Join ESA President, Lina Bernaola as we kickoff Entomology 2025: Bridging Generations with Innovation, Legacy, and Passion.
Sunday, November 9
5:30 PM - 7:30 PM
The opening plenary session will feature Sonny Ramaswamy presenting "Insect Science in Action: Entomology Advocacy" and Margarita Lopez-Uribe presenting "Lessons of Legacy, Innovation, and Passion from the Bee World."
Following a long career in academia and government, Sonny Ramaswamy retired recently after serving for almost seven years as president of the Northwest Commission on Colleges and Universities (NWCCU), which accredits higher education institutions across the United States. Previously, President Barack Obama appointed Sonny to direct the National Institute of Food and Agriculture, which catalyzes transformative discoveries, innovations, and education to address societal challenges impacting food, nutrition and health, agriculture, and natural resource systems. He served as dean of Oregon State University’s College of Agricultural Sciences, director of Purdue’s Agricultural Research Programs, university distinguished professor and head of entomology at Kansas State University, and professor of entomology at Mississippi State University. Sonny’s BSc (Agriculture) and MSc (Entomology) are from the University of Agricultural Sciences, Bangalore, India; his PhD (Entomology) is from Rutgers University. He undertook postdoctoral research at Michigan State University and is a graduate of Harvard’s Management Development Program.
Margarita Lopez-Uribe is the Lorenzo L. Langstroth Early Career Professor and Associate Professor of Entomology at Penn State University. She is also an extension specialist of Pollinator Health for Penn State Extension. Margarita received her BS in Biology from Universidad de los Andes (Colombia), her MS in Genetics and Evolution from Universidade Federal de São Carlos (Brazil), and her Ph.D. in Entomology from Cornell University (USA). She was an NSF postdoctoral research fellow at North Carolina State University before joining Penn State. Margarita was awarded the ESA Early Career Research Award in 2018, an NSF CAREER award in 2021, and a Presidential Early Career Awards for Scientists and Engineers (PECASE) in 2025. As an evolutionary ecologist, she is broadly interested in understanding how human-mediated selection shapes bee health and the long-term persistence of their populations in agricultural areas.