Mentoring
Mentorship plays an important role in the development of young scientists. I have benefited from great science mentors and endeavor to provide a similar experience for my mentees. To this end, I have mentored several undergraduate and graduate students on research projects that have resulted in publication and their continuation in the science field.
Clarisse Erb
Clarisse's MSc project is focusing on interspecies volatile-mediated communication between maize and bean plants. Intercropping has been shown to increase yields and decrease pest densities but the exact mechanism explaining these benefits has yet to be elucidated. She is specifically addressing the hypothesis of whether these crop plants can perceive and respond to each other's volatile cues.
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Yulisa Patino Moreno
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Yulisa's MSc project focuses on extrafloral nectar-mediated associational resistance via ants and parasitoids. While ant bodyguard behavior is well documented as are indirect defenses of plants by wasps, if this benefit is extended to neighboring plants is less well understood.
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Jia Wang
Jia, an international student at UC Davis, studied the extinction-colonization dynamics of a parasitic fly. Using an olfactometry bioassay, Jia determined the volatile cues the parasitic fly used to track its host. Based on her proposal for this work, she received the UC Davis Provost’s Undergraduate Fellowship for independent research.
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Edmund Antell
Ned, a summer field technician from Bates College, studied the pupation and food plant preferences of tiger moth caterpillars in a mesocosom experiment that he devised, executed, analyzed and co-authored in Ecology. Ned demonstrated that caterpillars would leave their primary host plant and search for mechanically defended plants on which to pupate. In an accompanying field study, we found that caterpillars were 97% more likely to survive when they pupated on defended plants compared to when they used those that were undefended. In addition to providing a mechanistic understanding of the spatial dynamics observed at the landscape scale, this work highlights the importance of accounting for movement in demographic studies, which is rarely done. Ned has gone on to graduate school at UC Berkeley.
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