Former grad students Rob Morrison and Nicole Quinn, and former undergraduate research assistant Jessica Kansman have been nominated for leadership roles in the Entomological Society of America. Zsofia Szendrei was nominated for the Plant – Insect Ecosystems Section of the Environmental Entomology Editorial Board. Read more here.

The Fruit and Vegetable Growers’ News selected former Ph.D. student, Adam Ingrao, for their 40 Under 40 award. These awards are given by a panel of industry experts who select members of the ‘Fruit + Vegetable 40 Under 40 Class of 2018‘. This honor is reserved exclusively for outstanding young industry professionals who are demonstrating exceptional commitment to making their mark in the industry through innovation and leadership. Adam will be featured, along with the rest of the Class of 2018, in the October 2018 issues of Fruit Growers News and Vegetable Growers News and,...

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’.

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.

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...

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.

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.