Congratulations to five of the Department of Entomology’s grad students that received recognition during the 23rd annual meeting of the Graduate Student Forum that was held virtually on Tuesday, August 18.
This year’s forum featured 17 students giving presentations on diverse topics. The first place award was given to Morgan Thompson for her presentation titled “Undercover operation: root herbivory modifies aboveground plant-herbivore interactions.”
Jonathan Hernandez received second for his presentation titled “Co-occurrence of kdr mutations V1016I and F1534C in the voltage-gated sodium channel and their impact on the survivorship of Aedes aegypti (L.) (Diptera: Culicidae) from Harris County, Texas, after ULV Permanone ® (permethrin) field-cage test” while Bert Foquet received third for his talk titled “The effect of the neuropeptide [His7]-Corazonin on phase-related characteristics in the Central-American locust Schistocerca piceifrons.”
This year’s forum also included two honorable mentions including Erfan Vafaie and Jordan Ellis. Erfan’s presentation was titled “Robustness of biological control using multiple natural enemies against whitefly influx or delayed natural enemy releases” while Ellis’s presentation was titled “Honey bees (Apis mellifera) experience accelerated age polyethism and premature death due to developmental stressors”
The forum allows current graduate students a chance to present their latest research projects and to practice public speaking skills and to get ready for upcoming 10-minute paper presentation competitions at the upcoming national meeting of the Entomological Society of America that will be held virtually on November 11-25.
To see the list of speakers and their presentation titles, visit https://entomology.tamu.edu/gradstudentforum/2020-forum/