- Author: Kathy Keatley Garvey
DAVIS--Like to learn how to make mead?
Six renowned instructors—all who have won awards in national or international competitions--will conduct a two-day workshop, sponsored by the UC Davis Honey and Pollination Center, on "Introduction to Mead Making." The event is set Friday and Saturday, Nov. 14-15 at the Robert Mandavi Institute for Wine and Food Science, UC Davis campus.
Registration opened Aug. 1 and the workshop is expected to fill rapidly, said Amina Harris, director of the Honey and Pollination Center, which is affiliated with the UC Davis Department of Entomology and Nematology.
Mead is an ancient alcoholic beverage made with the key ingredient, honey.
The instructors, in addition to Harris, will include:
- Petar Bakulic, president of the Mozer Cup International Mead Competition
- Chik Brenneman, winemaker and manager of LEED Platinum Teaching and Research Wintery, Department of Viticulture and Enology, Robert Mondavi Institute for Wine and Food Science
- Michael Fairbrother, owner of the Moonlight Meadery, Londonderry, N.H.
- Mike Faul, owner, Rabbit's Foot Meadery, Sunnyvale
- Ken Schramm, author of “The Compleat Meadmaker” and owner of Schramm's Mead, Ferndale, Mich.
Early registration is $450. After Sept. 15, the fee is $525. The program fees include all coursework and materials, light breakfast, lunch, Friday evening reception, and honey and mead tastings. Participants can register online at
http://honey.ucdavis.edu/mead
The center drew a capacity crowd at its first-ever Mead Makers Short Course in February 2014.
For more information, see http://honey.ucdavis.edu/mead or contact Amina Harris at aharris@ucdavis.edu
- Author: Kathy Keatley Garvey
The next LASER-UC Davis event, or Leonardo Art Science Evening Rendezvous, is set for Thursday night, Aug. 7 in Room 3001 of the Plant and Environmental Sciences building, UC Davis campus. Sponsored by the UC Davis Art Science Fusion Program, it will begin with socializing and networking from 6:30 to 7 p.m., and then followed by four presentations, announced coordinator/moderator Anna Davidson, an instructor for the UC Davis Art Science Fusion Program. The event is free and open to the public.
The program:
7 to 7:25:
Eve Warnock and Kate Harrington, “We Are HERD: Exploring Animal and Human Herding Behavior Through Research, Scenario and Performance”
7:25-7:50:
Frank Pietronigro, “The Expansion of the Arts, Humanities and Culture in Space Exploration
7:50-8:10
Break. (During the break anyone in the audience currently working within the intersections of art and science will have 30 seconds to share their work).
8:10-8:35
Robert Buelteman, “Energetic Photogrammetry: A History of Photographic Technology”
8:35-9 p.m.
Robert Edgar. “Animating the Memory Theatre”
9 to 9:30: Discussion
About the presentations:
Eve Warnock and Kate Harrington
Eve Warnock is a multimedia artist who melds ancient techniques of art-making with modern technologies. She is a costume and set designer as well as a director for live performances and films. She received her bachelor of arts degree in arts and humanities from The Ohio State University, and a master of fine arts from UC Santa Cruz's Digital Arts and New Media program. Her work explores the boundaries of human and animal relationships, dissecting primal instincts as a way to reconnect humans with each other and to the animal kingdom. Her work has been shown all over the United States in diverse venues, from the street to the museum, from the gallery to the guerrilla.
Frank Pietronigro
Frank Pietronigro, an interdisciplinary artist, will provide a general overview of some of the groups, individuals and institutions involved in expanding the presence of the arts, humanities, and culture within the context of human space exploration while emphasizing the change of acronym from STEM education to STEAM education (Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts, Music and Mathemetics). He will discuss his role as director of the Zero Gravity Arts Consortium and his current project: Space Wishes.
Pietronigro has flown twice under reduced gravity conditions, in 1998 and 2006, when he created multiple works using the media of painting, drawing, dance including microgravity drawings while blind folded, microgravity mobiles, kinetic text and graffitti based zero-gravity video works, drift paintings and dances in reduced gravity conditions.
Robert Buelteman
Robert Buelteman says that “As the medium evolves so must the artist." He creates unique energetic photograms inspired by Japanese ink-brush paintings and improvisational jazz. This includes high-voltage electricity and hand-delivered fiber optic light.
His journey as a photographic artist began in 1973 and has continued through multiple residencies including the Djerassi Resident Artists Program, the Santa Fe Institute, and Stanford University. During that time he worked in black and white landscape photography, ran a successful commercial studio in San Francisco's south-of-Market area, and now, using high-energy electrical discharges and fiber-optically delivered light, makes what he calls “Energetic Photograms.”
His art has received accolades from institutions as diverse as the U.S. Congress, the Commonwealth Club of California, Committee for Green Foothills, and the Natural Resources Defense Council. In recent years this art has been the subject of essays in 23 languages on six continents around the globe, and can be found in public and private collections worldwide, including the Yale University Art Museum, Santa Barbara Museum of Art, Kleiner, Perkins, Caulfield & Byers, Bank of America, Adobe Systems, Stanford University, Xerox, and Nikon.
Robert Edgar
In his abstract, Robert Edgar, a senior instructional designer at Stanford University, says: "I introduce early memory theatre strategies, my own work with computers and memory theaters, and then my current work with my Simultaneous Opposites engine. The history of memory theaters provides analogs for the process of art itself. I'll show how I've worked through them to create a personal aesthetic.”
Edgar creates and employs software engines to examine mediated artifacts forged at his zone of proximal development. Robert's computer-based art engines include MERGEEMERGE (2013), Simultaneous Opposites (2008 – present), The Duchamp Examinations (2006), Memory Theatre Two (2003), Sand, or How Computers Imagine Truth in Cinema (1994), Living Cinema (1988), Memory Theatre One (1985), and Intersticies (1972). Robert holds an MFA from Syracuse University's College of Visual and Performing Arts. He grew up in Cocoa Beach, Fla., during the birth of the NASA Space Program (1958-1970).
The UC Davis Art/Science Fusion Program was founded by entomologist/artist Diane Ullman of the UC Davis Department of Entomology and Nematology and self-described "rock artist" Donna Billick.
The Leonardo Art Science Evening Rendezvous (LASER) is a series of lectures and presentations on art, science and technology. Founded in 2008 by LASER Chair Piero Scaruffi on behalf of Leonardo/ISAST, LASERs are now presented at a number of venues: University of San Francisco, Stanford University, UC Berkeley, UCLA, UC Davis, UC Santa Cruz and a New York Studio.
- Author: Kathy Keatley Garvey
You probably will when you use the UC Davis Honey and Pollinator Center's newly published Honey Flavor Wheel.
“This gives a huge lexicon to the tastes and aromas we find when tasting honey,” said Amina Harris, director of the Honey and Pollinator Center, affiliated with the Robert Mondavi Institute of Wine and Food Science and the UC Davis Department of Entomology and Nematology.
The Honey Flavor Wheel production involved six months of research and development. “We brought together a group of 20 people--trained tasters, beekeepers and food enthusiasts--who worked together with a sensory scientist to come up with almost 100 descriptors,” Harris said. “This wheel will prove invaluable to those who love honey and want to celebrate its nuances.”
“I have always been astonished by the range of flavors in honey,” Harris said. “And its aromas, too. Developing the wheel has been an astonishing learning experience at all levels. I now truly pay attention as I taste many different kinds of foods. I notice flavors from beginning to end.
“I had one wonderful surprise during the tasting series. The sensory scientist we worked with, Sue Langstaff, had been to New Zealand and brought back several honeys. One was a wild flower called Viper's Bugloss. What an amazing aroma! Imagine sitting in a garden. The sun has just set. And the heady aromas of jasmine and orange blossom together crowd the air. This is the scent of Viper's Bugloss. An astonishing honey. Now I want more!”
Harris' favorite honey? Sweet clover. And that's not to be confused with clover. “Sweet clover is a tall, five-foot wildflower that grows in profusion in Montana, the Dakotas and elsewhere in the high plains of the United States,” Harris said. “It is light in color, spicy with a wonderful cinnamon hit!
“When we tasted it, one of our analytical panel members said: 'There is really only one word for this. Yum!'
"And that is how I feel, too!” Harris said.
There's even an “animal” category” where you can opine that your sample of honey reminds you of a barnyard.
Retired Extension apiculturist Eric Mussen of the UC Davis Department of Entomology and Nematology, who has coordinated and conducted the annual honey tasting at the UC Davis Picnic Day for 38 years, remembers tasting buckwheat honey in Oregon that reminded him of “goat.”
“Maybe the honey bees drank goat pee,” he said, smiling. “Actually, the environmental conditions where the plants are growing can have quite an effect on the odors and flavors of some honeys, while others just seem to be the same everywhere. The ‘goat' honey that I tasted was buckwheat. In many cases, buckwheat honey seems more similar to blackstrap molasses than anything else. It is normally quite robust, but can be mild. In some cases it has been described as having a ‘barnyard' odor and flavor--goat? A search of websites suggests that the mild-tasting samples can become more pungent, with off-flavors developing if it's left sitting around for some time or if it's been heated.”
The back of the Honey Flavor Wheel relates how to taste honey and shares four honey profiles (Florida tupelo, California orange blossom, Northwest blackberry and Midwestern clover) “so the consumer can get an idea of how to use this innovative product,” Harris said.
The Honey Flavor Wheel, measuring 8.25 inches, sells for $10 each, with all proceeds supporting bee health research at UC Davis. The product is available at the Robert Mondavi Institute for Wine and Food Science and soon will be available online, at the UC Davis Campus bookstore and at the downtown Davis Campus Bookstore.
- Author: Kathy Keatley Garvey
Agre shared the 2003 Nobel Prize in Chemistry for discovering aquaporins, a family of water-channel proteins found throughout nature that underlie numerous physiological processes and clinical disorders. He is deeply involved in multiple global issues, and is the current director of the Johns Hopkins Malaria Research Institute, which conducts research in Zambia and Zimbabwe.
From 2005-2008, Agre chaired the Committee on Human Rights of the National Academy of Sciences and led efforts on behalf of imprisoned scientists, engineers, and health professionals worldwide. He has also participated in diplomatic visits and meetings with leaders of Cuba, North Korea, Myanmar, and Iran.
A past president of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS), Agre is an ambassador for science. He has given numerous lectures and presentations, and has even appeared on the TV program The Colbert Report.
“We are honored to have Dr. Peter Agre as our keynote speaker,” said UC Davis chemical ecologist Walter Leal, co-chair of ICE 2016. “This will be a historic event with more than 6,000 attendees, and we look forward to hearing about Dr. Agre's efforts to control malaria, a mosquito-borne disease that kills more than 600,000 people each year.”
“Controlling malaria is definitely one of the grand challenges in the field of entomology,” said ICE 2016 co-chair Alvin Simmons. “Dr. Agre's perspectives as a scientist and as a communicator will be well appreciated by the thousands of international insect scientists and others who will be in attendance. ICE 2016 will be a student-friendly event, and Dr. Agre is approachable for one-on-one conversations with students.”
ICE 2016 will be the largest gathering of entomologists in history, as it will be co-located with the annual meetings of the Entomological Society of America and the Entomological Society of Canada, along with events hosted by the Entomological Societies of China, Brazil, Australia, and others.--Richard Levine, ESA
(Editor's Note: The two co-chairs planning the ICE conference are Walter Leal, former professor and chair of the UC Davis Department of Entomology, and now with the Department of Molecular and Cellullar Biology, and Alvin Simmons, research entomologist with the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA), Agricultural Research Service, U.S. Vegetable Laboratory in Charleston, S.C.)
- Author: Kathy Keatley Garvey
They are:
- Nilsa A. Bosque-Pérez, professor, Department of Plant, Soil and Entomological Sciences at the University of Idaho. She received two degrees from UC Davis: her master's degree in 1981 and Ph.D. in 1985.
- Gary Felton, professor and head of the Department of Entomology at Penn State University. He received his doctorate from UC Davis in 1988. In 2010, he delivered the Thomas and Nina Leigh Distinguished Alumni Lecture at UC Davis
- Murray B. Isman, professor of entomology and toxicology at the University of British Columbia, Vancouver. He received his doctorate from UC Davis in 1981. In 2012, he delivered the Thomas and Nina Leigh Distinguished Alumni Lecture at UC Davis
The ESA governing board announced its selections today (July 30). The election as a Fellow acknowledges outstanding contributions to entomology in one or more of the following: research, teaching, extension, or administration.
The Fellows will be recognized at the ESA's 62nd annual meeting, to be held Nov. 16-14 in Portland, Ore. President of the organization is integrated pest management specialist Frank Zalom, distinguished professor of entomology at UC Davis.
Information provided by the Fellows for the ESA news release:
Bosque-Pérez is internationally known for her research on insect-host plant interactions, insect vectors of plant viruses, and host plant resistance to insects and pathogens. She is additionally recognized for her distinguished contributions to interdisciplinary graduate education.
Born in San Sebastián, Puerto Rico in 1957, she spent her early years living at the University of Puerto Rico (UPR) Agricultural Experiment Station in Adjuntas, where her father served as agronomist and director. Following in her father's footsteps, she obtained a B.S. in agricultural sciences from UPR Mayagüez (1979). She then attended UC Davis, where she received her M.S. (1981) and Ph.D. (1985) in entomology. In 1985, she joined the International Institute of Tropical Agriculture in Ibadan, Nigeria, where she worked for 11 years as a member of a multidisciplinary team of scientists working to increase food production, productivity, and sustainability in sub-Saharan Africa. Bosque-Pérez joined the UI faculty in 1997 and attained the rank of full professor in 2006. She served as interim dean of the UI College of Graduate Studies from 2010 to 2011.
Bosque-Pérez has contributed to fundamental discoveries in the field of host plant-virus-vector interactions, including demonstrating that transgenic virus resistance can influence vector life history and production of plant volatiles to which vectors respond. Additionally, her lab group was the first to demonstrate that plant viruses can directly alter host plant selection behavior by vectors, indicating that plant viruses can manipulate vectors to enhance their spread. These findings open new doors for the study of host plant-virus-vector interactions as well as disease and vector management. Her research group also studies the impact of management practices and landscape elements on arthropod biodiversity in temperate and tropical regions. She has published more than 155 scientific papers and book chapters. A devoted student mentor, she has guided 14 graduate students as a major professor and 37 as a graduate committee member. She has served as project director and student mentor of two NSF Integrative Graduate Education and Research Traineeship (IGERT) projects that created unique educational and research infrastructures to facilitate interdisciplinary team research by doctoral students.
Bosque-Pérez has been an invited speaker at conferences and scientific venues around the world, and has authored or co-authored 110 invited and more than 260 contributed presentations. She is a fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, and her many awards include the ESA Recognition Award in Entomology (2006), the University of Idaho Award for Excellence in Interdisciplinary or Collaborative Efforts (2011), and the ESA Pacific Branch Award for Distinction in Student Mentoring (2012). She has served ESA as a member of the Journal of Medical Entomology Editorial Board (1999-2003), as a subject editor for the Journal of Economic Entomology (2010-2011), and as a member of the International Affairs Committee (2000-2002) and the Pacific Branch Executive Committee (2007-2009). She also served as guest editor of Virus Research (2011, 2013-2014). She is the proud aunt of 13 nephews and nieces and two grandnieces, and she enjoys traveling and birdwatching.
Felton is internationally recognized for his research on insect-plant interactions, and in particular for his research which focuses on the role of herbivore saliva in evading plant defenses.
Born in Norfolk, Va., in 1953, but raised in California, Felton completed his B.S. in biology in 1975 at UC Irvine, where he was inspired to study insect physiology by the late Howard Schneiderman. After taking several years off from his education to start a family, Felton completed his M.S. in entomology in 1983 at the University of Kentucky, where he studied under Douglas Dahlman. He then moved to UC Davis, where he completed his Ph.D. in 1988 with Sean Duffey (now deceased). Felton completed a short postdoctoral study with Duffey, and then in 1990 he accepted the position of assistant professor in the Department of Entomology at the University of Arkansas. He attained the rank of full professor in 1998 and then accepted the position as professor and head of Entomology at Penn State University in 2000.
Felton's research focuses on mechanisms of plant defense and the adaptations that herbivorous insects use to avoid them. This research has uncovered unique ways in which insect herbivores use salivary secretions to suppress the induced responses of their host plants and has been published in journals such as Nature and the Proceedings of the National Academy of Science. He has published more than 100 refereed papers, including numerous review articles for book chapters and journals such as Plant Physiology, Current Opinion in Plant Biology, and Annual Plant Reviews.
Felton has been an invited speaker for numerous national and international professional meetings. He is a recipient of distinguished alumni awards from the Departments of Entomology at UC Davis and the University of Kentucky.
In his role as head of Entomology at Penn State, Felton has seen the department grow to a staff of more than 170, including 24 tenure-track faculty, more than 50 graduate students, and more than 40 additional Ph.D. level scientists. The department is known for its strengths in chemical ecology, pollinator health, vectors of infectious disease, and pest management and ecology.
Felton has served the ESA and his profession in numerous roles, including as subject editor for Environmental Entomology, Arthropod Plant Interactions, and the Archives of Insect Physiology, and Biochemistry. He has organized multiple symposia and conferences for ESA annual meetings. In addition to service as a panel member for USDA and NSF programs, he has served twice as panel manager for the USDA NRI/AFRI program. He has two children, Derek and Jessica, and is married to Dawn Luthe. He loves to travel, to sample new foods, to listen to music (blues is the best), and to experience art of all styles.
Isman is internationally recognized for his research on the discovery and development of botanical insecticides and antifeedants, and in the areas of insect-plant chemical interactions and insect chemical ecology.
Born in Vancouver, Canada on June 14, 1953, he attended the University of British Columbia, receiving his B.S. degree in 1975 and his M.S. degree in 1977. He then enrolled at UC Davis, earning a Ph.D. in entomology in 1981, followed by a postdoctoral position in insect toxicology at UC Irvine. In 1983 he accepted a position as assistant professor in the Department of Plant Science at UBC, attaining the rank of professor in 1994. He later served as dean of the faculty of Land and Food Systems at UBC from 2005 to 2014.
Early in his career he became known for his thorough studies on neem insecticides and azadirachtin, helping to bring some clarity to a field of investigation that had been characterized by research of variable quality, dubious claims, and highly redundant work. More recently he worked with a team of investigators that provided the R&D support for EcoSMART Technologies Inc., propelling the company to become the world leader in pesticides based on plant essential oils. Along the way, Isman became an authority on the development of pesticides based on these natural products, but he has always maintained some basic research on insects, leading to some fascinating observations on insect feeding and oviposition behavior, insect memory, and the metabolism of plant toxins by insects.
I
He has presided over the International Society of Chemical Ecology (2002), the Phytochemical Society of North America (1993; he remains the only entomologist to have done so), and the Entomological Society of British Columbia twice (1988 and 1999). He also organized and chaired two conferences in Vancouver -- the 14th Annual Meeting of the International Society of Chemical Ecology (1997) and the Fourth World Neem Conference (1999).
Isman and his wife Susie, have a daughter, Carly, and son, Adam. He list his hobbies as ice hockey (he and Adam are both goaltenders), motorsports, contemporary and native art, and fine wine.
Others selected:
- Phillip G. Lawyer recently retired as core staff scientist/medical entomologist at the Laboratory of Parasitic Diseases, NIAID, NIH, from which he also served the Division of Entomology at the Walter Reed Army Institute of Research (WRAIR)
- Tong-Xian Liu, known as “T.-X.,” is a national distinguished professor of entomology at Northwest A&F University (Yangling, Shaanxi, China)
- Nancy A. Moran is a professor at the University of Texas. She is internationally recognized for her research on symbiosis between insects and bacteria.
- Subba Reddy Palli, a professor of entomology at the University of Kentucky, is internationally recognized for his research on hormonal regulation of molting, metamorphosis and reproduction, development of ecdysone receptor-based gene switches, and RNAi-based pest management methods.
- Hari C. Sharma is a principal scientist at the International Crops Research Institute for the Semi-Arid Tropics (ICRISAT), Patancheru, Telangana, India
- Myron (pronounced Meron) P. Zalucki, a professor at the University of Queensland, is internationally recognized for his research on basic and applied aspects of insect-plant interactions, primarily in the Lepidoptera, and particularly on monarch butterflies and pest heliothines.
- Kun Yan Zhu, a professor of entomology at Kansas State University, is internationally recognized for his research on insect molecular toxicology
The Entomological Society of America, founded in 1889, is the world's largest organization serving the professional and scientific needs of entomologists and people in related disciplines. Its nearly 7,000 members are affiliated with educational institutions, health agencies, private industry, and government. Members are researchers, teachers, extension service personnel, administrators, marketing representatives, research technicians, consultants, students, and hobbyists.
(Editor's Note: Richard Levine of ESA provided much of the information for this news story)