Plant Sciences

Carter and Tian Named Co-Directors of the UC Davis Cannabis and Hemp Research Center

Professor Cameron Carter and Associate Professor Li Tian have been appointed as co-directors of the UC Davis Cannabis and Hemp Research Center by Vice Chancellor for Research Prasant Mohapatra. The center was established in 2019 by campus leadership based on recommendations from a multidisciplinary workgroup, which identified several research needs that UC Davis was uniquely positioned to address.

UC Davis Researchers Are Highly Cited

Sixteen UC Davis researchers have been named in the annual Highly Cited Researchers 2019 list released by the Web of Science Group, which compiles statistics on scientific publishing. The list identifies scientists and social scientists who have published multiple papers ranking in the top 1 percent by citations in a particular field and year, over a 10-year period. 

Citation counts represent how often a particular paper has been cited in other scientific publications. 

UC Davis researchers included in this year’s list are:

Becoming Arizona: Sacramento’s Urban Heat Island Divide

Beyond Beautification, Trees Are a Health and Climate Justice Solution

A tree sits in the middle of a big empty lot in South Sacramento. It is huge and leafy, its arms open wide, an arc of green swooping across a hot summer sky. Fenced off in this abandoned car lot, the tree is a bold sign of life in an otherwise barren expanse of dirt and busted concrete. It’s a wonder that it’s still here.

This old lot looms large for Victoria Vasquez. Her dad used to live a half mile from this spot.

Agricultural Innovations help Cambodian Farmers Thrive

This article originally appeared in The Washington Post.

With help from American researchers, they’re growing nutritious crops that boost their income.

They say a farmer’s work starts before dawn, but in Cambodia’s Battambang province farmers work together late into the night to prepare their vegetable harvest for the overnight bus ride to the capital city’s markets.

The Genetics of Drought Tolerance in Bioenergy Poplar Trees

Bioenergy crops are central to climate mitigation strategies. This includes their use in BECCS (Bioenergy with Carbon Capture and Storage) and biomass supplied for heat, power, liquid fuels and in the future, biorefining to chemicals. It has been predicted that bioenergy will be the fastest developing renewable resource over coming decades, but at the same time, land use for bioenergy production can be controversial if it has negative impacts on land for food, or is detrimental to a wide array of ecosystem services.

UC Davis Partners With DEA-Approved Company to Conduct Cannabis Research

Researchers Will Seek to Better Understand the Science of Cannabis

Researchers at the University of California, Davis, have partnered with a federally compliant pharmaceutical company to analyze the chemical and biological profiles of cannabis for the benefit of law enforcement, health care providers and scientific professionals.  

Lassen Is UC Davis’ Newest Natural Reserve

Landscape of Volcanoes, Forests Offers Unique Research and Outreach Opportunities

With a terrain covering volcanoes, steaming fumaroles and forestlands, the Lassen Field Station became the newest addition to the University of California, Davis’ Natural Reserve System today (May 16), following approval by the UC Board of Regents.

Coast Redwood and Giant Sequoia Mega-Genomes Sequenced

Sequencing Brings Modern Tools to Redwood Conservation Efforts

Scientists have successfully sequenced the coast redwood and giant sequoia genomes, completing the first major milestone of a five-year project to develop the tools necessary to study these forests’ genomic diversity. The research partners, composed of the University of California, Davis, Johns Hopkins University and the Save the Redwoods League, are making the data publicly available today.   

USAID project helps UC Davis continue long tradition of agricultural development in Egypt

UC Davis recently joined a project funded by the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) to bring agricultural expertise and training from four American land-grant universities to agricultural universities in Egypt.

The five-year, $30 million project will establish a Center of Excellence for Agriculture at Cairo University. The goal is to equip faculty and students with the tools to make an impact as research scientists, employees, policymakers and innovators in Egyptian agriculture.