In the last week of President Biden’s term, the White House honored over 700 scientists and engineers, including three CBS faculty. 

Aldrin Gomes, professor in the Department of Neurobiology, Physiology and Behavior, received a Presidential Award for Excellence in Science, Mathematics, and Engineering Mentoring (PAESMEM), the highest mentoring award bestowed by the White House. Gomes was one of 25  mentors from around the nation to receive the prestigious award for 2025 and joins Chancellor May and Susan Kauzlarich as PAESMEM recipients at the University of California, Davis.

Kassandra Ori-McKenney and James Letts, who are both associate professors in the Department of Molecular and Cellular Biology, are two of 398 researchers to receive the Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers (PECASE) for 2025. The award recognizes federally funded early-career researchers who display exceptional research and leadership potential.

The three laureates were among eight faculty at UC Davis to receive recognition from the Biden Administration. They said they were thrilled and honored to receive this recognition—and somewhat surprised, since they were nominated in 2021 and 2022 and hadn’t heard anything since. Both awards were established during Clinton’s presidency and are usually presented annually, though the 2025 PECASE recipients represent nominees from 2022-2024, and the 2025 PAESMEM recipients were nominated in 2022 and 2023.

“I was absolutely shocked because I had completely put it out of my head as even a possibility,” said Ori-McKenney. “This is a huge honor, and I am incredibly grateful.”

Helping students achieve their potential

In his 17 years at UC Davis, Gomes has mentored over 220 undergraduate students, and over 100 graduate students. His mentorship work on campus has been recognized through the 2023 Distinguished Graduate and Postdoctoral Mentorship Award, and the 2019 Chancellor's Award for Excellence in Mentoring Undergraduate Research. He also received the 2021-2022 Chancellor’s Fellowship for Diversity, Equity and Inclusion and the 2021 College of Biological Sciences Principles of Community Award.

Gomes first began mentoring high school students as a postdoctoral fellow. “I found it exhilarating to be able to help others and give them some of my passion and see them enjoy science,” he said. “One of my greatest joys is seeing my mentees achieve their dream and potential.”

Today, Gomes averages 12 undergraduate and 10 graduate mentees per year. His lab studies how commonly used drugs such as ibuprofen impact the heart and uses molecular techniques to unravel the mechanisms behind these side effects. As a mentor, Gomes not only coaches his students in the lab, he also helps them develop their writing and presentation skills, and form valuable professional connections. He’s especially passionate about helping students from underrepresented and underserved populations.

“My approach is that every student is unique, with their own aspirations, challenges, and goals. To truly support them, it’s essential to take the time to listen carefully and understand what each student hopes to gain from the mentoring relationship. It's time consuming, but it's worth it,” said Gomes. “The most important thing is being able to communicate with the student and ensure that they feel valued and belong in your lab.”

In addition to mentoring students one-on-one in his lab, Gomes directs the MARC and IMSD programs, which support diverse STEM undergraduate and graduate students, respectively.

“We guide them and provide them with resources, and we bring in people to speak about things like imposter fears and wellness, and I train them in aspects like how to present a poster or seminar,” said Gomes.

Gomes says his work wouldn’t be possible without “the great support of people at UC Davis, including Dean Winey, my department chairs, and my wife, Gaya.

Investigating the molecular and cellular mechanisms behind neural disease

Ori-McKenney studies microtubules, tube-like proteins that give cells their shape and serve as tracks for the transport of substances throughout the cell. 

“Because the microtubule cytoskeleton is essential for so many different cellular processes, studying it ends up being relevant to a range of disorders, including neurodevelopmental and neurodegenerative diseases, cancer progression, and even the natural aging process,” said Ori-McKenney.

By integrating information on microtubules at the molecular, cellular, and whole-organism level, Ori-McKenney aims to develop a comprehensive understanding of the microtubule cytoskeleton in disease. To do this, she uses methods ranging from biochemistry to cellular biology to experimental studies in fruit flies.

Ori-Mckenney, who joined UC Davis in 2016, became motivated to study neuroscience after one of her high school friends had a brain aneurysm. She first began studying microtubules as a Ph.D. student at Colombia University.

“I kind of stumbled into the microtubule cytoskeleton field because I wanted to understand neurodegeneration,” said Ori-McKenney. “But by studying the microtubule cytoskeleton, I realized that there are so many different ways that disruptions to this network can lead to disease.”

Ori-McKenney was nominated for the PECASE award in recognition of research funded by the National Institutes of Health. 

“None of this would have been possible without my husband, Richard McKenney, and all of the amazing students and postdocs that I've had, especially my very first graduate student, Brigette Monroy,” said Ori-McKenney.

Illuminating the proteins that allow cells to use energy

Letts, who joined UC Davis in 2018, uses electron microscopy to study proteins in the electron transport chain—a series of biochemical reactions that enables cells to convert the energy in food into a form that is used inside cells called “ATP.”

“This process is fundamental to life—it’s the reason why we breathe air and consume oxygen,” said Letts.

By isolating and visualizing these proteins, Lett’s aims to reveal how they function in healthy and diseased cells. His lab studies electron transport proteins in diverse organisms, from animal, fungal, and plant cells, to single cellular protists. This work is illuminating the enormous diversity in electron transport chains across the tree of life.

“By understanding how this process works in other organisms, we can see whether or not we can co-opt those mechanisms to manipulate these proteins’ activity in human disease states,” said Letts. “That's our goal, and we're already finding some interesting potential paths that we could use to try to turn these complexes on and off.”

Letts was nominated for the presidential award for his Department of Energy-funded work on plants. Plants use their electron transport chains during the night to break down the energy they produce via photosynthesis. The efficiency of this process determines how much photosynthesis-derived energy ends up accumulated as plant biomass. It’s also involved in plant resilience to climate factors, such as drought.

“We're trying to understand how to make the plants more resilient to a changing climate, and how we could manipulate this process to potentially enhance crop yield,” said Letts.

Letts’ lab produced the world’s first structural models of plant electron transport chain complexes in 2020, and they continue to shed light on these complex structures. The work was possible thanks to the work of Maria Maldonado, who worked with Letts as a postdoctoral fellow and is now an assistant professor in the Department of Plant Biology. 

“This award is really a testament to the fantastic people that I've had in the lab, past and present,” said Letts. “I'm very lucky.”

The awards were announced on January 13th and 14th and will be handed out at a ceremony in Washington, DC later this year.