BISC Achievements at Entomologists' Joint Meeting!

Biological Sciences members past and present distinguished themselves with awards and honours at the joint meeting of the Entomological Societies of America, Canada and British Columbia, held November 13-16, 2022 in Vancouver. The meeting was attended by several thousand entomologists from across North America. Congratulations to all!

Awards and Scholarships

Emmanuel Hung received the Graduate Student Scholarship from the Entomological Society of British Columbia.   

Asim Renyard received the Dexter Johnson Award ($1000 annual award that recognizes the best manuscript submitted in any peer-reviewed journal by a student in the field of insect ecology) from the Entomological Society of British Columbia. 

Jaime Chalissery received the John H. Borden Scholarship from the Entomological Society of Canada.

Gries-lab graduate students and undergraduate students competed in 6 student symposia, winning first-prize presentations in 5 of them. In one of these 5 symposia, they received both the First Prize and the Runner-up Prize. Congrats!!!!! 

First Prize Presentation Awards:

Graduate Student Symposium; Plant-Insect Ecosystem: Behavior and Chemical Ecology
Asim Renyard, Regine Gries, Gerhard Gries. Do the locomotion: Bimodal alarm signals of Western carpenter ants alter locomotory responses of nestmates.

Graduate Student Symposium; Medical, Urban and Veterinary Entomology & Physiology, Biochemistry and Toxicology: Behavior and Ecology

Claire E. Gooding, Regine Gries, Gerhard Gries. Blacklegged ticks, Ixodes scapularis, sense and avoid ant-frequented areas.

Graduate Student Symposium; Medical, Urban and Veterinary Entomology: Vector Biology and Management 2

Emmanuel Hung, Gunisha Sanghera, Adam J. Blake, Megan MacGregor, Gerhard Gries. Sexually dimorphic flicker fusion and wing flash frequencies in stable flies and horn flies: A potential basis for augmenting light traps.

Undergraduate Student Symposium; Medical, Urban and Veterinary Entomology: Behavior and Ecology

Eve P. Meyer, Emmanuel Hung, Nelson Lee, Gerhard Gries. Conductive and convective heat, but not infrared radiation, mediate stable fly, Stomoxys calcitrans, and horn fly, Haematobia irritans, alighting and probing responses on thermally different targets.

Runner-up: Miele McGowan, Emmanuel Hung, Tandeep Brar, Gerhard Gries. Characterizing the multi-modal host cue complex that attracts stable flies, Stomoxys calcitrans.

Undergraduate Student Symposium; Plant-Insect Ecosystem: Behavior and Ecology

Jenelle C. Breen, Asim Renyard, Regine Gries, Gerhard Gries. Do surface semiochemicals mediate object recognition and ensuing behavioral decisions by ants?