Driven by his passion for food science and brimming with ideas, UC Davis student Dion Skaria created Fit Candy – a nutritious treat that blends sweet and sour flavors while reducing food waste. This innovative gummy candy is crafted from upcycled watermelon rinds.

Growers often harvest tomatoes before they ripen in hopes of extending shelf life and avoiding crop loss. But that act of removing the fruit from the vine affects flavor. And storing tomatoes below certain temperatures also hurts quality and shelf life. 

New research published this month out of University of California, Davis, examined changes in tomatoes at the molecular level to better understand what happens during postharvest handling and cold storage. 

UC Davis has been a leading source of information for people handling, packaging and transporting crops since the beginnings of the Postharvest Research and Extension Center in 1979. Now, the center is strengthening its focus on the needs of industry, offering fresh courses, weaving strategic partnerships and expanding into digital media, all while building up its research capacity to better serve the needs of the produce industry.

UC Davis has just appointed Ron Mangun and Amanda Guyer co-directors of the Center for Mind and Brain (CMB). As co-directors, they will lead the center for the next three years.

For Mangun, a distinguished professor of psychology and neurology, this appointment extends his leadership of the research center he founded. Guyer, a professor of human ecology in the College of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences, has served as CMB associate director since 2017. 

Silver Oak Cellars, a family-run business known for its cabernet sauvignon and pinot noir wines, donated $100,000 to the University of California, Davis, to support research on how characteristics like soil chemistry and location affect wines that we enjoy and attribute to specific places, including but not limited to Napa Valley. 

The money will help fund Department of Viticulture and Enology research to better understand how the same grapes planted in different locations can result in wines that have distinctive flavor, texture and other sensory attributes. 

Congratulations to the class of 2024! We are so happy to celebrate the amazing accomplishments of our students. This year, the College of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences is graduating approximately 1,700 undergraduates and 193 graduate students. Undergraduate commencement will be held June 14-16 at the Golden 1 Center, and for graduate students it is June 13 at the University Credit Union Center. Our graduating class always inspires me. This week we celebrate their efforts and incredible achievements.

Wading through flooded rice fields, a team of UC Davis students and researchers release thousands of shimmering fish into the water. These small golden shiners hold the promise of significant contributions to the dual challenges of climate change mitigation and sustainable food production.

The UC Davis Graduate Program of Environmental Policy and Management, or EPM, prepares students through its comprehensive Policy Clinic to help students feel career-ready by gaining practical experience, building a professional network and developing key skills.

Policy Clinic is an important part of the EPM curriculum, providing students with hands-on experience in addressing current environmental policy issues or natural resource management needs. 

On May 30, 2024, under the shade of the UC Davis Arboretum’s 80-plus-year-old cork oak grove, a rarely seen exhibition of cork harvesting took place. This traditional practice, unfamiliar to most Americans, involves the careful stripping of a cork oak’s outer bark without harming the tree. Commonly performed by skilled craftspeople in Portugal and Spain, the demonstration was organized for students in the “Technology and Winery Systems” (VEN 135) class, regional wine industry stakeholders, and various campus affiliates.

Warren Winiarski, renowned Napa Valley winemaker, grape grower, land preservationist, and philanthropist, passed away on June 7, 2024 — the grapes of what would have been his 60th harvest still ripening on the vines. Winiarski devoted his life to elevating the heritage of wine and its cultural importance in the United States and around the world, and preserving the agricultural land of his beloved Napa Valley.