Assistant Project Scientist Christopher Lucchesi and Professor Stuart Meyers have been honored with this year’s Academic Senate and Academic Federation’s awards from the university. They are among 17 UC Davis faculty members who have received the campus’ most prestigious awards for exceptional research, teaching and mentoring, and public service.

Lucchesi serves in the school’s Department of Surgical and Radiological Sciences. He has made significant recent advancements in treatment potential for osteosarcoma cancers. Through modulation of cancer-relevant protein-protein interactions, he demonstrated an ability to make radio-resistant osteosarcoma cancers sensitive to radiation, potentially increasing survivability of both human and canine patients. He has secured multiple research grants, including the largest one-year UC Drug Discovery Consortium Seed Grant to date. His research, publications and grants are an impressive example of the quality of research conducted at UC Davis.

Meyers is professor of the Department of Anatomy, Physiology, and Cell Biology. He has shown long, outstanding commitment not only to his students and mentees, but also his peers and community. He has always been willing to step up and step in, exceeding both department and school average teaching loads, passionately delivering complex topics such as gamete fertilization and assisted reproductive technology through interactive and engaged means. He has an innate quality to motivate and support others to succeed and achieve their goals. Professor Meyers has and will continue to impact the careers and life trajectories of many students.

Unique among UC campuses, the Academic Federation represents academic appointees in titles such as lecturer (Unit 18), adjunct professor and librarian, agronomist and specialist, professional researcher and project scientist, and academic administrator and academic coordinator — about 2,000 members total. The UC Davis Academic Senate, representing some 3,000 ladder-rank faculty members, is one division of the systemwide Academic Senate, with each campus constituting a division.

The Academic Senate and Academic Federation will hold a joint awards reception in the spring, with details to be announced at a later date.

You can read more about the other award recipients at UC Davis News.