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High school intern, Dhuha Alwan, presented her poster at the annual Research Practicum Symposium at Eleanor Roosevelt High School. Dhuha's poster was titled "Effect of Medicago sativa Stems With Non-Glandular vs. Glandular Trichomes on Aphidius ervi Behavior". The Lamp Lab is extremely proud of all the hard work she put in this year! She is an incoming freshman biology major at the University of Maryland.  The Lamp Lab submitted 3 undergraduate student competition papers/posters and 2 symposium talks! Emily Gibson, lab technician, presented a talk titled “Monitoring the biodiversity and ecological roles of insects on a beef cattle farm” in the undergraduate 10-minute competition. Amy Goodman, honors student, presented a poster titled “Investigating the outcomes of wetland restoration on macroinvertebrate communities after 22 years” in the undergraduate poster display competition II and won the competition! Yasmine Helbling, lab manager, presented a poster titled “Diversity and dispersal of predaceous arthropods across agricultural drainage ditches and adjacent cropland” in the undergraduate poster display competition I and won the competition! Helen Craig, PhD student, presented a talk titled “Historical context and modern cultural acceptance: The story of insects as food and feed” for the Insects in Mythology and Culture symposium. Bill Lamp presented a talk titled “EntoQuest - the Eastern Branch's answer to connecting students and professionals for a weekend of mentorship” for the Building Bridges for Undergraduates: Techniques for Teaching and Mentorship symposium. Amy Goodman was awarded with the Spring 2026 Honors College Grant for her entomology project titled "Is Straw Addition an Effective Management Strategy to Increase Odonata Abundance and Diversity Within Farm Ponds?". She is working hard to prepare for her farm pond experiments that begin in April. Great job Amy!  Helen's excellent teaching abilities were recognized with the Outstanding Graduate Assistant Award from the University of Maryland's Graduate School. Only the top 2% of the 4,000 plus graduate assistants on campus are honored with this award. Congratulations Helen!!
Congratulations to Amy Goodman for being awarded the $1,000 Ernest N. Cory Undergraduate Scholarship for Spring 2026!! She recently completed a Resilience CAP internship in the Lamp Lab during the fall semester. Amy processed wetland macroinvertebrate samples collected from Jackson Lane and presented her results at the Resilience CAP symposium. Currently, she is working on an honors research proposal to continue her work on wetland research. We are excited to see Amy grow as a scientist!
Bill gave a talk for the Maryland Entomological Society’s virtual November meeting titled “Non-target effects of transgenic corn debris on streams: the changing picture of risk assessment”. His work has shown that transgenic corn plant material within streams has no negative effects on aquatic macroinvertebrate abundance in streams adjacent to crop fields. The Maryland Entomology Society posted the full details of his talk on Facebook.  The Entomological Society of America’s annual meetings attract entomologists from all over the United States and even international nations. This year’s annual meeting in Portland was a prime opportunity for former and current Lamp Lab members to connect. Rebecca Wilson-Ounekeo (Ph.D. 2020), Morgan Thompson (M.S. 2019), & Yasmine Helbling (lab manager) met for lunch in Portland and recounted their fond memories of their time in the lab. After earning her doctorate degree, Dr. Wilson-Ounekeo relocated to the West Coast and is currently the undergraduate biological laboratory and stockroom coordinator at Portland State University. Dr. Thompson will also be relocating to the West Coast in January for her next position as an associate professor of chemical ecology and insect behavior for the Entomology Department at the University of California, Riverside. Yasmine Helbling, the current lab manager, presented two talks at the annual meeting. Her first talk was for a workshop she was invited to participate in titled “Coming out of the Camouflage: How to Navigate Your First Meeting” that was aimed at new members who have never attended the conference before. The talk was titled “Becoming a Meeting Maestro” and suggested actions the audience members should undergo before, during, and after the meeting to ensure a positive experience. Yasmine’s second talk titled “Comparison of Aphidius ervi behavior on Medicago sativa stems with and without glandular trichomes” was awarded first place in the plant-insect ecosystems, behavior, biocontrol, and ecology section of the undergraduate 10-minute presentation competition. Photo (left to right): Dr. Rebecca Wilson-Ounekeo, Yasmine Helbling, & Dr. Morgan Thompson  The Annual Cornerstone Event is hosted by the College of Agriculture & Natural Resources at the University of Maryland and gives undergraduate and graduate students the opportunity to present posters about their research. The Lamp Lab contributed three posters to this event. Ph.D. student Helen Craig was awarded first place in the Healthy Food Systems category for her poster titled "In vitro and in situ evaluations of black soldier fly larvae as a methane-mitigating protein substitute in dairy cattle diets". Woohoo Helen!! Her results show that there are no detected negative effects of partially substituting soybean meal with black soldier fly larvae meal in dairy cattle diets, however, more research is needed to confirm the methane-mitigating effects. Zoey Blackman, an undergraduate student advised by Helen, presented a poster titled “Investigating demographic effect on human perception of insects as a food source”. She has been working with Helen for over a year to compose, distribute, and analyze surveys that probe the general public about their views of entomophagy. Katherine Siniuk and Yasmine Helbling presented a poster titled “Diversity of Predaceous Arthropods in Agricultural Drainage Ditches”. They have both been statistically analyzing data collected from the Delmarva peninsula in efforts to determine the family-level diversity of predators that utilize the semi-natural habitat created by the agricultural drainage ditches. Amy Goodman recently joined the lab as an intern in September, but has already been featured on the University of Maryland's Entomology Department's social media accounts. A blog post about her work on wetland restoration has been posted on Facebook, Instagram, X, & Bluesky Social. Lets go Amy!! The photos included in the blog posts can be found below. Helen Craig is a PhD student in our lab that regularly gets rewarded for her hard work. Her outstanding teaching abilities were recognized by the Charles F. Reichelderfer Memorial Mentorship Award and a 2024 - 2025 Teaching Achievement Award. She and three undergraduate students did a literature review on entomophagy. An article titled “Surf, Turf—and Chirp?: Entomology Team Delves Into Benefits, Challenges of Eating Insects” about their work was published in the MarylandToday, a University of Maryland publication. Her graduate research involves investigating the efficacy & social implications of using insects as a protein supplement in dairy cattle. Please fill out this survey to increase our knowledge of the general public’s views on the topic.  Helen Craig & Dr. Gruner posing for the camera as Helen is awarded with the 2024 - 2025 Teaching Achievement Award at the Entomology Department's annual retreat. |
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