SAN ANTONIO – A doctoral student in entomology at Texas A&M University won first place in a national competition among students researching insect control in agriculture, said a spokesman for the National Cotton Council of America.
Bradley Hopkins of Houston won the Gary Herzog Memorial Ph.D. competition recently at the annual Beltwide Cotton Insect Research and Control Conference in San Antonio, said T. Cotton Nelson, a spokesman for the cotton council.
Hopkins won for an oral presentation he gave on his research related to the cotton bollworm’s possible resistance to pyrethroid insecticides, said Dr. Patricia Pietrantonio, his research advisor and associate professor of entomology with Texas A&M and Texas AgriLife Research.
“I’m trying to better understand the molecular mechanism of resistance,” Hopkins said.
The award included a $500 prize.
“I certainly appreciate those guys for giving money to graduate students,” Hopkins said. “I’m sure it will go toward something related to school.”
The research competition included students from universities in the Cotton Belt region of the southeastern and southwestern U.S., according to the cotton council. The competition, named after a former entomologist from the University of Georgia, is designed to encourage quality graduate work in cotton entomology and promote graduate student attendance at the annual conference.
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