- Author: Kathy Keatley Garvey
He received the honor at the annual Excellence in Education Awards, sponsored by the Associated Students of UC Davis and coordinated by the Academic Affairs Commission.
“To prepare for this event, we ask students from each college to nominate teachers they feel are excellent,” said Rahul Sachdev, a commissioner with the Academic Affairs Commission. “After receiving hundreds of nominations from each college, we select three finalists from each college to interview. After interviewing those finalists, we then select an overall winner for each college. For the College of Agriculture and Environmental Sciences, the overall winner was Dr. Kimsey.”
Kimsey received a plaque and a certificate signed by Desirae Costello, chair of the Academic Affairs Commission, and Dana Server, vice chair.
“From an early age, Professor Robert Kimsey was interested in the world of bugs and biology,” said Sachdev in presenting the award. “This early passion led Professor Kimsey to pursue a career in entomology. Currently, Professor Kimsey is not only a practicing entomologist but also a teacher. As a teacher, Professor Kimsey has taught numerous classes and has motivated and inspired a countless number of students.”
“A common sentiment expressed by those lucky enough to have taken Professor Kimsey was that Professor Kimsey goes above and beyond what is required of a teacher. For instance, Professor Kimsey frequently allows students to accompany him in the field where students are given the opportunity to apply the principles learned in class to a real-life situation.”
Sachdev also said that Kimsey “has not limited his role in the department of entomology to that of a teacher.” He serves as an advisor to graduate and undergraduate students and helps organize the department’s Picnic Day during the campuswide Picnic Day celebration.
“In turn, Dr. Kimsey’s contributions toward the department and the College of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences are significant to say the least,” Sachdev pointed out, adding that his “enthusiasm toward the subject matter, along with the dedication toward his students strengthens his reputation as an excellent professor.”
Said student Karina Snapp, following the awards presentation: "I would like to say that I am a rather shy student and did not see any of my professors outside of lecture until I met Dr. Kimsey. He is very welcoming and friendly. He really helped me come out of my shell and realize what I was capable of. He is exceptionally passionate about his field, and makes it easy and fun to learn from him. He will always be my favorite professor at UC Davis."
Student Andrew Magee offered: "Dr. Kimsey has been a source of inspiration and guidance for me since I began my undergraduate career. His command of his subject matter is impressive to the point that it's intimidating. He knows his stuff and he knows how to explain it. But more important than Dr. Kimsey's ability to teach science is that he knows how to teach people how to use scientific methods to produce knowledge. He teaches us that research is accessible, and for that lesson I will always be grateful. Dr. Kimsey is a professor who really cares for his students: I know I can rely on him for help, and for good, honest advice. I can't count the number of times he's offered to help students, anything from talking about assignments to helping them get research positions. He shaped my aspirations by opening my eyes to what he thought I was capable of, which is so much more than I thought of myself. My time at UC Davis would not have been the same, and would have been a much poorer experience, were it not for Professor Kimsey."
Kimsey, who received both his bachelor's degree and doctoral degree in entomology from UC Davis, coordinates and serves as the master advisor of the animal biology major at UC Davis, which includes some 400 students.
Kimsey's research interests include public health entomology; arthropods of medical importance; zoonotic disease; biology and ecology of tick-borne pathogens; tick feeding behavior and biochemistry. His research includes the nuisance flies on Alcatraz Island that plaque staff and tourists. A former guard at the penitentiary nicknamed him “The Fly Man of Alcatraz,” during the 2007 Alcatraz Reunion.
Student Danielle Wishon, who works in his lab praised Kimsey as teaching with "contagious enthusiasm."
"I first met Bob five years ago when I joined the Entomology Club," Wishon said. "His enthusiasm for all biological disciplines and his personal interest in the success of all of his students made me quickly realize him to be an ideal mentor. During the time that I’ve been a part of his laboratory, I have gained lab and field training as well as have had the rare and special opportunity to gain hands on experience as a forensic entomologist, by accompanying him to multiple coroner’s office trips."
"Bob has used his connections with the National Park Service to help myself and a number of other students get field experience," Wishon said. "Most recently, several students from the Entomology Club were able to conduct a survey of the entirety of Alcatraz Island for beetle infestation and damage. This has already led to one student, now an alumnus, being qualified as a stored product pest consultant. An additional job on Alcatraz, a rat infestation survey, led to the discovery of fluorescing millipedes in a genus previously not known to fluoresce. The undergrad student that made the discovery is now conducting additional research and is looking to publish his work in the next year. I have personally been conducting research with Bob on the cormorant fly, a fly pest on Alcatraz, for the last couple of years."
Other student comments:
From Danielle George: “Professor Kimsey wasn't just my major adviser, he was a life mentor to me. Every time I would walk into his office with one question, I would find myself talking to him for an hour about anything. He was my professor and is now my friend.”
Mayllynne Lopez: “Dr. Kimsey is not only a brilliant professor, but an extraordinary advisor as well. He has given me advice that I will carry with me for the rest of my life.”
Edy Campos: “I would like to say that Professor Kimsey is one of the best professors I have had here on campus and I am happy that he received this award. I really believe that he takes a lot of time and effort to be a great professor which is shown through his great lectures. One thing that I believe that sets him apart from other professors is that although he is busy he makes time to get to know his students and that he really puts a lot of effort to try to help his students whether its with classes, finding a mentor or figuring out career paths when one seems to be lost at what to do. I am glad that I have had the chance to be in a lot of classes and work with him and get great advice that I will take with me even after I graduate.”
Hannah Greenspan: “Dr. Kimsey has been one of the most helpful professors I dealt with in my 4 years at UC Davis. I took animal biology classes with him and he is also my mentor for my senior practicum. It is always helpful and fun to go meet with him. I could not have been happier with Dr. Kimsey during my time at Davis. I agree that he is an outstanding educator!”
Other winners of the 2013 Excellence in Education awards:
College of Engineering: Sean Davis
College of Biological Science: Lauren Liets
College of Letters and Science, Division of Math and Physical Sci: Eli Goldwyn
College of Letters and Science, Division of Social Sciences: Cara Chiaraluce
College of Letters and Science, Division of Humanities, Arts and Cultural Studies: Martin Weis
Educator of the year: Sean Davis
Related Links:
Fly Man of Alcatraz
- Author: Kathy Keatley Garvey
When honey bee guru Eric Mussen, Extension apiculturist and member of the UC Davis Department of Entomology and Nematology faculty since 1976, received the Alexander Hodson Graduate Alumni Award from his alma mater, the University of Minnesota, he was praised as an outstanding apiculturist who does the university--and the nation--proud.
He was also roasted. Colleague Mark Epstein, senior insect biosystematist at the California Department of Food and Agriculture, managed to obtain footage of Mussen singing doo-wop—off-key. The crowd roared.
So did Mussen.
Mussen sings doo wop as a member of a Davis Art Center-based group led by Frank Fox. “We were joking around at the end of a song, ‘Looking for an Echo,’ and we crashed,” Mussen acknowledged.
William Hutchison, professor and head of the Department of Entomology at the University of Minnesota, presented Mussen with the award. The award memorializes Alexander C. Hodson, Department Head from 1960-1974 who died in 1996. The Hodson Graduate Alumni Award was established in 1998 to recognize and honor outstanding alumni of the Department of Entomology.
Mussen was nominated by former recipient Marla Spivak, Distinguished McKnight University Professor of Apiculture and 2010 MacArthur Fellow, and Gary Reuter, apiculture technician, both with the University of Minnesota. Faculty and staff from UC Davis contributed to the nomination package.
While visiting the University of Minnoesta, Mussen met with faculty members Spivak, Timothy Kurtti and Vera Kirchek and their students. Professor Kurtii is working on the permanent honey bee cell culture line. Kirchek, an associate professor and urban forester, is conducting research on the residue of neonicotinoids, a class of neuro-active insecticides recently banned by the European Commission as being harmful to honey bees.
A native of Schenectady, N.Y., Mussen received his bachelor’s degree in entomology from the University of Massachusetts (after turning down an offer to play football at Harvard) and then received his master’s degree and doctorate in entomology from the University of Minnesota in 1969 and 1975, respectively.
His doctoral research focused on the epidemiology of a viral disease of larval honey bees, sacbrood virus. "During those studies I also was involved in studies concerning sunflower pollination and control of a microsporidian parasite of honey bees, Nosema apis," Mussen recalled. "Now a new species of Nosema has displaced N. apis and is even more difficult to keep subdued."
“Given this foundation, he was confronted with many new challenges regarding honey bee health and pollination concerns when he arrived at UC Davis in 1976,” said Hutchison. “Some 37 years later, he is still actively ‘tackling’ these new challenges--mites, diseases, and Africanized honey bees, to name a few--to enhance the pollination success of California's diverse agricultural cropping systems, with considerable emphasis on almonds. In brief, he is in demand, and he continues to be the primary source for objective information on honey bee health, and pollination in California.”
"I am basically all pro-bee,” Mussen told the American Bee Journal in a two-part feature story published in the September of 2011. “Whatever I can do for bees, I do it...It doesn’t matter whether there is one hive in the backyard or 15,000 colonies. Bees are bees and the bees’ needs are the bees’ needs.”
Mussen, who plans to retire from UC Davis in June 2014, credits his grandfather with sparking his interest in insects. His grandfather, a self-taught naturalist, would take his young grandson to the woods to point out flora and fauna.
As a child, “my only concern was what if, by the time I went to college and became an entomologist, everything we wanted to know about insects was known,” Mussen told writer Mea McNeil for the American Bee Journal series.
"When he enrolled in graduate school, the only research opening was in the Basil Furgala lab," McNeil wrote. "Furgala, who researched bee viruses, took him to the apiary, grabbed a bee and let it sting him to make sure he could work there."
Mussen's nomination packet included the following comments:
- "Eric is without a doubt the epitome of a State Extension Specialist."
- "Without a doubt, Dr. Mussen is the premier authority on bees and pollination in California, and is one of the top beekeeping authorities nationwide."
- "He is a treasure to the beekeeping industry... he is a walking encyclopedia when it comes to honey bees."
- "He is a trusted information source."
Considered by his peers as one of the most respected and influential professional apiculturists in the nation, Mussen was named the California Beekeeper of the Year in 2006, won the American Association of Professional Apiculturists’ Award of Excellence in Extension Apiculture in 2007, and in 2008 he received the Distinguished Achievement Award in Extension from the Pacific Branch of the Entomological Society of America. He received the statewide Pedro Ilic Outstanding Agricultural Educator Award in 2010. This year he and four other colleagues ("The Bee Team"--Neal Williams, Robbin Thorp, Brian Johnson and Lynn Kimsey) won the team award from the Pacific Branch of the Entomological Society of America.
Mussen educates the beekeeping industry and general public with his bimonthly newsletter, from the UC Apiaries, which he launched in 1976. It appears on the UC Davis Department of Entomology and Nematology website, as does his Bee Briefs, addressing such issues as diseases, pesticides and swarms.
Mussen is a five-time president of the Western Apicultural Society, an organization he helped found in 1977. He was a founder and alternated between president and secretary/treasurer of the American Association of Professional Apiculturists for many years.
Mussen, who is the UC Davis representative to the California State Apiary Board, offers input to the Department of Pesticide Regulation, particularly with the pesticide registration group. He works closely with Cooperation Extension, California Department of Food and Agriculture, California Department of Pesticide Regulation, the California Farm Bureau Federation, researchers in the UC system, researchers at the USDA/ARS honey bee laboratories at Beltsville, Md.; Baton Rouge, La.; and Tucson, Ariz., and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, among others.
Highly sought by the news media for his expertise on bees, Mussen has appeared on the Lehrer Hour, BBC, Good Morning America, and quoted in scores of news media, including the New York Times, National Public Radio, Boston Globe, and Los Angeles Times.
- Author: Kathy Keatley Garvey
Provost Ralph Hexter and Richard Engel, executive director of CAAA, presented the award.
Last year Li received the Department of Entomology’s Outstanding Undergraduate Award in Entomology.
Li, who grew up in Monterey Park, near east Los Angeles where she learned to love insects, was nominated for the senior award by Professor Sharon Lawler of the UC Davis Department of Entomology and Nematology. “Ivana Li exemplifies the kind of leader, community organizer and entomology that our department seeks to produce," Lawler wrote. "She has especially excelled in her entomology courses and in leadership. Ivana Li is a true entomology and UC Davis success story.”
“Although initially shy, Ivana took advantage of the welcoming atmosphere here to not only develop intellectually, but to flower as a focal personality in the community of entomology students and faculty. She is a key player in virtually all of the outreach our department offers, from leading the Bohart Museum of Entomology tours for schoolchildren and assisting at open houses to developing and hosting UC Davis Picnic Day displays.”
Lawler also praised Li for installing the “major, eye-catching interpretive display of insects that lines a corridor in our department. It is informative, engaging and of a quality that rivals any professional museum.”
Active in the UC Davis Entomology Club, Li has held most of the offices, including president, and her “efforts have been key in making the club thrive,” Lawler said. The club is a valuable forum for outreach, peer mentoring and marketing, according to club advisor Robert Kimsey, forensic entomologist.
Li helped create an important Entomology Club contract with National Park Survey (NPS) to survey Alcatraz Island for wood-boring beetles. Kimsey has done fly research on Alcatraz for several years.
As an artist, Ivana has combined her research with her humorous side via Bohart Museum of Entomology t-shirts and by participating in a landmark paper, “A Phylogeny and Evolutionary History of the Pokémon,” published in the Annals of Improbable Research (AIR) in July 2012. The paper is a humorous take on the evolutionary development and history of the 646 fictional species depicted in the Pokémon media over the last 16 years
Li works at the Bohart Museum of Entomology, home of nearly eight million insects. The entomology display she created for the Briggs third-floor hallway, was funded by a Bohart Museum grant, and completed within a four-week period. Assisting her from the Bohart were Lynn Kimsey, museum director and professor of entomology; senior museum scientist Steve Heydon; and Tabatha Yang, education and outreach coordinator. Yang wrote the grant.
Visitors can see everything from dragonflies, butterflies and honey bees to beetles, flies, ants and other insects.
The displays:
- Order Lepitopdera, butterflies and moths
- Order Coleoptera, beetles
- Order Hemiptera, true bugs
- Order Hymenoptera, bees, ants and wasps
- Order Diptera, flies, mosquitoes, knats and midges
- Orthopteroid orders, including Mantodea (mantids), Phasmatodea (stick insects) and Blattodea (cockroaches)
- Aquatic insects, including Odonata (dragonflies), Ephemeoptera (mayflies), Plecoptera (stoneflies), Neuroptera (lacewings and antlions), and Trichoptera (caddisflies)
- Phylum Arthopodea, the largest animal phylum, which includes insects, spiders and crustaceans.
Her future plans include enrolling in graduate school.
- Author: Kathy Keatley Garvey
The exhibit features 50 student photographs exploring the conceptual
connections between art and science and the role of art and science on the UC Davis campus. The opening reception, which is free and open to the public, is Thursday, June 6 from 3 to 5 p.m.
The UC Davis Art Science and Fusion Program, co-founded and co-directed by entomologist/artist Diane Ullman and artist Donna Billick. Ullman is the associate dean of undergraduate academic programs in the UC Davis College of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences and UC Davis professor of entomology, and Billick is a self-described rock artist whose work has been shown throughout the world.
The UC Davis Art/Science Fusion Program, launched in 1997, helps students reach across disciplines to learn science through art, and art through science, Ullman said. Each course focuses on key areas of biology, physics or environmental science and expressive art media, including ceramics, graphics, textiles, photography, poetry and music.
Of his course, “Photography, Bridging Art and Science,” Nathan says: “Beginning with centuries-old experiments in optics and chemistry to the present-day digital revolution, the camera has relied on science for itsdevelopment while also serving as a vital scientific tool for probing and documenting the natural world. In the hands of the artist, the camera has heightened our awareness of the aesthetic qualities of space and light while revealing hidden truths about culture and society."
“In this art/science fusion course (SAS 40), students use photography to explore the common ground occupied by art and science. Two lectures each week address topics such as the art and science roots of photography; principles of space, time and light; Gestalt psychology meets Einsteinian physics in photographic composition; the geometric foundations of art and science; order versus disorder; and photographic interpretation of the environment. One studio session each week builds visual literacy skills through hands-on photography projects. This final student exhibition highlights the learning and creativity that emerges when students explore the intellectual realm shared by art and science.”
Nathan is a professor in the Atmospheric Science Program of the UC Davis College of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences, as well as a professor in the Art/Science Fusion Program and the Graduate Program in Applied Mathematics.
See more news from the Department of Entomology and Nematology.
- Author: Kathy Keatley Garvey
The Bohart Museum of Entomology’s open house, set from 1 to 4 p.m., Sunday, June 9, will inform visitors how to find insects via an inside/outside activity that is free and open to the public.
The event will take place in Room 1124 of the Academic Surge building and at the side of the building, located on Crocker Lane, UC Davis campus. This is the last of the open houses for the 2012-13 academic year.
Visitors can try their hand at catching insects with nets and with pan traps. A pan trap is a colored pan filed with water, to which a drop of dish liquid soap is added to break the surface tension and trap the insects.
Another highlight will be how to rear cabbage white butterflies. Many classroom teachers try to rear monarch butterflies, which are more abundant on the East Coast, as is its host plant, milkweed.
To protect the monarchs, scientists are recommending that cabbage whites be used instead. “They are more abundant, easily obtained and easy to rear,” said Tabatha Yang, the Bohart’s education and outreach coordinator. Teachers can easily demonstrate the life cycle of an insect with the cabbage white, she added. Also, summer is a good time for family project investigations. They can witness the transformation of an egg to a caterpillar to a chrysalis to an adult.
Cabbage whites deposit their eggs singly on a variety of plants, including cabbage, broccoli, kale, cauliflower and mustards.
Free pamphlets will be given to visitors, Yang said.
The Bohart Museum, directed by Lynn Kimsey, professor of entomology at UC Davis, houses a global collection of nearly eight million insect specimens and is the seventh largest insect collection in North America. It is also the home of the California Insect Survey, a storehouse of the insect biodiversity. Noted entomologist Richard M. Bohart (1913-2007) founded the museum in 1946.
Visitors can also hold such live specimens as Madagascar hissing cockroaches and walking sticks. The gift shop includes t-shirts, jewelry, insect nets, posters and books, including the newly published children’s book, “The Story of the Dogface Butterfly,” written by UC Davis doctoral candidate Fran Keller and illustrated (watercolor and ink) by Laine Bauer, a 2012 graduate of UC Davis. The 35-page book, geared toward kindergarteners through sixth graders, also includes photos by naturalist Greg Kareofelas of Davis, a volunteer at the Bohart.
The book tells the untold story of the California dogface butterfly (Zerene eurydice), Keller said. Bauer’s illustrations depict the life cycle of this butterfly and the children who helped designate it as the California state insect.
The net proceeds from the sale of this book go directly to the education, outreach and research programs of the Bohart Museum. The book can also be ordered online.
Bohart officials schedule weekend open houses throughout the academic year so that families and others who cannot attend on the weekdays can do so on the weekends. The Bohart’s regular hours are from 9 a.m. to noon and from 1 to 5 p.m., Monday through Thursday. The insect museum is closed to the public on Fridays and on major holidays. Admission is free.
For further information, contact Yang at tabyang@ucdavis.edu or (530) 752-0493.