Vegan, omnivore, keto… what we eat is essential to our culture, health, environment and identity. It should be no surprise that we care deeply about our food choices. But in today’s grocery, those choices can be overwhelming and we use shorthand to make decisions. Daniel Westcott, a former organic farmer and a current PhD student at UC Berkeley will try to unpack the labels and offer some insight...
Past PMB Seminars
For a schedule of all Plant & Microbial Biology events, seminars, and lectures visit our calendar.
Jim Kronstad: Nutrient regulation of fungal virulence
Jim Kronstad is a professor in the Department of Microbiology & Immunology and is a member of the Faculty of Agricultural Sciences. He earned his Ph.D. from the University of Washington and now studies several aspects of fungal biology including pathogenesis, morphogenesis, infection-specific gene expression and self versus nonself recognition (mating).
SLAM: Insights into Industry
Join UC Berkeley SLAM for a unique opportunity to learn about working in research and development (R&D), in all sizes and forms, after a PhD in STEM. Chat with our panelists and speakers from a variety of backgrounds during lunch and throughout the event. Science and engineering graduate students, post-docs, and visiting scholars who are interested in a career in R&D are strongly encouraged to...
Alice Barkan: On the mechanism of light-induced psbA translation in chloroplasts
Alice Barkan is a professor at the University of Oregon under the Institute of Molecular Biology. She is interested in post-transcriptional control of gene expression in the chloroplast and RNA/protein interactions. Research in the Barkan lab is directed at understanding how the genetic machineries in the chloroplast and nucleus communicate to produce a chloroplast that is responsive to...
Posy Busby: Differentiating plant genetic from environmental drivers of plant microbiome structure and function
Posy Busby is an assistant professor in the Department of Botany and Plant Pathology at Oregon State University. Research in the Busby lab focuses on plant-fungal interactions, plant disease, and community ecology. Their current research seeks to characterize communities of non-pathogenic fungi that live in plants, “endophytes,” and to test how endophytes influence plant disease severity.
Matthew Fisher: Taylor White Lecture: Tracking and tackling emerging fungal threats
Matthew Fisher is a Professor of Fungal Disease Epidemiology and Faculty of Medicine at the School of Public Health, at Imperial College London. His research uses an evolutionary framework to investigate the biological and environmental factors that are driving emerging fungal diseases in both human, wildlife and plant species. In 2005 he received the Berkeley Award from the British Mycological...
Celebrating Black Girls in Libertaory Spaces
Ree Botts, PhD Candidate in African American Studies Kenly Brown, PhD Candidate in African American Studies Derrika Hunt, PhD Candidate in School of Education, Graduate Student Wellness Project Director for the Graduate Assembly Tiffani Johnson, PhD candidate of Education, Social & Cultural Studies Shelby Mack, BA Candidate in American Studies
Zhiyong Wang: A molecular circuit for information processing in plant growth regulation
Zhiyong Wang's lab at Carnegie Institution for Science focuses on elucidating the signaling mechanisms underlying growth regulation and environmental adaptation. Wang is the acting director of the Department of Plant Biology. Wang received his B.S. in plant physiology from Lanzhou University, China, his M.S. from the Institute of Botany, Chinese Academy of Sciences, and his Ph. D. in molecular,...
Center for Computational Biology Seminar
Large-scale genomic data reveal mechanisms of mutagenesis and help predict complex phenotypes Abstract: Statistical analysis of large genomic datasets has recently emerged as a discovery tool in many areas of genetics. Two examples include studies of mutagenesis and of the relationship between genotype and phenotype. We developed a statistical model of regional variation of human mutation...
Francis-André Wollman: Arnon Lecture: The chloroplast: a site of post-endosymbiotic innovations in gene expression and protein assembly
Dr. Wollman is the Director of the Institut de Biologie Physico-Chimique in Paris, France. His work is dedicated to the study of the biogenesis and the function of the photosynthetic apparatus, which is present in the network of internal membranes of the chloroplast, the thylacoids.