6:30 p.m.
Climate change is placing unprecedented pressure on the crops that feed the world, altering patterns of disease, flooding, and drought in ways that threaten global food security. Professor Pamela Ronald, a leader in plant genetics research at UC Davis, will describe her research identifying the genes that allow crops to withstand disease and environmental stress, including her discovery of the flood-tolerant Sub1 rice variety now grown by millions of smallholder farmers across Asia. Her talk will explore the science behind climate-resilient agriculture, efforts to reduce agriculture’s environmental footprint, the path from laboratory discovery to impact in farmers’ fields, and her perspective on genetics, sustainability, and the future of food.
Registration opens September 9, 2026.
Biography:
Pamela听Ronald is a Professor at UC Davis, an Investigator at the Innovative Genomics Institute at UC Berkeley, and Director of Grass Genetics at the Joint Bioenergy Institute. She earned her B.A. from Reed College, M.S. degrees from Stanford University and Uppsala University, and her Ph.D. from UC Berkeley.听
Dr. Ronald鈥檚 research focuses on plant genes that confer resistance to disease and tolerance to environmental stress.听She is the coauthor of听Tomorrow鈥檚 Table: Organic Farming, Genetics, and the Future of Food听and has received numerous international honors, including the GCHERA World Agriculture Prize, the Wolf Prize in Agriculture, the听VinFuture听Special Prize for Female Innovators, the American Society of Plant Biologists Leadership Award, and Stanford University鈥檚 President鈥檚 Award for the Advancement of the Common Good.听
She is an elected fellow of the Royal Swedish Academy of Forestry and Agriculture, the U.S. National Academy of Sciences, and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.
Department Sponsors:听The Graduate School, Institute for Public Health Genetics,听Department of听Genome Sciences, Center for听Studies in听Demography and Ecology,听School of听Environmental and Forest Sciences, Food Systems听Nutrition and Health Program,听Department听of Bioethics听and Humanities听