During the past week, the Gratton Lab members attended the annual Entomological Society of America national conference in Knoxville, TN.  We had two car loads drive the 12 hours down to TN , with both presenters and non-presenters in attendance. This was the first time some of us (Maddy, Emma, Kaitlin) had been to this particular conference and thus did not present. However, it was a valuable experience simply to gauge how things worked and to see what makes a successful, and sometimes unsuccessful, presentation of science.  Communicating science to a broad audience can be very difficult, and we were able to pick up some pointers by listening to the vast diversity of presentations (in addition to learning about some cool new research!)

The Gratton Lab was well represented- Claudio, Jamin, Hannah and Rachel gave talks, and Julia presented her poster. Everyone did a great job. Below are the titles of their presentations:

Claudio: To what extent do native pollinators contribute to fruit production in Wisconsin?

Hannah: Assessing the pollination requirements of a perennial crop 

Rachel: Impacts of local and broad-scale landscape structure on the diversity of pollinators in Wisconsin agroecosystems

Jamin: Aquatic insects have positive indirect effects on terrestrial prey

Julia: Species-specific physiological response of common Coccinellidae to the impact of landscape composition

Heidi, David, and Erica were also at the conference, which was a nice reunion for the Gratton lab. Another benefit of going to these national conferences is to catch up with past lab members and friends. We were able to have an alumni dinner together on Tuesday night, enjoying each other’s company and the beautiful surroundings of Knoxville.  All in all this was a successful conference for everyone who came! Below are some of the few photos we took…

This article was posted in Agroecosystems, Lab News, Pollinators.