A Tip of the Net to Our UC Davis PBESA Winners

A tip of the net to our trio of UC Davis Department of Entomology and Nematology award recipients who will be honored when the Pacific Branch, Entomological Society of America (PBESA) meets April 10-13 in the Hyatt Regency Sonoma Wine Country. Santa Rosa.

• Medical entomologist-geneticist Geoffrey Attardo, assistant professor, will receive the Medical, Urban, and Veterinary Entomology Award
• Doctoral student Erin Taylor Kelly of the Geoffrey Attardo laboratory will receive the Student Leadership Award 
• Undergraduate student Gwendolyn "Gwen" Erdosh of the Louie Yang lab will receive the inaugural Dr. Stephen Garczynski Undergraduate Research Scholarship  

Geoffrey Attardo is a global expert on vectorborne diseases, and renowned for his groundbreaking work on tsetse flies. Attardo, who joined the UC Davis Department of Entomology and Nematology in 2017 from the Yale School of Public Health's Department of Epidemiology of Microbial Diseases, “excels not only as a researcher, but as a teacher, mentor, scientific illustrator, macro photographer,videographer and science communicator,” said UC Davis distinguished professor Bruce Hammock in his letter of nomination. (See news story)

Erin "Taylor" Kelly, who joined the Attardo lab in 2018, is the two-term president of the UC Davis Equity in STEM and Entrepreneurship (ESTEME) and serves as the vice president of the Entomology Graduate Student Association (EGSA). "She excels in leadership, as well as in research, academics and public service," wrote SteveNadler, professor and chair, UC Davis Department of Entomology and Nematology, in his letter of nomination.  Known as Taylor, she "is an important role model, sharing her enthusiasm for entomology and other sciences with the public, and eagerly supporting undergraduate students and others on their paths to scientific careers." (See news story)

Gwen Erdosh is a research scholar in the campuswide Research Scholars Program in Insect Biology (RSPIB) and president of the UC Davis Entomology Club.  The award memorializes a research geneticist at the USDA Agricultural Research Service in Wapato, Wash., with “an unmatched passion for mentoring undergraduate students in their research,” PBESA announced. Garczynski (1960-2019) specialized in the molecular genetics of codling moths and other tree fruit pests.  (See news story)

Entomology Games. The UC Davis Entomology Games team will be competing for regional honors and national representation. The team includes  doctoral candidate Zachary Griebenow of the Phil Ward lab, captain;  doctoral candidate Jill Oberski of the Ward lab; doctoral student Erin “Taylor” Kelly of the Geoffrey Attardo lab; and doctoral student Madison “Madi” Hendrick of the Ian Grettenberger.

The Entomology Games is a lively question-and-answer, college bowl-style competition on entomological facts played between university-sponsored student teams. It was formerly known as the Linnaean Games. The preliminary round is from 5 to 6 p.m., April 10. Plans are to hold three rounds with questions from each of the 10 categories: Biological Control, Behavior and Ecology, Economic and Applied Entomology, Medical-Urban-Veterinary Entomology, Morphology and Physiology, Biochemistry and Toxicology, Systematics and Evolution, Integrated Pest Management and Plant-Insect Interactions, History of Entomology, and Entomology in Popular Culture.  (See UC Davis news story) 

The final round is from 8 to 10 p.m., April 11.  Both the championship team and the runner-up team will represent PBESA at the Entomological Society of America (ESA) meeting, Nov. 13-16 in Vancouver, British Columbia. Last year's national champion was the University of Hawaii, which edged Texas A&M University.

UC Davis has scored three national championships since 2015. In 2018, the University of California team won the national championship, defeating Texas A&M. The team included captain Ralph Washington Jr., then a UC Berkeley graduate student with a bachelor's degree in entomology from UC Davis; doctoral students Brendon Boudinot, Jill Oberski and Zachary Griebenow of the Phil Ward lab, and doctoral student Emily Bick of the Christian Nansen lab.

UC Davis won the national competition in both 2016 and 2015, defeating the University of Georgia in 2016, and the University of Florida in 2015. 

A number of other UC Davis faculty and students will participate in the PBESA meeting. (See schedule.)

PBESA encompasses 11 Western states, parts of Canada and Mexico and several U.S. territories.

• In the United States: Alaska, Arizona, California, Hawai'i, Idaho, Montana, Nevada, Oregon, Utah, Washington, Wyoming
• U.S. Territories: American Samoa, the Federated States of Micronesia, Guam, Johnston Atoll, Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands, Midway Islands, Wake Island
• In Canada: Alberta, British Columbia, Northwest Territories, Saskatchewan, Yukon
• In Mexico: Baja California, Baja California Sur, Sinaloa, Sonora