The Entomology graduate program allows students to participate in important and exciting research and to become leaders in academic, government, or industrial settings.
Recent Graduate Student Awards:
- Mariam Taleb, Ph.D. student in Entomology and International Ag & Development, appointed to serve on the President's Task Force on Food and Housing Security. (Feb 2020)
- Katie Nolan, Ph.D. candidate in Entomology, received the Maynard Moseley Award for her presentation at the Botany 2019 conference in Tucson, AZ.
- Bipana Paudel Timilsena, a Ph.D. candidate in Entomology with a dual title in international agriculture and development, received the Graduate Student International Research Award.
- Ching-Wen Tan, Ph.D. candidate in Entomology, received the Penn State Alumni Association Dissertation Award, Distinguished Doctoral Scholar Medal in recognition of their outstanding professional accomplishment and achievement in scholarly research in any of the disciplinary areas of arts and humanities; social sciences--applied and basic; physical and computational sciences--applied and basic; life and health sciences; and engineering.
- Ching-Wen Tan, Ph.D. candidate in Entomology, received the 2019 Paul Hand Award for Graduate Student Research Achievement in the College of Agricultural Sciences.
- Ching-Wen Tan, Ph.D. candidate in Entomology, was selected as the recipient of the 2019 Alumni Association Dissertation Award from the Graduate School (2019)
- Hillary Peterson, Ph.D. candidate in Entomology, was the winner of the "Best Graduate Student Presentation on Implementation of Biocontrol" award during the heroFIP 19 in Lisbon, Portugal. (2019)
- Hannah Stewart, Ph.D. candidate in Entomology, won best student talk (Plant & Environmental Sciences Track) at the Life Science Symposium at Penn State
- Loren J. Rivera Vega, Ph.D. candidate in Entomology and International Agriculture and Development, received the College of Agricultural Sciences Outstanding Dissertation Award
- Flor Acevedo, Ph.D. candidate in Entomology, John Henry Comstock Award, Eastern Branch of the Entomological Society of America (2017)
- Shelley Whitehead, Ph.D. candidate in Entomology, 1st place, Ph.D. Oral Presentation, Annual Meeting of the Eastern Branch, Entomological Society of America (2017)
- Elizabeth Rowen, Ph.D. candidate in Entomology, 2nd place, Ph.D. Oral Presentation, Annual Meeting of the Eastern Branch, Entomological Society of America (2017)
- Kirsten Pearsons (Captain), Ryan Reynolds, Hillary Morin, Shelley Whitehead, Elizabeth Rowen, Karly Regan - 1st place team, Liannaean Games, Eastern Branch, Entomological Society of America (2017)
- Kirsten Pearsons, Ph.D. candidate in Entomology, 2nd place, President's Prize for Best Talk, Physiology, Biochemistry, and Toxicology section, Annual meeting of the Entomological Society of America (2017)
- Elizabeth Rowen, Ph.D. candidate in Entomology, 1st place, President's Prize for Best Talk, Plant-Insect Ecosystem section, Annual meeting of the Entomological Society of America (2017)
- Shelley Whitehead, Ph.D. candidate in Entomology, 2nd place, Graduate ten minute paper competition, MUVE: Diptera-Mosquitoes 1, Annual meeting of the Entomological Society of America (2017)
- Ching-Wen Tan, Ph.D. candidate in Entomology, 2nd place, Graduate ten minute paper competition, P-IE: Chemical Ecology, Annual meeting of the Entomological Society of America (2017)
- Kirsten Pearsons, Ph.D. candidate in Entomology, 2nd place, Graduate ten minute paper competition, PBT: Toxicology, Annual meeting of the Entomological Society of America (2017)
- Hillary Morin, Ph.D. candidate in Entomology, 1st place, Graduate ten minute paper competition, P-IE: Biological Control-Parasitoids, Annual meeting of the Entomological Society of America (2017)
- Anne Jones, Ph.D. candidate in Entomology, 2nd place, Graduate ten minute paper competition, P-IE: Chemical Ecology, Climate Change, and Ecology, Annual meeting of the Entomological Society of America (2017)
- Elizabeth Rowen, Ph.D. candidate in Entomology, 1st place, Graduate ten minute paper competition, P-IE: IPM-Field Crops 4, Annual meeting of the Entomological Society of America (2017)
- Carolyn Trietsch, Ph.D. candidate in Entomology, 2nd place, Graduate ten minute paper competition, SysEB: Hymenoptera 1, Annual meeting of the Entomological Society of America (2017)
- Flor Acevedo, Ph.D. candidate in Entomology, 2nd Place, Graduate Student Poster Competition, P-IE: Ecology, Annual meeting of the Entomological Society of America (2017)
- Kevin Cloonan, Ph.D. candidate in Entomology, 2nd place for presentation "Quest to identify the attractive volatile bouquet of selected fungal species isolated from the mushroom sciarid fly, Lycoriella ingenua, to gravid female flies" at the ICE/ESA meeting. (2016)
- Saundra Wheeler, Ph.D. candidate in Entomology, 1st place for presentation "Plant assisted medication: virus challenged bees improve survival with caffeine nectar" at the ICE/ESA meeting. (2016)
- Anne Jones, Ph.D. candidate in Entomology, won 1st place for presentation "Effects of caterpillar oral secretions on indirect plant defenses" at the ICE/ESA meeting. (2016)
- Loren Rivera, Ph.D. candidate in Entomology and International Agriculture and Development, 2nd place for poster "Insect saliva as the first line of defense against plant defenses" at the ICE/ESA meeting. (2016)
- Saundra Wheeler, Ph.D. candidate in Entomology, won First Place for her presentation, "Plant assisted self-medication: Virus-challenged bees improve survival with caffeine nectar consumption," at the National Minorities in Agriculture, Natural Resources and Related Sciences (MANRRS) meeting in Jacksonville, FL. (2016)
- Megan Wilkerson, Ph.D. candidate in Entomology, U.S. Borlaug Fellows in Global Food Security Graduate Research Grant (2016)
Julia Fine, Ph.D. candidate in Entomology, Agrochemical Education Award for Student Travel, American Chemical Society (2016) - Raquel Gontijo De Loreto, Ph.D. candidate in Entomology, Doctoral Dissertation Improvement Grant in the Directorate for Biological Sciences, NSF (2016)
- Flor Acevedo, Mehmet (Mali) Doke, USDA AFRI Student Travel Grant, Entomological Society of America (2016)
- Loren Rivera Vega, Mitzy Porras Becerra, Monsanto Research Grant Award, Entomological Society of America (2016)
- Flor Acevedo, Anjel Helms, Loren Rivera Vega, Monsanto Student Travel Award, Entomological Society of America (2016)
- Flor Acevedo, Mehmet (Mali) Doke, NE SARE Graduate Student Research Grant (2016)
- Megan Wilkerson, Ph.D. candidate in Entomology, Future Leaders Fellowship to participate in the Association for International Agriculture and Rural Development Annual Conference and Future Leaders Forum (2016)
- Ariel Rivers, Sarah Shugrue, Anjel Helms, Kevin Cloonan, Lillian Moller-Jacobs, Fern Graves First Place, President's Prize, Entomological Society of America Student Presentation (oral) (2016)
