ESPM professor Jill Banfield is highlighted in this Berkeley Lab article on a newly released genomic studies on 2500 microbes collected from a Colorado aquifer. The scientists found genomes from 80 percent of all known bacterial phyla and discovered 47 new phylum-level bacterial groups, naming many after Berkeley Lab and UC Berkeley researchers. “The combination of high microbial diversity and interconnections through metabolic handoffs likely results in high ecosystem resilience,” says Banfield
PMB researcher and alum Jacob Brunkard (Ph.D. '15) is featured in the Daily Californian for his recent Early Independence Award from the National Institutes of Health. Burnkard will be studying TOR, the protein that organisms use to sense when nutrients are available, and its evolution in plants. “By understanding how plants have evolved differences in the TOR signaling network, we might gain new insight into medical efforts to control TOR activity," said Brunkard.
ESPM professor Scott Stephens is featured in this Daily Californian article on the 1991 Oakland-Berkeley Hills fire. Stephens, who just started his graduate studies in wildland resource science, recalled his memories for that morning.
ESPM professor Scott Stephens is featured in this SF Chronicle article on the 25th anniversary of the 1991 Oakland hills fire. Stephens, who specializes in fire ecology, notes that there are at least as many eucalyptus trees in the hills as there were in 1991, and that today's trees have long, ribbony bark that breaks off and forms dangerous embers during a wildfire.
ESPM CE specialist and adjunct professor Matteo Garbelotto is featured in this KCBX radio segment on the rapid spread of Sudden Oak Death southwards along the coast from Northern California. The unofficial student gives state authorities a big step up in narrowing the scope, said Garbelotto.
PMB post-doc researcher Amita Hazra is featured in this UC Newsroom article on ways UC researchers are fighting global food insecurity.