- Author: Kathy Keatley Garvey
The tiles, the work of UC Davis students taught by UC Davis faculty members Diane Ullman and Gale Okumura, include everything from beetles to birds, from corn to cacti, and from “The Dream Catcher of Love” to “The Hope of the Horned Toad.”
Encompassing 78 tiles and more than 110 handmade trim pieces, the project “enriches the lives of our 300-plus residents,” said URC residents and artists Maxine Solomon and Vicki Panagotacos, co-chairs of URC art procurement.
The students learned to fuse science with art in two classes, “Entomology 001: Art, Science and the World of Insects Honors Section,” and “Freshman Seminar 002: Exploring Visual Language and Symbolism with Ceramics and a Community-Engaged Learning Project,” taught by UC Davis distinguished professor Diane Ullman, professor of entomology and co-founder of the UC Davis Art/Science Fusion Program, and professional graphic designer Gale Okumura of Okumura Design, a retired continuing lecturer in the UC Davis Department of Design. Artist Amanda Larson of Half Moon Bay, formerly of Davis, led the installation.
In ENT 001, the students learned about the natural history of insects and how insects are woven into human culture through art, religion, literature, and film. In the freshman seminar class, the students explored how people use symbolic representation in design and visual narrative to enhance expression and understanding of ideas and concepts.
On the Web. Both classes focused on life in the Sonoran Desert and the symbols of the indigenous communities. A newly created Sonora Dreams site on the UC Davis Department of Entomology and Nematology website leads visitors through the art-creating experiences.
Love for Family. “I would do anything to protect my family, and I love them very much,” Yee wrote. “Spiders also represent creative powers, and I feel like that is a good representation of me. The spiral in the big circle represents continuation. No matter what happens, I will always be with my family and my love will be for eternity. Each bear claw is also connected to a feather which are marks of honor. My whole family honors each other and respects one another. In the end, we're all connected and will love each other until the end.”
“I've never considered myself an artist nor have I ever thought that a day would come where a piece of art I've made would be on display,” wrote Alondra Bravo-Garcia, then a first-year student in aerospace engineering who titled her work, “Revolutionizing Insects.”
“As an engineering student at Davis, I've always focused on math and science,” she related. “However, I had the opportunity to study a marvelous scarab beetle named Dynastes grantii.” Commonly known as the Western Hercules beetle or Grant's rhinoceros beetle, it is a scarab beetle that “improves nutrient recycling and soil conditions.”
Unique Beauty. Bravo-Garcia wrote that “to give these underappreciated insects some recognition for their hard work, I decided that I wanted to reflect their unique beauty and give an idea of their environment within my tile. I had never worked with clay before, but I was fortunate enough to receive assistance from peers and Professor Ullman. With their help, I was able to make my vision come to life and create a tile that I'm proud to exhibit. Within this tile, you'll be able to see a Grant's rhinoceros beetle with its unique elytra that contains irregular spots on an ash tree stump even if you're currently in California and not Arizona. This was an unforgettable experience and I've become extremely grateful for being given the privilege to learn the many benefits insects have and how insects can help us develop sustainable designs. As an engineering student at Davis, I look forward to designing solutions based on nature.”
Sun Ray on Cornerstones. A sun ray brightens each cornerstone on the top row of the Sonoran Dreams project. They are the work of Professor Ullman. “I don't always get to do my own artwork as I lead large scale projects like Sonoran Dreams,” she wrote. “I am delighted to present a sun symbol as the cornerstones of the elevator surround, one at each side of the top row. The sun symbolizes life-giving abundance with its warmth, giving light and life to planet, thus a fitting symbol overseeing this portal.”
Noted Solomon: “We are very thankful to Diane and Gale and to UC Davis for their interest in doing projects that connect the university, the students and the community. Vicki and I really enjoyed working with the students, attending a few classes that Diane and Gale taught and heard the students' presentations as they developed them. It was wonderful to see their original concepts develop into a completed tile that incorporated what they learned about their chosen insect, its habitat and a complete visual project that now enhances a building in the Davis area.”
“Another thing that was gratifying to me as an artist,” said Solomon, “was to see many of the students who had no prior art involvement, find excitement in completing a visual art project that incorporated all they were learning in their entomology lab with Diane, and design principles with Gale.”
Stimulating Visual. Panagotacos said that the tiles “bring life to an area of the building that was mundane, at best. We are grateful for Diane, Gale and the students as they provided a stimulating visual for the residents to ponder, while waiting for the elevator to arrive!”
“It was a privilege to be included in the classroom--to listen to the students present their design rationale and show their sincere interest in creating the final tiles,” Panagotacos said. “While Maxine and I weren't there for Diane and Gale's initial tutoring, they clearly were the main drivers in presenting the project as a cross-discipline--both an intellectual and a creative experience. Having taught public school art myself, this experience caused me to reflect on why the arts aren't coupled with ‘core' curriculum more often. Possibly Diane and Gale's years of success in combining the two, can influence other UC Davis instruction.
Professor Ullman, a celebrated teacher and artist, received the Entomological Society of America (ESA) National Excellence in Teaching Award in 2014 and the UC Davis Academic Senate's 2022 Distinguished Teaching Award for undergraduate teaching. Known for her superb teaching, her students praise her for bringing art-science fusion alive in innovative ways. During the COVID-19 pandemic, one student commented: "My experience in her course last spring was one that lifted my spirits, enriched my education, and strengthened my love for art and science during a time when it was difficult to feel positive about anything.”
Art/Science Fusion Program Director. Ullman, who holds a doctorate in entomology from UC Davis, joined the UC Davis entomology faculty in 1994. A former department chair who served as associate dean in the College of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences, she continues to direct the UC Davis Art/Science Fusion Program that she co-founded in September 2006.
Okumara, who taught visual communication in the UC Davis Department of Design, provides creative design solutions. Her designs include agricultural products and graphics for non-profit organizations, including California Cancer Research Program, Napa Valley Symphony and Friends for Kids.
Larson, who directed the installation, says her art practice “resides within two spheres; one being community built public art and the other a studio-based practice.” She is passionate about “facilitating projects that have the potential to foster human connection, activate and engage the public and space, and build a sense of ownership and place.”
The University Retirement Community is one of those places.
(Editor's Note: The photos are courtesy of Diane Ullman and Gale Okumura)
- Author: Kathy Keatley Garvey
The Entomological Society of America (ESA) has shared images taken at its joint meeting with the Entomological Society of Canada and the Entomological Society of British Columbia, held Nov. 13-16 in Vancouver, B.C. The theme: "Entomology as Inspiration: Insects through Art, Science, and Culture."
UC Davis did well. Highlights included:
- The UC Davis Entomology Games Team edged out Alabama's Auburn University 75 to 70 to win the national championship at the Entomology Games. The team was comprised of four doctoral candidates from the Department of Entomology and Nematology: Zachary Griebenow of the Phil Ward lab, captain; Jill Oberski of the Ward laboratory; Erin “Taylor” Kelly of the Geoffrey Attardo lab; and Madison “Madi” Hendrick of the Ian Grettenberger lab.
This is the fourth national championship for UC Davis since 2015. The event is a lively question-and-answer, college bowl-style competition on entomological facts played between university-sponsored student teams. The question categories are biological control, behavior and ecology, economic and applied entomology, medical, urban and veterinary entomology, morphology and physiology, biochemistry and toxicology, systematics and evolution integrated pest management and insect/plant interactions - Doctoral candidates Danielle Rutkowski and Zachary Griebenow of the UC Davis Department of Entomology and Nematology won the President's Prize or first-place honors for their individual research presentations. Doctoral candidate Lindsey Mack and doctoral student Adelaine “Addie” Abrams scored second-place for their research presentations in the highly competitive program.
Rutkowski, who studies with community ecologists Rachel Vannette, associate professor, and distinguished professor Richard “Rick” Karban, spoke on “The Mechanism Behind Beneficial Effects of Bee-Associated Fungi on Bumble Bee Health,” at her presentation in the category, Graduate School Plant-Insect Ecosytems: Pollinators. This was her second consecutive President's Prize.Griebenow, who studies with major professor and ant specialist Phil Ward, (Griebenow also captained the UC Davis Entomology Games Team in its national championship win at the Entomology Games or Bug Bowl) explained “Systematic Revision of the Obscure Ant Subfamily Leptanillinae (Hymenoptera: Formicidae), Reciprocally Informed by Phylogenomic Inference and Morphological Data.” His category: Graduate School Systematics, Evolution and Biodiversity: Evolution 1
Doctoral candidate Lindsey Mack of the Geoffrey Attardo lab scored second place in the student research presentations. (ESA Photo)
Mack, who studies with medical entomologist-geneticist Geoffrey Attardo, assistant professor, covered “Three Dimensional Analysis of Vitellogenesis in Aedes aegypi Using Synchrotron X-Ray MicroCT” in the category, Graduate School Physiology, Biochemistry and Toxicology: Physiology.
Abrams, who studies with Extension agricultural entomologist and assistant professor Ian Grettenberger (she is a member of the Horticulture and Agronomy Graduate Group), titled her research, “Hitting the Mark: Precision Pesticide Applications for the Control of Aphids in California Lettuce" in the category, Graduate School Physiology, Biochemistry and Toxicology: Integrated Pest Management
UC Davis medical entomologist-geneticist Geoffrey Attardo spoke on "Effects of Wildfire Ash on Oviposition-Site Selection and Larval Development in the Yellow Fever Mosquito Aedes aegypti."
In addition, in the annual international Insect Salon photography competition, ESA member and communications specialist Kathy Keatley Garvey of the Department of Entomology and Nematology won the ESA medal for her image of a golden dung fly.
The 2023 ESA meeting will take place Nov. 5-8, 2023 in National Harbor, MD. The theme is "Insects and Influence: Advancing Entomology's Impact on People and Policy."
The 7000-member ESA, founded in 1889, is the largest organization in the world serving the professional and scientific needs of entomologists and individuals in related disciplines. Its members, affiliated with educational institutions, health agencies, private industry, and government, are researchers, teachers, extension service personnel, administrators, marketing representatives, research technicians, consultants, students, pest management professionals, and hobbyists.
- Author: Kathy Keatley Garvey
That's the philosophy of Bita Rostami, who received her bachelor's degree in animal biology (ABI) from the University of California, Davis, in June 2022, and then in a unique accomplishment, saw her practicum thesis published as a review article in a prestigious research journal.
“A key element in the ABI major, hosted by the UC Davis Department of Entomology and Nematology, is the practicum project--an opportunity for students to engage with research labs,” said her mentor, agricultural entomologist Christian Nansen, professor in the department.
The journal, Methods in Ecology and Evolution, published her practicum report, “Application of Active Acoustic Transducers in Monitoring and Assessment of Terrestrial Ecosystem Health—A Review” in its Oct. 14th edition. “She pitched the basic and highly innovative idea of using active acoustic transducers in monitoring and assessments of terrestrial ecosystem health,” Nansen said.
“ABI practicum projects represent a unique opportunity for us instructors and lab team leaders to open our doors to students and allow them to challenge themselves and be inspired,” Nansen said. “And in some cases, it us that receive more from the student than what we offer--Bita is an example of such a student with an enormous academic potential.”
“Setting aside Bita's terrific academic background and qualifications, I have found her to be the ideal collaborator, very cooperative, consistently cheerful, perfectly dependable, stable and delightful to work with," Kimsey said. "Competition may or may not select for exceptional humans, but often selects for difficult characters. Bita almost uniquely combines high productivity and intense curiosity with a delightful personality, an ideal combination to have in a research program.”
In the journal article, Rostami reviewed and discussed possible applications—and also constraints—of active acoustic transducers in monitoring and assessment of terrestrial ecosystem health.
“Specifically, this article includes a brief introduction to the basic principles of sound and types of active acoustic transducers,” Rostami and Nansen wrote in their abstract. “Moreover, we provide reviews of common uses of active acoustic transducers in assessing plant structures and plant functional traits.”
How did Bita Rostami conceive the idea of using acoustic transducers in monitoring and assessing terrestrial ecosystem health?
“I learned in one of my classes that playing recordings of healthy oceans could aid in restoring marine communities,” Rostami said. “From there, I wanted to find out if sound could be used similarly to help restore terrestrial ecosystems. Through my initial research, I found that although sound and sound recordings have been used to monitor and rehabilitate wildlife in terrestrial ecosystems, more research needs to be done on applying sound in assessing terrestrial plant health. I was familiar with multiple types of acoustic transducers commonly used in precision agriculture and urban forestry, so I wanted to see if we could apply pre-existing technology to perform monitoring and assessments on a broader scale in rough terrestrial terrains.”
Rostami, who received her associate of arts degree in natural sciences and mathematics from Irvine Valley College in June 2020, credits a research retreat in Palm Springs with sparking her interest in environmental sciences. As a community college student participating in the retreat, the flora and fauna of the desert fascinated her.
“That convinced me that this is what I want to do for the rest of my life,” she said. She then gained experience as an undergraduate research assistant with the UC Irvine School of Biological Sciences. Her work, with principal investigator Peter Bryant from January to May of 2020, involved researching and analyzing the diversity and life cycle of Pacific Ocean zooplanktons.
Next project: for several months in early 2021, she served as a researcher, advised by paleoecologist Renske Kirchholtes of UC Santa Cruz, in the California Ecology and Conservation (CEC), part of the University of California's Natural Reserve System (CNRS). “CEC is an undergrad field program that takes students from different UCs across multiple UC nature reserves to learn about Californian ecology and do research,” she explained.
Experience as a research assistant in the UC Davis laboratory of conservation ecologist Susan Harrison in the Donald and Sylvia McLaughlin Natural Reserve, a 7,050-acre CNRS reserve in Napa and Lake counties followed. Working with primary investigator Rebecca Nelson from March 2021 to February 2022, she conducted daily visual encounter surveys of field sites or pollinator species, maintained daily data entry (time/date, weather, GPS coordinates, pollinator species, number of visitations and lower species visited), and collected soil samples from study sites to measure chemical makeup. She also collected seeds from specific flower species to analyze genetic diversity and test for seed viability.
Rostami, now 23 and a resident of Newport Beach, is taking an academic break before applying for graduate school. She is working full-time teaching math and biology as a private academic tutor in grades K-12. “I plan to eventually apply for an environmental science master's program and get certified through the Society of American Foresters.”
Rostami, who speaks Farsi (Persian), English and Spanish, already has accomplished two “firsts” in her family: She is the first to attend college in the United States “since we immigrated here from Iran around ten years ago. Most of my family are engineers, so I'm also the first one going into environmental studies.”
“If you are struggling to figure out your passion, learn to enjoy stepping out of your comfort zone. You might be surprised by how much you can learn about yourself when trying out something new.”
- Author: Kathy Keatley Garvey
The article, “Vehicle Pollution Is Associated with Elevated Insect Damage to Street Trees,” is published in the Journal of Applied Ecology. It received the Editor's Choice Award.
“This research reveals strong effects of vehicle pollution on insect damage to trees,” said Meineke, who conceived the idea for the project, funded by the department. “Trees next to highways are exposed to multiple stressors, including urban heat, pollution, and insects, all of which affect one another and tree health. Our research strongly suggests planting trees that are less susceptible to herbivory near highways.”
Her team included her colleague, UC Davis distinguished professor Richard “Rick” Karban, who co-wrote the manuscript, and junior specialist David Eng, then of the Meineke lab. The study targeted vehicle pollution in the Sacramento Valley “and adds to a now growing chorus of studies demonstrating the scientific value of intra-urban gradients of particular variables (heat, pollution, surrounding vegetation),” they wrote.
They suspect that “vehicle pollution depresses defensive pathways within trees and reduces the concentrations of key compounds that protect against herbivore damage.”
The researchers demonstrated that leaf damage to a native oak species (Quercus lobata), known as the valley oak,” is “substantially elevated on trees exposed to vehicle emissions.”
“Together, our studies demonstrate that the heterogeneity in vehicle emissions across cities may explain highly variable patterns of insect herbivory on street trees,” they wrote. “Our results also indicate that trees next to highways are particularly vulnerable to multiple stressors, including insect damage. To combat these effects, urban foresters may consider installing trees that are less susceptible to insect herbivory along heavily traveled roadways.”
The valley oak is a deciduous, long-lived tree that can reach up to 98 feet in height and live up to 600 years. It is known to tolerate wildfires.
“Past studies hint at the potential role of vehicle pollution as a driver of leaf nutritional quality for chewing herbivores. At one site in the United Kingdom, trees within 100 meters of motorways were much more likely to be severely defoliated than trees at further distances. Elevated herbivory was attributed to elevated nitrogen dioxide (NO2) along highways.” Another study in the Los Angeles Basin, showed that “herbivore communities on oak trees at more polluted natural areas tended to be more dominated by chewing herbivores compared to less polluted natural areas.”
The UC Davis researchers wrote that their results “demonstrate that highly polluted, highway-adjacent habitats are associated with shifts in plant-insect interactions and that this topic may be ripe for future research into how roadside environments may affect insect conservation and plant performance in cities.”
Their study highlights the importance of planting decisions along major roadways. “The concept of ‘right tree, right place' has long stated that tree selection should be aimed at maximizing the performance in urban areas,” they wrote. “Quercus lobata and other species that are highly susceptible to herbivores may provide ecosystem services sub-optimally along highways, and may have shorter lifespans due to chronic damage promoted by on-road pollution trees.”
“Identifying tree species that are robust to pollution, and resistant to insects that may benefit from pollution, could be a novel consideration in planting decisions. This consideration may become even more important as many cities become drier and hotter, and insect herbivores have disproportionate impacts on tree growth. Because city-owned trees are planted and cannot themselves evolve in response to climate change, we may be required to develop new cultivars to promote robust trees along roadways.”
- Author: Kathy Keatley Garvey
The Labudio is located in Room 128 of the Environmental Horticulture Building, 200 Arboretum Drive, UC Davis.
The public is invited. "Please bring a t-shirt if you'd like to screen print one of our designs on it, too," they said. "Kids can make shirts, too. The event will be indoor/outdoor, so please dress accordingly." No reservations are necessary.
"The students were each assigned an insect species in decline or moving about the planet and becoming invasive in new habitats," said Meineke, an urban landscape entomologist and assistant professor. "The insects students were assigned are among those most impacted by humans, and students were given an opportunity to re-envision how people might interact more gently and intentionally with insects, our small, yet consequential co-inhabitants."
"We are so proud of how the students interacted with this topic," Meineke said. "They were charged with researching their insects and turning that research into designs that could be screen printed on watercolor paper, ceramic tiles to be installed in Briggs 122, and fabric. Their designs are nothing short of spectacular!"
UC Davis distinguished professor Diane Ullman, an artist and entomologist, "helped immensely," said Meineke, adding that she wasn't "an official co-teacher but she essentially acted as one."
Meineke was recently named one of the 12 UC Davis recipients of the prestigious Hellman Fellowships, an annual program supporting the research of early-career faculty. Her project, “Assessing Preservation of Chemical Compounds in Pressed Plants," focuses on whether herbarium specimens collected over hundreds of years harbor chemical compounds that reveal mechanisms responsible for changing insect-plant interactions.
Meineke was among the scholars and artists who helped spearhead the newly created Harvard Museum of Natural History's “In Search of Thoreau's Flowers: An Exploration of Change and Loss," hailed as an examination of the natural world and climate change at the intersections of science, art and history. She helped launch the project in 2017 when she was a postdoctoral fellow at the Harvard University Herbaria. The 648 plant specimens that Henry David Thoreau donated to the museum form the foundation of the exhibit. It opened to the public May 14.
A native of Greenville, N.C., Meineke joined the UC Davis Department of Entomology and Nematology on March 1, 2020, from the Harvard University Herbaria. As a National Science Foundation postdoctoral fellow, she studied how urbanization and climate change have affected plant-insect relationships worldwide over the past 100-plus years.
She received her bachelor of science degree in environmental science, with a minor in biology, in 2008 from the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill. She obtained her doctorate in entomology in 2016 from North Carolina State University.
Professor Ullman, a celebrated teacher, artist and researcher, is the 2014 recipient of the Entomological Society of America (ESA) National Excellence in Teaching Award and the UC Davis Academic Senate's 2022 Distinguished Teaching Award for undergraduate teaching. She is a fellow of both the American Association for the Advancement of Science (2014) and the ESA (2011).
When she was singled out for the UC Davis Academic Senate Award, her nominators praised her as providing "superb teaching and mentoring for many years, not only in the Department of Entomology and Nematology but as a leader in the Science and Society program. She has brought art-science fusion alive in innovative ways. Her nominees and students rave about her deep dedication, care, and knowledge in all teaching interactions, as well as her overall commitment to student success. One student nominee summed it up: "My experience in her course last spring was one that lifted my spirits, enriched my education, and strengthened my love for art and science during a time when it was difficult to feel positive about anything.”
Ullman's research encompasses insect/virus/plant interactions and development of management strategies for insect-transmitted plant pathogens. She has worked with many insect vector species (thrips, aphids, whiteflies, leafhoppers, mealybugs) and the plant pathogens they transmit, including viruses, phytoplasma and bacteria.
One of her latest art projects--with colleagues, UC Davis students and community members--is the Sonoran Dreams Art Project in the Garden Apartments of the University Retirement Community, Davis. Handmade ceramic tiles depicting the flora, fauna and symbols of the Sonoran Desert surround the elevator.
Ullman received her bachelor of science degree in horticulture from the University of Arizona and her doctorate in entomology from UC Davis in 1985. She joined the UC Davis faculty in 1991 after serving as an associate professor of entomology at the University of Hawaii. Her credentials include: chair of the UC Davis Department of Entomology, 2004-2005; associate dean for undergraduate academic programs for the College of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences, 2005 to 2014; and co-founder and co-director of the UC Davis Art/Science Fusion Program, launched in September 2006.
