Xiangfeng Jing, right, receiving the Outstanding Ph.D. Student award from Dr. David Ragsdale.
Dr. David Ragsdale, right, hands Master's Student Laura McLoud her Outstanding Masters Student Award.
Department Honors Grad Students for Outstanding Work
Two students received the Department’s highest honor for graduate students this February for their work and dedication to the science of entomology.
Xiangfeng Jing and Laura McLoud received the award during a special seminar for the Department’s annual Ph.D. student recruiting week held on February 11.
Jing received the Outstanding Ph.D. Award for his excellence in research work, teaching efforts, and academics. Jing is a fourth-year Ph.D. student and works in Dr. Spence Behmer's laboratory, where he is researching sterol (e.g. cholesterol) use in insects.
Jing is interested in how different plant sterol profiles influence insect performance (including growth and reproduction), the extent to which insects can convert different plant sterols to cholesterol, and what happens when insects ingest sterols that cannot be converted into cholesterol.
Jing is studying these questions using a broad range of economically important caterpillars. He also has worked as teaching assistant for both Behmer and for Dr. Keyan Zhu-Salzman in ENTO 306 and ENTO 429 courses.
He received his master’s of science in zoology from the Huazhong Agricultural University in 2004 and his bachelor of science in Plant Protection from Shandong Agricultural University in 2001.
McLoud is a second-year Master’s student in Entomology and received the Outstanding Graduate Student Award in the Master’s Student category.
She works in Dr. Bradleigh Vinson’s lab researching on Microplitis crocieipes, an endoparasitoid wasp, which is a candidate biological control agent of the tobacco budworm. Her research focuses on the potential of these wasps to be reared on a large scale to help control the tobacco budworm, and centers on developing an artificial diet for for mass rearing of the wasps..
McLoud received her bachelor of science in Biological Sciences from Clemson in 2009.
The Outstanding Graduate Student Awards recognize students' accomplishments at both the master’s and doctorate levels within the departments. Recipients receive plaques recognizing their accomplishments and a monetary award.
To be eligible for the award, candidates must be a full-time student majoring in Entomology, have a minimum one-year residency on campus, and have a degree program filed. Nominees are evaluated on several criteria, including service to the department and their academic achievements, such as GPR, publications and professional presentations.