Professor Jason Bond: Newly Selected Executive Associate Dean of CA&ES
Dean Ashley Stokes Announced Her Leadership Team Today
Professor Jason Bond, the Evert and Marion Schlinger Endowed Chair of the UC Davis Department of Entomology and Nematology, and the former associate dean of the College of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences (CA&ES) under the Helene Dillard administration, is the newly selected executive associate dean of CA&ES.
He had previously served several months as interim executive associate dean.
Dean Ashley Stokes announced her new leadership team today. Joining Bond are Professor Anne Todgham, the new associate dean for agricultural sciences, and Professor Amanda Guyer, the new associate dean for human and social sciences.
"So incredibly proud to be part of this amazing team, working with our new Dean Ashley Stokes," Bond posted on his Facebook page. "The College of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences, UC Davis is at the epicenter of our land grant mission--the food we eat, the water we drink, the air we breathe and the communities we serve!"
Bond also directs the Bohart Museum of Entomology (as of February, 2024), and serves as the co-editor-in-chief of the journal Insect Systematics and Diversity, published by the Entomological Society of America. He and co-editor Hojun Song of Texas A&M began serving their four-year terms in 2022.
In addition, Bond is the newly elected president of the American Arachnological Society.
Professor Bond joined the UC Davis faculty in 2018 after a seven-year academic career at Auburn University, Ala. He served as professor of biology, director of the Auburn University Museum of Natural History (2011-2105); chair of the Department of Biological Sciences from January 2016 to July 2018; and as curator of arachnids and myriapods (centipedes, millipedes, and related animals) from August 2011 to July 2018.
A veteran of the U.S. Army, Bond served as a UH-60 Blackhawk helicopter crew chief upon graduation from high school.
Jason received his bachelor's degree in biological sciences, cum laude, in 1993 from Western Carolina University, Cullowhee, and his master's degree in biology in 1995 from Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University, Blacksburg. He earned his doctorate in evolutionary systematics and genetics in 1999 from Virginia Tech.
Research in his lab currently focuses on the California trapdoor spider fauna, specifically species delimitation, phylogeography, systematics and taxonomy; Bond has described many new spider taxa to include new families, genera, and more than 50 species.
Bond received the 2025 Systematics, Evolution, and Biodiversity Award from the Pacific Branch, Entomological Society of America (PBESA). is colleagues and students praised his exemplary research, teaching, mentoring, public service, and outreach activities
“Jason is an internationally acclaimed, cutting-edge researcher known as an exemplary professor, mentor and collaborator, and hailed for his highly successful outreach efforts that stretch across the state, nation and beyond,” wrote nominator molecular geneticist and physiologist Joanna Chiu, professor and chair of the Department of Entomology and Nematology. “He is a powerhouse in the world of systematics and arachnology.”
Bond is the third UC Davis recipient of the PBESA award since 2014 when UC Davis distinguished professor (now emerita) Lynn Kimsey, then director of the Bohart Museum, won. UC Davis doctoral alumnus (2016) Marek Boroweic of the Phil Ward lab and now on the faculty of Colorado State University, received it in 2017.
(Editor's Note: See CA&ES news story for more information on the appointments.)