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Jason Lorgan is the recipient of the National Association of College Stores’ Aspen Award, given annually to a leader in collegiate retailing who has raised the level of professional practice in the industry and served as a mentor to staff and colleagues.

Lorgan served as director of UC Davis Stores prior to his promotion three years ago to executive director of Campus Recreation, Memorial Union and UC Davis Stores.

“Jason Lorgan has never hesitated to upend the conventional wisdom of the collegiate retailing industry, often seeking out new solutions for his store that no other college store had tried — up to that point, anyway,” the association stated in a news release.

For example, with Lorgan as the director, UC Davis Stores:

• to set up a university-branded online storefront. Doing this “was considered controversial by most in the industry” at the time, said Steve Alb, outgoing president of the National Association of College Stores, who presented the Aspen Award at the association’s Campus Market Expo, or CAMEX, held this year in San Antonio.
• Implemented the use of price-comparison software to demonstrate competitive and transparent textbook pricing to students. 
• Pioneered the “inclusive access” model for digital delivery of course materials — a model now being used by hundreds of college stores — whereby all students in a particular class have free access to the materials by the first day of class. UC Davis Inclusive Access provides the materials (which instructors can adapt to their own needs) one to two weeks in advance of the first class meeting, then gives students a minimum of 10 days from the first day of the term to cancel and pay nothing, say, if they drop the course.

UC Davis Stores earned the 2016 Innovation Achievement Award from the National Association of College Stores Foundation in 2016, for the program, and won the same award in 2014 for , whereby staff members serve as personal textbook shoppers. The award is given every other year, so — something no other campus bookstore operation had ever done.

The association lauded Lorgan for always being more than willing to share with other campus stores how those new solutions worked, or didn’t, and in so doing has helped countless stores move forward with new ideas.

“One of his staff members summed it up well by saying Jason is ‘well-known in the industry as a leader, an innovator, a visionary and sometimes a rebel,’” Alb said.  

Newly recognized as fellows among their peers:

• Ricardo Castro, associate professor, Department of Materials Science and Engineering — American Ceramic Society, which concerns itself with the scientific side of ceramics. In his research, he is particularly interested in the behavior of nanoceramics in extreme environments, such as high temperatures and nuclear radiation.
• Jesús De Loera, professor, Department of Mathematics — Society for Industrial and Applied Mathematics, which recognized him for outstanding service to the mathematics community and exemplary research, including contributions to discrete geometry and optimization, polynomial algebra, and mathematical software.
• Veronika Hubeny, professor, Department of Physics — International Society for General Relativity and Gravitation. She is a theoretical physicist and a founding member of the UC Davis Center for Quantum Mathematics and Physics or QMAP. Her research interests lie mainly in the areas of string theory and quantum gravity.

Six members of the UC Davis academic advising community recently received awards from the Pacific Region of NACADA: The Global Community for Academic Advising. The Pacific Region comprises ������Ƶ, Hawaii, Nevada, American Samoa, Guam and the Northern Mariana Islands. 

The UC Davis honorees and their awards and categories:

• Nancy Davis, undergraduate student advisor, College of Engineering — Excellence in Advising award, advisor primary role
• Daniela De La Cruz Telles, student affairs advisor, So