We said goodbye to Pest Management Guidelines Coordinator Ria DeBiase in August and Programmer Maung Naing in November. We wish them both the best in their new positions.
UC IPM welcomed DeBiase in 2014. DeBiase was responsible for coordinating UC’s official guidelines for managing pests in commercial agriculture aimed at pest control advisors and growers. Her detailed, diligent, and excellent work continued to capture UC’s knowledge and research to prevent and solve pest problems using IPM. The UC IPM Pest Management Guidelines publication series covers over 50 crops grown in California and is authored by over 75 academic, government, and on-the-ground scientists. DeBiase took a position with the UC Davis Giannini Foundation of Agricultural Economics.
Naing started with UC IPM in October 2019. During his short tenure with IPM Naing’s major accomplishments included integrating Jira, a project management software to better track programming tasks, into the development process and modernizing the code base for the IPM weather and Water-Related Toxicology of Active Ingredients (WaterTox) systems. This modernization has helped to refresh the grape powdery mildew pest weather model, fireblight model, degree-day calculator, and provide a more efficient way of leveraging additional weather stations and weather networks. Naing was also instrumental in the development of the IPM Tracker and soon to be launched Wildlife Pest Identification Tool in addition to other systems. Naing accepted a position at Hewlett Packard.
This year was a year of transition. UC IPM said well-wishes to several academics.
Alejandro DelPozo was an area IPM advisor covering the Central Coast. He conducted a research and extension program centered on IPM in leafy vegetables. Projects included
an on-going needs assessment of his vegetable growers and pest control advisers to determine research and extension priorities; developing an areawide pest monitoring network for aphids, thrips, and the diamondback moth to visualize pest populations at the landscape level; identifying what insectary plants result in good biological control of aphids in lettuce so they are used more; finding alternatives to pyrethroid and neonicotinoid pesticides for insect control in vegetables; and monitoring for practical insecticide resistance (management failures in the field) in vegetable pests.
Jeremy James was a weed specialist with ANR and a UC IPM affiliated academic. UC IPM recently highlighted his systematic research review to identify patterns of natural areas weed management success across multiple research studies.
Maggie Reiter was a UC IPM affiliated academic. Reiter was a UC Cooperative Extension Advisor for Environmental Horticulture. She covered Fresno, Madera, Tulare, and Kings counties, and also provided academic leadership to the UC Master Gardener programs in those counties. Reiter conducted a research and extension program centered on grasses and urban turf systems, dealing with concepts of ecology, water conservation, and integrated pest management. Projects included evaluation of native grasses for unmowed golf course rough, remote sensing of turfgrass response to deficit irrigation, and weed control in turf and ornamental settings. She also authored and reviewed UC IPM Pest Notes.
Emily Symmes was the IPM advisor covering the northern Sacramento Valley. Symmes was responsible for developing and delivering IPM programs for commodities produced in the region. As an IPM advisor, Symmes worked with other UC farm advisors and specialists, growers, industry representatives, pest control advisers, and other crop management professionals to identify critical pest management needs and outline strategies for addressing these issues. She pursued projects in local commodities, including almond, walnut, olive, and kiwifruit.
Kris Tollerup was an IPM advisor in the San Joaquin Valley, working at the UC ANR Kearney Agricultural Research and Extension Center. Tollerup was responsible for developing and delivering IPM programs for fruit and nut crops and vines.
