IN THIS COLUMN
- Lab Safety Awards, six college and school winners
- UC Davis Symphony Orchestra and Christian Baldini
- Frank Zalom, Department of Entomology and Nematology
- Betty Irene Moore School of Nursing, diversity award
Safety Services announced its 2021 Lab Safety Award winners, one for each college and school with lab operations, and, from among the six winners, named the Slupsky Lab in the College of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences emerged as the grand prize winner.
The Slupsky lab works with biohazardous samples and hazardous chemicals in studying how nutritional and environmental exposures influence children’s growth and development.
“Communication of lab safety is key,” said Caroline Slupsky, a professor in the Department of Nutrition and the Department of Food Science and Technology. “There is a lot of lab safety-related information that my lab members need to acquire and apply to our research work.”
The grand prize totaled $6,000, of which $5,000 came from Safety Services and $1,000 from the College of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences. Slupsky said she and her team had not decided how to spend the money, “but perhaps a new lab desktop computer to allow faster access to safety-related information.”
Here are the winning labs and their leaders from the other colleges and schools (each link will take you to a Safety Services article about the lab):
- — Aldrin Gomes, professor, Department of Neurobiology, Physiology and Behavior, College of Biological Sciences. Top safety risk in the lab:
- — Valeria La Saponara, professor, Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering, College of Engineering
- — Emilija Pantic, associate professor, Department of Physics and Astronomy, College of Letters and Science
- — Manuel F. Navedo, professor, and Madeline Nieves-Cintron, assistant professor, both in the Department of Pharmacology, School of Medicine
- — Lisa Miller, professor, Department of Anatomy, Physiology and Cell Biology, School of Veterinary Medicine
The music website Sequenza21 has given a rave review to the UC Davis Symphony Orchestra and its music director and conductor, Christian Baldini, for the orchestra’s first professional album.
“A cohesive and valuable program with fine performances of every work, this CD is one of our ‘Best of 21,’” Sequenza21 co-editor Christian Carey wrote in his for the “volunteer musical community.”
“Moreover, it puts UC Davis Symphony and Baldini on the map as performers of contemporary concert music to watch closely.”
presents four works by the composers listed in the title. The first three — Varèse’s “Amériques,” Ligeti’s Concerto for Violin and Orchestra, and Lutosławski’s “Chain 2: Dialogue for Violin and Orchestra” — are pivotal European modernist works, while Baldini’s piece, “Elapsing Twilight Shades,” negotiates similar territory, according to Carey. The UC Davis Symphony Orchestra performs the first three while the Munich Radio Orchestra performs Baldini’s composition.
Baldini conducts all four in performances over the last 10 years, leading the Munich Radio Orchestra in Salzburg, Austria, in 2012, and the UC Davis Symphony Orchestra in Jackson Hall at the Mondavi Center for the Performing Arts.
He has been a member of the Entomological Society of America, or ESA, for 47 years. He is an ESA fellow and former president. Now Distinguished Professor Frank Zalom has be