The Bohart Museum of Entomology

10/12/2026

The incredible Celebration of the Life and Legacy of UC Davis Distinguished Professor Bruce Hammock, organized UC Davis Distinguished Professor Walter Leal.

Bruce’s family, friends, colleagues, former lab members, and many o...

10/10/2026

A GATHERING OF GIANTS

Scientists, colleagues, collaborators and former students from throughout the world will honor the "Life and Legacy of Bruce Hammock" at a memorial set for 1 p.m., Saturday, Oct. 10 in California Hall, UC Davis campus.

UC Davis Chancellor Gary May will deliver the opening remarks, and Ashley Stokes, dean of the UC Davis College of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences, will present "a dean's reflections."

Tributes from friends and colleagues will follow. The list includes:

Colin Cameron, UC Davis; Gino Cortopassi, UC Davis; Version Aditi Das, Georgia Tech; Matthew Edin, National Institute of Environmental Sciences, National Institute of Health; Sumanta Goswami, Charles River Laboratory, San Francisco; Lawrence Harshman, University of Nebraska, Lincoln; Denise Manker, Bayer Crop Science, retired; Dipak Panigrahy, Harvard Medical School; Glenn Prestwich, University of Utah and University of Stony Brook; Harold Schmitz, The March Group; Justin Siegel, UC Davis; Thomas Sparks, Agrilucent; Gang Sun, UC Davis; Jeanette Van Emon, American Chemical Society Board of Directors; Rosemary Walzem, Texas A&M; Craig Wheelock, Karolinska Institutet; Keith Wing, Keith D. Wing Consulting; Chengpeng Xu, UC Davis; Ting Xu, China Agricultural University; Tilahun Yilma, UC Davis; and Lin Zhang, UC Davis.

An open microphone session will follow. Tom Hammock, son of Bruce and Lassie Hammock, will give the family remarks and acknowledgment. Joanna Chiu, professor and chair of the UC Davis Department of Entomology and Nematology, will deliver the closing remarks.

The memorial will conclude with a reception. Attendees will have the opportunity to write memories in the Bruce Hammock Memory Book, said UC Davis Distinguished Professor Walter Leal, coordinator of the memorial.

See more at

Bruce Hammock (center) with colleagues Dipak Panigrahy (left) of Harvard Medical School and Guodong Zhang of the University of Massachusetts.

10/09/2026

It all began when UC Davis Distinguished Professor Bruce Hammock, then a UC Berkeley graduate student, wondered how a caterpillar could turn into a butterfly.

His research led to the co-discovery of soluble epoxide hydrolase (sEH)--an enzyme in the human body that breaks down regulatory fatty acids--and 50 years of research on sEH inhibitors that led to therapeutic drug discoveries targeting such diseases as pain, eye and kidney disease, traumatic brain injury and stroke, Parkinson’s and Alzheimer's disease.

"Life is full of surprises," he often commented.

Hammock, an internationally renowned scientist, died Jan. 5, 2026 at age 78.

But his research that he began half-a-century ago continues.

The Nature Neuroscience journal published Hammock-linked research led by his collaborator, Feixiong Cheng, director of the Genome Center at the Cleveland Clinic, that tackles Alzheimer’s disease.

Monarch butterfly on a Mexican sunflower, Tithonia rotundifola.

10/08/2026

The late UC Davis Distinguished Professor Bruce Hammock would have been proud.
His lifetime research targeting and alleviating chronic pain in a wide range of diseases, continues to advance.
Hammock, an internationally renowned scientist who died Jan. 5, 2026 at age 78, is celebrated for co-discovering soluble epoxide hydrolase (sEH)--an enzyme in the human body that breaks down regulatory fatty acids--and for his 50-year research on sEH inhibitors that led to therapeutic drug discoveries targeting such diseases as pain, eye and kidney disease, traumatic brain injury and stroke, Parkinson’s and Alzheimer's disease.
Today (Oct. 😎 the Nature Neuroscience journal published Hammock-linked research led by his collaborator, Feixiong Cheng, director of the Genome Center at the Cleveland Clinic, that tackles Alzheimer’s disease.
Co-authors include Hammock and his protégé, Cindy McReynolds Brown, chief executive officer of EicOsis Human Health LLC, the company that the two co-founded in 2011 to fulfill Hammock’s commitment to find safer and more effective ways to treat chronic pain.
“Bruce Hammock spent decades uncovering the biology of soluble epoxide hydrolase and demonstrating its potential as a therapeutic target,” Brown said. “He is remembered not only for his scientific accomplishments, but also for the strong collaborations he built and the many scientists he brought together throughout his career.”
The article, “Combining Genetics with Real-World Patient Data enables Ancestry-Specific Target Identification and Drug Discovery in Alzheimer’s Disease,” is online at https://www.nature.com/articles/s41593-026-02472-0. The Digital Object Identifier (DOI): 10.1038/s41593-026-02472-0.
“Although high-throughput DNA/RNA sequencing technologies have generated massive genetic and genomic data in human disease, these findings have not been translated into new patient treatments,” the authors wrote in their abstract. “To address this problem, we utilized Mendelian randomization (MR) and large patient-level genetic and functional genomic data to evaluate druggable targets using Alzheimer’s disease (AD) as a prototypical example.”
“In summary, combining genetics and real-world patient data identifies ancestry-specific therapeutic targets and medicines for Alzheimer’s disease and other neurodegenerative diseases if broadly applied.”
https://entnem.ucdavis.edu/news/collaborators-continue-advance-hammocks-lifetime-research-targeting-chronic-pain

10/08/2026

UC Davis Distinguished Professor Walter Leal of the Department of Molecular and Cellular recently released a tribute video congratulating all UC Davis faculty who transitioned to emeriti during the 2025-26 academic year.

Leal spotlighted 22 retirees, including UC Davis Distinguished Professor Emeritus Steve Nadler of the Department of Entomology and Nematology, as representatives of the group. This is the fourth video in Leal's series of annual emeriti tributes, and the one with the largest number of participants (22). His tribute videos date back to the 2021-22 academic year.

Leal dedicated the 2025-26 video to emeritus H. Rao Unnava, former dean of the Graduate School of Management, who with his wife, Vasu, adjunct associate professor at the Graduate School of Management, were enroute to Tibet on Aug. 26 when catastrophic flash floods swept through the Nepal-China border region. They are among hundreds missing.

Leal also paid tribute to "two colleagues who passed away in 2026 before they had the opportunity to retire": UC Davis Distinguished Professor Bruce Hammock (Aug. 13, 1947 to Jan. 5, 2026), who held a joint appointment with the UC Davis Department of Entomology and Nematology and the UC Davis Comprehensive Cancer Center, and Professor Mariel Vázquez (Feb. 24, 1971 to July 5, 2026), who held joint appointments with the Departments of Mathematics, and Microbiology and Molecular Genetics.

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October 7, 2026By Kathy Keatley Garvey Print UC Davis Distinguished Professor Walter Leal of the Department of Molecular and Cellular recently released a tribute video congratulating all UC Davis faculty who transitioned to emeriti during the 2025-26 academic year. Leal spotlighted 22 retirees,  i...

10/07/2026

Bang! Pow! Zap! The super power of bugs!

Youngsters and adults alike delighted in listening to "Dr. Beetlelady" Stephanie Dole discuss “Bug Power” at a recent Bohart Museum of Entomology open house.

Dole, a UC Davis alumna, entomologist, science communicator, photographer and author of the newly published children's book, Bug Power, fielded scores of questions at the three-hour open house.

"It was just a wonderful event," she said.

The 350 attendees learned about the super powers of specific bugs, such as “walking on water, reflective color, invisibility, super strength, zombie sting, super vision, explosions, stunt lying and retractable wings."

And "breathing underwater, secret messages, glowing, body armory, disguises, poisonous blood and transformation."

Bug Power, geared for children ages 8-12, is her first children's book. It features 20 bugs and their superpowers.

"I got a lot of questions about specimens in my displays, especially the Goliath beetle life cycle which was new to a lot of people," Dole said.
See more at https://ucanr.edu/blog/bug-squad/article/bang-pow-zap-super-power-bugs

10/06/2026

Registration is underway for an all-day UC Davis class for those who want to learn "the fascinating world of beeswax, from how honey bees produce it to how beekeepers can collect, process, and transform it into beautiful and useful products."

The California Master Beekeeper Program (CAMBP) annual class, "Wax Working, Honey and Hive Products," is set from 9 a.m. to 4:30 p.m., Saturday, Nov. 7 in the E. L. Niño Bee Lab at the Harry H. Laidlaw Jr. Honey Bee Research Facility, located at 1 Bee Biology Road, UC Davis. Space is limited; registration is advised by Oct. 23.

"It promises to be a full day of hands-on learning, creativity, and discovery," said Wendy Mather, co-program manager of CAMBP. Catherine Hounshell, certified California master beekeeper and educator, will facilitate the class along with bee scientist Elina Niño and her lab team "to bring and blend the best in science-based information and creativity."

Niño, founder and director of CAMBP, is the professor of UC Cooperation Extension, apiculture; a member of the UC Davis Department of Entomology and Nematology faculty, and director of the UC Davis Bee Haven.

This class is perfect for the hobby and sideline beekeeper interested in learning the basics of working with wax," Mather said. "Throughout the day, participants will learn how bees make wax and how it functions within the colony, how beekeepers collect wax from the hive, how to safely clean and process beeswax, and how to turn beeswax into handcrafted products that one can make again at home."

"Participants will roll up their sleeves and create their own molded beeswax candles, poured candles, and beeswax lip balm," Mather said. "Materials including wax, wicks, candle containers, shea butter, coconut oil, fragrance, and other supplies will be provided. Best of all, participants will make and take home two of each item."

See more on Bug Squad blog at https://ucanr.edu/blog/bug-squad/article/beeswax-candles-sign-cambp-class

10/02/2026

The E.L. Niño Bee Lab, UC Davis Department of Entomology and Nematology, today launched a UC Davis Crowdfund effort to fund The Great Native Bee Count: Mapping California’s Bee and Plant Connections, a project to begin next spring that would "engage Californians of all ages as community scientists documenting the relationships between bees and the flowering plants that sustain them."
The crowdfunding ends Oct. 31. The link to donate to the Bee Research Fund to make this all happen is https://giveto.ucdavis.edu/schools/UniversityofCaliforniaDavis/crowdfund-uc-davis-october-2026/pages/bees/?a=13784076.

See more on Bug Squad blog at https://ucanr.edu/blog/bug-squad/article/mapping-great-native-bee-count-california

09/30/2026

UC Davis Professor Emeritus Richard Douglas Hugh Di**le, considered “the world’s eminent scholar on animal migration,” a brilliant scientific collaborator, dedicated mentor, and selfless philanthropist, died Sunday, Sept. 27, while receiving hospice care in Davis. His family attributed his death to congestive heart failure.

A resident of Larkspur, Marin County, he was 89, and looking forward to his 90th birthday on Nov. 4.

Professor Di**le, known as “Hugh,” served on the faculty of the UC Davis Department of Entomology (now Entomology and Nematology), from 1982 to 2002.

Although he retired in 2002, he never retired from research. "He considered retirement as an opportunity to try something new," commented Professor Emerita Sharon Lawler.

Hugh Di**le was a world-class scholar and world-class traveler.