If you’ve driven past central California’s walnut groves, you’ve seen them: Thick, rough-looking tree-trunks rise from the ground for two or three feet. Then, atop each base, a thinner trunk with smoother bark continues up and branches into majestic, green canopies spreading toward the sky.
Xiaofei Zhang started this month as an assistant professor in the UC Davis Department of Plant Sciences, specializing in molecular genetics and breeding of small grains crops. His top priority, he said, will be developing wheat varieties that are highly productive for forage and that also have high grain yield and good quality.
California growers want both. The stresses of climate change demand that these varieties be developed quickly, and be able to survive under new conditions, he added.
Five women in the UC Davis Department of Plant Sciences now hold endowed chairs, the first time in the department’s history that so many women have attained this prestigious distinction.
Faculty members Gail Taylor, Amelie Gaudin, Giulia Marino, Li Tian and Leslie Roche all have been appointed to endowed chairs in the last four years. Endowments are dedicated funds, giving researchers the freedom to explore an idea before the concept is fully worked out and ready for grant applications.
Invasive plants can stay dormant for decades or even centuries after they have been introduced into an environment before rapidly expanding and wreaking ecological havoc, according to a new study led by the University of California, Davis.
Doctoral student Matt Davis traveled to Washington, D.C., recently to experience first-hand the intersection of agricultural science and federal policy-making.
“We were there to learn about careers in government and policy,” Davis explained. “We learned how to communicate with legislators and went to the legislators’ offices to talk about the 2024 Farm Bill and the importance of funding agricultural research.”.
People in rural regions like mountainous Nepal produce plenty of food. But before it can get to local markets and into people’s homes, much of it spoils. What’s left often has lost much of its nutritional value. Now, Amanda Crump and team are working on a way to get more nutritious food into the homes of Nepalese people
Ph.D. candidate Deniz Inci is the Weed Science Society of America graduate student of the month. Here, he offers some background on his passion for finding solutions to the problem of weeds in agriculture.
Graduate students took home first- and second-place honors for their poster presentations at the annual California Plant and Soil Conference, hosted by University of California Agriculture and Natural Resources in Fresno, Calif., recently.
Graduate student Paige Kouba discussed her research with California legislators as part of a program to train scientists to better communicate with policy-makers. Kouba met with Assembly Majority Leader Cecilia Aguiar Curry (D-Winters) and other legislative leaders at the state Capitol recently. Her goal is to inform science policy coming out of Sacramento.
Northwest of Los Angeles, springtime brings native wildflowers to bloom in the Santa Monica Mountains. These beauties provide food for insects, maintain healthy soil and filter water seeping into the ground – in addition to offering breathtaking displays of color.
Grey Monroe has received a CAREER Award for the Faculty Early Career Development Program from the National Science Foundation. Monroe is an assistant professor in the UC Davis Department of Plant Sciences. Monroe’s award expands on his recent work making breakthroughs in our understanding of genetic mutation in plants (published in Nature). This grant provides more than $1 million over the next five years.
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.