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written by: Jenan Baher El-Hifnawi The Entomology Retreat looked quite different this year than it did in years prior. For the first time ever the department’s students, staff, and faculty piled into the wood-paneled walls of the Samuel L. Riggs Alumni Center. Historically, the event has been held in Annapolis, at The National Socio-Environmental Synthesis Center (SESYNC). Notably, the center was founded by the department’s own Dr. Margaret Palmer. More recently, departmental surveys revealed that the distance to the retreat as well as its being held on a Saturday were factors hindering department members ability to attend. In response to these findings the retreat was moved to an on-campus location and held on a Friday, maximizing attendance, and with it, opportunities for connection. This change was implemented for the first time last year, taking place in the Edward St. John Teaching and Learning Center, and the retreat has continued to evolve since.  While the event has always been an opportunity for department members to catch up with their peers and share new developments in their work, additional changes have been implemented (thanks to a very hardworking Amy Yaich) to transform the event to prioritize both formal talks and informal personal connections. Much more time was made for attendees to hold casual conversations over lunch, or slowly explore the research posters. Another notable development was the addition of alumni keynote speakers who’s talks focus on inspiring attendees about their futures rather than sharing departmental updates. This year’s speaker, Holly Menninger –once a PhD student in Dr. Palmer’s lab– is now director of the University of Minnesota’s thriving Bell Museum. Read more about her work as well as her path from Maryland to Minnesota here. This followed up on last year’s alumna speaker, Dr. Mercedes Burns, former PhD student in Dr. Shultz’ lab and now a professor at UMBC. In addition to the retreat itself undergoing some major changes, the department has changed a lot this year as well. Many of these changes were captured in the State of Department Address. The address was presented by Dr. Evan Economo, the department’s new Chair. It began with a well deserved thank you to Dr. Leslie Pick for serving in that role for the past 11 years. Dr. Economo continued his address with his vision and agenda for the department - an exciting first look at the ideas that will be prioritized throughout his tenure as chair. He discussed his eagerness to diversify funding opportunities to continue expanding departmental potential, focusing on private donors. He also underscored the value of collaboration across disciplines, and expressed interest in investing in stable relationships with local institutions. Importantly, Dr. Economo acknowledged that the department he’s stepping into is in great shape. He used the address to recognize the 54 publications over 2023-2024 (with a 6.2 mean 5-year impact factor and many publications produced by trainees), but did not let that productivity overshadow the department’s success in establishing a happy and harmonious culture. He also highlighted the department’s foundational tripartite mission of excellence: teaching, research, and extension, and that it will continue to be the core of the department regardless of who holds the chair position.  This tripartite mission shined clearly throughout the day, represented in each poster, research talk, and departmental update. Extension was recognized as Dr. Economo mentioned the Plant Diagnostic Laboratory’s hiring process and commended the Insect Zoo for interacting with an astonishing 7000 people over the past year in over 50 outreach events! Faculty talks from Dr. Kelly Hamby and Dr. Raymond St. Leger dove more deeply into research and its intersection with extension goals. Dr. Hamby highlighted research indicating that Bt corn yield does not improve with applications of common pesticides, likely due to Maryland’s lack of economic pest pressure from insects. Instead the culprit for most of this crop’s pest damage is immune to these chemicals: the slug. Dr. St. Leger discussed his research on fungi, ranging from exploration of a cordyceps known as “Himalayan viagra”, to field studies in Burkina Faso testing the potential of a fungus he genetically modified to kill malaria-ridden mosquitos.
Teaching was celebrated most clearly by Dr. Dave Hawthorne, and Dr. Jeff Shultz, directors of undergraduate studies and graduate studies, respectively. Dr. Hawthorne provided exciting updates on the rapidly growing undergraduate Entomology Minor and Honors programs. As mentioned by Dr. Economo’s State of the Department Address, the minor was established in 2022 by Dr. Bill Lamp, and has graduated 16 students since. Excitingly, this number is on track to skyrocket, as 29 students are currently enrolled in minors. The longer-standing undergraduate Honors program has also seen an increase in enrollment under Dr. Karin Burghardt’s oversight, with 8 students projected to graduate with Honors this year. When it came time to celebrate graduate student’s contributions as teachers, Dr. Shultz joined Dr. Hawthorne to present graduate TA awards. Awards this year went to the St. Leger lab’s Dongxu Chen, as well as the Lamp lab’s Robert Salerno and Helen Craig. Another notable highlight from this year's retreat was the graduate student presentations given by Helen Craig and Ángela Sáenz. Helen discussed her work exploring the use of insects as a sustainable protein source for cattle. Inclusion of insects in cow’s diets can both reduce methane production and enable a circular economy in which feeding human food waste to flies, which then are fed to cows. Helen’s work with cattle was quite different from her fellow student speaker, Ángela Sáenz. Ángela’s work in the Gruner lab explores the phenology of a devastating forest pest, the Emerald Ash Borer (EAB), to inform biocontrol efforts. She found that the timing of transitions between life stages varies with elevation, demonstrating the need to treat different forests at different times of year to best target susceptible life stages. While these student talks cover very different corners of the entomology world, both Helen and Ángela have at least one thing in common - many hours of hard work. Helen's research includes regularly sampling cattle stomach contents across a 16-hour period, while Ángela wades through swamps year-round hunting for EAB. Ultimately, it is the dedicated work towards the tripartite mission of excellence that ties the department together - maybe even more so than our love for bugs. The 2024 retreat effectively brought together a department with a myriad of different interests to not only catch up on business from the past year, but also to build connections and let the diverse nature of our department inspire even greater work in the years to come. Comments are closed.
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