Awards and rankings

Research spearheaded by Loren Oki, Department of Plant Sciences, UC Davis, evaluates landscape plants to determine the best low water-use plants for California. Creating water budgets is required by California’s Model Water Efficient Landscape Ordinance. A new grant from CDFA/USDA expands this project to other western states to minimize water use.

Astrid Wingler will join Plant Sciences at UC Davis as a Fulbright Scholar from University College Cork, Ireland, January–July, 2021. Her research will include carbon capture and soil carbon sequestration. She will work with Plant Sciences professors Valerie Eviner, Diane Beckles, and Amelie Gaudin.

Professor Jorge Dubcovsky and postdoc Joshua Hegarty, Plant Sciences, received a STAIR Grant to advance innovative solutions with commercial potential. They are working on breeding Triticale, a wheat and rye hybrid, which is being improved and tested for its baking quality.

Three faculty in the Department of Plant Sciences — Bruce Linquist, Jeff Mitchell, and Ken Tate — are among the 16 UC Davis recipients of Academic Federation and Academic Senate awards for 2020. Bruce Linquist: Excellence in Research. Jeff Mitchell: Excellence in Undergraduate Teaching. Ken Tate: Distinguished Service.

A new Plant Physiology paper, authored by UC Davis plant scientists Ella Katz, Dan Kliebenstein, and undergrads Alycia Rasmussen and Aleshia Hooper, was featured as ‘Plant Physiology Article of the Week’ in The Signal, a weekly publication of the American Society of Plant Biologists.

Jennifer Schmidt, a Ph.D. candidate in Plant Sciences, is the 2020 recipient of the John E. Kinsella Memorial Prize for outstanding research on a doctoral dissertation. Her research focuses on the microbiome of the soil around plant roots — the rhizosphere — and its functional implications for sustainable agriculture.

Grace Woodmansee, M.S. student in Plant Sciences, UC Davis, received the Young Professionals Conclave Outstanding Early Career Award at the national Society for Range Management annual meeting. She is recognized for her leadership and mentoring of students.

Ranked as a top producer of Fulbright Scholars, UC Davis has a long history of plant scientists receiving the scholarships. Steve Fennimore, a Cooperative Extension specialist, is one of this year’s recipients, and recent recipients include Cameron Pittelkow and Kassim Al-Khatib. Fennimore and Pittelkow both worked in Uruguay, and Al-Khatib worked in Turkey.

Distinguished Professor David Neale, Plant Sciences, will be honored with a symposium at the first biennial meeting of the new North American Forest Genetics Society. His research on the genomics of forest trees will be recognized.