News

By BAE Staff

Lauren Jabusch has been passionate about sustainability and outreach since her early days as a freshman at UC Davis. Nearly a decade later, she has earned a bachelor’s, master’s and, most recently, a doctoral degree in biosystems engineering, all from the UC Davis Department of Biological and Agricultural Engineering.

By Staff Contributor

The Innovative Infrared Research and Development Team is the recipient of the 2018 Research and Development Award for its contributions and accomplishments in innovative research and development and commercial implementation of sustainable infrared heating technologies for improved food healthfulness, quality, and safety while saving energy and water during food processing. The research team comprises Zhongli Pan, Tara H. McHugh, Chandrasekar Venkitasamy, Ragab Gebreil, and Hamed M. El-Mashad.

Congratulations to PhD candidate Yike Chen for winning the Student Oral/Poster competition from ASABE!

Yike is a 5th year graduate student working in Dr. Ruihong Zhang's lab.

Congratulations to Dr. Paul Singh, Professor Emeritus of BAE, who was given an honorary Doctor of Science degree from the University of Guelph. He was there in early June to give the convocation address at the University's commencement ceremonies.

The following two short videos are from the ceremony:

Conferment of Doctor of Science, honoris causa

Convocation Address

Congratulations to Professor Tina Jeoh, whose project,  Development of broadband infrared nano-spectroscopy of biological materials in fluid, has been awarded a $1.5 million dollar grant over three years from the Office of Biological and Environmental Research (BER) in the Office of Science of the U.S. Department of Energy.  The grant was made available through a program called “Bioenergy Research for Bioenergy”, and Dr. Jeoh's project is in collaboration with Dr.

Kyria Boundy-Mills (Food Science and Technology), Tina Jeoh (Biological and Agricultural Engineering) and Peter Hernes (Land, Air and Water Resources) received a $500,000, 2-year award from USDA-AFRI Sustainable Bioenergy and Bioproducts challenge area. The objectives of this funding program were to develop novel technologies to convert the lignin or nanocellulose fractions of lignocellulose to value-added materials.

Another year, another fantastic Picnic Day for our department!

And congratulations are in order for the team of BAE students, staff and faculty who received the Parade Marshal’s Choice Award for the department’s entry in today’s UC Davis Picnic Day parade!  This is an outstanding recognition of all their hard work and leadership in representing this year’s theme of Where the Sun Shines.  Compliments to the team and many thanks for their efforts on behalf of the department and the University.

It was clearly a day where the sun shined!

Professor David  Slaughter's brainchild Smart Farm is getting media attention -- most recently from the Davis  Enterprise. Read the feature article by Andy Fell on their website here.

PhD candiate Abdolhossein Edalati won the first graduate student poster prize last Wednesday at ASABE CA-NV Meeting in Tulare.  The poster's title is "The Effects of Solid-Liquid Separation on the Mitigation of Methane Emissions from Dairy Manure Lagoons".

By Staff Contributor

Assistant Cooperative Extension Specialist Alireza Pourreza was selected to receive the Sunkist Young Designer Award that will be presented during the ASABE Annual meeting in Detroit in July.

Established in 1972, this award recognizes and honors members under 40 years of age (on July 1 of the year in which the award is presented), for outstanding contributions to the advancement of the profession and to stimulate professional achievement.

Congratulations to CE Specialist Dr. Irwin Donis-Gonzalez and Adjunct Professor Dr. Kurt Kornbluth, who are both on the team that was awarded a $790,000 Seeding Solutions grant from the Foundation for Food and Agriculture Research (FFAR), a nonprofit established in the 2014 Farm Bill with bipartisan congressional support.  The team is tasked with revolutionizing the food processing industry -- they will test new technology to improve the drying methods used in food production.

Dairy Cares is a statewide coalition supporting economic and environmental sustainability and responsible animal care.  They featured Dr. Zhang and other UC Davis researchers' work in their November newsletter and on their website.

Read the article here:

https://www.dairycares.com/methane-reduction-research

BAE Department Chair Bryan Jenkins hosted the annual fall quarter Coffee Talk on November 16.  The event welcomed new and returning students, faculty and staff, and fed the attendees lunch and coffee.

Dr. Zhongli Pan received Chinese Government Friendship Award at a grand Award Ceremony held on September 29th, 2017 in the Great Hall of the People, Beijing. The award was conferred by Vice Premier Ma Kai.

Dr. Pan was nominated by Chinese Ministry of Science and Technology for this award. He was recognized for his outstanding leadership and contributions toward international collaboration in research and education in food and agriculture.

Congratulations to BAE grad student Lauren Jabusch, who was selected to participate in the UC Davis Graduate Studies 2017-2018 Professors for the Future program.  Her selection was based on a number of factors such as academic performance, leadership potential, the desire to serve the needs of your fellow students and interest in participating in the graduate and postdoctoral education process.