Overview:

President Gilstrap challenged ESA to “Give Something Back” for the annual meeting in Indianapolis, and the ESA Headquarters staff, and our membership did just that.  Several ESA staff members, Paula Lettice, Judy Miller and Lisa Spurlock left ESA this year and all will be missed.  The exciting thing is that the rest of the staff, and our volunteers stepped up and gave their all to make this annual meeting a success!

The scientific program at the 2006 ESA annual meeting in Indianapolis featured more than 1700 scientific presentations.  During the 4-day meeting, we offered 6 Program symposia, 23 Section symposia and 34 Member symposia, 26 Ten-minute paper sessions, 22 poster sessions and 40 student competition sessions.  In addition, we had one Late-breaking symposium and one workshop. 

We had seamless performance from our new technologies that allowed presenters to load and update their oral presentations in a “just in time” mode.  We had a few glitches with the paper numbering system that will be easily solved next year as the makeup of our headquarters staff becomes stable. We were able to post the abstracts or posters of all sessions of the student competition during Wednesday’s final business meeting to fully recognize the new scientists that are moving our science forward and many of our oral presentations were recorded.

- Phil Mulder and Tom Royer, 2006 Program Committee Co-Chairs

Student Competition for the President’s Prize

We had 431 students participate in the 2006 competition. There were 278 oral presentations divided into 23 sessions, and 153 display presentations divided into 17 sessions. There were 69 judges for the oral presentations and 51 judges for the displays. In addition, 46 moderators were involved. A breakdown of the number of oral presentations and displays by section is provided in Tables 1 and 2, respectively. This information was presented at the awards ceremony. The winners and runners-up were listed in the PowerPoint presentation at the awards ceremony and are also available through ESA headquarters.

A new judging sheet (provided by Dr. Paul Weston) was implemented for both display and oral presentations. This was very well received by the judges who found them even simpler to use than the revised forms used last year. Judges used customized Excel files to record their scores, which were then automatically totaled on the head judge’s front page. Judges seemed pleased with the Excel files and the new judging forms.

Table 1. Ten Minute Oral Presentations for the President’s Prize, by Section.

     Section A                         43
     Section B                         26
     Section C                        127
     Section D                         19
     Section F                          59

Table 2. Diplay Presentations for the President’s Prize, by Section.

     Section A                           27
     Section B                           23
     Section C                           69
     Section D                            4
     Section F                           27

 - Bob Peterson, 2006 Student Competition Chair

Section C 

Section C members were very active in the 2006 Annual Meeting held at The Indiana Convention Center, Indianapolis.  They were involved in organizing four program symposia, some with members from other sections.  “Students giving back: using entomology to benefit society” was organized by Marc Fisher and Wilma Aponte-Cordero.  “Contribution of social insect studies to science and society” was organized by Tugrul Giray and Zachary Huang.  “Applied insect chemical ecology: lessons from the past are giving back solutions for the future”  was developed by Rizana Mahroof and Thomas Phillips, and “Bugs did it first: insect-inspired technology” was organized by Karen Kester and Felix Wackers. 

Four Section C symposia were organized:  “All movement great and small: honoring the career of Michael E. Irwin” by Gail Kampmeier and Blake Bextine; “Semiochemicals mediating behavior of cerambycid beetles” by Jocelyn Millar, Lawrence Hanks, and James Barbour; “Genomic approaches to understanding insect sociality” by James Hunt and Colin Brent; and “Integration of entomopathogen biology and trophic interactions when developing pest management programs” by Denny Bruck.  Nine regular symposia were represented by Section C members as organizers, including insecticide resistance, scarab beetles, population dynamics, tributes to Professor Thomas Odhiambo, and Wayne Berisford, women in entomology, communication of information, and the IOBC symposium. 

A total of 128+ volunteers from Section C acted as officers, judges, and moderators in 2006.  In the Student Competition, Section C members contributed 130 ten-minute-papers and 72 posters.  Overall, Section C members contributed 38% of oral papers (433/1,148 – 296 TMPs + 137 symposium papers) and 41% of posters (241/586).  The preliminary and final business meetings were attended by about 55 and 30 members respectively. 

-- Peter Price, 2005 Section C Chair
 

Section D

Section D’s program for 2006 included two Section D symposia, four related regular symposia, President’s Prize Student Competitions for 10-minute presentations and posters, and two sessions of regular 10-minute presentations. Subjects (organizers and moderators) were as follows:

Section D symposia:

Sun pm: Leishmaniasis (Victoria Solberg)
Mon pm: Biological control of muscoid Diptera (Tanja McKay & Phil Kauffman) 

(Regular) Symposia:

Sun am: Genomics and proteinomics in Acari (Quentin Fang & Amanda Loftis)
Sun pm: Cattle tick control (Robert Miller & Ron Davey)
Mon pm: Entomological plagues to biodiversity (Moses Kairo + 7 others)
Wed am: Department of Defense entomology: to serve and protect (Lisa O’Brien & Richard Johnson) 

Student competitions Monday am

10-minute papers, 2 sessions: n = 11, moderated by L Munstermann & Dana Nayduch, judged by Kirby Stafford, Quentin Fang, Wayne Kramer;  n = 10, moderated by Larry Arlian & Amanda Loftis, judged by Jerry Hogsette, Dave Mercer, Tim Lysyk. Alternate judge was Phil Kaufffman. 

Posters (n = 4), judged by Glen Scoles, Tanya MacKay, & Liz Wilkins 

Section D 10-minute papers

Tuesday: AM (17), moderated by Don Rutz & Sarah Butler; PM (15) moderated by Brad Mullens & Christine McCoy 

Section D posters

Tues (10), Wed (14) 

Highlights lectures (actually a Section D symposium)

Wed afternoon, Veterinary Entomology, Peter James; Medical Entomology, Stephen Dobson 

- Roger Moon, 2006 Section D Chair
 

Section E

Section E presented five well-planned section symposia, five TMP and 23 submitted posters at this meeting; however Section E had no student competition submissions. The strength of our Section E is the five symposia slots that are successfully planned yearly with the assistant of the Section E Chair and the Program Co-Chairs. The five well-attended and received symposia were:

1.   Integrated Approaches for the Prevention and Management of Invasive Pests of Ornamentals and Turf. Juang-Horng Chong and Frank A. Hale

2.   Implementation of Pest Management in Greenhouses: Challenges, Consequences, and Opportunities. Michael P. Parrella, Vanessa L. Carne-Cavagnaro, Raymond Cloyd, and Scott Ludwig

3.   Tapping the Power of the Land-grant System through Cooperative Extension: eXtension (http://intranet.extension.org). Bastiaan Drees and Kathy Flanders

4.   Invasive Species: Real Threats to the Homeland. Monte P. Johnson and George C. Hamilton

5.   When Giving Something Back Is Not An Option: Management Strategies For Invasive Woodborers.  Joseph A. Francese and David R. Lance

Chaired by Susan Whitney King, Section E awarded four posters the Certificate of Excellence:

1.       Pilot school program encourages adoption of integrated pest management. Clyde Ogg, Barbara Ogg, Erin Bauer, Stephen Vantassel, Shirley Niemeyer, Anne Streich, Roch Gaussoin, Robert Shearman, Sarah Browning, Kelly Feehan, George Haws, Delroy Hemsath, James Hruskoci, Dennis Ferraro

2.       Using distance education technologies to provide continuing education credits in IPM for industry. Rebecca Baldwin, Faith M. Oi, James Kocher

3.       Infestation risk analysis for coffee berry borer (Hypothenemus hampei (Ferrari)) (Coleoptera: Scolytidae) in processed green coffee beans. John W. Armstrong, Alex E. Bustillo, Jorge E. Peña

4.       Mediation of barley yellow dwarf in wheat by use of various insecticide applications. Douglas W. Johnson

Kudos to Program Co-Chairs Phil Mulder and Tom Royer, both members of Section E, for an excellent job in organizing an outstanding program at the 2006 Annual Meeting in Indianapolis. Phil Mulder is also the Governing Board Liaison from Section E and he provided informative updates on the present status and future plans for the Society. Of much concern is ESA Renewal and the impact on Section E. Sharon Dobesh, 2007 Section E Chair, has created a Section E listserv and distribution list to continue the dialogue that we have started on ESA Renewal. Keep in mind that Section E could be scattered among the 4 new sections. The idea of a listserv surfaced as a way for extension and regulatory members to keep in touch across those new sections as a network. For information on the restructuring proposal, refer to your Fall 2006 American Entomologist. We were instructed prior to our final business meeting in Indianapolis to conduct business as usual for 2007. The ESA Restructuring vote is scheduled for April 2007. Please contact Sharon Dobesh (sdobesh@oznet.ksu.edu) for any questions.

- Arnold Hara, 2006 Section E Chair and Sharon Dobesh, 2007 Section E Chair
 

Section F

Section F enjoyed a very successful meeting. We had three Section Symposia: Current State and Future of  Non-conventional Pest Management Methods in Urban Environments; The Larry L. Larson Symposium: Advances in New Chemical Insect Control Solutions; and Ecology and Management of Insect Vectors of Plant Pathogens in Vegetable Crops. There were 119 TMPs submitted (61 in F; 10 in Fa; 48 in Fb) organized into five 4-hour, two 3-hour, and one 2-hour sessions. This is down from the 140 TMPs given in 2005.  There were also five Section E TMPs placed into Section F sessions. We saw 107 posters submitted (67 in F; 21 in Fa; and 19 in Fb).  This is up from the 74 posters submitted in 2005.

In student competition, there were 61 TMPs and 28 posters submitted from Section F (37 TMPs and 17 posters in F; 10 TMPs and 7 posters in Fa; and 14 TMPs and 4 posters in Fb).

Section F provided 16 moderators for the TMPs and 24 judges and 10 moderators for the student competition. Section F members did an exceptional job of stepping forward to volunteer. Their help is very much appreciated!

We filled two Editorial Board vacancies for 2007.  Paul Borth (Dow Agrosciences) was nominated and unanimously voted by members to serve on the Arthropod Management Tests Editorial Board. Thomas E. ‘Gene’ Reagan (LSU) was nominated and unanimously voted by members to serve on the Environmental Entomology Editorial Board. Section F is fully represented on all Editorial Boards for 2007.

- Jeffrey Hahn, 2006 Section F Chair