Aug. 1, 2011
Honey bee on comb at the Harry H. Laidlaw Jr. Honey Bee Research Facility at UC Davis. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)Download flier
Download agendaDAVIS--Honey!
A public celebration--appropriately titled “Honey!”--will take place from 9 a.m. to 6:30 p.m., Friday, Oct. 21 in the UC Davis Conference Center.
The event, co-sponsored by the Robert Mondavi Institute for Wine and Food Science, the UC Davis Department of Entomology, and the Julia Child Foundation for Gastronomy and the Culinary Arts, will include speakers, honey tastings, a honey-focused lunch, and a reception.
“Bees play a crucial role on our planet from pollinating to honey creation,” said Clare Hasler-Lewis, executive director of the institute, which is affiliated with the UC Davis College of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences.
The public is invited to “come celebrate with us and enjoy lectures, tastings and displays on honey,” she said.
The event is scheduled to include the history of honey and its use across the ages; honey as a food incorporating honey in your diet; and honey for health, from balancing blood sugar to wound healing.
Speakers from the Department of Entomology are:
--Brian Johnson, who specializes in the behavior, genetics and evolution of honey bees, as well as apiculture, will discuss "How Bees Cooperate to Make Honey and What they Do With It When We Don't" from 11:50 to 11:30 a.m.
--Extension apiculturist Eric Mussen, a nationally known expert on honey bees and honey, will speak on "The Wonder of Honey Bees" from 10:10 to 10:50 a.m. He will lead a honey tasting from 3 to 3:45 p.m.
--Norman Gary, emeritus professor of entomology, bee research scientist, and professional bee wrangler, will discuss "Hobby Beekeeping in Urban Environments" from 11:30 to 12:10.
Additional information, including recently reduced prices, is posted on the Robert Mondavi Institute for Wine and Food Science website, Facebook and on Twitter.
--Kathy Keatley Garvey
Communications specialist
UC Davis Department of Entomology
(530) 754-6894
Aug. 4, 2011
This is the Bohart Museum of Entomology display at the Solano County Fair, Vallejo, which runs through Sunday, Aug. 7. (Photo by Elisa Seppa)DAVIS--The Bohart Museum of Entomology is displaying bee and butterfly specimens at a “Meet Your Pollinators” exhibit at the Solano County Fair, Vallejo, which opened Wednesday Aug. 3 and runs through Sunday, Aug. 7.
Tabatha Yang, education and outreach coordinator of the Bohart Museum, arranged the display at McCormack Hall. It includes “oh-my” drawers of local bees and bee mimics; a native bee collection by UC Davis entomology graduate student Emily Bzdyk; and a display of California butterflies.
The "oh-my" drawers are so named "because people say 'oh my!' when they see them," Yang said.
This is the California dogface butterfly poster on display at the Solano County Fair.The display also includes bee posters from the Harry H. Laidlaw Jr. Honey Bee Research Facility and a California dogface butterfly poster, the design of entomology doctoral candidate Fran Keller. Davis naturalist-photographer Greg Kareofelas scanned the butterfly images.
The fair, located at 900 Fairgrounds Drive, Vallejo, is open from 11 a.m. to 11 p.m. daily; buildings close at 10 p.m. General admission is $8; children ages 6 to 12, $4; seniors, ages 60 and over, $4; children 5 and under, free. Parking is $7.
The R. M. Bohart Museum of Entomology, founded in 1946 by noted entomologist Richard M. Bohart, is dedicated to teaching, research and service. The museum houses the seventh largest insect collection in North America, and is also the home of the California Insect Survey, a storehouse of the insect biodiversity.
The collection includes more than seven million insect specimens, including a "petting zoo" of live insects, including Madagascar hissing cockroaches and walking sticks.
The museum, directed by Lynn Kimsey, professor of entomology at the UC Davis Department of Entomology, is open for tours from 8:30 a.m. to noon and from 1 to 5 p.m., Monday through Thursday. It is closed for tours on Fridays and on major holidays. Admission is free.
(Editor's Note: Entomology faculty, staff and students who want to help staff the booth at the Solano County Fair may contact Tabatha Yang at tabyang@ucdavis.edu or (530) 752-9464. She will provide tickets and parking passes for the volunteers.)
--Kathy Keatley Garvey
Communications specialist
UC Davis Department of Entomology
(530) 754-6894
Aug. 8, 2011
Chemical ecologist Walter Leal will share the podium with four Nobel Prize winners at an event celebrating the International Year of Chemistry. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)DAVIS--Chemical ecologist Walter Leal, professor and former chair of the UC Davis Department of Entomology, will be sharing the podium with four Nobel Prize winners in chemistry and a scientist who helped discover Viagra when he speaks Sunday, Aug. 14 at an event in Brazil celebrating the International Year of Chemistry.
Leal will speak on “Making Sense of Scents: Reception of Pheromones and Other Semiochemicals in Moths, Mosquitoes and the Fruit Fly” at the São Paulo (Brazil) Advanced School on Chemistry of Natural Products, Medicinal Chemistry and Organic Synthesis.
The event is part of the yearlong celebrations of the International Year of Chemistry.
Leal collaborates on research with Nobel laureate Kurt Wüthrich, now of the Scripps Research Institute in California. Wüthrich won the Nobel in 2002.
Other Nobel laureates speaking are Ei-ichi Negishi, Purdue University, who won the Nobel in 2010; Ada Yonath, Weizmann Institute of Science, Israel, Nobel winner in 2009; and Richard R. Schrock, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Nobel winner in 2005.
Another invited speaker is Simon Campbell, formerly of the Pfizer Central Research UK. Campbell was a key member of the research team that discovered Viagra.
Leal, a native of Brazil, obtained his doctorate from Tsukuba University, Japan and is a postdoctoral Fellow through the National Institute of Sericultural and Entomological Science.. He served as guest editor of Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences; and is board member and editor of the Public Library of Science, PLoS ONE, board member of the Journal of Insect Physiology, Asia-Pacific Entomology, Neotropical Entomology and the Journal of Chemical Ecology. Leal obtained 28 Japanese and two U.S. patents and has published his work in 161 peer-reviewed journals.
Leal is facilitating a collaboration between UC Davis and the two major funding agencies in Brazil (CNPq and CAPES) for exchange of undergraduate and graduate students and scholars.
--Kathy Keatley Garvey
Communications specialist
UC Davis Department of Entomology
(530) 754-6894
July 27, 2012
Billy Synk, whose father is of German descent, and his mother, Italian, tends the Carniolan and Italian bees at the Harry H. Laidlaw Jr. Honey Bee Research Facility at the University of California, Davis.
Synk, a staff research associate since May, loves working with the 125 research hives. “There’s always something new to learn,” he said.
Synk divides his time working for honey bee specialist Brian Johnson and native bee specialist Neal Williams, both associate professors in the Department of Entomology. “I like being super busy,” he said.
“Billy is doing a great job,” Johnson commented. “He’s a fast learner and a hard worker and has already played a big role in some experiments.”
Synk, who received his bachelor of science degree in environmental policy and management in 2008 from Ohio State University (OSU), worked with noted bee breeder-geneticist Susan Cobey at OSU. Cobey later joined the Laidlaw facility in May of 2007.
“Billy worked with me as a student beekeeper assistant,” said Cobey, now a bee breeder-geneticist at Washington State University. “I always look for students who are intrigued with bee behavior and have a rapport with the bees, rather than being asked the two common questions, ‘Do you get stung?” and ‘Do you make honey?” Billy developed a good rapport with the bees, is always enthusiastic and fun to work with. We stayed in close touch over the years. I feel he will be an asset to the UC Davis bee biology program.”
Synk, who received his bachelor of science degree in environmental policy and management in 2008 from Ohio State University, worked at OSU for four years, first for Cobey, and later as a greenhouse assistant, research farm assistant manager, and as an assistant with a soybean project. He also worked at the Ohio State Equine Center, where he recalls “chasing the horses and giving them shots.”
Now a Californian, Synk left Ohio for California four years ago, first rearing leafcutter bees for a seed company specializing in alfalfa and vegetables.
At the Laidlaw facility, Synk works closely with Kimiora Ward of the Williams lab, assisting her with a variety of field work and lab projects. He samples for bees and pests, mounts slides, enters data, monitors for general bee hive health, applies treatments, designs experiments, works with general facilities, and manages interns, students and visitors. He recently tended the blue orchard bees in the hoop houses. His skills extend to plumbing, electrical and woodworking.
Synk also helps out at the Haagen-Dazs Honey Bee Haven, the half-acre bee friendly garden planted next to the Laidlaw facility.
Born in Solon, Ohio, a suburb of Cleveland, Synk grew up playing high school football--his coaches nicknamed him “N’ Synk.” Today his passions include cycling, rock climbing, and of course, bees.
Oct. 4, 2011
Frank Zalom will discuss the light brown apple moth (LBAM) at the Feb. 3rd meeting of the Northern California Entomology Society. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)DAVIS--Integrated pest management (IPM) specialist Frank Zalom, professor and former vice chair of the UC Davis Department of Entomology and soon-to-be president of the 6000-member Entomological Society of America, is one of three Americans invited to speak at an international IPM workshop, Oct. 16-19, in Berlin, Germany.
Zalom, invited by the Federal Ministry of Food, Agriculture and Consumer Protection of Germany, will speak on “Stimulating Use of Professional IPM Consultants in Agriculture, Benefits for Farmers and Society,” on Monday, Oct. 17.
The event is sponsored by the Organization for Economic Co-Operation and Development (OECD), which helps governments of the developed countries tackle the economic, social and governance challenges of a globalized economy. The OECD is celebrating its 50th anniversary this year.
At the OECD workshop, to be held in the Julius Kuhn Institute, Federal Research Center for Cultivated Plants, invitees will develop recommendations related to the workshop themes, adoption and implementation of IPM in agriculture, contributing to the sustainable use of pesticides and to pesticide-risk reduction.
Wolfgang Zornback, chair of the OECD Working Group on Pesticides, German Federal Ministry of Food, Agriculture and Consumer Protection, will welcome the group.
The speakers will include noted IPM specialists from Australia, Denmark, Canada, Germany, Japan, Korea, New Zealand, The Netherlands and the UK. About 100 participants were either nominated by their governments or invited by the OECD. Half of the participants will include government representatives working on pesticide regulation, and half of the participants will include representatives from international/regional organizations: European Commission, Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), European and Mediterranean Plant Protection Organization (EPPO), International Organization for Biological Control (IOBC), bio-pesticide industries, environmental and consumer organizations and academia.
Americans joining Zalom in Berlin will be Tom Green of the US/IPM Institute of North America in Madison, Wis., who will discuss “IPM in U.S. Schools: Challenges, Opportunities and Implications for IPM in Agriculture” and James VanKirk of the Southern Region IPM Center, North Carolina State University, who will address “IPM Pest Information Platform for Extension and Education.”
The OECD workshop will conclude with a visit to the German chancellery.
Zalom will begin a four-year commitment to the Entomological Society of America (ESA) this fall when he will be inducted as vice president-elect at the organization’s 59th annual meeting set Nov. 13-16 in Reno. He will subsequently move up to vice president and president and then serve a year fulfilling the duties of past president. The UC Davis entomologist will become president at the end of the 2013 annual meeting and then will serve as president at the 2014 meeting in Portland, Ore.
Zalom has been heavily involved in research and leadership in integrated pest management (IPM) activities at the state, national and international levels. He directed the UC Statewide IPM Program for 16 years (1986 -2001) and is currently experiment station co-chair of the Association of Public and Land-Grant Universities (APLU) National IPM Committee.
Zalom focuses his research on California specialty crops, including tree crops (almonds, olives, prunes, peaches), small fruits (grapes, strawberries, caneberries), and fruiting vegetables (tomatoes), as well as international IPM programs.
The IPM strategies and tactics Zalom has developed include monitoring procedures, thresholds, pest development and population models, biological controls and use of less toxic pesticides, which have become standard in practice and part of the UC IPM Guidelines for these crops.
In his three decades with the UC Davis Department of Entomology, Zalom has published almost 300 refereed journal articles and book chapters, and 340 technical and extension articles. The articles span a wide range of topics related to IPM, including invasive species management, biological control, insect population dynamics, pesticide runoff mitigation, impacts and management of newer, soft insecticides, development of economic thresholds and sampling methods, and determination of insect host feeding and oviposition preferences.
The Zalom lab has responded to six important pest invasions in the last decade, with research projects on glassy-winged sharpshooter, olive fruit fly, a new biotype of greenhouse whitefly, invasive saltcedar, light brown apple moth, and the spotted wing Drosophila.
Zalom is a fellow of ESA, American Association for the Advancement of Science, and the California Academy of Sciences.
Highly honored for his work, Zalom received the Entomological Foundation’s 2010 “Award for Excellence in IPM,” an award sponsored by Syngenta Crop Protection and given for “the most outstanding contributions to IPM.” In 2008 he was part of a team receiving an International IPM “Excellence Award” at the sixth International IPM Symposium. Also in 2008, Zalom was part of the seven-member UC Almond Pest Management Alliance IPM Team that received the Entomological Foundation’s "Award for Excellence in IPM.” The Pacific Branch of the ESA awarded Zalom its greatest honor, the C. W. Woodworth Award, in 2011.
--Kathy Keatley Garvey
Communications specialist
UC Davis Department of Entomology
(530) 754-6894
