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CONTACTNewsletter - Spring 2009
Extra! Extra!
Picnic Day 2009
Perfect weather helped make this year’s UC Davis Centennial Picnic Day the biggest one ever, with over 100,000 people in attendance! LAWR had a variety of booths and displays, including the famous “Soil Art and Soil Texture” booth, showcasing the “Online Soil Survey” giving away the famous “Dr. Dirt” compost, offering a “Walkway from the Sierra to the Sea” as well as showcasing the “Soil Monolith Exhibition”. The atmospheric sciences performed their popular “Science Show” spiced up with some new experiments throughout the event. The Air Quality “Wheel of Fortune” drew a lot of attention as well as the “How well do you know Davis “exhibition. Waterways through California could be observed via the ‘Sierra to the Sea’ multimedia tool. Among all of the events “Water in Motion” as well as “Water Sample Testing”, “The Microbes” and the “The LAWR Club” made Picnic Day a full success.
SSoil Arts does not just make children happy.
Where is the “Toad Hollow tunnel”?
LAWR Graduate Showcase 2009
LAWR’s graduate groups in Atmospheric Science, Hydrologic Sciences and Soils and Biogeochemistry hosted their third Graduate Showcase event in March 2009. The Showcase is an opportunity to present the department’s interdisciplinary programs to potential graduate students, who get to tour the UC Davis campus, meet with faculty, tour labs, and dine with current grad students.
Applicants to LAWR graduate programs participate in discussion of academics and campus life during the Graduate Showcase. Twenty-seven applicants attended as guests.
Guests at the Showcase enjoy farewell lunch in PES 3001.
“Thank Goodness for Staff 2009” Picnic at UC Davis
Many of the LAWR staff celebrated the yearly work appreciation event in a shady spot on the Hutchison Fields wearing their favorite T-Shirts while enjoying food and drinks.
Give to LAWR
The Department of Land, Air and Water Resources (LAWR) is among the top environmental academic programs in world. It is the people within the department that make this success possible. Our students and faculty can most effectively maintain this excellence with your philanthropic support. Please visit our Giving Opportunities page and find out how you can contribute to LAWR.
Thanks to the Chevron Corporation for their generous gift contribution.
Thanks to the family of Professor K. Tanji for giving to the LAWR Opportunity Fund.
Thanks to the Ticho Foundation for their generous contribution of $25,000 to support
undergraduate research for our students in Hydrology.
Thanks to Professor Michael Singer for giving to the Jim
Thayer Soil Science Student Endowment Fund.
Give a man a fish and you feed him for a day. Teach a man to fish and you feed him for a lifetime.”
Chinese Proverb
Obituaries
Kenneth K. Tanji, Professor Emeritus of Hydrology at the UC Davis Land, Air, and Water Resources (LAWR) Department, died September 7, 2007, at Sutter Hospital Davis from bacterial pneumonia. He was 75 years old. Ken was born in Honolulu, Hawaii in 1932. He received a B.A. degree in Chemistry from University of Hawaii. After serving in the U.S. Army as a Captain, Ken moved to Davis in 1956 and earned B.S. and M.S. degrees in Soil Science at UCD. In 1997 he earned a Sc.D. in Agricultural Science – Irrigation, Drainage and Hydrological Engineering from Kyoto University, Japan. In his 50 years at UCD, Ken taught numerous courses in the LAWR Department, served as Department Chair from 1981-84, served as Assistant Director of the Agricultural Experiment Station in Oakland, and served as Director of the Kearney Foundation of Soil Science. He was the 1994-1995 the recipient of the UCD Academic Senate Distinguished Public Service Award and also the Award of Distinction from the College of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences. Ken was a pillar of the hydrology faculty in LAWR, and was among its founding fathers. For many years, he served the Departmental and University community tirelessly with much devotion. He made long-lasting contributions in the areas of water quality and irrigation science. Even though he retired many years ago, Ken remained extremely active in his profession. Ken was nationally and internationally recognized as an expert on hydrology and water quality and was an active participant in the American Society of Civil Engineering (ASCE) and the National Water Research Institute. He was a recipient of the 1990 Outstanding Service Award from the ASCE's Irrigation and Drainage Division and the prestigious Royce J. Tipton Award, "for his significant contributions to sustaining irrigated agriculture in California and the western United States." He enjoyed international travel and teaching and fulfilled a lifelong goal of completing his Doctorate of Science degree from Kyoto University.
William O. Pruitt died in January this year. Emeritus Bill Pruitt received his undergraduate and graduate degrees in Agricultural Engineering at the State College of Washington in Pullman. He started his career at UC Davis as Irrigation Engineer in 1957 in the ‘then’ Department of Irrigation Science, and was appointed Lecturer in Water Science in 1965. He held a courtesy appointment with the Department of Agricultural Engineering. Bill retired from the university and the Department of Land, Air, and Water Resources, in 1986. He was awarded the title of “Lecturer Emeritus” and “Irrigation Engineer” in 1987, as a testimony of his widely recognized dedication to public service, teaching and research.