Congratulations to Joshua Kiner for receiving the Dean’s Outstanding Employee Award for his outstanding dedication and service to the college!

Josh is truly an outstanding Coordinator in all respects. He is nominated for his exemplary leadership, positive attitude, innovation, organization and rapport inside and outside of the department. Josh has consistently gone above and beyond expectations. In addition to his routine responsibilities, which he tackles with his tireless work ethic and creativity, he enthusiastically takes over additional responsibilities as they become available. 
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Nominators mention “Josh has recenlty taken on responsibilities associated with the new KUALI Research System, and works closely with faculty and our business office to ensure timely, complete, and accurate submissions of grant proposals.” and "Josh  is a model of efficiency and has streamlined the flow of information into and out of our front office in a way that I have not experienced..." 

Congratulations to Dr. Tammatha O'Brien for receiving the 2018 Provost's Excellence Award for Professional Track Faculty for her outstanding contributions and accomplishments in teaching!

Dr. O'Brien received this prestigious award for her "exemplary teaching performance, including course diversity and format, and how [she has] integrated basic and biological concepts with late-breaking research, real-life concerns, and perspectives from the humanities."

Dr. O'Brien, a Senior Lecturer in the Department of Entomology, is also the director of the fully-online Applied Entomology Professional Masters and Graduate Certificate Program. You can learn more about this program here: Graduate Programs in Applied Entomology. 

Check out our Spring 2018 ​Entomology Department newsletter to see what we've been up to! Content includes news on publications, awards, defenses and much more. 

​Is there something you'd like to see in the Summer 2018 edition? Let us know by sending an e-mail to umdentomology@umd.edu. 

​Enjoy!

Mark your calendars for Samuel Ramsey's lecture, "What's Eating the Bees?" taking place April 25th at the MilkBoy ArtHouse. Doors open at 5:30 p.m. and lecture begins at 6:30 p.m. Ramsey's talk is part of the new CMNS lecture series, Science on Tap. RSVP at go.umd.edu/scienceontap3. Space is limited. 

​ABOUT THE TALK
There's a parasite on our honey bees—and researchers agree that it tops the list of stress factors for honey bee health. The parasite, called Varroa destructor, is similar in proportion to humans having a tick the size of their hand. This creature exists, to some extent, in virtually every honey bee colony. Scientists believed for more than half a century that the mite consumes small amounts of bee blood. Now, they know that the mite liquifies a bee's liver and sucks part of the liver out of the bee's body. Knowing how the mite feeds, researchers can develop more effective treatment methods and find ways to remediate the negative health effects associated with parasitic feeding.

Questions? Contact Abby Robinson at abbyr@umd.edu or 301-405-5845.

The Entomological Society of America Eastern Branch has awarded Dr. Paula Shrewsbury the top nomination for the Distinguished Achievement Award in Extension for outstanding contributions in the areas of entomology teaching and extension. This nomination was recognized at the Eastern Branch Meeting. Nominees are considered for the Society–level awards given at the Entomological Society of America’s Annual Meeting.  Congratulations to Dr. Paula Shrewsbury for being nominated!

​During her fellowship year, Gussie will be researching insect herbivory on fossil leaves from the Late Cretaceous (~75 million years ago) in North America. She will be using a paleobotanical collection from New Mexico to study the diversity and intensity of insect herbivory at the National Museum of Natural History. Gussie will also conduct fieldwork in Coahuila, Mexico to collect a new fossil flora and study its insect damage. These two projects will tie into her overall dissertation on the biogeography of plant-insect associations during the Late Cretaceous of western North America.