Matthias Hess

I am looking forward to attending the CA Dairy Sustainability Summit in Visalia, CA on March 25th to meet and talk with leaders in the field. I hope to see you there. cadairysummit.com

You can also register for the 2025 Summit here: registration.ucdavis.edu/Item/Details/1…

The 2024 State of the Science Summit: Reducing Methane from Animal Agriculture Report is out. Here is the link to the report: clear.ucdavis.edu/sites/g/files/…

My lab at UC Davis (HessLab.com) will be hiring several additional postdocs in the next 12 months. The new hires will work on different aspects of rumen microbiology with emphasis on:

- isolation, cultivation and metabolic engineering of methanogens and acetogens - hydrogen and carbon flow during anaerobic digestion/fermentation - rumen fungi

Feel free to share this email with potential candidates. Start dates are negotiable - opening great opportunities for students who are graduating in the next 12 months.

Potential candidates can reach out directly to Dr. Matthias Hess (mhess@ucdavis.edu) or his lab manager Dr. Saumya Wickramasinghe (swickramasinghe@ucdavis.edu).

My group (HessLab.com) is recruiting a new Junior Specialist to support our ongoing efforts in understanding and editing the rumen microbiome towards lower methane production. Please apply here before Dec 1st 2024 recruit.ucdavis.edu/JPF06793

I don’t really do endorsements. I’m not shy about sharing my views, but I hate politics and don’t trust most politicians. I also understand that people want to hear from me because I am not just a celebrity, I am a former Republican Governor. My time as Governor taught me to love policy and ignore politics. I’m proud of the work I did to help clean up our air, create jobs, balance the budget, make the biggest infrastructure investment in state history, and take power from the politicians and give it back to the people when it comes to our redistricting process and our primaries in California. That’s policy. It requires working with the other side, not insulting them to win your next election, and I know it isn’t sexy to most people, but I love it when I can help make people’s lives better with policies, like I still do through my institute at USC, where we fight for clean air and stripping the power from the politicians who rig the system against the people. Let me be honest with you: I don’t like either party right now. My Republicans have forgotten the beauty of the free market, driven up deficits, and rejected election results. Democrats aren’t any better at dealing with deficits, and I worry about their local policies hurting our cities with increased crime. It is probably not a surprise that I hate politics more than ever, which, if you are a normal person who isn’t addicted to this crap, you probably understand. I want to tune out. But I can’t. Because rejecting the results of an election is as un-American as it gets. To someone like me who talks to people all over the world and still knows America is the shining city on a hill, calling America is a trash can for the world is so unpatriotic, it makes me furious. And I will always be an American before I am a Republican. That’s why, this week, I am voting for Kamala Harris and Tim Walz. I’m sharing it with all of you because I think there are a lot of you who feel like I do. You don’t recognize our country. And you are right to be furious. For decades, we’ve talked about the national debt. For decades, we’ve talked about comprehensive immigration reform that secures the border while fixing our broken immigration system. And Washington does nothing. The problems just keep rolling, and we all keep getting angrier, because the only people that benefit from problems aren’t you, the people. The only people that benefit from this crap are the politicians who prefer having talking points to win elections to the public service that will make Americans’ lives better. It is a just game to them. But it is life for my fellow Americans. We should be pissed! But a candidate who won’t respect your vote unless it is for him, a candidate who will send his followers to storm the Capitol while he watches with a Diet Coke, a candidate who has shown no ability to work to pass any policy besides a tax cut that helped his donors and other rich people like me but helped no one else else, a candidate who thinks Americans who disagree with him are the bigger enemies than China, Russia, or North Korea - that won’t solve our problems. It will just be four more years of bullshit with no results that makes us angrier and angrier, more divided, and more hateful. We need to close the door on this chapter of American history, and I know that former President Trump won’t do that. He will divide, he will insult, he will find new ways to be more un-American than he already has been, and we, the people, will get nothing but more anger. That’s enough reason for me to share my vote with all of you. I want to move forward as a country, and even though I have plenty of disagreements with their platform, I think the only way to do that is with Harris and Walz. Vote this week. Turn the page and put this junk behind us. And even if you disagree with me, vote, because that’s what we do as Americans. vote.org

Join me at bsky.app/profile/thehes…

Check out this article in the @washingtonpost about our work in @TheHessLab and @ErmiasKebreab Lab at @ucdavisCAES in collaboration with @DoudnaJennifer @Dr__Diamond @BanfieldJill and others at @igisci to reduce enteric methane by editing the rumen microbiome.

Check out this video that explains the importance and some details of the work that is currently underway at the @TheHessLab and the Lab of @ErmiasKebreab at @ucdavis and the @igisci at @UCBerkeley to reduce methane emissions from cattle. ow.ly/VKQ050SlatZ

Exciting news: the first manuscript from our collaboration w/ @Dr__Diamond at @igisci and our project to reduce enteric methane sponsored by @TheAudaciousPrj is now available on BioRvix: biorxiv.org/content/10.110…

I am very excited about a new project w. colleagues in Australia. We will develop new strategies to boost cattle health and productivity by reducing enteric methane production. A press release by the AUS Govnmt provides a great summary of our project. statements.qld.gov.au/statements/100…

Check out a recent paper we co-authored with the Hedlund Lab at UNLV, describing the first hyperthermophilic GH50 with β-1,3-endoglucanase activity.... frontiersin.org/journals/micro…

@TheHessLab is excited to be part of the solution by improving our understanding of the microbial processes that drive rumen function and by identifying advanced ways to alter these microbial processes towards less methane and healthier animals.

Check out Conor McCabe's video on LinkedIn (shorturl.at/bhqV9) about the great interdisciplinary work that is conducted at the @UCDavisCLEAR @ucdavisCAES under the leadership of Prof Mitloehner (aka @GHGGuru) to curb enteric methane.

Our first paper, on COVID-19 infection fatality ratios, from a wonderful collaboration, we literally started the week before the virus shut down the entire world.... tinyurl.com/bdeaaa8c Thank you everyone involved for turning the shutdown into a very productive opportunity.