Plant Sciences Wednesday Seminars

Upcoming Seminars

Hear from cutting-edge scientists at UC Davis and around the world who are breaking new ground in plant science! We present a short program in which you can ask questions, and at the end, you can interact directly with the presenter.

Where: PES 3001

When: Unless otherwise noted, most seminars are from 12:10 to 1 p.m. on Wednesdays. They are delivered in person and via live stream.

Attend via Zoom: To get the Zoom link, contact Trina Kleist at tkleist@ucdavis.edu or call (530) 601-6846.

Student Enrollment and Attendance: Students may enroll in PLS290-001 to receive credit for attending seminars. Please visit the course site on Canvas.

Archived Seminar Recordings

Some Recorded Seminars are Archived: Check here to see if a recording is available. * PLEASE NOTE that many of our recordings are available only to UC Davis faculty. (* = Video available to Plant Sciences faculty only)

Viewing Recorded Seminars: To view the publicly available videos below, please use Mozilla Firefox or Internet Explorer. The videos will not display in Chrome or Safari due to the default security settings implemented by those browsers.

Seminar Archives

2024 Fall

  • December 4 | Isabel Ortega-Salazar (UC Davis) | "Impact of pectin depolymerization on tomato fruit quality." - Video
  • November 20 | Mark Lundy and Maya Shydlowski (UC Davis) | "Improving nitrogen use efficiency in cereal crops through a remotely-sensed nitrogen nutrition index." - Video*
  • November 13 | Mukesh Mehata (UC Davis) | "Evaluating Saline Irrigation Management Strategies under Drip Irrigated Pistachio." - Video
  • November 6 | Tom Buckley and Colleen Mills (UC Davis) | "The stomatal response to temperature: testing a hypothetical hydraulic mechanism." - Video*
  • October 23 | Phoebe Gordon, Becky Wheeler-Dykes, Katherine Jarvis-Shean (UC ANR) | "Challenges and opportunities in California agriculture: The life and times of modern farm advisors." - Video
  • October 16 | Allen van Deynze (UC Davis) | "Breeding for climate change" - Video
  • October 9 | Maciej Zwieniecki (UC Davis) | "Exploring tree-environment interactions: Insights from non-structural carbohydrates" - Video
  • October 2 | Paul Kasemsap (UC Davis) | "Mission N-Possible: An Avenue of Hope for Nitrogen, Food, and Becoming a Scientist in a Climate-Changing World"  - Video
  • September 25 | Travis Parker (UC Davis) | "Maximizing crop quality and productivity through genetics and breeding." - Video

2024 Spring

  • June 5 | Mohsen Mesgaran (UC Davis) | "Weeds, AI, Sex and Timebombs." - Video*
  • May 29 | Paige Kouba (UC Davis) | "Once and Future Trees: Historical reconstructions and climate-change experiments for California forests." - Video*
  • May 22 | Alessandro Ossola (UC Davis) | "Advancing a research agenda for urban plant science in the Anthropocene" - Video*
  • May 15 | Alireza Pourreza (UC Davis & UC Cooperative Extension) | "Real-World Value of Remote Sensing for Crop Monitoring" - Video*
  • May 8 | Patrick J. Brown (UC Davis) | "Breeding California tree nuts" - Video *
  • May 1 | Amelie Gaudin (UC Davis) | "Diversified cropping systems: potential for sustainability and resilience" - Video *
  • Apr. 24 | Christine Diepenbrock (UC Davis) | "Understanding and improving nutritional quality and abiotic stress tolerance in staple and specialty crops" - Video*
  • Apr. 17 | Bruce Linquist (UC Davis) | "Can we have high rice yields in California with a low negative environmental footprint?" - Video*
  • Apr. 10 | Brianna Fochs (UC Davis) | "Changes to the leaf surface environment in response to human pathogen Salmonella enterica serovar Typhimurium 14028s." - Video*

2024 Winter

  • Mar. 13 | Dr. Katie Dehesh (UC Riverside) | "How chloroplasts function as a central sensing and regulatory hub for orchestrating adaptive responses" - Video*
  • Mar. 6 | Dr. Patricia Lang (UC Berkeley) "Phenotype and genotype changes in historical herbarium specimens" - Video *
  • Feb. 28 | Dr. Tomo Kawashima (University of Kentucky) | "Exploring dynamics in plant fertilization and seed development"
  • Feb. 21 | Dr. Ashley DuVal (Mars Inc.) | "Breeding cacao in Davis"
  • Feb. 14 | Dr. Jenna Hershberger (Clemson University) | "Sowing seeds for a quality-focused vegetable breeding and genetics program" - Video *
  • Feb. 7 | Dr. Robert Griffin-Nolan (Chico State University) | "Grassland sensitivity to drought and the role of plant functional traits" - Video
  • Jan. 31 | Dr. Amy Wolf (University of Texas) | "From rhizobia to ants: Integrating species interactions into plant ecosystem ecology"
  • Jan. 17 | Dr. Katrien Devos (University of Georgia) | Grass genetics
  • Jan. 10 | Dr. Vijay Kumar Tiwari (University of Maryland College Park) | "Advancing wheat genomics from lab to field"

2023 Fall

  • Sept. 8 | Leslie Roche (UC Davis) | "Sustaining working rangelands: Linking research and management to support rangeland resilience" - Video*
  • Sept. 27 | Kassim Al-Khatib (UC Davis) | "Herbicide-resistant weeds: A threat to the sustainability of California rice cropping" - Video*
  • Oct. 4 | Georgia Drakakaki and Shuxiao (Susan) Zhang (UC Davis) | "Cell wall development across species during plant growth and stress response" - Video*
  • Oct. 25 | Arnon Dag (The Volcani Center, Israel) | "Irrigation of olive with reclaimed wastewater: Implications for nutrient management, soil chemistry, soil quality and tree performance" - Video*
  • Nov. 15 | Andrew Latimer and Nina Venuti (UC Davis) | "Every cone counts: Investigating the role of seeds in post-fire conifer regeneration" - Video*
  • Nov. 29 | Abhaya Dandekar and Ramona Abbattista (UC Davis) | “Decoding productivity and quality traits in orchard and vineyard crops”
  • Dec. 6 | Trevor Suslow (UC Davis & UC Cooperative Extension) | "Produce safety and a career that’s way too much fun"

2023 Summer

  • Aug. 11 | Dr. Giulia Marino (UC Davis) | "Adapting orchard management to global changes through horticultural research" - Video *

2023 Spring Series

  • April 5 | Prof. Dr. Monika Egerer (Technical University of Munich Germany) | "Urban Oases: the ecological and social value of urban green spaces"
  • April 12 | Chris Wong (UC Davis) | "Plant Optics: Bridging remote sensing and plant sciences for phenotyping applications"
  • May 10 | Renaud Rincent (French National Institute for Agriculture, Food, and Environment (INRAE)) | Phenomic selection as a low-cost and high-throughput alternative to genomic selection
  • May 24 | Dr. Olivier Rodrigues (Purpan Engineering School, France) | Stomatal movement in response to stress: A story of channels.
  • May 31 | Tom Buckley (UC Davis) | "Understanding how ecophysiological traits drive responses to environmental stress and change" - Video *
  • June 7 | Louise Ferguson (UC Davis) | "Thirty Years of Pistachio Salinity Research and Other Applied Solutions in California Tree Crops"

2023 Winter Seminar Series

  • January 11 | Dr. Laura M. Bogar (UC Davis) | Symbiosis under stress: Exploring cooperation between tree roots and soil fungi in a changing world - Video
  • January 18 | Dr. Maryam Saffariha (UC Davis) | Application of artificial neural network on plant distribution - Video
  • January 25 | Dr. Sharon Tusiime and Dr. Isaac Dramadri  Onziga (Makerere University Regional Centre for Crop Improvement -Uganda Functional Seed Systems for Effective Delivery of Improved Crop Varieties in Uganda) | Application of Molecular Breeding Techniques in African Context: A Case of Cowpea and Sorghum - Video*
  • February 1 | Dr. David Greene (CalPoly Humboldt) | The interaction of the timing of seed production and of fire as a lottery determining subsequent canopy composition - Video
  • February 8 | Dr. Santos Barrera Lemus (World Coffee Research - Colombia) | Using tepary beans as a genetic source to improve the common beans' ability to resist abiotic and biotic constraints - Video
  • February 15 | Dr. Rachel Bezner Kerr (Cornell University) Agroecological approaches as a transformative approach to climate change - Video
  • February 22 | TBD
  • March 1 | Dr. Nathan Pumplin (Norfolk Healthy Produce) | Developing and commercializing the ground-breaking bioengineered Purple Tomato - Video
  • March 8 | Dr. Justin C. Luong (UC Davis) | Lessons learned from an interdisciplinary evaluation of 37 restored coastal grasslands in California - Video

2022 Fall Seminar Series

  • September 21 | Alessandro Ossola (UC Davis) | Advancing urban plant science under climate and social change | Video*
  • September 28 | Astrid Volder (UC Davis) | Impact of root order on the rhizobiome | Video*
  • October 5 | Eduardo Blumwald (UC Davis) | Engineering Nitrogen Fixation in Cereals | Video
  • October 12 | Undergraduate Research Flash Talks (UC Davis)
  • October 19 | Luis Cisneros-Zevallos (Texas A&M)
  • October 26 | Cameron Pittelkow and Santiago Tamagno | Integrating priorities for agronomy with environmental efficiency indicators to reduce tradeoffs |  Video*
  • November 2 | Christine Diepenbrock/Sassoum Lo/Jonathan Berlingeri | UC Davis Plant Sciences | Pre-Breeding and Genomics for Tandem Improvement of Productivity and Quality in Nutritional Security Crops | Video*
  • November 9 | Troy Magney/Mukund Rao | UC Davis Plant Sciences | Oak trees do not grow through the growing season | * Video
  • November 16 | Amanda Crump/Isha Poudel | UC Davis Plant Sciences | The impact of compounding disasters on marginalized farmers and food security | Video
  • November 30 | Rachel Spaeth | Genomic Characterization, Relatedness, and Analysis of Luther Burbank’s Plum (Prunus sp) Introductions using Genotyping by Sequencing (GBS) | Video
  • December 14 | Kalyn Diederich, PhD Candidate | Comparative Multifunctionality of Dryland Annual and Perennial Grain Production Systems in a Mediterranean Climate | Video*

2022 Spring Seminar Series

  • March 30 | Xiaoxiao Shi and Ella Katz (UC Davis) | New Paradigms for the Physiology and Genetics of Photosynthesis and Nitrogen Metabolism | Video
  • April 6 | Adrian Dauphinee (SLU Sweden) | Leveraging chemical genetics to unravel plant autophagy signaling mechanisms | Video
  • April 13 | Jan Graefe (Leibniz Institute of Vegetable and Ornamental Crops) | Water flow to randomly distributed and clustered roots - a new analytical approximation method | Video
  • April 20 | Roger Chetelat (UC Davis, High-level Merit) | Genetic mechanisms of reproductive barriers in tomato wide crosses | Video *
  • April 27 | Katie Murphy, Saarah Kuzay, Mwaura Livingstone Nganga, Cody Bekkering, Paul Kasemsap (UC Davis) | Life outside the lab— how immersive opportunities enhance grad school experience
  • May 4 | Troy Magney | UC Davis (Promotion) | Plant Optics: Counting Photons to Inform Plant Productivity, Stress, and Resilience | Video*
  • May 11 | Ruthie Angelovici | University of Missouri | Can Multi-Omics Integration Help Uncover Seed Amino Acid Homoeostasis Regulation? | Video
  • May 18 | Ulli Seibt | UCLA | Carbon-water coupling in tropical photosynthesis through the lens of carbonyl sulfide
  • May 25 | Mark Lundy | UC Davis (Promotion) | From measurement to modeling to management: Improving agronomic efficiency in California small grain crops | Video*
  • June 1 | Arnold Bloom | UC Davis (Promotion) | The future of food production and quality: Doom and Gloom in the Bloom Zoom Room | Video
  • June 8 | Mary Cadenasso | UC Davis (Promotion) | Multi-scale research for understanding cities as co-produced social-ecological systems | Video*
  • June 15 | Dr. Aude Tixier | INRAE - UMR Agroecology, Dijon, France | Ecophysiology of Rhizodeposition in Legumes

2022 Winter Seminar Series

  • January 13 *Thursday* | Menachem Moshelion (Hebrew University of Jerusalem) | Diurnal stomatal apertures and density ratios affect whole-canopy stomatal conductance, water-use efficiency and yield. | Video
  • January 19 | Neil Mattson (Cornell University) | Urban controlled environment agriculture: Optimizing plant quality, environmental, and socioeconomic outcomes.
  • January 26 | Pat Heslop-Harrison (University of Leicester) | Saffron: the most valuable plant in the world – genetics and genomics - past and future.
  • February 2 | Grey Monroe | Mutation bias reflects natural selection in Arabidopsis thaliana Video
  • February 9 | Andrea Basche (U. Nebraska-Lincoln) | Considering the “who” and “how” to achieve sustainable intensification goals.
  • February 16 | Isaac "Ike" Sohn Leslie (University of New Hampshire) | Queering Food Systems for Justice and Sustainability  Video
  • February 23 | Anna Stepanova (North Carolina State University) | Building a SynBio toolbox to monitor and control plant hormone activity.Video
  • March 2 | Colleen Iversen (Oak Ridge Nat. Lab) | Linking below-ground plant traits with ecosystem processes: A multi-biome perspective.
  • March 9 | Julian Hibberd (Cambridge University) | Molecular events associated with the convergent evolution of C4 photosynthesis.

2021 Fall Seminar Series

  • October 6 | Abhaya Dandekar, Renata Assis | Walnut Exposome: A precision analysis of bacterial blight disease
  • October 13 | Mary Cadenasso, Working Group Chairs | Get involved: departmental DEI working groups
  • October 20 | No seminar this week
  • October 27 | Gail Taylor, Caspar Donnison | Having your cake and eating it: can Bioenergy with Carbon Capture and Storage (BECCS) combat climate change without trade-offs for society and the environment?
  • November 3 | No seminar this week; previously scheduled seminar now occurring November 24
  • November 10 | Tom Buckley, Marshall Pierce | The effect of leaf hairs on leaf boundary layer conductance
  • November 17 | Steven Knapp, Mitchell Feldmann | Complex traits and candidate genes: assumption-free estimation of genetic variance components
  • November 24 | Mark Lundy, Taylor Nelsen | Leveraging measurements, modeling and the world wide web to optimize N fertilizer management in California small grains | Video
  • December 1 | Allen Van Deynze, Oon-ha Shin | Nitrogen use efficiency in spinach | Video
  • December 8 | Andrew Latimer, Joan Dudney | Disentangling drought and climate change effects on a plant disease range shift

2021 Spring Seminar Series

  • March 31 | Stephanie Zullo | Developing genetic resources and exploring mechanisms of biotic stress resistance in lima bean
  • April 7 | Dr. Elizabete Carmo-Silva | The balancing act of Rubisco regulation in plants
  • April 14 | William Patzoldt | Deep learning and robotics are enabling the next era of weed management | Video
  • April 21 | Amanda Crump | International Learning, Equity and Social Inclusion in Agriculture | Video
  • April 28 | Dr. Rubén Rellán-Álvarez | Teosinte introgression modulates phosphatidylcholine levels and induces early maize flowering time
  • May 5 | Jen Funk | Trait-based Approaches to Understanding Ecological Processes and Ecosystem Management | Video*
  • May 12 | Barbara Blanco | Improving Crop Quality and Reducing Postharvest Losses through Fruit Biology Research | Video
  • May 19 | Pat Brown | Genomics-assisted tree breeding for a sustainable future | Video
  • May 26 | Brian Bailey | High-Resolution Measurement and Modeling of Plant System Structure and Function from Leaf to Globe | Video
  • June 2 | Bruce Lampinen | Yield constraints in almond and walnut
  • June 9 | Daniel Runcie | The Future of Quantitative Methods for Studying the Genetics and Evolution of Complex Traits in Plants

2021 Winter Promotions Seminar Series

  • January 20 | Sue Ebeler, Mary Cadenasso, Troy Magney | Diversity Equity and Inclusion (DEI) in classroom and community
  • February 3 | Wakana Azuma | Mechanisms of hydraulic homeostasis realized in tall, old trees on an individual-to-molecular scale
  • February 10 | Ana Caicedo | Re-inventing the wheel? Mechanisms of convergence and adaptation in weedy rice
  • February 17 | Mallika Nocco | Informing irrigation and encouraging inclusion with plants
  • February 21 | Alireza Pourreza | Mapping High-Resolution canopy light interception by drone
  • March 3 | Amity Wilzek | A plant's-eye view of climate: life cycle timing and adaptation in response to warming
  • March 10 | Sieg Snapp | Agroecology, smallholder farmers and a warming planet

2020 Fall Promotions Seminar Series

  • August 19 | Diane Beckles | Integrative approaches to studying plant responses to challenging environments: from seed to postharvest
  • August 26 | Georgia Drakakaki | Plant cell dynamics and cell wall development during plant growth and stress response
  • August 28 | Li Tian | Unraveling and leveraging phenolic and carotenoid metabolism for crop improvement
  • September 2 | Maeli Melotto | Cross-kingdom molecular battles in the phyllosphere
  • September 9 | Cameron Pittelkow | Towards systems-level sustainability in agronomy: balancing production and environmental goals
  • September 16 | Allen Van Deynze | Breed local and have a global impact
  • September 23 | Heiner Lieth | Horticultural Crop Production in Partial Shade of Solar Photovoltaic Panels
  • September 30 | Carlos Crisosto | A Flavorful Career, 30 Years From Fruits to Nuts
  • October 7 | Brad Hanson | Weed Management Research and Extension (everywhere I go, I see weeds)
  • October 14 | Mingcheng Luo | Reference sequence assemblies for large and complex wheat and highly heterozygous walnut genomes.
  • October 21 | Steven Knapp | Genome-Informed Strategies for Increasing Genetic Gain and Accelerating Cultivar Development in Strawberry
  • October 28 | Patrick Brown | Nitrogen Management in Perennial Agroecosystems: Biological Principles, Regulatory Guidance and Barriers to Change
  • November 4 | Gail Taylor | Environmental Plant Sciences to address the global challenges of food and energy security in a changing climate
  • November 11 - University Holiday - Veteran's Day
  • November 18 | Kelsey Wood | PhD Exit Seminar: Effector prediction and resistance gene identification in the lettuce-lettuce downy mildew pathosystem
  • November 25 | Mengyuan Xiao | PhD Exit Seminar: Isolation and characterization of Tg1 (tenacious glume1), a primary domestication gene in wheat
  • December 2 | Stefan Petrach | Genetics of strawberry postharvest fruit quality and resistance to necrotrophic fungi
  • December 9 | Dr. Lior Blank, ARO, Israel | Data-driven and multi-scale approach for disease and pest management
  • December 16 | Dominique Pincot | Exit Seminar | The genealogy of the cultivated strawberry and host resistance in strawberry-vascular wilt pathosystems

Winter 2020

  • January 15 | Lucy Kerhoulas, Humboldt State University | "Crown-scale Physiology and Ecology of Tall Sitka Spruce"
  • January 29 | Thomas Tai, USDA-ARS Crops Pathology and Genetics Research Unit & UC Davis Plant Sciences | "Generation and characterization of novel genetic variation in rice"
  • February 5 | David Acker, Iowa State University | "How Can School Gardens Contribute to Student Success? A Case From Rural Uganda"
  • February 12 | Mohsen B. Mesgaran, Department of Plant Sciences | “A deeper look at weeds with deep learning”
  • February 19 | Juan M. Debernardi, Postdoc, Department of Plant Sciences | “ A new technology that greatly improves regeneration efficiency of transgenic plants in multiple species”
  • February 26 | Celine Caseys, Postdoctoral researcher working with Dan Kliebenstein | “Plants vs Botrytis: Quantitative interactions drive the disease outcome across the plant kingdom”
  • March 4 | Mengyuan Xiao, Department of Plant Sciences | "Pepper Breeding for Fruit Size and Sunscald Tolerance in Organic Environments"
  • March 11 | Ella Katz, Postdoc, Department of Plant Sciences | "Genetics, Geography and Environment shape glucosinolate variation in Arabidospisthaliana" | Video

Fall 2019

  • September 11 | Amélie Gaudin | "Cross-scale insights into the development of sustainable and resilient agroecosystems"
  • September 25 | Dr. Astrid Volder, Associate Professor, Dept. of Plant Sciences and Courtney Nichols, Ph.D. student, Horticulture and Agronomy Graduate Group | “Current Research in Root-Soil Dynamics”
  • October 2 | Dr. Arnold J. Bloom - Distinguished Professor, Dept. Plant Sciences and Dr. Xiaoxiao Shi - Postdoc, Dept. Plant Sciences | “Dangerous Ideas about Plant Carbon/Nitrogen Relations”
  • October 16 | Dr. Amanda Crump, Assistant Professor of Teaching, Dept. Plant Sciences and Ana Zepeda, Graduate Student, International Agricultural Development | “Learning About Resilient Communities”
  • October 23 |  Dr. Amélie Gaudin  - Assistant Professor, Dept. Plant Sciences and Jennifer Schmidt - PhD Student, Horticulture and Agronomy |  “Conducting the Rhizosphere Symphony: How Plants Change Their Tune”
  • October 30 | Dr. Steve Knapp, Professor, Dept. of Plant Sciences and Dr. Michael Hardigan, Postdoc, Dept. of Plant Sciences | "Genome-Informed Breeding in Strawberry"
  • November 6 | Dr. Richard Michelmore - Distinguished Professor, Dept. Plant Sciences and Dr. Kyle Fletcher - Postdoc, Dept. Plant Sciences | "The Influenza Paradigm for More Durable Disease Resistance: So Many Genomes…So Many Genes…So Little Time...”
  • November 13 | Dr. Valerie Eviner - Professor, Dept. Plant Sciences and Evan Batzer - PhD Candidate, Ecology | “Unraveling ecological complexity: Improving our ability to understand, predict and manage plant communities and ecosystems”
  • November 20 | Dr. Mary Cadenasso - Professor, Dept. Plant Sciences and Jasmin Green - PhD Student, Ecology | “Turf wars: Implications of drought tolerant landscaping for water conservation and heat in Sacramento”
  • December 4 | Dr. Troy Magney - Assistant Professor, Dept. Plant Sciences and Eliot Meeker - PhD Student, Chemical Engineering | “Shedding a New Light on Global Photosynthesis: From Satellite to the Leaf”

Spring 2019

  • April 10 | Ecophysiologists in PLS | "Future research, collaborations (and cries for help); flash talks by ecophysiologists in Plant Sciences"
  • April 17 | Gislene Ganade | "Across scale restoration strategies for tropical dry lands"
  • April 24 | Tom Buckley-Dongliang Xiong | "Adventures in irreproducibility: stomatal responses to water status in ABA mutants"
  • May 1 | Various | "Plant Sciences grad students flash talks (5 mins) and Graduate Research Presentation Award"
  • May 8 | Michael Rawls | "Effects of dormant drought stress on Almond (Prunus dulcis) bloom; Or, What if it doesn’t rain in the winter?"
  • May 15 | Astrid Volder | "Perennial root systems: how the upside affects the downside"
  • May 22 | Gary Muehlbauer | "Genetics of tillering and leaf patterning in barley"
  • May 29 | Katie Driver | "Bearded Sprangletop Control in California Rice"

Winter 2019

  • March 13 | Dr. Marcia DeLonge, Union of Concerned Scientists | "Turning research into advocacy: Case studies in agroecology"
  • March 6 | Dr. Julie Dawson, University of Wisconsin - Madison | "Seed to Kitchen: evaluating culinary quality in organic variety development"
  • February 20 | Dr. Atena Haghighattalab, University of Minnesota | "Crawling out of my silo: High-throughput phenotyping of large breeding nurseries"
  • February 6 | Steffen Abel, Director, Leibniz Institute of Plant Biochemistry | "Phosphate-metal interactions govern root development"
  • January 23 | Dr. Oliver Dong, Ronald Lab, Dept. of Plant Pathology, UC Davis | "Marker-free carotenoid-enriched rice generated through high-efficiency targeted gene insertion using CRISPR-Cas9"

Fall 2018

  • December 12 | Allen Van Deynze and Theresa Hill | "Mechanical harvesting is essential for the processing industry"
  • December 5 | Maeli Melotto & Cristian Jacob | "Breeding for enhanced crop safety: A case study of lettuce and human pathogens"
  • November 28 | Lucas McKinnon & Philip Day | "Factors involved in the targeting, assembly and processing activity of chloroplast membrane proteins" | * From the laboratory of the late Prof. Kentaro Inoue
  • November 13 | Bruce Linquist & Daniela Carrijo, Plant Sciences | "Irrigation management in rice for multiple environmental outcomes"
  • November 7 | John Yoder and Yaxin Wang, Plant Sciences | "Subterranean signaling between host and parasitic plants: the role of redox reactions"
  • October 31 | Ken Shackel & Vadim Volkov, Plant Sciences | "Nanoporous silicon water potential sensors: Have we found the Holy Grail?"
  • October 24 | Mohsen Mesgaran & Maor Matzrafi, Plant Sciences | "Exploitation of sex for weed management"
  • October 18 | Jorge Dubcovsky, Plant Sciences | "Unraveling hidden variation in polyploid wheat using sequenced mutant populations" | Juan M. Debernardi | "Using mutants and transgenic plants to understand wheat spike development"
  • October 10 | Georgia Drakakaki & Michel Rosquete, Plant Sciences | "Endomembrane dynamics in cell wall build-up and plant stress response"
  • October 3 | Professor Zvi Peleg, Hebrew University of Jerusalem | "Saving roots for rainy days"
  • September 26 | Professor Graham D. Farquhar, Australian National University | "Optimal water use and the intersection of photorespiration and N metabolism"
  • September 19 | Valerie Eviner, UC Davis | "Improving our ability to understand and manage ecosystems by linking population, community, ecosystem and landscape ecology"

Summer 2018

  • September 12 | Leslie Roche, UC Davis | "Sustaining working rangelands"
  • August 29 | Markita del Carpio Landry, UC Berkeley | "High aspect ratio nanomaterials enable the delivery of functional genetic material without DNA integration in mature points"

Spring 2018

  • June 6 | Markus Stetter, Plant Sciences | "Genetic constraints hindered amaranth domestication despite convergent trait evolution"
  • May 30 | Joanna Solins, Plant Sciences | "Riparian vegetation to urban stream conditions"
  • May 23 | Blandine Nacoulma, UC Davis | "Why do elephants attack baobab (Adansonia digitate L.) in protected areas of Burkina Faso? Towards a strategy for species conservation"
  • May 16 | John McKay, Colorado State University | "Commercializing genetic discoveries for maximizing sustainable production of Cannabis and Maize"
  • May 9 | Paula Rodrigues Oblessuc, Plant Sciences | "New insights in the growth-defense tradeoffs in plants"
  • May 2 | Bruce Lampinen, Plant Sciences | "Understanding limitations to yield of almond and walnut"
  • April 25 | Tom Buckley, Plant Sciences | "Using models as research tools in plant ecophysiology"
  • April 18 | Dan Kliebenstein, Plant Sciences | "The illusion of simplicity in nutrition breeding"
  • April 11 | Jorge Dubcovsky, Plant Sciences | "Using sequenced mutant populations for wheat breeding"

Winter 2018

  • March 14 | Tim Brodribb, University of Tasmania, Australia | "Visualizing Drought-induced Hydraulic Failure in Leaves, Stems and Roots, in Real Time"
  • March 7 | Elisabeth Forrestel, UC Davis | "Evolutionary Perspectives on Grassland Structure and Function"
  • February 28 | Emilio Laca, UC Davis | "A Practical Model of Grazing Management to Control Invasive Plants"
  • February 21 | Leonie Bentsink, Department of Plant Sciences, Wageningen University and Research | "How Does Nature Regulate the Seed Life Span?"
  • February 14 | Bob Hutmacher, UC Davis | "Fusarium Resistance Challenges in Cotton, and Drought and Salinity Research at West Side REC"
  • February 7 | Kent Bradford, UC Davis | "Understanding Biological Variation"
  • January 31 | Dave Grantz, UC Riverside | "Effects of Particulate Air Pollutants on Plant Water Relations"
  • January 24 | Charlie Brummer, UC Davis | “Can We Improve Alfalfa Yield? Lessons From Breeding and Genomics”
  • January 10 | Eduardo Blumwald, UC Davis | “Roles of NHX-type Cation/H+ antiporters in cellular ion and pH homeostasis”

Fall 2017

  • Sept 6 | Matthew Gilbert, UC Davis | "How can we adapt crops to water-limited environments"
  • October 25 | Parsa Tehranchian, Postdoc Research Associate, Marie Jasieniuk | "Multiple herbicide resistance in California Italian ryegrass"
  • November 1 | Annabelle Damerum, Ph.D. Student, Gail Taylor lab | "Improving the shelf life and nutritional quality of lettuce"
  • November 8 | Elizabeth Arnold, Ph.D. student, Gail Taylor lab | "Manipulating the leaf microbiome for improved leafy salads"
  • November 15 | Mariano Gallo, Ph.D. student, Al-Khatib/Hanson lab | "Walnut response to simulated rice herbicide drift"
  • November 22 | Libby Rowland. Ph.D. student, Gail Taylor lab | "Improving Quality and Shelf Life of Culinary Herbs via Irrigation Scheduling"
  • November 29 | Jeff Dahlberg, Kearney Agricultural Research & Extension (KARE) Director | "Sorghum in California? Why the Interest?”
  • December 6 | Feras Almasri, Ph.D. student, Al-Khatib Lab | "Towards the search for Methyl Bromide alternatives"