Howdy! My name is Priscilla Glenn and to put it simply, I am a Texas gal whose early interest in genetics led her to the expansive world of plant breeding. My journey into the plant sciences was accidently kickstarted by my younger brother. When I was in second grade, I distinctly remember learning the Punnett square and that brown eyes are dominant over blue. Raising my hand, I asked why and how my brother had blue eyes then, if both my parents had brown. I was given an elementary answer, but from that time period on, I was hooked on genetics.

I always give a roundabout answer whenever people ask me where I am from. In short, I am from Tennessee, but grew up in a small Appalachian town called Blaine before moving to Nashville, where I attended undergrad at Lipscomb University. I started college wanting to be a veterinarian before realizing that while I loved my animals; other people’s animals were kind of gross. After deciding that animals, and people for that matter, were not fun to study, I ended up focusing on plants.

Two UC Davis students—Abelina Jackson and Saarah Kuzay—are among those who have been selected as 2020 Borlaug Scholars by the National Association of Plant Breeders (NAPB).

The Borlaug Scholars Program seeks to strengthen the plant breeding profession by helping support attendance of future leaders at the NAPB annual meeting. However, this year’s annual meeting will be held in a virtual format because of COVID-19 concerns. Each student will receive free registration for the conference and a membership in NAPB.

My name is Kreingkrai Nonkum, I am an international student from Thailand under the Royal Thai Government Scholarship. I am a third year Ph.D. student in the Horticulture and Agronomy Graduate Group, in the Department of Plant Sciences. I have plans to graduate with my Ph.D. in Fall 2022.

Thanks to greenhouse staff and students in the UC Davis College of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences (CA&ES), 6,300 tiny tomato and strawberry plants originally planned for Picnic Day giveaways will soon find a good home.

Jennifer Schmidt, a Ph.D. candidate in plant sciences, has been selected as the 2020 recipient of the Kinsella Memorial Prize for outstanding research on a doctoral dissertation.

Grace Woodmansee, a graduate student in the Department of Plant Sciences at UC Davis, received the Young Professionals Conclave (YPC) Outstanding Early Career Award at the national Society for Range Management (SRM) annual meeting, held in Denver, Colorado in February.