Brief Summary of Minutes of Annual Meeting

1. Welcome to San Antonio by SEB-ESA President Jesus Esquivera a. Highlights of SEB-ESA include an Insect Expo on Monday, March 24, 2014 9 am. And description of the SEB-ESA Meeting 2. Introductions 3. USDA-NIFA Report – Bob Nowierski (not in attendance) but sent a report/file a. New CARE program Critical Agricultural Research and Extension. 3 yr projects, 150K total, must be R-E from the start. Letter of Intent due date June 4, 2014. Program Manager, Marty Draper b. Re-establishment of Specialty Crop Research Initiative (SCRI), Organic and Beginning Farmers and Rancher programs c. AFRI budget is up $25 million in the new budget proposal d. New pest management program consolidates many pest management programs, and combines IPM at 7 mill, PMAP 1.1 mill, Integrated Pest Management 3.5, IPM decision support, IPM Centers $35M, RIPM $2.4M(see NIFA notes). CAR and RAMP were actually cut. One of the implications of this is for the IPM program, which will be through competitive grants that are combined with other pest management programs. e. New emerging pests: SCRI funded at $80 million, $25 million committed to Citrus Health: citrus greening is predicted to cause the collapse of the FL citrus industry and is vectored by citrus psyllid. In FL the first yr 2% infection detected, 6 years later 100% was infected. All trees will need to be replanted; 1st infected tree in CA found in 2013. Mandarin oranges are resistant. 1/3 of specialty crop farm bill is dedicated to citrus greening. Grapefruit is somewhat resistance. Transgenics are being developed and are likely to be approved. Same gene is being deployed in spinach. f. Discussion of how the farm bill changes to more competitive grant funds will influence formula funds which are primarily dedicated to salary. Erosion of formula funds will have a large impact on staffing, g. Some institutions are looking at reallocating IDCs, more $ to central expenses for research support, h. Interest in the position that Monte Johnson held, is it being filled? i. New alfalfa research and extension $1.35 mill j. NIFA Update http://www.csrees.usda.gov/newsroom/newsletters/update14/2_20_14.html k. FFAR Foundation for Food and Agriculture– new initiative that represents an industry partnership. $200 million in funding; the goal is to foster public-private partnerships. FFAR must be matched 1:1 with non-federal funding. l. Regional climate hubs have been announced 4. State Reports – filed electronically through an ISU Entomology website. a. Data needs discussed and changes to this system will be made b. How data are used by departments were discussed. c. Discussed modifications to the state reports. All student information may not be needed. Would like to see the summary. Need space for more than one UG major. Modify the faculty line to TT FTE (no slash). Add a line to faculty line for lecturer or equivalent (professor or practice). i. Would like to have a summary report – for the quantitative fields ii. Partial save function and a complete button, and ability to edit reports. iii. Do not break down UG; How many in Ent major, how many in other major (name other) iv. If have gender info put it in. v. Add information on options to the narrative section vi. Grad student reporting total. vii. Would like to be able to print copy. d. There are also salary surveys conducted through CEDA. 5. Discussion (Yaninek) about issues facing entomology. Following some discussion at CEDA (Austin), a discussion of ‘cluster hires’ will help to inform strategic plans and department reviews. Who is going to train the next generation of plant protection/entomology. Taking a fresh look at where the discipline is heading. Interest in writing white papers. a. How can we have impact – on policy as it relates to ENT. Biocontrol is one area. b. White papers & topics for discussion: i. IPM Concepts — Crop Protection & Global Food Security (G. Brewer) ii. Needs in teaching of IPM (John Obrycki) iii. Micro-organism mediated interactions (Steve Yaninek) 6. ESA President Frank Zalom described science policy and Science Policy ESA fellows. ESA Governing Board (GB) approved the hire of Lewis Burke Assoc. a consultant/advocacy group in D.C. Also developed an ESA science board committee – represent each sections. Rob W. is the GB rep to the science policy board committee. This committee would define what would happen with the committee including such things as statements, newsletters. Committee or advocacy group can bring policy statement forward, and Lewis Burke will help to get issues/policy statements in front of decision makers, i. ESA committee members include : Mark Whalon, Michael Smith, Susan Weller, Reddi Palli ii. Policy documents/ statements – good scientific tools for views on particular issue. Policy statements can support advocacy, discussion with public officials, used at local, state and federal levels, and can be used by news media. iii. Two types: Society’s focused statement on hot button topics, such as climate change, GMO; also statements that are broader in scope that set a direction for the future, funding, and ecosystem services iv. Process for developing statements, includes an open and transparent process, need topics identified, and a committee for developing a statement, file a notice of intent and request input from members. There may be some issues that either NCAC015/SAC013 and/or CEDA would like to suggest. b. Science Policy Fellows –individuals that work with Lewis/Burke and visit Washington DC decision-makers. One approach is to have Science Policy fellows received training in working with decision-makers, included in public affairs updates, participate in national congressional, home district advocacy, contribute to social media, c. New Presidential committee has been established to identify structure for Science Fellows, solicit applicants, select, 5 fellows identified prior to Portland meeting. Training and activities would occur in 2015. Two year terms, with overlap of 5+5. Cadre of individuals that could provide expertise on science-based advocacy. There is some interest from the Canadian ENT society and they would like to have Canadians be part of the Science Policy Fellow program. d. Help align ENT challenges with other Society challenges. Policy could be used to coordinate and establish some similar policy statements that could be used on a local level for establishing faculty positions. e. Discussion on how to get society member buy-in and allow feedback. Perhaps a vote, or minority opinion, comment period. The statements might end with suggestions for future research. 7. Invasive species conference at Oklahoma State in March 2014. 8. Faculty position – future hires are general: Invasive species, water issues, pest resistance. Ask ESA to provide the past 12 months of job advertisements from universities to identify recent advances and needs for faculty positions and skills. a. Insect pop genetics, drug discovery/vaccine development, epigenetics, bioinformatics, insect-microbe interactions, biomaterials , genomics - b. Identification of research clusters at Purdue and Oklahoma State that include entomologists. In some states teaching assignments may drive some of the new positions. c. Clusters such as plant stress biology (NE), 9. Adjourn at 4:55pm, February 23, 2014. 10. Re-convene 8am. February 24, 2014 11. IPM ‘white paper’ that Gary Brewer had written for UNL. Crop Protection and Global Security. New directions in IPM, multiple tactics including environmental impacts on pest management and ecosystem considerations. EU emphasizes the ecosystem; facilitate natural enemy activities, pollinator health, soil health, and environmental protection including water quality and soil erosion. a. Many of our departments operate as discipline groups – however many colleges are asking for interdisciplinary work groups or initiatives. b. Need for plant breeding to consider major biological stressors to a system. Build specific examples around the issue ie. Pest resistance; weed resistance to herbicides, WCR, cotton thrips. c. Emergence of new pests – not predicted. For example in drought tolerant plants, spider mites come in earlier and neonicotinoid seed treatments have caused greater spider mite problems. Plant bugs are emerging as new pest. Continuing need for IPM. With technology in pest management moving to seed – for many growers pest management has become more of a black box and controlled by their consultants. d. Figure from the TX A&M with phyto-microbiomes (see Appendix) as the focus and how they related to ecosystem health, food safety/security, value added bio-products, and epidemiology/prevention. e. Pesticide reduction still needs to be on the table. General public would like to see pesticide reduction. New technologies have reduced the need for pest management decision-making. Concern was expressed about the relevancy of IPM 12. Discussion: Where microorganisms fit into entomology, new world of discovery – Steve Yaninek; microbe-mediated insect interactions. New technologies. Ex: termite work at Purdue that has found gut has both cellulose digesting enzymes but also microorganisms that are important contributors. Pathogens that influence systems, several examples are provided in a handout. a. New organisms identified in gut flora of termites, what is their biology, what role do they play. b. Insect immune response may be a function of plant health. Expand into these areas at several institutions. Skills needed include molecular bio, sequencing. c. Students need cross-discipline training that includes traditional ENT, genetics, molecular bio skills, and with this area also some training with plant path, microbiology. Assembling this type of position or positions requires ent component of a larger picture/cluster. d. Positioning programs for the future – more interdisciplinary. Cluster hire that was put together at OSU called National Institute for Microbial Forensics & Food and Agricultural biosecurity (NIMFAD) http://entoplp.okstate.edu/nimffab/home is an example of a highly successful team with strong leadership; this group needs a plan for the future. e. Ragsdale: Controlling exotic and invasive insect-transmitted pathogens. $6 million proposal to the legislature for Texas A&M ENT including new new faculty positions. This addresses animal health related. Forensic link to plant and animal health, with training available in evidence handling training. Consider regional approach to some of these specialized training programs specifically forensics and evidence handling. 13. Faculty evaluations. Many departments are measuring the same parameters, using metrics, Google Scholar. Spreadsheet on publications – break-out refereed, book chapters etc, For example, if the impact factor for journal >6 then counts as 2 papers. a. Ragsdale demonstrated the Texas A&M system that is used in ENT. Spreadsheet based includes several criteria grants (new grants awarded, expenditures,). This system has 100 point scale; 20 pts – service; 30% teaching, 50% research. Would need to add sheet for CES, lead program, evaluate program. b. Valuing team efforts. How do you consider authorship? 1st author vs. place in the authorship. Faculty who do not function as team members, or are not invited to continue as team members, will generally not succeed on the parameters that are measured. Some faculty report their input (intellectual, writing etc.) for each publication including journal impact factor. Impacts are submitted or reported for projects. Team awards are another way to recognize team efforts 14. Next year’s NCAC15/SAC13 meeting will be held in conjunction with NCB in 2015. Meeting will be held in Manhattan, KS May 31-June 3 2015. a. 2016 would plan to meet with southeastern branch meeting. Maybe North Carolina? 2016 will be the ICE in September. 15. Ruberson will chair in 2015 for NCAC15. Art was supposed to be the SAC15 chair. SAC012 did not have a quorum this year, so we will need to do an electronic ballot to identify a new Secretary and new Chair. 1. John Obrycki – “Addressing needs in teaching of IPM – concepts and sub-disciplines” a. Core Courses i. Purdue 1. Basic Entomology course – organismal 2. Insect Molecular Biology/Physiology 3. Graduate special topics courses (3-4, 1 to 3 credit courses) ii. Texas A&M 1. Fundamental core is Insect Taxonomy, Physiology, Ecology, Molecular Biology 2. Too few PhD students were not taking enough credit in ENTO for me to hire them as a lecturer (18 hrs. in the discipline) iii. Illinois 1. Strong core of 5 courses plus Stats; IPM, Taxonomy, Genetics/Genomics, Physiology, IPM, Statistics b. If this is an issue (lack of expertise to teach IPM or too few students interested in IPM) i. Would an online resource where collectively we have the expertise to teach parts of the applied curriculum ii. Should students who are destined for bench work be asked to spend a c. Industry Fellowships i. BS student sponsored for an MS 1. Works at Purdue and plans underway at Minnesota d. Certificate Programs – an option for some degree programs. Example Texas A&M offers a Public Health Entomology certificate. At Texas A&M a certificate can be thought of as an interdisciplinary minor. It takes 15 or more credits, it is noted on the transcript, but not on the diploma. State Reports http://www.ent.iastate.edu/chairs/results