Our Bureau
Fayetteville, AR
Rupesh Kariyat, an associate professor of insect-plant interactions and chemical ecology in the Department of Entomology and Plant Pathology from the Dale Bumpers College of Agricultural, Food and Life Sciences has been named winner of the 2024 Distinguished Achievement Award in Teaching from the Entomological Society of America.
University of Arkansas faculty member Rupesh Kariyat is also a researcher and scientist with the Arkansas Agricultural Experiment Station, the research arm of the U of A System Division of Agriculture.
“I want to express sincere gratitude to all the students who have taken my classes over the years and my advisers who gave me opportunities to teach during graduate and post-graduate studies, and to my mother — who was a school teacher for more than 30 years,” Kariyat said. “She has always been my role model in teaching.”
Kariyat teaches insect pest management, chemical ecology and insect behavior, insect morphology and graduate seminar classes. He’s also part of U of A’s cell and molecular biology and the environmental dynamics graduate programs. Kariyat has graduated 14 M.S. students and currently advises four Ph.D., three M.S. and one honors student in entomology.
Kariyat has published more than 75 peer-reviewed manuscripts and brought in more than $3.2 million in grant funding as a principal investigator/co-principal investigator.
“I can’t think of a more deserving educator for this award,” said Ken Korth, head of the Department of Entomology and Plant Pathology.
The award is presented annually to the member regarded as ESA’s most outstanding teacher of the year.
“I believe this to be the most significant of all ESA’s awards,” said Daniel Potter, entomology professor emeritus at the University of Kentucky and a previous winner of the award.
The Kariyat Lab at U of A and Division of Agriculture is focused on understanding how plants defend against insect herbivores and the mechanisms underlying multitrophic interactions.
The Entomological Society of America (ESA), founded in 1889, is the largest organization in the world serving the professional and scientific needs of entomologists and individuals in related disciplines.
