Current Student News

Meaghan Pimsler Receives Comstock Award from Southwestern Branch of ESA

March 2, 2015 by Rob Williams

Meaghan Pimsler with Bob Davis — Meaghan Pimsler, left. with Bob Davis. Photo by Tom Royer

TULSA—Ph.D. student Meaghan Pimsler’s hard work and determination has paid off again as she received the Entomological Society of America’s John Henry Comstock Award for 2015 at the Southwestern Branch of the Entomological Society’s annual meeting.

The award was announced during the meeting’s awards ceremony held at the Hard Rock Hotel and Casino in Tulsa during the three-day event on February 23-26.

Pimsler is co-advised by Drs. Jeff Tomberlin and Aaron Tarone and her dissertation is titled “A Functional Genetic Study of the Behavioral Ecology of Chrysomya rufifacies (Diptera: Calliphoridae); Potential for Sexual Conflict in Immature Insects.”

She is actively involved in the Entomological Society of America and has organized two symposia, as well as representing Texas A&M in the regional and national Linnaean Games several times in her career. Pimsler also has organized and participated in the ESA’s student debate and submitted three manuscripts to the Journal of Medical Entomology.

Pimsler has received numerous awards, including the Monsanto Student Travel and Medical, Urban, and Veterinary Entomology Section Student Travel Grant for the ESA meeting in Portland in 2014, and placed first for her presentation during the 2013 Graduate Student Forum and at the 2013 North American Forensic Entomology Association meeting in Dayton, Ohio.

In addition to her research, Pimsler has been a graduate teaching assistant for several courses, including the FIVS 205, Introduction to Forensic and Investigative Sciences and the FIVS/ENTO 431/432, Theoretical and Applied Forensic Entomology.

“Meaghan is an exceptional student and researcher,” Tomberlin said. “She will serve as a wonderful representative of the spirit of the Comstock Award.”

Tarone was very proud of Pimsler and was excited to see her receive the award.

“Meaghan is a great student, a hard worker, and an avid entomologist,” Tarone said. “She definitely represents the type of person that the Comstock Award was intended to honor and I have every confidence that this is just one of what will become a long list of achievements that are in store for Meaghan’s career.”

The J. H. Comstock Award is given to one graduate student from each of the Entomological Society of America’s six Branches to promote interest in the science of entomology at the graduate level and to stimulate interest in attending the ESA Annual Meeting. The award includes an all-expense-paid trip to the national meeting, a $500 cash prize, and a certificate that is presented during the ESA Annual Meeting.

Southwestern Branch Awards Committee Chair Dr. Charles Allen said that the vote for the award was close, but Pimsler’s achievements during her college career were outstanding and deserved recognition.

“The voting was pretty tight, but Meaghan was the clear winner,” Allen said. “The fact that she has maintained a 4.0 grade point average while being fully involved in all of her research, outreach, teaching and society activities was very impressive as well. Finally, her willingness to work with and collaborate with other students, and her ability to obtain grant/scholarship support did not go unappreciated by the committee. In short, across the breadth of our discipline (and beyond) she has a developed a very impressive body of work.”

Grad Students Honored at Special Recognition Seminar

February 20, 2015 by Rob Williams

Paula Castillo with Dr. David Ragsdale holding an award — Paula Castillo, left, with Entomology Department Head Dr. David Ragsdale. Castillo received the Outstanding Graduate Student Award for Masters Student at a special presentation. Photo by Rob Williams

The Department of Entomology recently named its Outstanding Graduate Students of 2015 during a special seminar on Thursday, February 19.

Paula Castillo and Meaghan Pimsler were honored during the Grad Student Recognition Seminar. Castillo received the Outstanding Grad Student – Masters Student while Pimsler received the Outstanding Ph.D. Student Award.

Castillo is currently being mentored by Dr. Patricia Pietrantonio. She is author of an article published in PLoS One in 2013 on the immunolocalization of the sNPF receptor in all three subcastes of red imported fire ant workers. The research was also presented at a Society for Neurobiology poster competition, where she received third place in the Junior Graduate Student category.

Castillo is also actively involved in the Entomology Graduate Student Organization where she is currently serving as the Seminar Chair for the Entomology Graduate Student Organization. She received her Bachelor of Science degree from the University of Santiago in Santiago, Chile.

“Paula is undoubtedly an outstanding graduate student,” said Professor and AgriLife Research Fellow, Dr. Patricia Pietrantonio.

Paula also works with undergraduate students conducting research in the laboratory and she is extremely helpful and dedicated,” Dr. Cecilia Tamborindeguy said. “She has a wealth of knowledge that she shares with her fellow students.”

She is actively involved in the Entomological Society of America and has organized two symposia, as well as represented Texas A&M in the regional and national Linnaean Games several times in her career. Pimsler also has organized and participated in the ESA’s student debate and submitted three manuscripts to the Journal of Medical Entomology.

In addition to her research, Pimsler has been a graduate teaching assistant for several courses, including the FIVS 205 Introduction to Forensic and Investigative Sciences and the FIVS/ENTO 431/432 Theoretical and Applied Forensic Entomology.

“Her attention to details as related to experimental design is tremendous, as well as, her ability to envision potential hurdles and associated solutions is on par with those at the conclusion of their Ph.D. studies,” said Dr. Jeff Tomberlin. “I also appreciate her ability to collaborate with other students in the laboratory. I have noticed that she is always willing to help those in need, has a passion for outreach, interacts wonderfully with non-scientists, and just has a drive to be the best entomologist/scientist/ citizen that is tough to match. I sincerely appreciate Meaghan as a person and fellow researcher.”

Pimsler received her Bachelor of Science in Entomology from Cornell University where she graduated Magna Cum Laude in May 2007.

Grad Student Receives Award at 2015 Beltwide Cotton Conference

January 23, 2015 by Rob Williams

SAN ANTONIO – For the second year in a row, Entomology Ph.D. student Carrie Deans has received an award at the 2015 Beltwide Cotton Conference in January.

Deans received the Best Ph.D. Student Oral Presentation Prize in the Insect Research and Control section for her talk titled “The Impact of Nutrition on Cry1Ac Susceptibility in Helicoverpa Zea (Lepidoptera: Noctuidae): A Case Study in Environmentally-Mediated Resistance” during the three-day long conference held in San Antonio.

This is Deans’ second award at the national conference. She also received the Best PhD Student Oral Presentation Prize in the Insect Research and Control section for her talk titled “Macronutrient preference and effect on performance in Lygus hesperus (Hemiptera: Miridae)” at the 2014 conference in New Orleans.

Deans is co-advised by Dr. Greg Sword and Dr. Spence Behmer of the Department of Entomology. This is the third time in three years that a PhD student from Sword’s lab has received the prestigious award at the conference, and he is very proud of her hard work.

“To win the best PhD student presentation prize two years in a row is an incredible accomplishment. The competition was tough. Importantly, the work she presented to win the prize again this year was a different body of research than the project that won her last year’s award,” Sword said. “Carrie has done a tremendous about of work. Both the quality and relevance of her research to agriculture and cotton production in particular is evident by her winning these back-to-back awards.”

Behmer also praised her hard work and dedication to her project and said that the award was very deserving.

“Carrie has been an exceptional student,” Behmer said. “This award is a very good recognition of her intellectual abilities and hard work.”

Students Receive Unique Learning Experience by Creating Online Journal

December 11, 2014 by Rob Williams

Adrienne Brundage story 12-11-14 -2 — Ada Morales reviewing an article that was submitted for the journal during the final day of class. Photo By Rob Williams.

COLLEGE STATION, Texas — Students in senior lecturer Dr. Adrienne Brundage gave the challenge to her students in the Entomology 481 Writing Seminar class to come up with a way to combine science writing and editing an online journal.

The challenge was taken as the students in the class worked on a project for an online journal that will contain submissions from student writers in the Department with the students in her class taking the role of editors of the submitted articles.

The journal called “Instars: A Journal of Undergraduate Research,” is an open access, electronic journal that will be published on the TAMU Library’s online Open Access Journal website later in December. Brundage said that she called for the students in ENTO 423, ENTO 208 and FIVS 435 to volunteer to submit their papers to the new journal.

Students in the class served as peer editors where they were placed in small groups of two to three and were tasked with reviewing each submission for proper content, format and grammar by using a standardized rubric for submitting papers professionally.

Each group then submits a written article analysis on the article, critiquing on its grammar, style and content, and then is passed onto three different groups with a final publication decision after the third review. She said that at the end of the semester, the students vote on 15 to 20 papers to be submitted to the journal as their final project.

Adrienne Brundage story 12-11-14 -3 — Dr. Adrienne Brundage working with a student. Photo by Rob Williams.

Brundage said the idea came to her after looking for a way to encourage her students to take pride in their work and provide something that they can be motivated in producing a quality piece for the public. “I wanted to give the students in this class a reason to want to learn how to write better, while giving them the opportunity to learn from the successes and mistakes of other writers,” she said. “I also wanted to give them a little taste of what they would be doing as a peer reviewer or editor after they graduated.”

She also said that the publication of this journal is an excellent tool for encouraging them to keep writing quality work and gives them experience on publishing scientific articles in the real world.

“I decided to use the publication of the journal as a final project because it gave the students something to work towards. The idea was to set up a situation where each week the students were learning something that would have near-immediate rewards,” she said.

“I thought that the students needed to take a risk with this, as well. The idea that people all over the country will have access to this journal once it is published is enough to give the students an extra push towards doing their best work,” she said.

Entomology senior Ada Morales said her favorite part of the course was critiquing and reviewing articles and that the course was fun but a lot of hard work.

“It took a lot of hard work but it was worth it,” she said. “It has taught me well in determining between what is good and bad scientific writing.”

Brundage was impressed at the results and is already excited about publishing the inaugural edition.

“I think this project went pretty well,” Brundage said. “This allowed us to change things during the semester when they needed to be changed, and gave the students an element of control over the process.”

The 2014 issue of the journal will be published on December 20 at the following address: https://journals.tdl.org/instars/index.php/instars.

Brundage said that all Entomology students are welcome to submit their presentations to her for the 2015 edition and can do so by going to the journal website or by e-mail at Adrienne.Brundage@ag.tamu.edu.