Congratulations to Jeremy Jubenville and Monica Hufnagel for successfully defending their M.S. theses this month. Jeremy’s research focused on the spatiotemporal distribution of insects in and around celery fields and Monica’s thesis work was on the relationship between Colorado potato beetles and wild potato species.

Congratulations to Jessica Kansman for winning the Entomology Society of America’s Plant-Insect Ecosystems (PI-E) Section’s Undergraduate Student Achievement Award. The P-IE Undergraduate Student Achievement in Entomology 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. Jessica will receive a waiver of registration to the ESA Meeting, $ 1,500 and a plaque. The awards can be used for travel expenses for participation in the ESA meeting.

Amanda Buchanan has accepted a postdoc position to work on a project jointly funded to Matt Grieshop’s and our lab. Her focus will be on asparagus related experiments this summer. We also have to new graduate students joining the VegEnt lab; Margie Lund will be starting this June, and will be working on an organic project dealing with the impact of tillage practices and cover crops on insects in agroecosystems. Ari Grode is currently transitioning from undergrad to grad student status and will be working on a project looking at the relationship between onion thrips and a bacterial disease of...

Nicole and Adam won MSU Entomology Department Awards, each worth $1,500. The awards were given out at the Spring MSU Entomology Picnic on May 1. Congratulations!

Adam Ingrao received the prestigious NSF Graduate Student Fellowship, which will provide funding for his tuition and salary for the next 3 years. Coincidentally, he found out about this good news on the same day when he successfully defended his PhD thesis proposal and officially became a PhD candidate. Adam’s PhD research focuses on arthropod predators in Michigan asparagus agroecosystems and asparagus plant volatiles that could be used to manipulate natural enemies.

Congratulations to M.S. student Nicole Quinn for receiving Northcentral SARE‘s graduate student grant in support of her research on enhancing pollinators with flowers in cucurbits. The ~$10,000 will go towards undergraduate support in the field season, supplies and travel.

Congratulations to Katie Demeuse for winning the poster competition at MSU’s Undergraduate Research and Arts Forum (UURAF) in the Agriculture and Animal Science Section. She presented her work on the genetic regulation of insecticide resistance in Colorado potato beetles.