The Zoom link is https://ucdavis.zoom.us/j/8120304398
Homicz focuses her research on the interactions between bark beetles and fire, including the effect of bark beetles on tree mortality after prescribed burning and mechanical thinning in the Sierra Nevada. She is also monitoring increases in fuel loads following a western pine beetle outbreak in the southern and central Sierra Nevada.
Homicz is advised by research forest entomologist Christopher Fettig of the Pacific Southwest Research Station, Davis, and molecular geneticist/physiologist Joanna Chiu, professor and vice chair of the department.
Fettig was a colleague of the late Steve Seybold (1959-2019), a Pacific Southwest Research Station research entomologist and a department lecturer and researcher. Seybold, who served as Homicz' first advisor, was one of the pioneering scientists researching the newly discovered thousand cankers disease (TCD), caused by the walnut twig beetle, Pityophthorus juglandis, in association with the canker-producing fungus, Geosmithia morbida.
Homicz holds associate of science degrees in biology and natural sciences from Shasta College (2016), and a bachelor of science degree in animal biology, with an emphasis in entomology, from UC Davis (2018). Her practicum (with Seybold as advisor): “Landing Behavior of the Walnut Twig Beetle on Host and Non-host Hardwood Trees under the Influence of Aggregation Pheromone in a Northern California Riparian Forest."
As an undergraduate student, Homicz served in the labs of Seybold and James Carey, UC Davis distinguished professor of entomology. As a graduate student, she has served as a teaching assistant for the Animal Biology major, and Introduction to Evolution and Ecology, and as a guest lecturer (forest entomology) in Introduction to Entomology, ENT 10. She presents her research at Entomological Society of America meetings, and at forest-affiliated conferences.
Homicz taught the fundamentals of forestry, including forest ecology, forest measurements and silviculture, at an eight-week UC Berkeley Forestry Camp in 2019. The camp culminated with a capstone project of developing a forest management plant for a 160-acre stand.
Active in campus and community projects, Homicz is a member of the UC Davis Graduate Student Association (EGSA) and represents EGSA at meetings of the campuswide UC Davis Graduate Student Association. She is also a member and former treasurer of UC Davis Entomology Club, advised by forensic entomologist Robert Kimsey. Homicz assisted with Kimsey's Pacific Deathwatch Beetle Surveys on Alcatraz Island.
As a volunteer at the UC Davis Bohart Museum of Entomology, Homicz sorted and identified specimens and integrated specimens into the museum collection. She also participates in the Bohart Museum outreach activities.
An article she co-authored, "Fire and Insect Interactions in North American Forests," is pending publication in Current Forest Reports. Among her other publications:
- Homicz, C.S., C.J. Fettig, A.S. Munson, and D.R. Cluck. 2022. Western pine beetle. USDA Forest Service, Forest Insect and Disease Leaflet # 1, 16pp. https://www.fs.fed.us/foresthealth/docs/fidls/FIDL-01-WesternPineBeetle.pdf
- Homicz, C.S., J. P. Audley, Y. Chen, R. M. Bostock, S. J. Seybold. 2020. Landing Behavior of the Walnut Twig Beetle on Host and Non-Host Hardwood Trees under the Influence of Aggregation Pheromone in a Northern California Riparian Forest. Agriculture and Forest Entomology.
- Audley, J. P., C. S. Homicz, R. M. Bostock, S. J. Seybold. 2020. A Study of Landing Behavior by the Walnut Twig Beetle, Pityophthorus juglandis, Among Host and Non-Host Hardwood Trees in a Northern California Riparian Forest. Agriculture and Forest Entomology