National Potato Council awards research scholarship
The National Potato Council awarded a $10,000 annual scholarship to University of Wisconsin-Madison doctoral student Justin Clements.
Clements works for the Molecular Environmental Toxicology Center in the entomology department and has been focusing his research on insecticide resistance in the Colorado potato beetle, according to a news release.
The work is important as scientists have sought to learn how pests react and develop resistances to insecticide, according to the release.
Russell Groves, who oversees the lab in which Clements works, says his research may result in new technology to limit the beetle's ability to develop resistances.
"He nicely blends theoretical and empirical insect genetic investigations with resistance management, and is very well regarded in the upper Midwest region," Groves said in the release.
Clements earned his bachelor's degree in biology at New Mexico Institute of Mining and Technology. He worked as a teaching assistant and a Wisconsin Alumni Research Foundation Student Ambassador, and redesigned a course called Ecotoxicology while working as an assistant lecturer at Wisconsin.