“Mark has exceptional accomplishments in the private sector, academia and administration that demonstrate his ability to partner and collaborate in order to achieve what, at first, might seem impossible,” said Wendy Powers, associate vice president. “I'm excited about the expertise, experience, insight and perspective he will bring to UC ANR as we drive towards our 2025 Strategic Vision and having a positive impact for every Californian.”
Lagrimini is currently a professor in the Department of Agronomy & Horticulture at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, where he studies the regulation of carbohydrate partitioning in maize and its impact on drought tolerance.
“I am excited about joining the UC Agriculture and Natural Resources leadership team,” Lagrimini said. “Agriculture is an economic engine for the state of California. I will support a culture of innovation, entrepreneurship and teamwork within the division to turn the numerous challenges we face in agriculture into opportunities.”
From 2005 to 2011, he served as head of the Department of Agronomy & Horticulture, leading the university's largest department of more than 80 faculty members.
From 1999 to 2005, he was a project leader for Syngenta Biotechnology Inc. located in Research Triangle Park, NC, where he led an ambitious agronomic improvement project using structural and functional genomics, coordinated ectopic gene expression, metabolic pathway engineering, elite maize transformation, and physiological assessment of plant performance with proof‐of‐concept achieved. While at Syngenta, Lagrimini received four U.S. patents. He began his academic career as an assistant/associate professor in the Department of Horticulture & Crop Science at The Ohio State University from 1987 to 1999.
He holds a Ph.D. in biochemistry from the University of Iowa and a B.S. in biochemistry from University of Illinois at Urbana‐Champaign.
As Vice Provost of Research and Extension, Lagrimini will report directly to the Associate Vice President and collaborate closely with the Vice Provost of Strategic Initiatives and Statewide Programs and Vice Provost of Academic Personnel and Development. He will lead the County Director/REC Director Council, oversee all UCCE county directors, REC directors and both assistant vice provost positions and serve on Program Council.
Lagrimini will join ANR on June 1, 2018, and be based at the Second Street building in Davis.
- Author: Jennifer Caron-Sale
Would you like to be a mentor for a UC Berkeley graduate student interested in gaining experience in Cooperative Extension?
The Graduate Students in Extension (GSE) Pilot at UC Berkeley has been extended for one year. The Request for Applications for 2018-2019 fellows at UC Berkeley is open, and student applications are due on March 30, 2018.
One of the goals of the GSE pilot is to facilitate greater interaction between graduate students and Cooperative Extension employees. As such, applicants must identify Cooperative Extension mentors who will assist in advising their project and introduce them to Extension work. Prospective students have been encouraged to identify possible mentors through the ANR Directory, so students might reach out to ANR academics directly in the coming month to inquire about their interest in being a mentor.
Students have an option of completing a fellowship during the summer (Summer 2018), an academic semester (Fall 2018 or Spring 2019), an academic year (Fall 2018–Spring 2019), or a calendar year (June 2018–June 2019). Mentorship teams are required to cover 25 percent of the costs for the fellow. More information about this pilot and requirements for students and mentors can be found at http://ucanr.edu/sites/GGCE/.
Academics who are interested in being a mentor, whether you have a project in mind or are open to working to develop a new project with a fellow, please contact Jennifer Caron-Sale in ANR's Program Planning and Evaluation Office at jennifer.caron-sale@ucop.edu or (510) 987-0214 to be connected with prospective applicants.
- Author: Liz Sizensky
March 5 - 9, 2018, is California's inaugural Food Waste Prevention Week. During this week, UC ANR and a range of partners statewide, including the Governor, the Secretary of Agriculture, the State Superintendent of Public Instruction, as well as many other agency leaders in public health, natural resources management, nutrition, and other sectors, are coming together in an unprecedented collaboration to raise awareness about the impacts of food waste in our homes, workplaces and communities.
Food waste is a significant issue. The United States is losing up to 40 percent of its food from farm to fork to landfill. That translates to $218 billion lost, including costs of food to consumers and retailers, as well as costs of wasted water, energy, fertilizer, cropland, production, storage and transportation. CalRecycle estimates that Californians throw away almost 12 billion pounds of food each year – 18 percent of all landfill use in this state. The food in landfills decomposes and releases methane, a powerful greenhouse gas linked to climate change.
Reducing food waste requires action by partners throughout the food system. During Food Waste Prevention Week, stay tuned to the UC ANR Twitter and Facebook accounts for food waste prevention resources, tips and ideas. Even incorporating a few simple food waste prevention actions has great potential to reduce food waste in California. Your efforts to be a Food Waste Reduction Hero this week, and into the future, will make an impact.
The Staff Assembly Council currently consists of a chair, a vice chair/treasurer, a scribe, a program chair, a senior Council of University of California Staff Assemblies (CUCSA) delegate and a junior CUCSA delegate.
ANR staff members are being sought to serve in the posts of junior CUCSA delegate, vice chair, program chair (s) and scribe. Candidates can be self-nominated or nominated by someone else.
Matt Baur is currently chairing the nominating committee, which conducts the elections and will communicate the results of the elections at the Staff Assembly Networking function at the ANR Statewide meeting in Ontario in April. In addition to Baur, the nominating committee includes two UC ANR Staff Assembly members at large.
Nominations for positions on the Staff Assembly Council will take place from March 1 through March 9. Voting will be by survey and will take place March 19 through March 30.
The duties of the positions can be found on the Staff Assembly website http://staffassembly.ucanr.edu under the “Bylaws” tab. In short, the vice chair/treasurer drafts annual budgets, the scribe takes meeting minutes, program chair develops programs and meetings, and the Junior CUCSA representative attends quarterly CUCSA meetings and participates in CUCSA workgroups. All members of the council assist with committee responsibilities and committee assignments as needed. The council meets monthly by zoom and has in-person meetings once or twice a year.
If you have additional questions, please contact your local staff assembly ambassador.
- Author: Pamela Kan-Rice
Melnicoe was the first director of the Western Integrated Pest Management Center, launching the project at UC Davis in the early 2000s when the regional IPM centers were just getting off the ground. He had served as western regional coordinator for the Pesticide Impact Assessment Program and assistant to the UC IPM director since 1991. He also oversaw the Office of Pesticide Information and Coordination.
In 2011, UC Davis awarded Melnicoe a Citation of Excellence for supervision. The nomination noted that as a model of a can-do attitude and approach, Melnicoe encouraged others to aim high and stretch.
“When he retired in 2012, the Western IPM Center was an important and valued partner in integrated pest management in the West and across the country, and much of that was due to Rick,” Steve Elliott, communication coordinator for the center, wrote in the Western IPM Center newsletter.
“You could count on him to try to move past difficult things and to get people to try to move forward together," said Jim VanKirk, former director of the Southern IPM Center. "If there were 300 million people like Rick in this country, we would be a lot better off.”
A celebration of Melnicoe's life will be held in June, according to his obituary in the Sacramento Bee.
Read more about Melnicoe in Elliott's blog post at http://ipmwest.blogspot.com/2018/02/remembering-former-center-director-rick.html
