Student Symposium 

It's that time again. The Toronto Entomologists' Association (TEA) is again holding its annual Student Symposium.
 
Graduate students, senior undergraduates and postdoctoral fellows are eligible to present either a talk or a poster. Everyone is welcome to attend. The audience is a good mix of professional and amateur entomologists who provide a large forum for the students.

Abstracts (250 words) will be published in our newsjournal Ontario Insects. Longer reports are optional. 
 
Date: Saturday March 24, 2012   1:00 PM
Location: Room 432, Ramsay Wright Zoological Building, University of Toronto
 
Students interested in participating should contact Doug Currie, academic co-ordinator of the symposium at dc.currie@utoronto.ca  with a provisional title. He will discuss whether a talk or poster is feasible. We aim for 6 talks and 10 posters and would like to cover a broad range of topics. Slots for the talks often fill up quickly.

Talks will be limited to 10 minutes plus 5 minutes for questions. Posters must be of reasonable size - 3 to 4 feet - and be capable of being attached to the walls without damaging them. Abstracts of the talks and posters (250 words) will be published in the TEA newsletter Ontario Insects.
 
Students from outside the GTA who are presenting a talk or poster are invited to apply for a $200 John D. Eberlie Research Travel Grant. Normally two such grants will be awarded each year. Application may be made when you contact Prof. Currie about reserving a spot at the Symposium; simply include a c.v. and indicate where you will be travelling from. Preference will be given to those students who:
-are making an oral presentation
-are travelling from farther away
-exhibit academic excellence.

Deadline for applying to participate in the symposium is Friday March 2, 2012.

Participants at the 2009 Student Symposium
(Photo by Don Davis)

To give an idea of the range of talks, the lineup for one of the previous symposia was as follows:

Titles of talks:

• Daniel Antwi-Amoabeng (Brock): Effects of Sugar diets on Black Fly (Diptera: Simuliidae) Longevity & Immunity: Implications for Parasite Transmission Efficiency.
• Jaclyn Bowen (Carleton): The evolution of ritualized vibration-mediated territorial signals in caterpillars (Drepanidae).
• Philip Careless (Guelph): Biosurveillance: Using a native wasp to find Emerald Ash Borers.
• Alan Fleming (Carleton): Sonic, ultrasonic and vibratory signalling in the Mountain Pine Beetle, Dendroctonus ponderosae Hopk. (Coleoptera: Curculionidae, Scolytinae).
• Joel Gibson (Carleton): Hilltopping in the Conopidae (Diptera).
• Crystal Vincent (Carleton): The function of sexually dimorphic pterostigmas in Ormia Ochracea (Diptera:Tachinidae).

Titles of posters:

• Ray Biastoch (York): The Reference Condition Approach to Benthic Invertebrate Monitoring in the Arctic.
• Syed Ghazanfar Ali (independent): Fruit fly control: an economical and non-polluting technique.
• Christopher Luszcek (York): Preliminary Assessment of the Composition and Diversity of Benthic Macroinvertebrate Communities in Lakes and Ponds of Nunavut, Canada.

Past Eberlie Travel Grant Award Recipients:

2000 - Aaron Deans, University of Toronto
2002 - Charmaine Condy and Amanda Soutar, University of Toronto
2003 - Melanie Youngs and Tara Stephens, University of Guelph
2004 - David Punzalan, University of Toronto
2005 - No award
2006 - Aynsley Thielman, Brock University
2007 - Jen Perry, University of Toronto
2008 - Crystal Vincent, Carleton University
2009 - Daniel Antwi-Amoabeng, Brock University
2010 - Andrew Young (University of Guelph) and Michelle Locke (Carleton University)
2011 - No award