Huge green poisonous stinging caterpillar with long spines from the rainforest in Bolivia, South America, on a piece of wood.

2025 Plants, Insects and Microbes Symposium

Department of Entomology & Plant Pathology /

MAY 20, 2025

7:45AM-8:00PM

Academic Classroom and Laboratory Complex (ACLC) 012, 202 & 208

Presented by Auburn University College of Agriculture ENTOMOLOGY & PLANT PATHOLOGY DEPARTMENT

SPEAKERS

Clare Casteel Headshot

Dr. Clare Casteel

Dr. Casteel is an Associate Professor at Cornell University, specializing in plant-insect and plant-microbe interactions. Her research integrates chemical ecology and molecular biology to understand the mechanisms driving these interactions and to develop sustainable pest control strategies. Currently, Dr. Casteel’s research program focuses on two areas: 1) understanding the function of beneficial soil microbes and their impact on crop resilience to hemipteran insects and 2) deciphering the role of plant individual viral proteins and their plant targets in facilitating insect transmission of plant viruses and changes in plant chemistry.

Clare Casteel Headshot

Dr. Brock Harpur

Brock Harpur is an Associate Professor in the Entomology Department of Purdue. Brock arrived at Purdue after completing a National Science and Engineering Research Council Postdoctoral Fellow at the Donnelley Centre, the University of Toronto with Ben Blencowe. His work explores the evolution and genetics of honey bees. Brock completed his Ph.D. on population genomics of honey bees at York University with Amro Zayed as an Elia Research Scholar. He’s been a beekeeper for over 15 years.