Author: amandakylegibson

Big congratulations to Juliana, Abbey, and friend-of-the-lab Robert for receiving awards through the Samuel Miller Fund to support agricultural research! Very well done!

Caroline and Leila have a new paper in press with Evolution “Genetic variation in parasite avoidance, yet no evidence for constitutive fitness costs” which lays the foundation for testing theory Caroline has been developing on the evolution of parasite avoidance.

And check out our new paper in Evolutionary Applications “Do biological control agents adapt to local pest genotypes? A multi-year test across geographic scales” – coauthored with Fabiane, Abbey, and our collaborator Patty. This answers a long-standing question on local adaptation of Pasteuria penetrans to Meloidogyne hosts, with implications for use of P. penetrans as a biological control.

Well done everyone!

Congratulations to Neha, Adianna, Schubin, and Ean for being selected for Harrison Awards to support their independent research this summer! And many thanks to their super mentors Linyao, Caroline, Abbey, and Juliana! Exciting science will be happening this summer.

Congratulations to second-years Erin Scott and Juliana Jiranek on their EEBio proposal talks! They got great feedback on how to develop their dissertation proposals in advance of their qualifying exams next spring.

The lab made a great showing at SEPEEG, with lots of presentations by lab members (Caroline Amoroso, Abbey Ramirez, Juliana Jiranek, Sarah Talley, and Adianna Lockwood-Shabbat) and friends of the lab (Robert Porter, Ashlyn Crain) and others in attendance providing moral support. We hosted the first ever Meal Worm with friends from Emory, Georgia Tech, and the University of Maryland. And Sarah Talley did an amazing job as the undergraduate volunteer in charge of making sure everyone’s powerpoints went according to plan.

Big congratulations to Juliana Jiranek who earned an SSE Lewontin Award! This award will go to support genomic analysis of genes for resistance to rust in Lewis Flax, which Juliana collects across altitudinal gradients at Rocky Mountain Biological Station.

And she gave a poster about her new study of Meloidoyne arenaria population structure! Well done Abbey!

Congratulations to Adianna Lockwood-Shabat for winning the College Council’s Minerva Award!

Congratulations to Abbey Ramirez on the Britt Travel Award and the EXPAND Travel Grant!

Congratulations to Erin Scott on the Britt Travel Award!

Louis Bubrig was awarded an EXPAND Fellowship, a one-year fellowship through UVA’s NSF Research Traineeship program that aims to break down disciplinary and career silos! In addition to his proposed dissertation work to study parasites as a driver of dispersal evolution, he’ll be collaborating with Eyleen O’Rourke’s lab to test mechanistic hypotheses on how parasites interact with their hosts during the metabolically taxing process of dispersal.

Congratulations to Abbey Ramirez for passing her PhD qualifying exam!! Now you have even more time for your beloved nemaodes!