- Author: Kathy Keatley Garvey
DAVIS--"Anatomy of Angels," "Alba, the Fluorescent Bunny," "The Beauty of Disease and Why We Have Trees" and "Art as a Social Practice" will be the topics at the UC Davis L.A.S.E.R. (Leonardo Art Science Evening Rendezvous) session, set April 9 in the Plant and Environmental Sciences (PES) Building, UC Davis campus.
The event, free and open to the public, will take place from 6:30 to 9 p.m. in Room 3001 of PES. It will be moderated by organizer Anna Davidson.
LASER is affiliated with the UC Davis Art Science Fusion Program, which was co-founded and co-directed by entomologist/artist Diane Ullman and artist Donna Billick. Ullman is a professor of entomology with the UC Davis Department of Entomology and Nematology. Billick, who has a master's degree in genetics, describes herself as a "rock artist," creating mosaic ceramic art.
The schedule:
6:30-7 p.m. Socializing/Networking
Abstract:
Matt Gilbert's current body of work includes small, kinetic, motor-driven sculptures of filament and wire that explore a contemporary understanding of living things as complex systems.
Biosketch
Matt Gilbert is a master of fine arts candidate in Studio Art at UC Davis. His practice includes programming and the fabrication of electronics and 3D printed parts for kinetic sculpture, sound installations, video and animation. He received his bachelor of fine arts in graphic design from the Art Center College of Design.
7:25-7:50. Alison Van Eenennaam. “Alba: the Fluorescent Bunny.”
Abstract: Eduardo Kac, a professor of art and technology at the Chicago School of Art Institute produced a picture of a green fluorescent protein (GFP) transgenic bunny called “Alba.” "GFP Bunny" was realized in 2000 and first presented publicly in Avignon, France. The artist proposed that “transgenic art” is a new art form based on the use of genetic engineering to transfer natural or synthetic genes to an organism, to create unique living beings. The artist came under considerable criticism for the picture which some consider to have been fabricated. "The picture itself is a construction," said Reinhard Nestelbacher, a molecular biologist at the University of Salzburg. "The rabbit could never look like that. The main reason is that the GFP gene is expressed, for example, in the skin and cannot be expressed in the hair." Said Stuart Newman, a member of the Council for Responsible Genetics and a cell biologist at New York Medical College: “Art misrepresents reality all the time -- and he's an artist, not a scientist, but I think people are beholden to tell the truth." Are artists beholden to tell the truth about GMOs?"
Biosketch:
Alison Van Eenennaam is a genomics and biotechnology researcher and Cooperative Extension specialist in the Department of Animal Science at UC Davis. She received a bachelor of agricultural science from the University of Melbourne in Australia, and both a master's degree in animal science, and a PhD in genetics from UC Davis. The mission of her extension program is “to provide research and education on the use of animal genomics and biotechnology in livestock production systems.” Her outreach program focuses on the development of science-based educational materials including the controversial biotechnologies of genetic engineering (GE) and cloning. She has served on several national committees, including the USDA National Advisory Committee on Biotechnology and 21st Century Agriculture, (2005-2009), and as a temporary voting member of the 2010 FDA Veterinary Medicine Advisory Committee meeting on the AquAdvantage salmon, the first GE animal to be evaluated for entry into the food supply. Van Eenennaam received the 2014 Borlaug Council for Agricultural Science and Technology (CAST) Communication Award.
7:50-8:10 BREAK. Networking/socializing. During the break anyone can have 30 seconds to share work, announce an exhibition, show, an idea etc.
8:10-8:35 Thomas Gordon. “The Beauty of Disease and Why We Still Have Trees.”
Abstract:
Disease caused by parasitic microorganisms is a universal feature of life on earth. The need for all multi-cellular life forms to co-exist with potentially life-threatening parasites has been a powerful force in shaping the world in which we live.
Biosketch
Thomas Gordon is a UC Davis professor of plant pathology. His responsibilities include maintaining a research program on the biology of fungi that parasitize plants. He teaches a general education course on fungi and how they affect and are exploited by people; an upper division course on fungal ecology: and a graduate course on the principles of plant pathology.
8:35-9 Evan Clayburg & Sally Hensel. “Art as a Social Practice.”
Abstract:
Sally Hensel and Evan Clayburg, two founders of Third Space Art Collective in Davis, will talk about starting an art collective and an ongoing project, which examines authentic connection through artistic co-creation.
Biosketches
Sally Hensel, who was born and grew up in the in the Central Valley, describes herself as a 30-year-old without a bank account or mobile phone. She said she has dropped out of UC Davis twice; the second time with a bachelor of arts degree in film studies. She finds that happiness comes to her when she brings people together.
Evan Clayburg is a multimedia and performance artist. After years of dividing his time between well-lit ad agency boardrooms and poorly-lit DIY experimental / punk music basements in the Chicago area, he relocated to Davis and has been active in art, music and community organizing over the past four years. He received a bachelor's degree in graphic arts from Bradley University in 2003.
Moderator/Organizer:
Anna Davidson is currently a master of fine arts student in Art Studio at UC Davis. She received her Ph.D. in the Department of Plant Sciences at UC Davis, studying plant ecophysiology. She studies the biological world using both artistic and scientific approaches.
For more information:
Facebook:
https://www.facebook.com/events/450142691817307/
http://www.leonardo.info/isast/laser.html
http://www.scaruffi.com/leonardo/
Map: http://www.plantsciences.ucdavis.edu/plantsciences/visitors/map.htm
Anna Davidson: adavidson@ucdavis.edu
- Author: Kathy Keatley Garvey
Smith curates the 400,000-specimen Lepidoptera collection at the Bohart Museum, a world-renowned insect museum that houses a global collection of nearly 8 million specimens. Smith organizes and identifies the butterflies and moths, creates the drawers that display them, and the labels that identify them. In between, he shares his passion for insects and spiders at outreach programs.
The entomologist has spread the wings of 200,000 butterflies and moths, or about 7000 a year, since 1988. “I do most of the work at my home (Rocklin), where I spread and identify specimens and add them to the museum collection,” he said.
“My life is dedicated to this passion of entomology,” said Smith, an associate of the Bohart Museum and a member of the Bohart Museum Society and the Lepidopterists' Society. “Entomology is my passion and the Bohart Museum is my cause.” He retired in 2013 from a 35-year career with Univar Environmental Science but that just means he can spend more time at the insect museum.
“The Lepidoptera collection is an excellent worldwide resource,” said Lynn Kimsey, director of the Bohart Museum and professor of entomology at UC Davis. “Jeff has completely reorganized the butterfly and moth collection. It's no small feat to rearrange this many specimens, housed in roughly 3000 drawers. They have to be identified, and the taxonomy requires extensive updating and reorganization. He has re-curated all of the major moth families.”
If anyone were to put a monetary value on Jeff Smith's museum donations, it would exceed $160,000, said Kimsey, calculating that the 200,000 curated butterflies and moths alone translates into 33,000 hours of work.
A philanthropist extraordinaire, Smith has donated more than 35,000 specimens from his own collection; gifted more than 6000 foam-bottomed unit boxes, 5000 pins and seven reams of label paper; and crafted more than 2000 glass-topped specimen drawers to the Bohart Museum. He loves doing outreach programs, including classroom visits, Bohart open houses, state and county fairs, festivals, school science events, UC Davis Picnic Day and other educational opportunities. He engages crowds with specimens, but also with the permanent residents of the Bohart's live “Petting Zoo.” It was Smith who donated the crowd favorite, Rosie the Tarantula, who lived to 24 years.
In 2000, a scientific team led by Heydon returned from Papua New Guinea with a vast amount of specimens, and over the next two years Smith spread around 18,000 moths and butterflies, all now incorporated into the Bohart collection.
Smith can spread the wings of a butterfly or moth in several minutes, from the smallest to the largest. His smallest moth was a 1 mm long moth (about the size of a period at the end of this sentence) with a wingspan of 2 to 2.5 mm. Heydon collected it in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, central Africa,
The largest moth he's spread? The Atlas moth, which has a 12-inch wingspan.
Smith worked at the Bohart on vacations, evenings and weekends while working full-time at Univar, a major product supplier to the professional pest management industries. “As a salesman of 23 years and then resource development with our website until I retired, I had the chance to teach our customers how to do pest control properly,” Smith related. “I taught probably thousands of classes on safe and effective use of pesticides, personal safety, pest identification and biology, etc., and like to think I made an impact on increasing the professionalism of this industry.” A frequent speaker at industry conferences, Smith was often the “go to” person for insect identification and technical questions.
Smith credits his parents with sparking his interest in insects. As a child growing up in Campbell, Calif., he collected butterflies, moths and other insects. “My parents loved the outdoors and taught us to be curious,” he said. His father, Al, now deceased, was a general contractor, and his mother, Alice, now 98, worked in the business.
From his father he learned woodworking. Of the some 2000 drawers he has made for the Bohart Museum “about half are from scratch,” he said. They include 150 drawers from recycled redwood decking and fencing. He makes and donates spreading boards for open houses and for UC Davis Entomology Club clinics.
“I love retirement and all the additional time I now have for the Bohart and oh, for my wife," Smith said. "Our daughter and one granddaughter live in Prescott, Ariz., and I make things for them such as beds, bookshelves, and other wood objects.”
One of Smith's philosophies is “to leave the world better than I found it, and that pertains not only to my work in the Bohart but also to my 35-year career at Univar.”
Another involves the Golden Rule, or as he says “If you wouldn't want someone doing it to you, don't do it to them.” And a third philosophy "that I stole" from an inspirational man who teaches music to inner city youth in Los Angeles: “Love what you do, do what you love, and take the time to teach others about your passion.”
Jeff Smith is doing all three.
"We really don't know what we would do without Jeff Smith," Kimsey said.
- Author: Kathy Keatley Garvey
He will be hosted by colleague and collaborator Diane Ullman, professor of entomology at UC Davis.
"Thrips-transmitted, tomato spotted wilt virus (TSWV), which has an extremely broad host range and is transmitted exclusively by thrips, ranks among the most economically important plant viruses affecting crops worldwide," Kennedy says in his abstract.
"Effective management of this virus in commercial crop production systems requires an understanding of the factors that determine the timing and magnitude of virus spread. This seminar will discuss the ways in which seasonal weather events influence the dispersal dynamics of vector thrips populations, the abundance of virus inoculum sources in the landscape, and ultimately the timing and magnitude of TSWV spread into susceptible crops. It will further provide an illustration of how efforts to model these relationships improved understanding of the epidemiology of TSWV and led to the development of a TSWV risk prediction tool that is now being used in pest management decision making."
Kennedy, past president of the Entomological Society of America (ESA), is an ESA fellow, recipient of the ESA's Award for Excellence in Entomology and chaired the Entomological Foundation, a non-profit educational foundation whose mission is “to excite and educate young people about science through insects.”
He also served as program manager for the National Research Initiative, affiliated with the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA), and on numerous advisory panels for the USDA, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and the National Research Council, addressing issues relating to pesticides, pest resistance, integrated pest management, and biotechnology.
Kennedy holds a bachelor's degree in entomology from Oregon State University and a doctorate in entomology from Cornel University. He served as assistant professor of entomology at UC Riverside from 1974-1976, before joining the faculty at North Carolina State University.
See his biosketch on the ESA website.
Kennedy writes on his website: "Research in my program focuses on understanding the ecology and life systems of arthropods affecting agricultural crops and applying that understanding to improve the effectiveness and sustainability of arthropod management in vegetable crops. We study fundamental interactions and processes that influence pest status, population dynamics and the insect/crop interactions that result in damage. We apply the resulting information in combination with new technologies to enhance IPM. Areas of emphasis include insect-plant interactions, resistance management, landscape scale population dynamics, and epidemiology and management of insect transmitted plant viruses. Current research projects focus on understanding the determinants of tospovirus transmission by thrips in relation to epidemiology and management of tomato spotted wilt virus and on the development of reduced risk arthropod management systems for fruiting vegetables. These efforts include both field and laboratory research and collaborations with faculty in Entomology, Horticulture and Plant Pathology at NCSU and colleagues at other institutions. We also work closely with extension colleagues, growers and the agribusiness community to facilitate implementation of new pest management practices."
The seminar will be recorded for later viewing on UCTV Seminars.
- Author: Kathy Keatley Garvey
“It will be about bees, bees, bees!” said Lynn Kimsey, director of the Bohart Museum and professor of entomology at UC Davis. "Also, we are borrowing specimens of pollinating birds, bats and lemurs from the UC Davis Museum of Wildlife and Fish Biology to cover non-insect pollinators, which should be fun."
Staff research associate Billy Synk of the Harry H. Laidlaw Jr. Honey Bee Research Facility, will provide a bee observation hive.
The event is free and open to the public. Specialists will be on hand to answer questions. Extension apiculturist emeritus Eric Mussen, who retired in June of 2014 after a 38-year career, is scheduled to participate. Native pollinator specialist Robbin Thorp, distinguished emeritus professor of entomology, UC Davis Department of Entomology and Nematology, will be able to participate in part of the event. Entomologist Jeff Smith, a Bohart associate who curates the 400,000-specimen collection of moths and butterflies, will be there to show the specimens and answer questions.
Family activities are also planned.
Bees play a profound role in shaping the world we live in, but many species remain strangers to us, according to native pollinator specialist and Bohart Museum associate Robbin Thorp, distinguished emeritus professor of entomology at UC Davis and a co-author of California Bees and Blooms: A Guide for Gardeners and Naturalists (Heyday Books).
Of the 20,000 bee species identified worldwide, some 4000 are found in the United States, and 1600 in California.
The honey bee, which provides pollination services valued at $217 billion globally and $20 million in the United States alone, is the most recognizable of the bees, but many are unaware of its non-native status, Thorp said. European colonists brought the honey bee to America in 1622.
The bumble bee is also easily recognizable. But there are also carpenter, mining, leafcutting, sweat, digger, masked, longhorned, mason and polyester bees, among others.
Bees are “critical to the health of our natural, ornamental and agricultural landscapes and that populations of some, perhaps many are in rapid decline,” wrote the authors of California Bees and Bloom, published by the nonprofit Heyday Books in collaboration with the California Native Plant Society. It is the work of urban entomologist Gordon Frankie. a professor and research entomologist at UC Berkeley; native pollinator specialist Robbin Thorp, emeritus professor of entomology at UC Davis; insect photographer and entomologist Rollin Coville, who holds a doctorate in entomology from UC Berkeley; and botanist/curator Barbara Ertter of UC Berkeley.
California's bees differ in size, shape and color, as do the flowers they visit. “The tiniest bees are ant-sized; the largest rival small birds,” they wrote. “Some are iridescent green or blue, some are decked out with bright stripes, some are covered with fuzzy-looking hairs.”
“Nature has programmed bees to build nests and supply their young with nutritious pollen and nectar, and their unique methods for collecting these resources are fascinating to observe. Their lives are dictated by season, weather and access to preferred flower types and nesting habitat.”
Thorp is also the co-author of Bumble Bees of North America: An Identification Guide (Princeton Press). Both books are available in the Bohart Museum gift shop.
The Bohart Museum houses a global collection of nearly eight million specimens. It is also the home of the seventh largest insect collection in North America, and the California Insect Survey, a storehouse of the insect biodiversity. Noted entomologist Richard M. Bohart (1913-2007) founded the museum.
The museum is open to the public four days a week, Monday through Thursday, but special weekend open houses are held throughout the academic year.
The remaining schedule:
- Saturday, March 14: “Pollination Nation,” 1 to 4 p.m.
- Saturday, April 18: UC Davis Picnic Day, 10 a.m. to 3 p.m.
- Sunday, May 17: “Name That Bug! How About Bob?” 1 to 4 p.m.
- Saturday, July 18: “Moth Night,” 8 to 11 p.m.
The Bohart Museum's regular hours are from 9 a.m. to noon and 1 to 5 p.m. Mondays through Thursdays. The insect museum is closed to the public on Fridays and on major holidays. Admission is free.
Special attractions include a “live” petting zoo, featuring Madagascar hissing cockroaches, walking sticks and tarantulas. Visitors are invited to hold the insects and photograph them.
The museum's gift shop includes T-shirts, sweatshirts, books, jewelry, insect-collecting equipment and insect-themed candy.
More information is available by accessing the website at http://bohart.ucdavis.edu/; or telephoning (530) 752-9493; or emailing bmuseum@ucdavis.edu.
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- Author: Kathy Keatley Garvey
DAVIS--Entomologist James R. Carey, distinguished professor in the UC Davis Department of Entomology and Nematology, is the recipient of a UC Davis Academic Senate Distinguished Scholarly Public Service Award for his “outstanding research, outreach and advocacy program involving invasion biology, specifically his significant contributions on two California insect pest invaders, the Mediterranean Fruit Fly (medfly) and the Light Brown Apple Moth (LBAM).”
Carey will be honored at a combined Academic Senate/Academic Federation awards ceremony on Tuesday, May 5 in the Student Community Center. The event will take place from 5:15 to 7:45 p.m. Other 2014-15 recipients of the Distinguished Scholarly Public Service Award are Harry Cheng, professor in the Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering; and Robert Powell, professor in the Department of Chemical Engineering and Materials Science.
“His public service led to much-needed in-depth discussions and greater understanding of these two agricultural pests; saved California millions in cancelled ineffective programs; and focused national and worldwide attention on how to deal with invasive pests,” wrote nominator Michael Parrella, professor and chair of the UC Davis Department of Entomology and Nematology.
An internationally recognized leader and distinguished scholar in invasion biology, spanning three decades, Carey launched an informed, concerted and widespread effort to reveal the science about the invaders that threaten California's $43.5 billion agricultural industry. Carey's well-documented research in basic and applied aspects of invasion biology shows that these pests are established and cannot be eradicated. They continue to spread, despite more than 30 years of intervention and nearly 300 state-sponsored eradication programs.
In his letter of nomination, Parrella wrote that Carey exemplifies what public service, based on sound science, is all about: integrity, dedication, commitment, enthusiasm, and an eagerness to investigate, serve and share. Carey, who holds a doctorate in entomology from UC Berkeley, joined the UC Davis faculty in 1980.
Carey has published his research in major journals, served on the governor-appointed California Medfly Science Advisory Panel, testified before the U.S. Congress and California state legislators and to other government entities; held workshops with citizenry; developed and disseminated information; and granted more than 200 interviews with major print and electronic news media, including the Los Angeles Times, New York Times and Science. Carey drew state, national and international attention with his groundbreaking paper documenting medfly establishment in California in a 1991 edition of Science, and more recently, with the LBAM invasion.
Carey's public service includes:
Carey testified about the biology and establishment of LBAM to the California Legislature, California Assembly Agriculture Committee, California Senate Environmental Quality Committee, San Francisco Board of Supervisors, California Roundtable for Agriculture and the Environment, Senator Migden hearings, Nancy Pelosi staff meetings, and California Senate Committee on Food and Agriculture. His expertise continues to be highly sought. He collaborated with colleagues Bruce Hammock and Frank Zalom, both distinguished professors in the UC Davis Department of Entomology and Nematology, to write to the U.S. Secretary of Agriculture to point out (1) a lack of evidence that this method would work and (2) that LBAM is not an important pest.
In landmark research (“From Trickle to Flood: The Large-Scale, Cryptic Invasion of California by Tropical Fruit Flies”) published in August 2013 in Proceedings of the Royal Society, Carey and his colleagues (Nikos Papadopoulos, University of Thessaly, Richard Plant, UC Davis) found that at least five fruit flies and as many as nine species of the 17 they studied are permanently established in California and cannot be eradicated.
In July, Carey and Papadopoulos presented the results of this study to an international group of fruit fly entomologists (Tephritid Workers of Europe, Africa and the Middle East) in Crete. One of his papers, “Clear, Present, Significant and Imminent Danger: Questions for the California Light Brown Apple Moth (Epiphyas postvittana) Technical Working Group,” published in October 2013 in the journal American Entomologist, continues to draw worldwide attention. The journal Science sent a reporter to UC Davis to write a major, three-page news story on Dr. Carey's involvement in medfly and LBAM science policy.
Carey is also considered the preeminent global authority on arthropod demography. He has authored more than 250 scientific articles.
Carey is a fellow of the Entomological Society of America (ESA), American Association for the Advancement of Science, the Gerontological Society of America, the California Academy of Sciences. Carey is the first entomologist to have a mathematical discovery named after him by demographers—The Carey Equality—which set the theoretical and analytical foundation for a new approach to understanding wild populations.
His past public service includes chair of the University of California Systemwide Committee on Research Policy; member of the systemwide UC Academic Council; and vice chair of his department. He presently serves as the associate editor of three journals: Genus, Aging Cell, and Demographic Research.
Carey is also known for his digital technical expertise on the UC Davis campus, providing advice and recommendations to key UC Davis administration on educational and information technology in support of instruction, research, administration and public service. He is the adviser of the nine-university CARTA (Consortium for Advanced Research Training in Africa).
Highly honored by his peers, Carey received the 2014 C. W. Woodworth Award, the highest award given by the Pacific Branch of ESA, and a 2014 Academic Senate Undergraduate Teaching Award. He was selected a plenary speaker for ICE 2016, the XXV International Congress of Entomology, to meet Sept. 25-30, 2016 in Orlando, Fla.
Related Links:
James R. Carey Faculty Website
Description of the Award (Download PDF)
Past Recipients of Distinguished Scholarly Achievement Award (Download PDF)
See Video About James R. Carey's Work and the Work of the Other 2015 Recipients