The U.S. National Academy of Sciences has nominated a University of Kentucky entomologist to serve on its organizing committee for one of its major international scientific events.

James Harwood, associate professor of insect ecology in the UK College of Agriculture, Food and Environment, was selected to help plan the third Arab-American Frontiers of Science, Engineering and Medicine symposium. This international meeting, which will include some of the top emerging leaders in science, engineering and medicine, will be held in the fall in partnership with King Abdullah University of Science and Technology in Saudi Arabia.

The goal of the meeting is to bring together some of the brightest young minds from the United States and Arab countries to discuss their current research and build interdisciplinary collaborations to tackle some of the world’s most pressing problems.

Organizing committee members are selected based on their leadership skills, academic achievements and ability to work across disciplines. As a committee member, Harwood will develop and chair sessions, lead discussions and select speakers for the event.

Harwood was also selected as a delegate to the National Academy’s second symposium that was held in 2014 in Muscat, Oman, where he presented research about the effects of global change and agricultural intensification on predator and prey relationships in agroecosystems. This included a research project, funded by The Research Council of Oman, which seeks to develop sustainable solutions to management of a major pest of date palms in the Middle East.

Harwood is one of only a few insect ecologists in the world who use molecular techniques to study food webs and their importance in agriculture and natural ecosystems. Much of his research focuses on identifying natural predators of common agricultural pests to use as biological control agents.