- Author: Kathy Keatley Garvey
She will speak on "Interdisciplinary Collaborations in Pest Management Research--My Alfalfa Weevil Stories" in a seminar hosted by agricultural entomologist Ian Grettenberger, assistant professor, UC Davis Department of Entomology and Nematology.
This the first in a series of the winter seminars to take place on Wednesdays at 4:10 p.m., beginning Jan. 5 and continuing through March 9, announced seminar coordinator and nematologist Shahid Siddique, assistant professor. Both in-person and virtual seminars will be broadcast via Zoom at https://ucdavis.zoom.us/j/
"Alfalfa weevil was first found in the Western United States in the early 1900s and continues to be a particularly problematic pest in the Western United States," Jabbour says in her abstract. "I will share current research to improve sustainability of alfalfa weevil management, much of which centers on timing –both harvest timing and pesticide spray timing. I will talk about my favorite things: biological control, interdisciplinarity, farmer perspectives, and new ideas from grad students."
Jabbour says her overall research "is to utilize ecological interactions to design sustainable agricultural systems. Specifically, I study 1) pest management in cropping systems, 2) the effect of biodiversity and habitat heterogeneity on ecosystem services, and 3) the role of farmer decision-making in agricultural management, in collaboration with social scientists. Here in Wyoming, I plan to develop research projects in these areas in relevant field crop and forage systems, in collaboration with faculty and Extension professionals here at the University and with others in the region."
Jabbour holds a bachelor of science degree (2003) from the Rochester Institute of Technology and a doctorate from Pennsylvania State University, where she focused on the biological pest control of insects. She served as a postdoctoral scholar from 2009 to 2010 at Washington State University, where "I studied the effects of pathogen diversity on host mortality of the Colorado potato beetle, gaining perspective in both biodiversity-ecosystem functioning research and the practical realities of 'big ag' potato fields." She completed a second post-doctoral position at the University of Maine, where she engaged in "balanced teaching and research responsibilities."
Jabbour's research at the University of Maine, in collaboration with social scientists and her supervisor Eric Gallandt, characterized New England organic farmer weed management philosophies, she wrote on her website. "This project was a great opportunity for me to incorporate the human dimension of pest management into my ecological research. I also collaborated with MS student Sonja Birthisel to quantify sources of variation of weed seed predation rates in a diverse Maine agricultural landscape. I particularly appreciate learning from the extensive experience of farmers, and I am passionate about supporting local food systems. I enjoy exploring the dramatic landscapes of the West, and feel as if I have just barely begun traveling around the big wondrous expanse that is my new home in Wyoming-- lots of ground to cover! In my spare time, I enjoy hiking, road trips, cooking, yoga, trying to be a runner again, and reading all sorts of things."
The remainder of the seminars in January are:
Jan. 12, 2022
Sylvia Fischer, Mosquito Study Group, Department of Ecology, Genetics and Evolution, Universidad de Buenos Aires
Virtual seminar
Title: "Recent Expansion of Aedes aegypti Distribution: Are the Populations Adapting to Colder Climate Regions?"
Host: Erin "Taylor Kelly, doctoral student in the Geoffrey Attardo lab, UC Davis Department of Entomology and Nematology
Jan. 19, 2022
Megan Meuti, assistant professor, Department of Entomology, The Ohio State University
Virtual seminar
Title: "How Do Mosquitoes Correctly Interpret Environmental Signals into Complex Seasonal Responses?"
Host: Geoffrey Attardo, assistant professor, UC Davis Department of Entomology and Nematology
Jan. 19, 2022
Megan Meuti, assistant professor, Department of Entomology, The Ohio State University
Virtual seminar
Title: "How Do Mosquitoes Correctly Interpret Environmental Signals into Complex Seasonal Responses?"
Host: Geoffrey Attardo, assistant professor, UC Davis Department of Entomology and Nematology
Jan. 26, 2022
Tobin Hammer, postdoctoral researcher, University of Texas, Austin (he will start as an assistant professor in UC Irvine's Ecology and Evolutionary Biology Department in January 2022)
In-person seminar
Title: "Diversity and Dynamism in Social Bee Microbiomes"
Host: Rachel Vannette, associate professor, UC Davis Department of Entomology and Nematology
See schedule for complete list of winter quarter seminars. For technical issues, Siddique may be reached at ssiddique@ucdavis.edu.
- Author: Kathy Keatley Garvey
Both in-person and virtual seminars will be broadcast via Zoom at https://ucdavis.zoom.us/j/
The schedule:
Jan. 5, 2022
Randa Jabbour, associate professor, agroecology, University of Wyoming
Virtual seminar
Title: "Interdisciplinary Collaborations in Pest Management Research--My Alfalfa Weevil Stories"
Host: Ian Grettenberger, assistant professor, UC Davis Department of Entomology and Nematology
Jan. 12, 2022
Sylvia Fischer, Mosquito Study Group, Department of Ecology, Genetics and Evolution, Universidad de Buenos Aires
Virtual seminar
Title: "Recent Expansion of Aedes aegypti Distribution: Are the Populations Adapting to Colder Climate Regions?"
Host: Erin "Taylor Kelly, doctoral student in the Geoffrey Attardo lab, UC Davis Department of Entomology and Nematology
Jan. 19, 2022
Megan Meuti, assistant professor, Department of Entomology, The Ohio State University
Virtual seminar
Title: "How Do Mosquitoes Correctly Interpret Environmental Signals into Complex Seasonal Responses?"
Host: Geoffrey Attardo, assistant professor, UC Davis Department of Entomology and Nematology
Tobin Hammer, postdoctoral researcher, University of Texas, Austin (he will start as an assistant professor in UC Irvine's Ecology and Evolutionary Biology Department in January 2022)
In-person seminar
Title: "Diversity and Dynamism in Social Bee Microbiomes"
Host: Rachel Vannette, associate professor, UC Davis Department of Entomology and Nematology
Feb. 2, 2022
Simon Niels Groen, assistant professor, Department of Nematology, UC Riverside
In-person seminar
Title: "Plant Toxins and the Evolution of Host-Parasite Interactions"
Host: Shahid Siddique, assistant professor, UC Davis Department of Entomology and Nematology
Feb. 9, 2022
Vince D'Amico, research entomologist, Communities and Landscapes of the Urban Northwest, U.S. Department of Agriculture
In-person seminar
Title: "Monitoring and Ecological Research in the Forests of the BosWash Megalopolis"
Host: Geoffrey Attardo, assistant professor, UC Davis Department of Entomology and Nematology
Feb. 16, 2022
Michelle Heck, adjunct associate professor and research molecular biologist, Boyce Thompson Institute, Ithaca, N.Y.
Virtual seminar
Title: Topic to be announced (Her program uses a combination of molecular, genetic, and proteomics approaches to understand how insects transmit plant pathogens and how pathogens manipulate host plants to ensure replication and transmission. A second area of research is the development of new pest management tools to enhance cultural control and to provide new management strategies for insect vector-borne diseases in plants)
Host: Tiffany Lowe-Power, assistant professor, UC Davis Department of Plant Pathology
Feb. 23, 2022
Adam Steinbrenner, assistant professor, Department of Biology, University of Washington
In-person seminar
Title: "Plant Immune Recognition of Insect Herbivores"
Host: Shahid Siddique, assistant professor, UC Davis Department of Entomology and Nematology
March 2, 2022
Erica Henry, postdoctoral scholar, conservation biology, North Carolina State University
In-person seminar
Title: "Insect Conservation in an Uncertain Future"
Host: Emily Meineke, assistant professor, UC Davis Department of Entomology and Nematology
March 9, 2022
Melissa Mitchum, professor, plant nematology, University of Georgia
Virtual seminar
Title: "The Tricks Phytonematodes Use to Modulate Plant Development"
Host: Shahid Siddique, assistant professor, UC Davis Department of Entomology and Nematology
For any Zoom technical issues, Siddique may be reached at ssiddique@ucdavis.edu.
- Author: Kathy Keatley Garvey
"Ascaroside pheromones stimulate dispersal, a key nematode behavior to find a new food source," Kaplan says in her abstract. "For entomopathogenic nematodes (EPNs), the new food source is insects. The talk will focus on understanding the interaction between pheromone signals, dispersal and foraging strategies, and practical applications to improve the EPN's efficacy as biocontrol agents."
The seminar takes place in 122 Briggs Hall. The Zoom link: https://ucdavis.zoom.us/j/99515291076.
Seminar coordinator Shahid Siddique, a nematologist and assistant professor, Department of Entomology and Nematology, will introduce her. She will share "the development of Pheronym and the significance of its innovations to the advancement of agricultural technology," he said.
Pheronym develops nontoxic solutions for plant protection. "We use pheromones to control the behavior and development of microscopic roundworms called nematodes," the organization explains on its website. The pheromones are water soluble, which makes them suitable for seed treatment."
Kaplan related that she co-founded Pheronym to bring nematode pheromone technology to the market and to provide effective, non-toxic pest control for farmers and gardeners.
Kaplan, who grew up on a family farm in Turkey--a 40-acres hazelnut orchard--holds a doctorate in plant molecular and cell biology from the University of Florida and did postdoctoral training in natural product chemistry with a focus on isolating biologically active compounds. She worked as a scientist at NASA, the National Magnetic Field Laboratory. and the U.S. Department of Agriculture's Agricultural Research Service.
She discovered the first sex pheromone of the nematode Caenorhabditis elegans, publishing her work in Nature. She went on to discover pheromones that regulate other behaviors in both parasitic and beneficial nematodes. Kaplan discovered the first sex pheromone of the nematode Caenorhabditis elegans, publishing her work in Nature. She went on to discover pheromones that regulate other behaviors in both parasitic and beneficial nematodes. She conducted the first agricultural biocontrol experiment in space at the International Space Station in 2020.
Kaplan describes her work in her Linked-In article, A Technical Founder's Journey: An Ag-Biotech Startup CEO with a Vision:
"Being a scientist, I often have to convince people that I am the right CEO for Pheronym, an ag-biotech startup. Frequently I hear, 'You would make a great CSO.' I know I would be a great CSO, but I am the only one who can be Pheronym's CEO."
"Let's start with 'What does a startup CEO do?' Everyone knows that the CEO is the person in charge, but what does that mean for a small startup? Startup CEO's can play very different roles depending on the type, stage, and founding team. For example, digital healthcare, digital agriculture, biotechnology, consumer-facing and B2B startups all have different needs. Furthermore, a startup is expected to create something visionary that will transform the industry or create some new and novel technology. So the startup needs a CEO with a vision."
"It's always been my belief I had the vision required. In 2005, when I accepted the position to identify the model nematode's (Caenorhabditis elegans) sex pheromone, I knew how these discoveries could revolutionize agricultural pest control for nematodes. Soon after we published the work in Nature (2008), the USDA-ARS recruited me to apply this discovery to control agriculturally important nematodes. After all, pheromones had been used to control insects successfully for decades. Why not for nematodes? When I was at the USDA, I won the 2011 American Phytopathological Society Schroth Faces of the Future, Nematology Award for my vision of using pheromones to control parasitic nematodes. Then, in 2014, my article on the future of the nematode pheromone field won an essay contest sponsored by the Genetics Society of America and was published in the GSA Reporter. When I started thinking about filing patents and commercializing my discoveries, I realized that I was the only one with the knowledge, passion, and vision to make it happen." (See more.)
The Department of Entomology and Nematology seminars--some are virtual and some are in-person--are held at 4:10 p.m. on Wednesdays. Coordinator Shahid Siddique may be reached at ssiddique@ucdavis.edu for any technical issues in the Zoom seminars.
Resources:
- Women in Ag-Tech: Fatma Kaplan, Scientist-Turned-Entrepreneur Uses Pheromones to Tackle Global Food Crisis
- Women Innovators Encourage Others to Step Up as Role Models in Agriculture
- Ag-Tech Startup Gets Results from Space Nematode Experiment
- Author: Kathy Keatley Garvey
The seminar, part of the UC Davis Department of Entomology and Nematology's weekly fall seminars, begins at 4:10 p.m. The Zoom link: http://ucdavis.zoom.us/j/99515291076.
"Since its 2008 detection in North America, management of the invasive Drosophila suzukii has primarily relied on calendar insecticide applications, creating a scenario where selection pressure from frequent insecticide
applications could result in development of insecticide resistance," Ganjisaffar says in her abstract.
"Field-derived resistance to spinosad has already been documented in California caneberry production, and there is significant concern among berry and cherry growers for development of resistance to other insecticides," she wrote. "This seminar will present the status of our ongoing studies to assess development and extent of insecticide resistance in California D. suzukii populations, seasonal changes in resistance, stability of resistance and potential cross-resistance between chemical classes, as well as our work on the behavioral control of D. suzukii and evaluating the efficacy of some Attract-and-Kill products."
Ganjisaffar joined the Zalom lab in August 2020 from UC Riverside where she served as a postdoctoral scholar after receiving her doctorate in entomology there in 2016. She was a member of the UC Riverside team that won second place in theESA's Linnaean Games (now Entomology Games). She received a University of California Dean's Distinguished fellowship in 2011.
Zalom, a UC Davis distinguished professor of entomology, is a past president of the Entomological Society of America (ESA) and was recently named Honorary Member of ESA, the organization's highest honor.
Ganjisaffar holds a bachelor's degree in agricultural engineering/plant protection (2006) from the University of Tehran, Tehran, Iran, and a master's degree in agricultural entomology (2009) from Tarbiat Modares University, Tehran.
Her most recent publications include:
- Life History Evaluation of Ooencyrtus lucidus, a Newly Described Egg Parasitoid of Bagrada hilaris
Journal, Insects, May 9, 2020 - Lethal and Sub-Lethal Effects of Insecticides on the Pink Hibiscus Mealybug, Maconellicoccus hirsutus (Hemiptera: Pseudococcidae)
Journal, Insects, - Mutual interference between adult females of Galendromus flumenis (Acari: Phytoseiidae) feeding on eggs of Banks grass mite decreases predation efficiency and increases emigration rate
Experimental and Applied Acarology,
The UC Davis Department of Entomology and Nematology seminars are held on Wednesdays at 4:10 p.m. All in-person seminars are held in 122 Briggs Hall, while the virtual seminars are broadcast on Zoom. For more information, contact coordinator Shahid Siddique, nematologist and assistant professor, at ssiddique@ucdavis.edu.
- Author: Kathy Keatley Garvey
Herren will speak at 4:10 p.m. in 122 Briggs Hall, announced seminar coordinator Shahid Siddique, who will host the speaker. Many of the fall seminars are virtual, but this will be an in-person lecture. Plans are to record it for later viewing.
"It's an honor to have Hans speak in our seminar series," said Siddique, a nematologist and assistant professor. "Hans is well respected for conceiving and implementing a highly successful biological control program against mealybug and green mites that might have averted one of Africa‘s worst food crisises. He was awarded the World Food Prize for that achievement in 1995."
Herren, a native of Switzerland and an entomologist by training, describes himself as "active in international development, with an emphasis on policy design to meet the (United Nations) Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).”
Herren writes in his abstract: “The food system transformation has been of special interest given my active participation on the International Panel of Experts in Food System (IPES-Food), and its potential to contribute significantly to meet the set targets. Agroecology is the most promising and realistic approach to a fair and truly sustainable food system.”
The Millennium Institute, headquartered in Washington, D.C., and founded in 1983, is a nonprofit, non-governmental organization "passionate about improving the welfare of individuals on every continent by working with stakeholders to meet the challenges of sustainable development."
"For this achievement, he was the first Swiss to receive the World Food Prize in 1995. Hans advocates for holistic and multi-stakeholder approaches to development planning that take cognizance of the three dimensions of sustainability, and result from a shared vision of sustainability by all the key actors. Hans holds numerous awards that recognize his distinguished and continuing achievements in original research and advocacy. These include the Right Livelihood Award, Tyler Prize for Environmental Achievement, Brandenberger Preis, and the Kilby Award. Hans earned his PhD at the Federal Institute of Technology,Zurich, and completed post-doctoral research at University of California, Berkeley. He is also the founder of Biovision Foundation, Switzerland. He is a member of the World Future Council since 2018." (See his complete bioography on Wikipedia.)
The Millennium Institute, founded in 1983 and headquartered in Washington, D.C., is a nonprofit, non-governmental organization described as "passionate about improving the welfare of individuals on every continent by working with stakeholders to meet the challenges of sustainable development."
"We help decision makers apply systems thinking to create a more sustainable, equitable, and peaceful global society," according to the organization's Linked In site. "Our unique approach maps integrated policy options across the sustainability framework for environmental, social and economic benefits to society. We have assisted more than 40 nations and regional groups through the process of identifying goals and strategies that offer all people access to food, water, health care, education, and equal opportunities for women and men. We have assisted more than 40 nations and regional groups through the process of identifying goals and strategies that offer all people access to food, water, health care, education, and equal opportunities for women and men."
In September 2015, the United Nations General Assembly adopted the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development that includes 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Building on the principle of “leaving no one behind,” the new agenda emphasizes a holistic approach to achieving sustainable development for all.
The SDGs:
GOAL 3: Good Health and Well-being
GOAL 6: Clean Water and Sanitation
GOAL 7: Affordable and Clean Energy
GOAL 8: Decent Work and Economic Growth
GOAL 9: Industry, Innovation and Infrastructure
GOAL 11: Sustainable Cities and Communities
GOAL 12: Responsible Consumption and Production
GOAL 16: Peace and Justice Strong Institutions
GOAL 17: Partnerships to achieve the Goal
The UC Davis Department of Entomology and Nematology seminars are held on Wednesdays at 4:10 p.m. All in-person seminars are held in 122 Briggs Hall, while the virtual seminars are broadcast on Zoom. For more information, contact Siddique at ssiddique@ucdavis.edu.
