The International Society of Root Research recently presented its Lifetime Achievement Award to Wendy Kuhn Silk, professor emerita, Department of Land, Air and Water Resources.

An active faculty member for 37 years, she researched and taught on plant-environment interactions. In retirement she is continuing some scientific collaborations and composing and producing music for a songbook for the environmental science curriculum.  

The society presented the award during its triennial meeting, held virtually. Silk gave the keynote: “Moving With the Flow: Root Growth and Our Changing Environment.”  

— Dateline Staff, UC Davis Strategic Communications

Patsy Eubanks Owens, professor of landscape architecture, Department of Human Ecology, and associate dean for human and social sciences, College of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences, has been named to the Academy of Fellows of the Council of Educators in Landscape Architecture.

The council bestows no higher honor on its members. Owens and one other member advanced this year to the academy, which recognizes members for teaching, scholarship and/or creative activity, and service.

Owens’ research focuses on the relationships between people and the outdoor environment. Specifically, her work examines the role of the physical environment in the development, health and well-being of youth and methods of community involvement in design decision-making. She frequently leads her students in community-based projects that apply current research thinking. 

— John Stumbos, senior writer, College of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences