Fourteenth Annual Graduate Student Forum
Thursday, August 25, 2010, Heep Center Room 101
Winners:
Alison Bockoven- First Place“Influence of genetic variation on colony-level foraging behavior of the red imported fire ant (Solenopsis invicta)”
Loriann Garcia- Second Place
“Herbivores as plant mutualists: A budding potential for herbivores to increase plant fitness”
Marion Le Gall - Third Place
“Nutrient-allelochemical interactions: metabolic effects on a generalist insect herbivore”
Keynote Speaker:
Dr. Mariana Mateos, Assistant Professor, Department of Wildlife & Fisheries, TAMU
Presenters
Cymon Kersch, M.S. – “Expression Analysis of the Kinin receptor in female mosquitoes of Aedes aegypti (L.).”
Kevin Dietz, M.S. – “The population genetic structure of the malaria vector Anopheles melas in West Africa.”
Shawn Hanrahan, Ph.D. - “Genome size diversity in insects and new genome size estimates for Texas insects.”
Donghun Kim, Ph.D. – “Cloning and sequencing of GPCRs involved in water balance from the Black-legged tick, Ixodes scapularis.”
Luciano Cosme, Ph.D. – “The role of miRNAs in the regulation of seeking behavior in Aedes aegypti.”
Marion Le Gall, Ph.D. – “Nutrient-allelochemical interactions: metabolic effects on a generalist insect herbivore.”
Warren Schoniers, Ph.D. – “Testing the pulsed stress hypothesis with cotton aphids.”
Paul Lenhart, Ph.D. – “Competitive interactions among insect herbivores with variable diet breadth: novel insights from a community of grasshoppers.”
Allison Bockoven, Ph.D. – “Colony-level variation in foraging behavior of the red imported fire ant (Solenopsis invicta).”
Andrienne Brundage, Ph.D. – “The effects of priority colonization of carrion on two forensically important blow fly (Diptera: Calliphoridae) species.”
Eric Denemark, Ph.D. - “A spatially explicit ecological model of coexistence on a patchy ephemeral resource.”
Justin Fiene, Ph.D. – “Influence of plant genotype and prey availability on omnivory by Western Flower Thrips.”
Jennifer Pechal, Ph.D. – “Blow Fly (Diptera: Calliphoridae) and Microbial Community Dynamics on Decomposition Ephemeral Resources.”