FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. – Entomology doctoral student Amber Tripodi has been awarded the John Henry Comstock Graduate Student Award from the Southeastern Branch of the Entomological Society of America.

The Comstock Graduate Student Award is presented once a year by the ESA national office to one outstanding doctoral student in each of the six branches. The award has become highly prestigious since its inception in 1980 and the ESA considers it to be a reliable predictor of future success in entomology.

Tripodi's dissertation work with entomology professor Allen Szalanski focuses on the distributions and ecology of native bees. Her project is titled “Population Genetics of Bumble Bee Pollinators in the United States.”

“The Comstock Award is a great honor, and I am truly grateful to the Southeastern Branch of the ESA for this recognition,” said Tripodi, who is expected to complete her doctorate this fall.

The Southeastern Branch includes Alabama, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Louisiana, Mississippi, North Carolina, South Carolina and Tennessee in addition to Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands.

Tripodi, who earned her bachelor’s in biology from the U of A in 2005 and her master’s in environmental sciences from the University of Colorado in 2009, is the fourth doctoral student from the University of Arkansas to earn the John Henry Comstock Graduate Student Award.