Several entomology researchers are involved in the recently awarded $10M CDC award for a Southeastern Regional Center of Excellence in Vector Borne Diseases!

This achievement is a result of all faculty who put their time in to get the grant submitted within an aggressive one month time period. 

Project 1: Dr. Jeff Bloomquist is a Co-I on Project 1: “Understanding vector ecology, arbovirus infectious rates and insecticide resistance to optimize mosquito control” and leads Specific Aim 3 | “Power vector control tools with strategies to circumvent insecticide resistance.”
Project 3: Dr. Cynthia Lord is a Co-I on Project 3: “Ecological and insecticide-resistance models of tick vectors in Florida” and leads Specific Aim 4 | “Model the phenology and management of Rhipicephalus sanguineus in the presence of varying levels of resistance” of this project.
Project 3: Dr. Phil Kaufman and Dr. Emma Weeks are key personnel on Project 3 with Dr. Lord (above).

Other FMEL scientists include: Dr. Barry Alto and Dr. Nathan Burkett-Cadena are collaborators with Co-PI Dr. Derek Cummings (UF Biology on Project 4: “Multi-scale, modular models for Vector-Borne Disease”). Dr. Burkett-Cadena is also collaborating with Co-PI Dr. Tom Unnasch (University of South Florida on Project 2: “Breaking the transmission of mosquito-borne zoonotic arboviruses”). Dr. Derrick Mathias is collaborating with co-PI Dr. John Beier (University of Miami on Project 1) and supporting the Public Health Entomology Training Core of the Center.

On January 25th, the FLMNH hosted a pop-up Museum outside of the Marston Sciences Library featuring the Insects Alive 3-D art contest, a project led by Dr. Andrea Lucky, and Dr. Lisa Taylor with their interdisciplinary team of students (see top photo). The event featured 3-D printed ants and spiders, a real-time demonstration of 3-D printing, live ants and spiders, microscopes and art activities. The event was attended by more than 500 people. The contest is open for participation now, the submission deadline is March 15, 2017.

A paper by Dr. Corraine McNeill, from her Ph.D. research at UF, is listed as the second most highly ranked paper among all Oxford journals in 2016 and is 5th overall for all journals!

ABOVE: Danielle Sprague (M.S. student at the North Florida Research and Education Center) was awarded a $2,000 scholarship from the Florida Fertilizer & Agrichemical Association. She was presented with a plaque by Katie Bryson, Chairman of the Board at the FFAA Winter Business Meeting in Clearwater, Florida on January 13th.

Lawrence Reeves and Dr. Akito Kawahara were awarded a $19,825 Doctoral Dissertation Improvement Grant from NSF to apply next generation sequencing methods to Lawrence's Ph.D. research on mosquito-host interactions.

The 2016 winner of the annual student award “Appreciation for the Biology of Insect Pests” has been announced!

Daniel Peterson at the University of Massachusetts-Amherst was selected as the recipient of the $500 prize. The committee is looking forward to receiving new submissions for 2017! This award is managed primarily from the Entomology & Nematology Department at the University of Florida by Dr. Jiri Hulcr and the committee members include Dr. Andrea Lucky (UF Entomology Department), Dr. Meg Lowman (California Academy of Sciences), Anthony Cognato (Michigan State University) and Rob Dunn (North Carolina State Unviersity).

ABOVE: Vanessa Simões Dias de Castro, a Ph.D. candidate in the Hahn Lab, competed at the University level and received the special Emerging STEM Scholar Award being offered by the Association for Academic Women (AAW). This award aims to promote the career of a young woman in a STEM field. Vanessa was recognized by her ability to articulate the importance and transformative potential of her dissertation work, and by her leadership and mentorship roles that help others break down barriers to success.

Her dissertation aims to understand the extent to which antioxidant enzymes can reduce oxidative stress and improve the mating success of sterile insects used in the Sterile Insect Technique (SIT). Additionally, Vanessa has been recognized as an outstanding leader for the Brazilian community of graduate students across the United States. In 2016, Vanessa served as president of the Brazilian Student Association at UF, and currently, she is co-founder and one of the general directors of BRASCON, the largest conference of Brazilian Graduate Students abroad. 

From the Outreach Coordinator

A big thank you to the students and faculty who volunteered for January’s outreach events.

• January 13th - Career Day at Santa Fe High – Michael Gonzalez
• January 17th – Oak Hammock– Laurel Lietzenmayer and Evan Waite
• January 19th – Library Partnership – Laurel Lietzenmayer
• January 21st – Pinellas County Youth Program – Laurel Lietzenmayer
• January 23rd – Brilliant Minds 4-H – Rachel Atchison, Lettie Cronin, Laurel Lietzenmayer, Dr. Andrea Lucky, Jason Williams
• January 27th – One Room School House – Michael Gonzalez
• January 28th – Great Invader Raider Rally – Laurel Lietzenmayer, Sarah Nguyentran, Rebecca Perry, Rachel Watson
• January 31st – East Marion Elementary School – Laurel Lietzenmayer

Upcoming Events

• February 9th-20th  – Florida State Fair
• March 1st – Cornerstone Academy
• March 11-12th – Marion County Master Gardeners Spring Festival
• March 14th – Jordan Glen School

ABOVE: East Marion Elementary School students check out the arthropod petting zoo during their visit to the Entomology and Nematology Department.

The live critters are always a hit with children and adults alike. The critters are available for you to check out should you be leading an outreach event. We have doubles of our most popular critters, as well as various native insect species depending on the time of year. We have large wood and Plexiglas cages for viewing our native orb weaving spiders. There is one travel cage and one larger static cage. Please be sure to contact us and review the protocol on transporting and handling the critters if you are not already familiar with it. If you lead an outreach, be sure to fill out a documentation form so your event can be included in the newsletter and we can log all outreach events.