Kent Bradford

Kent Bradford is a Distinguished Professor Emeritus in the Department of Plant Sciences at UC Davis. He earned his B.S. and M.S. degrees from Michigan State University and his Ph.D. in Plant Physiology from UC Davis. Professor Bradford joined the faculty at UC Davis in 1982 and held many leadership roles including department chair. One major accomplishment was establishing the UC Davis Seed Biotechnology Center in 1999, which now has international recognition. As Director Emeritus of the Seed Biotechnology Center, he supports the creation and commercialization of new technologies to improve crop performance, quality and sustainability, and education of plant breeders and seed industry professionals in the U.S. and internationally. Kent was also notably elected as a Fellow of the esteemed American Association for the Advancement of Science in 2003.

Upon retiring from UC Davis in 2019, Kent wasn’t ready to give up his academic plant interests, so he soon thereafter became a weekly volunteer with the UC Davis Arboretum’s Tuesday Gardening Team, led by Ryan Deering, a GATEways Horticulturist in the Arboretum. Kent likes not only the manual gardening challenges, but also the focus on establishing climate-ready plants for the UC Davis Arboretum.

With his knowledge of plant science and his connections with many organizations, Kent Bradford was elected to the Board of Directors of the Friends of the UC Davis Arboretum and Public Garden in 2024. In addition to his UC Davis work, Kent and his wife, Barbara, have an extraordinary home garden in Davis which they established and continue to maintain.