March 2026

AAAS Fellows

Dr. Seth Bordenstein

Dr. Jason Rasgon

The American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) is one of the world's largest general scientific societies and is the publisher of the Science family of journals. This year's cohort includes 449 scientists, engineers and innovators across 24 disciplinary sections.

Seth Bordenstein, professor of biology and entomology, the Dorothy Foehr Huck and J. Lloyd Huck Chair of Microbiome Sciences, and director of the Penn State One Health Microbiome Center, has been named a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS). Bordenstein was honored for “distinguished contributions to the microbiome sciences, particularly for advancing our knowledge of host-associated microbiomes across the animal kingdom.”

Dr. Jason Rasgon, Dorothy Foehr Huck and J. Lloyd Huck Endowed Chair in Disease Epidemiology and Biotechnology, has also been named as an AAAS Fellow. Rasgon was elected as a fellow for his distinguished contributions to the field of molecular entomology, particularly the development of in vivo germline genetic modification technologies and insights into disease control using bacteria called Wolbachia, according to AAAS.

Read more about Dr. Seth Bordenstein being elected as an AAAS Fellow at Eberly College of Science News

Read more about Dr. Jason Rasgon being elected as an AAAS Fellow at Penn State News.

Best Article by an Early Career Entomologist Prize

Dr. Bijay Subedi received the annual Best Article by an Early Career Entomologist Prize for his paper Salicylate plant defences reduce aphid nutritional quality and increase predator consumption from Ecological Entomology, Volume 50, 2025. The paper focuses on how salicylate-based plant defenses affect aphid nutritional quality and in turn influence predator consumption.

College of Agricultural Sciences Outstanding Dissertation Award

Dr. Bijay Subedi also was awarded the College of Agricultural Sciences Outstanding Dissertation Award, which recognizes excellence in scholarship and professional accomplishments. Congratulations to Dr. Subedi!

Pennsylvania Center for Poultry and Livestock Excellence

Valeria Lee, Dr. Erika Machtinger, Dr. John Boney, and the Animal Diagnostic Lab (ADL) requested $110k and have been funded by the Pennsylvania Center for Poultry and Livestock Excellence for their research on Systemic Control in Complex Systems: Understanding Exzolt® Efficacy, Environmental Fate, and Host-Parasite Interactions in Poultry Facilities.

Outstanding Global Alum Award

This award recognizes a Penn State Alum who has made significant contributions and achievements in their chosen profession, their community, and to The Pennsylvania State University.

This year's winner is Maya Nehme, director of the Lebanon Reforestation Initiative, who earned her dual doctorate from Penn State in 2009 in entomology (College of Agricultural Sciences) and comparative and international education (College of Education) and returned to the University for two postdoctoral experiences.

Penn State Global announces 2025-26 awards recipients

Workshops

Join the INSECT NETwork for a series of free, in-person, and beginner-friendly workshops introducing artificial intelligence and data science tools used in biodiversity research. These sessions are open to faculty, students, and staff from any discipline, and no prior coding experience is required. Using insects as our focal organisms, participants will explore how modern tools such as object detection, interactive data visualization, and image classification can help scientists monitor and understand the natural world.

Object Detection for Beginners (Register for Object Detection for Beginners)

Thursday, April 9 | 3:30–6:00 PM | W-201 Millennium Science Complex

Learn how computers can automatically detect insects in images. Participants will use provided Python code in a Jupyter Notebook to explore how existing object detection algorithms identify objects within photos. Attendees are welcome to experiment with their own images while learning the basics of this powerful AI technique used in ecological monitoring and automated species detection.

RShiny for Beginners (Register for RShiny for Beginners)

Wednesday, April 15 | 3:30–6:00 PM | 209 Thomas Building

Discover how to turn large datasets into interactive visualizations. In this workshop, participants will learn the basics of RShiny, a framework for building interactive dashboards in R. Using open-source data from iNaturalist, attendees will create visual tools to explore biodiversity patterns and trends in insect observations and other taxa of interest.

Image Classification for Beginners (Register for Image Classification for Beginners)

Wednesday, April 22 | 3:30–6:00 PM | 209 Thomas Building

Explore how artificial intelligence can learn to recognize species from images. Participants will use Python and Google Colab to train and evaluate a simple image classification model using user-submitted iNaturalist photos. This hands-on introduction walks through the key steps of building a machine learning model—from preparing training images to testing how accurately the model identifies species.

Please bring a laptop or tablet with you to follow along using provided code. Light snacks and refreshments will be provided. We hope to see you there!

ESA Eastern Branch

The Nittany Antlions (First Place) and the American Natural History Museum (Second Place)

Battle Ready! The Nittany Antlions and the Penn State Fireflies faced off for the Ento Games 2026

We have had outstanding presentations and posters from several faculty, staff, undergraduate students, grad students, and post docs. Some of these people,  including Norah Dana, Codey Mathis, Julie Urban, Brian Walsh (Penn State extension), Elizabeth Deecher, Emily Struckhoff, Michael Skvarla, James Mutunga (Penn State Harrisburg), Sukhman Singh, Neetu Khanal, Deerdra Stauch, Marie Muniz, Nina Devine, Sophia Mucciolo, Valeria Lee, Laura McHenry, Sujay Paranjape, and Sara Hermann.

In addition, Penn State entomology grad students participated in the entomology race and ento games! For ento games, the AntLions won a spot in the top two, providing them support to attend the annual meeting - congrats to Nina, Sophia, Codey, and Neetu! Amazing job to our other team, the fireflies, Mahendra, Sahil, Marie, and Valeria.

Lastly, we have some awards to celebrate! In the student competition, Neetu Khanal won first place in the MS/PHD posters, and Sophia Mucciolo won 2nd place in the PhD ten-minute talks for her session. Congrats to you both!

Brenna Traver, Associate Professor at Penn State Lehigh Valley, won the Herb T. Streu Meritorious Service Award, Mia Esoldo won the Asa Fitch Memorial Award, and Margarita Lopez-Uribe was named president-elect.

Publications

• Phylogenomics reveals the evolution of floral traits associated with pollinators and pollinator-prey conflict within the carnivorous Pinguicula subgenus Temnoceras, American Journal of Botany, Liu, Y., Lin, Q., Fleck, S.J., Mata-Rosas, M., Ibarra-Laclette, E., Renner, T., 2026. This article was also chosen for the February 2026 AJB issue 'Journal Highlights'.
• A volatile cue from a specialist herbivore primes gene expression against biotic stress in tall goldenrod (Solidago altissima L.), Plant, Cell & Environment, Witkowski, R.J., Sudol, L.A., Yip, E.C., Tooker, J.F., & Renner, T., 2026
• Pesticide exposure during crop pollination varies among wild bee species and commercial bumble bees,Science of the Total Environment, Hale, Casey, Quezada, Tomas, Iverson, Aaron, Baert, Nicolas, Sossa, David, Lobo, Olivia, Richardson, Leeah, Flicker, Nate, Obregon, Diana, Poveda, Katja, McArt, Scott, Grab, Heather, 2026
• Economical load carrying in immature cockroaches, Journal of Experimental Biology, Eldash, Be, Schilder, Rudolf J., 2026
• Non-pathogenic immune challenge negatively affects chill coma recovery and thermal tolerance in the bumble bee Bombus impatiens, Apidologie, Stewart, Hannah, Schilder, Rudolf J., 2026
• Sublethal Effects of Neonicotinoids: How Physiological and Behavioral Disruptions in Non-Target Insects Threaten Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services, Insects, Spence, Sarah K., Alharbi, Shorooq A.M., Ejomah, Afure, Maleki, Feizollah A., Wolfin, Michael S., Kersch-Becker, Mônica F., 2026
• Syntopic diet divergence inferred from metabarcoding in a pair of parulid warblers: Setophaga virens (Black-throated Green Warbler) and Seiurus aurocapilla (Ovenbird), Ornithology, Toews, David P.L., Baiz, Marcella D., Benavides C, Andrea, Deans, Andrew R., Phung, Lan Nhi, Szarmach, Stephanie J., Wood, Andrew W., 2026
• Minimalism is in: two new Diastrophus (Hymenoptera: Cynipidae) species inducing inconspicuous galls on cinquefoils (Rosaceae: Potentilleae), with evaluation of the extended phenotype across gall wasps, Journal of Natural History, Davis, Charles K., Nastasi, Louis F., Cuesta-Porta, Victor, Hines, Heather M., Deans, Andrew R., 2026
• Convergent evolution of hexenal isomerases in Lepidoptera and plants, Nature Ecology and Evolution, Lin, Yu Hsien, Wu, Bulah Chia hsiang, Sharaf, Abdoallah, Heijblom, Sophie Maartje Elisabeth, Prattis, Ilias, Tan, Ching Wen, Schilder, Rudolf J., Ali, Jared Gregory, Allmann, Silke, 2026
• Volatilized Metabolites Produced by Soilborne Aspergillus flavus Regulate Fungal Conidiation, and Production of Secondary Metabolites, Journal of Chemical Ecology, Castano-Duque, Lina, Ahmad, Imtiaz, Lloyd, Steven, Lebar, Matthew, Carter-Wientjes, Carol, McCartney, Nathaniel, Ali, Jared, Moore, Geromy, 2026
• Generation cycles in experimental populations of a multivoltine insect, Journal of Animal Ecology, Yamanaka, Takehiko, Sato, Yasushi, Nelson, William A., Bjørnstad, Ottar N., 2026