New publication
Our new publication by Katie Demeuse, Ari Grode and Zsofia Szendrei has been accepted for publication in Plant Disease. The title of the paper is ‘Comparing qPCR and nested PCR diagnostic methods for aster yellows phytoplasma in aster leafhoppers’.
SARE Grad Student Award
Adam Ingrao received a NCR-SARE graduate student grant for his work on “Luring generalist predators from field borders to control crop pests”. This ~$12,000 award will fund research supplies and an undergraduate assistant to help Adam in his work on biological control in asparagus.
ESA Undergrad Award
Congratulations to Lidia Komondy for winning the Entomology Society of America’s Plant-Insect Ecosystems (PI-E) Section’s Undergraduate Student Achievement Award. This award recognizes undergraduate students who have demonstrated significant achievements through research, teaching and/or outreach in entomology. As many as four awards may be presented annually. Lidia will receive $1,500 and a plaque. The award can be used for travel expenses for participation in the ESA meeting. Lidia has been working as an undergraduate research assistant in our lab for two years and has contributed to multiple ongoing projects.
Awards to lab alumni
Congratulations to two of our lab’s alumni, Nicole Quinn and Katie Demeuse for winning 2016 MSU Entomology Department Awards. Nicole won the Wooley Award for her outstanding achievement in her total Master’s program and Katie won the Entomology Undergraduate Award for her outstanding achievement in the overall undergraduate program.
Winning undergrad poster
Lidia Komondy, MSU entomology undergraduate and URA in the lab, won first prize with her poster at the 2016 University Undergraduate Research and Arts Forum. Her poster’s title was “The effect of border habitats on predation of a key pest”. It focused on spider abundance and diversity in and around asparagus fields and their interaction with the asparagus miner. She found that quite a few species of spiders consume the miners and are therefore good biological control agents.
Winning presentation
Congratulations to Ari Grode for winning 3rd place with his 10-min talk in the MSU Plant Science Graduate Student Symposium. His presentation was about the relationship between onion thrips and bacterial leafblight in Michigan onion fields.
Podcast with Adam
Click here to listen to an MSU podcast with VegEnt grad student, Adam Ingrao! Adam shares his experiences as a veteran and a graduate student working with asparagus pests and biocontrol.
Floral strips in cucumbers
An article entitled ‘Floral strips in cucumber fields’ was recently published, covering part of Nicole Quinn’s M.S. thesis research. To read the article click here.
New publication
Our new publication “Identification of plant semiochemicals and evaluation of their interactions with early spring pests of asparagus” by W.R. Morrison, A. Ingrao, J. Ali, and Z. Szendrei has been accepted for publication in the Journal of Plant Interactions.
Thesis defense
Congratulations to Nicole Quinn for successfully defending her MS thesis! Nicole’s graduate research focused on habitat management in cucurbits.