UC Agriculture and Natural Resources (ANR) Staff Appreciation and Recognition (STAR) awards were presented to Steve Dreistadt and Chinh Lam to acknowledge their exceptional performance and significant contributions.
Lam received the award because of his efficiency in completing projects and importance placed on developing his staff into a true team. In the 3 years that he has been with UC IPM, Lam completed new projects that entailed developing and implementing new web designs and processes. When several positions were vacant, he investigated alternate ways to get the programming done for these projects, which often had quick deadlines. Despite transitions and losses of members of his team, Lam has sustained a level of work that has enabled UC IPM to meet its business goals. He achieves this through hard work, increasing efficiencies, and coming up with solutions that satisfy the Program goals and meet deadlines, while being realistic in workability with a smaller team. Lam's leadership style is also the reason he is being commended. His production and IT team have flourished with increasing camaraderie and morale. Lam' leadership also extends to working with other groups at UC Davis and serving in an advisory capacity at ANR. UC IPM appreciates Lam's forward thinking and exceptional team and project management skills. Lam is a person who identifies problems, but also identifies solutions, and is able to work with people to implement change for the better.
Dreistadt received the award because of his IPM expertise and commitment to providing detailed, scientifically correct and thorough work. Dreistadt has been with UC IPM for 29 years working on extensive IPM manuals and concise Pest Notes. Recently, he worked on the substantial revision of Pests of Landscape Trees and Shrubs: An Integrated Pest Management Guide. This 437-page book is the number three selling ANR publication. Dreistadt adds value to all his work through his knowledge of landscape and agricultural pest management, his ability to keep track of multiple reviewers' changes, his investigative nature to get to the information readers need, and his ability to communicate solutions for pest management accurately yet succinctly through UC IPM's publications. In addition to his expertise, Dreistadt has extraordinary organizational skills. His ability to dig deep into the literature, find and verify the key information, categorize it appropriately and analyze the information into overall results is why he received the award. For instance, one of his complex projects was to develop a ratings database for bee hazards from pesticides that was compiled through a review of more than 460 scientific publications. At UC IPM and throughout ANR, those who have worked with Dreistadt respect and value his integrity and commitment to communicating high-quality scientific solutions to solve pest problems.