Video Interviews with Bayer Young Scientists Now Live

Interviews with the three winners of the third Bayer Environmental Science “Young Scientist of the Year” contest are now live at www.pctonline.tv.

Ricky Vazquez, from the University of Florida, won the contest. Vazquez, whose research focuses on how the nesting and foraging behaviors of big-headed ants and Caribbean crazy ants affect the development of super colonies, will receive a $2,500 scholarship and a $10,000 grant to further support his research.

Finalist Dong-Hwan Choe, from the University of California-Riverside, is researching the necrophoric behavior of the Argentine ant and its implication on the horizontal transfer of slow-acting insecticides. Choe will receive a $1,500 scholarship.

Finalist Nicola Gallagher, from Ohio State University, is conducting research to understand termite-mediated alteration to food items by the eastern subterranean termite. Gallagher will receive a $1,000 scholarship.

The general scholarship fund at the three winners’ universities also will be awarded $1,000.

The three finalists presented their research during PestWorld 2008 in Washington, D.C.