Dr. Patrick Brown is a professor of Plant Sciences in the Department of Plant Sciences at the University of California, Davis. Dr. Brown’s research focuses on function and transport of nutrients in plants and the management of nutrients in agricultural ecosystems. Dr. Brown is a highly cited researcher whose contributions include the identification of nickel as an essential element for plants, critical contributions to the understanding of the function, uptake and transport of boron in plants, identification of mechanisms of plant tolerance to heavy metals in the environment and on the mechanisms of action of foliar fertilizers. Dr. Brown has served as chairman and executive committee member of the International Plant Nutrition Colloquium, as co-chairman of the 1st and 2nd International Congress on Biostimulants in Agriculture and has held numerous leadership roles at the University of California, Davis and in state, national and international committees and panels.