Wrapping up the year with stories about how the Arboretum gets ready for winter, lots of One Health and microbiome news, spotted lanternfly, and ticks. David Hughes is the recipient of the Alex and Jessie C. Black Award and a strong showing from our students at this year's ESA Conference. Last but not least we have some PA IPM and INSECT NET news. Happy Holidays!
Photo Credit: Adobe AI
In the News
Arboretum
Biodiversity
Microbiome
Plant-Insect Interactions
Spotted Lanternfly
- Penn State scientists educate national grape organization on spotted lanternfly
- Lanternfly invasion: NYC bugs are living their best (and longest) lives
Ticks
Awards and Nominations
Alex and Jessie C. Black Award
David Hughes, Ph.D. is the 2024 recipient of the Alex and Jessie C. Black Award
David Hughes, Ph.D. is one of many recipients from The Department of Entomology for the award. Seen here with David are Jason Rasgon, Ph.D. who received the award in 2021 and Kelli Hoover, Ph.D. who received the award in 2019.
ESA 2024 Phoenix, Arizona
Paige Alexander, 2nd Place, Graduate MUVE: Behavior, Insecticide Resistance, and Forensic Entomology
Nina Gropp, 1st Place, Graduate P-IE: Climate Change
Alexela Hoyt, 1st Place, Graduate P-IE: Ecology
Valeria Lee, 1st Place, Graduate MUVE: Behavior, Biocontrol, and Biodiversity
Marie Muniz, 2nd Place, Graduate P-IE: Social Insects
Sahil Pawar, 2nd Place, Parasitoids, Graduate P-IE: Biocontrol - General 1
Luke Reynolds, 2nd Place, Graduate P-IE: Biocontrol - General 1
Sukhman Singh, 1st Place, Graduate P-IE: Invasive Species
Outreach and Happenings
INSECT NET
INSECT NET is seeking graduate students to join our NSF-funded graduate training program for the 2025-26 academic year.
Students and faculty on our INSECT NET team are leveraging advances in technology and machine learning to improve biomonitoring efforts. Current trainee research projects are broad in scope, although most involve developing hardware and/or software to characterize, explore and predict changing environmental conditions/insect distributions.
Graduate students enrolled in Penn State's College of Agricultural Science, the College of Engineering or the College of Earth and Mineral Sciences can apply for one year of INSECT NET trainee support (incl. summer salary support) by filling out the interactive form.
Please direct any additional questions you may have about the program to insectnet@psu.edu.
PA IPM
Ray Delaney, Extension Program Specialist with the Pennsylvania Integrated Pest Management Program (PA IPM), participated in the National Urban Rat Summit in New York City last month. Ray's involvement with the Rat Summit stems from an IPM Working Group that he started with some of the New York IPM members a couple of years ago.
In most cases, urban rats are viewed as the problem, and action is taken to manage pest numbers with minimal attention given to their ultimate cause. Meanwhile, these pests are more accurately considered symptoms of sanitation problems, and are the result of human behaviors and practices that provide food, water, and shelter to the rats. -- Northeastern IPM Center
Ray and Don deMackiewicz, Education Program Specialist, participated in the 2024 PA Pest Management Association Annual State Conference. Ray presented in a technical track on Municipal Rodent Control.
Department of Entomology
Address
501 ASI Building453 Shortlidge Rd
University Park, PA 16802
- Email entomology@psu.edu
- Office 814-865-1895
- Fax 814-865-3048
Department of Entomology
Address
501 ASI Building453 Shortlidge Rd
University Park, PA 16802
- Email entomology@psu.edu
- Office 814-865-1895
- Fax 814-865-3048
