Jesse Evans joined the lab as a PhD student and will be studying the phenology and ecology of Dermacentor andersoni ticks in WA. Welcome to the lab, Jesse!
December 2023
Karen (with Kennan Oyen and Reginaldo Bastos) attended the Pacific West Area New Scientist Training in Albany, CA. It was great to meet and network with other new scientists and leadership within the area and to learn more about the USDA! 😊
Western Regional Research Center for USDA-ARS in Albany, CA
New scientists and leadership in PWA!
November 2023
Karen, Vera, and Kayla Earls (post-doc with Kennan Oyen)presented at the Entomological Society of America conference in National Harbor, MD. Awesome job, ladies!
Karen led several events at EntSoc, including two symposia, a mini-workshop, and a workshop.
Karen served as the Student Competition Co-Chair (w/ Floyd Shockley) for EntSoc 2023 and will be moving into the Program Co-Chair position for EntSoc 2024 - see you in Phoenix, AZ!
Karen finished her term as the MUVE Early Career Representative for EntSoc.
Vera was invited as a seminar speaker for the Advances in Immunology and Microbiology Seminar (AIMS) Series hosted by the Department of Veterinary Microbiology and Pathology at WSU. She presented her current modeling work, including wildlife hosts of cattle fever ticks (Rhipicephalus microplus and Rhipicephalus annulatus), Zimbabwe ticks, and forecasting methods for the lone star tick (Amblyomma americanum). Way to go, Vera!
Karen presented a seminar talk for Rutgers University Department of Entomology, where she talked about her current work involving ticks and wildlife hosts of the Babesia bovis cycle.
September 2023
Karen attended the Society for Vector Ecology meeting in Charleston, SC. She hosted a symposium on wildlife-vector interactions and presented Vera's work on modeling wildlife hosts of cattle fever ticks in Texas. She was also appointed as the Director for the Early Career Professionals Development and Education Committee, which was newly created to engage with student and ECP members in SOVE.
Speakers from the symposium "Understanding Wildlife-Vector Interactions and Applications in the One Health Paradigm." Co-organized by Karen Poh and Danielle Tufts.
August 2023
Emily Waniwa joined the lab as an MS student and will be studying ticks and tick-borne disease distributions in Zimbabwe. Welcome, Emily!
Summer 2023
Vera attended not one, but TWO awesome workshops! She attended the Colorado State University Bayesian Statistics Short Course, which is a 2-week intensive course dedicated to conducting Bayesian statistics. Vera then attended the VectorBytes Workshop at Virginia Tech in Blacksburg, VA, where she learned about their open source databases. She was also awarded travel scholarships to attend both these workshops. Awesome job, Vera!
Amanda Brown joined the lab as a Undergraduate Researcher and she will be learning how to conduct molecular testing to detect pathogens in ticks. She will also be learning to ID ticks and help us sort through historical tick samples. Welcome, Amanda!
Sara Wylie technically joined the lab in summer 2022, but she recently switched projects to optimize protocols for examining and quantifying tick behavior. Welcome (again), Sara!
Karen was invited to give a presentation at the National Cattleman's Beef Association. She presented preliminary results on the Asian longhorned tick and Babesia bovis.
The lab had a lab outing to Moscow Axe Throwing! No better way to let out some stress and science rage than by throwing sharp things at walls. 🪓🔪🗡
May 2023
Karen gave a seminar during the Virtual Vector Biology Seminar Series, titled "The Hostess with the Mostest: Tick-Host Relationships at the Landscape and Individual Level and Implications for Tick-Borne Diseases.
Karen and Kennan Oyen attended the Grand Challenges meeting on control of cattle fever ticks and bovine babesiosis, where they presented some updates and proposed work on their projects.
Karen was awarded the Eastern Branch AND the Pacific Branch Early Career Professional Awards from the Entomological Society of America.
Grand Challenges Meeting in Texas
Karen being recognized for the "Excellence in Early Career Award" from the Eastern Branch ESA meeting.
February 2023
Mitzi Aguilar joined the lab as a Scientific Assistant/Lab Manager. She will be working on various projects as our molecular biologist expert. Welcome, Mitzi!
The lab is open for business! We finally opened our doors and we're ready for action... and to study all things tick-y!
Vera Pfeiffer joined the lab as an ORISE Post-Doctoral Fellow and will be working on various projects related to spatial and temporal modeling of ticks and tick-borne diseases. Welcome, Vera!
Sara Wylie joined the lab to learn more about molecular techniques to test ticks for pathogens. She is mentored by Kennan Oyen. Welcome, Sara!