A celebration of life for Ursula K. Abbott, a professor emerita of poultry husbandry and genetics, is scheduled for 1 p.m. Wednesday (May 2) in the AGR Room at the Buehler Alumni and Visitors Center.

Abbott

Abbott was 84 when she died Jan. 15 of cancer at her Davis home. She was a native of Chilliwack, British Columbia, Canada.

She received bachelor and master’s degrees from the University of British Columbia, and her doctorate in genetics from UC Berkeley.

She had not completed her Ph.D. work when she started work at UC Davis as a principal technician in the Department of Poultry Husbandry. Berkeley awarded her doctorate in 1955, and UC Davis switched her title to instructor, after which she quickly rose through the professorial ranks and eventually was named chair of the Department of Avian Sciences.  

She developed undergraduate courses in developmental genetics, and fertility and hatchability.  

Her research in the field of developmental genetics was a fusion of her two main interests: poultry breeding and embryology. She worked with many developmental mutations and became interested in pattern formation. She will forever be associated with her discovery of the scaleless mutation.

She lectured around the world and was frequently called upon to help commercial poultry breeders and government agencies. She was particularly proud of her role in establishing a snow partridge population in the eastern Sierra Nevada, on behalf of the state of Nevada.     

She is survived by her son John Gordon Abbott and grandson Christopher Trenholme, and cousins in Canada and the United States.

Remembrances may be directed to the Avian Developmental Genetics Endowment (payable to the “UC Davis Foundation”), in care of the Department of Animal Sciences, UC Davis, 1 Shields Ave., Davis 95616.