Mesgaran Earns AgInnovation-West Award

Mohsen Mesgaran, an associate professor in the UC Davis Department of Plant Sciences, will receive the 2026 Award of Excellence in Agricultural Research Innovation - Mid Career.

Mesgaran works with international collaborators on multiple projects that advance early detection of high‑risk invasive species and agricultural pests. 

The award comes from AgInnovation-West, an association of land-grant universities. Mesgaran works with international collaborators on multiple projects that advance early detection of high‑risk invasive species and agricultural pests. 

To help manage branched broomrape, Mesgaran and collaborators deployed UAVs equipped with multispectral and hyperspectral cameras, handheld spectrometers and LiDAR to collect high‑resolution plant‑level data. They found that machine learning models – particularly Adaptive Boosting – accurately distinguished healthy from infested plants at pre‑symptomatic stages. Leaf‑level spectral signatures revealed clear physiological differences, enabling scalable early detection. 

His work expands large‑scale, cost‑effective monitoring systems for weeds and invasive species. A deep-learning platform using Google Street View imagery analyzed more than 270,000 images across 84,000 miles of roads in four western states The tool identified more than 2,000 infestations of Johnsongrass at a fraction of the cost of traditional surveys.

In addition, Mesgaran and a UCCE specialist developed WeedChat, an AI chatbot trained on more than 500,000 webpages and 20,000 scientific papers. This tool provides evidence‑based guidance on weed identification, biology, ecology and management.

Mesgaran also leads the AI and data analytics components of a $20-million international project to develop a digital early detection, warning and alert system for red palm weevil in the United Arab Emirates, Egypt and Morocco. This system integrates satellite‑based detection, climate‑driven spread forecasting and a centralized digital platform with chatbot interfaces. The package helps farmers, extension agents and policymakers with real‑time alerts and decision‑support tools.

He will receive the award on June 23 at the Joint Western Directors Summer Meeting, which will be held at the Grand Naniloa Hotel in Hilo, Hawaii.

AgInnovation-West is one of five regional associations in the United States, and it is comprised of 13 western states and the four Pacific trust territories. The associations are mandated by the U.S. Congress and aid in planning, management and coordination of research activities important to the regions.