SCC Poster Competition

2024- 2025 Student Poster Competition Vector-Borne Science

Virginia Mosquito Control Association is holding our 9th annual student poster competition. The competition will be held in conjunction with Virginia Mosquito Control Association and Mid-Atlantic Mosquito Control Association’s combined Annual Conference taking place at the Newport News Marriott at City Center on February 4-6, 2025.

** Students eligible for the competition must be enrolled in a degree program during the fall semester of 2024 from an accredited college or university within the Mid-Atlantic region.**

Eligibility for Poster Submission:

Poster submissions will be accepted from students enrolled in colleges and universities of Virginia, its neighboring states, and now states of the Mid-Atlantic region: Virginia, Delaware, Georgia, North Carolina, Kentucky, Maryland, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, Tennessee, West Virginia, and Washington DC.

Prizes:

1st place: $500

2nd place poster: $300

3rd place poster: $200

Top poster submitter will receive the opportunity to present their research during the VMCA Annual Conference on February 5, 2025 (In-person or virtually).

Top five posters will receive free registration to the 2025 VMCA/MAMCA Annual

Conference.

Deadline:

All poster submissions should be submitted by email no later than 11:59PM on 12/4/2024.

Submissions:

Poster submissions should follow the guidelines set forth in the 2024-2025 Guidelines for student poster competition

Submission emails should include a PDF version of the poster (PDF file should be set to size/dimensions specified for printing) along with the 2024-2025 Submission form for the student poster competition fully filled out.

Submissions should be emailed to Jay Kiser at Jkiser@suffolkva.us

More information can be found at 2024-2025 VMCA Student Competition

Poster Evaluations:

Judges will grade posters based on the sections set forth in the 2024-2025 Judge's Evaluation Form for Student Competition

Submission Details

Poster submissions should follow the guidelines set forth in the 2024-2025 Guidelines for Student Poster Competition.
Submission emails should include a PDF version of the poster (PDF file should be set to size/dimensions specified for printing - see Guidelines for quick "how-to") along with the 2024-2025 Submission Form for Student Poster Competition fully filled out.
Submissions should be emailed to VirginiaMosquito@Gmail.com

Congratulations, 2023-2024 Competition Winners!

Virginia Mosquito Control Association held our 8th annual student poster competition during the 77th VMCA conference, February 20-22, 2024. This was our second year including Virginia's neighboring states. Four posters were submitted from four universities in four states (including Washington DC). Thank you to all the students who participated, judges who evaluated them, and all members who participated in the poster Q&A session, 50/50 raffle, and the silent auction. See below for 1st - 3rd place information; photos coming soon!

1st Place: Funmilayo Egunjobi

3rd Place: Jarin Taslem Mourosi

1st Place: Funmilayo Egunjobi

School: Duke University

Poster title: Identification of sodium channel mutations conferring pyrethroid resistance in Aedes aegypti mosquitoes

Award: Dr. Jorge Arias Student Competition Award and $500

2nd Place: Benjamin Burgunder

3rd Place: Jarin Taslem Mourosi

1st Place: Funmilayo Egunjobi

School: University of Maryland, College Park

Poster title: Site-specific community composition of primary West Nile virus vectors does not explain fine-scale variation in modeling human cases

Award: Student Competition Award and $300

3rd Place: Jarin Taslem Mourosi

School: Catholic University of America

Poster title: Zika and Dengue vaccine design by CRISPR engineering of T4 bacteriophage nanoparticle

Award: Student Competition Award and $200

2022-2023 Competition

Virginia Mosquito Control Association held our 7th annual student poster competition during the 76th VMCA conference, February 14-16, 2023. This was our first year including Virginia's neighboring states, and what a turnout! Nine posters were submitted from seven universities in four states and Washington DC. Thank you to all the students who participated, judges who evaluated them, and all members who participated in the poster Q&A session, 50/50 raffle, and the silent auction. Pictured below: student winners receive awards from 2022 VMCA President Wes Robertson.

Congratulations, 2022-2023 winners!

1st Place: Sommer Stephens

School: North Carolina State University

Poster title: Allele frequencies of Culex pipiens bioforms vary across an urban to rural gradient

Award: Dr. Jorge Arias Student Competition Award and $500

2nd Place: Ayobami Awe

1st Place: Sommer Stephens

School: Catholic University of America

Poster title: Dengue vaccine design using bacteriophage T4 nanoparticle platform

Award: Student Competition Award and $300

3rd Place: Pallavi Rai

1st Place: Sommer Stephens

3rd Place: Pallavi Rai

School: Virginia Tech

Poster title: Insulin reduces alphavirus infection of Aedes aegypti mosquitoes by influencing vector immune pathways

Award: Student Competition Award and $200

2021-2022 Competition

Virginia Mosquito Control Association held our 6th annual student poster competition during the joint virtual / in-person annual VMCA conference, January 25-27, 2022 at Marriott City Center in Newport News, VA. Thank you to all the students who participated, judges who evaluated them, and all members who participated in the poster Q&A session, 50/50 raffle, and the silent auction. The SCC was able to raise over $1,000 for future awards! Thank you all for your support!

Congratulations to our 2022 winner, Rebecca Trimble of Virginia Tech for her poster titled, Pathogen spillover into the Asian longhorned tick, Haemaphysalis longicornis in Virginia. Pictured at right: 2021 VMCA President Tim DuBois (left) hands Rebecca Trimble (right) the Dr. Jorge Arias Student Competition Award and $500 check.

2020-2021 Competition

Virginia Mosquito Control Association held our 5th annual student poster competition during the virtual annual conference January 26-27, 2021. While the pandemic put a damper on our in-person student Q&A session and fundraising events, Na was still able to answer questions after her presentation and the SCC held two successful Tour de Skeeter bike events in fall 2020 and summer 2021. Thank you to all students, judges, and members who support the Student Competition!

Congratulations to our 2021 winner, Na Xie (pictured at left with check and award) from Virginia Tech for her poster titled, Muscarinic-selective target-site synergism as a new mosquito control strategy.

2019-2020 Competition

Virginia Mosquito Control Association held our 4th annual student poster competition during the annual VMCA conference in Virginia Beach, January 28-30, 2020. Thank you to all the students who participated, judges who evaluated them, and all members who participated in the poster Q&A session, 50/50 raffle, and the silent auction. The SCC was able to raise over $1,000 for future awards! Thank you all for your support!

Congratulations to our 2020 winner, Olivia Spencer of the College of William and Mary for her poster titled, Temporal and spatial variation of Erlichia chaffeensis in the lone star tick (Amblyomma americanum).

Pictured at right: Olivia (left) receiving award from 2019 VMCA President LaToya White (right)

2018-2019 Competition

Virginia Mosquito Control Association held our 3rd annual student poster competition during the annual VMCA Conference in Virginia Beach, February 5-7, 2019. For the third year, the SCC held two successful fundraising events during the annual meeting: a 50/50 raffle and a silent auction. With the help of the SCC, VMCA members, and sustaining members, we were able to collect a total of $750. This money will be used to fund future competitions that encourage research in fields of vector biology.

Congratulations to our 2019 winner, Amanda DeVleeschower (pictured at left receiving award from 2018 VMCA President George Wojcik) from Old Dominion University for her poster titled, Tracking potential hosts of Amblyomma maculatum through wildlife cameras.

2017-2018 Competition

Virginia Mosquito Control Association held our 2nd annual student poster competition during the 71st annual VMCA conference in Portsmouth, January 23-25, 2018. For the second year, the SCC held two successful fundraising events during the annual meeting; a 50/50 raffle and a silent auction. With the help of the SCC, VMCA members, and sustaining members, we were able to collect a total of almost $1,400. Thank you to all the students who participated, judges who evaluated them, and all members who participated.

Congratulations to our 2018 winner, Laura Bitzer (pictured at right receiving award from 2017 VMCA President Jeff Hottenstein) of Old Dominion University for her poster titled, The role of northern short-tailed shrews in the maintenance of Borrelia burgdorferi.

Inaugural 2016-2017 Competition

During the 2016 year, VMCA’s newly formed Student Competition Committee (SCC) worked hard to set up the association’s first student poster competition. Ten posters were submitted from colleges and universities around Virginia to compete for the grand prize of $500 and the inaugural “Dr. Jorge Arias Student Competition Award”. All of the posters were displayed in Newport News, VA, January 31- February 2, 2017 during the joint meeting of the 42nd annual Mid-Atlantic Mosquito Control Association and 70th annual Virginia Mosquito Control Association. Many poster authors came to the annual meeting and participated in a Q&A poster session where VMCA and MAMCA members had a chance to talk with the students about their research projects (students, advisors, committee members, and judges pictured center below).

First place poster went to Alexis White from Old Dominion University with the poster titled “TickBot efficacy in residential and wildlife habitats in Portsmouth, Virginia.” During the awards banquet, Alexis received the Dr. Arias Award and a grand prize of $500 which was funded by VMCA (pictured left below). Runner-up posters Armin Bahrani, Lindsey Bidder, Rachel Matrenec, and Kristen Young, all students from Old Dominion University, were awarded free registration to the annual meeting which was provided by MAMCA.

During the 2017 annual meeting, the SCC attempted several fundraising ideas to help pay for first place awards in the future. A silent auction took place throughout the first two days of the meeting. Members of VMCA and MAMCA graciously donated 18 items to the auction ranging from handmade items to memorabilia and electronics. The auction made the SCC $563.00. Another fundraiser that took place during the meeting was a 50-50 raffle. 544 raffle tickets were sold throughout the first two days of the meeting. After the winning drawing at the end of the second day, both SCC and Ann Herring (pictured below right) each made $272.00.

I would like to send a huge thanks to all my 2016 committee members (Dennis Salmen, Lane Carr, Karen Akaratovic, Francis Valera, Charles Abadam, Jamie Durden, and Michael Bowry) and poster judges (Bruce Harrison and Wes Robertson) for all the hard work they put into this event. They should all be super proud of themselves. I want to thank everyone that donated items to the silent auction, this was an enormous help. I also want to thank VMCA and MAMCA for your funding of prizes and student registrations, we would not have been able to have a 2017 student competition without you.

Student Competition Chair, Jay Kiser

Congratulations to our 2017 winner, Alexis White of Old Dominion University for her poster titled, TickBot efficacy in residential and wildlife habitats in Portsmouth, VA

Pictured bottom left: Alexis receives award from Sara Shenks (center; daughter of Dr. Jorge Arias) and 2016 VMCA President Josh Smith

The Student Competition Committee Presents

2024- 2025 Student Poster Competition Vector-Borne Science

Guidelines and Forms

Congratulations, 2023-2024 Competition Winners!

1st Place: Funmilayo Egunjobi

3rd Place: Jarin Taslem Mourosi

1st Place: Funmilayo Egunjobi

2nd Place: Benjamin Burgunder

3rd Place: Jarin Taslem Mourosi

1st Place: Funmilayo Egunjobi

3rd Place: Jarin Taslem Mourosi

3rd Place: Jarin Taslem Mourosi

3rd Place: Jarin Taslem Mourosi

2022-2023 Competition

Congratulations, 2022-2023 winners!

1st Place: Sommer Stephens

1st Place: Sommer Stephens

1st Place: Sommer Stephens

2nd Place: Ayobami Awe

1st Place: Sommer Stephens

1st Place: Sommer Stephens

3rd Place: Pallavi Rai

1st Place: Sommer Stephens

3rd Place: Pallavi Rai

2021-2022 Competition

2020-2021 Competition

2019-2020 Competition

2018-2019 Competition

2017-2018 Competition

Inaugural 2016-2017 Competition