Congratulations to our IFAS Superior Accomplishments Award Winners:

Dr. Pasco Avery, Scientific/Technical

Mr. Lyle Buss, Scientific/Technical

Dr. Jamie Ellis, Faculty Service

An awards ceremony and reception will be held in their honor on Tuesday, March 27th, from 2:00 to 4:00 PM in the Rion Ballroom East at the UF/J. Wayne Reitz Union.

We are pleased to announce that Dr. Heather McAuslane has agreed to join the CALS Dean’s Office team as a part-time Assistant Dean for Graduate Programs. She will be working on initiatives for graduate student professional development, graduate student recruiting, and faculty mentoring; along with handling conditional admissions, graduate student petitions and graduate faculty status requests.

Join us in congratulating Dr. Christine Miller, the winner of a CALS Undergraduate Teacher of the Year award for 2017-2018. In addition to being an award winner at the college level, her name has been forwarded for consideration for university-level awards.

Dr. Andrea Lucky recently returned from Israel, where she participated in a 10-day academic faculty fellowship. She met with colleagues at six major universities across the country, visited agricultural production and training centers and got a sneak peek at the soon-to-open National Museum of Natural History, where the country's insect collections are housed. A highlight was a visit to the department of Science Teaching at the Weizmann Institute of Science, one of the world’s leading multidisciplinary basic research institutions in the natural and exact sciences (pictured above). Fellows in the program are selected from across the US, and are from all disciplines.

One of our postdocs from the Bloomquist lab at EPI, Dr. Jun-Hyung Tak, was hired as an assistant professor at Seoul National University (the flagship university of South Korea), in the Department of Applied Biology and Chemistry. He works on natural products and essential oils as insect control agents.

Dr. Johan Desaeger made an appearance on the news for his work on foliar nematodes.

Dr. Rachel Malllinger was on NPR’s Science Friday on February 2nd. You can read about the segment and listen to it online.

The Mallinger lab welcomes Jon Elmquist who is joining the lab as a research technician. Jon is a graduate of the University of Central Florida and has been around the department since August working on hive beetle research in the Ellis Lab. He will be working on various field and greenhouse projects examining plant-pollinator interactions and crop pollination.

ABOVE: Dr. Jennifer Gillett-Kaufman and Dr. Jaret Daniels hosted student and faculty visitors from Gyeongsang National University (GNU) in South Korea. The visitors were provided with a tour of Steinmetz Hall and the McGuire Center where they were introduced to several graduate students who had the opportunity to discuss their research. The group was in Gainesville as part of the UF Agroecology Program they were invited to UF by Dr. Diane Rowland.

Dr. Oscar Liburd is a member of a multi-regional research team studying the invasive spotted wing drosophila (SWD). Join the team for a free webinar on the organic management of SWD on February 27th at 3PM ET. Advance registration is required for this free webinar. The project was funded by USDA-NIFA through the Organic Agriculture Research and Extension Initiative (OREI).

We are pleased to welcome six new graduate students to the department this spring semester!

New Ph.D. students are: Emelie Demard (Ft. Pierce), Octavio Menocal Sandoval (Homestead), Yuexun Tian (Gainesville), and Xiaodi Wang (Vero Beach, currently in Gainesville).

New M.S. students are: Anne Mills (Belle Glade), and David Moreira Calix (Balm).

Congratulations to Dr. Kylie Zirbel and Mr. Octavio Menocal, whose Ph.D. dissertation and M.S. thesis, respectively, were chosen as the best in the Entomology & Nematology Department in 2017! Each will be awarded a $1,000 Mulrennan Award to recognize their achievement and are in the running for best dissertation/thesis in IFAS, to be announced in early April.

Congratulations also to Dr. Barry Alto, who mentored Kylie on her research (Larval nutrient-mediated transgenerational effects in Aedes aegypti mosquitoes), and Dr. Daniel Carrillo, who mentored Octavio (Artificial rearing of Xyleborus volvulus and Xyleborus bispinatus and vertical distribution of ambrosia beetles in laurel wilt affected avocado orchards). We are looking forward to hearing of continued research success from these outstanding graduates!

Lindsy Iglesias, a Ph.D. student in Oscar Liburd’s Lab, has been selected to receive the Friends of Southern IPM Graduate Student Award (Ph.D.). The award recognizes extraordinary achievement in research, Extension and implementation of IPM in the southern region of the US. Lindsy will receive her award at the Southeastern Branch of the ESA Meeting in Orlando, FL in March. Lindsy was invited to give a seminar at Cornell’s New York State Agricultural Experiment Station (NYSAES) on January 10th. Her seminar was titled “From Discovery to Management: The Case of an Invasive Pest of Florida Berry Crops.”

Simon Yeboah, a Ph.D. student in Dr. Oscar Liburd’s Lab and co-chaired by Dr. Norman C. Leppla, travelled to Ghana to conduct research on a devastating pest of mangoes and other tropical fruits, the Oriental fruit fly, Bactrocera dorsalis (Diptera: Tephritidae). Simon is evaluating the use of several baits and lures to develop an effective monitoring and trapping system for use in a mass trapping program for the Oriental fruit fly. These efforts are part of a comprehensive IPM program to manage the pest, which causes over 40% loss in yield and quality in mangoes in Somanya, in eastern Ghana.

ABOVE: Our faculty and students participated in the Cervidae Health Research Initiative Integrated Pest Management field day in Oxford, Florida that was organized by UF Wildlife Ecology and Conservation (27 participants). Masters student Laura Harmon presented on her research and conducted a pesticide use and perception survey on deer farmers. Jordan Vann (Entomology undergraduate minor) and Dr. Emma Weeks talked to deer farmers about no-see-um (biting midge) management and pesticide use and application. Dr. Nathan Burkett-Cadena, students, and post-docs from his lab (UF FMEL) provided farmers with information about biting midge biology, behavior and distribution across the landscape.

From the Outreach Coordinator

Here are our events from January:

• January 11th – Career Day at Santa Fe High – Laurel Lietzenmayer
• January 18th – Science Night at Littlewood Elementary – Laurel Lietzenmayer and Eleanor Phillips
• January 20th – 4-H Insectathon at Steinmetz Hall – Maceo Abreu, Melody Blach, Dr. Marc Branham, James Brown, Constance Darrisaw, Jessica Diez, Trudi Durgee, Oliver Keller, Gabrielle LaTora, Kylie Lennon, Laurel Lietzenmayer, Hunter Martin, Andrew Mellies, Genhsy Monzon, Matt Moore, Vy Nguyen, Remy Powell, George Roman, Johanna Schwartz, Hannah Talton, Ashley Wojnowicz
• January 23rd – Alachua County eSchool – Laurel Lietzenmayer
• January 26th – Putnam County 4-H – Sara Alvarez and Gabrielle LaTora
• January 29th – CPET Science Symposium – Lettie Cronin and Laurel Lietzenmayer
• January 30th – UF Exotic Animal Club – Laurel Lietzenmayer

Upcoming Events

• February 8th-19th – Florida State Fair
• February 15th – Gator Day in Tallahassee
• February 27th – East Marion Elementary
• March 15th – Belleview Public Library

ABOVE: 4-H students participate in the insect ID competition in the first annual Insectathon. Students participated in insect collection, art, and skill contests.   

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.