Food and wine are more than just great flavors – they reflect the stories of communities and traditions. Darrell Corti, a Sacramento food and wine expert, has spent a lifetime sharing those stories, enriching California’s culinary landscape with his introduction of new tastes, ingredients and varietals.

To honor Corti’s contributions, Bob and Roger Trinchero, brothers from one of the largest family-owned wineries in the country and producers of Sutter Home wines, have established the $1.5 million "Darrell Corti Endowed Professorship in Food, Wine and Culture" at UC Davis.

The University of California, Davis, reached a major milestone attracting $1.07 billion in external research funding in the fiscal year 2021-22, up $102.9 million from the previous record set last year. In doing so, UC Davis joins an exclusive group of fewer than 20 public universities in the nation surpassing $1 billion in research funding.

The University of California, Davis, Department of Viticulture and Enology has received a $4 million endowment that will provide support in perpetuity for the kind of research and education that has made the department world renowned in its field.

The endowment, given anonymously, will fund unique projects that use and further develop analytical tools, advanced technologies and techniques, and equipment.

Bill Patterson, longtime butterfly collector and supporter of the University of California, Davis, is giving $1 million to the university’s R.M. Bohart Museum of Entomology to help maintain its permanent insect collection. This gift will provide the museum with the necessary financial security to support its ever-growing collection.                             

A new award fund has been created to help students interested in the wine industry pursue their degree in the Department of Viticulture and Enology at UC Davis.

The Theopolis Vineyards Diversity Fund will provide one scholarship of up to $10,000 each year to students interested in viticulture and enology and related research or managing a vineyard, with a preference for students who are underrepresented or understand barriers to entering the industry.

The season of gratitude is upon us, and we have so many reasons to feel joyful this fall. We are thankful for the campus’ approach to managing COVID-19 and the diligence applied to keeping us safe through vaccinations and accessible testing. Our vaccination rates are at 98 percent with a positivity rate of 0.06 percent for the past 30 days.

Rayann Eaves is just the sort of UC Davis student that the late Nancy Rupp Tibbitts would befriend—highly motivated, academically accomplished and fully engaged in the campus community.

Eaves is a senior in animal science, with an emphasis in livestock and dairy and a minor in global disease biology. She is an Aggie Ambassador, participates in the Agricultural and Environmental Sciences Field Day and is a leader in her sorority. After she graduates in June 2021, she hopes to become a large-animal veterinarian at the UC Davis Veterinary Medicine Teaching Hospital.