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Posts Tagged: Gerry Spinelli
Social media campaign shows how ANR is improving lives
To increase awareness of how UC ANR research and extension is improving life for Californians, Strategic Communications has been posting about UC Cooperative Extension activities across social media.
Inspired in 2022 by the state government boosting ANR's budget to allow the hiring of more than 100 academics and support staff, Doralicia Garay, social media strategist, wanted to show legislators and other Californians how they benefit from ANR.
“The ‘Improving Lives in California' campaign is designed to showcase ANR research as well as those who deliver it by featuring compelling content and UC Cooperative Extension advisors and specialists,” Garay said.
She targeted Californians who were interested in agriculture, pests, environment, wildfire, water, youth development, and nutrition with paid campaigns as well as regular posts on Facebook, Instagram, X (formerly Twitter) and LinkedIn.
Between March 2022 and December 2023, UC ANR's “Improving Lives in California” campaign has reached more than 600,000 people and more than 21,000 people have engaged with the posts by sharing, liking or commenting across all platforms.
“The per-post engagement rate averaged 3.5% across all social media channels, which is almost twice the average rate per post,” Garay said.
Key elements of the campaign:
- Employee spotlights: Through a series of engaging profiles, we highlight our extension experts' unique journeys and expertise. By featuring their skills and contributions to research projects, we humanize our staff and inspire a sense of connection with our online community.
Examples:
tinyurl.com/23bjz4xr Brooke Latack
tinyurl.com/yxbmybp5 Ian Grettenberger
tinyurl.com/rndcn6uz AtefSwelam
- Short videos: Bite-sized videos featuring Cooperative Extension advisors are intended to simplify complex research projects and explain their relevance to all Californians. It's also a great opportunity for our audiences to get a sense of our researchers' personality.
Examples:
tinyurl.com/mr46w65s Srabani Das
tinyurl.com/bdf68sh5 Ramiro Lobo
Series of videos: instagram.com/ucanr/reels/?hl=en
- Social media takeovers: We take our audience on a virtual tour behind the scenes of our research facilities. Through carefully crafted multimedia content, we share what makes research and extension centers and county office locations unique, and how the infrastructure enables scientists to bring innovation to life.
Example:
tinyurl.com/272xh9h7 South Coast REC
- Research impact stories: We bring our research to life by illustrating its real-world impact on California communities. Through compelling narratives, we demonstrate how the dedication of UC ANR employees to research translates into positive change with advancements in agriculture, wildfire mitigation, water issues and more.
Examples:
tinyurl.com/5y2vn4rs Hamutahl Cohen
tinyurl.com/2e3bafh3 Houston Wilson, Jhalendra Rijal and David Haviland
- Interactive Q&A sessions: Live Q&A sessions on social media platforms encourage direct interaction between our experts and online audiences. Although social media reach has recently dipped for this type of content on Facebook, we successfully engaged with our Facebook audience in 2022 during a nutrition Q&A by retaining 80% of our live audience from start to finish.
Example:
tinyurl.com/52e7jy6s Mary Blackburn, JavierMiramontes andAba Ramirez
- Employee-generated content: Encouraging employees to share their own perspectives, experiences and insights on social media platforms promotes a sense of ownership and inclusivity. It also creates a vibrant online community that encourages our audiences to participate in conversations about research initiatives.
Example:
tinyurl.com/587jcxvf GerrySpinelli
- Hashtag campaign: "#ImprovingLivesinCA is a unique campaign hashtag that serves as a unifying element, allowing us to gather user-generated content and track the campaign's reach and engagement.
“By strategically highlighting our employees in the narrative of our research efforts, #ImprovingLivesinCA strengthens the UC ANR brand identity and positions our organization as a collaborative partner at the forefront of innovation,” Garay said. “This campaign represents a comprehensive approach to leveraging the power of social media to drive reach and engagement and serve our online community.”
You can follow UC ANR on Facebook, Instagram, X (formerly Twitter),LinkedIn and YouTube.
Names in the News
Spinelli named UCCE horticulture advisor
Gerardo Spinelli joined UC Cooperative Extension in San Diego County as a production horticulture advisor on Oct. 12, 2020. He will work with nurseries, floriculture and controlled environment plant production.
Prior to joining UCCE San Diego, Spinelli worked for the Resource Conservation District of Santa Cruz county since 2015 in irrigation and nitrogen management for strawberry and lettuce. He collaborated with Michael Cahn, UCCE advisor and technical expert for the Pajaro Valley Water Management Agency's conservation program, to promote the adoption of CropManage to optimize nitrogen and irrigation in Santa Cruz and Monterey counties.
He has also worked on nutrient and pest management in vegetables, lettuce hydroponic production and anaerobic soil disinfestation in banana at University of Hawaii, Manoa, and was a UCCE farm advisor for irrigation and vegetables in Stanislaus County. He also worked in Honduras on an irrigation development project providing technical assistance for smallholder corn and watermelon growers, and in London designing and installing landscape irrigation systems. He also lived in Lebanon, where he introduced integrated pest management in apple and olive production, rebuilt irrigation channels for tobacco and vegetable growers, began a queen bee breeding program and built sewage lines for the Wavel refugee camp.
Spinelli grew up in Italy on an olive and vegetable farm on the hills overlooking Florence and is fluent in Italian, English, French and Spanish.
He earned a B.S. in agronomy, an M.S. in tropical agriculture at the University of Florence, and a Master of International Agricultural Development and Ph.D. in horticulture and agronomy at UC Davis, focusing on plant physiology and water stress in almond orchards.
Spinelli is based in San Diego and can be reached at (858) 822-7679 and gspinelli@ucanr.edu.
Amaral named pomology, water and soils advisor
Douglas Amaral joined UCCE in Kings and Tulare as pomology, water and soils advisor on Oct. 1, 2020.
Before joining UCCE, Amaral was a project scientist and postdoctoral researcher in the Department of Plant Sciences at UC Davis. His research has focused on the physiology and biochemistry of plant nutrient uptake, and molecular and genetic aspects of nutrient acquisition and tolerance in citrus, almonds, pistachios and other crops.
Amaral, who was born and raised in Brazil, is fluent in Portuguese and English. He earned a Ph.D. in plant and soil sciences at the University of Delaware, an M.S. in plant nutrition and soil fertility at Federal University of Lavras, Brazil, and a B.S. in biological sciences at University Center of Lavras, Brazil.
Amaral is based in Hanford and can be reached at (559) 852-2737 and amaral@ucanr.edu.
UCCE poster, newsletters win NACAA awards
Three California state winning entries received national recognition at the recent annual meeting and professional improvement conferences of the National Association of County Agricultural Agents (NACAA) held virtually in late September and early October.
Michael Rethwisch, UCCE field crops advisor for Riverside County, and student assistant Kassandra Allan won a national NACAA award for their applied research poster, “Dingy cutworm pheromone lures are not highly attractive to the closely related granulate cutworm.” Rethwisch was also selected to give a presentation on comparative insecticide efficacy for lygus bug control.
The UC Dairy Newsletter was a national finalist entry and western regional winner in the Team Newsletter competition. UCCE advisors Jennifer Heguy, Daniela Bruno, Joy Hollingsworth and Betsy Karle collaborate on the newsletter.
The University of California Cooperative Extension Subtropical Horticulture News by Sonia Rios, UCCE subtropical horticulture advisor for Riverside and San Diego counties, was the western regional winner for individual newsletter.
CAPCA honors Wilen for "Outstanding Contribution to Agriculture"
Cheryl Wilen, UCCE integrated pest management advisor emeritus for San Diego, Orange and Los Angeles counties, received the 2020 Outstanding Contribution to Agriculture award by the California Association of Pest Control Advisers (CAPCA).
The Outstanding Contribution to Agriculture award recognizes individuals or organizations that have made a significant contribution to California agriculture. The former leader of UC ANR's Endemic and Invasive Pests and Diseases Strategic Initiative is known for her research and development of integrated pest management strategies for the turf, ornamental horticulture and nursery industries. Over the course of her career, Wilen has helped reduce the use of toxic pesticides, cut the cost of pest control and promote the use of environmentally sound methods in production.
Wilen, who retired from her 25-year UC ANR career in July, received the award during CAPCA's virtual annual conference on Oct. 12. She is currently on recall to serve as interim director for UCCE in San Diego.
4-H Youth Retention Study Team receives national award
The 4-H Youth Retention Study Team received the National Association of Extension 4-H Youth Professionals' “Susan Barkman Award for Research and Evaluation” Oct. 20, during the association's virtual conference.
The Youth Retention Study examined the retention and drop-out rates (nearly 50%) of first year 4-H members over a seven-year period to understand why youth leave the 4-H program. They found a lack of communication and the inability to understand and navigate the 4-H program contributed to attrition. These findings led to development of a handbook for families to navigate the 4-H program and a Project Leader Checklist for implementing the 4-H project experience.
While the study focused on California, the team has engaged multiple states in an effort to document the national scope of this issue, and used the data to develop tools and strategies for addressing and extending that information through peer-reviewed articles, workshops and training.
The Youth Retention Study Team includes
- JoLynn Miller, UCCE advisor for the Central Sierra
- Kendra Lewis, University of New Hampshire State Specialist for Youth & Family Resiliency and former UCCE academic coordinator for evaluation for UC ANR Statewide 4-H Youth Development Program
- Marianne Bird, UCCE advisor for the Capital Corridor
- John Borba, UCCE advisor in Kern County
- Claudia Diaz-Carrasco, UCCE advisor for Riverside and San Bernardino counties
- Dorina Espinoza, UCCE advisor for Humboldt and Del Norte counties
- Russell Hill, UCCE advisor for Merced, Mariposa and Madera counties
- Car Mun Kok, UCCE advisor for Lake and Mendocino counties
- Sue Manglallan, UCCE advisor emeritus in San Diego County
- Kali Trzesniewski, UCCE specialist in UC Davis Department of Human & Community Development
Ronald becomes first woman to receive World Agriculture Prize
Pam Ronald, a UC Davis distinguished professor, whose work has revolutionized plant molecular genetics, has become the first woman to receive the World Agriculture Prize.
Ronald is recognized for her history of major discoveries in plant molecular genetics. In 1995, she isolated a key immune receptor that revealed a new mechanism with which plants and animals detect and respond to infection. Her discovery in 2006, with UC Davis plant scientist David Mackill, of a rice submergence tolerance gene facilitated the development of high-yielding, flood-tolerant rice varieties that have benefited millions of farmers in South and Southeast Asia.
The award ceremony will be virtually held at 5 p.m. on Nov. 30 from Nanjing Agricultural University, Jiangsu Province, China.
Read the full story by Amy Quinton at https://caes.ucdavis.edu/news/plant-pathologist-pamela-ronald-named-gchera-world-agriculture-prize-laureate.
UC ANR visits the Capitol
UC ANR Day at the Capitol was held on March 26, 2019, to update California legislators and legislative staff on UC ANR's research and outreach projects. Vice President Glenda Humiston and a UC ANR delegation discussed a wide variety of topics during the legislative visits, including wildfire and forest health, water quality, youth development, nutrition and climate adaptation.
Every year, representatives from each UC campus gather in Sacramento for UC Day at the Capitol to educate lawmakers about the importance of research and higher education and their contributions to California's economy and progress. Although UC ANR participates in the annual Ag Day at the Capitol, this was the first UC ANR Day at the Capitol.
ANR's Global Food Initiative fellow Maci Mueller set up appointments with the policymakers and coordinated the UC ANR delegation to explain the value of investment in UC ANR research and outreach.
The UC ANR delegation consisted of two teams led by Humiston and Wendy Powers, associate vice president. The teams included Faith Kearns, California Institute for Water Resources academic coordinator; Ruth Dahlquist-Willard, UC Cooperative Extension small farms advisor for Fresno and Tulare counties; Tracy Schohr, UC Cooperative Extension livestock and natural resource advisor for Plumas, Sierra and Butte counties; Alena Pacheco, 4-H community education specialist in Fresno County; Bailey Butler, Oroville 4-H member; and El Dorado County 4-H Ambassadors Emily Ferrell, Josie Rothman and Isabella Veffredo, who were accompanied by El Dorado County 4-H program representatives Vera Bullard and Denise Veffredo.
“As a team, we were able to connect with every member or staffer that we met,” Powers wrote in her ANR Adventures blog. “Sometimes it was around the 4-H program, and what the program has done for our impressive team members, sometimes it was around fire or water, and other staffers or members were particularly interested in moringa. Either way, the goal was to make a connection so that each visit left an impression.”
“UC ANR Day was a terrific opportunity for 4-H members to practice their communication skills and get involved in advocacy at the state level,” Mueller said.
Oroville 4-H member Bailey described for legislators and their staff how she worked from Nov. 8 when the Camp Fire broke out until after Christmas with UC Cooperative Extension advisor Tracy Schohr and UC Davis School of Veterinary Medicine staff to care for 1,200 evacuated livestock and to train others to assist. Emily, a 4-H Ambassador in El Dorado County, said her 4-H experience with STEM activities and leadership training helped her get into the university of her choice – UC Santa Barbara.
Greeted warmly by each office, the teams shared examples of work being done by UC ANR in their districts, offered them assistance and thanked the legislators for their support. They left a copy of the UC ANR Snapshot, UC ANR map and overview, a 4-H fact sheet and UC at a Glance.
Legislators praised the 4-H members and UC ANR staff for the work they do for Californians.
“I look forward to making UC ANR Day at the Capitol an annual event,” Humiston said. “Telling people about the value of ANR's work is not only part of our mission, it is essential in educating others about all that we accomplish with the resources we have.”
A fact sheet showing the effects of shrinking public investment in the University of California and agricultural research can be downloaded at https://ucanr.edu/sites/Professional_Development/files/302896.pdf.
Sean Hogan, IGIS academic coordinator, talks drones with Assemblymember Devon Mathis.
Names in the News
Coyne named Master Gardener volunteer engagement coordinator
Marisa Coyne is now the academic coordinator - volunteer engagement for UC Master Gardener Program as of April 8. Coyne joined the Program after serving as a part-time community education specialist for the 4-H Youth Development Program with UCCE Marin County since September 2018.
“Marisa is filling a new full-time position and we are delighted to have her as part of the UC Master Gardener community,” said Missy Gable, director of the UC Master Gardener Program.
Coyne will strengthen and further the work of the Program by enhancing professional development opportunities, collaborating with UC ANR academics to ensure successful volunteer-academic partnerships, and sharing stories of UC Master Gardener volunteers' many accomplishments and successes. She is passionate about creating opportunities for community members to commit to lifelong stewardship of land and water in California.
Originally from Philadelphia, she has worked in rural, urban and peri-urban communities and in food, agriculture and wilderness spaces, providing interdisciplinary, inquiry-based, educational opportunities for learners of all ages. From the California coast to the Driftless Area of Wisconsin to the forests of Connecticut, she has designed and delivered outdoor experiences for thousands of learners, specialized in development of emerging leaders and in promoting inclusive organizational change. Her graduate work at UC Davis in the Community and Regional Development Program focused on issues of equity in sustainable agriculture education. She earned a M.S. in community development from UC Davis and a B.A. in communications from Temple University.
Coyne is located in the ANR building in Davis in workstation 102B and can be reached at macoyne@ucanr.edu or (530) 750-1394.
Hollingsworth named UCCE nutrient management and soil quality advisor
Joy Hollingsworth joined UC Cooperative Extension as a nutrient management and soil quality advisor serving Fresno, Kings, Madera and Tulare counties on April 1. She had worked as a staff research associate at the Kearney Agricultural Research and Extension Center (KARE) since 2015.
As a staff research associate at KARE, Hollingsworth assisted in the management of drought and variety studies in the field, greenhouse and lab on both forage and grain sorghum. She organized trials, collected growth and development data, coordinated field activities with research station staff, supervised work crews at KARE and WSREC, and operated harvest equipment such as forage chopper and small plot combine. Prior to her work as an SRA at KARE, Hollingsworth was a junior specialist in the UC Davis Plant Science Department, conducting agronomic field trials for canola, camelina, sugarbeets and castor, including variety, salinity, irrigation and nitrogen trials located throughout California.
Hollingsworth earned a M.S. in plant science from Fresno State. Her thesis project was conducted at the UC West Side Research and Extension Center and compared overhead irrigation to subsurface drip in conservation tillage cotton. She earned a B.A. in communication from UC Davis.
Hollingsworth is based in Fresno and can be reached at (559) 241-7527 and joyhollingsworth@ucanr.edu.
Nobua-Behrmann named UCCE urban forestry and natural resources advisor
Beatriz Nobua-Behrmann is now a UC Cooperative Extension urban forestry and natural resources advisor serving Orange and Los Angeles counties, effective March 25. Nobua-Behrmann first joined ANR in 2017 as a staff research associate in Orange County.
As a staff research associate for UCCE Orange County, Nobua-Behrmann provided management and direction to conduct a significant research and extension program focused on critical invasive pests, mainly insects, impacting urban landscapes and wildlands surrounding urbanized environments. The main focus of the program is to conduct surveys of infestations in regional parks and associated open spaces in order to develop management strategies that are efficacious and economically feasible. She also coordinated research and extension activities conducted by UC Riverside faculty and UCCE specialists on pest-related issues impacting these same environments.
She completed a doctorate and a B.S in biology from Universidad de Buenos Aires in Argentina and is fluent in Spanish.
Nobua-Behrmann is based at South Coast Research and Extension Center in Irvine and can be reached at (949) 301-9182, Ext. 1006 and benobua@ucanr.edu.
Tompkins named forestry and natural resources advisor
Ryan Tompkins joined UC Cooperative Extension as a forestry and natural resources advisor on March 18, serving Plumas, Sierra and Lassen counties. Prior to joining UCCE, Tompkins held forester positions for the past 16 years with the U.S. Forest Service, worked in the fire effects program with the National Park Service and served as associate faculty in the Environmental Studies Department at Feather River College teaching forest ecology and management.
Most recently, Tompkins served as the forest silviculturist and vegetation program manager at the Plumas National Forest, where he designed, planned and implemented landscape-scale forest restoration projects.
Tompkins earned master's and bachelor's degrees in forestry from UC Berkeley.
Based in Quincy, Tompkins can be reached at (530) 83-6125, retompkins@ucanr.edu.
Nelson joins ANR as climate stewards initiative academic coordinator
Sarah-Mae Nelson joined ANR as the UC climate stewards initiative academic coordinator on Feb. 19. She is an educator, science communicator and climate change communication specialist who draws on her background and interest in interpretation at informal science education centers.
Prior to joining ANR, she worked for the Monterey Bay Aquarium from 2006 to 2017 in various roles, including guest experience interpreter, climate change interpretive specialist, and conservation interpreter and online community manager for ClimateInterpreter.org. A charter member of the National Network for Ocean and Climate Change and Interpretation, Nelson is part of the leadership team that trains new communicators in research-proven, climate change strategic framing communications. For her master's work, she established curriculum for an interdisciplinary Climate Change Studies minor at UC San Diego. In 2015, she was recognized by President Obama as a Champion of Change in Climate Education and Literacy.
She earned an M.S. in climate science and policy from Scripps Institution of Oceanography, UC San Diego, and a B.S. in marine biology from UC Santa Cruz.
Nelson is based in Half Moon Bay and can be reached at (408) 482-4633 and smanelson@ucanr.edu.
Gross named UCCE aquaculture specialist
Jackson Gross joined UCCE on Aug. 14, as an aquaculture specialist. His current research program aims to be at the forefront of environmental and production sustainability and ecological integrity. To achieve this vision, his research is focused into three distinct, yet overlapping applied research themes: aquaculture, invasion biology and environmental/ecological toxicology. This research usually addresses data gaps and provides scientific solutions, determined through rigorous experimentation, meeting the immediate biological and engineering needs of the aquaculture industry and natural resource community. His research is historically a mix of laboratory and field experimentation. However, there are many times where the research is not exclusively one or the other, but instead, a blend where controlled laboratory experimentation is brought into the field. Other areas of interest include aquaponic production systems.
Prior to joining UCCE, Gross worked at a private engineering firm evaluating the effects of anthropogenic activity on aquatic resources.
Gross earned a Ph.D. in animal sciences (endocrine and reproductive physiology minor) at University of Wisconsin - Madison. He completed a M.S. in public health (toxicology emphasis) and a B.S. in biology (zoology emphasis) from San Diego State University.
Gross is based in the Department of Animal Science at UC Davis and can be reached at 2117 Meyer Hall, (530) 752-2978 and jagross@ucdavis.edu.
NAS elects Ronald and Zilberman as members
The National Academy of Sciences announced April 30 the election of 100 new members and 25 foreign associates in recognition of their distinguished and continuing achievements in original research. Forty percent of the newly elected members are women—the most ever elected in any one year to date.
Pamela Ronald, professor and geneticist in the UC Davis Department of Plant Pathology and Genome Center, and David Zilberman, a UC Cooperative Extension specialist and professor of agricultural and resources economics at UC Berkeley, are among the new members.
Ronald researches genes that control disease resistance and tolerance to environmental stress in rice, one of the world's most important crops. She is known for engineering flood-tolerant rice, for which she and her colleagues received the USDA 2008 National Research Discovery Award.
Zilberman is one of the most cited scholars in agricultural, environmental and resource economics. During the 1980s, his work served as the basis for several projects on the adoption of modern irrigation technology and computers in California agriculture. These studies demonstrated that farmers adopt new technologies when it makes economic sense and that extreme events, such as droughts or high prices, can trigger changes in farming practices. During the early 1990s, his research on pesticide economics and policy made the case against policies that called to ban pesticides, and advocated instead for policies that take advantage of the vast economic benefits that pesticides generate while using incentives to protect against environmental side effects. In January, Zilberman was awarded the 2019 Wolf Prize in Agriculture in recognition of his work developing economic models for fundamental problems in agriculture, economics and policy.
Dahlquist-Willard and Pathak honored by CalCAN
Two UC Cooperative Extension scientists were recognized for their contributions to the field of agriculture and climate change at the California Climate & Agriculture Summit at UC Davis on March 5, 2019.
Dahlquist-Willard helps keep small-scale, diversified farmers in business by providing support with marketing, regulatory compliance, processing of value-added products, water and energy efficiency, and integrated pest management. She has been a driving force behind increasing access by Hmong farmers in the Fresno area to California's State Water Efficiency and Enhancement Program (SWEEP). Dahlquist-Willard has promoted the program, provided thousands of hours of one-on-one, culturally relevant support to farmers on grant applications, and assisted with project design and installation. The farmers she has supported are now benefiting from water, energy and financial savings.
"There are large environmental problems to solve in the Central Valley, and it's time for a different conversation around farming there," Dahlquist-Willard said. "I feel that there needs to be a conversation in the middle to solve problems rather than a conflict-based approach."
Pathak is the chair of the UC Cooperative Extension Climate Change Adaptation Workgroup, which brings together scientists across the UC system to collaborate on research and extension projects related to climate change adaptation in California agriculture. Pathak is the lead author on an important and timely paper that was published in 2018 in the journal Agronomy. It synthesizes the impacts of climate change on California agriculture and offers directions for future research and implementation.
"We need more facilitated dialog with policy researchers and scientists on the science of climate change, and the implications of not taking action," Pathak said. "Given the scale of California agriculture and the pressure of climate change impacts, we need even more substantial funding for incentives for farmers and for research and tools, and we must integrate growers from the beginning of the process."
The summit, organized by CalCAN, brought together some of the state's foremost experts in agriculture — including farmers, agriculture professionals, researchers, advocates and policymakers — to grapple with the challenges of climate change and share knowledge about the opportunities facing the industry.
Mitloehner wins Borlaug CAST Communication Award
The Council for Agricultural Science and Technology (CAST) named UC Davis animal scientist Frank Mitloehner the 2019 Borlaug CAST Communication Award recipient. Mitloehner, a professor and UC Cooperative Extension air quality specialist in the Department of Animal Science, is the 10th recipient of this award.
“I'm honored to be selected by CAST, an organization I've long admired, and to be in the company of so many recipients who have inspired me during my career,” Mitloehner said. “Being recognized with the Borlaug CAST Communication Award is not only a high honor, it's an affirmation of the importance of sharing research and academic pursuits well beyond labs, classrooms and universities.”
CAST bestows the award annually to a nominated expert in the agricultural, environmental or food sectors. The nominee must show remarkable communication skills through various types of media with the purpose of advancing science in the public policy sector.
Mitloehner's nominators state he reaches beyond academia to inform experts and various members of the public around the globe about animal agriculture's influence on greenhouse gas emissions. His goal is to change societal views about the influence of animals on our climate through various channels of communication.
“His involvement as a communicator and scientist at the national and global levels has put him and his message in a strategic position to share and influence policy,” said one of Mitloehner's nominators.
Numerous like-minded agencies and institutions have reached out for his guidance on timely and relevant issues regarding animal agriculture's impacts on air quality, including chairing a committee for the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations.
Since he joined UC Davis in 2002, Mitloehner has amassed more than 800 presentations focused on animal agriculture through various speaking events such as conferences and professional meetings. He has contributed to national news stories published by CNN, PBS, Newsweek, The Washington Post and other media outlets.
Mitloehner does not shy away from social media either. He began tweeting with the handle @GHGGuru in April 2018 and his Twitter account has more than 7,000 followers. In late 2018, Mitloehner launched GHG Guru Blog, a personal website with the goal of delivering the “latest, most accurate research” focused on the intersection between animal agriculture and the climate.
“Science for science's sake has no role in making our world more sustainable,” Mitloehner said. “Sharing what we know — and backing it up with facts — leads to discussions and solutions,” Mitloehner said.
The Borlaug CAST Communication Award is sponsored by the CropLife Foundation. CAST announced the 2019 BCCA recipient at the USDA Whitten Patio in Washington, D.C., on April 16.
The award will be presented held during a side event at the World Food Prize Symposium on Oct. 16. – UC Davis
Fung and Staskawicz elected Royal Society members
The Royal Society of London, the oldest scientific academy in continuous existence, announced their newest fellows and foreign members April 16, among them two UC Berkeley College of Natural Resources faculty.
The newly-elected CNR foreign members are climate scientist Inez Fung and plant biologist Brian Staskawicz. Fung and Staskawicz are among 51 new fellows, 10 new foreign members and one new honorary member.
“Over the course of the Royal Society's vast history, it is our fellowship that has remained a constant thread and the substance from which our purpose has been realized: to use science for the benefit of humanity,” said society president Venki Ramakrishnan. “This year's newly elected Fellows and Foreign Members of the Royal Society embody this, being drawn from diverse fields of enquiry – epidemiology, geometry, climatology — at once disparate, but also aligned in their pursuit and contributions of knowledge about the world in which we live. It is with great honor that I welcome them as Fellows of the Royal Society.”
The learned society dates from 1660 and today is the U.K.'s national science academy and a fellowship of some 1,600 of the world's most eminent scientists.
Fung, a professor of earth and planetary science and of environmental science, policy and management, models the processes that maintain and alter the composition of the atmosphere and, hence, the climate.
Staskawicz, a professor of plant and microbial biology and a co-director of the Innovative Genomics Institute, studies plants' innate immunity with the goal of engineering disease resistance in agricultural crops.
UCPath paychecks to start Oct. 1
The systemwide UCPath Steering Committee has decided the new launch date for UCPath at UC ANR, UC Davis and UC Davis Health will be Oct. 1, with cutover activities happening in September.
The decision for UC ANR to launch UCPath on Oct. 1 comes on the heels of a smooth transition to UCPath at UC Berkeley over the last month. UC ANR's project team continues to work closely with their counterparts at UC Berkeley and other UC locations to collect lessons learned and best practices to prepare for our transition.
“I would like to express my gratitude to our UC ANR colleagues across the state who continue to maintain UC ANR's readiness to cut over to UCPath,” said Tu M. Tran, associate vice president, business operations.
The UC ANR team is using the extra time to review our readiness and focus on training and transition activities. We will continue to share information as we approach the new target go-live date.
