 UMD’s Entomology Games team—known as the Checkerspots—earned second place in the eastern regional competition. With their win, the Checkerspots advanced to the national competition, which will be held at the Entomological Society of America’s (ESA) national meeting in Denver in November.
See CMNS article to learn more about the team and their preparations for the national games.
Congratulations to Associate Professor Dennis vanEngelsdorp for being named Highly Cited Researcher by Clarivate's Web of Science for the 5th year in a row!
See Clarivate's list here>>  Congratulations to Distinguished University Professor Margaret Palmer recipient of the Helmholtz International Fellowship Award for Excellent Researchers. These fellowships are "aimed at outstanding senior scientists who have distinguished themselves through their work in areas relevant to Helmholtz. The prize is awarded in recognition of the scientific merits and is endowed with a total of 20,000 euros." She was recognized for "cutting edge work in hydrology and ecology" and "pioneer work at the interface of science and society." Once COVID-19 travel restrictions are lifted, Margaret will be spending time at the Helmholtz Center for Environmental Research in Leipzig, Germany with the option to collaborate with scientists at other Helmholtz centers.
This spring Maggie Hartman, M.S. student in the Lamp Lab, entered the Campus-Level Three-Minute Thesis competition and won! Maggie says distilling her thesis, ‘Dragons on the farm: A novel approach to determining dragonfly diet in agroecosystems', into a 3-minute video for a public audience was an interesting challenge.
Choose "read more" to find out more about Maggie’s initial interest in the competition, her approached to the task, her initial “shock” to have won and what’s next for her and her competitors. In recognition of Dr. Bill Lamp's extraordinary dedication to Honors education at the University of Maryland he has been named recipient of the Honors College's highest award, the Winston Family Honors Faculty Award. For nearly two decades Bill has directed the Department of Entomology’s Honors program, which has graduated 30 students 17 of whom were mentees of his lab. In addition to his directing role Bill also instructs stand out courses like HONR208D, “Insect Biodiversity: The Good, theBad and the Weird,” in the University Honors Program. Please join us in congratulating Bill on this well deserved recognition!
& if you get a chance spread the word on social media: facebook, twitter Congrats team Checkerspots - Maggie Lewis, Taís Ribeiro, Maria Cramer, and Kristin Jayd- for scoring 2nd place in the entomology Games at the Entomological Society of America's Eastern Branch meeting! This fall University of Maryland Checkerspots are headed to Denver, where they will compete at the national level. Go Checkerspots!!!!!
Ento Grad Students Place in Mid-Atlantic Fruit and Vegetable Convention Research Competition2/11/2021
Exciting news out of Hooks Lab!
Congratulations to Veronica Yurchak & Demian Nunez who placed 1st and 2nd, respectively in the Graduate Student poster contest held during the Virtual Mid-Atlantic Fruit and Vegetable Convention. The judging panel saw 24 poster entries in total, and our students posters stood out as top. Award winning posters listed below. Title: Using a living mulch in reduced tillage sweet corn Authors: Veronica Yurchak, Alan Leslie and Cerruti RR Hooks Title: Developing a perennial living mulch system for Mid-Atlantic cantaloupe growers. Authors: Demian Nunez, Macarena Farcuh, Karin Burghardt and Cerruti RR Hooks  Congratulations to the recipients of the Spring 2021 Ernest N. Cory Undergraduate Scholarship! This scholarship provides up to $1,000 for undergraduate students each semester who have creatively contributed to Entomology Department research and/or extension efforts. Choose, "Read More" to find out more about Elizabeth Butz, Sophia Barringer & Madison Tewey and their extraordinary efforts in Entomology.  We are very pleased to announce that the winner of the CMNS Board of Visitors Junior Faculty Award is Entomology's Assistant Professor, Megan Fritz! Megan’s work focuses on the study of insect evolution in response to a constantly changing environment. The lab uses molecular, genomic, and computational tools to shed light on the genomic variants that facilitate adaptation. Her outstanding research program has produced significant publications and attracted external funding. She has received two prestigious USDA- NIFA grants, which support her efforts to utilize genomic approaches to solve critical real-world problems and train students and postdoctoral fellows. Megan is a highly engaged university citizen, she teaches graduate and undergraduate level courses, participates in outreach and serves on a number of department and University committees. Congratulations Megan on this well-deserved recognition!
"Assessing the impacts of seasonal leaf litter disturbance on overwintering pollinators and natural enemies" earns grad student Max Ferlauto first prize poster at AGNR cornerstone event. Watch video to see how Max's work supports the college's initiative to improve human, animal, and environmental health. Congratulations, Max! Congratulations to AGNR Enterprise Challenge winners, Krisztina Christmon and her fellow teammates.
Krisztina and her team were challenged to, in a 3 week time span, come up with an idea to turn empty poultry houses in Maryland into something else. Krisztina said, “It was a short but intense 2 weeks of brainstorming and research. We wanted something that would be easy to set up, sustainable, novel and profitable." The team pitched a plan to the judges to use the empty poultry houses to address the dark reality of the US plastic crisis. “It is such a mounting issue in Agricultural that it already has a name for itself: plasticulture.”says Krisztina. Their award winning plan, she shares “[to] turn these facilities into an agricultural plastic washing-sorting-recycling facility. In addition, we would develop a technology to neutralize the chemicals (pesticide, fertilizer etc.) of wastewater and in the end product” The team won the competition's top cash prize and a spot in the MD and National iCorp program where they will learn more about entrepreneurship and ways to make their idea come alive. Congratulations to Gussie Maccracken who has been awarded an NSF Postdoctoral Research Fellowship in Biology for FY2020. Starting in March 2021, she will be studying plant-insect interactions across the Cretaceous-Paleogene extinction event.
 Congratulations to Dr. Marcia Shofner who has been awarded the Provost’s Excellence Award for Professional Track Faculty. This well-deserved recognition celebrates Marcia’s use of active learning approaches in her classes, her work with TLTC redesigning her introductory class and her participation in NSF-funded grants to revamp BSCI curriculum. In addition to acknowledging Marcia as a dynamic lecturer in both the in-person and online environments, she is recognized for her service. She is on various college and university committees and engaged with groups that work to promote more diverse student participation in science.
Entomology's Todd Waters is recognized as Dean's Outstanding Employee! A well deserved recognition, for sure. Todd's creativity & enthusiasm for entomology engages audiences of all backgrounds -community members, staff, students, faculty, etc - inspiring them to want to discover more about insects. Congrats, Todd!
https://cmns.umd.edu/news-events/features/4579 Congratulations to Professor Maile Neel on receiving the Edward T. LaRoe III Memorial Award from the Society for Conservation Biology (SCB). Given to individuals who have been “a leader in translating principles of conservation biology into real-world conservation”, Neel is recognized for her work translating her research on species recovery and genetic diversity into practical applications for restoration managers. Follow link to see SCB’s announcement with more on Neel's work being released by SCB in the near future.
https://conbio.org/publications/scb-news-blog/scb-announces-award-winners-for-outstanding-contributions-to-biodiversity-c Congratulations to Max Ferlauto (MS student, Burghardt Lab) on being named 2020 Smithsonian Institute Fellow (SIFP) and Joan Mosenthal DeWind Awardee. These awards will help fund his studies into Lepidoptera conservation, with the SIFP award supporting Max's work at Smithsonian Environmental Research Center this upcoming summer. See below for the Xerces Society press release on the DeWind Award and further information on Max's research.
https://xerces.org/blog/announcing-2020-dewind-awardees?utm_source=Enews+April+2020+%231&utm_campaign=April+Enews+1&utm_medium=email  Entomology Ph.D. candidate Maggie Lewis (Hamby Lab) has been awarded an Ann G. Wylie Dissertation Fellowship from the University of Maryland’s Graduate School. Awarded to students in the final stages of their doctorate, the Wylie Fellowship provides one semester of support during the 2020-2021 year.
Maggie’s dissertation research studies various aspects of the biology and management of spotted-wing drosophila (SWD), particularly its interactions with yeasts and plant pathogenic fungi. She also examines how insecticide spray coverage impacts SWD management and is trying to understand how to improve spray coverage within bramble production systems. "This is a well-deserved award. Maggie has worked hard for it” said Kelly Hamby, Assistant Professor & Extension Specialist. “Maggie has made significant contributions to furthering integrated pest management programs for SWD. We are thrilled her work is being recognized in this way." Please join us in congratulating Maggie on being named recipient of this award.
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