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Students Receive High Honors at SWBESA Annual Meeting
The 2008 SWBESA's annual meeting, held at the Dallas/Fort Worth Marriott Hotel & Golf Club on February 22-26, provide TAMU students and Texas AgriLife faculty and staff entomologists an environment to exchange research information through symposia, conferences, submitted papers, and continuing education seminars.
The meeting also provided a chance to interact informally with peers and prospective employers and for students to participate in a number of competitions. A number of TAMU students were honored for their excellence in entomology.
The highlight of the four day event was when Robert Puckett's name was announced as the recipient of this year's John Henry Comstock Graduate Student Award.
Puckett is one of five graduate students in the nation to receive this award, which helps to promote interest in entomology in the graduate level and in attending the national annual meeting. In addition to receiving a certificate, he will get a $100 cash prize and an all-expenses-paid trip package to the ESA national annual meeting.
In addition, Puckett took second place within the Ph.D. category of the student oral presentation competition for his paper titled "Nocturnal Foraging Behavioral Dynamics of Red Imported Fire Ants (Solenopsis Invicta Buren) in the Presence And Absence of Pseudacteon Phorid Flies." Puckett’s dissertation advisor is Dr. Marvin Harris on the research.
Professor Marvin Harris was impressed with Puckett's hard work.
"Robert is continuing to develop into a strong scientist and I am proud that his accomplishments were recognized at the SWBESA meetings," Harris said "He is an asset to our department and his work furthers the mission of this great Land Grant University."
Alejandro Calixto received the third place within the Ph.D. category of the student oral presentation competition for his paper titled " titled "Canopy and Ground Dwelling Spiders in Pecan In Central Texas." Calixto worked alongside a team of TAMUS scientists that included Mr. Allen Dean and professor Dr. Marvin Harris (both from the Department of Entomology and AgriLife Research) and Texas AgriLife Extension Professor of Entomology and Extension Specialist Dr. Allen Knutson and District 9 Extension Pest Management Specialist Bill Ree.
"Alejandro has an excellent background in ecology begun in the rain forest of Colombia and bolstered by field experience with pelagic birds in Canada. His studies at Texas A&M have concentrated on the ant mosaic in Texas, focusing on how to use poison baits to reduce fire ants and benefit other resident ants so they will compete with the fire ant as well, Harris said.
"He also has a strong program investigating the role of spiders in the agroecosystem, especially in pecans and rangeland. He is an excellent student,"
Entomological knowledge was also put to the test as TAMU entomology graduate and undergraduate students participated in this year's Linnaean Games. The ESA Linnaean games are a lively question-and-answer, college bowl-style competition on entomological facts played between university-sponsored student teams.
The undergraduate team consisted of Brittney Bane, Patricia Mullins, Morris and Peredo while graduate student team members were Ricardo Hernandez, Brad Hopkins, Shawn Hanrahan, Jonathan King and Aubrey Colvin. While both teams made it to the SWBESA semifinal round, only the graduate student team qualified for advancement to compete at the national level in this year’s ESA's national meeting at Reno, NV. from November 16-19.
The TAMU entomology students are a prominent fixture at the SWBESA, and continue to well represent the department and discipline in terms of their scholarship, enthusiasm, and dedication. Congratulations to each of them for their participation at the SWBESA.