Congratulations to Jeremy for receiving the Rhodes (Gene) Thompson Memorial Fellowship awarded each year to a new graduate student in the  MSU Entomology Department.

Our project titled “Integrating reduced tillage and flowering windbreaks for insect and weed management in cucurbits” has been funded by NIFA’s North Central Regional Integrated Pest Management Program for two years. This research is a collaboration between our and Dan Brainard’s (MSU, Horticulture) lab and will provide partial funding for two graduate students.

Rob has been selected by MSU’s EEBB (Ecology, Evolutionary Biology and Behavior Program) to be one of the two Distinguished Student Speakers for Spring 2014. Rob will be giving a 45 min presentation on his research to members of the EEBB program, and receive a travel fellowship.

Rob’s paper on the spatial and temporal distribution of the asparagus miner was accepted for publication in the Journal of Economic Entomology!

Jeremy’s research on celery leaftier and aphids was funded by MSU’s Project GREEEN. This funding is granted for research that will make a positive impact on Michigan’s plant agricultural industries and is able to integrate research and extension activities.

Rob placed second in the 11th Annual Plant Science Graduate Student Research Symposium at MSU, in the Applied Research Session for his 10-minute oral presentation. Way to go Rob!  

Alex has successfully defended her M.S. thesis titled “Influence of living and non-living habitat complexity on arthropods in strip-tilled cabbage fields”, and she will soon be moving to her new job in Kentucky. We will miss you!

Congratulations to Jeremy for getting the KBS Summer Fellowship to support his research on celery insect pests and their biocontrol agents!

Congratulations to Alex! Her first peer-reviwed publication -as first-author- is currently in press and will be published in an upcoming issue of Environmental Entomology. The publication is about the effects of strip-tillage, cover crops and weeds on insect communities in cabbage fields. Our two co-authors are Dan Brainard and Erin Haramoto from MSU’s Department of Horticulture.