Nobel Laureates Inspire UC Davis Biochemistry Students
Two Nobel Prize Winners Virtually Visit Walter Leal's Classroom
It’s not often that a Nobel laureate visits a UC Davis undergraduate classroom, but this year, a biochemistry class in Kleiber Hall struck “gold”—twice.
Not one, but two Nobel laureates chronicled their scientific careers and answered questions during their virtual visits to UC Davis Distinguished Professor Walter Leal’s winter quarter class, “Structure and Function of Biomolecules.”
Nobel laureates Charles Rice of Rockefeller University, who is a UC Davis alumnus, and Randy Schekman of UC Berkeley separately visited Leal's classroom within a three-week period. Each received the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine: Rice in 2020, and Schekman in 2013.
The opportunities to engage with both laureates stunned the class’s 220 students, who are primarily in prehealth majors.
“The Nobel laureate visits provided students with opportunities they never imagined when enrolling in an undergraduate class,” said Leal.