About the UC GFI Fellowship Program
The UC Global Food Initiative (UC GFI) was created by UC President Napolitano (in 2014) with the goal of harnessing UC resources to address one of the critical issues of our time: How to sustainably and nutritiously feed a world population expected to reach eight billion by 2025? The Initiative was launched last year with the formation of the UC GFI Fellowship program in which three small fellowships were awarded to outstanding undergraduate or graduate students at each of the nine UC campuses and Berkeley Lab. President Napolitano recently announced that the UC GFI Fellowship program will continue for the 2015-2016 academic year with support for an additional three non-need based fellowships at the level of $4500.
Berkeley Lab Mentors Sought
The UC GFI Berkeley Lab Program Lead is seeking mentors to potentially host a UC GFI Fellow. Berkeley Lab scientists who are interested in participating in this Initiative and potentially host a UC GFI Fellow should contact Maryann Villavert and/or Peter Nico by August 19. In order to ensure that we can identify a good match between mentors and fellows, please send a short description of the general topic area in which the fellow could work under your mentorship. UC GFI Fellow can work on any topics related to the overall mission of the UC GFI broadly defined.
Project Work In Year 1 of the UC GFI at Berkeley Lab
Three graduate students, selected in year 1 —one from UC Berkeley and two from UC Davis—worked with Berkeley Lab mentors on a project that aligns with a Lab initiative in predictive agriculture. Their projects focused examining the relationship between climate model outputs and growers information needs, updating genomic annotations of transposable elements (TEs) and impacts on growing maize, and modeling water runoff and bank scenarios to increase water for agriculture.
UC GFI Call for Fellowship Applications Opens Early August
A call for applications for UC GFI Fellow to work with interested mentors will open in early August with selections made by the end of September. This is an excellent opportunity for Lab scientists and students who are interested in food (broadly defined) related issues to contribute to the UC GFI mission.
Contact us today to become a mentor!
Peter Nico (Earth Sciences Division), UC GFI Berkeley Lab Program Lead
Maryann Villavert (Earth Sciences Division), UC GFI Berkeley Lab Program Communications Liaison
