AU Entomologists to Present Research at International Conference in Australia

AUBURN, Ala. — Seven entomology faculty members and four graduate students in Auburn University’s Department of Entomology and Plant Pathology will be in Brisbane, Australia, Aug. 15-21 to participate in the 22nd International Congress of Entomology.

The congress, held once every four years, is the world's premier entomological meeting, bringing together entomologists from all disciplines to share research and ideas and to discuss issues and concerns. The conference will give the AU scientists the opportunity not only to interact with colleagues from around the world but also to present their research in an international venue.

AU entomology faculty attending the conference include Gary Mullen, professor; Michael Williams, associate professor and department head; Bill Moar and Kathy Flanders, associate professors; Henry Fadamiro and Xing Ping Hu, assistant professors; and Fudd Graham, research fellow and coordinator of the Alabama Fire Ant Management Program.

Entomology graduate students Vicky Bertagnolli, Elly Maxwell, Joel Tindle and John Styrsky also will present research papers at the conference.

The AU delegates will present their findings on a broad range of scientific studies they have conducted, from Mullen’s 17-year study of tick paralysis in wild birds to Hu’s investigations into the trail-following behavior of termites to Styrsky’s research on how the presence of aphids and fire ants in cotton fields can actually result in higher cotton yields.

Faculty travel costs to and from Brisbane are being funded in large part by a grant from the Calvin and Helen Jones Endowment for Program Enhancement in Entomology at Auburn University, while a grant from the Frank S. and Margaret N. Arant Endowment in Entomology is covering the graduate students’ travel expenses.

Jones, who earned his bachelor’s and master’s degrees in entomology at AU in the 1940s and went on to have a brilliant career as a research entomologist with the U.S. Department of Agriculture before retiring to his native DeKalb County, said his years with USDA showed him how crucial such meetings of the minds are to research. Some of the most significant advances made in livestock insect pest control in the 1950s, ’60s and ’70s came about, he said, as the direct result of researchers from across the country and around the world convening to work together on solutions.

Arant, who earned his bachelor’s and master’s degrees in entomology from Auburn in the late 1920s, remained at AU and was a faculty member in the College of Agriculture for 49 years, first as graduate assistant, then as professor and, from 1949 to 1975, as head of what then was the Department of Zoology-Entomology.

The Arant endowment was established after his death in 1992 to enable outstanding graduate students to broaden their educations.

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Contact Jamie Creamer, 334-844-2783 or jcreamer@auburn.edu

08/09/04

For immediate release