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Entomology & Plant Pathology
Mississippi State University
Mississippi State, MS 39762-9775

TEL: (662) 325-2085
FAX: (662) 325-8837

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  • 2010 Mississippi State University Diversity Awards - Sandra Woolfolk (Entomology and Plant Pathology) Student Recipient

    Sandra is a Ph.D. candidate in Entomology and Plant Pathology graduating in May 2010. Originally from Indonesia, she is diligent, hardworking, and has been dedicated to her degree program, her family, friends, and the university's spirit of diversity. Despite her busy work schedule, as well as family and church commitments, in the past 10 years she has invested hundreds of hours of service in the Starkville and Mississippi State University (MSU) communities, contributing to a growing sense of cultural understanding and respect in both places.

    The followings are the three major highlights of Sandra's community involvements:

    First, her membership in the World Neighbors Association (WNA). Sandra has served as secretary of WNA for two years and member of the executive board for many years. Along with other WNA members, she always helps organizing the local annual Thanksgiving Dinner for international students and their families. In addition, she has served as a contact person for new Indonesian students attending MSU to help with their acclimation. She is always very active in the planning of the annual International Fiesta at MSU. She and her husband, Walter, are in their fifth year of planning children's activities for the Fiesta. As a chairperson for children's program, she introduced games from other countries such as the Mexican pinata, the Phillippine pabitin, the Indonesian pencil in bottle, and other international children's games. Sandra has recruited girls from other Girl Scout troops in Starkville and surrounding area to take part in the Fiesta, allowing them to benefit from the diversity Starkville and MSU have to offer.

    Second, her membership in the International Village committee. The International Village is a component of the Cotton District Arts festival sponsored by the Starkville Area Arts Council every year. During festival, a few activities happen in the village including children activities. Sandra has consistently volunteered as a chair person to plan and supervise the children's games and performances. The International Village attracts festival goers and promote public awareness of international arts and cultures.

    Third, her leadership in the local Girl Scouts. In May 2007 Sandra became the leader of Girl Scout Troop 653 (now 20653), which is also known as the international troop, the only international troop in Starkville, MS. Under her leadership, the number of girls in the troop has increased from five to twenty-three. These girls, whose many of them are daughters of MSU faculty/staff/students, come from China, the Philippines, Syria, Turkey, Egypt, Venezuela, England, Russia, and Indonesia, the United States as well as American girls with German, Netherlands, and African American heritage. Though most area troops have meetings just twice a month, the international troop meets or do Girl Scout activities almost every week. They have participated in many typical Girl Scout activities, like campouts, cookouts, and World Thinking Day. They have also attended sporting events, gone to the Jackson Zoo and the Memphis Children's Museum, as well as the horse rodeo. Sandra has instilled her own sense of service in these girls, leading them to bake brownies for a local casserole ministry, participate in a food drive, and most recently, collect used shoes and monetary donations for Haiti.

    Besides the intercultural outreach, Sandra uses her expertise to reach out to community through science. She spent countless hours in K-12 classrooms which includes more than twenty-five outreach projects encompassing a diverse number of students. She has been recognized many times for her outstanding contributions in the field of entomology and plant pathology; one of the accomplishments was being recognized as the 2007 Diversity Scholar awarded by the American Institute of Biological Science (AIBS). Sandra is diversity and everything she does reaches out to people of all cultures.


  • EPP Student wins 1st place awards for presentations

    Ankit Kumar won 1st place in the student paper competition held during the Entomological Society of America's national meeting held December 13-16, 2009 in Indianapolis, Indiana.  Ankit's paper was entitled "Tarnished Plant Bug (Lygus lineolaris) Movement Dynamics within Corn, Cotton, and Corn/Cotton Interface, authors: Ankit Kumar and Fred R. Musser". 

    Ankit also won 1st place for the paper "Tarnished Plant Bug Movement in a Cotton/Corn Ecosystem, authors: Ankit Kumar and Fred R. Musser", which was presented at the Beltwide Cotton Conference, January 4-7, 2010 in New Orleans, Louisiana.


  • 2010 Cotton Disease Council Presentation Winners Named

    NEW ORLEANS - Winners of the National Cotton Disease Council Outstanding Graduate Student Presentation Awards competition at the recent 2010 Beltwide Cotton Disease Council meeting in New Orleans represented Auburn University, the University of Arkansas, and Mississippi State University.

    In the oral presentation competition, first place went to Dustin Herring from Auburn University with "Reniform Control Linked to Variable Rate Herbicides Used to Prevent Post Harvest Cotton Regrowth and Eliminate Winter Weeds." Coauthors were K. S. Lawrence, C. Burmeister and D. Fields.

    Second place went to Jianbing Ma of the University of Arkansas with "Changes in Cotton Root Architecture Caused by Meloidogyne incognita and Thielaviopsis basicola and Their Interaction." Coauthors were J. Jaraba, T. Kirkpatrick and C. Rothrock. Third place went to Kurt Showmaker of Mississippi State University with "A Species Specific, PCR Assay For the Detection of Rotylenchulus reniformis." The paper was coauthored was G. W. Lawrence.

    The awards program, sponsored by Bayer CropScience, is designed to encourage outstanding graduate work in cotton plant pathology and promote graduate student attendance at the National Cotton Council-coordinated Beltwide Cotton Conferences. The 2010 Cotton Disease Council was one of 13 cotton technical conferences that convened at the annual forum.


    Photo Caption: Bayer CropScience's Chip Graham, left, presents the third place award to Kurt Showmaker, M.S. Student in the Department of Entomology and Plant Pathology at Mississippi State University.

    Contact: T. Cotton Nelson (901) 274-9030 or cnelson@cotton.org


  • Entomologist recognized for award-winning article

    MISSISSIPPI STATE -- Mississippi State University entomologist Richard Brown and two co-authors will be given the Editor's Choice Award for writing one of the best entomological articles of 2008.

    Brown and his colleagues will receive the award in December from the Entomological Society of America. The article, "Tracing an Invasion: Phylogeography of Cactoblastis cactorum in the United States Based on Mitochondrial DNA," was published in the Annals of the Entomological Society of America.

    "Among papers published in Annals during 2008 'this paper had the best combination of sound science, breadth of interest and good writing,' said Larry E. Hurd, the journal's editor-in-chief." The study was a nice combination of experimentation and molecular genetics brought to bear on a question of both theoretical and applied interest: How did an economically important, exotic insect get established in the United States?

    "This paper stands as a fine example of the synthetic, integrative approach to science we like to publish in Annals," Hurd said. Brown's research on the cactus moth was supported by a grant to the MSU Geosystems Research Institute from the U.S. Geological Survey. Brown cooperated on the article with Thomas J. Simonsen and Felix A. H. Sperling of the University of Alberta.

    The Entomological Society of America is giving an award to the best paper in each of its four journals and the American Entomologist. The editors of the publications choose the winners, and winning articles receive a prize of $1,000.

    Writer: Bonnie Coblentz
    http://msucares.com/news/releases/09/091008.html
    Released: Oct. 8, 2009
    Contact: Dr. Richard Brown, (662) 325-2086


  • Winners Honored in Graduate Student Competition at the 2009 Cotton Insect and Control Research Conference

    MEMPHIS (Special) - Students at four universities captured honors in the oral presentation competition of the 2009 Beltwide Cotton Insect Research and Control Conference. Dow AgroSciences sponsored this 9th year of competition, which took place in one of the 11 cotton technical conferences that convened at the recent 2009 Beltwide Cotton Conferences in San Antonio.

    In the Gary Herzog Memorial Ph.D. competition, Bradley W. Hopkins of Texas A&M University won first place and $500 for "Resistance to Pyrethroid Insecticides in Helicoverpa zea (Boddie) (Lepidoptera: Noctuidae)." John Frederick Smith of Mississippi State University was awarded $250 and honorable mention for "Cotton Yield Loss from Mid-to-Late Season Twospotted Spider Mite Damage."

    In the Stacy Hall Memorial Masters competition, Richard Reeves of Clemson University received $400 for his first place presentation, "Spatial-Temporal Analysis of Stink Bug Populations in Cotton." Kyle A. Fontenot of Louisiana State University received honorable mention and $200 for his presentation, "Evaluating Tarnished Plant Bug Distribution within Cotton Plants Post-Insecticide Application."

    The winners' professors are: Roger Leonard, LSU; Jeremy Greene, Clemson; Patricia Pietrantonio, Texas A&M; and Angus Catchot and Fred Musser, Mississippi State.

    The Ph.D. competition was renamed in 2002 in honor of the late Dr. Gary Herzog, a University of Georgia professor and researcher. The Masters competition was renamed in 2001 in honor of the late LSU student Stacy Hall.

    The Insect Research and Control Conference competition is designed to encourage outstanding graduate work in cotton entomology and promote graduate student attendance at the National Cotton Council-coordinated annual Beltwide Cotton Conferences. Greene, associate professor at Clemson University, chaired the Student Awards Committee while Gus Lorenz, University of Arkansas, and John Adamczyk, USDA-ARS, were co-chairpersons for the Insect Research and Control Conference.


    Photo Caption: Student winners in the 2009 Cotton Insect Research and Control Conference oral presentation competition were from left: Richard Reeves, Kyle Fontenot, Bradley Hopkins and John Smith.