Immobile organisms, plants have needed to evolve ingenious and highly specific defenses to threats, such as predators. These defenses come in the form of chemicals known as specialized metabolites and are responsible for the plant kingdom’s rich source of drugs, poisons, and dyes.
Climate change creates hotter weather and drier seasons – and new challenges for farmers. With excessive heat damaging seed quality, seed producers and growers increasingly need uniform and productive crops with thermotolerance.
Brian Bailey, an assistant professor in the Department of Plant Sciences at the University of California, Davis, has been recognized by the National Science Foundation, or NSF, with a CAREER award.
Josh Hegarty, a postdoctoral researcher in the Dubcovsky Lab in the Department of Plant Sciences at the University of California, Davis, is leading a project to develop commercial varieties of triticale for forage and feed. The National Institute of Food and Agriculture, or NIFA, is granting a $300,000 investment as part of its Agriculture and Food Research Initiative.
Patrick Brown, distinguished professor in the Department of Plant Sciences, has received the American Society of Plant Biologists’ Dennis R. Hoagland Award and the Leo M. Walsh Soil Fertility Distinguished Lectureship from the Soil Science Society of America, or SSSA.
In recognition of his outstanding research, extension programs and general advancement of alfalfa as an irrigated crop in Mediterranean and desert climates, Dan Putnam has been named the 2021 recipient of the James H. Meyer Distinguished Service Award by the Academic Federation of UC Davis.
Troy Magney, assistant professor in the Department of Plant Sciences, has received the Early Career Award from the American Society of Plant Biologists. The award recognizes outstanding research from scientists who are still within the first seven years after receiving their doctorate degree and who have made exceptionally creative, independent contributions in their field.
Christine Diepenbrock, an assistant professor in the Department of Plant Sciences, and several researchers from Cornell, Michigan State, Purdue, and North Carolina State Universities have collaborated to identify and thoroughly dissect 11 genes underpinning natural variation in levels of carotenoids, including those with provitamin A activity, in maize kernels.
Jennifer Funk, an associate professor in the Department of Plant Sciences, has received the inaugural Barbara D. Webster Scholar Award. The award provides a $20,000 grant to support the scholarship of a tenured or tenure-track faculty member who represents excellence in their field, exhibits the leadership abilities to impact their discipline, presents a unique and transformative perspective, and works to advance the representation of women in plant sciences.
The newest greenhouse on campus doesn’t look like a greenhouse at all. It’s a 40-foot-long shipping container filled with cutting-edge, high-tech equipment that will help UC Davis usher in a new frontier in hydroponic agriculture.
