The Entomological Society of America is pleased to announce the winners of its 2013 awards. The awards will be presented at Entomology 2013, ESA's 61st Annual Meeting in Austin, TX from November 10-13, 2013.
PROFESSIONAL AWARDS
RECOGNITION AWARD IN ENTOMOLOGY
DISTINGUISHED SERVICE AWARD TO THE CERTIFICATION PROGRAM
NAN-YAO SU AWARD FOR INNOVATION AND CREATIVITY IN ENTOMOLOGY
DISTINGUISHED ACHIEVEMENT AWARD IN EXTENSION
DISTINGUISHED ACHIEVEMENT AWARD IN TEACHING
RECOGNITION AWARD IN INSECT PHYSIOLOGY, BIOCHEMISTRY, AND TOXICOLOGY
DISTINGUISHED ACHIEVEMENT AWARD IN HORTICULTURAL ENTOMOLOGY
EARLY CAREER INNOVATION AWARD
STUDENT AWARDS
STUDENT CERTIFICATION AWARD
STUDENT ACTIVITY AWARD
JOHN HENRY COMSTOCK GRADUATE STUDENT AWARDS
Elina Lastro Niño (Eastern Branch) received her PhD in entomology from Penn State University under the guidance of Dr. Christina Grozinger. Her dissertation research involved behavioral, physiological, and molecular characterization of factors affecting honey bee queen post-mating changes and queen-worker interactions. She is particularly interested in understanding the underlying molecular pathways regulating these changes and whether these changes are evident after the queen commences oviposition. She also studied factors that alter queen pheromone profiles and how this in turn regulates worker behavior and physiology which could affect colony status. During her postdoctoral appointment at PSU, Elina will expand on the findings of her doctoral research and will also examine socioeconomic factors affecting the establishment of honey bee breeding and stock improvement programs in the US. This research is supported by a USDA-NIFA postdoctoral fellowship. Elina is also very involved with outreach and extension, and she has received numerous fellowships, scholarships, and awards.
Kumaran Nagalingam (International Branch) is a behavioral and chemical ecologist with a strong interest in understanding the behavior of economically significant arthropods. His interests involve exploring the development of insect resistance to insecticides and insecticidal proteins, and integrated pest management. He is currently studying tephritid fruit flies within the team led by Associate Professor Tony Clarke to answer questions on the evolutionary and functional significance of male lures by examining transcriptional and physiological mechanisms underpinning behavioral changes seen in tephritids after ingestion of phytochemical lures.
Kumaran received his BS in 2004 and MS in 2006 from Tamil Nadu Agricultural University (TNAU) in India with a state government student project award. After graduation, he joined a research team at TNAU as a research fellow to work on insecticide molecules. He has also worked at the Central Institute of Cotton Research on the resurgence of sucking pests in transgenic cotton crops and resistance development in bollworms to Bt toxins. Kumaran is also interested in teaching, and has assisted in teaching undergraduate students experimental science and general entomology courses. He has published 12 papers in peer-reviewed journals, including one paper as lead author in Animal Behavior. Kumaran is pursuing his PhD at Queensland University of Technology (QUT). He won an Australian Entomological Society travel grant and QUT grant-in-aid to attend ICE 2012 in Daegu, South Korea.
Dr. Lisa Overall (Southwestern Branch) received her BS degree in biology from the University of Central Oklahoma. During her undergraduate studies, she was involved in research on carpenter and leafcutting bees. She went on to complete her MS and PhD at Oklahoma State University (OSU). Her master's research focused on the management of harlequin bugs and yellowmargined leaf beetles with organic insecticides. Under the supervision of Dr. Eric Rebek, her PhD dissertation focus was on the incidence of Xylella fastidiosa that causes Pierce's disease of grapes. This also included a survey of potential insect vectors and the identification of potential plant reservoir hosts. At OSU, she has been active in departmental student organizations, campus-wide graduate student organizations, and both Southwestern Branch and national ESA activities. She served as the student representative for the OSU Department of Entomology and Plant Pathology for the Graduate and Professional Student Government Association and later as communications director. She has served as Co-Chair and Chair of the SWB ESA Student Affairs Committee (SAC) and has also served as SWB ESA Student Representative for the national ESA SAC. Lisa competed in the Linnaean Games from 2009 until 2012. In 2010, she was awarded the Women's Faculty Council Award at OSU, which is given for outstanding student research and scholarship. After earning her doctorate, she briefly participated in research on the conservation of the American burying beetle. Lisa is currently a lecturer at Oklahoma State University and teaches Insect Biology and Classification and Insects and Society.
Dr. Paul Michael Bardunias (Southeastern Branch) grew up in Westchester County, New York in a suburban setting that provided a budding entomologist with an endless supply of insects to play with. He received his BS degree from the University of Miami, and his MS in entomology from the University of Kansas for work on three-dimensional path integration with Dr. Deborah Smith and Dr. Rudolf Jander. He earned his PhD in entomology and nematology from the University of Florida for his work with Dr. Nan-Yao Su to uncover the mechanics of self-organized excavation behavior in subterranean termites. He has authored 19 peer-reviewed papers and a book chapter, and he designed a protocol that is being implemented to protect endangered parrot species from Africanized honey bees in Central and South America, along with Caroline Efstathion and Dr. William Kern of the University of Florida. Paul is currently working as a postdoctoral associate for Dr. Scott Turner of the State University of New York's College of Environmental Science & Forestry. He is continuing his work on self-organization in social insects in collaboration with the Termes Project of the Wyss Institute at Harvard University by originating algorithms for autonomous construction in robots based on termite models. He is also adjunct faculty at Florida Atlantic University, where he passes on his knowledge of invertebrates in hopes of rearing a new crop of entomologists. In his spare time he pens articles on ancient Greek history.
Matan Shelomi (Pacific Branch) is a PhD candidate in the Department of Entomology and Nematology at the University of California, Davis. He joined the program after graduating cum laude with a bachelor's degree in organismic and evolutionary biology from Harvard University in 2009. His advisor is Prof. Lynn Kimsey, director of the Bohart Museum of Entomology, and his research is on the digestive physiology of the Phasmatodea, in particular their cellulolytic enzymes and the enigmatic "appendices of the midgut." He has also published papers on delusional parasitosis, morphometrics, and forensic entomology, and has given talks at every Pacific Branch and national ESA meeting since 2011, as well as at the International Science in Society Conference in Berkeley (2012), and the International Congress of Orthopterology in Kunming, China (2013). Shelomi is a National Science Foundation graduate research fellow, and has twice won the NSF East Asia and Pacific Summer Institutes Fellowship—once to work at the National Institute of Agrobiological Sciences in Japan, and again to work at Academia Sinica in Taiwan. He serves on UC Davis's ESA Student Debate team and the Linnaean Games team. Shelomi has organized and taught freshman seminars at UC Davis, and will be taking a position as graduate writing fellow. He has also written for the California Aggie (the Davis school newspaper), and is a top entomology expert on the Q&A website Quora.com. Due to graduate in 2014, he is currently seeking postdoctorate or professorship positions.
Dr. Nicholas M. Teets (North Central Branch) is currently a postdoctoral associate in the Department of Entomology and Nematology at the University of Florida, under the direction of Dr. Daniel A. Hahn. Teets earned his PhD in entomology in December of 2012 from Ohio State University, advised by Dr. David L. Denlinger. Teets' research focuses on the environmental stress physiology of insects, including transcriptional, metabolic, and cell-signaling events that allow insects to survive unfavorable conditions. As part of this effort, he has twice traveled to Palmer Station in Antarctica to study mechanisms of stress tolerance in the Antarctic midge, Belgica antarctica. He currently has 14 peer-reviewed papers published or in press and has presented his work at numerous professional meetings. Outside of research, Teets has led the laboratory portion of the graduate level insect physiology course at Ohio State and has also instructed summer entomology courses for high school students through the PAST Foundation, a non-profit organization promoting STEM education for underprivileged high school students. Teets has engaged in professional service both at Ohio State and in the scientific community at large, particularly with ESA. He served on the ESA Student Affairs Committee for two years, and in this capacity he organized and moderated a symposium called "Identifying and Clarifying Emerging Technologies for Entomological Research: From Molecules to Landscapes" at the 2011 ESA Annual Meeting in Reno, NV.
The Entomological Society of America is the largest organization in the world serving the professional and scientific needs of entomologists and people in related disciplines. Founded in 1889, ESA today has more than 6,500 members affiliated with educational institutions, health agencies, private industry, and government. Members are researchers, teachers, extension service personnel, administrators, marketing representatives, research technicians, consultants, students, and hobbyists. For more information, visit http://www.entsoc.org .