A note from Dr. Siegfried

I am again amazed that another year has come and is nearly gone. Even harder to believe is that the new year starts a new decade! For us 2019 has been another year of changes and new faces in the department, including Dr. Sriyanka Lahiri at the Gulf Coast REC, and Dr. Anthony Auletta on campus in Gainesville. We have also interviewed candidates for three new positions. Dr. Phil Hahn and Dr. Estelle Martin will join our Gainesville faculty in January and interviews have been completed for the Biocontrol position at IRREC. We are also advertising for two positions at the Florida Medical Entomology Lab in Vero Beach so we are not yet finished! We have had a remarkable period of growth and opportunity and I know that this process has been exhausting, but we should be thankful for the opportunity to keep our department moving forward with new ideas and enthusiasm.

This year has also marked the retirement of Dr. Don Dickson who had been with our department for more than 50 years! His contributions are numerous and he has left a legacy of students and post-docs that trained in his lab and critical to future of nematology. I will miss his gentle chiding and sometimes not so gentle recommendations that have kept me on my toes.

2019 was also a year of loss when a long-time member of our department, Dr. Jim Maruniak, lost a long and difficult battle with cancer. We will miss the positive outlook and nurturing spirit that Jim brought to the department every day, even during the most difficult of times.

I was again gratified this year by the strong showing of our students in competitions at both ESA and SON 2019 meetings. I am continually impressed by the professionalism of our students and the quality of the science they present. This speaks not only to the quality of our students but to the quality of our faculty advisors. We are also NATIONAL CHAMPIONS for both the Linnaen Games as well as the Cobb Bowl that compete at the national meetings of ESA and SON quiz bowl type competitions. I know these teams don’t garner the same attention as our Gator athletic teams, but I am certain the UF athletic department would be envious of our number one status!

Our department completed a three-year administrative review in June of 2019 which resulted in many positive comments from senior IFAS administrators in all aspects of our department’s activities. We were recognized for our graduate program which remains one of the largest and most successful in the country. Our undergraduate and distance learning programs continue to show strong growth and our commitment to the development of innovative teaching programs was highlighted in their report. The report recognized a significant increase in research productivity and impactful Extension programs that are meeting the needs of clientele. Importantly, the report also acknowledged our staff for their professionalism and contributions to the success of our department. I was also pleased by the support of clientele invited to meet with the administrators. Overall, I believe IFAS administrators view us as being on the right track!

There will always be things that we can do better and it is important that we maintain our progress and continue to serve our students, clientele and conduct creative basic and applied research that advances our disciplines. I believe our Department is well position to continue its leadership and innovation and look forward to the coming decade to see where it leads us.

I hope everyone has a safe and restful holiday break and I look forward to seeing everyone in 2020. 

Thank you for another great year,

~Dr. Blair Siegfried

Dr. Andrea Lucky was awarded an Early Career Teacher Award by the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s National Institute of Food and Agriculture (USDA-NIFA). She was one of two recipients, nationally, to be honored at the 2019 annual meeting of the Association of Public & Land-grant Universities (APLU) in San Diego, California.

The Mallinger Lab presented their work at ESA in St. Louis. Dr. Rachel Mallinger gave a talk on “Drought stress alters floral volatile emissions and reduces nectar rewards, pollinator visits, and seed set in a globally grown plant”, and Ph.D. student Sarah Anderson presented a poster “Changes in the phenology of the southeastern blueberry bee (Habropoda laboriosa) based on historic collections data” and an infographic “How are specialized plant-pollinator relationships affected by climate warming?”

Congratulations to our fall 2019 graduates!

Earning a Ph.D. this fall are: Dr. Gideon Alake (Dr. DiGennaro), Dr. Shiyao Jiang (Dr. Bloomquist), Dr. Rafia Khan (Dr. Seal), and Dr. Simon Yeboah (Dr. Liburd). 

Graduating with an MS degree this fall are: Ingeborg Cuba (Dr. Bernier), Erin Foley (Dr. Gillett-Kaufman), Caitlyn Gill (Dr. Martini), Gabrielle LaTora (Dr. Liburd), Anne Mills (Dr. Beuzelin), Nicholas Overmire (Dr. Mathias), Edward Traczyk (Dr. Martini), Lincoln Wells (Dr. Mathias) Roxie White (Dr. Geden), and Daniela Wilner (Dr. Miller).

Our BS graduates are: Tanner Felbinger, Arron Hoyte, Constance Darrisaw, Gabriella Indart, and Ebony Taylor.

ABOVE: Congratulations to FMEL graduate student Xiaodi Wang for her second place award in the graduate student poster completion for Medical Urban and Veterinary Entomology at the Entomological Society of America Annual Meeting 2019.

ABOVE: Sarah Anderson, Ph.D. student in the Mallinger Lab, received first place for her infographic at ESA “How are specialized plant-pollinator relationships affected by climate warming?”

Oliver Keller, a Ph.D. candidate in the Branham lab, was elected Program Chair for the Entomological Collections Network (ECN). The ECN is an organization whose mission is to disseminate information about best practices in entomological natural history collections. Their annual meeting always occurs the Saturday and Sunday before ESA.

ABOVE: Our Linnaen team won first place of the Linnaen Games during the National Entomological Society of America conference held November 17th to the 20th.

Kristen Bowers, a Ph.D. student in Dr. Carey Minteer’s lab, received second place in the Entomological Society of America’s Graduate Speaking Competition at the 2019 Entomological Society of America’s Annual Meeting in St. Louis held November 17th to the 20th. Her talk was titled “Evaluating the impact of two herbivores on the invasive Brazilian peppertree, Schinus terebinthifolia.”

ABOVE: Dr. Mengyi (Tina) Gu, a recent Ph.D. graduate from the Crow Lab (2019), has accepted a Post-Doc position with Dr. Johan Desaeger at the Gulf Coast Research and Education Center.