{"id":12,"date":"2019-09-19T15:03:27","date_gmt":"2019-09-19T19:03:27","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/site.caes.uga.edu\/smallfruitentolab\/?page_id=12"},"modified":"2026-06-03T11:17:40","modified_gmt":"2026-06-03T15:17:40","slug":"graduate-students","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/site.caes.uga.edu\/siallab\/lab-members\/graduate-students\/","title":{"rendered":"Graduate Students"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p><\/p>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-media-text has-media-on-the-right is-stacked-on-mobile is-image-fill-element\"><div class=\"wp-block-media-text__content\">\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>Mohamad Hamdan <\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>PhD Student in Entomology<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>M.S. in Molecular Biology and Biotechnology, United Arab Emirates University<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Mohamad&#8217;s research focuses on insect genetics, molecular biology, and pest management, especially work involving the spotted-wing drosophila, <em>Drosophila suzukii<\/em>. At the Sial Lab, he plans to work on projects related to insect biology, genetics, and sustainable pest control strategies using molecular and genomic tools. His interests include CRISPR technologies, insect physiology, and agricultural pest management.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-primary-color has-text-color has-link-color wp-elements-d88bda8810347771407d347f1ad3b284\">mohamad.hamdan@uga.edu<\/p>\n<\/div><figure class=\"wp-block-media-text__media\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"792\" height=\"1024\" src=\"https:\/\/site.caes.uga.edu\/siallab\/files\/2026\/05\/IMG_2348-792x1024.jpeg\" alt=\"A photo of Mohamad Hamdan standing in front of a creek and holding a net.\" class=\"wp-image-300 size-full\" style=\"object-position:83% 50%\" srcset=\"https:\/\/site.caes.uga.edu\/siallab\/files\/2026\/05\/IMG_2348-792x1024.jpeg 792w, https:\/\/site.caes.uga.edu\/siallab\/files\/2026\/05\/IMG_2348-232x300.jpeg 232w, https:\/\/site.caes.uga.edu\/siallab\/files\/2026\/05\/IMG_2348-768x993.jpeg 768w, https:\/\/site.caes.uga.edu\/siallab\/files\/2026\/05\/IMG_2348-1188x1536.jpeg 1188w, https:\/\/site.caes.uga.edu\/siallab\/files\/2026\/05\/IMG_2348.jpeg 1237w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 792px) 100vw, 792px\" \/><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator has-alpha-channel-opacity\" \/>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-media-text is-stacked-on-mobile is-image-fill-element\"><figure class=\"wp-block-media-text__media\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"768\" height=\"1024\" src=\"https:\/\/site.caes.uga.edu\/siallab\/files\/2026\/05\/IMG_5803-e1780067820740-768x1024.png\" alt=\"A selfie of Jeremy Kearns holding a net.\" class=\"wp-image-299 size-full\" style=\"object-position:77% 48%\" srcset=\"https:\/\/site.caes.uga.edu\/siallab\/files\/2026\/05\/IMG_5803-e1780067820740-768x1024.png 768w, https:\/\/site.caes.uga.edu\/siallab\/files\/2026\/05\/IMG_5803-e1780067820740-225x300.png 225w, https:\/\/site.caes.uga.edu\/siallab\/files\/2026\/05\/IMG_5803-e1780067820740-1152x1536.png 1152w, https:\/\/site.caes.uga.edu\/siallab\/files\/2026\/05\/IMG_5803-e1780067820740.png 1350w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 768px) 100vw, 768px\" \/><\/figure><div class=\"wp-block-media-text__content\">\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>Jeremy Kearns <\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>PhD Student in Entomology<\/strong> <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Jeremy&#8217;s research focuses on the blueberry gall midge,<em>&nbsp;Dasineura oxycoccana<\/em>, an understudied pest in Georgia. He aims to understand the biology and ecology of these pest flies and how they interact with different species of blueberries throughout the year. He&#8217;s also interested in evaluating new methods of monitoring and management for gall midge that would have a reduced impact on wild and managed bees in commercial blueberry orchards.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-primary-color has-text-color has-link-color wp-elements-e138eafecee0b3dfd513ca2f11e199a6\">jeremy.kearns@uga.edu<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Mohamad Hamdan PhD Student in Entomology M.S. in Molecular Biology and Biotechnology, United Arab Emirates University Mohamad&#8217;s research focuses on insect genetics, molecular biology, and pest management, especially work involving the spotted-wing drosophila, Drosophila suzukii. At the Sial Lab, he plans to work on projects related to insect biology, genetics, and sustainable pest control strategies [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":77,"featured_media":0,"parent":10,"menu_order":3,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"page-with-sidebar","meta":{"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-12","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/site.caes.uga.edu\/siallab\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/12","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/site.caes.uga.edu\/siallab\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/site.caes.uga.edu\/siallab\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/site.caes.uga.edu\/siallab\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/77"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/site.caes.uga.edu\/siallab\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=12"}],"version-history":[{"count":10,"href":"https:\/\/site.caes.uga.edu\/siallab\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/12\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":312,"href":"https:\/\/site.caes.uga.edu\/siallab\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/12\/revisions\/312"}],"up":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/site.caes.uga.edu\/siallab\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/10"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/site.caes.uga.edu\/siallab\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=12"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}