The following international scientists were selected to deliver Plenary or Keynote Lectures at the 2016 International Congress of Entomology. Click on their names for more information and their presentation from ICE 2016.
Dr. Peter Agre (Keynote)- Johns Hopkins School of Medicine, USA
Moderator: Marcelo Jacobs-Lorena, Johns Hopkins School of Medicine, USA
Presentation Title – Opening Doors Worldwide through Medical Science
Sunday, September 25 – 6:30 p.m.
Dr. Agre is the Bloomberg Distinguished Professor at the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine and Bloomberg School of Public Health. Dr. Agre shared the 2003 Nobel Prize in Chemistry for discovering aquaporins, a family of water-channel proteins found throughout nature that underlie numerous physiological processes and clinical disorders.
Dr. Carolina Barillas-Mury – National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, USA
Moderator: Anthony (Tony) A. James, University of California, Irvine, USA
Presentation Title – Mosquito Immunity and the Invisible Parasite: Implications for Global Malaria Transmission
Tuesday, September 27 – 8:00 a.m.
Dr. Barillas-Mury joined the National Institutes of Health in 1993 and heads the Mosquito Immunity and Vector Competence Section. She is interested in understanding the interactions between the mosquito immune system and Plasmodium parasites that are critical for malaria transmission, with the ultimate goal of disrupting the parasite’s life cycle and preventing human disease.
Dr. Jacqueline Beggs – University of Auckland, New Zealand
Moderator: Myron Zalucki, The University of Queensland, Australia
Presentation Title – Ecological impacts of insect invaders
Thursday, September 29 – 8:00 a.m.
Dr. Beggs is one of New Zealand’s leading entomologists, based at the School of Biological Sciences, University of Auckland. Her main research focus is on the ecology of invasive invertebrates, complemented by research on the biodiversity and conservation of native species. Jacqueline has demonstrated the major impact of introduced Vespula wasps in New Zealand, and her research on biological control and population modelling of these wasps has provided a sound basis for ongoing development of control tools.
Dr. Juan Andres Bisset Lazcano (Invited Lecture) – Institute of Tropical Medicine “Pedro Kouri”, Cuba
Moderator: Dr. Walter S. Leal, University of California, Davis
Presentation Title – Aedes aegypti management strategies for dengue control in Cuba
Tuesday, September 27 – time TBA
Dr. Bisset is a leading Cuban entomologist and the current head of the Vector Control Department at the Institute of Tropical Medicine “Pedro Kouri”. He has published over 100 papers on ecology, dynamic population of insects, insecticide resistance and the resistance mechanisms involved. His primary research focus is on Culex quinquefasciatus, Anopheles albimanus and Aedes aegypti. Since 1990 he has served as an adviser to many projects related to malaria and dengue vector control in Latin America and has received numerous international awards for his work.
Dr. James R. Carey – University of California, Davis, USA
Moderator: Frank G. Zalom, University of California, Davis, USA
Presentation Title – Insect biodemography: A 21st century guided tour
Monday, September 26 – 8:00 a.m.
Dr. Carey, distinguished professor of entomology at the University of California, Davis, is the world’s foremost authority on arthropod demography. He has authored more than 250 scientific articles, including landmark papers in Science that shaped the way scientists think about lifespan limits and actuarial aging, and two articles in the Annual Review series that provide new syntheses on insect biodemography.
Dr. Jennifer Fewell – Arizona State University, USA
Moderator: Gene Robinson, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, USA
Presentation Title – The spirit of the hive: mechanisms of social evolution
Thursday, September 29 – 8:00 a.m.
Dr. Fewell is President’s Professor at Arizona State University (ASU) and currently a Fellow at the Wissenschaftskolleg zu Berlin. She was the Founding Director of ASU’s Center for Social Dynamics and Complexity. Her research focuses on the organization of insect societies, and on the interplay between self-organization and selection in shaping social groups.
Dr. Fred Gould – North Carolina State University, USA
Moderator: May Berenbaum, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, USA
Presentation Title – Will genetically engineered pests protect health, biodiversity, and crop production?
Friday, September 30 – 8:00 a.m.
Dr. Gould is a distinguished university professor at North Carolina State University, with appointments in the Entomology and Biology Departments. He focuses on the potential for engineering insect pests to suppress disease and crop loss, and to protect endangered species.
Dr. Jules Hoffmann (Keynote) – Strasbourg University Institute for Advanced Study, France
Moderator: Elena A. Levashina, Max Planck Institute for Infection Biology, Germany
Presentation Title – Innate Immunity: from Insects to Humans
Wednesday, September 28 – 8:00 a.m.
Dr. Hoffmann is a professor of integrative biology at the Strasbourg University Institute for Advanced Study. He is also emeritus research director of the French National Research Center, and he served as vice-president and president of the French National Academy of Sciences from 2006-2010. Dr. Hoffmann was awarded the 2011 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for “discoveries concerning the activation of innate immunity”. Listen to Dr. Bruce Beutler, American immunologist and geneticist, who shared the 2011 Nobel Prize in Physiology and Medicine with Dr. Jules Hoffmann, as he discusses Dr. Hoffman’s work.
Dr. José Roberto Postali Parra -ESALQ-University of Sao Paulo, Brazil
Moderator: Marcos Kogan, Oregon State University, USA
Presentation Title – The egg parasitoid Trichogramma as a tool for IPM in Brazil
Monday, September 26 – 8:00 a.m.
Dr. Postali Parra is a professor at the Department of Entomology, College of Agriculture “Luiz de Queiroz” (ESALQ), University of Sao Paulo, Brazil. His field of expertise is insect biology, nutrition, and biological control, with emphasis on parasitic Hymenoptera.
Dr. John A. Pickett – Rothamsted Research, UK
Moderator: James H. Tumlinson, Pennsylvania State University, USA
Presentation Title – Agro-ecological manipulation of insect behaviour shows how to exploit signaling between insects and their hosts via GM
Friday, September 30 – 8:00 a.m.
Dr. Pickett is the first Michael Elliott Distinguished Research Fellowship at Rothamsted Research, where he contributes to the Chemical Ecology group and is very much involved with research activities in the UK and around the world.
Dr. Baldwyn Torto – International Centre of Insect Physiology & Ecology (ICIPE), Kenya
Moderator: Catherine Loudon, University of California, Irvine, USA
Presentation Title – Rift Valley Fever in East Africa: three frontiers, one purpose
Tuesday, September 27 – 8:00 a.m.
Dr. Torto is an organic chemist and principal scientist at the International Centre of Insect Physiology & Ecology (ICIPE) in Nairobi, Kenya. He is currently coordinating research aimed at conserving the rich honey bee diversity in Africa for important ecosystem services for food security, and he is also championing the development of improved management tools against vector-borne emerging infectious diseases on the continent.