- Author: Kathy Keatley Garvey
The students, along with the three winners in the Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences category, received their awards at a recent ceremony in the UC Davis Shields Library Courtyard.
A paper written by Maram Saada, a student in a longevity class taught by UC Davis distinguished professor James R. Carey, won first place in the SEM category and a $1000 prize. Saada's research paper, “Huntington's Disease: Etiology, Research Models and Treatment,” is now online. It will be published in eScholarship, an open-access scholarly publishing service affiliated with the University of California.
Second place in the SEM category went to Jocelyn Chu, a student in a medical entomology class taught by assistant professor Geoffrey Attardo, for her paper, “Vector-borne Disease Control Plan for West Nile Virus in California.” She received $750.
Two of Carey's students, Jessica Hevener and David Vo, tied for third place in the SEM category. Hevener, of Carey's longevity class, submitted her paper on “The Impact of Maternal Obesity on Maternal and Offspring Health,” while Vo, enrolled in a special study class for advanced undergraduates, entered his paper on “Surviving the Cold: How Circumpolar Peoples Have Adapted to the Extreme Conditions of the Arctic Entomology." They shared the third-prize award of $500.
The Lang Prize competition recognizes students who make exceptional use of library resources and services — such as primary source materials and special collections, online databases and journal articles; inter-library loan services, or consulting with a librarian, according to Alesia McManus, chair of the Lang Prize for Undergraduate Information Research and head of student services, UC Davis Shields Library.
In a earlier news release, McManus announced that “It was a strong pool of applications, with 17 out of the 21 applications meeting the average 39.99 score threshold for being considered for an award." The Lang Prize honors the legacy of professor emeritus and plant biologist Norma Lang, 1931-2015, a member of the faculty from 1963 to 1991.
UC Davis Distinguished Professor James R. Carey. Carey, a member of the UC Davis entomology faculty since 1980, instructs undergraduates in his classes--which usually exceed 200 students--how to research topics, use style sheets, and structure their papers. He has produced 13 videos on how to research and write a research paper, along with a new video on the use of style sheets.
Highly honored by his peers for his teaching expertise, Carey received the Entomological Society of America's 2015 Distinguished Teaching Award; a 2018 Robert Foster Cherry Award from Baylor University, which presents international teaching awards; and the UC Davis Academic Senate's 2014 Distinguished Teaching Award, an honor given to internationally recognized professors who excel at teaching.
Carey is considered the preeminent global authority on arthropod demography. He directed the multidisciplinary, 11-institution, 20-scientist program, “Biodemographic Determinants of Lifespan,” which garnered more than $10 million in funding from the National Institute on Aging from 2003 to 2013.
Assistant Professor Geoffrey Attardo. UC Davis medical entomologist-geneticist Geoffrey Attardo, who joined the UC Davis Department of Entomology and Nematology in 2017 from the Yale School of Public Health's Department of Epidemiology of Microbial Diseases, is a global expert on vectorborne diseases, and renowned for his groundbreaking work on tsetse flies. The Attardo lab monitors the dynamics of vector insects at the levels of physiology, population genetics and environmental interactions.
Attardo, who won the 2022 Medical, Urban, and Veterinary Entomology (MUVE) Award from the Pacific Branch, Entomological Society of America, “excels not only as a researcher, but as a teacher, mentor, scientific illustrator, macro photographer,videographer and science communicator,” said UC Davis distinguished professor Bruce Hammock in his letter of nomination for the MUVE Award. Attardo drew praise for his "highly effective teaching style in helping students build critical thinking skills and confidence."
The 2022 winners of the Lang Prizes in the Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences category are Joyce Do, Annie Miyadi, and Sarah Grimes. (See more on Shields Library website.)


- Author: Kathy Keatley Garvey
- Medical entomologist-geneticist Geoffrey Attardo, assistant professor, will receive the Medical, Urban, and Veterinary Entomology Award
- Doctoral student Erin Taylor Kelly of the Geoffrey Attardo laboratory will receive the Student Leadership Award
- Undergraduate student Gwendolyn "Gwen" Erdosh of the Louie Yang lab will receive the inaugural Dr. Stephen Garczynski Undergraduate Research Scholarship
- The team of doctoral candidate Zachary Griebenow of the Phil Ward lab, captain; doctoral candidate Jill Oberski of the Ward lab; doctoral student Erin “Taylor” Kelly of the Geoffrey Attardo lab; and doctoral student Madison “Madi” Hendrick of the Ian Grettenberger lab will compete in the Entomology Games.
The awards luncheon is at 12:15, April 12.
Geoffrey Attardo is a global expert on vectorborne diseases, and renowned for his groundbreaking work on tsetse flies. Attardo, who joined the UC Davis Department of Entomology andNematology in 2017 from the Yale School of Public Health's Department of Epidemiology of Microbial Diseases, “excels not only as a researcher, but as a teacher, mentor, scientific illustrator, macro photographer,videographer and science communicator,” said UC Davis distinguished professor Bruce Hammock in his letter of nomination. (See news story)
Entomology Games. The Entomology Games is a lively question-and-answer, college bowl-style competition on entomological facts played between university-sponsored student teams. It was formerly known as the Linnaean Games. The preliminary round is from 5 to 6 p.m., April 10. Plans are to hold three rounds with questions from each of the 10 categories: Biological Control, Behavior and Ecology, Economic and Applied Entomology, Medical-Urban-Veterinary Entomology, Morphology and Physiology, Biochemistry and Toxicology, Systematics and Evolution, Integrated Pest Management and Plant-Insect Interactions, History of Entomology, and Entomology in Popular Culture. (See UC Davis news story)
The final round is from 8 to 10 p.m., April 11. Both the championship team and the runner-up team will represent PBESA at the Entomological Society of America (ESA) meeting, Nov. 13-16 in Vancouver, British Columbia. Last year's national champion was the University of Hawaii, which edged Texas A&M University.
UC Davis has scored three national championships since 2015. In 2018, the University of California team won the national championship, defeating Texas A&M. The team included captain Ralph Washington Jr., then a UC Berkeley graduate student with a bachelor's degree in entomology from UC Davis; doctoral students Brendon Boudinot, Jill Oberski and Zachary Griebenow of the Phil Ward lab, and doctoral student Emily Bick of the Christian Nansen lab.
UC Davis won the national competition in both 2016 and 2015, defeating the University of Georgia in 2016, and the University of Florida in 2015.
A number of other UC Davis faculty and students will participate in the PBESA meeting. (See schedule.)
PBESA encompasses 11 Western states, parts of Canada and Mexico and several U.S. territories.
- In the United States: Alaska, Arizona, California, Hawai'i, Idaho, Montana, Nevada, Oregon, Utah, Washington, Wyoming
- U.S. Territories: American Samoa, the Federated States of Micronesia, Guam, Johnston Atoll, Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands, Midway Islands, Wake Island
- In Canada: Alberta, British Columbia, Northwest Territories, Saskatchewan, Yukon
- In Mexico: Baja California, Baja California Sur, Sinaloa, Sonora

- Author: Kathy Keatley Garvey
UC Davis received three awards:
- Medical entomologist-geneticist Geoffrey Attardo received the Medical, Urban, and Veterinary Entomology Award. (See news story)
- Doctoral student Erin Taylor Kelly of the Attardo lab won the Student Leadership Award (See news story)
- Undergraduate entomology student Gwen Erdosh of the Louie Yang lab and a member of the Research Scholars Program in Insect Biology, won the inaugural Dr. Stephen Garczynski Undergraduate Research Scholarship (See news story)
The branch encompasses 11 Western states, parts of Canada and Mexico and several U.S. territories.
In the United States: Alaska, Arizona, California, Hawai'i, Idaho, Montana, Nevada, Oregon, Utah, Washington, Wyoming
U.S. Territories: American Samoa, the Federated States of Micronesia, Guam, Johnston Atoll, Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands, Midway Islands, Wake Island
In Canada: Alberta, British Columbia, Northwest Territories, Saskatchewan, Yukon
In Mexico: Baja California, Baja California Sur, Sinaloa, Sonora
Congratulations to all the winners!



- Author: Kathy Keatley Garvey
Kelly will be honored at an awards luncheon during the annual PBESA meeting, set April 10-13 in Santa Rosa. The branch encompasses 11 Western states, parts of Canada and Mexico and several U.S. territories.
Kelly, who joined the Attardo lab in 2018, is the two-term president of the UC Davis Equity in STEM and Entrepreneurship (ESTEME) and serves as the vice president of the Entomology Graduate Student Association (EGSA).
"She excels in leadership, as well as in research, academics and public service," wrote Steve Nadler, professor and chair, UC Davis Department of Entomology and Nematology, in his letter of nomination. Known as Taylor, she "is an important role model, sharing her enthusiasm for entomology and other sciences with the public, and eagerly supporting undergraduate students and others on their paths to scientific careers."
Taylor drew strong support from doctoral candidate Jill Oberski, president of EGSA and an active member of ESTEME; ESTEME past president Alexus Roberts, and ESTEME colleague Sophie Zhu. The organization supports greater equity and inclusion in science, helping help low-income, underrepresented, non-traditional students face and overcome the overwhelming barriers in reaching their goals. They also organize and coordinate activities for K-12 students and undergraduates, while also providing professional development events for fellow members.
Helping Fellow Graduate Students. Taylor's leadership activities in EGSA include collaborating with her peers to provide resources to support incoming students. Each year she collects information about awards they can apply for, and the courses that need teaching assistants. "She surveys students on their cost-of-living needs, and works with our administration to secure the assistance they need," wrote Nadler. "She continually shares information related to living in Davis and thriving in graduate school." Since 2019, Kelly has helped the EGSA coordinate the department's UC Davis Picnic Day activities, leading the EGSA committee in 2020-21. She also serves on the UC Davis Graduate Admissions Committee.
Taylor's leadership activities in EGSA include collaborating with her EGSA peers to provide resources to support incoming students. Each year she collects information about awards they can apply for, and the courses that need teaching assistants. "She surveys students on their cost-of-living needs, and works with our administration to secure the assistance they need," wrote Nadler. "She continually shares information related to living in Davis and thriving in graduate school." In addition, she is the EGSA coordinator of the department's UC Davis Picnic Day activities and serves on the UC Davis Graduate Admissions Committee.
Kelly won a coveted first-place award at the Entomological Society of America (ESA) meeting last November with her poster, “Metabolic Snapshot: Using Metabolomics to Compare Near-Wild and Colonized Aedes aegypti.” She has been instrumental in teaching the graduate student offering of ENT 010 (Natural History of Insects).
Her major professor, medical entomologist and geneticist Geoffrey Attardo, praises her strong leadership, her excellence as a doctoral student and her strong leadership role in his lab. "She is dedicated, self-motivated, compassionate, enthusiastic, confident, and demonstrates deep-rooted integrity in how she goes about her work and her interactions with colleagues and students," Attardo wrote in his letter of recommendation. "Within the lab, Taylor plays a strong leadership role, critical to the mentorship of undergraduate researchers who join the lab. Taylor greatly helps assist students with training in experimental design and execution; reading and interpretation of the scientific literature; training in data analysis; and scientific writing. Her mentorship manifested in the publication of a first- author manuscript (van Schoor et al.) by a talented undergraduate researcher in my group. The work explores the relationship between larval dietary composition and adult outcomes in Aedes aegypti mosquitoes. Taylor is always willing to help lab members with their projects and plays a key role in maintaining the lab's welcoming atmosphere and research successes."
People-Motivated. Forensic entomologist Robert Kimsey, the faculty chair of the department's Picnic Day activities, says that "Taylor ranks among the most people-motivated graduate students I have had the pleasure to work with.”
“Setting aside for the moment Taylor's top flight academic background and qualifications, I have found her to be the ideal collaborator, very cooperative, consistently cheerful, perfectly dependable, and delightful to work with,” Kimsey related. “Competition may or may not select for exceptional researchers, but often selects for difficult characters. Taylor almost uniquely combines high productivity and intense curiosity with a delightful personality, an ideal combination to have in a program in which people must survive with each other. She has been an excellent graduate student, very gregarious, conscientious, with an exceptional ability to work with persons of any sort. She ranks among the most people-motivated graduate students I have had the pleasure to work with.”
UC Davis medical entomologist Anthony Cornel, who leads the Mosquito Control Research Laboratory in Parlier, works with Taylor on insecticide resistance in mosquitoes. “Taylor's PhD project is challenging as she endeavors to tease apart the biochemical and genetic factors that cause resistance to some commonly used insecticides to control Aedes aegypti," Cornel wrote. "Ae. aegypti is considered the second most dangerous insect worldwide because of its role in transmission of dengue, yellow fever, Zika and Chikungunya viruses which cause considerable morbidity and mortality. Hence, it is an important organism to study especially to eventually improve measures to control this mosquito."
Critical Thinker. "Taylor has done very well as a PhD student, so far, having 4 publications related to Ae. aegypti, 3 publications on webspinners (Embioptera) and 2 publications related to astrobiology," Cornel related. “My interactions with her convince me that she is a critical thinker and questions everything before undertaking tasks and experiments. These are attributes of a young scientist that will stand her in good stead to become excellent in academia. Almost all successful academics think out of the box and can work independently and collegially. She works with several other graduate and research assistants, and everyone likes her kindness, honesty, and helpfulness. Taylor's interests so far have mostly related to entomology systematics, genetics, and metabolomics. She has expressed her desire to remain as an entomologist beyond her graduate studies. She will always be a wonderful ambassador for entomology and her diverse knowledge of disciplines from systematics to behavior to protein and DNA studies makes her an excellent entomologist indeed.”
Taylor holds a bachelor of science degree in biology, with a minor in chemistry, from Santa Clara University, where she served as president of the campuswide Biology Club and led STEM projects, encouraging and guiding underrepresented students to seek careers in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM).
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- Author: Kathy Keatley Garvey
Attardo, who joined the UC Davis Department of Entomology and Nematology in 2017 from the Yale School of Public Health's Department of Epidemiology of Microbial Diseases, “excels not only as a researcher, but as a teacher, mentor, scientific illustrator, macro photographer, videographer and science communicator,” said UC Davis distinguished professor Bruce Hammock in his letter of nomination.
The Attardo lab monitors the dynamics of vector insects at the levels of physiology, population genetics and environmental interactions.
“I have known Geoff personally since July 2017 and I have always admired his scientific expertise, his unbridled enthusiasm, his many talents, and his scores of accomplishments,” wrote Hammock, who holds a joint appointment with the entomology department and the UC Davis Comprehensive Cancer Center. “He leads a highly successful research group that focuses on the molecular biology, biochemistry and physiology of medically important insects. His work, encompassing his research, teaching/mentorship, public service and outreach, brings international recognition to our department, college, university, the UC system and the entomological world.”
Eleven Western States. PBESA will recognize Attardo at an April 12 awards luncheon during its annual meeting, set April 10-13 in the Hyatt Regency Sonoma Wine Country. (link to https://www.entsoc.org/membership/branches/pacific/meeting.) PBESA is comprised of 11 Western states (Alaska, Arizona, California, Hawaii, Idaho, Montana, Nevada, Oregon, Utah, Washington, Wyoming), parts of Canada and Mexico, and seven U. S. territories. (Link to https://www.entsoc.org/membership/branches/pacific)
Attardo received a Ruth Kirshstein National Research Service Award from the National Institutes of Health (NIH) to study the molecular and biochemical physiology of tsetse fly lactation. His results “broadened our understanding of the physiology of live birth and lactation,” said Hammock, adding that his work “was the first to bring to bear state-of-the-art/high-throughput genetic, molecular and biochemical techniques.”
The co-principal investigator of a five-year NIH R01 grant, Attardo led a multinational collaboration resulting in the production, annotation and functional analysis of the first tsetse fly genome sequence.
Attardo is also a talented macro photographer and scientific illustrator, Hammock noted. Science editors featured his tsetse photo on their cover and used his illustrations throughout the article to show the tsetse's unique physiology. Attardo's work also drew high-profile coverage twice in the New York Times.
Attardo's current work focuses on defining the mating physiology of tsetse flies. He uses X-ray based MicroCT scanning to generate high resolution 3-dimensional images of tsetse reproductive tissues to understand the morphological specializations that enable live birth and lactation in tsetse flies. (See Attardo lab)
Attardo collaborated with the KQED (Public Broadcasting Service) “Deep Look” team to produce a YouTube video featuring macro footage and illustrations of tsetse live birth, blood feeding, and mating. The video, winner of a 2020 Northern California Emmy Award, has scored 6.2 million views, as of Jan. 4, 2022.
In a letter of support, molecular geneticist and physiologist Joanna Chiu, vice chair of the UC Davis Department of Entomology and Nematology, wrote in part:
“Dr. Attardo's internationally recognized research program on the physiology and genomics of insect vectors is creative, significant, and always of the highest quality and rigor. His research program seamlessly integrates fundamental mechanistic work and applied research to study physiology and behavior of insects that vector devastating human diseases. His teaching and mentoring program is innovative, inclusive, and he is fiercely supportive of his trainees and junior colleagues. Finally, he is passionate about outreach and extension because he understands the importance and value of transferring technologies from his lab to the field and extending information to benefit stakeholders locally and internationally.”
Very Effective Teaching Style. For the past two years, Chiu and Attardo have been co-teaching an undergraduate animal biology course on “Applications, Social and Ethical Issues in Animal Biology.” Chiu praised his ability to “engage the students” and his “very effective teaching style in helping students build critical thinking skills and confidence.”
Professor Immo Hansen of the Department of Biology, Institute of Applied Biosciences at New Mexico State University, echoed the praise. “Geoff is a prolific scholar with more than 55 publications and an h-index of 30 a value that one might expect for a full professor in the entomology field (my own h-index is 29). His early work on mosquito regulation of gene expression and nutritional signaling pathways as well as his later works on Tsetse genomics, nutrition, milk production, and symbiont interactions are highly original and represent significant increases in our knowledge in insect reproductive physiology.”
“He led the effort to sequence and annotate the genome of the Tsetse fly which resulted in a Science paper,” Hansen pointed out. “Geoff is a leading expert in the field of the molecular basis of insect reproduction (of tsetse flies) which is reflected by the large number of invited presentations he has given over the years. His truly innovative research in the field puts him at the forefront of researchers in his discipline.”