Early career scientists from the UC Davis Department of Plant Sciences were hosted to a recent conference where they networked with industry professionals and attended educational sessions.
Jorge Dubcovsky’s ground-breaking research on wheat genetics will receive an additional seven years of support from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute. Dubcovsky and team, in the UC Davis Department of Plant Sciences, are looking for ways to make wheat less likely to spark allergic reactions in people – a condition that affects about 3 million Americans.
New lines of tomatoes are being made available for research, and they carry the pluck of a desert-dwelling distant cousin that could make future crops better able to thrive in heat and drought.
After chairing the Department of Plant Sciences for seven years, Gail Taylor has taken a new appointment as the dean of Life Sciences, University College London. She will start her new role later this year.
The African Orphan Crops Consortium launched with a lofty goal in 2013: to help scientists in Africa develop more nutritious, productive and resilient varieties of commonly used but rarely studied crops to improve public health.
Rangelands scientist Leslie Roche is helping ranchers and rangeland managers meet those challenges. Her work has gotten a boost: She recently was named the Russell L. Rustici Endowed Specialist in Cooperative Extension in Rangeland Watershed Science.
Truman Young retired as a professor and restoration ecologist from the UC Davis Department of Plant Sciences. His work has taken him to Africa and beyond, helping communities restore and manage landscapes.
Robert Hutmacher retired in 2022 as professor of the University of California Cooperative Extension, based in the Department of Plant Sciences. He is also the director of the UC West Side Research and Extension Center. His research has focused on cotton, primarily in California's San Joaquin Valley and other cotton-producing states.
Kent Bradford retired in 2019 as a distinguished professor emeritus in the Department of Plant Sciences. He was the founding director of the UC Davis Seed Biotechnology Center. His research has focused on the development, maintenance and expression of seed quality.
Diversity programs across education have done a good job of exposing girls to science, University of California scientist Louise Ferguson said. “I see plenty of girls in STEM (science, technology, engineering and medicine). What I don’t see is plenty of women in the boardroom.”
