Barbara Blanco-Ulate (bblanco@ucdavis.edu)
Associate Professor
Google Scholar

Bárbara is a faculty in the Department of Plant Sciences at UC Davis. She is originally from Costa Rica, where she graduated with a BS in Biotechnology Engineering. She obtained a PhD in Plant Biology from UC Davis, studying the susceptibility of tomato fruit to fungal diseases, and conducted postdoctoral research in the Department of Viticulture and Enology, focusing on ripening and pathogen infections of grape berries. Since joining the faculty in 2016, she has established a program focused on fruit biology and quality. Her current research integrates physiological, genomic, and biochemical approaches to study fruit development and fruit-pathogen interactions with the goal of improving the quality, nutrition, and shelf-life of fruit products. She is also the Co-Director of the UC Postharvest Research and Extension Center.

Carlos Carachure
MSc Student
Plant Pathology

Elia Isabel Gutierrez Baeza
MSc Student
Horticulture and Agronomy

Mad Lalica
PhD Student
Plant Biology

Alexis McQueary
MSc Student
Horticulture and Agronomy

Christian Ray Preston Rubio
PhD Student
Horticulture and Agronomy

Tianyue Wang
MSc Student
Horticulture and Agronomy

Yiduo Wei
PhD Student
Horticulture and Agronomy

Adrian Oscar Sbodio

Undergraduate Assistants

Annie Willett
Yuyang (Ivy) Lin
Amara Romero
Allison Carloni
Tommy Ngo
Sheung Ho Lam

Visiting Scholars

Anna Villalba Gimeno

Undergraduate Assistants

Chunzheng (Chaz) Fang, 2024-2025
Dylan Chiang, 2024
Deysi Álvaro Cejas, 2023-2024
Christian Labasan, 2023-2024
Adam Adaskaveg 2022-2023
Daphne Crum, 2021-2023
Nancy Yip, 2021-2023
Shruthi Somasundaram, 2021-2022
Samantha Tay, 2021-2022
Dilasha Shenaz, 2021-2023
Jacob Olaerts
Benjamin Cohen Stillman
Peng Huang, 2020-2021
Justin T. Le, 2019-2020
Aaron Lee, 2019-2020
Dustin Williams, 2019-2020
Curtis Yam, 2019-2020
Anima Sharma, 2019-2020
Nancy Her, 2018-2020
Sean Garay, 2019
Sarah Ream, 2018-2019
Brittany Tam, 2018-2019
Karina Gallegos, 2017-2019
Botao Tao, 2018
Emily Lam, 2018
Jasmine Ortega, 2018
Derek Kawahara, 2017-2018
Prachi Jha, 2017-2018

Visiting Scholars

Elisa Nassur, Brazil, 2024-2025
Hong Wang, Ph.D., China, 2024
Valeria Imperiale, Italy, 2024
Simone, Italy, 2023
Thomas Bruno Michelon, Brazil, 2022-2023
Patricio, Chile, 2023
Lara O'Shea-Farren, England, 2022
Silvia Rodriguez Pires, 2019
Maria Lopez de la Calle, 2019
Simone Piancatelli, 2019
Caio Cattai de Andrade, 2019
Marta Balsells Llauradó, 2019
Francisco Javier Fernández-Acero, Ph.D., 2019
Victor Papin, 2017-2018
Casper van den Abeele, 2017
Duoduo Wang, Ph.D., China, 2017

Postdoctoral Fellows

Baljeet Gill, Ph.D., 2018

Graduate Students

Isabel Ortega-Salazar, Ph.D., 2019-2024
Saskia Mesquida Pesci, Ph.D., 2019-2024 
Jaclyn A. Adaskaveg, Ph.D, 2018-2023
Christian J. Silva., Ph.D
Stefan Petrasch, Ph.D., 2017-2020
Fangyi Wang, M.Sc., 2019-2020
Sofia Guerrero Moreno, M.Sc., 2019

High School Interns

Elijah Lerner, 2020
Ozaliqe Williams, 2019