Cess Mercado, a UC Davis firefighter and sergeant in the U.S. Army reserves, is packing his bags to leave for Iraq early next year. A medic in the 352nd Combat Support Hospital based in Oakland, Mercado takes off Jan. 4 for training in Kansas before journeying to Iraq. A 2002 UC Davis graduate (with a bachelor's degree in exercise science), Mercado was a student firefighter for three years before taking a full-time firefighter position in June 2002. ...

During his recent Mondavi Center talk, UC Berkeley Professor Michael Pollan nearly choked on a drink of water when someone in the audience asked for his opinion of the university's intent to convert farmland at Highway 113 and Russell Boulevard into the West Village housing project. ...

"I think it's really important to save farmland," said Pollan, the author of The Omnivore's Dilemma, a book about the U.S. food system. "The reason is, once it goes we'll never get it back, and you know it has to happen in this generation, because there's a huge threat to it." Pollan said some projections from the state Capitol indicate that there will be no farmland left in the Central Valley by the end of the 21st century, "that it will be wall-to-wall houses and highways if nothing is done." ...

"I don't know where exactly you put down your pitchfork and say no farther, but we have to find those lines and we have to find them soon, because once the houses go up they'll never be taken down for food, and this is some of the best farmland in the world." ...

Rick Keller, assistant vice chancellor for capital resource management, has accepted a new position with the state's stem cell research agency, the California Institute for Regenerative Medicine. Keller, who leaves UC Davis in late December, will serve as the senior officer for Scientific and Research Facilities and help to coordinate research facility grant awards and facility construction. Keller has managed the UC Davis capital and environmental program for 19 years and led the development of hundreds of thousands of square feet of facility space throughout the campus. ...

Matthew Hargrove, director of state government relations, begins a new job in January as the senior vice president of governmental affairs for the California Business Properties Association. He will be working with UC Davis alum Rex Hime, the president and chief executive officer of the association. During his eight years on campus, Hargrove achieved numerous successes advocating on behalf of the university. ...

For the first time, all UC Davis medical school students will be based in Sacramento. On Dec. 11, the university held a grand opening for the $46.2 million, 121,000-square-foot UC Davis Health System Education Building and F. William Blaisdell Medical Library. The facility will accommodate students from all four years of the medical school class, a first in the UC Davis School of Medicine's 40-year history. Until now, first- and second-year medical students have studied on the Davis campus while third- and fourth-year students have trained at the Sacramento campus.

— Dateline staff