Alumni

Frank Heppner, Ph.D., Zoology, 1967, is a professor of biological sciences at the University of Rhode Island in Kingston. Since he joined the Rhode Island faculty in 1969, he has taken sabbatical leaves to the Philippines, New Mexico, and, most recently, Brunei on the northwest coast of Borneo. He writes, "[I've] been shot at (mistakenly) by rebel soldiers, traveled 500,000 miles by train as a charter member of the Davis Railroad Club, and horse traded with headhunters in Borneo." He is also "the last surviving amateur Vitis vinifera grower in Rhode Island, the others not having had the benefit of exposure to Davis." Heppner notes that he and fellow UC Davis alumnus George "Ted" Goslow, Ph.D., Zoology, 1967, a professor of ecology and evolutionary biology at Brown University in Providence, occasionally get together "to hoist one to Davis."

M. Kathleen Behrens, B.S., Biological Sciences, 1974, Ph.D., Microbiology, 1980, was appointed to the board of directors for Abgenix Inc., of Fremont, Calif. As a biotechnology analyst for BancAmerica Robertson Stephens' venture capital group, Behrens has founded three biotechnology companies since 1988: Mercator Genetics Inc., Protein Design Labs Inc., and COR Therapeutics Inc. "We are pleased to have someone with Dr. Behrens' extensive experience in the biotechnology industry join our board," says R. Scott Greer, president and chief executive officer of Abgenix. A subsidiary of Cell Genesys Inc., Abgenix has developed novel strains of transgenic mice that quickly generate antibodies for essentially any target, including human antigens.

Timothy Fitzsimmons, B.S., Physiology, 1991, recently completed his Ph.D. in biomedical sciences at UC San Diego. He currently resides in Bethesda, Md., where he is a postdoctoral fellow at the National Institutes of Health.

Alumni: Did you study abroad?
The Division of Biological Sciences is interested in learning about the experiences of biological sciences students who studied abroad while enrolled at UC Davis. What did you gain from the experience? Would you recommend it to other biology students? We'll incorporate your thoughts into a future newsletter story. Please drop us a note.

UC Davis Biological Sciences
202 Life Sciences Addition
University of California
One Shields Avenue
Davis, CA 95616-8536
Phone (530) 752-5824
Fax (530) 752-1604
kaguin@ucdavis.edu