On May 2, 2013, IIGB geneticist Linda Walling will give a free lecture titled “Friends and Enemies: Dynamic Interactions of Plants and Insects” at 5:30 pm in Rooms C, D and E, University Extension Center (UNEX) as part of the second annual Science Lecture Series hosted by CNAS. This year the theme is “The Science of Disease.” The series aims to boost the public’s awareness and understanding of science and of how scientists work.

With 50 percent of the insect species obtaining their nutrition from plants, the field of plant-insect interactions is a robust and exciting field. The goals of Walling’s laboratory are to identify the plant genes that control defense traits to insects and utilize these genes to identify new mechanisms to control the losses due to herbivory. Currently, Walling’s lab is focused on understanding the plant defenses that protect plants from damage by tissue-damaging caterpillars and phloem-feeding whiteflies. She performs these studies in crops (tomato, squash, alfalfa) and model plant species (Arabidopsis).

Walling is currently an editor for the Journal of Chemical Ecology (2003 to present) and was senior editor for the journal Molecular Plant Microbe Interactions (2003 to 2009). She is an elected fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) and the American Society of Plant Biologists (ASPB). She has served as an elected member of ASPB’s Executive Committee (2003 to 2006) and AAAS’s Electorate Nominating Committee (2012 to present).

Walling has received training for the development of faculty success programs from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute/Burrough Welcome Fund’s Making the Right Moves and the University of Pittsburgh’s Survival Skills programs. She is co-founder of the UCR Success and Leadership Skills for the Academe (SALSA) program that was sponsored by CNAS and UCR’s Office of Research.

More information about the lecture series can be obtained by visiting www.cnas.ucr.edu, calling (951) 827-6555 or emailing Carol Lerner.