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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
November 15, 2002
Contact: Linda McCandless, 315-787-2417
P.J. Chapman Fellowship Awarded to Catherine Westbrook
by John Zakour
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|
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
November 15, 2002
Contact: Linda McCandless, 315-787-2417
P.J. Chapman Fellowship Awarded to Catherine Westbrook
by John Zakour
 |
|
Catherine
Jane Westbrook receives the P.J. Chapman award at the New York State
Agricultural Experiment Station. Presenting the award to Westbrook are
(from left to right) Dr. James Hunter, Station Director; Dr. Wendell
Roelofs, Entomology Department Chairman; and Dr. Art Agnello, Westbrook's
major professor. |
GENEVA, NY: Catherine Jane Westbrook has been named the 2002-03 recipient of the P.J. Chapman Fellowship at the New York State Agricultural Experiment Station in Geneva, NY. The Cornell graduate student, who will finish her master's degree in entomology this spring, says "the only thing I am certain of is my life will always be full of insects." Once she finishes her master's degree, Westbrook will start working toward her Ph.D. in Laura Harrington's medical entomology lab on the Cornell campus in Ithaca.
Art Agnello, Westbrook's major professor, says, "Cathy's progress in this degree program is a classic example of how academic interest and achievement can be stimulated by the right situation." Although never having studied entomology previously, Westbook had worked for several years in a fruit entomology lab at U.C.-Berkeley, and developed an interest in ecological questions and international agriculture. She arrived at Cornell intending to pursue a non-thesis MPS degree.
"We re-directed her into a straight M.S. program," noted Agnello. "She's been studying the biology of tachinid flies that parasitize obliquebanded leafrollers in apples. Using an elegant and novel field bioassay technique, she has been able to document a great deal of information on the biology and life history of this group of insects that we really had no appreciation of before she started."
Westbrook's research is focused on investigating which species of flies in the family Tachinidae are utilizing the obliquebanded leafroller (Choristoneura rosaceana) as a host, and how the species' assemblage and parasitism rates vary through the apple growing season. This work has practical applications for pest control in apples, and provides insight into the life histories of these flies.
The Chapman Fellowship is given each year to a graduate student in entomology as voted on by the full professors of the entomology department at Geneva. Candidates are judged on the merits of their achievements while conducting graduate studies. The recipient is provided with a full-year fellowship that covers tuition and fees. The fellowship was established in 1992, and heavily endowed by Paul J. Chapman, a full professor of entomology, and later chairman of the department at Geneva, where he worked from 1929 to 1968.
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