Tina Jeoh, a UC Davis assistant professor of biological and agricultural engineering, was given an early career development award by the National Science Foundation.

The prestigious CAREER award is worth $407,573 over five years and will support Jeoh’s studies of how microbial enzymes break down plant cell walls to release sugars for conversion to biofuels and other products. Jeoh hopes to help by discovering how cellulase enzymes break down cellulose.

Jeoh’s team is developing molecular-scale atomic force microscopy methods to analyze cellulase-cellulose reactions as they occur. The researchers will incorporate their findings into models that will help predict reaction outcomes in commercial settings.

Jeoh received her bachelor’s degree in biological systems engineering in 1996 and her master’s in 1999 from Virginia Tech, and her doctorate in biological and environmental engineering from Cornell University in 2004. She was a scientist for four years at the National Renewable Energy Laboratory and worked for nine months at GeoSynFuels LLC, a startup biofuels company.

CAREER awards are intended to support the work of academic scientists and engineers at an early stage in their careers, especially by helping them to hire graduate student researchers.

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Marianne MacDonald, Dixon resident and real estate broker,has joined Woodland Healthcare’s Community Board.

MacDonald has been in real estate since 1978. She was the owner and broker of her own real estate company for 24 years. Currently she is a broker associate with Coldwell Banker, who purchased her company five years ago. MacDonald is very involved in her local community, for 23 years serving on the board of directors for Child Haven in Fairfield; serving as a member of the board of directors of the Dixon Chamber of Commerce for three years; and is currently very active in the Dixon Rotary.

Community board members are fully engaged in the support and dissemination of the mission, values and vision of Woodland Healthcare and Catholic Healthcare West. The Woodland Healthcare Community Board has 14 voting members including hospital president, Kevin Vaziri, and six full-time practicing physicians from Woodland Healthcare’s multi-specialty medical group who have demonstrated significant commitment and operational involvement at Woodland Healthcare.

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Marlene von Friederichs-Fitzwater, a tireless researcher and champion in the effort to reduce cancer disparities, has won the 2011 Joyce Raley Teel Award for outstanding dedication to breast health in the Sacramento Valley.

Von Friederichs-Fitzwater, professor in the Department of Hematology at UC Davis and director of the Outreach Research and Education program at UC Davis Cancer Center,  received the award earlier this month during the 15th annual Race for the Cure at Cal Expo.

Von Friederichs-Fitzwater, a cancer survivor herself, has spearheaded numerous projects to decrease the breast cancer burden in communities where incidence and death rates are disproportionately high.

UCD Cancer Center is the only National Cancer Institute-designated center serving the Central Valley and inland Northern California. Its innovative research program includes more than 280 scientists at UCD and Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory. The unique partnership, the first between a major cancer center and national laboratory, has resulted in the discovery of new tools to diagnose and treat cancer. For more information, visit http://cancer.ucdavis.edu.

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Albertus G. A. Horsting, Davis High School graduate and doctoral student at the University of Notre Dame, has been named a winner of the prestigious 2011 Rome Prize.

Horsting won the Frank Brown Pre-Doctoral Rome Prize for his project, which is entitled, “Prosper of Aquitaine’s Poetical Synthesis of Augustinian Theology: A Critical Edition of The ‘Liber Epigrammatum’ ”

The awards, given by the 116-year old American Academy in Rome, recognized 30 individuals “who represent the highest standard of excellence in the arts and humanities.” Recipients of the 115th annual Rome Prize Competition are provided with a fellowship that includes a stipend, a study or studio, and room and board for a period of six months to two years in Rome, Italy.

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