Kara Fikrig is an assistant professor in the Department of Entomology who seeks to understand the crossroad of entomology and public health, and to better protect public health. She primarily studies mosquitoes and how the diseases they carry affect people.
Penn State doctoral candidate Sahil Pawar studies how environmental stressors, primarily salty soil — a problem often overlooked in agriculture — affect the relationships between plants and insects.
Spotted lanternflies may season themselves to the distaste of potential bird predators, according to a new study led by entomologists in Penn State’s College of Agricultural Sciences.
Four Penn State researchers have been selected as 2025 IEE Fellows for their efforts to significantly advance energy and environmental research.
Penn State researchers studying declining populations of sundial lupines in the eastern part of the United States are closer to determining how an understanding of the plant genetics could be used to inform reseeding strategies to help with conservation efforts.
For the first time, the International Union for Conservation of Nature is formally including all microbial life in its framework by establishing a Microbial Conservation Specialist Group, which includes Seth Bordenstein, the director of Penn State’s One Health Microbiome Center, and will focus on the survival of species — even the smallest ones on the planet.
Organic beekeeping can support healthy and productive honey bee colonies, and a new study led by researchers in Penn State’s College of Agricultural Sciences found that adopting organic honey bee colony management is not only profitable, but in some cases, it can be even more profitable than conventional management.
Penn State’s College of Agricultural Sciences and its Department of Entomology are benefiting from a $1.5 million gift from a donor who has chosen to remain anonymous. The gift, split into two parts, supports the creation of the Maria Sibylla Merian Endowed Faculty Position and the Rachel Carson Graduate Training Program.
Learn about the diverse world of insects at this year’s Great Insect Fair, the annual Penn State event that celebrates insects with a variety of activities, games, crafts and more.
Christina M. Grozinger, Publius Vergilius Maro Professor of Entomology at Penn State, will deliver a talk titled “Leveraging Technology to Conserve Pollinator Biodiversity” on Sept. 12 as part of the Penn State Department of Geography's Coffee Hour lecture series.
A new Penn State Extension publication, "Bees of Pennsylvania: A Guide to the Genera," is intended for those interested in learning to identify and learn about the diversity of over 440 bee species in Pennsylvania ecosystems.
A new way to treat poultry for fowl mites was approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration in July, thanks in part to a team of researchers in Penn State’s College of Agricultural Sciences.
Sophia Mucciolo, an ecology student affiliated with the Penn State Huck Institutes of the Life Sciences, recently received a fellowship from the U.S. National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowship Program. She was one of eight students from Penn State selected for the program this year.
This is the eighth short news article written by students, during the professional development class of Spring 2025, about each other's research.
On March 25, 2025, Grace Tiwari, a doctoral student pursuing Ph.D. in Entomology at Penn State University, participated as an invited panelist at the World Food Prize Foundation's DialogueNEXT conference, "A Root Awakening," held at the Willard InterContinental in Washington, D.C.
Humans may not be the only species that struggles to eat the right amounts of the ideal foods. A new study led by researchers at Penn State suggests that what bumble bees choose to eat may not line up with their ideal nutritional needs.
Climate can vary across large areas of land, but it also can vary within much smaller areas such as farms. A new study led by researchers at Penn State examined whether these microclimates affect pollination by both wild and managed bees and resulting wild blueberry yields.
Despite having identical genetic instructions, female honey bee larvae can develop into either long-lived reproductive queens or short-lived sterile workers who help rear their sisters rather than laying their own eggs. Now, an interdisciplinary team led by researchers at Penn State has uncovered the molecular mechanisms that control how the conflict between genes inherited from the father and the mother determine the larva’s fate.
This is the seventh short news article written by students, during the professional development class of Spring 2025, about each other's research.
As the United States observes Lyme Disease Awareness Month in May, public health and extension professionals across the country have a powerful new tool at their fingertips: the VECTOR Library, a centralized digital database of more than 1,400 educational materials on vector-borne diseases collected from the Cooperative Extension System across all U.S. states and territories.
This is the sixth short news article written by students, during the professional development class of Spring 2025, about each other's research.
This is the fifth short news article written by students, during the professional development class of Spring 2025, about each other's research.
Graduate students in Penn State’s College of Agricultural Sciences were recognized for their accomplishments during the 2025 Graduate Student Award Celebration, hosted by the Office for Research and Graduate Education and held recently on the University Park campus.
This is the fourth short news article written by students, during the professional development class of Spring 2025, about each other's research.
The National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine recently appointed Christina Grozinger, Publius Vergilius Maro Professor of Entomology and director of the Huck Institutes of the Life Sciences at Penn State, to an 18-member study committee to examine the status of insects in North America.
This is the third short news article written by students, during the professional development class of Spring 2025, about each other's research.
This is the second short news article written by students, during the professional development class of Spring 2025, about each other's research.
This is the first short news article written by students, during the professional development class of Spring 2025, about each other's research.
Increased soil salinity can reduce damage from prominent tomato pests such as the tomato fruitworm, according to researchers at Penn State.
Insecticides can help protect crops against troublesome pests, but they also pose a risk for beneficial insects such as pollinators. A new study led by researchers at Penn State provided insight into how even sublethal doses of insecticides can negatively affect pollinators by disrupting the mating process.
