Dec. 13, 2012
ESA president Robert Wiedenmann, professor and head of the University of Arkansas Department of Entomology, and Zalom represented ESA at the meeting. The Council membership is comprised of presidents, presidents-elect and recent past presidents representing some 60 scientific federations and societies. The combined membership totals more than 1.4 million scientists and science educators.
Among the many speakers were Paula Apsell, senior executive producer of NOVA-TV, who led a discussion on “Building Pubic Appreciation for Science”; Ian Shipsey, physics professor at Purdue University, who spoke on “Higgs Boson: How It Imparts Mass”; Lori Garver of NASA, “Mars and Beyond—Exploring the Endless Frontiers”; and Millie Dresselhaus, professor, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, “Nanoscale Carbon Electron-Phonon Interaction.”
Charles Vest, president of the National Academy of Engineering, keynoted the awards banquet on Dec. 9.
The group also met for a breakfast on Capitol Hill, interacting with congressional leaders, including chiefs of staff and senators.
According to a brochure handed out at the meeting: “The Council regularly develops national policy coordination recommended by its committees on issues of importance to the scientific community.”
Among those issues are science and mathematics education; university-based research; federal research and education budget; responsible conduct of science; merit review of federally supported science; unimpeded exchange of scientific information; magnifying public science literary; research on teaching and learning; and directions for 21st century science.
Theme of the ESA’s 61st annual meeting, to be held Nov. 10-13 in Austin, Texas, is “Science Impacting a Connected World.” (Michael Parrella, professor and chair of the UC Davis Department of Entomology, is a member of the governing board, representing the Pacific Branch of ESA. See governing board photo at http://www.entsoc.org/esa-governing-board-photo.)
Zalom will be participating in the 2014 CSSP conference as president of ESA.
ESA, founded in 1889, is the largest organization in the world serving the professional and scientific needs of entomologists and people in related disciplines. Its 6,000 members are affiliated with educational institutions, health agencies, private industry, and government. Members are students, researchers, teachers, extension service personnel, administrators, marketing representatives, research technicians, consultants, and hobbyists.
(More information on photo)
Frank Zalom (far right) of UC Davis, newly installed vice president of the Entomological Society of America with ESA president Robert Wiedenmann (far left), professor and head of the Department of Entomology, University of Arkansas; and ESA Fellow Sonny Ramaswamy, former dean of Oregon State University’s College of Agricultural Sciences who was selected last March by the Obama administration to be the director of USDA’s National Institute of Food and Agriculture (NIFA). NIFA dispenses research grants and supports ag education and extension programs. (Photo Courtesy of ESA)
--Kathy Keatley Garvey
Communications specialist
UC Davis Department of Entomology
(530) 754-6894
Dec. 13, 2012
The event, free and open to the public, is sponsored by the UC Davis Art/Science Fusion Program.
"Organism" also will include visual, sound, live performance, and a look at a Cabinet of Natural Curiosities. (See Wikipedia example.)
“This is a two-part show,” said curator Anna Davidson, a doctoral candidate who teaches for the UC Davis Art/Science Fusion Program, which entomologist Diane Ullman and self-described “rock artist” Donna Billick launched in 2006.
Part One will spotlight artworks created by both artists and scientists on the UC Davis campus. Participating scientists will include Ciera Martinez, Anna Davidson, Brad Townsly, Dan Chitwood and Diane Ullman. Among the artists: Daniel Brickman, May Wilson, Evan Clayburg, Daniel Mendoza, Sarah Julig, Dylan Wright, Donna Billick and Emily Schleiner.
Part One also includes performance art by Allison Fall and a dance performance by Linda Bair Dance Company.
Part Two of the show will feature 15 students from the Entomology 1 class, which is housed in the Art Science Fusion program at UC Davis. “These 15 students have been writing curious tales about insects and illustrating those stories through their art pieces,” Davidson said. “The concept behind their art pieces is based on Cabinets of Curiosities, a pre-Linnaeus collection of curiosities made popular among the affluent in 14th and 15th century Europe.”
“During this show you will experience glow in-the-dark organisms, art made of fungus, large-scale installation, live performance, and sound art and tales about insects that are so curious they are almost unbelievable!” she said.
The 15 students include Christina Ball, Edna Chen, Alejandra Gonzalez, Whitney Krupp, Danielle Laub, Nina Liu, Huong Nhu Mai, Amy McElroy, Brenda Nguyen, Lawrence Nguyen, Meredith Scarborough, Alison Stewart, Kevin Tran and Hsin Hwei Tsou.
For more information, contact Anna Davidson at adavidson@ucdavis.edu. She is a Ph.D student in the Horticulture and Agronomy Graduate Group, Department of Plant Sciences.
--Kathy Keatley Garvey
Communications specialist
UC Davis Department of Entomology
(530) 754-6894
Dec. 11, 2012
Leal, a native of Brazil, will be honored at a ceremony on May 7 in Rio de Janeiro.
“Let me say that your election to the Brazilian Academy of Sciences is a well-deserved recognition for your accomplishments as a distinguished scientist in your field of studies, entomology, and also for the very important role you have been playing in promoting cooperation among Brazilian and U.S .universities and, through those arrangements, fostering scientific development in our country,” said Ambassador Eduardo Prisco of the Brazilian Consulate in San Francisco.
The U.S. currently hosts the largest number of students participating in the Brazil government’s Scientific Mobility Program, according to the Institute of International Education, and UC Davis leads the nation, hosting more than 30 Brazilian undergraduate scholarship students. Leal is also involved in the Brazilian/UC Davis student exchange with the Federal Agency for Support and Evaluation of Graduate Education (CAPES) and the National Council for Scientific and Technological Development (CNPq) grants for research related to Brazil.
A pioneer in the field of insect communication and on the cutting edge of research, Leal employs innovative approaches to insect olfaction problems. His work examines how insects detect smells, communicate with their species, detect host and non-host plants, and detect prey. Leal has designed and synthesized complex pheromones from many insects, including scarab beetles, true bugs, longhorn beetles and the citrus leafminer. He and his lab discovered the secret mode of the insect repellent DEET.
Leal, educated in Brazil and Japan, joined the UC Davis Department of Entomology in 2000. He holds a doctorate in applied biochemistry from Tsukuba University, Japan, and also earned degrees in chemical engineering and agricultural chemistry.
Active in national and international entomological circles, the UC Davis professor is serving as co-chair of the International Congress of Entomology (ICE) conference, to be hosted by the Entomological Society of America (ESA) Sept. 25-30, 2016 in Orlando, Florida.
He is a Fellow of the Entomological Society of America, the Royal Entomological Society and of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, and served as president of the International Society of Chemical Ecology (ISCE). Among his awards: the ISCE Silver Medal, and awards from ESA and scientific societies in Japan and Brazil.
The UC Davis chemical ecologist was one of 36 members elected this week to the Academy. Of that number, 25 are Brazilians or foreign associates residing in Brazil and 11 are Brazilian or foreign associates residing overseas.
Among the newly elected Academy members are Nobel Laureate Kurt Wüthrich of Switzerland, who received the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 2002; Henrique Sarmento Malvar, managing director of Microsoft Research in Redmond, Wash.; and José Alexandre Scheinkman, professor of economics, Princeton University.
In celebrating his election to the Brazilian Academy of Sciences, members of the Leal lab donned humorous t-shirts, a gift from the professor. The front says “I did the work” and the back, “..and Walter Leal got in the Academy.”
Caption:
The Walter Leal lab wore humorous t-shirts to announce his selection to the Brazilian Academy of Sciences. Four countries are represented in this lab photo. The four in front are (from left) Junior Specialist Hang Gao, United States; Professor Fen Zhu, Huazhong Agricultural University, China; Professor Leal, a native of Brazil; and Graduate Student Alyssa De La Rosa (Agricultural and Environmental Chemistry Graduate Group). Circling them in back are (from left) Postdoctoral Fellow Cherre Sade, Brazil; Postdoctoral Fellow Young-Moo Choo, Korea; Project Scientist Pingxi Xu, China; Graduate Student Kevin Cloonan (entomology major), Professor Carlos Ueira Vieira, Federal University of Uberlandia, Brazil; Graduate Student Yinliang Wang, Northeast Normal University, China; and Graduate Student Washington Carvalho, Federal University of Uberlandia. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
--Kathy Keatley Garvey
Communications specialist
UC Davis Department of Entomology
(530) 754-6894
Dec. 10, 2012
Visitors to the open house at the Bohart Museum of Entomology on Saturday, Dec. 15 are invited to draw a bug and enter it in a judging competition for a free insect-related T-shirt.
The open house, free and open to the public, is set from 1 to 4 p.m. in Room 1124 of Academic Surge on Crocker Lane (formerly California Drive) on the University of California, Davis.
“We’ll have our button machine going,” said senior museum scientist Steve Heydon of the Bohart Museum. Visitors of all ages can draw a bug, which will then be affixed to a button that they can take home.
For the contest, the button must be crafted at the museum between 1 and 3:30, with the winner to be announced by 4. Each button measures about 2 ¼ inches in length.
The open house will feature the illustrations of Lynn Kimsey, director of the Bohart and professor of entomology at UC Davis; the late Mary Foley Benson of Davis; and Ivana Li, an undergraduate entomology student and president of the UC Davis Entomology Club. Li created the graphics on the Bohart t-shirt, “Walking Sticks” and other work.
Visitors also will be able to see the original plates for the children’s book, “The Story of the Dogface Butterfly,” written by Fran Keller, doctoral candidate in entomology, and Laine Bauer, who received her degree in art in June from UC Davis. Greg Kareofelas of Davis, a Bohart volunteer, contributed photos.
This was Bauer’s first book illustration. She created about 20 full-page watercolors (in color) for the book. Her goal: an illustrator for publications, such as books, magazines and journals. Now living in Belmont, she working on her portfolio and is employed in a custom leather shop in Berkeley.
Keller, who also designed the “walking stick” t-shirt that Li illustrated, studies with major professor Lynn Kimsey and expects to receive her doctorate next year. She and Kareofelas earlier teamed to create the popular California dogface butterfly poster, available for sale at the Bohart.
Expanding on the open house theme, Heydon said that “Insects and Art” began as early as the caveman days. Cave drawings found in Spain depict honey gatherers, illustrations thought to have been created more than 10,000 years ago.
“Insects in art are found in scientific illustrations and are represented on fabric, paintings, toys, jewelry and other media,” Heydon said.
The Bohart Museum 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.
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.
The remainder of the open houses for the 2012-2012 academic year are:
Sunday, Jan. 13, 1 to 4 p.m.
Theme: "Extreme Insects"
Saturday, Feb. 2, 1 to 4 p.m.
Theme: "Biodiversity Museum Day"
Sunday, March 24, 1 to 4 p.m.
Theme: "Aquatic Insects"
Saturday, April 20: 10 a.m. to 3 p.m.
Theme: UC Davis Picnic Day
Saturday, May 11, 1 to 4 p.m.
Theme: "Moth-er's Day"
Sunday, June 9, 1 to 4 p.m.
Theme: "How to Find Insects"
More information is available on the Bohart website or by contacting Steve Heydon at slheydon@ucdavis.edu or (530) 752-0493. The nearest intersection to Crocker Lane is LaRue Road.
--Kathy Keatley Garvey
Communications specialist
UC Davis Department of Entomology
(530) 754-6894