- (Focus Area) Agriculture
- Author: Kathy Keatley Garvey
During his 37-year UC Davis career, Leigh was based at the Kern County Shafter Research and Extension Center, also known as the U.S. Cotton Research Station. At Shafter, Leigh focused his research on the biology, ecology, host plant resistance, control and management of insects and spider mites on cotton.
He stood at the forefront of Integrated Pest Management (IPM) of cotton pests, according to an article in the summer 1994 edition of American Entomologist. He taught courses on cotton IPM and host plant resistance. He researched pest and beneficial arthropod management in cotton fields, and host plant resistance in cotton to insects, mites, nematodes and diseases.
Leigh joined the UC Davis Department of Entomology in 1958, retiring in 1991 as an emeritus professor. However, like many emeriti, he continued to remain active in his research and collaboration until his death on Oct. 26, 1993.
His work as an agricultural inspector with the Riverside County Agricultural Commissioner's Office from 1944-1945 sparked his interest in entomology. He received his bachelor of science degree in entomology from UC Berkeley in 1949, and his doctorate in entomology there in 1956. His thesis was on the influence of light, temperature and humidity on flight activity of the butterfly, Colias and involved both field and laboratory investigations.
Leigh served as an assistant professor at the University of Arkansas from 1954 to 1958, where he worked on the biology, ecology and control of pink bollworm and boll weevil, using chemicals and cultural means. He joined the UC Davis Department of Entomology, advancing from assistant entomologist to associate entomologist in 1963. In 1968, he was promoted to adjunct lecturer and entomologist.
During his career, he advised many graduate students who went on to become renowned entomologists in cotton IPM around the world,” wrote Charles E. Jackson of Uniroyal Chemical, Clovis, Calif., and J. Hodge Black, UC Cooperative Extension, Bakersfield in the American Entomologist. For his achievements in teaching and research, Leigh received the James H. Meyer Recognition Award for Distinguished Achievement Service Award in 1988.
Leigh served as president of the Pacific Branch of ESA in 1981. He also served on the ESA Governing Board and was a founding member and past president of the American Registry of Professional Entomologists (ARPE). In 1981 he received the ARPE Outstanding Entomologist Award. Leigh was elected as a director to the Board Certified Entomologists' certification board in 1993.
In addition, Leigh was active in the American Association for the Advancement of Science and was the founding president of the San Joaquin Entomology Association. He held membership in several other associations, including the Association of Applied Insect Ecologists, the Ecological Society of America, and the American Archeological Society. The UC Davis entomologist was a past president of the Shafter Rotary Club and also active in the Boy Scouts of America.
During his 37-year career, he authored more than 127 peer-reviewed publications.
“His many colleagues considered his research and teaching to be outstanding,” wrote authors Jackson and Black in the American Entomologist. “Leigh's caring, enthusiasm, intellect, expertise and professionalism were regarded highly by all who knew him.”
In his memory, his family and associates set up the Leigh Distinguished Alumni Seminar Entomology Fund. When his wife, Nina Eremin Leigh (1929-2002) died, the alumni seminar became known as the Thomas and Nina Leigh Distinguished Alumni Seminar.
He will speak on "Our Changing Menu: Using the Power of Food to Confront Climate Change" on Monday, Oct. 14 in the Putah Creek Lodge, 685 Putah Creek Lodge Drive. The event begins at 4 p.m. and will include a social, lecture and dinner. The event is open to department faculty, staff and students. (See news story.) The lecture will be recorded.
Hoffmann was selected the 2020 recipient of the Leigh Seminar Award, but the COVID pandemic intervened and other dates conflicted. This is the first Leigh Seminar since 2020.
A native of Wisconsin, Hoffmann holds a bachelor of science degree (1975) from the University of Wisconsin, and his master's degree from the University of Arizona (1978). He received his doctorate in entomology from UC Davis in 1990, studying with Professor Ted Wilson and later Professor Frank Zalom, an integrated pest management specialist and a past president of the Entomological Society of America. Hoffmann served with the U.S. Marines in Vietnam from 1967 to 1971, attaining the rank of sergeant.
He remembers well his experiences at UC Davis. “I was privileged to work with many dedicated faculty in entomology and several other departments.”
1996: Michael Irwin
1990: Lowell "Skip" Nault
2004: Kenneth Yeargan
2008: Mary Purcell-Miramontes
2010: Murray Isman
2011: Gary Felton
2011: Brian Fisher
2012: Marc Tatar
2013: Kenneth Haynes
2015: Tim Paine
2017: Jennifer Thaler
2018: Robert Page Jr.
- Author: JD Trebec
Before moving to California about a decade ago, I lived in Tucson, Arizona. Although my new home in Woodland is rightfully known as the Food Front, thanks to the fertile farmland that surrounds it, Tucson also has a highly regarded relationship with food. Tucson is one of two cities in the United States recognized by the United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) as a City of Gastronomy in recognition of its Sonoran food culture. The city is a center of regional foods that arose in northern Mexico and the Southwestern US. These run the gamut from Sonoran-style hot dogs to wild foods like cactus fruit to local varieties of squash and beans developed by the indigenous people of the border region.
One Tucson crop that I brought with me to try in the fertile soils of the Sacramento Valley is my favorite bean, the tepary. Tepary beans were domesticated by the Tohono O'odham nation of the Sonoran Desert. Tepary beans are a cultivar of Phaseolus acutifolius, a bean species well adapted to life in the desert. The bean plants have narrow teardrop-shaped leaves that turn their surface parallel to the sun's rays to reduce water loss when the sun is too intense.
Traditionally, tepary beans are planted in areas of stormwater runoff from the late summer monsoons in the Southwestern US. They need wet soils to germinate but then are extremely drought tolerant and can survive the vagaries of desert rain and the dry autumn that follows the monsoon. Too much water actually reduces the number of beans produced as more energy is put into growing foliage. The plants grow quickly and beans may be harvested in as little as two months.
The beans are small, about the size of a lentil, with a nutty taste and firm texture. Different varieties are colored brown, black, or white. They are high in protein and research has identified amino sugars specific to the species that protect the bean from heat and prevent the bean's protein from denaturing. I love the beans in my vegetarian chili, but they make a great bean dip or pot of beans as well.
I had always assumed that tepary beans were only known in the Tucson area so I was surprised when I spotted them as an ingredient in snack foods from India. While trying to discover when they were introduced to India, I found that they were once grown in California as well. A USDA pamphlet states that in 1918, California had 17,000 acres planted in tepary bean, but market forces and public preferences caused the tepary bean to fall from favor in the 1920's.
There has been some recent interest in harnessing the tepary bean's heat and drought tolerance as the world becomes warmer which has led to reduced yields in common beans that don't do as well in the heat. A 2015 NPR story describes how Colombian researchers have managed a cross of tepary and common beans that is already benefiting farmers in Central America and Africa. I'm happy to see a little respect for tepary beans, but don't understand why they aren't more widely grown as they are delicious and already adapted for a warmer future.
USDA information: https://plants.usda.gov/DocumentLibrary/plantguide/pdf/cs-pg_phac.pdf
- Author: Ben A Faber
Get the latest skinny on avocado workshops and other subjects at the latest Topics in Subtropics Newsletter, as well as links to past newsletters.
Topics in Subtropics Summer Issue 2024
This edition includes the following:
- Cherimoya Growers Handbook Available On-Line
- Learning From the Rain
- Optimizing Avocado Irrigation Management Practices Using Soil Moisture Sensing
- Pest Alert: Fig Wax Scale
- Ag Labor Management Resources
- Upcoming meetings
- Avocado Irrigation workshops
- Avocado Sunblotch Viroid (ASBVd)
Past Newsletters:
https://ceventura.ucanr.edu/Com_Ag/Subtropical/?newsletterlist=3197
- Author: Ben A Faber
Unlock the Secrets to Healthy Avocados:
Learn about Avocado Sunblotch Viroid
September 13,2024
9am-12:30pm
The Farm Bureau,Escondido
420 S Broadway,Escondido,CA 92025
Registration link:
https://forms.gle/12LxUUdkPb8DmNdm8
Fatemeh Khodadadi fatemehk@ucr.edu(845) 901-3046
Presentations:
- Fatemeh Khodadadi: Understanding ASBVd: from discovery to diagnostic hurdles
- Elize Jooste:An overview of ASBVd in South Africa:transmission challenges and how to mitigate the spread
- Peggy Mauk:Protecting California's avocado genetic resources through sunblotch viroid detection
- Mehdi Kamali:Rapid and sensitive detection of Avocado Sunblotch Viroid Disease (ASBVd) using our digital methodology
- Author: Kathy Keatley Garvey
UC Davis distinguished professor emerita Lynn Kimsey, director of the Bohart Museum of Entomology for 34 years until her retirement on Feb. 1, 2024, is among the 17 emeriti featured in a newly released video tribute to emeriti, an annual public service project by UC Davis distinguished professor Walter Leal.
The 17 featured represent about 20 percent of UC Davis faculty who retired in 2023-24.
Kimsey is a recognized authority on insect biodiversity, systematics and biogeography of parasitic wasps, urban entomology, civil forensic entomology, and arthropod-related industrial hygiene. A UC Davis entomology alumna, she received her undergraduate degree in 1975 and her doctorate in 1979.
Kimsey joined the entomology faculty in 1989 and became the Bohart Museum director in 1990. Although officially retired, she continues her research and as executive director of the Bohart Museum Society. She writes and publishes the quarterly newsletter.
In the video, Leal notes that Kimsey "is an entomologist interested in the systematics of stinging wasps, insect biotic diversity, and urban entomology...she provided insect diagnostics for the public and corporations, non-profit organizations, and governmental agencies."
"Her research focused primarily on cuckoo wasps, hornets, and tiphiid wasps, describing more than 30 new genera and 300 new species of wasps. Her fieldwork included biotic surveys of the insect fauna of various desert sand dune systems in California and tropical habitats in Central America and Southeast Asia."
Kimsey served as president of the International Society of Hymenopterists from 2002-2004, and as a member of the board of directors of the Natural Science Collections Alliance in 2000 and 2001. The Pacific Branch, Entomological Society of America (PBESA) singled her out for its highest honor, the C. W. Woodworth Award, in 2020. She received the PBESA Systematics, Evolution, and Biodiversity Award in 2014 and was a member of "The Bee Team" that won the PBESA Outstanding Team Award in 2013. The UC Davis Academic Senate honored her with its Distinguished Scholarly Public Service Award in 2016 in recognition of her outstanding work. And in 2023, CA&ES selected her as the recipient of its Exceptional Faculty Award. She was honored with a 21-insect net salute in April.
In addition to the faculty highlights, Leal included brief messages by Chancellor Gary May, Provost Mary Croughan, and Suad Joseph, the UC Davis Emeriti Association (UCDEA) president. UCDEA interviews and records emeriti who have made "significant contributions to the development of the university." See Video Records Project.
"I know our emeriti are feeling the energy at UC Davis as we prepare to greet our incoming class of students," said Chancellor May in the video transcript. "I want to extend a welcome to all our emeriti professors and encourage you to remain involved in our vibrant campus activity just as you've been such an important part of our success."
Those featured on the video tribute, in order of appearance:
- Stuart Meyers, professor emeritus, Department of Anatomy, Physiology, and Cell Biology, School of Veterinary Medicine
- Peter Mundy, emeritus distinguished professor, Department of Education, and the Department of Psychiatry, College of Letters and Science
- Vaidehi Ramanathan, professor emerita, Department of Linguistics, College of Letters and Science
- Scott Simon, distinguished professor emeritus, Department of Biomedical Engineering, College of Engineering
- Bruce German, distinguished professor emeritus, Department of Food Science and Technology, College of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences
- Lynn Kimsey, distinguished professor emerita, Department of Entomology and Nematology, College of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences
- Leonard Abbeduto, professor emeritus, Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, School of Medicine
- Lynette Hart, professor emerita, Department of Population Health and Reproduction, School of Veterinary Medicine
- Frank Sharp, distinguished professor emeritus, Department of Neurology, School of Medicine
- Stephen Wheeler, professor emeritus, Urban Design and Sustainability, Department of Human Ecology, College of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences
- Esther Kim, professor emerita, Eye Center, School of Medicine
- Julia Menard-Warwick, professor emerita, Department of Linguistics, College of Letters and Science
- Mohamed Hafez, professor emeritus, Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering, College of Engineering
- Geoffrey Schladow, professor emeritus, Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, College of Engineering
- Gail Taylor, distinguished professor emerita, Department of Plant Sciences, College of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences
- Paul FitzGerald, distinguished professor emeritus, Department of Cell Biology and Human Anatomy and Department of Ophthalmology and Vision Science, School of Medicine
- Alan Balch, distinguished professor emeritus, Department of Chemistry, College of Letters and Science
Additionally, Leal spotlighted (1) an emeriti “caught on camera” (Geerat J. Vermeij) heading to work two years after his retirement ("to stress how many members of the Emeriti remain engaged in UC Davis affairs"), and (2) UC Davis faculty member (Alan Balch) who broke the record on the number of years of service to the University of California (56 years, which included 52 at UC Davis).
Leal creates an annual tribute to UC Davis emeriti as a public service to celebrate their accomplishments as they enter a new chapter in their lives. It is a zero-budget, one-person production.
Leal launched his first "Tribute to Our New Emeriti," featuring 24 professors from eight colleges and schools who transitioned to emeriti in 2021-2022. (See news story.) The 2022-23 tribute is here. (See news story)
Leal, a member of the Department of Molecular and Cellular Biology faculty since 2013, is a former professor and chair of the Department of Entomology. He is the first UC Davis faculty member to win all three of the Academic Senate's most coveted awards: in research, teaching, and public service. Leal received the 2020 Distinguished Teaching Award for Undergraduate Teaching; the 2022 Distinguished Scholarly Public Service Award; and the 2024 Distinguished Faculty Research Award.