Congrats to the UH Entomology team, and good luck in November!
Consisting of grad students Michelle Au, John Adam Lawrence, Maisha Lucas, and Juliana Salehi of the Dept. of Plant and Environmental Protection Sciences, the team took 1st place at the Pacific Branch Entomological Society of America meeting on April 3 in Seattle.
The UH team moved through the preliminary rounds and made it to the finals day rounds, where they narrowly beat University of California-Riverside in a tense tie-breaker round, then went on to convincingly beat Washington State University in the final round. The win qualifies them to compete at the national-level Entomology Games in November at the ESA’s annual meeting in National Harbor, MD.
“The Entomology Games is a nationwide insect trivia student contest, including teams from the nation’s biggest entomology programs,” says proud coach Mark Wright; the students are from his and Jia-Wei Tay's labs. “They put effort into this, including studying a diversity of topics pertinent to all aspects of entomology, often the most obscure facts about insects, and participating in lunchtime practice runs during the months leading up to the meetings.”
“Our team has done well in the past few years, winning the national contest in 2021,” Mark continues. “Hopefully we can have a good showing in November this year! The Entomology Games is a popular event at the ESA annual meeting, drawing large numbers of spectators. Our participation raises awareness of our entomology program nationally.”
Jia-Wei adds, "They did it, and we're so proud of them! I have faith in our current team for the upcoming national competition!”
The ESA provides each team with a travel award to assist them in getting to the meeting, but our CTAHR students are also supported by the Au Yeung, Sui Shan and Emmett Richard Easton Scholarship at CTAHR; Tanada Family Entomology Fund; and Nan-Yao and Jill H. Su Endowed Fund for Urban Entomology.
Watch the 2021 play by play (fast forward to 3,25s) when the PEPS team took the National title.