What's the Buzz?
Fall 2026 Notes from the Department Head
Welcome back, Hexapod Herald!
After a two-year hiatus, we’re thrilled to bring our departmental newsletter back to life. I began serving as Department Head in May 2025, after spending 20 years as a faculty member and administrator in the Odum School of Ecology. It has been both an exciting and humbling experience to get to know UGA Entomology in this new role, and I feel incredibly fortunate to be part of such a vibrant, accomplished, and collegial department. We are also in the midst of a remarkable period of transition: since mid-2023, UGA Entomology has welcomed 12 new faculty members while celebrating the retirements of 11 long-standing members of our department, including our most recent department head, Kris Braman. These transitions allow us to honor the tremendous contributions of colleagues who helped build the program we have today while welcoming new faculty who bring fresh ideas, expertise, and energy to its future.
Sonia Altizer with Gayle Noblet (Clemson Professor Emeritus and wife of former Department Head Ray Noblet), at the November 1, 2025 Entomology Celebration Event.
Place settings at the celebration event at Flinchum’s Phoenix near UGA Athens main campus.
The past year has given us plenty to celebrate. We marked 75 years of UGA Entomology in November 2025, honoring the people and ideas that have shaped our department and the many ways entomology continues to matter. We welcomed an exciting group of new faculty who are bringing fresh perspectives and expertise to our programs, including new leadership for the UGA Bee Lab.
Our students continue to thrive, with more than $63,000 in scholarships awarded to 22 students in 2025-26, successful Ecuador and Galápagos study-away experiences, and plans for a new three-week entomology study-away program in Kerala, India, on the horizon. And our faculty continue to make an impact across the full breadth of our mission—from groundbreaking research recognized with honors such as the Frontiers Planet Prize, major publications in Science and PNAS, expanding global collaborations through AgINSPIRE, and high-profile Extension programs that helped Georgia growers respond quickly and effectively to the 2025 cotton jassid outbreak.
Our most recent Entomology Faculty Retreat held at Rock Eagle 4-H Center in May 2026 included planning for future faculty hires and revitalizing and strengthening our undergraduate BSES degree.
There are certainly challenges ahead, including rebuilding enrollment, addressing facilities and infrastructure needs, and navigating a period of significant faculty transition. But I see this as an exciting period of renewal and opportunity for UGA Entomology. We are hiring, developing new courses and programs, strengthening student opportunities, expanding our research and Extension capacity, and thinking intentionally about what our department should look like for the next 75 years.
Hexapod Herald will be one way we share that journey—with stories about our research, students, alumni, faculty and staff, events, accomplishments, and the many people who make this department what it is. I hope you’ll read, enjoy, and join me in celebrating the remarkable community that is UGA Entomology.