Emily Bick: She Does UC Davis And Entomology Proud

Emily Bick does UC Davis proud, not to mention the field of entomology.

Bick, who received her doctorate in entomology at UC Davis in June and then headed to Denmark in August for a postdoctoral position at the University of Copenhagen, just received word that she's the recipient of a $244,000 postdoc grant from the Innovations Fund in Denmark.

Bick, who specializes in integrated pest management (IPM), received the funding for her proposal, "Optimization of Agricultural Pest Management Strategies by Combining Modeling and Digital Insect Monitoring."

"I'm excited to be working at the University of Copenhagen and partnering with digital agriculture company FaunaPhotonics integrating modeling and LIDAR detection of insects for the next two years!" she said.

Emily's entomological journey began at Cornell University, where she received her bachelor's degree in entomology in 2013.  Then she crossed the country to UC Davis for her master's degree in entomology (2017), followed by her doctorate. 

Her accomplishments and accolades are many. She served as an emergency medical technician from 2008 to 2017 and gained her pesticide applicator's license in 2013. She was singled out to receive the Student Certification Award at the Entomological Society of America (ESA) meeting in 2018. In 2014, she was named a Board-Certified Entomologist, a honor bestowed on her at the ESA meeting.

Emily helped anchor the UC Davis Linnaean Games Team that won the national championship at the ESA meeting in 2016, and the University of California (UC Davis and UC Berkeley) Linnaean Games Team that won the national championship again in 2018. The Linnaean Games, launched in 1983, are lively question-and-answer, college bowl-style competitions on entomological facts and played by winners of the ESA branch competitions. The teams score points by correctly answering random questions.  (Watch the championship game on YouTube)

She also served as vice president of the UC Davis Entomology Graduate Student Association (EGSA).

Congratulations, UC Davis alumnus Emily Bick!