UC president committee to research information delivery

UC President Robert Dynes said he is committed to ensuring that research innovations developed by University of California scientists end up in the hands of people who will use them.

"I like to refer to this as 'R, D & D.' - meaning research, development and delivery," Dynes said. "Nowhere is the commitment to UC's land-grant mission and 'R, D & D' more evident than in the San Joaquin Valley."

The land-grant mission stems from legislation signed by President Lincoln in 1862, which provided each state with land to sell to finance colleges that promoted "the liberal and practical education of the industrial classes," primarily in the areas of agriculture and mechanics.

The Smith-Lever Act of 1914 provided funds to establish UC Cooperative Extension offices staffed with advisors in agriculture, 4-H and nutrition, family and consumer sciences. The advisors conduct applied research and present the latest UC innovations directly to the public, who put them to immediate use. The advisors also are the public's link back to campus-based researchers. The San Joaquin Valley has the greatest concentration of these county-based advisors in the state.

Last October, Dynes was named the 18th president of the UC system, which includes 10 campuses, five teaching hospitals, three national laboratories, UC Cooperative Extension, the Agricultural Experiment Station and dozens of additional programs and services. In all, the UC system includes more than 200,000 students, 160,000 employees, 35,000 retirees and 1.2 million living alumni. Hundreds of UC employees live and work in the valley.

President Dynes visited the valley as part of his inaugural tour, a series of visits to communities throughout the state that Dynes has chosen in place of a traditional academic inauguration. A beautiful spring day greeted Dynes at the UC Kearney Research and Extension Center near Parlier April 23.

He toured Kearney's new state-of-the-art greenhouse, where UC plant pathologist Themis Michailides explained the molecular procedures in the diagnosis, epidemiology and prediction of fruit tree and vine diseases, and UC entomologist Beth Grafton-Cardwell spoke about ways to delay the development of pesticide resistance in California red scale in citrus.

Dynes visited Tulare County farm advisor Manuel Jimenez' blueberry field trials on the eastern edge of the 330-acre field station, where he tasted sweet California blueberries for the first time. Blueberries are a new crop in California due to Jimenez' research efforts aimed at maintaining sufficient soil acidity and selecting proper varieties of a crop that is traditionally grown in the much cooler northwestern and northeastern parts of the United States.

"I'm energized by what's going on here in the valley, and I thank you for your hospitality," Dynes said.

Dynes ate breakfast featuring some of the valley's finest fresh produce - such as strawberries, melons, orange juice and kiwifruit - with some of the valley's prominent political and agri-business leaders. During his remarks, Dynes acknowledged the budget challenges being faced by the University, calling his first months on the job "not the happiest time." But he said current challenges should be faced with an eye on the future.

"We must be in place to recover strongly since we are an important part of the future of California," Dynes said. "If UC becomes just another university, California will become just another state."

Visalia attorney Dan Dooley said he was pleased to hear the president's comments about the importance of information delivery.

"A number of partnerships have resulted from business links with Cooperative Extension," Dooley said. "It is a unique delivery system that has tremendous value."

Ted Batkin, president of the Citrus Research Board, said effective delivery also requires private industry partnerships.

"The industry should not only be taking information, but it should be involved in information development and delivery," Batkin said.

Dynes agreed: "There needs to be a dynamic flow in all directions."

Dynes said success breeds complacency. A former executive at AT&T, Dynes witnessed the disintegration of one of the largest and most successful companies in the world.

"I've seen what happens when people take things for granted. I am working to convince the governor and others that the future of competitiveness in the state is the investment in UC," Dynes said. "High-tech, biotech, agriculture, health care - they are all similar. We have taken leadership in these areas and we must maintain our leadership."

(May 2004)

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