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The Entomological Society of America featured Associate Professor and Extension Specialist Paula Shrewsbury in their December 2008 Newsletter.

Read the article.

The Society of Invertebrate Pathology has chosen Dr. Raymond St. Leger to receive the Founder´s Lecturer Award, one of the Society's highest honors. The award is given annually to an active researcher who has consistently made significant contributions to the field of invertebrate pathology. Dr. St. Leger will be presented with the award at the Society´s annual meeting in August where he will present the keynote at the opening ceremony.

Dr. Raymond St. Leger spent two weeks in China this month to set up a joint collaboration that will do genome sequencing of several species of insect pathogenic fungi. Coverage of these genomes will provide a resource for determining the identity, origin and evolution of traits needed for diverse lifestyles and host switching.

While in China, Dr. St. Leger also gave seminar presentations at Chongqing University and Shanghai Institute of Biological Sciences on the topic of  “Science in the 21st century."

Four students won honors in the Student Competition for the President's Prize at the 2008 meeting of the Entomological Society of America:

First Place Winners:

Miles Lepping, "Estimating carabid beetle population parameters in field corn to identify potential bioindicator species"

Ada Szczepaniec, "Expression of selected tomato genes involved in plant defense following application of a systemic insecticide imidacloprid"

Julie Byrd Hbert, "Genetic evidence for host race formation in the leafmining fly, Phytomyza glabricola (Diptera: Agromyzidae)"

 

Runner-up Winner:

Lauren Culler, "The potential contribution of larval Agabus (Coleoptera: Dytiscidae) for mosquito suppression in constructed wetlands"

How did garter snakes evolve to be able to eat poisonous newts?
Why do male cichlid fish have such diverse and bright colors?
What caused the rapid spread of flowering plants more than a hundred million years ago? 
Is there an evolutionary reason why some people behave more altruistically than others?

These are just a few of the questions addressed at the 9th annual University of Maryland Bioscience Day, which was attended by nearly one thousand people this year. Keynote speaker E.O. Wilson's lecture drew more than 700 attendees. The day focused on the importance of Darwinian theory to modern biology, biomedical research, psychology, and many other disciplines. This event coincided with many festivities held worldwide this year in honor of Charles Darwin's 200th birthday (Feb. 12, 2009) and the 150th anniversary of the introduction of the theory of natural selection to fellow scientists.