Two Amarillo College students who collaborated last summer with the City of Amarillo to discern if locally captured mosquitoes carried harmful diseases are poised to present the details of their study at a national conference.

Marcus Baber-Newton and Dustan Francis will attend the 89th annual meeting of the American Mosquito Control Association (AMCA) Feb. 27-March 3 in Reno, Nev., where they will participate in the general poster competition.

A pair of Amarillo College students learned a great deal more about mosquitoes this summer than they ever thought they might.

They owe it all to the City of Amarillo, AC’s amply equipped STEM Research Center and, yes, a fortuitous reduction in local bus service.

Marcus Baber-Newton and Dustan Francis took part in a special research project in which the College and the City of Amarillo’s Environmental Health Department collaborated to discern if locally captured mosquitoes carried harmful diseases.