PEEC student Juliana Soto-Patiño receives the Best Student Presentation Award at the 8th International Conference on Phthiraptera

Juliana Soto-Patiño, a PhD candidate in the PEEC program at the University of Illinois and researcher at the Illinois Natural History Survey (INHS), received the Best Student Presentation Award at the 8th International Conference on Phthiraptera (ICP8), held in Marseille, France, from June 10–13, 2025. Her presentation, titled "A riddle wrapped in an enigma: Parasitic lice as clues to the evolutionary puzzle of Sapayoa", showcased part of her dissertation work using parasitic lice to investigate the evolutionary history of the enigmatic bird Sapayoa aenigma. The talk was co-authored with Dr. Jorge Doña (Universidad de Granada) and her advisor, Dr. Kevin P. Johnson (INHS), who also served on the ICP8 Scientific Committee.