Pam Ronald, a distinguished professor in the Department of Plant Pathology, has a vivid memory from the day she arrived in Sweden in 1984 to begin a year as a Fulbright Scholar at Uppsala University.

“I was a young student who had just landed at the Stockholm airport, wondering how I was going to recognize my host, Professor Nils Fries,” Ronald said. “My anxiety vanished when I saw a kind-looking man waving a stick with a Boletus edulis stuck on the end of it.”

Postdoctoral scholar María Florencia Ercoli, a researcher in the laboratory of plant pathology professor Pamela Ronald, has been named to the 2019 class of Pew Latin American Fellows in Biomedical Sciences. Her research focuses on the strategies infectious bacteria use to invade plant hosts.

The National Academy of Sciences announced today (April 30) the election of 125 members, including UC Davis’ Pam Ronald, distinguished professor in the Department of Plant Pathology and Genome Center.

Of the 100 new national members, 40 are women — a record number and percentage in an academy election. This year’s class also includes 25 foreign associates. They join an academy that includes 190 Nobel Prize winners.