SAREP associate director takes leave in Scotland
I am excited to report that I will be taking a professional development leave to analyze data and write articles based on work I have conducted with colleagues over the past five years at SAREP. The focus will be my work with SAREP’s Biologically Integrated Farming Systems (BIFS) and Alternatives to Methyl Bromide programs, as well as my research in plant pathology. The BIFS program has brought in over $3 million in federal and state funds to UC and supported 10 multiple-year agricultural chemical use/risk reduction projects in nine commodities throughout California. The methyl bromide alternatives grants program has funded six multiple year research projects in strawberries, grapes, and stone fruit, as well as one demonstration project. These projects recently ended, and with the impending loss of methyl bromide in 2005, it is important to synthesize results from that work and other relevant research projects to provide grower-friendly outreach materials as the agricultural community loses this key soil fumigant.
Additionally, based on my work with the UC Davis College of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences committees on sustainable agriculture, I will be studying European universities’ efforts to address sustainable agriculture goals, including an agricultural, historical and cultural preservation initiative taking place on the Ca’Tron Estate, a 2,000-year-old farm in northern Italy.
I will be a visiting fellow at the Scottish Agricultural College in Edinburgh, Scotland. This will enable me to attend seminars and cooperate with several Scottish plant pathologists working on soil-borne pathogens, and biological and cultural controls of strawberry and cane berry pathogens.
I was able to obtain funding to support me during this leave, and thanks to the encouragement and support of SAREP director Sean L. Swezey and UC ANR leadership, I look forward to continuing to work with many of you, albeit, from a slightly longer distance.
On a personal note, my husband, John R. Hall, UCD professor of sociology, has been named director of the UC Education Abroad Edinburgh Study Centre for Northern England and Scotland for two years. This leave will allow me to pursue my SAREP research and administrative duties while living with my family, based in a location that will permit ready access to agricultural research and education institutions throughout Europe. —
