UC IPM welcomes Hanna Zorlu as the new UI/UX web designer and production coordinator. Zorlu joined UC IPM on March 16th. She is a part of the IT/Production Team based at the ANR building in Davis. Zorlu will work to ensure users experience a consistent and tested look-and-feel for the website and digital products. She will also participate in project in-takes to produce wireframes and mockups for stakeholders as well as creating final HTML and CSS prototypes for the programmers. Zorlu will coordinate and ensure that content is clearly laid out and quickly and efficiently published to the website. Zorlu is a freelance designer and illustrator. She is experienced with gathering user requirements, designing mockups using Adobe XD and coordinating with developers to code web applications.
As part of a new partnership with the California Department of Food and Agriculture, Randall Oliver and Hannah Vasilis joined UC IPM to work on the Invasive Shothole Borer project.
Oliver is the communications coordinator. Oliver will speak at conferences and create informational videos and training courses. He will develop outreach materials for different audiences and in different languages as well as improve existing training activities. In addition to invasive shothole borer communications, Oliver will also conduct similar outreach efforts on the more recently identified Mediterranean oak borer.
Vasilis is the field analyst and data survey coordinator. Vasilis works closely with the county-based trapper and visual surveyor in Los Angeles, San Bernardino, Ventura, Santa Barbara, Riverside, Kern, and San Luis Obispo counties to collect and manage trapping and survey data.
The overall goal of the Invasive Shothole Borer project is to develop an IPM program that uses cultural, physical, mechanical, and pesticide practices to control invasive shothole borers. The effectiveness of this program will be compared to two other management strategies that are currently being used by land managers in Southern California.
As part of UC IPM’s affiliated advisor program, we welcomed Whitney Brim-DeForest, Thomas Getts, and Gabriel Torres.
Brim-DeForest is the county director for Sutter and Yuba counties and a UC Cooperative Extension rice and wild rice advisor. Brim-DeForest developed the California Weedy Rice website to prevent and eliminate weed rice. Brim-DeForest is experienced in plant genetics; weeds affecting plants; IPM systems; and soil, plant, water, and nutrient relationships.
Getts is a UC Cooperative Extension weed ecology and cropping systems advisor for Lassen, Modoc, Plumas, and Sierra counties. Getts developed WeedCut, a decision-support tool that helps users determine the nonpesticide management practices for weeds in natural areas. Getts is experienced in plant product quality and utility; weeds affecting plants; and IPM systems.
Torres is a UC Cooperative Extension viticulture farm advisor in Tulare and Kings counties. Torres is experienced in grapes; ornamental crops, landscape, and turf; ornamental trees; plant production; plant protection; pathogens and nematodes affecting plants; IPM systems; and endemic and invasive pests and diseases.
UC Cooperative Extension academics who work in pest management are invited by the director to affiliate with UC IPM on 5-year terms to broaden the Program’s support and outreach network throughout California.