By Ann Filmer, Plant Sciences, UC Davis

"The U.S. Department of State and the J. William Fulbright Foreign Scholarship Board are pleased to announce that Steven Fennimore of the University of California, Davis, has received a Fulbright U.S. Scholar Program award to work in Uruguay in agriculture. Fennimore will conduct research and teaching at the INIA Las Brujas horticultural field station as part of a project to develop sustainable weed management systems in specialty crops.

Fennimore is a faculty member in the Department of Plant Sciences at UC Davis, and a statewide Cooperative Extension Specialist with UC Agriculture and Natural Resources. His expertise is weed management in vegetable crops and small fruits, as well as weed seed biology and physiology, and seed bank ecology. He is director of the statewide Vegetable Research and Information Center, housed at UC Davis. 

Based in Salinas, California, Fennimore conducts a research and extension program focused on weed management in vegetables, flowers and strawberries, particularly in coastal production areas in California. His program combines chemical and nonchemical methods, for both organic and conventional systems, with the objective of minimizing weed management costs. He also focuses on automated weeding systems to mitigate the severe labor shortages in California, and use of field-scale steam applicators to reduce the need for chemical fumigation in sensitive sites and near urban areas.

Dr. Fennimore is one of over 800 U.S. citizens who will teach, conduct research, and/or provide expertise abroad for the 2019–2020 academic year through the Fulbright U.S. Scholar Program. Recipients of Fulbright awards are selected on the basis of academic and professional achievement, as well as record of service and demonstrated leadership in their respective fields.

Read the full story at the UC Davis Department of Plant Sciences website.