- Author: Kathy Keatley Garvey
Bacon, who served UC for 41 years and chaired the UC Davis Department of Entomology from 1967 to 1974, specialized in the biology, ecology and population dynamics of insects associated with field crops. In 1946, Bacon took his first job with UC in entomology as an associate in the Agriculture Experiment Station at UC Berkeley.
In 1953, he moved to UC Davis to develop his own entomology programs. He taught the first UC Davis biological control course and was instrumental in forming the Plant Protection and Pest Management Graduate Group. He is credited with co-authoring the term, “integrated pest control.”
Robbin Thorp, UC Davis professor emeritus, collaborated with Bacon on research of alfalfa leafcutter bees in the mid-1960s.
“Oscar and his crew also tested pesticide effects on these bees and discovered a number of biological traits important to their management as commercial pollinators," Thorp said. "Oscar co-authored the first Cooperative Extension publication on the alfalfa leafcutting bees with several of us.”
He earned his bachelor's degree at Fresno State College in zoology, then went on to earn his master's degree in entomology in 1944 and his doctorate in entomology in 1948, both from UC Berkeley.
For more about Bacon's career, read the full story by Kathy Keatley Garvey at http://ucanr.edu/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=22675.
- Author: Pamela Kan-Rice
While working at the University of Western Australia, Nansen, who joined UC in January, developed a smartphone app that can be used to optimize pesticide spray applications. He would like to partner with UC Cooperative Extension specialists and advisors to adapt SnapCard for use by California growers.
“It was developed on the basis of spray nozzles and spray volumes relevant to Australia,” Nansen said. “I would very much appreciate contact with farmers, commodity groups, crop advisers and companies involved in pesticide spraying with an interest in optimizing spray coverage as part of ensuring high performance pesticide applications.”
He is currently finalizing the publication of a research paper describing the regression model behind SnapCard. The free app is available for Android and iOS platforms and can be downloaded from his website http://chrnansen.wix.com/nansen2.
Nansen can be reached at (530) 752-0492 and chrnansen@ucdavis.edu. To read more about Nansen, see the Davis Enterprise article.
