- Author: Kathy Keatley Garvey
DAVIS--Monarch genetics expert Christine Merlin, assistant professor in the Department of Biology, Texas A&M University, is among the speakers booked for the spring seminar series hosted by the UC Davis Department of Entomology and Nematology.
Merlin will speak on "Monarch Butterfly Circadian Clock: from Clockwork Mechanisms to Control of Seasonal Migration." She initially was scheduled to present a seminar last June, but it was cancelled.
Here's the list of speakers for the spring seminars, scheduled from April 5 through June 7, as announced by coordinator Christian Nansen, assistant professor of entomology. All seminars will be held on Wednesdays from 4:10 to 5 p.m. in 122 Briggs Hall. More information is pending.
Wednesday, April 5: Yan Zhu, UC Riverside
Topic: "Computational Entomology"
Host: Joanna Chiu, assistant professor and vice chair, UC Davis Department of Entomology and Nematology
Wednesday, April 12: Jay Rosenheim, professor of entomology, UC Davis Department of Entomology and Nematology
Topic: "Fitness Limiting Factors in an Uncertain World: A Case Study with Pollen Limitation"
Host: Christian Nansen, assistant professor, UC Davis Department of Entomology and Nematology
Wednesday, April 19: Sharon Lawler, professor of entomology, UC Davis Department of Entomology and Nematology, and graduate student Erin Donley
Topic: "Effects of Water Hyacinth and Its Management on Aquatic Vertebrates"
Host: Christian Nansen, assistant professor, UC Davis Department of Entomology and Nematology
Wednesday, April 26: Stacy Hishinuma, doctoral candidate, UC Davis Department of Entomology and Nematology
Topic: "Pityophthorus juglandis, the Pathogenic Bungus, Geosmithia morbida, and Host Species in Thousand Cankers Disease in California"
Host: Steve Seybold, chemical ecologist/affiliate, UC Davis Department of Entomology and Nematology
Wednesday, May 3: Brian Bahder, assistant professor, University of Florida
Topic: "Insect Vectors of Phytoplasmas in Palms: Past and Present Research"
Host: Frank Zalom, distinguished professor, UC Davis Department of Entomology and Nematology
Wednesday, May 10: Fernanda Valdovinos, Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, University of Arizona
Topic: "Elucidating Ecological Complexity with Mechanistic Approaches to Networks"
Host: Steve Nadler, professor and chair, UC Davis Department of Entomology and Nematology
Wednesday, May 17: Jonathan Gershenzon, Max Planck Institute for Chemical Ecology
Topic: Pending
Host: Rick Karban, professor, UC Davis Department of Entomology and Nematology
Wednesday, May 24: Omar Akbari, assistant professor of entomology, UC Riverside
Topic: "Developing Gene Drives to Manipulate the Fate of Wild Populations"
Host: Joanna Chiu, assistant professor and vice chair, UC Davis Department of Entomology and Nematology
Wednesday, May 31: Christine Merlin, assistant professor, Texas A&M
Topic: "The Monarch Butterfly Circadian Clock: from Clockwork Mechanisms to Control of Seasonal Migration"
Host: Joanna Chiu, associate professor and vice chair, UC Davis Department of Entomology and Nematology
Wednesday, June 7: Niels Holst, senior researcher, Aarhus University's Department of Agroecology, Entomology and Plant Pathology, Denmark
Topic: Pending
Host: Christian Nansen, assistant professor, UC Davis Department of Entomology and Nematology
Further information is available from Nansen at chrnansen@ucdavis.edu or (530) 752-2728.
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