- Author: Kathy Keatley Garvey
247 years!
The seven faculty members honored at the UC Davis Department of Entomology and Nematology's recent retirement luncheon amassed an amazing 247 years of service:
- UC Davis distinguished professor James Carey, 44 years, faculty member since 1980. He retired in June.
- UC Davis distinguished professor Richard Karban, 42 years, faculty member since 1982. He retired in June.
- UC Davis distinguished professor emerita Lynn Kimsey, 35 years, faculty member since 1989. She retired Feb. 1, 2024.
- Robert Kimsey, adjunct professor, 35 years, faculty member since 1989. He retired in June
- UC Davis distinguished professor Jay Rosenheim, 34 years, faculty member since 1990. He retired in June.
- UC Davis distinguished professor Diane Ullman, 29 years, faculty member since 1995. She retired in June.
- Sharon Lawler, professor emerita, 28 years, faculty member since 1995. She retired in January 2023.
Read about them on our UC Davis Entomology and Nematology website, with links to individual stories. You may have interacted with one or more of them through their research, teaching or public service.
As molecular geneticist and physiologist Joanna Chiu, professor and chair of the department, said prior to the retirement luncheon: “Our retiring faculty will leave behind some very big shoes to fill. “They have set the bar very high for all of us with their passion to lifelong scientific exploration, perseverance to achieve intellectual and mentoring excellence, and dedication to the department, UC Davis, and external stakeholders. We are so proud to call them colleagues and mentors and they will no doubt continue to inspire us to carry on their legacy. It is with our most sincere appreciation that we wish all of them the best in their new endeavors and adventures in this next chapter of their lives."
247 years of service!
![UC Davis distinguished professor James R. Carey, 44 years of service (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey) UC Davis distinguished professor James R. Carey, 44 years of service (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)](/blogs/blogcore/blogfiles/107695.jpg)
![UC Davis distinguished professor Richard UC Davis distinguished professor Richard](/blogs/blogcore/blogfiles/107696.jpg)
![UC Davis distinguished professor emerita Lynn Kimsey, 35 years of service. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey) UC Davis distinguished professor emerita Lynn Kimsey, 35 years of service. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)](/blogs/blogcore/blogfiles/107697.jpg)
![Robert Kimsey, adjunct professor, 35 years of service (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey) Robert Kimsey, adjunct professor, 35 years of service (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)](/blogs/blogcore/blogfiles/107698.jpg)
![UC Davis distinguished professor Jay Rosenheim, 34 years of service. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey) UC Davis distinguished professor Jay Rosenheim, 34 years of service. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)](/blogs/blogcore/blogfiles/107699.jpg)
![UC Davis distinguished professor Diane Ullman, 29 years of service. (Photo by Jael Mackendorf) UC Davis distinguished professor Diane Ullman, 29 years of service. (Photo by Jael Mackendorf)](/blogs/blogcore/blogfiles/107700.jpg)
![Professor emerita Sharon Lawler, 28 years of service. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey at UC Davis Picnic Day) Professor emerita Sharon Lawler, 28 years of service. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey at UC Davis Picnic Day)](/blogs/blogcore/blogfiles/107701.jpg)
- Author: Kathy Keatley Garvey
I posted that on May 21, 2009 when Jay--now UC Davis Distinguished Professor Jay Rosenheim--won the first of many teaching awards spearheaded by his students.
He'll soon be UC Davis distinguished professor emeritus. He's retiring at the end of June after 34 years with the Department of Entomology and Nematology (ENT).
The department won't be the same without him.
Rosenheim specializes in insect ecology, integrated pest management, and biological control, and the use of farmer-generated data to enhance pest and crop management ('Ecoinformatics'). He is internationally known for his research on the ecology of insect parasitoids and predators, insect reproductive behavior, and the application of big data, or ecoinformatics, methods in agricultural entomology.
And he was among the seven retiring or newly retired ENT faculty members honored on June 11 at a department-sponsored event at UC Davis Alumni Center.
Professor Louie Yang said it well at the event.
"I've known him for 24 of those years and having seen just a little bit of how much he has done for students, colleagues, and the university in each of those years, it is deeply humbling to reflect upon his cumulative career-long contribution to science and mentorship."
"I've come to see that there are many ways to be a professor," Yang continued. "Jay's way has long been characterized by creative scholarly achievements, thoughtful and intentional contributions to agriculture, an intuitive feel for his organisms and a natural intuition for the quantitative side of ecology. I've also had a chance to witness and benefit from Jay's commitment to mentorship up close. Jay has provided mentorship to students and faculty alike, and I've benefited from both. His mentorship is characterized by good judgment and empathy; he is quick to forgive mistakes and genuine in celebrating your successes. On our campus, he's provided leadership of a quiet doing kind, often working behind the scenes to make important things happen and to provide a calming and moderating influence in challenging times."
Yang concluded with "I will sorely miss having Jay as a colleague. But I want to end with a heartfelt thanks. Thanks for all you've done for us over the many years, and for passing the baton. We wish you all the best on the road ahead."
A native of Yorktown, N.Y, young Jay developed an interest in biology while exploring the vernal pools behind his Hudson River Valley home. As an undergraduate at UC Davis, he initially majored in physics. "On a lark" he enrolled in Professor Harry Kaya's Entomology 100 course in 1981. The professor inspired him, the class enthralled him, and insects captivated him.
Rosenheim's career has not only led to his being elected a Fellow of the Entomological Society of America (ESA) and a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, but recipient of teaching awards from the Associated Students of UC Davis and the UC Davis Academic Senate; the Distinguished Student Mentoring Award from ESA's Pacific Branch and the campuswide Graduate Program Advising and Mentoring Award.
Rosenheim co-founded and co-directs the campuswide Research Scholars Program in Insect Biology (RSPIB) with Professors Joanna Chiu (now chair of the department) and Yang. The program aims to provide "undergraduates with a closely-mentored research experience in biology," according to the website. "Because insects can be used as model systems to explore virtually any area of biology (population biology; behavior and ecology; biodiversity and evolutionary ecology; agroecology; genetics and molecular biology; biochemistry and physiology; cell biology), faculty in the program can provide research opportunities across the full sweep of biology. The program's goal is to provide academically strong and highly motivated undergraduates with a multi-year research experience that cultivates skills that will prepare them for a career in biological research."
Rosenheim is the kind of professor who ignites, inspires and supports you. He recently reflected on his role: "The job of a professor is quite diverse, and quite rewarding in different ways. Teaching in a classroom provides instant gratification, as you see the light of understanding and excitement shining in students' eyes as they explore and grasp new concepts. Research in the laboratory provides instead delayed gratification, where long periods of hard work--sometimes years--may pass before questions are answered and one feels the satisfaction of pushing forward the margins of scientific understanding."
"But, perhaps the most lasting sense of accomplishment comes from mentoring graduate students," Rosenheim related. "Building relationships with graduate students, watching them grow in their skills and confidence and, finally, seeing them establish themselves in their careers, provides the kind of reward that is similar in some ways to the happiness that parents derive from their children. And the relationships never end--they are bonds that last a lifetime. I think the key to effective mentorship is to place the student's welfare at the top of one's priority list. So, drafts of papers should be returned promptly with constructive suggestions, and not allowed to languish in a long queue of manuscripts waiting for reviews--more senior colleagues can wait, if someone needs to wait."
We owe a debt of gratitude to UC Davis Distinguished Professor Jay Rosenheim, exemplary teacher, mentor and researcher, and wish him well in his retirement.
![Jay Rosenheim engaged in research at the Jepson Prairie Preserve in 2011. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey) Jay Rosenheim engaged in research at the Jepson Prairie Preserve in 2011. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)](/blogs/blogcore/blogfiles/107347.jpg)
![UC Davis Distinguished Professor Jay Rosenheim holds the interest of his students. (Photo taken in 2018 by Kathy Keatley Garvey) UC Davis Distinguished Professor Jay Rosenheim holds the interest of his students. (Photo taken in 2018 by Kathy Keatley Garvey)](/blogs/blogcore/blogfiles/107349.jpg)
- Author: Kathy Keatley Garvey
A warm welcome!
"UC Davis is a big university, with a strong focus on research," the text begins. "Undergraduates can easily feel like they are lost in the crowd, and rarely get close mentorship from faculty or other research staff (how can you, when your classes have hundreds of students present?). And yet, some of the most important skills for research biologists cannot be taught in big lecture halls or even in lab courses; these skills, especially those linked to conducting cutting-edge research are best learned through close mentoring relationships with faculty, and through an opportunity to do research (try it, make mistakes, learn from those mistakes, and get it right the next time)."
The program, co-founded and co-directed by three faculty members of the UC Davis Department of Entomology and Nematology--distinguished professor Jay Rosenheim and professors Joanna Chiu and Louie Yang--"aims to provide undergraduates with a closely-mentored research experience in biology. Because insects can be used as model systems to explore virtually any area of biology (population biology; behavior and ecology; biodiversity and evolutionary ecology; agroecology; genetics and molecular biology; biochemistry and physiology; cell biology), faculty in the program can provide research opportunities across the full sweep of biology. The program's goal is to provide academically strong and highly motivated undergraduates with a multi-year research experience that cultivates skills that will prepare them for a career in biological research."
From the depths of this innovative and excellent program, launched in 2011, come outstanding scholars--scholars like Gwen Erdosh and Gary Ge, the first two recipients of the Dr. Stephen Garczynski Undergraduate Research Scholarship. This award, sponsored by the Pacific Branch, Entomological Society of America, memorializes Stephen Garczynski (1960-2019), a research geneticist at the USDA Agricultural Research Service in Wapato, Wash.,"who had an unmatched passion for mentoring undergraduate students in their research," according to the PBESA website.
Erdosh, a research scholar in the Yang lab, won the inaugural scholarship, presented in 2022. She's continuing her research, and as @gwentomologist, is sharing her knowledge of entomology with her 77,000 followers on Instagram.
This year Ge won the undergraduate scholarship. He studies with Yang and UC Davis Distinguished Professor Art Shapiro of the Department of Evolution and Ecology, and researches the American Apollo butterfly (Parnassius clodius) as a model to study how microclimatic conditions affect cold-adapted insects. Ge is a research assistant with Shapiro's Central California Butterfly Population and Diversity Trends Study, and works with Yang as a project manager and a research assistant on his Milkweed phenology study.
Ge will be honored at the annual PBESA meeting, April 2-5 in Seattle, which encompasses 11 Western states, plus Canada, Mexico and U.S. territories. He will receive a $1000 award for travel expenses and a waived registration fee.
Ge just finished writing a National Science Foundation's Graduate Research Fellowship Program (GRFP) grant proposal. The results are expected to be announced in April.
His hypothesis: "that mid-elevation populations of P. clodius have the best cold tolerance as overwintering eggs. The main factor behind this is snow cover. Snow cover is known to provide significant insulation to whatever is underneath, usually creating higher microclimatic temperatures under the snow than above. At mid-elevations, the winter temperatures are lower than at low elevations, and the snow cover is supposedly less and more unstable compared to higher elevations. This means the mid-elevation populations are likely exposed to the coldest winter temperature, and have locally adapted to it.”
Ge said he is testing his hypothesis “partly by looking at the supercooling points (SCPs) of diapausing eggs in different populations. The SCP indicates the freezing temperature of the egg, so it should be close to the lower lethal temperature. So, the population with the lowest average SCP would be the most cold-tolerant. I got some preliminary results recently indicating the SCP of the mid-elevation eggs is around -30 °C, which is pretty cold! On the side I am also testing the egg SCP of a Parnassius behrii population. This is a California endemic. It would be cool to see how their thermal tolerance differ from that of P. clodius as P. behrii is only found in high-elevation habitats (mostly around and above 9,000 feet).”
“The genus Parnassius is prone to global warming due to its affinity for alpine and arctic habitats, and several species are considered to be threatened," Ge said.
Shapiro, who has monitored butterfly populations across central California for the last 50 years, says that “Parnassians are a group of cold-adapted Northern Hemisphere butterflies that are becoming increasingly important as objects of physiological, ecological and evolutionary study. They are only likely to grow more important in the context of climate change. Thus, Gary's study is very timely and should attract plenty of attention! It is demanding given the rigorous conditions in which they breed and develop, and he is likely to learn a lot that will facilitate future lab and field studies.” On his research website, Art's Shapiro's Butterfly site, Shapiro describes P. clodius in detail.
Gary, born in Beijing, China, attended elementary school in New York City, middle school in Singapore, and high school in Hawaii, and now California for college. “This allowed me to have experience with a range of lepidopterans and ants and termites as well—social insects are my other favorite group.” He anticipates receiving his bachelor of science degree at UC Davis this year and hopes to enroll in graduate school at UC Davis.
Gary developed his passion for Parnassius during middle school. “When I was visiting my extended family in Tibet, I saw this small white butterfly flying through the seemingly lifeless alpine scree habitat at an elevation of around 1,5000 feet. I later found out that it was a Parnassius species and got immediately intrigued by the fact that they are mostly specialist of alpine and arctic habitats, living in some of the world's coldest and most hostile environments. Since many of the genus members have habitats restricted to mountain tops above the tree line, our P. behrii is an example, climate change--rising tree lines-would leave them nowhere to go. This makes better understanding the ecology of this genus utterly important.”
Congratulations to the scholars, their instructors, and to the UC Davis Research Scholars Program in Insect Biology. And kudos to PBESA for memorializing USDA research geneticist Stephen Garczynski and his "unmatched passion for mentoring undergraduate students in their research."
![A screen shot of the UC Davis Research Scholars Program in Insect Biology website. A screen shot of the UC Davis Research Scholars Program in Insect Biology website.](/blogs/blogcore/blogfiles/98086.png)
- Author: Kathy Keatley Garvey
Jean-Pierre Delplanque, vice provost and dean of Graduate Studies, says the program recognizes "faculty providing outstanding service in advising and mentoring at the program level."
In a letter to Professor Rosenheim, he praised his "excellent service to your graduate program, as well as your positive impact on graduate students and your colleagues. We thank you for your investment in advising and mentoring graduate students and contribution to their success."
Delplanque singled out a few excerpts from the award packet:
- “He has demonstrated his unparalleled dedication to mentoring students, and ability to cultivate an atmosphere of learning, excitement, and critical thinking in the lab, field, and classroom. He consistently makes time to support his students. Regardless of his current teaching and research demands, Jay will provide feedback, schedule meetings, and maintain his open door policy.”
- “Jay is a remarkably skillful and reassuring mentor with a natural generosity of spirit and a broad view of mentorship. He has deep knowledge in a wide range of subject areas, and also has the wisdom to offer students good advice on all stages of the research process. Jay is especially good at putting students at ease and motivating them to persist through the setbacks of research. I have often seen students go to Jay for advice when they are worried and leave feeling better about the road ahead.”
Delplanque noted that "Graduate Studies is committed to showcasing and promoting positive mentoring experiences like yours. Graduate advising and mentoring is vital for guiding students through their degrees and professional development, while also helping ensure their overall success and well-being. Your efforts exemplify outstanding service in mentorship and we hope you will join us in championing the benefits and significance of graduate student mentoring across campus. Congratulations again on your achievement."
Rosenheim, who specializes in insect ecology, integrated pest management, and biological control, and the use of farmer-generated data to enhance pest and crop management ('Ecoinformatics'), holds a bachelor's degree in entomology (1983) from UC Davis and a doctorate in entomology (1987) from UC Berkeley. He joined the UC Davis faculty in 1990. and become a UC Davis distinguished professor in 2018.
Humbled and honored to receive the award, Rosenheim says that "The job of a professor is quite diverse, and quite rewarding in different ways. Teaching in a classroom provides instant gratification, as you see the light of understanding and excitement shining in students' eyes as they explore and grasp new concepts. Research in the laboratory provides instead delayed gratification, where long periods of hard work--sometimes years--may pass before questions are answered and one feels the satisfaction of pushing forward the margins of scientific understanding."
"But, perhaps the most lasting sense of accomplishment comes from mentoring graduate students," Rosenheim says. Building relationships with graduate students, watching them grow in their skills and confidence and, finally, seeing them establish themselves in their careers, provides the kind of reward that is similar in some ways to the happiness that parents derive from their children. And the relationships never end – they are bonds that last a lifetime. I think the key to effective mentorship is to place the student's welfare at the top of one's priority list. So, drafts of papers should be returned promptly with constructive suggestions, and not allowed to languish in a long queue of manuscripts waiting for reviews--more senior colleagues can wait, if someone needs to wait.
"And, I think effective mentorship also means tailoring the kind of assistance provided to the needs and desires of each student. Mentorship is definitely not a one-size-fits-all kind of undertaking. Some students need a lot of encouragement (actually, almost everyone benefits from positive feedback, because research often produces huge servings of critiques), some students need more assistance, especially at the earliest stages of their research, but some students absolutely chafe under too much input, and instead want total independence. That's fine – it's important to adjust to each student's desires and needs. I think good mentorship also means establishing a laboratory culture of openness and collegiality. Everyone should be happy to come to the lab, learn from each other, and contribute to each other's research progress. Mentorship doesn't just come from the lab PI (principal investigator), but from everyone who makes the lab a community."
A native of Yorktown, N.Y, young Jay developed an interest in biology while exploring the vernal pools behind his Hudson River Valley home. As an undergraduate at UC Davis, he initially majored in physics. "On a lark" he enrolled in Professor Harry Kaya's Entomology 100 course in 1981. The professor inspired him, the class enthralled him, and insects captivated him.
Rosenheim's career has not only led to his being elected a Fellow of the Entomological Society of America (ESA) and a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, but recipient of teaching awards from the Associated Students of UC Davis and the UC Davis Academic Senate; and the Distinguished Student Mentoring Award from ESA's Pacific Branch.
He co-founded and co-directs the campuswide Research Scholars Program in Insect Biology (RSPIB) with Professors Joanna Chiu and Louie Yang of the UC Davis Department of Entomology and Nematology. The program aims to provide "undergraduates with a closely-mentored research experience in biology," according to the website. "Because insects can be used as model systems to explore virtually any area of biology (population biology; behavior and ecology; biodiversity and evolutionary ecology; agroecology; genetics and molecular biology; biochemistry and physiology; cell biology), faculty in the program can provide research opportunities across the full sweep of biology. The program's goal is to provide academically strong and highly motivated undergraduates with a multi-year research experience that cultivates skills that will prepare them for a career in biological research."
![UC Davis distinguished professor Jay Rosenheim interacting with this students. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey) UC Davis distinguished professor Jay Rosenheim interacting with this students. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)](/blogs/blogcore/blogfiles/92894.jpg)
- Author: Kathy Keatley Garvey
"As a result, pest outbreaks are less likely in diverse landscapes," said Paredes, who analyzed a 13-year government database of diversified landscapes encompassing more than 1300 olive groves and vineyards in Spain. The database documented pests and pesticide applications.
The paper, “The Causes and Consequences of Pest Population Variability in Agricultural Landscapes,” appears in the Ecological Society of America journal, Ecological Applications. Co-authors are UC Davis distinguished professor Jay Rosenheim of the Department of Entomology and Nematology, and Daniel Karp, associate professor, Department of Wildlife, Fish, and Conservation Biology. The research is online at https://bit.ly/3a64WRN.
Pest variability: an understudied but critical topic
Although population variability is often studied in natural systems, the need for long-term pest population data collected across many farms has largely prevented researchers from studying pest variability in agricultural systems, said Paredes, a postdoctoral fellow in the Karp lab.
What causes a pest population to be variable?
Having shown that more pest-population variability is more likely to cause problems for farmers, the researchers then set out to discover what farmers could do to manage variability.
One key factor that emerged was the type of landscape the crops were grown in, specifically whether the landscape was dominated by vast fields of a single crop variety or more diversified. Pest populations were both more abundant and more variable in crop monocultures.
However, while landscape type influenced both pest population sizes and variability, this was not always the case for other variables. “This research shows that the factors that promote high overall mean pest density are not necessarily the same factors that promote high variability in pest density,” Rosenheim said. “So, mean densities, which is what researchers have been studying for decades and decades, are only part of the story. Variation in density, and in particular unpredictable severe outbreaks, need to be studied separately.”
The take-away message?
“In Spain, planting multiple crops and retaining natural habitats would help stably suppress pests and prevent outbreaks,” said Paredes, a native of Spain who holds a doctorate in environmental sciences (2014) from the University of Granada. “Diversifying agricultural may be a win–win situation for conservation and farmers alike.”
"Therefore, we encourage agricultural stakeholders to increase the complexity of the landscapes surrounding their farms through conserving/restoring natural habitat and/or diversifying crops," the researchers wrote in their abstract.
Tapping into other large datasets such as this one, will be key to understanding whether diversified landscapes also help mitigate pest variability and outbreaks in other areas, they said.
This project was funded by the National Science Foundation with funds from the Belmont Forum via the European Biodiversity Partnership: BiodivERsA. It was also supported by the USDA National Institute of Food and Agriculture.
![Vineyards in Comarca Montilla-Moriles, Córdoba, Spain. (Photo by Daniel Paredes) Vineyards in Comarca Montilla-Moriles, Córdoba, Spain. (Photo by Daniel Paredes)](/blogs/blogcore/blogfiles/90649.jpg)
![Olive orchards in Andalusia, Spain. (Photo by Daniel Paredes) Olive orchards in Andalusia, Spain. (Photo by Daniel Paredes)](/blogs/blogcore/blogfiles/90650.jpg)