Entomology and Plant Pathology
East Tennessee is burdened by mosquito-borne La Crosse virus disease, but minimal resources for mosquito surveillance, management, or related community education exist in the region. To address these needs, we developed a program to train middle and high school educators in basic medical entomology. The educators then used their skills in the classroom to teach students about La Crosse virus disease and conduct mosquito collection experiments. As a case study of a potential application of classroom-collected data, we also partnered with a local non-profit organization to assess the potential for a volunteer litter cleanup to reduce mosquito populations in a Tennessee neighborhood. To
On Friday, December 16, 2022, the Department of Entomology and Plant Pathology held its Annual Winter Awards Banquet at KoPita Authentic Mediterranean in downtown Knoxville. The banquet, which featured a game of trivia and White Elephant, provided EPP students, staff, and faculty the opportunity to celebrate the 2022 year. The event honored graduates Ryan Kuster and Sandra Pena for their achievements and announced the 2022 departmental award winners for their accomplishments and contributions. The list below details each category and award presented at the event: Russell and Bobbie Bull Outstanding Ph.D. Graduate Student Award in Entomology – Kassie Hollabaugh and Matthew Longmire Outstanding Ph.D. Graduate Student Award
Zachariah Hansen, assistant professor and Extension specialist in the Department of Entomology and Plant Pathology, collaborated with colleagues within the University of Tennessee Institute of Agriculture to publish a sample budget for small-scale commercial tomato operations. To view the sample budget, visit https://extension.tennessee.edu/publications/Documents/W1125.pdf.
Soybean farmers rely on a combination of cultural practices, variety resistance and fungicides to manage diseases. Heather Kelly, professor and Extension specialist with the University of Tennessee Institute of Agriculture, leads research to provide farmers the information they need to effectively use these tools. “We’ve developed and adapted our sentinel plot program to monitor soybean diseases and the pathogens’ sensitivity to common fungicides,” she says. “We also screen soybean varieties to understand their levels of disease resistance and fungicide efficacy to equip farmers to make sound management decisions.” The Tennessee Soybean Promotion Board invests checkoff dollars in supporting Kelly’s research.
Entomology and Plant Pathology researchers have published the 2023 Insect Control Recommendations for Field Crops. The publication details insect control recommendations for cotton, soybean, field corn, sorghum, wheat and pasture. To view the publication, visit https://extension.tennessee.edu/insect-control-recommendations.
Several entomology graduate students, staff, and faculty attended the Entomological Society of America 2022 Joint Meeting in Vancouver, which was held November 13 – 16. Everyone in attendance networked with others, attended professional development sessions and presented research of their own. We are pleased to announce that students within our department were presented with awards during the conference. Please join us in congratulating each individual! Julian Cosner, a graduate student in the Grant lab, won second place in the Grad P-IE: Biocontrol – Parasitoids section of the student competition. Corey Day, a graduate student in the Trout Fryxell lab, won first
Q&A with Shelly Pate Can you tell me a little bit about yourself? My name is Shelly Pate. August 2022 marked the beginning of my 3rd year as a Ph.D. student at the University of Tennessee. My advisor is Dr. Heather Kelly, and she is stationed at the West Tennessee Research and Education Center in Jackson, TN. I spend most of my time on main campus in Knoxville. However, I travel to Jackson to set up/harvest my field research trials as needed. My project involves working with nematodes and soybeans in two different capacities. More specifically, I am investigating any potential relationships between economically important nematodes (soybean cyst, southern root-knot, reniform) and an emerging soil-borne fungal pathogen (Xylaria necrophora).
The Common Ground, a newsletter of the Senior Vice Chancellor and Senior Vice President of the University of Tennessee Institute of Agriculture, featured members of a task force aimed to serve veterans. The task force all began with associate professor Denita Hadziabdic Guerry. Hadziabdic Guerry operates a fungal pathogen research lab. As an advocate for providing undergraduates with research opportunities, Casey Richards, a Marine student veteran in the Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, joined the lab as an undergraduate research assistant. As Richards neared graduation, he recommended two veteran students, Ivan Perez and Justin Kosiewska, to the research lab. “Opportunities for veterans to have secure jobs or steady income can be limited. A challenge facing former service members
Corey Day was selected as a 2022 Entomological Society of America (ESA) Science Policy Fellow. The Science Policy Fellows program is a two-year program that provides entomologists with the necessary skills to efficiently and effectively advocate for their discipline. Day researches the spatial epidemiology of La Crosse virus disease. “I am so grateful for this opportunity! I can’t wait to meet the other Fellows and begin training to serve as an advocate for entomology,” Day said. ESA is a not-for-profit scientific organization that serves the needs of entomologists and individuals in related disciplines worldwide. Each year, the organization selects five individuals for the program. To learn more about ESA, visit https://entsoc.org. Congratulations, Corey!
Questions Can you tell me a little bit about yourself? I am originally from Lexington, South Carolina, which is 30 minutes west of Columbia. I got my bachelor’s in Genetics from Clemson University and my MS in Biomedical Science, with a focus on Bioinformatics, from the Medical University of South Carolina. I have worked with the University of Tennessee’s Department of Entomology and Plant Pathology in my current position for over five years. I have also been working towards my Ph.D. in Bioinformatics for three years. Who are the team of faculty you work with? I work under Dr. Margaret Staton as a Research Associate. She is also my advisor for my Ph.D. research. What are the primary
