Davis Enterprise, May 16, 2007 DAVIS, California - The UC Davis Academic Federation on Thursday will honor recipients of its Excellence in Research and Teaching Awards for 2007. The awards recognize Academic Federation members' contributions to UCD teaching and research. This year, Gregory Lanzaro will be honored for excellence in research, the federation announced. Gregory Lanzaro conducts research on two important diseases in the developing world: malaria and leishmaniasis. Malaria causes 300 million cases of disease and as many as 3 million deaths annually. Leishmaniasis infects 12 million people in 88 countries, with symptoms ranging from benign skin lesions to life-threatening visceral disease. Lanzaro's research is on the cutting edge of disease ecology, characterizing vector populations using laboratory-based genetic analyses. He has a doctorate in entomology from the University of Florida and was assistant entomologist at Mississippi State University before taking a post-doctoral fellowship at UCD. He also has been a MacArthur Foundation fellow at the National Institutes of Health in Bethesda, and a pathology professor for the University of Texas Medical Branch.