Shahid Siddique coordinates the Department of Entomology and Nematology seminars (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)

The seminars will take place at 4:10 p.m. on Wednesdays, beginning March 30 and continuing through June 1. The in-person seminars will be in 122 Briggs Hall. In-person seminars also will be presented virtually. 

The Zoom link:
https://ucdavis.zoom.us/j/99515291076.

Wednesday, March 30 (in-person and virtual)
Ziad Khouri, international graduate student
Bohart Museum of Entomology, UC Davis Department of Entomology and Nematology
Title: "Scoliid Wasp Evolution and Some Adventures with Posterior Predictive Simulation"
Host: Lynn Kimsey, director of the Bohart Museum of Entomology and UC Davis distinguished professor of entomology

Wednesday, April 6 (virtual)
Makedonka Mitreva, professor of medicine and genetics
Washington University School of Medicine, St. Louis
Title: "Multi-omics Applications in Helminth Research"
Host: Shahid Siddique, assistant professor, UC Davis Department of Entomology and Nematology

Wednesday, April 13 (in-person and virtual)
Tobin Hammer, assistant professor, ecology and evolutionary biology
UC Irvine
Title: “Mystery of the Missing Microbes: Why Do Bees Keep Losing Their Symbionts?” 
Host: Rachel Vannette, associate professor, UC Davis Department of Entomology and Nematology

Wednesday, April 20 (in-person and virtual)
Jared Ali, assistant professor of entomology
Pennsylvania State University, State College
Title: "Chemical Ecology of Plant Defense and Multi-trophic Interactions: Bad Bugs, Pungent Parasites and Toxic Travelers"
Host: Richard Karban, professor, UC Davis Department of Entomology and Nematology

Wednesday, April 27 (virtual)
Heather Bruce, postdoctoral researcher
Marine Biological Laboratory, University of California, Berkeley 
Title:  "Evolution and Development of Arthropod Appendages: Novelty and Homology"
Host: Xavier Zahnle, doctoral student, Jason Bond lab, UC Davis Department of Entomology and Nematology

Wednesday, May 4 (virtual) 
Scott McArt, assistant professor of entomology
Cornell University, Ithaca, N.Y.
Title: "Pesticide Risk to Pollinators: What We Know and What We Need to Know Better" 
Host: Lexie Nichole Martin, doctoral student, Rachel Vannette lab, UC Davis Department of Entomology and Nematology

Wednesday, May 11 (virtual)
Mostafa Zamanian, assistant professor, Department of Pathobiological Sciences
School of Veterinary Medicine, University of Wisconsin, Madison
Title: "Combing Target and Whole-Organism Paradigms for Anthelmintic Discovery"
Host: Shahid Siddique, assistant professor, UC Davis Department of Entomology and Nematology

Wednesday, May 18 (virtual)
Corlett Wood, assistant professor of biology
University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia
Title: "The Conflict Beneath your Feet: Indirect Effects in Plant-Symbiont Interactions"
Host: Shahid Siddique, assistant professor, UC Davis Department of Entomology and Nematology

Wednesday, May 25 (in-person and virtual)
James R. Carey, UC Davis distinguished professor 
UC Davis Department of Entomology and Nematology
Title: "The Conceptual Sweep of a Mathematical Discovery in Insect Demography: From Estimation of Medfly Population Age Structure to an Historical Analysis of U.S. Congress Incumbency Distributions, 1785-2000”
Host: Shahid Siddique, assistant professor, UC Davis Department of Entomology and Nematology

Wednesday, June 1 (in-person and virtual)
Isgouhi Kaloshian, Divisional Dean, Agricultural and Natural Resources
UC Riverside
Title: "Root-Knot Nematode Perception and Immune Signaling in Arabidopsis"
Host: Shahid Siddique, assistant professor, UC Davis Department of Entomology and Nematology

For any technical issues, reach coordinator Shahid Siddique at ssiddique@ucdavis.edu.

Ian Grettenberger, coordinator

All seminars will be held on Wednesdays at 4:10 p.m. (Pacific). Join the Zoom seminars by accessing the links below.

March 31 
Bob Peterson 
Montana State University, Land Resources and Environmental Sciences
Title: "Tigers in Yellowstone National Park: Insect Adaptations to Extreme Environments" 
Host: James R. Carey
See seminar at https://youtu.be/z85B0NlmizU

April 14
Swapna Priya Rajarapu
North Carolina State University, Department of Entomology and Plant Pathology
Title: "Insect-Plant Molecular Interactions: Stories from Invasive Insects to Disease Vectors"
Host: Diane Ullman
Zoom info

April 21 
Chris Hamilton
University of Idaho, Department of Entomology, Plant Pathology and Nematology
Title: "Understanding Aphonopelma Diversity Across the Madrean Pine-Oak Woodlands Hotspot by Integrating Western Science and Traditional Ecological Knowledge (TEK)"
Host: Jason Bond
Zoom info

April 28
Ellen Currano
University of Wyoming, Department of Geology and Geophysics
Title: "Ancient Bug-Bitten Leaves Reveal the Impacts of Climate and Plant Nutrients on Insect Herbivores"
Host: Emily Meineke
Zoom info

May 5 CANCELLED, DUE TO UNAVOIDABLE CIRCUMSTANCES
Gabe Zilnik
USDA-ARS Wapato, Wash., Temperate Tree Fruit and Vegetable Research
Title: "Improving Tobacco IPM with Machine Learning"
Host: Madi Hendrick
(Plans call for a future seminar)

May 12
Margarita López-Uribe
Pennsylvania State University, Department of Entomology
Title: "Ecoevolutionary Consequences of Crop Domestication on Plant-Pollinator Interactions"
Host: Rachel Vannette
Zoom info

May 19
Manuela Ramalho 
Cornell University
Title: "Exploring Connections Among Microbial Community, Ecology and Phylogenetic History of Ants" 
Host: Marshal McMunn
Zoom info

May 26
Javier Ceja Navarro
Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, Biological Systems and Engineering 
Title:  "The Complex Microbial Life and Interactions in Lilliputian Landscapes: from the Guts of Insects to the Rhizophere"
Host: Rachel Vannette 
Zoom info

June 2 
Alexandra Harmon-Threatt
University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, Department of Entomology 
Title: "Beyond Flowers; Examining the Role of Soils in Bee Conservation Efforts"
Host: Neal Williams 
Zoom info

For any questions, email Ian Grettenberger (imgrettenberger@ucdavis.edu).

Geoffrey Attardo

The seminars, coordinated by medical entomologist/assistant professor Geoffrey Attardo, will all take place at 4 p.m. every Wednesday in Room 122 of Briggs Hall, starting April 3 and ending June 5.

The schedule:

Wednesday, April 3
Alistair McGregor, Oxford Brookes University, England
Topic: "Differences in Tartan Underlie the Evolution of Male Genital Morphology Between Drosophila species"
Host: Geoffrey Attardo, assistant professor, UC Davis Department of Entomology and Nematology

Wednesday, April 10
Monique Rivera, UC Riverside
Topic: "How Agriculture Influences the Structure of Belowground Communities
Host: Elvira de Lange, postdoctoral fellow, UC Davis Department of Entomology and Nematology"

Wednesday, April 17
Bert Hölldobler, Arizona State University
Topic: "The Superorganism: Communication, Cooperation and Conflict in Ants Societies"
Host: Robert Page, distinguished emeritus professor, UC Davis Department of Entomology and Nematology and provost emeritus, Arizona State University

Wednesday, April 24
Sarah Stellwagen, University of Maryland Baltimore County (UMBC)
Topic: "Towards Spider Glue: From Material Properties to Sequencing the Longest Silk Family Gene" (Link)
Hosts: Hanna Kahl, doctoral student in entomology, and Jason Bond, the Evert and Marion Schlinger Endowed Chair in Insect Systematics, UC Davis Department of Entomology and Nematology

Wednesday, May 1
Andrew Nuss, University of Nevada, Reno
Topic: "Breaking Insecticide Resistance: Novel Strategies for Insect Pest Management"
Host: Geoffrey Attardo, assistant professor, UC Davis Department of Entomology and Nematology

Wednesday, May 8
Colin Orians, Tuffs University, Massachussetts
Topic: "Mitigating the Effects of Climate Change on Tea Agroecosystems in China"
Host: Rachel Vannette, assistant professor, UC Davis Department of Entomology and Nematology

Wednesday, May 15
Erin Wilson-Rankin, UC Riverside
Topic: "Ecological Factors Underlying Diet Shifts in California Pollinators"
Host: Rachel Vannette, assistant professor, UC Davis Department of Entomology and Nematology

Wednesday, May 22
James R. Carey, distinguished professor of entomology, UC Davis Department of Entomology and Nematology
Topic: "African Odyssey: Natural Wonders, Wildlife Adventures, and Indigenous Peoples"

Wednesday, May 29
Laurence Packer, York University, Canada
Topic: "Extreme Bees in Extreme Environments: Bee Biogeography in the Atacama Desert"
Hosts: Leslie Saul-Gershenz, associate director of research, Wild Energy Initiative, John Muir Institute of the Environment, UC Davis, and Steve Nadler, professor and chair, UC Davis Department of Entomology and Nematology

Wednesday, June 5
Immo Hansen, New Mexico State University
Topic: "Toward Implementation of Mosquito Sterile Insect Technique"
Host: Geoffrey Attardo, assistant professor, UC Davis Department of Entomology and Nematology

More information is available from Attardo at gmattardo@ucdavis.edu.

DAVIS--Monarch genetics expert Christine Merlin, assistant professor in the Department of Biology, Texas A&M University, is among the speakers booked for the spring seminar series hosted by the UC Davis Department of Entomology and Nematology.

Merlin will speak on "Monarch Butterfly Circadian Clock: from Clockwork Mechanisms to Control of Seasonal Migration." She initially was scheduled to present a seminar last June, but it was cancelled.

Here's the list of speakers for the spring seminars, scheduled from April 5 through June 7, as announced by coordinator Christian Nansen, assistant professor of entomology.  All seminars will be held on Wednesdays from 4:10 to 5 p.m. in 122 Briggs Hall. More information is pending.

Wednesday, April 5: Yan Zhu, UC Riverside
Topic: "Computational Entomology"
Host: Joanna Chiu, assistant professor and vice chair, UC Davis Department of Entomology and Nematology

Wednesday, April 12: Jay Rosenheim, professor of entomology, UC Davis Department of Entomology and Nematology
Topic: "Fitness Limiting Factors in an Uncertain World: A Case Study with Pollen Limitation" 
Host: Christian Nansen, assistant professor, UC Davis Department of Entomology and Nematology

Wednesday, April 19: Sharon Lawler, professor of entomology, UC Davis Department of Entomology and Nematology, and graduate student Erin Donley
Topic: "Effects of Water Hyacinth and Its Management on Aquatic Vertebrates"
Host: Christian Nansen, assistant professor, UC Davis Department of Entomology and Nematology

Wednesday, April 26: Stacy Hishinuma, doctoral candidate, UC Davis Department of Entomology and Nematology
Topic: "Pityophthorus juglandis, the Pathogenic Bungus, Geosmithia morbida, and Host Species in Thousand Cankers Disease in California"
Host: Steve Seybold, chemical ecologist/affiliate, UC Davis Department of Entomology and Nematology

Wednesday, May 3: Brian Bahder, assistant professor, University of Florida
Topic: "Insect Vectors of Phytoplasmas in Palms: Past and Present Research"
Host: Frank Zalom, distinguished professor, UC Davis Department of Entomology and Nematology

Wednesday, May 10: Fernanda Valdovinos, Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, University of Arizona
Topic: "Elucidating Ecological Complexity with Mechanistic Approaches to Networks"
Host: Steve Nadler, professor and chair, UC Davis Department of Entomology and Nematology

Wednesday, May 17: Jonathan Gershenzon, Max Planck Institute for Chemical Ecology
Topic: Pending
Host: Rick Karban, professor, UC Davis Department of Entomology and Nematology

Wednesday, May 24: Omar Akbari, assistant professor of entomology, UC Riverside
Topic: "Developing Gene Drives to Manipulate the Fate of Wild Populations"
Host: Joanna Chiu, assistant professor and vice chair, UC Davis Department of Entomology and Nematology

Wednesday, May 31: Christine Merlin, assistant professor, Texas A&M
Topic: "The Monarch Butterfly Circadian Clock: from Clockwork Mechanisms to Control of Seasonal Migration"
Host: Joanna Chiu, associate professor and vice chair, UC Davis Department of Entomology and Nematology

Wednesday, June 7: Niels Holst, senior researcher, Aarhus University's Department of Agroecology, Entomology and Plant Pathology, Denmark
Topic: Pending
Host: Christian Nansen, assistant professor, UC Davis Department of Entomology and Nematology

Further information is available from Nansen at chrnansen@ucdavis.edu or (530) 752-2728.