Student Life

What do cereal mascots and atomic absorption spectroscopy have in common? Both are fair game in the annual College Bowl Competition hosted by the Institute of Food Technologists Student Association, or IFTSA. Started in 1985, College Bowl is a team-based quiz competition about food science spanning universities throughout the United States and Canada.

In July, a team of five proudly represented UC Davis at the national finals in Chicago, Illinois.

The Integrative Center for Alternative Meat and Protein (iCAMP) at UC Davis focuses on developing transformative knowledge and innovation to accelerate the commercialization of alternative proteins, address global food system challenges, and strengthen food security. 

Fifty years ago, a blind tasting in Paris quietly rewrote the story of California wine. On May 24, 1976, a panel of nine French judges, convinced that California wine could not compete with Bordeaux or Burgundy, scored it higher than both. The Judgment of Paris put Napa Valley on the map and changed the way the world thought about American winemaking.

On the evening of May 22, 2026, five student teams gathered in the Robert Mondavi Institute's Food Innovation Lab with one shared ingredient, KARANA GROUND jackfruit, and five very different ideas about what to do with it. 

On April 26, 2026, the Sensory Theater at the Robert Mondavi Institute filled with students, alumni, researchers, and industry leaders for the 3rd Annual Women+ in Wine Symposium, titled Rooted and Rising: Lessons in Resilience for a Changing Wine Industry.

Iron Brew is one of those UC Davis traditions that sounds almost too good to be real. Every winter, students in FST 102B Practical Malting and Brewing spend weeks formulating recipes, brewing batches on nanobreweries in the RMI pilot brewery, and competing for the chance to have their beer produced commercially. 

Past winners, including Off the Clock, Caledonian Nights, Mighty Gale Ale, and Brew La-La have gone from campus fermentors to taps at The Gunrock, Sudwerk Brewing Co., and now Dunloe Brewing . 

On Saturday, May 2nd, 2026, 83 students, faculty and staff from UC Davis gathered at the RMI Sensory building for the first Student Symposium on Food Justice. This gathering sought to unite students who are dedicated to a food system that nourishes both people and the planet and support our collective efforts to advance justice in our food system.

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On May 11, 2026, certified sommelier, debut author, and change agent in the world of wine and beverage, Cha McCoy came to UC Davis with a mission to reframe how we think about wine, food, and who gets a seat at the table.