March 2011 E-News

Educational Opportunities
Highlights

EDUCATIONAL OPPORTUNITIES

European Plant Breeding second class starts October 2011
Applications are now being accepted for the second class of the European Plant Breeding Academy beginning in October of 2011. The integrated postgraduate program, which is not crop specific, teaches the fundamentals of plant breeding, genetics, and statistics  through lectures, discussion, and field trips to public and private breeding programs. Employers appreciate the opportunity to provide their valued employees advanced training without disrupting their full-time employment. Participants will attend six 6-day sessions in five countries. The instructors are internationally recognized experts in plant breeding and seed technology. For more information on the UC Davis European Plant Breeding Academy or the Plant Breeding Academy in the United States visit http://pba.ucdavis.edu or contact Joy Patterson, jpatterson@ucdavis.edu

Seed Business 101℠ for employees new to seed industry
The third session of Seed Business 101™ for employees new to the seed industry took place successfully at Keithly-Williams Seeds in Yuma, Arizona on February 14-18, 2011. The 23 participants came from 16 different companies and represented the five main functional areas of the industry (research and development, production, operations, sales and marketing and administration).

This course provides a rich educational opportunity that introduces all major aspects of the seed business via case studies through a seed company designed for the program. The course is taught by Maurice Smith, Peter Vandenberg, Gary Whiteaker and other distinguished guest speakers.  Enrollments are being accepted for the December 5-9, 2011 in Davis, California, and January 16-20, 2012 in Wimauma, Florida. For more information contact Jeannette Martins, jmartins@ucdavis.edu or visit: http://sbc.ucdavis.edu/education/seed_business.html.

Licensing Academy
Learn how to License, Market and Manage your Technology Portfolio!
PIPRA and UCD’s International Program are hosting a two-week course in IP management and technology licensing in Davis, California June 5-17 2011. The course will cover topics such as U.S. and international IP protection, IP management for commercialization, licensing, IP issues in negotiating an international agreement, starting IP and technology transfer offices, start-ups and spin-offs from public sector institutions. The program will be based on lectures from a faculty comprised of university professors, practicing technology transfer managers and lawyers, hands-on case studies and a field visit to Silicon Valley.
For more information visit http://www.law.ucdavis.edu/prospective/international-program/licensing-academy.html
HIGHLIGHTS

Seed, Biology, Production and Quality
Seed Biology, Production and Quality was held on February 16-17, 2011 in Davis, CA.  66 participants attended the two-day program and came from as far as Canada, The Netherlands, Bangladesh, China and various states in the US. The course provided fundamental and specialized information on topics including seed development, production, harvesting, testing, conditioning, enhancement, storage, and quality assessment.  The instructors included: Dr. Derek Bewley (University of Guelph, Canada), Dr. Kent Bradford (UC Davis), Dr. Robert Gilbertson (UC Davis), Dr. Henk Hilhorst (Wageningen University, The Netherlands), Deborah Meyer (California State Seed Laboratory.) and Dr. Hiro Nonogaki (Oregon State University, Corvallis).
For more information about our educational programs please contact Jeannette Martins at jmartins@ucdavis.edu or at (530) 752-4984.

EPBA Participants Gather in Spain
The European Plant Breeding Academy (EPBA) participants completed their fourth week of the course. Students met in Spain February 21st through 26th at the Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona. One full day was spent in the field visiting breeding companies and IRTA. The day concluded with a mixer sponsored by Illumina and Kbiosciences. Students will next meet in Germany for week five of the EPBA.

For more information about the European Plant Breeding Academy visit http://pba.ucdavis.edu or contact Joy Patterson, jpatterson@ucdavis.edu

Plant Breeding Academy IMPACTS career development
A recent survey of UC Davis Plant Breeding Academy (PBA) graduates shows that the program has a significant impact on both the employer and the graduate-employee.  Graduates from the first two classes were surveyed with three statements measuring the impact of PBA on: 1) the contribution the graduates make to their organization and 2) recognition they have received for their contributions. The graduates enthusiastically participated in the survey with more than 50% of them mailing in responses within the first 3 days of our inquiry.
89% of respondents agree or strongly agree that they have become more productive employees in their respective organizations;  72.2% of respondents agree or strongly agree that the complexity of their tasks and duties have increased as a result of PBA training; more than 55% of the respondents experienced positive career changes in terms of promotion and salary.
Dr. Rale Gjuric, Education Director, Seed Biotechnology Center, UC Davis reflects on the results of the survey and success of the program: “It is great to confirm that our graduates and their employers are benefiting from the training received through the PBA. It gives us a great satisfaction and sense of purpose. The recognition by the employers is another measure of industry satisfaction with the program. The European PBA Class I and PBA Class III are currently in progress, adding thirty more graduates by the end of 2012.  With the success of the European program and anticipated expansion to Asia, we expect to have a total of over 100 PBA graduates by 2014.” 

For information on applying to EPBA II, see “European Plant Breeding second class starts October 2011”

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