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Perry Adkisson holding his plaque honoring his career with the department and the university.

Rebecca Hapes, right, stands with Kevin Heinz, receiving the Meritorious Service Award.

 

 

Entomology Faculty, Staff, and Student Excellence Recognized During the 2008 AgriLife Conference

Three Entomology faculty members were among 25 honorees selected as recipients of Vice Chancellor's Awards in Excellence during the 2008 Texas A&M AgriLife Conference Agriculture is Life! Coming Together to Tell our Story held in College Station January 7-11.

These awards are given to individuals, teams, and agency-industry partnerships for their excellence in teaching, research, education and service within Texas A&M AgriLife.

Entomology faculty recipients were:

Dr. Roger Gold, Professor and Endowed Chair in Urban and Structural Entomology, was recognized for his teaching at the undergraduate level.  Dr. Gold teaches approximately 550 students per year in his Insects in Human Society (ENTO 322) course his Urban Entomology (ENTO 403) course. 

Student testimonials paint a vivid picture of Dr. Gold’s success in the classroom. 

“Dr. Gold is by far one of the greatest profs at TAMU.  If he only could have taught every course I took.  Not only does he have a high positive attitude towards his area of study, his concerns with the success of his students are amazing.”   “Dr. Gold has a passion for his subject and his students that I have seldom seen in my 4 years here.  I really enjoyed the class because he made it interesting.  I wish more professors would have his enthusiasm and compassion for their students.”    “This has got to be my favorite class so far at A&M.”

Dr. Max Summers, Distinguished Professor, Holder, Endowed Chair in Agricultural Biotechnology, was recognized for his individual research accomplishments as an on-campus faculty member.  Dr. Summers promotes inquiry-driven and knowledge-based research, that is collaborative, multidisciplinary, and broadly impacts agriculture and medical research as well as product development. 

Together with his former student, Gale Smith, Dr. Summers was responsible for the pioneering and enabling research that developed the BEVS (baculovirus expression vector system), an accomplishment that has led to the development of vaccines for the prevention of cervical cancer in young women and in the treatment of prostate cancer in men.  Dr. Summers’ new research emphasis has contributed to the understanding of the structure and function of integral proteins of the inner nuclear membrane, where it has been shown that mutations in these proteins may result in diseases associated with muscular and lipid dystrophies.

Dr. Roy Parker, Professor and Extension Entomologist, was one of 20 individuals and six teams to receive a Superior Service Award from the Texas AgriLife Extension Service.   This award is the highest honor conferred by Extension to faculty and staff who have excelled in job performance in their area of responsibility.

Mr. Ed Riley, Associate Curator of the Texas A&M University Insect Collection, was recognized for technical/extension excellence for on-campus staff.  Ed's primary responsibilities inolve the day-to-day management and maintenance of the 2.2-miliion-specimen Texas A&M University Insect Collection and the provision of a state-wide entomological identification service in support of Texas A&M AgriLife. 

Both of these responsibilities require voluminous technical knowledge and consummate skills in managing time, materials, and communications.  Ed is widely acknowledged by his peers in the systematic entomology and entomological collections communities as one of the best insect collection managers in the United State, a distinction that recognizes his prodigious entomological knowledge, his casual and friendly demeanor, and his progressive collection management style.

Dr. Carlos Bográn, Extension entomologist and plant pathology in College Station, also received a 2007 Superior Service Award for programming emphasizing diversity.

Entomology student Kimberly Littlefield received third place for her poster during the Student Research Poster Contest.

Dr. Perry L. Adkisson, chancellor emeritus and distinguished professor emeritus of The Texas A&M University System, Recognized for Career Achievements.

Following the Departmental centennial celebration in 1999, the Department of Entomology Lifetime Achievement Recognition program was developed in order to serve as posthumous recognition of the career contributions of Departmental faculty (with any combination of teaching, research and extension assignments, and with majority affiliation to the Department of Entomology) to the Department and to entomology as a whole. At the same time, this program establishes a historical awareness and record of those individuals who worked to build the Department of Entomology at Texas A&M University.

This year, Dr. Perry Adkisson received recognition for his achievements with the Department. Adkisson joined the Department as an Associate Professor and later served as Department Head. In addition to departmental duties, he has served in such positions as vice president for Agriculture and Renewable Resources, Deputy Chancellor and Chancellor of the Texas A&M University System.

During his career, Adkisson was named Regents Professor of Entomology and Executive Director of the Bush Presidential Library Center, Chancellor Emeritus and Distinguished Professor Emeritus. Throughout his career, Adkisson pioneered the development of the concepts for integrated pest management through research on cotton insect management. His research generated highly successful control programs for the boll weevil, bollworm and other key pests that were implemented on millions of acres of Texas cotton. He was instrumental in the development and implementation of similar programs for other major Texas crops.

Staff Honored With Awards and Recognition

The Department of Entomology Staff Meritorious Service Award annually recognizes the accomplishments of an individual employed within the department through the awarding of a check for $1,000 and a framed certificate. This year's award was presented to Rebecca Hapes, Senior Academic Advisor I.

Rebecca has been a key player with the department's academic advising team, as well as an outstanding recruiting and retention team which has doubled our undergraduate enrollment. She has proven herself to be knowledgeable and a trusted advisor and mentor to both our undergraduate and graduate students in the department, not to mention our faculty.

In addition to her roles in the department, she is an active member of the University Advisors and Counselors (UAC)with a leadership role as well as the National Academic Advising Association.

Several members received pins for their years of service with either the department. They were:

Marvin Harris-35 years, Entomology

Max Summers-35 years, Entomology

Bill Baxter-20 years, Texas AgriLife Research

Max Summers-30 years, Texas AgriLife Research

State of The Department

After recognizing the Vice Chancellor award winners, Professor and Department Head Kevin Heinz commended faculty and staff for the hard work

He said that the department is training more than one-third of all undergraduates in the nation in the field of entomology. "I want to congratulate everyone on raising the bar," he said. "We should be proud of this because we are setting the national agenda."

According to Heinz, the enrollment data from fall 2007 showed that the department had a total of 53 graduate students, comprising of 28 doctoral students and 25 masters students. With undergraduates, the department had a total of 132 undergraduate students, comprising of 93 majors, 32 double majors and 7 minors.

Another strength Heinz noted was that the department was one of the most diverse in the nation in both faculty and students. "We are dramatically increasing our diversity every year," he said. "This is something for which  we should be very proud ."

The volume of students in the newly-created Forensic and Investigative Sciences degree was also noted, with the FIVS 205 course taking in 72 students during the fall.

In the area of recruiting, Heinz commended Spence Behmer, Raul Medina and Albert Mulenga for their hard work on the graduate recruiting weekends.

In the area of research funding, the department had more than 72 proposals submitted and 17 principal investigators received more than 31 awards this year. Heinz said the results netted a 41% increase from 2006.

Heinz mentioned three new faculty members have been added this past year, including Jeff Tomberlin, David Kerns and Christian Nansen. Nansen and Kerns currently serve in the Lubbock office while Tomberlin works on campus in College Station.

In addition, three new lecturers have been added to the roster. They include Kristie Reddick, Adrienne Brundage, and Caralyn Zehnder. Reddick will be teaching Entomology 322 during Summer I while Zehnder teaches Summer II. Brundage will be teaching both ENTO 431 and 432 courses this spring.

Associate Department Head for Academic Programs Pete Teel thanked Heinz for his leadership and members of the Academic Advising Team and updated the group on academic programs activities.

Associate Department Head and Extension Program Leader Chris Sansone then updated the group on Texas AgriLife Extension entomology programs during the past year.

2007 Arthropods Image Salon Winners Announced

There were a surprising number of great photos during the fourth annual installment of the Arthropods Image Salon, but only a few select images can come out winners.

The contest aims to develop and raise the visibility of photo and creative talent in the form of a competition, followed by a public exhibition showcasing the competition winners and participants.

Participants submit entries into four categories:

Photo microscopy: Images in this category have been taken with the aid of a microscope whereby the level of detail is an important factor.

Artistic: Images in this category are artistic images which make good use of graphic elements of design. In this category, and emphasis is placed on images that showcase line, shape, pattern, form, texture, perspective, etc.

Traditional Macro: Images in this category showcase the talents and steady hands of the photographer with a macro lens.

Arthropods in action: Images in this category tell a story, whether it’s a parasitoid laying eggs or a spider enjoying its latest catch.

This year's salon winners are:

Artistic: "Jaws" by Allen Dean
Arthropods In Action: "Lunch Time" by Cesar Valencia
Traditional Macro: "On The Prowl" by John Jackman
Best Overall: "Lunch Time" by Cesar Valencia

The Best Overall Image received a check for $250. All images can be viewed on the department's web site.