2013 International Branch Award Winners
International Branch Distinguished Scientist Award Winner
2013 International Branch J.H. Comstock Award Winner
2013 International Branch Graduate Student Award Winner
2013 International Branch Distinguished Scientist Award Winner
Le Kang
Chinese Academy of Science
China
Dr. Le Kang is a professor of entomology and ecological genomics at the Institute of Zoology, Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS). He was born in 1959 in Huhhot, Inner Mongolia, and graduated from the Agricultural University of Inner Mongolia in 1982 with a bachelor degree and from China Agricultural University in 1987 with a masters degree. He obtained his Ph.D. in ecology from the Institute of Zoology and Graduate University of Chinese Academy of Sciences in 1990, since which he has successively been an assistant professor in 1990, associate professor in 1991, and full professor in 1995 at Institute of Zoology (CAS). He served as Director-General of the Bureau of Life Science and Biotechnology (CAS) from 1999 to 2008, and Director of National Laboratory of Integrated Management of Pest Insects and Rodents from 2000 to 2008. He is currently the Director-General of the Institute of Zoology and President of the Beijing Institutes of Life Science (CAS).
Dr. Kang has been conducting studies on the mechanism of insect eco-genomics and adaptation using locusts and leafminers as model system. He integrates multiple approaches from molecular biology, physiology to behavior analysis to resolve the ecological questions involving the problems of pest insects. His most significant achievement is to have revealed the molecular mechanisms of locust phase change and to have largely influenced the direction of locust research.
Dr. Kang has published more than 160 research papers in international peer-review journals, with over 1,800 citations. He has been invited to write review articles for the Annual Review of Entomology, Philosophical Transactions of Royal Society, and CAB Reviews. His research achievements in eco-genomics, cold tolerance, and tritrophic interactions have been recognized by international entomological societies. In 2008, he was elected as a council member of International Congress of Entomology, and in 2009, he was conferred an Honorary Doctoral Degree of Science by the University of Nebraska. He was elected as a member of the Chinese Academy of Sciences in 2011 and a member of the World Academy of Science (TWAS) in 2012. He has also received several important awards including the Life Science & Biotechnology Prize, Ho Leung Ho Lee Foundation (Hongkong) 2011, the Award of Natural Sciences of China 1999. He is Editor-in-Chief of the journal Insect Science, Associate Editor-in-Chief of Protein & Cell, and editorial board member of the Journal of Insect Physiology. He serves as a reviewer for about 40 international journals.
2013 International Branch J.H. Comstock Award Winner
Kumaran Nagalingam
Queensland University of Technology
Australia
Kumaran Nagalingam is a behavioral and chemical ecologist with a strong interest in understanding the behavior of economically significant arthropods. He is also interested in the development of resistance to insecticides and insecticidal proteins, and integrated pest management. He is currently studying tephritid fruit flies to answer questions on the evolution and functional significance of male attractants, in addition to transcriptional and physiological mechanisms underpinning behavioral changes after ingestion of phytochemical lures with a team led by Associate Professor Tony Clarke.
Kumaran received his BSc in 2004 and MSc in 2006 from Tamilnadu Agricultural University (TNAU) in India with a State Government Student Research Project Award. After graduation, he joined a research team at TNAU as a Research Fellow and evaluated the bio-efficacy, safety, residual toxicity and dissipation of newer insecticide molecules. This research was used to advise the Indian Government on the registration of new insecticides. He has also worked at the Central Institute of Cotton Research on the resurgence of sucking pests in transgenic cotton crops and resistance development in bollworms to Bt toxins. Kumaran is also equally interested in teaching, and has assisted in teaching undergraduate students on experimental science and general entomology courses. He has published a total of 12 papers in international and national peer-review journals including one paper as lead author in Animal Behavior.
Kumaran has pursued his PhD research at QUT with an International Post Graduate Scholarship from the Australian Government, a Post Graduate Research Award and a Vice-chancellors Top-up from QUT. In addition, during his PhD he won an Australian Entomological Society travel grant and QUT Grant-in-aid to attend ICE 2012 in Daegu. He is very much looking forward to participating at 61st Annual Meeting of ESA in Austin later this year.
2013 International Branch Graduate Student Award Winner
Udari Madushani Wanigasekara
University of Manitoba
Canada
R.W.M. Udari Madushani Wanigasekara received a first-class Honors degree in Zoology from the University of Peradeniya in Sri Lanka in 2010. Currently, she is a Master’s student working with Dr. Barb Sharanowski in the Department of Entomology at the University of Manitoba in Canada. Throughout her academic career she has been very interested in plant-animal interactions and pest management. For her bachelors degree research, she investigated the flower visiting bees of the vegetable crop, Solanum violaceum, and the efficiency of buzz pollination by bees on fruit and seed production in Sri Lanka. Although S. violaceum is considered a wild plant in most of the world, it is a vegetable crop in Sri Lanka. This was the first study to identify the wild pollinators of S. violaceum and their importance in fruit and seed set.
For her masters degree research, she is studying hymenopteran parasitoids that attack cutworms in canola. Cutworms cause severe economic damage in several Canadian agricultural crops, including canola. Her research will examine and delimit the species of parasitoids attacking cutworms in canola in Manitoba, determine the phenology of the parasitoid community attacking cutworms, develop an extension publication with an identification key to common parasitoids in canola, and perform the background research to develop habitat management strategies to increase the effectiveness of parasitoids for controlling cutworms. Additionally, she is testing prospective cover crops that can enhance the fecundity and efficacy of specific parasitoid species. The overall goal of this study is to develop sustainable pest management strategies using parasitoids and habitat management.
Udari has received a University of Manitoba Graduate Fellowship, Manitoba Graduate Scholarship, International Graduate Student Entrance Scholarship from University of Manitoba in Canada and University award for academic excellence from the University of Peradeniya in Sri Lanka. Her long-term goal is to bring the knowledge she learns in Canada to her home country, Sri Lanka, to continue to research and develop integrated pest management strategies that ensure long-term sustainability of food production with limited environmental impact.
