Renowned Marine Ecologist Jay Stachowicz Wins Teaching Prize
When Professor Jay Stachowicz heard that UC Davis’ chancellor needed to speak to him urgently, he worried he had done something wrong.
In fact, it was quite the opposite: Chancellor Gary S. May informed Stachowicz, of the Department of Evolution and Ecology, that he was the winner of the 2023-24 UC Davis Prize for Undergraduate Teaching and Scholarly Achievement, an award honoring faculty for exceptional teaching and scholarship. The donor-funded $60,000 prize, established in 1986 and supported by the UC Davis Foundation, is among the largest of its kind in the country.
“Jay is the consummate biologist,” said Mark Winey, dean of the College of Biological Sciences. “Whether he’s in waders and mucking it on the coast to examine eelgrass beds, in a classroom with hundreds of undergraduates, or mentoring graduate students one-on-one, his dedication to research, teaching and service embodies the very best of UC Davis.”