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Office for Research and Graduate Education

College of Food, Agricultural, and Environmental Sciences

CFAES

Celebration of Research Week: Why We Research Campaign

April 19, 2022
We asked CFAES STARS grad Zoe Plakias why she got involved in research. Her answer: When I finished my undergrad in Econ I felt like I had so much more to learn and had just touched the tip of the iceberg. I was curious about many things. Why did the diabetic patients at the medical office where I worked have such a hard time changing their diet? Why were we sending US produced grains to African countries as food aid when those same countries produce grain? Why do some people go hungry when others have surp

On behalf of the CFAES Office for Research & Graduate Education I would like to extend our sincere appreciation to all who participated in the Celebration of Research Week festivities and a congratulations to all winners who were honored during the 2022 Annual Research Conference Awards Ceremony. If you missed the ceremony you can visit the 2021-2022 CFAES Award Recipients page to view the winners and their bios, as well as the research poster competition winners. 

View Awardees View Poster Winners

Throughout the week we highlighted our inaugural CFAES STARS (Strategic Alignment for Research Success) cohort on our Facebook and Twitter pages. We posed the question, "why did you get involved in research?" Check out their answers below to see the why behind some of the research taking place in our college, and make sure to follow us to stay in the loop on all things CFAES.

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Photo of Dr. Marilia Chiavegato in grad school and photo of Dr. Chiavegato in 2022 at the CFAES STARS banquet. Question: Why did you get involved in research? Answer: I decided to pursue research because research allows me to think outside the box. If we are looking to build and live in a sustainable world, we need to think about our old problems differently. Through research we can tackle complex problems and find innovative, and sometimes unexpected, solutions. I find that really exciting!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Why did CFAES researcher and STARS graduate Dr. Jessica Cooperstone get involved in research? Answer: The truth is I never really had an aha research moment. I thought research (and an M.S.) would help me as a product development scientist working in the food industry, but the more I did research, the more I liked it, and here I am. Photo of Jessica in graduate school and photo of Jessica at the 2022 STARS Banquet.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Dr. Jonathan Fresnedo Ramirez, CFAES researcher & STARS graduate, gives us the why behind his research in Horticulture & Crop Science. Answer: I can say that from an early age I have been curious about how things function and what is behind that function. As I advanced my education, I realized that we possess tools, or can develop new ones, to modify those functions and then to provide answers and solutions to questions and problems we face as a society. Photo of Jonathan at the 2022 CFAES STARS Banquet.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

CFAES Horticulture & Crop Scientist and CFAES STARS graduate Dr. Andrea Gschwend tells us why she got involved in research. Answer: Biological systems are incredible; the fact that our genes, proteins, and cells work to create functioning organisms is pretty amazing. In my biology classes, I would often find myself asking “how” or “why” when learning a new concept. Many times, the answers to those questions were still unknown. This curiosity drove me to pursue a career in research, where I could contribute to answering these types of questions and discover something new about the biological world. Photo of her in graduate school and at the 2022 STARS Banquet.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

May be an image of 3 people, people standing and text that says 'CFAES Why did you get involved in research? Shoshanah Inwood love to eat! got research because wanted to understand where food comes from; who growing, processing, distributing, serving can create resilient equitable systems Shifting from degrees biology environmental science eto rural sociology brought forward food and agriculture research, people are often most complex part of the story but also the most interesting and inspiring. Photos(left-rgh) Photos (left-right) Shoshanah graduate school; 2022 CFAES STARS Banquet'

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We asked CFAES STARS grad Zoe Plakias why she got involved in research. Her answer: When I finished my undergrad in Econ I felt like I had so much more to learn and had just touched the tip of the iceberg. I was curious about many things. Why did the diabetic patients at the medical office where I worked have such a hard time changing their diet? Why were we sending US produced grains to African countries as food aid when those same countries produce grain? Why do some people go hungry when others have surplus food? When I got to grad school at UC Davis, I was in California’s Central Valley and I became particularly interested in questions around agricultural production in the US, and I studied several California industries (peaches, nectarines, and rice) in my dissertation. I also ended up pursuing these interests by volunteering for and then serving on the Board of the Davis Food Co-op, a consumer-owned retail store. Photo of Zoe in grad school and of Zoe at 2022 STARS Banquet.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Here is why CFAES STARS graduate Dr. Alejandro Relling decided to get involved in research. Answer: After finishing a DVM in Argentina I had the opportunity to travel to and work on a dairy farm in Minnesota where I got to interact with some faculty members from the department of Animal Science. That interaction allowed me to see how my curiosity on why biology changed based on different diets could be beneficial for producers. The same questions that many producers have can be solved by doing research.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Dr. Joy Rumble, CFAES researcher & STARS graduate shares why she got involved in research. Answer: I got involved in research because I wanted to be able to help consumers understand modern agricultural practices. I wanted to bridge the gap between agricultural production and consumption. Photo of Joy in graduate school and at the 2022 CFAES STARS Banquet.