News

Benefits from Agroforestry System (Image from renature.co)

Agroforestry for Food Security and Climate Change in Africa

PSU IBC graduate student fellow Kwadwo Amoah shares some of the research of Dr. Phokele Maponya from the Agricultural Research Council in Pretoria, South Africa. Dr. Maponya's full lecture on agroforestry practices in Africa can be viewed on Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iEBeUBbCRks

David Hughes named Chair in Global Food Security

David Hughes, professor of entomology and biology in Penn State’s College of Agricultural Sciences and creator of PlantVillage, a knowledge platform that helps farmers combat pests and adapt to climate change, has been named the Dorothy Foehr Huck and J. Lloyd Huck Chair in Global Food Security in the University’s Huck Institutes of the Life Sciences.

PlantVillage team lauded for projects to protect food supply amid COVID, locusts

Penn State researchers responsible for PlantVillage, a mobile app that helps farmers diagnose crop diseases and monitor pests, have been lauded for their work to help African farmers overcome challenges related to desert locusts and COVID-19.

USDA grant to support expansion of online tool for pollinator conservation

A Penn State-led research team has received a nearly $950,000 U.S. Department of Agriculture grant to create the next generation of an online decision-support tool designed to help conserve pollinator populations across the United States.

Entomologist to examine how plant domestication influences pollinator evolution

A grant of nearly $1.4 million from the National Science Foundation will support a researcher in Penn State's College of Agricultural Sciences in a study examining the influence of plant domestication on the ecology and evolution of wild pollinator species in agricultural landscapes.

Master Gardeners to celebrate pollinator-friendly garden program milestone

Without pollinators such as bees and butterflies, the world’s food supply would be reduced drastically, threatening the survival of many plants, animals and humans.

Ottar Bjørnstad elected to Norwegian Academy of Sciences and Letters

Ottar N. Bjørnstad, distinguished professor of entomology and biology and J. Lloyd & Dorothy Foehr Huck Chair of Epidemiology at Penn State, has been elected to the Norwegian Academy of Sciences and Letters. Bjørnstad was recommended as a result of his significant contributions to the fields of population ecology and quantitative epidemiology.

A wing and a prayer: Chickens, praying mantises among likely lanternfly enemies

Potential predators of the spotted lanternfly are being brought into focus thanks to shutterbugs who have captured images of birds, insects, mammals and even fish consuming the invasive planthopper.

Undergraduate Research Award Funds Pollinator Photo Project

Darya Alvarez completed a photography project funded by an Apes Valentes Undergraduate Research Award. Her goal is to help viewers gain a greater appreciation of the critical role that bees play in the survival of terrestrial ecosystems.

InsectEye team, which includes IBC Fellow Mathis, is selected to compete in Nittany AI Challenge!

Twenty Penn State teams with students from seven different colleges and six campuses, including for the first time Penn State World Campus, will each be awarded $500 to compete in the Prototype Phase of the 2021 Nittany AI Challenge.