During his 20-year tenure as founding director of the UC Davis Genome Center, Richard Michelmore, recruited more than 20 faculty members, led the center to prominence as a hub of technology-driven biology and made national headlines by implementing an innovative, community-scale, saliva-based COVID test. Quite the legacy for someone who never wanted the job in the first place.
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.
Louise Ferguson and fellow editors have published a new book in CABI’s speciality crop series about fig cultivation, management, harvesting and marketing. The Fig: Botany, Production and Uses also includes a fascinating review of the historical, cultural, nutritional and economic significance of this storied fruit, ranging from references in holy scriptures to the global market structure for exports and imports.
Plant pathologist Paul G. Smith, the founder of pepper genetics and a former professor at the University of California, Davis, was recognized posthumously for a lifetime of contributions that continue to shape plant sciences today.
Smith died on Jan. 23, 2006. He was a professor in the former Department of Vegetable Crops, one of four departments that merged to become the current Department of Plant Sciences. His contributions were recognized at the 25th International Pepper Conference in Tucson, Ariz., in December 2022.
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.
The Seed Biotechnology Center at UC Davis is celebrating its 20th anniversary on September 12, 2019, and the center just released its Annual Report 2018. Information on attending the event, and links to the Annual Report are in the article.
