Michael G. Barbour, noted ecologist and professor emeritus in the Department of Plant Sciences at the University of California, Davis, passed away on Jan. 7 due to complications from a longstanding illness. He was 78.
Jim Lyons, professor emeritus of Vegetable Crops (Plant Sciences) at UC Davis, passed away at age 90. His many accomplishments include serving as CA&ES associate dean, founding the UC ANR statewide IPM program, and serving as assistant director of the Agricultural Experiment Station.
UC Davis Plant Sciences professor emeritus John Labavitch, who taught countless students about plant development, fruit ripening, and cell walls, and who was well-known and respected for his research, passed away on September 24, 2019.
Philip Day, Steven Theg, and the late Kentaro Inoue, all UC Davis, determined how β-barrel proteins are sorted in plant chloroplast envelopes. Chloroplasts, which are responsible for photosynthesis in plants, evolved about a billion years ago from an ancient endosymbiotic relationship between a cyanobacteria species and a eukaryotic cell.
Margery Magill (B.S., International Agricultural Development, UC Davis) died at age 27 on August 27, 2019. She worked as a program coordinator for the UC Davis Washington Center, where she helped place graduate students in internships at home and abroad. She died in Washington, D.C.
Dr. John E. Boynton, a UC Davis alumnus, retired Duke University professor, and renowned expert on photosynthesis, has bequeathed a generous gift from his estate to establish a Ph.D. graduate student fellowship at UC Davis in honor of his mentor, UC Davis tomato geneticist Charles M. Rick, Jr.
Charles E. “Charley” Hess, a UC Davis Medal recipient, dean emeritus of the College of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences, and Plant Sciences professor emeritus, died April 13 at the age of 87.