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September 22, 2017

Posted by entomology.office | October 11, 2017

September 22, 2017

Seminars & Colloquium

The next speaker in the Fall 2017 Entomology Colloquium will be Dr. James Strange, a Research Entomologist with the USDA at Utah State University in Logan, UT.  The title of his presentation is “Population Genetic Structure in North American Bumble Bee Communities.” This presentation will be at 2:10 PM on Monday, September 25, 2017, in FSHN 354. The AMS dial-in number is 4806116.

If you missed the talk by Dr. Fred Gould you can see it on Youtube               

Department Announcements

There was an Entomology segment on NPRI radio and thought you might be interested. The tagline is definitely inspirational, “Once teased for her love of bugs, 8 year old co-authors scientific paper.”  To read the transcript go to:                                                                                                            

CAHNRS Announcements

Nominations for 2017-18 faculty awards are being accepted through September 29th.  See the attached memo for the call and the awards available. Also, please let me know who is being nominated and for what so we can keep an inventory of the submissions to make sure CAHNRS is well represented. Contact Lisa Johnson janowski@wsu.edu if you have questions.

The CAHNRS Operations team has renewed our college-level safety committee to provide additional opportunity for communication for safety issues and support the University’s safety initiative.  College-level safety committee members act as points of contact for anyone within the college to bring forward their questions or concerns about safety. Additionally, the goals for this year’s committee will be developing and reviewing college-level safety projects such as creating a CAHNRS Accident Prevention Plan, updating the college by-laws and safety committee guidelines, and assisting with gathering and compiling information on department and unit safety committees. The following CAHNRS employees are currently serving on the college-level safety committee representing various departments by functional type.  Please do not hesitate to reach out to them about safety issues or concerns.  You may also contact cahnrs.safety@wsu.edu or 509-335-9825 to reach the CAHNRS Operations team.  Elizabeth Willems is the Food/Chem/Animal representative that Entomology falls under.  She can be reached at 335-1476 or by email at elizabeth.willems@wsu.edu.  She also represents Animal Sciences, Biological Systems Eng, Entomology, Inst. of Biological Chem, School of the Environ, School of Food Science and the WSU Creamery.  For more info go to: https://operations.cahnrs.wsu.edu/safety/.

University Announcements

The search for the Associate Vice President of Community, Equity, and Inclusive Excellence and the Associate Vice President of Student Affairs/Student Engagement has begun. These positions will serve as integral roles in shaping the culture of WSU and attending to the needs of the entire Cougar community.  All students, faculty, and staff are welcome. Information regarding current climate initiatives and the Associate Vice President Search committee can be found on the president’s website The Open Session is Monday-Sept 25, 4-5 PM in the CUB Auditorium.  The Student Session is Tuesday-Sept 26 4:15-5:30 PM in Chinook 25.

http://www.npr.org/sections/thetwo-way/2017/09/19/551876044/once-teased-for-her-love-of-bugs-8-year-old-co-authors-scientific-paper

The Fed Ex service weather service sent alerts telling us that FedEx is closely monitoring Hurricane Maria, the earthquake in Mexico, as well as other major storms. Contingency plans are in place and, as always, the priorities are the safety and well-being of our team members and minimizing the effects of potential storms on service. FedEx will be prepared to provide service to the best of our ability in areas affected by the storm and as local conditions allow. To help avoid delays, we encourage you to contact your recipients to verify whether their location is open or able to receive deliveries. Note that potential service disruptions may not affect FedEx Express, FedEx Ground, FedEx Freight, FedEx Office, etc. the same. This may result in different levels of impact as well as cities, states, and ZIP Codes serviced.

 

For Graduate Students

We are opening the application period for this year’s endowment-funded travel award applications.  If you are planning on attending a professional meeting and making a presentation or preparing a poster, you should consider applying for one of these endowments.  Applications will be open until 5pm on October 20th.  There are four travel awards, each tied to one of our endowments where the donor asked that their money be used to support student travel. The student that wins each award receives the entire yield of that endowment, which typically ranges from $200-600 depending on market conditions and the size of the original donation. The goal is to highlight the generous gifts made by each donor by tying each award to a specific endowment. Two endowments, Hastings and Telford, fund travel for “Early Career” students. This would include exceptional undergraduates, MS students, or students on a “straight to PhD” track that are early in their training. Two endowments, Getzin and Tamaki, fund travel for “Later Career” students. The faculty review committee will judge whether students qualify as early or later career, based on each year’s applicant pool. So, students don’t have to specify which type of award they are applying for.

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

  1. A 500 word (or less) essay from the student concisely explaining why you deserve the award. You might describe the significance of your presentation (is it an invited talk? is this a major national meeting? have you recently submitted or published particularly significant findings?), specific plans to build ties with possible postdoc advisors or other collaborators, etc. Travel awards can also be used to meet with collaborators outside of a national meeting; the need for this should be justified.
  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.

Please don’t hesitate to get in touch with any of the committee members if you have questions. Research and recognition awards have a separate deadline in the spring and will be described in a future email.

The Student Awards Committee: Betsy, Laura, and Rich.

The Professional Development Initiative Presents:  The Cheeky Scientist Series:  Resumes and Transferrable Skills with Dr. Isaiah Hankel, on Wednesday, Sept 27th 1:00-3:00 PM in CUB L60. For more info see the attached flyer or go to:  https://gradschool.wsu.edu/pdi/

The Graduate School’s Imagine Beyond Initiative is designed to help prepare our undergraduate students for graduate school. The first workshop is on September 29th. The website is located at  https://gradschool.wsu.edu/imagine-beyond.  Please forward to your students who may be interested in graduate school. Thank you!  See the attached flyer for more info.

Employment Opportunities

  1. Asst Prof & Extension Spec, Univ of Minnesota, Crookston, MN
  2. Fellow Postdoc Entomology, Kansas St. Univ., Manhattan, KS
  3. Extension Program Specialist I, Texas A&M Univ, Fredericksburg, TX
  4. Chief Apiary Inspector, Texas A&M, College Station, TX
  5. Post Doc Oregon St. Univ., Corvallis, OR
  6. Asst Professor-Entomology, Kansas St. Univ., Manhattan, KS