Romain Nelsen, curriculum chair of UC Davis Extension's Osher Lifelong Learning Institute, is a recipient of the Chancellor's Achievement Award for Diversity and Community for 2007-08 in the community member category. This award recognizes the amount of time and energy he has invested to ensure the program's success. The Osher institute is a partnership between community volunteers and the university, providing low-cost classes, lectures and events for senior citizens in the Davis area. The awards were established in 2001 to honor achievements that contribute to the well-being of UC Davis' diverse community.

Clare Hasler, executive director of the Robert Mondavi Institute for Wine and Food Science, and Judy Kjelstrom, director of the UC Davis Biotechnology Program, have been selected to participate in the 2008 California Issues and Trends Program. Coordinated by Leadership California, the program is designed to cultivate women leaders by exposing them to critical public and private sector issues and to state, national and global perspectives on California and its many issues. Hasler is a nutritionist and an expert on functional foods, and Kjelstrom is a microbiologist and authority on the applications of biotechnology. Leadership California is a networking organization for women leaders.

The Weed Science Society of America has given weed specialist Joe DiTomaso the Outstanding Extension Award. The award was presented Feb. 4 in Chicago. Jacob Barney, a post-doc in DiTomaso's lab, received the Outstanding Graduate Student Award from both the Northeast Weed Science Society and the Weed Science Society of America. The latter award is given to the outstanding graduate student working in weed science in the country. The Northeast Weed Science Society award was presented in January in Philadelphia.

The National Council of Commercial Plant Breeders presented the Public Plant Breeder Award to Gurdev Singh Khush, an adjunct professor in the Department of Plant Sciences. Prior to serving as an adjunct professor, Khush spent for more than 35 years at the International Rice Research Institute, beginning as a plant breeder and advancing to head of Plant Breeding, Genetics, and Biochemistry. Khush has received many awards for his plant breeding work, including the Borlaug Award in 1977 and the Japan Prize in 1987.