SCC Poster Competition

Contest Information

Virginia Mosquito Control Association's Student Competition Committee is holding our 7th annual student poster competition. The competition will be held in conjunction with VMCA’s Annual Conference taking place in 2023, exact date and location TBA. Posters should reflect original research in areas of vector-borne sciences: vector-borne diseases, arthropod vectors, surveillance methods, pesticides, repellents or control methods, and diagnostic or laboratory methods.

New for 2022-2023!

In addition to Virginia students, the Student Competition Committee would like to welcome the participation of Virginia's neighbors:

District of Columbia, Kentucky, Maryland, North Carolina, Tennessee, and West Virginia.

New Prizes!

With the committee's continued success, we are expanding our prizes this year!

1st place: $500

2nd place: $300

3rd place: $200

Top 5 posters will receive free registration to the 2022 VMCA Annual Conference as well as VMCA Student Membership. Top 3 posters may have the opportunity to present at the 2023 VMCA Annual Conference (virtually or in-person).

Deadline

All poster submissions should be submitted by email no later than 11:59 PM on Friday, 12/2/2022

Submissions

Poster submissions should follow the guidelines set forth in the 2022-2023 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 2022-2023 Submission Form for Student Poster Competition* fully filled out.
Submissions should be emailed to VirginiaMosquito@Gmail.com

Poster Evaluations

Judges will grade posters based on the sections set forth in the 2022-2023 Judge's Evaluation Form for Student Competition*.

*All of the above referenced documents will be amended and updated as details are finalized. Forms from 2021-2022 are provided below for reference only.

2021-2022 Competition

Virginia Mosquito Control Association held our 6th annual student poster competition during the joint virtual and 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