Botanist Daniel Potter is the new chair of the Department of Plant Sciences, overseeing graduate and undergraduate programming, 60 faculty members, several emeriti professors and many greenhouses, labs and teaching facilities.
Five women in the UC Davis Department of Plant Sciences now hold endowed chairs, the first time in the department’s history that so many women have attained this prestigious distinction.
After chairing the Department of Plant Sciences for seven years, Gail Taylor has taken a new appointment as the dean of Life Sciences, University College London. She will start her new role later this year.
Postdoctoral researchers from across the College of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences gathered today on the lawn in front of Mrak Hall to enjoy coffee, get to know each other and support each other in their unique roles at UC Davis.
Students, staff and faculty in the UC Davis Department of Plant Sciences come from a wide range of cultures, from all over the world. To celebrate the strength we find in our diversity, the department for several years has placed an evergreen tree in the lobby of the Plant and Environmental Sciences building amid the year-end holidays, and invites everyone to bring a symbol of their own heritage to hang on the tree.
The UC Davis community continues to mourn the death of Trisha “Tris” Nicole Sabay Yasay, a junior in the Department of Plant Sciences. We send our deep condolences to her family. She is remembered by her friends and colleagues in plant sciences and by the campus community for her vision, energy and enthusiasm for taking what she was learning at UC Davis and using it to better the world.
Staff and faculty in the Department of Plant Sciences took time to socialize over coffee and celebrate several colleagues who have reached milestones in their employment with the University of California.
“It takes a team to be the No. 1 in the world for plant sciences, and here we honor the long service of our colleagues and staff,” said Gail Taylor, professor and department chair. “Last year, they helped us to submit 250 grant proposals, to win $35 million in external research funding and to run a world-beating stable isotope service.”
The University of California, Davis, has appointed Associate Professor Amélie Gaudin as the holder of the new Endowed Professorship in Agroecology. The position was established thanks to donations at UC Davis to support the teaching, research, and service of a professor leading research in agroecology or a related field who serves in the Department of Plant Sciences.
Poplar trees stand to transform the bioenergy market – a promising means to mitigate climate change – for the better. Michael White, an editor for the peer-reviewed science journal Nature, recently met with members of the Taylor Lab from the University of California, Davis for a tour to learn how they are developing drought-tolerant poplar trees positioned to sustainably and cost-effectively meet the challenges of our climate emergency.
The American Society of Plant Biologists, or ASPB, has released interviews with Distinguished Professor Patrick Brown and Associate Professor Troy Magney to discuss their Dennis R. Hoagland and Early Career Awards respectively.
