Isabel Montañez '81 has received the 2021 UC Davis Prize for Undergraduate Teaching and Scholarly Achievement.
Montañez is a renowned paleoclimatologist and field geologist who specializes in reconstructing past climate change in the context of interactions between continents, oceans, the atmosphere, and life on Earth.
“She is the kind of professor whose work transforms the lives of her students,” said Ari Kelman, interim dean of UC Davis' College of Letters and Science in an announcement of the award.
Montañez majored in geology at Bryn Mawr. She is a UC Davis Chancellor’s Leadership Professor in the Department of Earth and Planetary Sciences, in the College of Letters and Science. She is a member of the National Academy of Sciences and a fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science and the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation. Her honors include the Jean Baptiste Lamarck Medal from the European Geophysical Union, the Laurence L. Sloss Award from the Geological Society of America, and the Frances J. Pettijohn Medal from the Society for Sedimentary Geology.
"Bryn Mawr provided me the safe space in which to develop confidence and to nurture my career aspirations. Making lots of great memories and friends was a wonderful bonus." —Isabel Montañez '81