Jorge Dubcovsky, distinguished professor in the Department of Plant Sciences at the University of California, Davis, has been named the 2026 World Agriculture Prize Laureate.
Ashley Pearce is trying to help rice farmers decrease fertilizer or increase yield by testing different levels of nitrogen on different varieties in different conditions.
Randi Famula, lab manager of the UC Davis Strawberry Breeding Program, earned campus-wide recognition for her high standards in running the facility overseen by breeding program Director Mitchell Feldmann.
Nazmin Akter is testing lower night-time temperatures to harden tomato seedlings ahead of transplanting them into farm fields. She's a Ph.D. student in Laura Cammarisano's Controlled Environment Agriculture Lab.
Doctoral student Marco Castaneda Martinez won the inaugural Betsey Landis Award from the California Native Plant Society, including a $1,500 grant, for research on purple needlegrass, California's state grass.
Louise Ferguson and colleagues in Spain discussed their research on ways to collect pollen from pistachio trees and how to apply it most efficiently for artificial pollination.
Fourth-year undergrad Sharada Karthik won first place at the recent MANRRS conference for explaining how techniques such as CRISPR can contribute to food security.
Undergrad Jackeline Limon won a $5,000 grant from Breathe California to take soil samples from 15 Yolo County locations and measure bits of plastic pollution in them.
Faculty and grad students mentor local high schoolers as part of a national program to share what they have learned with a new generation of scientists.
By winning a scholarship to attend an ag industry conference, doctoral student Oluwatosin Adebanjo accessed holistic resources to help him become a leader in the ag sector.
Ph.D. student Anca Barcu has been recognized for leadership in promoting health and well-being among students, including awareness of resources and accessibility in her teaching.
Mohsen Mesgaran will receive the 2026 Award of Excellence in Agricultural Research Innovation-Mid Career from AgInnovation-West for advancing early detection of high‑risk invasive species and pests.
Ava-Rose Beech, a Ph.D. student in the Department of Plant Sciences, has been selected for the Bridge Scholars program by CANVAS, a group of three soil and agronomy societies.
Steve Fennimore and Kassim Al-Khatib received top honors at a recent meeting of the California Weed Science Society. Plus, three students, also from the UC Davis Department of Plant Sciences, won awards.
