UC Davis has been a leading source of information for people handling, packaging and transporting crops since the beginnings of the Postharvest Research and Extension Center in 1979. Now, the center is strengthening its focus on the needs of industry, offering fresh courses, weaving strategic partnerships and expanding into digital media, all while building up its research capacity to better serve the needs of the produce industry.
Gurdev Singh Khush, UC Davis alumnus and emeritus faculty member has been awarded a $250,000 prize for his role in inventing disease-resistant rice strains that are now the dominant varieties planted across southern and southeast Asia.
This spring, Feed the Future Innovation Labs for Horticulture and for Markets, Risk and Resilience had the pleasure of co-hosting U.S. State Department Special Envoy for Global Food Security, Cary Fowler, for a two-day visit at the University of California, Davis.
Amanda Crump and Marina Vergara, of the UC Davis Department of Plant Sciences, have won a federal grant to use the cacao value chain as a point of both learning and international engagement for students here and at La Salle University in Bogotá, Colombia.
Forty scientists from 22 African nations started in-person classes with the African Plant Breeding Academy this spring in Nairobi. The six-week program is hosted by the UC Davis Seed Biotechnology Center. Rita Mumm, director and primary instructor for the academy, is leading the program.
A short documentary about agricultural innovations supported by University of California, Davis, researchers in Cambodia has picked up three awards at the 42nd Annual Telly Awards. It was a collaborative production between the Horticulture Innovation Lab, the Office of Strategic Communications and Max Video Productions in 2019.
Paul Gepts, distinguished professor in the Department of Plant Sciences, received the International Crop Science Award from the Crop Science Society of America. The award recognizes positive changes realized for crops at the international level with an emphasis on creativity and innovation.
Gepts, a renowned plant geneticist, has led many international projects and collaborations that focus on the domestication of the common bean, Phaseolus vulgaris. In fact, more than 40 percent of his published research has involved an international co-authorship.
Can an ancient corn from Mexico help feed people in developing regions around the world? Allen Van Deynze and other researchers at UC Davis and Northern California, and in Mexico, have been working hard to answer that question.
Cameron Pittelkow is a new professor in the Department of Plant Sciences, UC Davis. His expertise covers Agronomy and Agroecosystems, with a focus on sustainable crop production, management practices for high yields with low environmental footprints, and international agriculture.
