- Author: Kathy Keatley Garvey
Spotlight on Danny Klittich
Klittich, who is starting his third year as a doctoral student in the UC Davis Department of Entomology and Nematology, studies with major professor Michael Parrella, professor and chair of the department.
The T-shirt, publicly available for purchase, with proceeds benefitting EGSA, is golden yellow with a black illustration. Graduate student and T-shirt project coordinator Margaret “Rei” Scampavia is taking orders at m.rei.scampavia@gmail.com. Sizes range from youth small to adult double X.
Klittich says he's not an artist but has always had an interest in honey bees. He was a member of the UC Davis graduate student team that won the student debate championship, Nov. 18, at the Entomological Society of America's 62nd annual meeting in Portland, Ore. The team debated neonicotinoids, defeating Auburn (Alabama) University team. UC Davis successfully argued the con side of “Neonicotinoids Are Causing the Death of Bees Essential for Pollinating our Food Crops. The Use of Neonicotinoids Should End.” The team, captained by Mohammad-Amir Aghaee of the Larry Godfrey lab, also included Jenny Carlson, Anthony Cornel lab; Ralph Washington Jr., Steve Nadler lab; Margaret "Rei" Scampavia, Neal Williams/Edwin Lewis lab.
Klittich, from Fillmore, is a graduate of Fillmore High School and valedictorian of the Class of 2006. He grew up in the nursery business, working at his family's nursery, Otto and Sons Nursery, Inc., Fillmore. During his youth he was active in 4-H and Boy Scouts, achieving the rank of Eagle Scout.
Klittich plans to receive his doctorate in 2016. His career goal: to pursue a career in pesticide and IPM research either in the private sector or in the California University System as a farm advisor.
In addition to the honey bee t-shirt, EGSA is offering other T-shirts, most available for $15. Popular EGSA shirts depict a dung beetle, “They See Me Rollin'”; a “cuddling moth” for infants and toddlers; a weevil shirt, “See No Weevil, Hear No Weevil, Speak No Weevil”; and “The Beetles” shirt, of four beetles crossing Abbey Road, reminiscent of The Beatles pictured on their Abbey Road album. All can be ordered from Margaret “Rei” Scampavia at m.rei.scampavia@gmail.co.
- Author: Kathy Keatley Garvey
Tucker, 90, a longtime apiculturist, passed at Serenity Hospice House, Santa Barbara, on Oct. 17.
Born Aug. 8, 1924, to John and Jessie Tucker in Santa Barbara, Ken was one of seven brothers and sisters who grew up enjoying the beach and adjacent mountains. He graduated from Santa Barbara High School, where a teacher sparked his interest in keeping honey bees. He began beekeeping as a teenager and it became a lifelong career.
A World War II veteran, he served as a radioman in the U.S. Navy on a landing ship tank for two years in the South Pacific. Upon returning, he enrolled at the Riviera campus of Santa Barbara College for a term, then transferred to UC Berkeley, where his brother John was a graduate student in botany.
Ken Tucker transferred to the UC Davis campus as a graduate student in the honey bee laboratory (now the Harry H. Laidlaw Jr. Honey Bee Research Facility) and worked with Laidlaw. While at Davis he met Shirley Cotter, a botany graduate student, and they married in 1953. She received her doctorate in botany from UC Davis in 1956.
After obtaining his Ph.D., Ken Tucker worked as an Extension entomologist at the University of Minnesota, taught biology at Lake Forest College in Illinois, and then worked for many years as an apicultural scientist at the federal Honey Bee Laboratory in Baton Rouge, LA.
Tucker worked on Africanized bees in Venezuela and other South American countries before returning to the U. S. His wife, Shirley, was a professor of botany at Louisiana State University in Baton Rouge.
He co-authored a manual on the instrumental insemination of queen bees, a subject he studied with Laidlaw (1907-2003), known as the father of honey bee genetics. He was Laidlaw's first graduate student.
The Tuckers enjoyed traveling to many parts of the world. They both retired in 1995, and moved to Santa Barbara. Ardent advocates for the Santa Barbara Botanic Garden, they endowed a staff position for a plant systematist there.
Ken Tucker enjoyed classical music, the Humanists Society meetings, the Farmers' Market, as well as hiking, fishing and kayaking.
He is survived by his wife Shirley of 60 years, his brother Stanley (Marion), sister Mary Kraft, niece Linda Tucker, and many other nieces and nephews.
Memorials can be made to either the Santa Barbara Botanic Garden or Serenity Hospice House. A celebration of his life was scheduled for mid-November at the Santa Barbara Botanic Garden.
- Author: Kathy Keatley Garvey
They replace medical entomologist William Reisen, professor in the Department of Pathology, Microbiology and Immunology, School of Veterinary Medicine. who retired in June.
Luckhart, a molecular biologist, is a member of the faculty of the Department of Medical Microbiology and Immunology and a graduate student advisor in the Department of Entomology and Nematology. She received her doctorate in entomology from Rutgers, the State University of New Jersey. Her expertise includes the molecular cell biology and biochemistry of malaria parasite transmission.
Foley, an epidemiologist, is a member of the Department of Medicine and Epidemiology. She received both her DVM and Ph.D from UC Davis. Foley studies the ecology and epidemiology of vector-borne diseases, particularly tick-transmitted diseases in the western U.S.
Luckhart and Foley, as interim co-directors, will ensure that CVEC meets its mission of promoting multidisciplinary and collaborative excellence in training and research to understand, prevent, and manage vector-borne diseases, according to Michael Lairmore, dean of the School of Veterinary Medicine and Frederick Meyers, vice dean of the School of Medicine.
In a statement posted on the School of Veterinary Medicine's website, the deans wrote: “They will oversee and manage any endowments, contracts, and grants that fund collaborative research and training exchange programs between the UC Davis School of Veterinary Medicine and School of Medicine, as well as key stakeholders and partnering institutions in collaborative training and research initiatives and programs. They will support and enhance collaborations across campus in support of vector-borne disease research and education, national and international collaborations through research and program grants to strengthen both basic and translational research and provide impactful support for the development of vector-borne disease policy locally, nationally, and internationally."
Their duties include coordinating the activities of faculty, staff, and students "to enhance scientific and educational advancement on campus in the area of vector biology and vector-borne diseases."
CVEC encourages participation of faculty from other academic units on the Davis campus and on other campuses in the UC System. Center research focuses on the biological interactions between vectors and infectious agents and between the vectors and vertebrate hosts of these pathogens and parasites.
In addition to the viral diseases of humans, domestic animals and wildlife that are transmitted by mosquitoes and other biting flies, the center also engages in research on rickettsial, bacterial, protozoan and helminth disease pathogens carried by vectors such as ticks, fleas, crustaceans, mollusks, and rodents. Faculty associated with the center have expertise in vectorborne veterinary and human infectious diseases and in public health entomology.
A unique aspect of CVEC is that its research encompasses the full range of activities from developing rapid and more accurate molecular methods for disease diagnosis and surveillance, to understanding the ecology of diseases in its natural setting, to the development of strategies and tools for disease prevention and management.
In addition to Reisen, past directors of CVEC are
- Bennie Osburn, School of Veterinary Medicine (1995 - 1996)
- Bruce Eldridge, Department of Entomology (1996 - 1997)
- Rance LeFebvre, School of Veterinary Medicine, and Tom Scott, Department of Entomology, (1997 - 1999)
- John Edman, Department of Entomology, (1999 - 2004)
- Fred Murphy, School of Veterinary Medicine, (2004)
- James MacLachlan, School of Veterinary Medicine, and Robert Washino, Department of Entomology (2004 - 2005)
- Greg Lanzaro, Department of Entomology (he is now with the School of Veterinary Medicine) (2005 - 2007)
- Dennis Wilson, School of Veterinary Medicine (2007 - 2009)
- Author: Kathy Keatley Garvey
The event (LASER is an acronym for Leonardo Art Science Evening Rendezvous) is coordinated and moderated by Anna Davidson of the UC Davis Art/Science Fusion Program, which was co-founded by entomologist/artist Diane Ullman, professor in the UC Davis Department of Entomology and Nematology, and self-described "rock artist" Donna Billick, now retired.
Davidson, currently seeking her master's degree in fine arts at UC Davis, received her Ph.D. earlier this year from UC Davis in plant sciences, studying plant ecophysiology. She continues to study the biological world using both artistic and scientific approaches.
The schedule:
6:30 to 7 p.m.
Socializing and networking
Venkatesan Sundaresan, a plant sciences professor at UC Davis, will speak on “Mysteries of the Silent Kingdom: Sticking to One's Roots, Managing Hormones and Spreading Genes”
Biography: Sundaresan, a professor in the UC Davis Plant Biology and Plant Sciences departments, for the past 10 years. did his undergraduate studies in India, graduate studies in the United States: Ph.D in biophysics (Harvard University,) and postdoctoral research in plant genetics (UC Berkeley). He carried out research on fundamental genetic mechanisms in plants, first as a faculty at Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory, New York, then at Singapore as founding director of the Institute of Molecular Agrobiology. A fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, he is also a Fulbright awardee, and served as program director (biological sciences) at the National Science Foundation. He is on on the editorial boards of several journals. Other interests: the arts, especially music, and its intersection with science.
Robin Hill, art professor at UC Davis, will speak on “Idea Cultivation in the Studio.”
Abstract: Hill will discuss the cultivation of ideas and approaches to making and meaning in her art work. Working with ideas of wonder and phenomena, Hill investigates the aesthetic properties of materials. She looks at how meaning is formed through the re-contextualization of familiar objects in unfamiliar configurations.
Biography: Hill is an artist and art professor at UC Davis. Her primary medium is sculpture, which crosses disciplinary boundaries. She makes objects, photographs, and drawings. She is interested in the ways in which two and three-dimensional art practices inform each other. Hill is represented by Lennon Weinberg, Inc., New York.
She is the recipient of a National Endowment for the Arts, individual artist fellowship in sculpture, two Pollock-Krasner Foundation Fellowships, and two New York Foundation for the Arts fellowships. Hill is a former fellow of the Davis Humanities Institute for her research on "The Poetics and Politics of Place." Solo exhibitions include Multiplying the Variations, Lennon, Weinberg, Inc. (New York) 2004 and at the University Art Gallery, California State University, Stanislaus, 2006; Kardex, another year in LA (Los Angeles), 2006; Drawing the Line, Don Soker Contemporary Art (San Francisco), 2007; Robin Hill, Jay Jay Gallery (Sacramento), 2008. Case Discussions, Lennon Weinberg 2012, Snowflake, another year in LA, 2012 Slide Carousel, Ramon's Tailor, and 2014 among others. For more information: Robin Hill website.
7:50 to 8:10 p.m.
Break: Networking/socializing. During the break, presentations will be given. "Anyone can have 30 seconds to share their work, or announce an exhibition, show, idea, etc.," said Davidson.
Chris Dewees, retired marine fisheries specialist at UC Davis, will speak on “Passion for Fish: When East Meets West."
Abstract: This illustrated talk will give insights into two-way communication between scientists and artists.
Biography: Dewees is a San Francisco native with a lifelong passion for fish. His career has included commercial fishing and 35 years as the statewide marine fisheries specialist at UC Davis. His fisheries science accomplishments blended fisheries biology with the human dimensions of fisheries management. When first exposed to the Japanese art of gyotaku, he said he was hooked. "Combining my fisheries expertise with this art form gives me a very balanced life and a way to communicate my passion for fish to others," he says. The art has led to shows and adventures around the world including the Smithsonian. Dewees received his bachelor of science degree from the University of Redlands in biology and speech; his master's degree from Humboldt State University in fisheries; and his doctorate at UC Davis in ecology.
Nanette Wylde, professor of art and art history at California State University, Chico, will speak on “Instigating Some Kind of Action: Interactive Projects Online and Off.”
Biography: Wylde is an artist, writer and cultural worker making socially reflective, language-based works generally of hybrid media. She holds a bachelor's degree in behavioral science from San Jose State University and a MFA in Interactive Multimedia and Printmaking from Ohio State University. At California State University, Chico, she developed and heads the Digital Media/Electronic Arts Program. She is represented by the 23 Sandy Gallery, Portland, Ore.; Central Booking, Brooklyn, N.Y.; and Vamp and Tramp, Birmingham, Ala. More information is on her website.
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- Author: Kathy Keatley Garvey
Host is Michael Parrella, professor and chair, Department of Entomology and Nematology.
"Many species groups, including mammals or many insects, determine sex using heteromorphic sex chromosomes," Bachtrog says in her abstract. "Diptera flies, which include the model Drosophila melanogaster, generally have XY sex chromosomes and a conserved karyotype consisting of six chromosomal arms (5 large rods and a small dot), but superficially similar karyotypes may conceal the true extent of sex chromosome variation. Here, we use whole-genome analysis in 35 fly species belonging to 22 different families of Diptera and uncover tremendous hidden diversity in sex chromosome karyotypes among flies.
"We identify over a dozen different sex chromosome configurations, and the small dot chromosome is repeatedly used as the sex chromosome, which presumably reflects the ancestral karyotype of higher Diptera. However, we identify species with homomorphic sex chromosomes, others were a different chromosome replaced the dot as a sex chromosome, or were up to three chromosomal elements became incorporated into the sex chromosomes, and others yet with female heterogamety (ZW sex chromosomes). Transcriptome analysis shows that dosage compensation has evolved multiple times in flies, consistently through upregulation of the single X in males. Yet, X chromosomes generally show a deficiency of genes with male-biased expression, presumably reflecting sex-specific selection pressures. These species thus provide a rich resource to study sex chromosome biology in a comparative manner, and show that similar selective forces have shaped the unique evolution of sex chromosomes in diverse fly taxa."
Bachtrog writes on her website: "Research in our lab combines both computational and experimental approaches to address a broad range of topics in Evolutionary and Functional Genomics including: (1) Determining the evolutionary benefits of sex and recombination (2) Investigations of large scale changes in patterns of gene expression on evolving sex chromosomes: Dosage compensation of X-linked genes and silencing of Y-linked genes by heterochromatin formation (3) Comparative & functional genomics of young Y chromosomes in Drosophila and mammals (4) Sexual antagonistic variation and feminization & masculinization of evolving X chromosomes (5) Quantifying the mode and strength of selection acting on coding and non-coding DNA in the Drosophila genome (6) Population genetics of Tetrahymena thermophila." (See lab research)
Bachtrog received her master's degree in genetics in 1999 from the University of Vienna, graduating with high honors. She obtained her doctorate in genetics in 2002 from the University of Vienna, Austria, and University of Edinburgh, UK, , graduating with high honors. She completed a postdoctoral fellowship in the Institute of Cell, Animal and Population Biology, University of Edinburgh, Edinburgh, UK, from 2002 to 2003, and then was an Austrian Academy of Science Fellow (2003-2005) at Cornell University, Ithaca, N.Y.
Bachtrog's first faculty appointment was as assistant professor, 2005-2008, at UC San Diego's Division of Biological Sciences. She joined UC Berkeley in 2008, serving as an assistant professor, 2008-2012, in the Department of Integrative Biology, Center for Theoretical Evolutionary Genomics. Bachtrog was promoted to associate professor in 2012.
Among the recent awards and honors she's received:
- Packard Fellowship in Evolutionary Biology, David and Lucile Packard Foundation (2008)
- Sloan Research Fellowship in Computational and Evolutionary Molecular Biology, Alfred P. Sloan foundation (2007)
- Young Investigator Prize for Most Promising Young Researcher, The American Society of Naturalists (2004)
- Austrian Academy of Science, Austrian Programme for Advanced Research and Technology fellowship (2003)
- The Royal Society, Royal Society Research Grant (2002)
The remainder schedule of seminars:
Wednesday, Dec. 3
No seminar
Wednesday, Dec. 10
Sawyer Fuller
Postdoctoral researcher, Harvard University
Title: "RoboBee: Using the Engineering Toolbox to Understand the Flight Apparatus of Flying Insects"
Host: James Carey, distinguished professor of entomology
This seminar is being remote broadcast to UC Davis via internet
Contacts:
Steve Nadler, sanadler@ucdavis.edu
Professor, UC Davis Department of Entomology and Nematology
Jesael "Jesa" David, jcdavid@ucdavis.edu
Student Affairs Officer, Graduate Programs
Plant Pathology, Entomology and Nematology