Professor and Former Chancellor’s Fellow’s Publishes New Book on Memory

UC Davis is fortunate to have some of the world’s greatest faculty members who dedicate themselves daily to teaching and inspiring our students. Among these esteemed educators, Chancellor’s Fellows stand out. These early-career faculty members are honored for their exceptional research and receive a $25,000 award to help them advance promising aspects of their work. Often, these projects also provide students with valuable, career-building experience.

Charan Ranganath, a professor of psychology and neuroscience, was recognized as a Chancellor’s Fellow in 2011. He studies the brain mechanisms that support memory and how memory changes with aging and in various neurological and psychiatric disorders. In his new book, Why We Remember, Ranganath combines his latest research with personal insights to explain how memory works and its critical role in our daily lives.

“This work is important because memory is so essential to our daily lives, whether it is students concerned about doing well in school, older adults concerned with how to preserve their memory, people dealing with traumatic memories of the past, or citizens concerned about artificial intelligence or the rise of misinformation,” Ranganath shared.

Ranganath hopes his research will contribute to the development of treatments for memory disorders by improving screening tools to identify those at risk and by enhancing methods to assess the efficacy of new drugs under development.

The UC Davis Parents Fund makes the Chancellor’s Fellows awards possible each year. Please know that your support for the Parents Fund is crucial to advancing UC Davis research and teaching excellence. 

With warm regards, 
Tessa

For more information about how parent giving makes a difference in students’ lives, contact Tessa Haden, Associate Director of Development, Parent Giving, at thaden@ucdavis.edu, 530-304-5382.