UC Davis Honorees

Wolf Prize in Agriculture More>>

Jorge Dubcovsky

Jorge Dubcovsky, Distinguished Professor of Plant Sciences, director of the UC Davis Wheat Breeding Program and Wheat Molecular Genetics Laboratory, and international curator of the Catalogue of Gene Symbols for Wheat, shared the 2014 prize with Leif Andersson of Uppsala University in Sweden. His discoveries led to the dramatic improvement of the health and nutritional quality of one of the world's foremost grains. Dubcovsky is a member of the US National Academy of Sciences. 

Gurdev Khush

Gurdev Khush, one of the most prominent agricultural scientists in the world, who served on the faculty of the University of California and also spent more than three decades as a plant scientist and later Head Plant Breeder at the International Rice Research Institute in the Philippines, is a PhD graduate of UC Davis and adjunct professor emeritus of Plant Sciences. He is known for the development of significant advances in plant genetics leading to the enhanced nutritional value and disease resistance of rice varieties. Khush received the Wolf Prize in 2000. He is also a World Food Prize Laureate (with Henry Beachell, 1996), a recipient of the Japan Prize (1987), an International Member of the US National Academy of Sciences, a member of the Indian Academy of Sciences, the Third World Academy of Sciences, and the Royal Society of London among others. 

Harris Lewin

Harris Lewin, Distinguished Professor Emeritus of Evolution and Ecology, Chair of the Earth BioGenome Project executive council, and former Vice Chancellor for Research at UC Davis, received the 2011 prize with James R. Cook of Washington State University. Lewin's pioneering work in mapping the bovine genome led to important consequences for animal and human health. Lewin is a member of the US National Academy of Sciences, a recipient of an Explorers Club James Russell Lowell Prize, and a recipient of the International Cooperation Zhongguancun Award of the China Biodiversity Conservation and Green Development Foundation. 

Pamela Ronald 

Pamela Ronald, Distinguished Professor of Plant Pathology, member of the UC Davis Genome Center, founding director of the Interdisciplinary Forum to Advance Science Learning and founding director of the UC Davis Institute for Food and Agriculture Literacy, is the 2022 Wolf Prize laureate. She is the first woman scientist at Davis to receive the prize. Her research has facilitated the development of high-yielding rice varieties with improved disease resistance and environmental stress tolerance. Ronald is a member of the US National Academy of Sciences, a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, a Fellow of the Royal Swedish Academy of Forestry and Agriculture, and a Fellow of the American Society of Plant Biologists. 

Venkatesan Sundaresan

Venkatesan Sundaresan is a leading figure in the study of plant reproduction, functional genomics, and plant microbiomes who has significantly improved and fundamentally changed the resources available for research in plant genetics. A Distinguished Professor of Plant Biology at UC Davis, Sundaresan developed the first large-scale gene trapping system in plants; the first reverse-genetics database; a functional genomics resource in rice; and the first computational prediction methods for miRNAs, among many other milestones. A member of the US National Academy of Sciences, Sundaresan shares the 2024 prize with Joanne Chory of the Salk Institute and Elliot Meyerowitz of Caltech and Howard Hughes Medical Institute.