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Celebration Corner
Wang, Bachie, Snell, Rethwisch receive National County Agents Association recognition
The National Association of County Agricultural Agents (NACAA) held its 2024 annual meeting/ professional improvement conference in July in Dallas, Texas. Four California advisors were honored by their peers during the conference.
Zheng Wang, UC Cooperative Extension vegetable advisor inStanislaus County, was the California Achievement Award winner for extension professionals with less than 10 years of service.
Oli Bachie, UCCE agronomy and weed management advisor for Imperial, Riverside and San Diego counties and county director for Imperial County, was recognized as the California Distinguished Service award winner. Extension professionals with more than 10 years of service are eligible for this award.
Laura Snell, UCCE livestock and natural resources advisor and county director in Modoc County, received an award for her fact sheet “Rapid User Guide:Postfire Grazing on California'sIntermountainRangelands“ as one of the top four national entries in this category.
Two other California communication entries were recognized as western regional finalists after first winning state competitions. Joy Hollingsworth, UCCE table grape advisor for Tulare and Kings counties, received recognition for her feature story “Improving Soil Health.” Philip Waisen, UCCE vegetable advisor for Riverside and Imperial counties, was recognized for his photo showing melon growth resulting from root leachate treatment. Waisen was also active at the convention both as a presenter and as a western regional committee chairman.
At the state level, “Key to the Phytoseiid Predatory Mites Found on California Crops” by David Haviland, UCCE entomology advisor in Kern County, was selected as the winning entry in the publication category. “Eastern Sierra School Gardens Trello Board” by Dustin Blakey, UCCE farm advisor and county director for Inyo and Mono counties, was the winning entry for the California learning module/notebook category.
‘Airblast Spray Advisor' web app wins educational aids award
UCCE specialist Peter Ako Larbi received a 2024 American Society of Agricultural and Biological Engineers Educational Aids Blue Ribbon Award for his decision-support web app “Airblast Spray Advisor” during the 2024 Annual International Meeting (AIM) of the society in Anaheim on July 28-31.
The Educational Aids Blue Ribbon Awards Competition promotes excellence in informational materials that contribute to the understanding of agricultural and biological engineering subjects outside of the traditional classroom setting. Larbi received the award in the “Electronic” category under “Design or Decision Tools” and was recognized during the General Session Recognitions on July 29.
The complexity of spray application under field conditions often poses a challenge to applicators, limiting their ability to achieve high application efficiencies. Although the California Department of Pesticide Regulation requires individuals who use or supervise pesticide use to possess applicator certification, it does not guarantee that applicators will recognize or use best practices when faced with complex field conditions. As such, poor decisions can be made resulting in inefficiency, low productivity and negative environmental impact. Using Larbi's spray application decision-support app can help to remove or reduce the guesswork, thus enhancing decision-making to increase efficiency, productivity, accuracy and environmental soundness. The web app provides decision support for planning and evaluating airblast spray application. It is designed for citrus, with the addition of other perennial crops underway.
The app can be accessed at https://ucanr.edu/sites/Airblast_Spray_Advisor/.
Satomi named Field Forester of the Year
The Society of American Foresters has named Ricky Satomi, UCCE area forestry and natural resources advisor, Field Forester of the Year for District 3.
The Society of American Foresters honored 11 individuals with the Presidential Field Forester award for 2024. Awarded to one member from each of the SAF voting districts, the Presidential Field Forester Award recognizes foresters who have dedicated their professional careers to the application of forestry on the ground using sound, scientific methods and adaptive management strategies.
Satomi, who serves Sutter, Yuba, Butte, Placer and Nevada counties, specializes in forest management, geographic information systems and biomass. Prior to joining UCCE in 2017 to serve Shasta, Trinity and Siskiyou counties, Satomi worked as a research associate with the UC Wood Biomass Utilization Group, analyzing wood utilization capacity in California.
Lee elected ESA fellow
UC Riverside Professor Chow-Yang Lee has been elected fellow of the Entomological Society of America.
"I am truly honored to be elected as an ESA fellow,” Lee said. “This is the highest accolade the society can confer upon an entomologist, and I am humbled by the recognition from my peers for my contributions to urban entomology."
Lee, who serves as endowed presidential chair in the Urban Entomology Program, is internationally known for his research on the behavior, ecology and physiological adaptations of urban insect pests, including cockroaches, bed bugs, termites, ants and mosquitoes.
He seeks to understand the biological characteristics that help these urban pests thrive, and he works with graduate students to develop and test new pest management strategies. Their activities have included a focus on insecticide resistance's underlying mechanisms.
His outreach activities are extensive, having authored more than 290 peer-reviewed journal papers, book chapters and books. Recently, he has co-authored several papers evaluating biodegradable boric acid gel baits meant to control Argentine ants, the potential use of an artificial sweetener against cockroaches and its impact on cockroach microbiome, and the effectiveness of a new compound with a novel mode of action against cockroaches.
Read more in this article by Jules Bernstein:
Ferris elected honorary member of Society of Nematologists
UC Davis Distinguished Professor Emeritus Howard Ferris, internationally recognized for his “exceptional, wide-ranging and unparalleled contributions to nematology” over a 64-year career, is a newly elected Honorary Member of the Society of Nematologists, the international organization's highest award.
“His conceptual understanding of the ecological role of nematodes in plant agricultural systems established him as perhaps the premier IPM research nematologist of our time," said Frank Zalom, UC Davis Distinguished Professor Emeritus in the Department of Entomology and Nematology and former director of the UC Statewide Integrated Pest Management Program. "His fundamental and practical contributions to the science of nematology and to IPM are many and will have lasting impacts.”
Ferris received the award Aug. 8 at SON's 63rd annual conference, held in Park City, Utah.
Read more in this article by Kathy Keatley Garvey at https://entomology.ucdavis.edu/news/salute-internationally-recognized-nematologist-howard-ferris.
