP). The EBM major
offers students an education in the basic natural sciences, especially
ecology, together with a set of management and public policy analysis
courses. The EPAP major provides students with a general background
in the natural sciences relevant to environmental policy. Further,
the department provides a strong core of faculty for the Graduate
Group in Ecology, the largest graduate group on campus. Most faculty
participate in other graduate programs as well.
True to its interdisciplinary mandate, the department
conducts research in five areas: aquatic ecology, population and
community ecology, human ecology, environmental and energy policy
analysis, and natural resource management. All faculty members conduct
both basic and applied work related to environmental problems. Examples
include the work of Charles Goldman on Lake Tahoe, James Quinn on
conservation biology and park size, Peter Richerson on Clear Lake,
Susan Harrison and Alan Hasting on population dynamics, Seymour
Schwartz and Robert Johnson on the effects of urban growth controls,
Marca Weinberg on water policy, Paul Sabatier on environmental decision
making, and Daniel Sperling on nonpetroleum transportation fuels.
source
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Environmental Toxicology
In 1957 the Department of Environmental
Toxicology at Davis originated as a pesticide residue project in
the Department of Entomology. At that time it was felt that available
data on residues and toxicity of pesticides was inadequate to support
the university's pesticide recommendations for California agriculture.
In part due to public concern over pesticide residues in milk, the
state legislature appropriated funds to the university to conduct
research on the health aspects of pesticide residues. With its portion
of these funds, the Davis campus financed a research unit, the Pesticide
Residue Research Laboratory, under the guidance of an interdepartmental
committee.
In 1962 the laboratory became an organized research
unit with a full-time academic staff, called the Agricultural Toxicology
and Residue Research Laboratory (ATRRL) to identify more accurately
its broad, long-range interests. Its responsibilities included routine
residue analysis to support pesticide recommendations, basic research
on associated health hazards, and development of analytical methods
and new instrumentation for the rapid identification and analysis
of organic and inorganic chemicals at the submicrogram level. Although
early efforts primarily served the needs of the Agricultural Experiment
Station, the laboratory rapidly gained national and international
recognition.
In 1968, after six years of teaching courses ad
hoc and a growing involvement in graduate research, the ATRRL became
the Department of Environmental Toxicology. Its new responsibilities
included a full range of teaching, research, and service functions.
The department established research strengths in biochemical toxicology,
hazard assessment, and analytical/ environmental chemistry dealing
with a variety of chemicals including pesticides and other economic
poisons, natural toxicants, and chemical pollutants. In 1969 the
department received a National Institute of Environmental Health
Sciences (NIEHS) training grant for pre- and postdoctoral programs
in toxicology. This was one of the first two toxicology training grants in
the country, and it was still in operation in 1999. The undergraduate program
was initiated in 1974 with a curriculum leading to the first B.S.
program in environmental toxicology to be offered in the nation
and perhaps the world. Students have pursued a variety of careers
in academic research, state and federal agencies, and private consulting
firms as well as in environmental law, medicine, and teaching.
The department has played a central role in campus
programs that focus on toxicants in the environment. It is committed
to understanding the action of environmental chemicals across a
spectrum of disciplines, and generating interfaces where new discoveries
are made. Programs currently housed within the department include:
NIEHS training grants in environmental toxicology; the NIEHS Center
for Environmental Health Sciences, a multidisciplinary research
center; the graduate group in pharmacology and toxicology; the IR-4
Leader Lab, supporting minor use pesticide registration in the Western
Region; the Pesticide Impact Assessment Program and the Food Animal
Residue Avoidance Databank; offices of the Statewide Pesticide Coordinator,
the Center for Pest Management Research and Extension, and the first
extension toxicologists in the U.S.; and the Toxicology Documentation
Center.
Currently three major areas of departmental research
include molecular and cellular toxicology, analytical and environmental
chemistry, and systems toxicology. Molecular and cellular toxicology
research interests include the effects of toxicants on gene expression,
cell growth and differentiation, signal transduction pathways, gamete
development, and fertilization. Analytical and environmental chemistry
research emphasizes pesticide residues, environmental pollutants,
and biologically active compounds in foods as well as mechanisms
of environmental fate and metabolism. Analytical methods include
mass spectrometry and a variety of chromatographic techniques. Systems
studies are pursued in reproductive and developmental toxicology,
aquatic toxicology, skin toxicology, neurotoxicology, and avian
ecotoxicology. source
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Epidemiology and Preventive Medicine
There is no history currently available for
this department. See School of
Medicine.
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Evolution and Ecology
Evolution and Ecology (EVE) is the successor
to the former Department of Zoology, established in 1922. The first
course offered by Tracy Storer was in general zoology, which enrolled
21 to 47 students annually from 1923 to 1928; four more courses
were added by 1928. Storer also initiated a course in economic zoology,
which emphasized vertebrate pests and fur-bearing mammals. The curriculum
eventually included invertebrate zoology, protozoology, and histology.
Under Storer's direction, the zoology division produced a number
of animal pest control pamphlets for distribution by university
field personnel to farmers statewide. There were 13 such pamphlets,
with more than a quarter of a million copies distributed. These
constituted a basis for acrimony between Davis and other UC campuses
after poisoning vertebrate pests became unpopular.
After formation of the College of Letters and
Science, an undergraduate zoology major was available in both this
college and the College of Agriculture. New fields of study were
added, gradually transforming the unit into a general biology department.
Teaching and research expanded, especially in cell biology. A graduate
program was offered in cooperation with the Department of Zoology
at Berkeley. The doctoral degree in zoology was offered at Davis
beginning in 1959.
In 1961 Loye Miller, once Storer's instructor
but long retired, came to the Davis campus to add substantially
to the scientific and spiritual strength of the department. Miller
continued daily work on avian paleontology and student advising
until his death in 1970, shortly before Storer's death in 1973.
Until the late 1960s the department was scattered in several buildings,
but in 1969 the new Tracy I. Storer Hall brought the 19 faculty
members under one roof. A modern field house was constructed with
an undisturbed natural area nearby. Also under departmental jurisdiction
at that time was the 5,000 acre Hopland Field Station, with two
department members.
By the early 1970s the zoology department had
become so diverse that two "area committees" were formed
to oversee its programs: "Organismal and Environmental Biology"
(skin out) and "Cell and Molecular Biology" (skin in).
Most of the department's applied economic and agricultural responsibilities
were transferred into the new Environmental Studies and Wildlife
and Fisheries Biology, while research in zoology became increasingly
basic. The department developed major strengths in ecology, behavior,
evolution, and vertebrate and invertebrate zoology as well as in
various "skin in" disciplines, and graduate enrollments
rose markedly. The undergraduate major became the second largest
in the Division of Biological Sciences, attracting many pre-med,
pre-vet, and pre-allied health sciences students. By 1989 the faculty
peaked at 27, including five emeriti.
Eventually the diverging interests of the faculty
made a split inevitable. When the Division of Biological Sciences
was reorganized in 1993, the "skin in" faculty moved to
Molecular and Cellular Biology, and the "skin out" faculty
formed the core of Evolution and Ecology, which remained in Storer
Hall. EVE was strengthened by the transfer of several faculty from
the former departments of botany and genetics. In its first year,
EVE had 19 active faculty and 13 emeriti. The former zoology B.A.
and B.S. majors were reformulated as EVE majors, and the entire
curriculum was revised. The zoology graduate program was closed,
although continuing students were allowed to complete their degrees.
EVE houses the new Center for Population Biology,
with membership across the campus, and its affiliated graduate group
in population biology. EVE faculty also train graduate students
in the ecology, animal behavior, entomology, plant biology, and
geography graduate groups. Although the agricultural emphasis of
Storer's time is long gone, all full-time EVE faculty participate
actively in Agricultural Experiment Station projects. Overall, EVE
is one of the strongest programs of its type in the nation, attracting
outstanding faculty and students. source
See also Molecular
and Cellular Biology and Division
of Biological Sciences.
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Exercise Science
An academic major in physical education
was established at UC Davis in 1958. Charles Kovacic was the department's
first chair, with responsibility for acquiring a faculty qualified
to deliver an academic program. Instructors in physical education
included Marya Welch, Barbara Heller, Will Lotter, Herb Schmalenberger,
William Lakie, and E. Dean Ryan. The department remained responsible
for general instruction and supervision in the intramural and intercollegiate
sports programs begun in 1910.
In 1964 the department acquired a new research
and teaching laboratory complex, the first such facility designed
for research in exercise science in the UC system. The Human Performance
Laboratory (HPL) developed an array of ergometric devices designed
to measure controlled exercise/work under specific environmental
conditions. Faculty focused mainly on exercise physiology, with
some work in the newly developing area of sport psychology under
Dean Ryan, second chair of the department. Several faculty became
active in the physiology, bioengineering, and nutrition graduate
groups; they also initiated highly productive interdisciplinary
research with faculty in the School of Medicine. Over the years
exercise research has included completion of 140 graduate theses,
publication of about 235 faculty papers, and involvement of dozens
of campus and professional colleagues.
Creation of the M.A. program in 1966 was predicated
on more rigorous prerequisite education in the physical and biological
sciences, which required the recasting of the undergraduate curriculum.
These developments were critical in the department's evolution away
from training students for careers in teaching and coaching toward
preparing health professionals. Another revision of the curriculum
in 1988 introduced tracks in physiology, biomechanics, and clinical
exercise. The HPL became nationally recognized for its research
productivity and preparation of Ph.D.s. The academic, evolution
brought a change in the name of the department to Exercise Science.
During the past 25 years the department has concentrated
on both basic and applied research in exercise biology, biomechanics,
and clinical exercise. The first major extramural grant came to
Kovacic in 1961 to establish safety standards for sports equipment
and facilities. Research funded by NASA and the Office of Air Force
Research and supervised by Ed Bernauer, William Adams, and Paul
Mold has led to the understanding of effective exercise regimens,
potential for adaptation, and the recommendation of minimal standards
necessary for sustaining performance under challenging conditions.
Adams and Bernauer studied the limiting effects of altitude on running
performance in a series of investigations that included field, climatic,
and simulated altitude settings. Adams has contributed significantly
to the understanding of ozone pollution on pulmonary function, physical
performance, and health. Mole and some of his graduate students
have contributed to further defining the metabolic role played by
exercise during dietary weight loss regimens.
The department's Adult Fitness Program has focused
on the general role of exercise in the maintenance of sound health
throughout life, and its rehabilitation following surgery, disease,
and/or injury. Assessment of physical demands in the workplace and
the establishment of minimal standards for work or back-to-work
fitness are ongoing.
The department's newest area of research is in
biomechanics. Keith Williams and David Hawkins provide the leadership
in this field. Williams employs cinematography and inverse dynamics
analysis techniques to determine forces and moments in performance,
while Hawkins focuses on tissue repair and adaptation from the molecular
to the human systemic level. Now highly quantitative in analysis,
biomechanics integrates principles from engineering, physiology,
and medicine in studies of biological mechanisms relating to physical
performance and health maintenance throughout life. source
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