Awards and Honors | BFTV Cluster News

Awards and Announcements

The following is a list of awards, honors, and announcements about Viticulture and Enology Faculty, Staff, Students, Executive Leadership Board members & UCCE Advisors.

PLASMA Demo Day Spotlights Student Startups

Food Science and Technology

The Student Startup Center at the University of California, Davis, shined a spotlight on student-led startups at PLASMA Demo Day, the culminating experience of their 12-week early-stage cohort accelerator program.

Ten teams of undergraduate student entrepreneurs pitched their companies to industry experts in front of a packed California Hall on May 2. Of them, five were awarded more than $25,000 in prizes.

Donpon (Dawn) Wannasin wins IFT's Caldwell Graduate Fellowship

Food Science and Technology

A huge congratulations to Donpon (Dawn) Wannasin on her being awarded the prestigious and competitive IFT Feeding Tomorrow Fund Dr. Elwood F. Caldwell Graduate Fellowship! Dawn, a first-year Ph.D. student in Selina Wang's lab, was awarded the $25,000 fellowship for her research which focuses on the extraction and characterization of phenolic compounds and other important bioactives in agricultural and food byproducts for potential food and supplement application to improve human and planetary health.

2024 Distinguished Graduate and Postdoctoral Mentorship Award Recipients

Food Science and Technology

Graduate Studies and Graduate Council are thrilled to honor four extraordinary faculty members with the Distinguished Graduate and Postdoctoral Mentorship Awards. These awards shine a light on the power of mentorship in shaping the academic and professional journeys of UC Davis graduate students and postdoctoral scholars.

Meet the 2024 Recipients

Bruce Hammock, Distinguished Professor
Department of Entomology and Nematology

Selina Wang awarded the AOCS Timothy L. Mounts Award

Food Science and Technology

Congratulations to Dr. Selina Wang for winning the 2024 Timothy L. Mounts award, given by the American Oil Chemists Society Edible Applications Technology Division. The award recognizes research related to the science and technology of edible oils or derivatives in food products, which may be basic or applied in nature. This award commemorates Timothy Mounts as a distinguished scientist and leader who made numerous contributions to the science and technology of edible fats and oils.

1st Place NCIFT Poster Award to Chenxi Guo

Food Science and Technology

Please join me in congratulating Chenxi Guo, a second year Ph.D. student in Dr. Luxin Wang’s Lab, for winning first place in the student poster competition at the Northern California Institute of Food Technologists (NCIFT) annual meeting held on April 23, 2024.

Nitin part of UC Davis project selected by DOE for Industrial Decarbonization Initiative

Food Science and Technology

The U.S. Department of Energy, or DOE, has selected a University of California, Davis, collaboration to receive $1.98 million in funding as one of 49 projects aimed at decarbonizing the industrial sector and moving the nation closer to a net-zero economy.

Product Development Team Finalists for 2023-2024

Food Science and Technology

Presenting our Product Development Team Finalists for 2023-2024! We're proud of them for making it to the final level, and we wish them well in their respective competitions. You can read about each competition below. Congratulations, teams!

Greenwood and Parikh win prize in the 2024 Little Bang! Competition

Food Science and Technology

The idea to participate in the UC Davis Little Bang! Pitch + Poster Competition started from a very casual conversation between Brittany Greenwood and Shruti Parikh, grad students in Chris Simmons’ lab, which focuses on waste degradation and sustainable agricultural practices. With a shared background in microbiology and interest in biotechnology, there was no question that a partnership would produce something fruitful. Their “PlasticEaterPro” team was one of eight teams that won a prize of $1000 in the competition, held February 1, 2024.

Contest: Design a label for the launch of Hilgard631's wine

Viticulture and Enology

The Department of Viticulture and Enology at UC Davis has almost completed the process of becoming licensed to sell wine and will do so under the entity Hilgard631.

We invite all current undergraduate and graduate UC Davis students, as well as the Department of Viticulture and Enology faculty and staff, to take part in an exciting contest to help design the labels for these bottles.

Contest Details, Rules and Deadlines

1. You may submit a design for one of the three options: