Month: January 2020

Congratulations to Natalie Aguirre and Morgan Thompson, both of whom received funding from the Texas Ecological Laboratory (“Ecolab”) Program for their respective dissertation research projects. Natalie’s project will focus on the prevalence of oak wilt disease in Texas and how this disease affects oak-insect interactions. Morgan’s research will examine the chemical ecology underlying insect interactions with a weedy gourd species. Natalie and Morgan are eager to begin their fieldwork in the spring, and we are excited to see where these research projects take them!

The Helms Lab welcomed a new student, Andreísa Fabri Lima, in mid-December 2019. Andreisa joins us as a visiting doctoral student from the Federal University of Lavras in Brazil where she works under the advisement of Dr. M. Fernanda G.V. Peñaflor. Her project in our lab will explore how insecticides alter plant-insect interactions. We look forward to exchanging ideas and learning from one another over the coming months!