Awards and rankings

Master’s student Isha Poudel wants to bring agricultural technology to rural communities while empowering women farmers in her homeland of Nepal. Poudel is among 12 young scientists who will get help with her career goals after being named to this year’s Future Leaders Forum by the Association for International Agriculture and Rural Development.

Boutique chefs will be pleased.

Organic legumes already developed by postdoctoral researcher Travis Parker are prized, especially in Southwest cuisine, for their colorful patterns, flavor and texture. Parker’s new work seeks even better, more beautiful beans for arid climes. The Department of Plant Sciences geneticist has received a boost for his work with a $20,000 grant, funded jointly by the Organic Farming Research Foundation and the Foundation for Food and Agriculture Research.

Doctoral student Matt Davis has been accepted into a three-year fellowship program that nurtures young scientists who are addressing unprecedented challenges in American food and agriculture.

This fall, three graduate students from the Department of Plant Sciences will start cultivating their confidence and growing the soft skills needed to bear their best fruit as professionals. Joseph “Zeke” Student, Madeleine Macconnell and Sire Kassama will work with professional leadership and business coaches, nourishing their ability to lead, collaborate and communicate, through the Launching Tomorrow’s Leaders program.

Scientists Grey Monroe and Daniela Quiroz are trying to develop a technique that could speed research on processes affecting countless facets of biology – from how plants respond to stressful conditions to the changes that trigger cells’ cancerous growth. They just won a $50,000 boost for their work, with a grant from the UC Davis Science Translation and Innovative Research (STAIR™) program.

A cartoon character that looks suspiciously like a Department of Plant Sciences professor leads an animated, online tutorial that recently won a 2022 Gold Award from the Association for Communication Excellence.

Amelie Gaudin and Jeffrey Mitchell, faculty with the UC Davis Department of Plant Sciences, are part of a team honored for showing growers how wintertime cover crops can improve the soil while having little or no impact on groundwater use.

The team’s research was part of the University of California’s efforts to help growers thrive while complying with state groundwater regulations. Their work was honored with a Distinguished Service Award for Outstanding Team by UC Agriculture and Natural Resources.

Graduate students Amy Groh and Kimberly Gibson of the Department of Plant Sciences at the University of California, Davis have been selected as 2021 Borlaug Scholars by the National Association of Plant Breeders. Twenty-four students in total were named, with six undergraduates and 18 graduates making the list from universities across the country.

The American Society of Plant Biologists, or ASPB, has released interviews with Distinguished Professor Patrick Brown and Associate Professor Troy Magney to discuss their Dennis R. Hoagland and Early Career Awards respectively.

A short documentary about agricultural innovations supported by University of California, Davis, researchers in Cambodia has picked up three awards at the 42nd Annual Telly Awards. It was a collaborative production between the Horticulture Innovation Lab, the Office of Strategic Communications and Max Video Productions in 2019.