​​Congratulations to the recipients of the Fall 2019 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 about James Digel, Sophia Moon and Maddie Potter & their extraordinary efforts in Entomology.

​The University of Maryland Graduate School awarded Associate Professor, Jeffrey Shultz, the Outstanding Director of Graduate Studies Award! 

🎉Congratulations, Jeff!  

Entomology nearly swept the board with CMNS Awards this year. Congratulations to all the award winners on these well-deserved recognitions!

Board of Visitors Junior Faculty Award-Kelly A. Hamby
Board of Visitors Creative Educator Award- Tammatha O'Brien 
Board of Visitors Outstanding Graduate Student Award- Brian Lovett
Dean’s Outstanding Employee Award- Greg Hess

CMNS will honor the college's award winners at the CMNS Academic Festival. 

When: Friday, May 3, 2019 2:00 p.m.
Where: Physical Sciences Complex Lobby

Please join us as we celebrate with our colleagues.

​Aditi Dubey has been awarded the Outstanding Graduate Student Assembly Member Award! This award honors scholar-leaders for their outstanding contributions to service & involvement at the University of Maryland. The award will be presented on Sunday, May 5, 2019 at the 38th Annual University Student Leadership Awards Program.  

🎉Congratulations, Aditi!  

Congratulations to Morgan Thompson (MS student, Lamp Lab) &  Maggie Lewis (PhD student, Hamby Lab) award winners of the Student Ten Minute Paper Competition at the ESA Eastern Branch Meeting in Blacksburg, Virginia​.

Morgan won second place for her talk: "Potato leafhopper (Empoasca fabae) feeding alters above- and belowground nutrient allocation and nitrogen fixation across alfalfa cultivars".

​Maggie won first place for her talk: "Interactions between spotted-wing drosophila and fruit rot fungi in fall red raspberries" ​

UMD’s team placed second in the Linnaean Games competition hosted by the Eastern Branch of the Entomological Society of America, earning $1000 and a chance to compete at the national games in St. Louis. Congratulations Anna Noreuil, Arielle Arsenault-Benoit, Aditi Dubey, Morgan Thompson, Maggie Lewis and coach Kelly Hamby!

Congratulations to Brian Lovett (ENTM PhD student, St. Leger Lab) for being selected to receive the American Institute of Biological Sciences’ Emerging Public Policy Leadership Award! This award recognizes the achievements of biology graduate students who have demonstrated an interest and aptitude for contributing to science and science policy.

As a recipient of the award Brian will:
Travel to Washington, DC to participate in the AIBS science communications training program and AIBS Congressional Visits Day
Meet with lawmakers to advocate for federal investment in the biological sciences
Receive a one-year membership in AIBS, which includes a subscription to the scientific journal BioScience

Check out the AIBS press release here: https://www.aibs.org/public-policy/news/aibs_announces_2019_emerging_public_policy_leadership_award_winners.html

Congrats Brian on receiving this award! What a wonderful and well-deserved recognition! 

Congratulations to Dr. Magdalene Ngeve for being awarded the highly prestigious University of Maryland President’s Postdoctoral Fellowship for her postdoctoral work in Maile Neel's lab! ​

To find out more about Magdalene Ngeve's research please visit, https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Magdalene_Ngeve

​Becca Eckert, Ph.D.student (Lamp Lab), is a recipient of this year's Cosmos Scholars Grant Program. The foundation, which began in 1998, awards research grants for graduate students enrolled in Universities in the D.C. area. The Cosmos Scholars Grant Program will support Becca’s research, more specifically, experiments measuring the contribution of algae growing on leaves to stream macroinvertebrate growth.

Congratulations Becca!

!​Congratulations to the recipients of the Spring 2019 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 about Justin Lee, Madeline Potter, ​Catherine Trelstad, and Betsy Wang and their extraordinary efforts in Entomology!

​​Congratulations, Julianna Greenberg (Biological Sciences Undergrad, Palmer Lab) for winning first place in the Student Poster Competition at the Maryland Water Monitoring Council’s Annual Meeting. Julianna’s winning poster, " Evaluating the effects of system maturation on pollutant loads from stream-wetland complexes”, is on display in the hallway outside of room 4129. 

Abstract: Throughout the world many streams and rivers are highly degraded and scientists are working to understand when and why certain restoration efforts result in improvements and others don’t.  This study focused on small urban streams in the Chesapeake Bay watershed that were slated for restoration in order to reduce the movement of excess nutrients and sediments toward Bay Waters.   Church and Cypress creeks were degraded urban streams located in Anne Arundel County.  These were converted to stream-wetland complexes (SWCs) that include engineered wetlands and step-pool conveyances extending to the estuarine interface. Monitoring occurred throughout the pre- and post-construction phases to estimate the changes in catchment loads of nitrogen (N), phosphorous (P), and total suspended solids (TSS) from the outflow of the restored stream reaches. Results indicate that moderate reductions in N loads and increases in TSS and P occurred since SWC implementation in Church Creek.  The study authors concluded that the increases in TSS and P were due to extensive and more recent headwater restoration activities. By contrast, Cypress Creek had no recent disturbances in its headwaters and results indicate that water quality (e.g., TSS and P) has improved with system maturation. This improvement implies that shorter-term restoration studies that do not capture the maturation process may underestimate the true long-term performance of SWCs for some constituents.

Paula Shrewsbury, an associate professor and extension specialist will receive the Distinguished Achievement Award in Extension during the annual meeting of the Entomological Society of America (ESA). This annual award recognizes outstanding contributions to extension entomology.

Read full announcement here: https://www.entsoc.org/esa-names-winners-2018-professional-and-student-awards

​Congratulations to Brian Lovett (ENTM PhD student, St. Leger Lab) for winning a student presentation award at the European Congress of Entomology in Naples, Italy. Brian’s award-winning talk: Transgenic fungi prevent mosquitoes from transmitting malaria parasites. 

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. 
​
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. 

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!

Congratulations to the recipients of the Spring 2018 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. Be sure to check back in to read more about their research progress! 

​Lyra Morina is a University Honors junior Biological Sciences: Cell Biology & Molecular Genetics and Economics dual degree. Working with Culex pipiens mosquitoes in the Fritz Lab for over a year, she began her own research project studying Wolbachia induced Cytoplasmic Incompatibility (CI) in Culex pipiens pipiens and molestus through the Cell Biology & Molecular Genetics Departmental Honors Program. By linking incompatibility patterns to the unique Wolbachia endosymbiont strains the mosquitoes harbor, the Wolbachia genes inducing these effects on embryonic development can be investigated. Lyra aims to pursue a PhD within Cell Biology and Molecular Genetics and continue her career path in biological research and academia. She also hopes to apply her background in economics to quantifying the impact of biological research outcomes on public health, environmental issues, and other social phenomena.

Lily Durkee has been working with the Gruner Lab since the summer before her senior year of high school. It was because of this incredible experience that summer that she decided to attend UMD as an undergraduate student and pursue a degree in Ecology and Evolution. Currently, she is working towards completing an Honors Thesis within the Department of Entomology that focuses on assessing the effects of restoration strategies on the macroinvertebrate benthic communities in Anacostia Park marsh systems. After she graduates next spring, she plans on attending graduate school to pursue a PhD in entomology, ecology, or natural resource management. 

Bijal Kikani research in the Pick lab focuses on investigating the role of pair rule genes in Drosophila melanogaster to better understand their roles during embryonic development. Particularly, she is searching for binding partners of a nuclear hormone receptor, Ftz-F1, to understand how gene regulation is controlled. Through the use of western blots, co-immunoprecipitation assays, and mass-spectrometry, she hopes to narrow down candidate binding partners of this nuclear receptor and verify these genes using RNA interference experiments. She says her exposure to this lab has increased her skills in molecular genetics and she hopes to continue to strengthen these skills through further exposure in the research field. 

Ebony Argaez
The Pick lab uses Drosophila melanogaster, a long germ insect, to investigate the regulatory genes and pathways that control embryonic development. Accordingly we sought other long germ insects for comparative studies and we are investigating pair rule genes in the beetle Callosobruchus maculatus. She says with the help of Pick Lab members, she has been able to improve embryo collection and fixation techniques, stage early embryogenesis and isolate a pair rule gene using molecular techniques, including PCR, DNA sequencing, and TA cloning. She hopes to continue doing research and eventually go to graduate school.