External Funding In Entomology - 2018 Summary

New and on-going research in the Entomology Department is supported by a variety of external funding sources, including federal agencies like USDA, NSF, and NIH; Maryland and other State agencies like the MD Department of Agriculture, the MD State Highway Association, and the Minnesota Department of Agriculture; and other sources like the Almond Board of California, the National Honey Board, and the North American Bramble Growers Research Foundation. For the past 5 fiscal years, Entomology has received over $4,000,000 in support from such sources as estimated by grant expenditures.

Of the 44 currently active research awards in Entomology, 16 were new in calendar year 2018.For more information on these awards choose "Read More" below. 

​Leslie Pick and Kelly Hamby – along with Dr. Antony Jose from CBMG – were awarded a 4 year $500,000 grant from the USDA-NIFA Biotechnology Risk Assessment Research Grants (BRAG) Program to study “a mechanism-based strategy to assess risks of RNA interference in agricultural systems.”

Four Entomology Department graduate students received grants, including three from the Northeast Sustainable Agriculture Research & Education (SARE) program – a USDA-NIFA grants program administered by the University of Vermont – and one from the Maryland Department of Agriculture: 

•    Dylan Kutz (M.S. student, Lamp Lab), “Movement of spiders from drainage ditches to agricultural fields to enhance conservation biocontrol,” Northeast SARE, $13,684, 1 year
•    Morgan Thompson (M.S. student, Lamp Lab), “Evaluating the effect of potato leafhopper (Hemiptera: Cicadellidae) feeding on biological nitrogen fixation in alfalfa,” Northeast SARE, $8,804, 1 year
•    Margaret Lewis (Ph.D. student, Hamby Lab), “Understanding spotted wing drosophila's role as a vector for fruit rot fungi in fall red-raspberries,” Northeast SARE, $14,994, 2.5 years
•    Rebecca Wilson (Ph.D. student, Lamp Lab), “Identifying the larval sources of nuisance black flies in northwestern Cecil County, Maryland,” Maryland Department of Agriculture, $6,165, 4 months

Additional research funding was awarded to Entomology Department faculty and postdoctoral researchers from the Maryland Grain Producers’ Board, Monsanto Corporation, Maryland Soybean Board, Eastern Apicultural Society, Maryland State Horticultural Society, and Maryland Department of Natural Resources.