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February 13, 2015

Posted by entomology.office | February 13, 2015

Announcements

March 30 will be the deadline for our 2015 “Student of the Year” and “Paper of the Year” award submissions.   These two awards will be respectively supported by the Robert and Mary Lou Harwood and Howard and Hermina Hargarth scholarship endowments.  The “Student of the Year” award will be given in recognition of the student’s academic achievements and scholarly service contributions. The “Paper of the Year” be awarded in recognition an exceptional manuscript with a student as lead author. For consideration of this award, the paper must be accepted for publication or has appeared in print over the 12 months preceding the March 30 application deadline. Application for this award includes an additional requirement:  A copy of the manuscript, along with a copy of the letter (email) from the journal indicating the paper has been accepted for publication.

Starting this year, there will be two graduate fellowship research awards supported by the Errett Deck Fellowship ($2,500 each).  Errett and Evelyn Deck created this fellowship to advance excellence in graduate research to “protect and promote production agriculture through effective pest control.”    These fellowships will support expansion of a student’s research project.

In all cases, applications will have three components, which should be emailed to Adam (adam.williams@wsu.edu):

  1. A 500 word (or less) essay from the student concisely explaining why they deserve the award. In the case of  the Deck research fellowship, for example, the student should describe specifically what component the funds will add to their research program. In the case of the Hargarth “Paper of the Year” award, the student should describe why the work is an important contribution to the literature.
  2. The student’s updated CV.
  3. A 250 word (or less) memo from the major advisor describing why they feel their student is deserving of the award.

Last year’s honored recipients were:

  • Rebecca Schmidt (Beers) received the Robert and Mary Lou Harwood “Student of the Year” Award, in honor of her research on predatory mites, involvement in serving the Entomological Society of America, and student leadership for the Department of Entomology.
  • Ivan Milosavljevic (Crowder/Pike) received the Entomology Support Fund “Research” Award, in support of his continuing work on the impact of wire worms in PNW agricultural production.
  • Rebecca Schmidt (Beers) received the Howard and Hermina Hallgarth “Paper of the Year” Award, for her recent review “Leaf structures affect predatory mites (Acari: Phytoseiidae) and biological control: review” in Experimental and Applied Acarology. (62) 1-17 (2014).

Our seminar speaker on Wednesday March 4 will be Sarah Bush, University of Utah.  Dr. Bush is an assistant professor in the Biology Dept. and Adjunct Curator-Vertebrate Zoology, Natural History Museum of Utah.   

All seminars are in FSHN 354 and start at 12:10 PM.  The AMS dial in # is 5706538. 

Alix Whitener won first place at the 2015 Wiley Expo in the Agricultural & Natural Sciences poster division.   Rebecca Schmidt-Jeffris also participated in the poster competition in the Agricultural & Natural Sciences section.  Herma Amalia, Natalie Boyle and Paul Chisholm participated in Oral Presentation session. Herma and Natalie were in the Agricultural & Natural Sciences section and Paul was in the Medical & Life Sciences section.

Faculty Appreciation Day at the Bookie is Wednesday, March 4th from 10 AM – 3:00 PM.  Faculty can meet publisher representatives, Bookie textbook managers and learn more about Faculty Enlight.  There will be free food throughout the day.

For students scheduled to defend for their MS or PhD degree in Spring 2015 – This is a reminder that PhD and MS students are to provide a near final copy of their dissertation to their graduate committee at least 20 working days prior to their defense.  This gives the committee 10 working days for review and the dissertation…which is then made available for the departmental faculty to review for 10 working days prior to the defense.  While the timeline regarding the committee is somewhat flexible (see language below) – the 10 working days requirement for the department is not.  Below is the relevant section from the graduate student handbook that is prominently posted on our website.  Please advise your students of this timeline:  “9. Thesis Timeline. The student is expected to work closely with their major advisor to revise and edit the thesis before sending it to the advisory committee for approval. The advisory committee should get a minimum of 10 working days to review the thesis, although this is at the discretion of the advisory committee. After the thesis has been reviewed and approved by the advisory committee, students must submit their approved thesis to the department chair and the department’s graduate coordinator at least 10 working days prior to the final scheduled thesis defense (this is a graduate school requirement). The graduate coordinator will make the thesis available on the Department’s SharePoint site so that all faculty can review the thesis prior to the final defense.”

Faculty regalia for spring commencement:  Get your academic regalia now.  Faculty planning to attend one of the Spring Commencement Ceremonies can purchase or rent university specific regalia through the Bookie now through March 26.   After this date you will only be able to get basic black regalia and the WSU standard hood. Use the on-line order form https://docs.google.com/forms/d/1vC9d3Vrs6AziCvnmw-8frii0_6ml-H3IcA1duPUiDK8/viewform?c=0&w=1.  Contact the Bookie (509)332-2537 or 800-937-4978 or wsubookie.graduation@gmail.com.

The Washington State University Office of International Programs and Office of Research are co-sponsoring the Third Annual International Research Travel Award (IRTA). Current, full-time WSU faculty members are eligible (includes faculty members with clinical and tenure-accruing appointments as defined by the Washington State University Faculty Manual; adjunct, post-doc and instructor positions are not eligible for the award). The International Travel Award is being offered to assist research faculty in strengthening international collaborative linkages and to enhance significant scholarly and research impact aligned with WSU’s strategic priorities. These awards are to assist faculty in achieving tangible outcomes e.g. joint publications or research proposals. The awards are intended for research related activities that will advance the faculty member’s scholarly program.The deadline for applications is March 1. Questions about the proposal and award process can be submitted to ip.irta@wsu.edu up until Feb. 20. Attached are a Request for Proposal and a Frequently Asked Questions sheet.

Congratulations to Past Winners.  See attachments for FAQ and RFP.

  • 2013 – Cory Bolkan, Will Hamlin, Jean-Saben McEwen, Hubert Schwabl, Dr. Feng Zhao
  • 2014 – Andrew Duff, Ali Mehrizi-Sani, Tahira Probst, Haluk Resat, John Saunders, Viveka Vadyvaloo

Online Career Fair Hosted by the WSU Alumni Association will be next week on Thursday, March 5th from 2-4 PM.  The location is your own computer.  Are you looking for a dream job? Whether you are a seasoned professional or looking for your first job, connect with company recruiters and directly apply for open positions. During the event, you’ll enter booths which are occupied by a variety of employers. Your time in each booth will be limited to ensure you can make numerous connections using a chat-room approach within this unique FREE two-hour job fair. Unlike live job fairs, you can “wait in line” at multiple booths at once, and network when it’s your turn! All your conversations will be saved and available to you after the event, to make follow-up convenient.   This is a great opportunity for employers and WSU students and alumni to network, all from the convenience of your desk.

In March we will be interviewing three candidates for the North Central Washington Regional Extension Tree Fruit Specialist position formerly held by Tim Smith (Emeritus Professor, retired).  This position is a tenure-track faculty position that will be in the Agriculture and Natural Resources Extension program unit and it will be located at WSU TFREC in Wenatchee.  Attached are the candidate itineraries.  The dates are firm but minor details are subject to change.  Please feel free to join us in person or by AMS.  Seminars will be recorded.  We will be interested to receive your feedback as we seek to fill this essential position for the tree fruit industry.  Contact is Des Layne, Search Committee Chair, WSU Tree Fruit Research and Extension Center.

Would you like to earn a $125 Wellness Incentive?  As a current WSU employee, you will have the chance to earn the 2016 Wellness Incentive by participating in SmartHealth 2015.  If you are enrolled in a PEBB medical plan, and are NOT enrolled in Medicare, you are eligible to participate by taking the following steps:

  1. Log in to http://www.smarthealth.hca.wa.gov/ to create your account.
  2. Take the SmartHealth Well-being Assessment.  This will earn you 800 points, and is a required step to be able to earn the incentive.  Bonus: if you complete your assessment before March 31, 2015, you will earn an extra 100 points.
  3. Participate in activities from the SmartHealth website that interest you, and keep track of your progress.

Once you have reached 2,000 points total, you will qualify for the incentive!  Deadline for completion is June 30, 2015.  For more information, please visit http://hrs.wsu.edu/WellnessIncentive, http://www.hca.wa.gov/pebb/Pages/wellness.aspx, or call the Human Resources office at 509-335-4521

Employment

  1. PhD assistantship, Oklahoma St. Univ. Entomology Dept., Stillwater OK.
  2. Associate Scientist-Entomology, Marrone Bio Innovations, Davis, CA
  3. Biological Science Lab Tech., USDA/APHIS, Brighton, MI
  4. Executive Director, Prairie Res. Inst., Univ. of Illinois, Champaign, IL

Important dates to know

3rd Annual CAHNRS Honors A night among the stars

Thursday, March 26, 2015 – 5:00 PM Reception and Silent Auction       6:00 PM Dinner

SEL Event Center,    1825 Schweitzer Drive, Pullman, WA 99163

Register by March 10 at www.go.wsu.edu/cahnrs-honors. $25/Adults • $10/Children. Additional guests are welcome.

Or Contact Janet McGough    509-335-8010 – mcgough@wsu.edu

A WSU OGRD Graduate Grant Writing Workshop will be held on March 28 (Saturday) between 9am – 5pm. To sign up, please visit the website. Once students arrive at the website they need to sign up at the bottom of the workshop description. Students can also set up one-on-one meetings with Hannah Merley with assistance in funding searches, proposal editing, and an explanation of the submission process.

The last day to schedule Spring 2015 final MS/PhD exams is April 10.  The last day to conduct final exams is April 24, 2015. Spring interim dates are April 27-May 15, 2015.

Skylight survey users should download their data by Feb 28 (Deadline extended) March – May 31, 2015

  • Access to your Skylight surveys will be by request only. Email atl@wsu.edu to initiate request.
  • Allow five to seven business days to process your request.
  • June 2015: Skylight decommissioned.  No archive will be available.
  • Surveys in 2015:  WSU has a license in place for faculty and staff to use Qualtrics for surveys.  See surveys.wsu.edu for more information.

Mom’s Weekend is April 10-12, 2015.

Please save the date of Friday, April 17, 2015, for the second Student Affairs Symposium.  The theme of the Symposium is ‘Transformative Engagement,’ and it will be an all-day event.