Awards and rankings

Barbara Blanco-Ulate, Asst. Professor in Plant Sciences, received a Hellman Fellowship for the research “Epigenomics of Tomato Fruit Susceptibility to Fungal Disease.” The grants are awarded to early-career faculty who show academic distinction and potential. It provides extra financial support for their early research.

Travis Parker, Plant Sciences grad student, won first place in the national NAPB Photo Contest. His photo is a variety of high-value common beans (Phaseolus vulgaris) developed at UC Davis. One of his Ph.D. projects is breeding new high-value heirloom-type bean varieties for culinary quality and good field performance.

Louise Ferguson, faculty member in Plant Sciences, UC Davis, and Cooperative Extension pomology specialist for California, is the new President-elect of the American Society for Horticultural Science (ASHS), a professional academic society. This appointment will be followed by a year as ASHS President and a year as Chairman of the ASHS Board of Directors.

Allen Van Deynze, Seed Biotechnology Center, and Venkatesan Sundaresan, Department of Plant Biology and Department of Plant Sciences, are among six campuswide recipients of STAIR Grants for their research on food crops.

Patrick H. Brown, Plant Sciences professor at UC Davis, received $503,426 for his research on “Investigation of improved nitrogen fertilization practices for micro-irrigated almond orchards, specifically addressing the uncertainties around the ‘right place’.”

Three people in Plant Sciences received Breakthrough Technology Awards for Plant Breeding research and programs. The competitive grants advance development of publicly available cultivars bred to improve the production efficiency, yield, sustainability, resilience, healthfulness, product quality, and value of U.S. agricultural plants while increasing farmer profitability and exports.

Allen Van Deynze, Seed Biotechnology Center and Plant Breeding Center, received the Academic Federation’s 'Excellence in Research Award'. He conducts groundbreaking research globally, and has received more than $12 million in research funding.

Plant Sciences faculty Loren Oki received funding from the Horticultural Research Institute for the project “Landscape Plant Performance: Water Use Assessments of New Cultivar Selections” to help with a state ordinance on landscape water conservation.

UC Davis Plant Sciences Professor Mohsen Mesgaran received research funding for 2019 from the Horticultural Research Institute for the project “Using Hyperspectral Technology to Assess Seed Quality of Horticultural Crops.”

Eight graduate students in Plant Sciences, UC Davis, gave five-minute Flash Talks on their research. It takes a lot of planning to condense a graduate degree to five minutes. And three students won the competition.