Gwen Erdosh Receives Inaugural Garczynski Undergraduate Research Scholarship

UC Davis undergraduate entomology major Gwendolyn "Gwen" Erdosh, a research scholar in the campuswide Research Scholars Program in Insect Biology (RSPIB) and president of the UC Davis Entomology Club, is recipient of the inaugural Dr. Stephen Garczynski Undergraduate Research Scholarship from the Pacific Branch, Entomological Society of America (PBESA).  

Erdosh will receive a $1000 award and waived registration for the PBESA annual meeting April 10-13 in Santa Rosa. 

The award memorializes a research geneticist at the USDA Agricultural Research Service in Wapato, Wash., with “an unmatched passion for mentoring undergraduate students in their research,” PBESA announced. Garczynski (1960-2019) specialized in the molecular genetics of codling moths and other tree fruit pests.  

Erdosh is a researcher in the lab of community ecologist  Louie Yang, a UC Davis Department of Entomology and Nematology professor and a co-founder and co-director of RSPIB.  “Gwen has been particularly motivated to examine the effects of smoke on insect olfaction and behavior, and recently received a Provost's Undergraduate Fellowship (PUF) to support this work,” wrote Professor Yang in his letter of recommendation. She is developing “a Y-tube olfactometer apparatus to test some of the hypotheses she has been developing. She has been amazingly creative, innovative and independent in this work, and I'm excited to see what she learns.”

“Gwen has the skills and motivation to excel in research,” Yang noted. “She is extraordinarily knowledgeable about insect diversity and has strong and persistent interest in research. The project that Gwen is focused on is of both applied and fundamental importance, and her latest iteration of this experiment offers a good first step towards assessing the ecological importance of wildfire smoke for insects.”

Gwentomologist. Erdosh, known as “Gwentomologist” on Instagram, with 24,000 followers, anticipates receiving her bachelor's degree in 2023.

 The awards packet required a two-page essay outlining the applicant's current research and future career aspirations, and a letter of nomination from a research mentor or professor.  Judges scored the applicants on such attributes as energy, passion, innovation and initiative, creativity and originality an potential impact.

In her essay, Erdosh wrote that getting accepted into RSPIB and becoming a member of the Yang lab “has given me the opportunity to get critical research experience as an undergrad. My current research project aims to determine whether an insect's ability to locate food is hindered by ambient smoke."

"My research idea was motivated by a desire to understand and predict potential ecological  responses to climate change," Erdosh wrote. "One of the effects of climate change is higher rates of extreme events. Recently, California has been experiencing larger, more damaging fires than seen in previous years. One aspect of fires is the immense amount of smoke produced. This air pollution is made up of particulates and volatiles, ones that are hazardous to the health of many organisms. The impact that smoke has on humans has been studied, but its impact on smaller animals is often overlooked. Little to no experiments have been done to test the effects of smoke on insect communication. Smoke may interfere with chemical signaling and prevent an insect from locating its food and conspecifics. I am currently investigating the effects of smoke on fruit fly behavior and its olfactory system using a Y-choice apparatus; the objective is to determine whether fruit flies are more or less likely to find their food when smoke is blown into the Y-choice apparatus compared to a clear air control. I hypothesize that when smoke is present, the flies will be less accurate in finding their food and will take a longer time to find their food than the control group."

Gwen, a 2018 graduate ofLos Gatos High School, Santa Clara County, decided at age 12 to pursue a career in entomology. She attended aBioBoot camp hosted by theBohart Museum of Entomology and then at age 16, interned with JasonDombroskie at Cornell University. Those "experiences with lab work and fieldwork led me to decide that I wanted to go into research." Her work included identifying microlepidoptra in the family Tortricidae; sampling monarch butterflies for Ophryocystis elektroscirrha (OE) spores; catching and tagging the gray petaltail dragonfly (Petalurid) at a local state park; and collecting, identifying and presenting moths for a Moth Night program at the Roger Tory Peterson Institute of Natural History.

Costa Rico Internship. At age 17, Gwen completed a five-week internship in the summer of 2018 at the Monteverde Butterfly Gardens in Costa Rica, where she studied insects, conducted tours, and cared for the arthropods in the insectarium

Erdosh enrolled in the UC Davis entomology program in 2019. "I am interested in both insect ecology and systematics, and I plan on going to graduate school for a PhD in entomology," Erdosh wrote in her essay. "I aspire to be a professor who not only carries out unique and meaningful research, but is also a true educator and role model for students, inspiring young scientists to pursue their ambitions and remain curious about the natural world. More specifically about entomology, I want to show people the beauty and peculiarity of arthropods; I love public outreach and want to spread my passion for insects to others. While I did not know Dr. Stephen Garczynski personally, I would like to think that he was this kind of person, and that I would have looked up to him, as I do my own mentor Louie Yang."

Erdosh launched her Instagram account in 2013 to share her passion for moths and butterflies (Lepidoptera).  “Back then, it was one of only a few accounts that focused on such a niche interest," she said in a recent interview.  On her account, she posts her macro images, with detailed captions about the featured insect. "My goal is to not only teach others, but also learn a lot myself. I also post fun and engaging videos to encourage others to pursue entomology. Many times, people have told me that my page helped them decide that they wanted to pursue entomology as a career! I love being able to spread the love of insects to others, and will continue to be active on my page.”

Additionally, she maintains a YouTube account as “gwentomologist.” 

Erdosh was recently featured on Sacramento Channel 31's Good Day Sacramento in a segment on "Bringing Bugs to Instagram." (See Part 1 and Part 2)