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Charlie Linn (left) presents certificate for
Villani Award to John Diaz-Montano (right).
Credit: J. Ogrodnick – NYSAES, Cornell
University
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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
July 11, 2007
Contact: Linda McCandless, llm3@cornell.edu
Cornell graduate student John Diaz-Montano
receives Michael Villani Award
by Joe Ogrodnick
Geneva, NY: John Diaz-Montano, a Ph.D. student working with Professor Anthony
Shelton at Cornell University's New York State Agricultural Experiment
Station (NYSAES) in Geneva, NY, is this year's recipient of the
Michael G. Villani Award. The award, which each year provides a
stipend of $1,500 to further the research of a graduate student
in the Department of Entomology, was established through a bequest
from Michael Villani, a highly regarded member of the Entomology
faculty who died in 2001.
Villani's research was focused on the interrelationships between turfgrass insects
and the soil environment. He developed a unique radiographic technique to study
the behavior of soil insects, and his research established the NYSAES as the
worldwide center of excellence for this type of research. "Mike had a deep
affection and great concern for all the people in the department," said
Charles Linn, a senior research associate. "It was his wish that the recipient
of the award be selected by the permanent technical staff and academics, not
to include faculty. He believed that mentoring between a faculty member and a
student was important, but that it was also important to encourage a bond between
members of the technical staff and the students."
"The more that one is around John Diaz-Montano,
the more one understands how interesting his life has been and what a bright
future he will have," Shelton said. After emigrating from Colombia, Diaz-Montano
enrolled at Kansas State, where he earned a master of science degree in 2006
for his work on soybean germplasm resistance to aphids and the plant pest's probing
and feeding behavior. His research won him the award for best student poster
at the 2006 national meeting of the Entomological Society of America.
"I offered John several options when he arrived
at Cornell last fall, and he decided to work on thrips on onions," Shelton
said. "Onion thrips have become more problematic, not only because they
have become resistant to some of the major insecticides, but also because they
have recently been documented to transmit iris yellow spot virus to onions in
New York." According to Shelton, Diaz-Montano will study host plant resistance
to both the thrips and the virus by means of extensive fieldwork and detailed
behavioral assays in the laboratory.
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