Van Kessels establish endowment to help grad students

It was the late 1970s, and a young Chris van Kessel was at the University of Wisconsin, Madison, working on his doctoral degree in the field of nitrogen fixation in plants. His co-supervisor Robert H. Burris, a biochemist known for important contributions to the field, offered him a chance to continue his research with additional financial support. 

“When you get a fellowship, it gives you all kinds of benefits,” recalled van Kessel, who decades later became chair of the UC Davis Department of Plant Sciences. “Without that fellowship, I could not have made it to Wisconsin; I could not have paid for it myself. How important it was for that stage in my career that I received that fellowship!”

Van Kessel is now a professor emeritus, retired and living in his hometown of Uden, in The Netherlands. In January, he and wife Betsy gave $500,000 to the College of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences to establish an endowment to support graduate students in the Department of Plant Sciences who are studying crops with a field component. They want their gift to help a new generation of young scientists seeking innovation in food crops, he said. 

“The Chris and Betsy van Kessel Plant Sciences Graduate Student Research Endowment will provide valuable support to graduate students in the Department of Plant Sciences as they work to make new discoveries and find new solutions to agricultural challenges for generations to come,” said Dan Potter, chair of the department and a professor specializing in plant systematics.

Gratitude: Theme for career and for giving

While a student in the mid-1970s, van Kessel visited a college friend attending Davis. 

“I was very impressed by the Davis campus,” he recalled. “I knew the ranking and the importance of the UC campus in agricultural and environmental sciences. I thought, ‘That’s the place I want to be,’ but I never thought I would end up there.”

But in 1997, he did end up here, in the then-Department of Agronomy and Range Science, becoming the chair in 2001. In 2004, when the department began merging with three others, van Kessel became the inaugural chair of the Department of Plant Sciences. He retired in 2016.

The theme of gratitude weaves throughout van Kessel’s recollections of his career: Gratitude for that initial fellowship that pushed his studies to the next level. Gratitude that he was offered a faculty spot at UC Davis. Gratitude that fellow faculty had confidence in him as their chair. Gratitude that the faculty of the consolidated department and the college dean had confidence in him to lead what van Kessel called “an elephant-sized department among other departments in the college.” 

The van Kessels don’t have children of their own, so when they pondered in their retirement how to care for the generations coming after them, they thought of the budding scientists in the department that had given him so much over more than two decades. 

“I want that our gift should be for graduate student fellowships, like I received 45 years ago,” van Kessel said. ““I want the funding to go to grad students, because that’s the future.”

He has a broad vision for the graduate student research the endowment will fund. His own career took him through a range of food crops and cropping systems, including coffee, rice, soybeans, peas, lentils, wheat, barley and canola. Van Kessel is eager to support the next generation of scientists also focused on food crops. His vision for the research is broad, embracing vegetables and tree nuts. “Anything that grows in a field,” he said, noting that his own research ranged from coffee to corn, beans to rice.

“Chris and Betsy’s amazing generosity is an outstanding and inspirational example of giving back, for which the department is deeply grateful,” Potter said.

Give Day Challenge: Every gift counts!

For just a few weeks, the UC Davis Give Day Challenge invites people to make gifts of any amount to the Chris and Betsy van Kessel Plant Sciences Graduate Student Research Endowment.

Click here to donate! This is an opportunity for anyone to be a part of this life-altering gift and industry-changing research. The Give Day program ends Saturday, April 12.

Learn more about UC Davis Give Day here, with a focus on giving opportunities in the College of Agricultural and Environmental Resources.

Cycling to cure cancer in kids

Earlier this year, van Kessel also began a different kind of giving -- but he’s still giving to the future: He is riding his old bicycle to raise money to support research on childhood cancer. His goal is to cycle 10,000 kilometers in 2025 (more than 6,000 miles), and he already has logged nearly 1,500 km.

“I’m making my kilometers,” van Kessel said. “I’m on track."

Related links

Read the story: “Van Kessel cycles for cancer-free kids”