ATLANTA — Dr. Shripat Kamble, University of Nebraska-Lincoln entomology professor, was honored with the 2012 Distinguished Achievement Award at the National Conference on Urban Entomology in Atlanta, on Monday.
Kamble was cited for his contributions to research, extension and teaching in the field of urban entomology. He is nationally recognized for his research on distribution and persistence of insecticides in soil, insecticide resistance and baiting technology. His research involves ants, bed bugs, cockroaches and subterranean termites.
After accepting the award Kamble gave the Arnold Mallis Memorial Award Lecture — a forward-looking presentation he titled “Science of –omics in Urban Entomology.” Kamble reviewed how entomology has evolved throughout the years, noting that, “In the olden days, in our program, it was about working with the whole insect; today, it is about working with one single cell.” Kamble says it’s important that the next generation of entomologists understand the “-omics,” meaning a field of study in biology ending in – omics, such as proteomics, genomics, functional genomics, structural genomics and comparative Genomics. Kamble, for example, encourages his students to take courses such as:
- Molecular Biology
- Insect Biochemistry
- Insect Molecular Genetics
- Molecular Phylogenetics
- Bioinformatics
- Signal Transduction
- Gene Expression and Replication
In the following video, Kamble discusses the significance of the Distinguished Achievement Award in Urban Entomology and further discusses “-omics.”