Shields LabInsect taste, smell and behavior · Towson University

Shields Lab / People

Torben K. Heinbockel

Lab manager and research student since 2022. Undergraduate at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

A close view of Torben Heinbockel speaking at the Greater Richmond Convention Center podium, mouth open mid-word and one hand raised, wearing his conference badge on a yellow lanyard.
At the podium at NCUR 2026 in Richmond, Virginia.

In the lab

Torben joined the Shields Lab in 2022 as a high-school student at St. Paul’s School in Brooklandville, Maryland, and has managed the lab since. He sets up and runs the behavior experiments on the house cricket and spotted-wing drosophila, analyzes the data, and writes the abstracts and manuscripts with Dr. Shields. He also designed and built this website and its members’ area.

His first project screened 27 essential oils against the house cricket. It became the lab’s January 2026 paper in Insects, on which he is first author, and led to a review of essential oils as alternatives to synthetic repellents, also in Insects. Since 2024 he has worked with Rasha O. Alzyoud, Rana Alzyoud and J. Marquez Vargas on the screen of methyl benzoate analogs against spotted-wing drosophila, which he presented as a talk at NCUR 2026; he and Dr. Shields have an abstract on it at Neuroscience 2026 in Washington, DC (November 14–18).

He also speaks on student-led science outreach: at Sigma Xi IFoRE 2025 on hands-on learning experiences, and at IFoRE 2026 on near-peer mentorship.

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Timeline

  • November 2026
    An abstract with Dr. Shields on the methyl benzoate analog work at the Society for Neuroscience meeting in Washington, DC (November 14–18), and a talk on near-peer mentorship at Sigma Xi IFoRE 2026 (online, November 6–7). upcoming
  • August 2026
    Two posters at the NIH BRAIN Initiative Conference in Rockville, Maryland. Starts as an undergraduate at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.
  • May 2026
    The review “Essential oils as biofriendly alternatives to synthetic insect repellents” is published in Insects, first author.
  • April 2026
    Gives a talk on the methyl benzoate analog screen and presents the cricket study as a poster at the National Conference on Undergraduate Research in Richmond, Virginia.
  • January 2026
    “Selected essential oils act as repellents against the house cricket, Acheta domesticus” is published in Insects, first author.
  • November 2025
    Receives one of the eight inaugural Sigma Xi Student Visionary Awards at IFoRE 2025, where his talk on fruit fly crop protection is a finalist in the Student Research Competition; gives a second IFoRE talk on student-led outreach. Presents the analog work at the SICB Northeast regional meeting in Providence, Rhode Island.
  • November 2024
    Talk at Sigma Xi IFoRE 2024 in Washington, DC, on the behavioral responses of crickets to essential oils.
  • August 2024
    Grand prize at the STEM Science Fair of the National Order of the Arrow Conference (Scouting America) in Boulder, Colorado, for the house cricket poster.
  • March 2024
    Talk in the undergraduate ten-minute paper competition at the Entomological Society of America’s Eastern Branch meeting in Morgantown, West Virginia.
  • November 2023
    Talk in the nanosymposium “Olfaction: Circuits and Behavior” at Neuroscience 2023, the Society for Neuroscience meeting in Washington, DC; talk at Entomology 2023 in National Harbor, Maryland; poster at the Faculty for Undergraduate Neuroscience symposium.
  • October 2023
    First conference talk, at the SICB Northeast regional meeting at Tufts University.
  • April 2023
    Outstanding ePoster Presentation award at the ABRCMS ePoster Spring Symposium, for the cricket essential-oil study.
  • 2022
    Joins the lab as a high-school student at St. Paul’s School in Brooklandville, Maryland, working on plant-derived repellents against the house cricket.
  • 2020
    Co-author of four classroom-activity articles on the senses and the nervous system in Annals of Behavioral Neuroscience.

Awards

  • Sigma Xi Student Visionary AwardOne of the eight inaugural recipients, for his student-led session on hands-on learning experiences (HOLEs). IFoRE 2025.
  • Finalist, Student Research Competition“Green chemistry breakthroughs for fruit fly crop protection.” Sigma Xi IFoRE 2025.
  • Grand prize, STEM Science FairAt the 2024 National Order of the Arrow Conference (Scouting America), Boulder, Colorado, for the house cricket essential-oil poster.
  • Outstanding ePoster Presentation“Essential oils as repellents in house crickets.” ABRCMS ePoster Spring Symposium, 2023.

Publications

Lab members are in bold. The lab’s full list is under Publications.

Talks and posters

Presentations with Torben as an author, 2023 to 2026, as listed under News.

2026

  • Shields VDC (lab), Heinbockel TK (lab). Sustainable control of Drosophila suzukii using methyl benzoate analogs as repellent agents. Society for Neuroscience, Washington, DC, November 14–18, 2026. Abstract 2026-S-3861-SFN; format to be announced. upcoming
  • Heinbockel TK (lab). The mentor next door: how near-peer mentorship builds young scientists, and changes the mentor too. Sigma Xi IFoRE 2026, online, November 6–7, 2026. Talk. upcoming
  • Heinbockel TK (lab), Shields VDC (lab), Farmer D, Alzyoud R (lab), Alzyoud R (lab), Marquez Vargas J (lab), Gale C, Zhang A. Volatile structure modulates olfactory-guided avoidance in Drosophila suzukii: a neuroethological framework for sustainable pest management. NIH BRAIN Initiative Conference, Rockville, MD, August 11–13, 2026. Poster B115.
  • Shields VDC (lab), Heinbockel TK (lab), Alzyoud R (lab), Raheel S (lab). Plant-derived volatiles modulate chemosensory-guided avoidance in an insect model. NIH BRAIN Initiative Conference, Rockville, MD, August 11–13, 2026. Poster C113.
  • Heinbockel TK (lab), Shields VDC (lab). Sustainable control of Drosophila suzukii using methyl benzoate analogs as repellent agents. National Conference on Undergraduate Research, Richmond, VA, April 15, 2026. Talk, session 172, presentation 908.
  • Heinbockel TK (lab), Shields VDC (lab). Behavioral olfactory responses of crickets to essential oils. National Conference on Undergraduate Research, Richmond, VA, April 15, 2026. Poster 1203.

2025

  • Alzyoud R (lab), Heinbockel TK (lab), Alzyoud RO (lab), Marquez Vargas J (lab), Gale CC, Shields VDC (lab). High-throughput spatial repellency and knockdown assay to test the effectiveness of methyl benzoate structural analogs in repelling spotted-wing Drosophila females. Fall 2025 Student Research Symposium, Towson University, December 4, 2025. Poster 117.
  • Heinbockel TK (lab), Alzyoud R (lab), Alzyoud RO (lab), Marquez Vargas J (lab), Gale CC, Shields VDC (lab). Toward sustainable agriculture: repellent activity of methyl benzoate analogs against Drosophila suzukii. SICB Northeast Regional Meeting, Rhode Island College, Providence, RI, November 22, 2025.
  • Alzyoud R (lab), Heinbockel TK (lab), Alzyoud RO (lab), Marquez Vargas J (lab), Gale CC, Shields VDC (lab). High-throughput spatial repellency and knockdown assay to test the effectiveness of methyl benzoate structural analogs in repelling spotted-wing Drosophila females. ABRCMS 2025, San Antonio, TX, November 19–22, 2025.
  • Heinbockel TK (lab), Alzyoud R (lab), Gale CC, Shields VDC (lab). Green chemistry breakthroughs for fruit fly crop protection. Sigma Xi IFoRE 2025 Student Research Competition, online, October 30–November 1, 2025. Talk; finalist.
  • Heinbockel TK (lab), Shields VDC (lab). Hands-on learning experiences (HOLEs): a student-led model for growing STEM interest and literacy. Sigma Xi IFoRE 2025, online, October 30–November 1, 2025. Talk (video of the talk on YouTube).
  • Alzyoud R (lab), Heinbockel TK (lab), Marquez Vargas J (lab), Alzyoud RO (lab), Gale CC, Shields VDC (lab). High-throughput spatial repellency and knockdown assay to test the effectiveness of methyl benzoate structural analogs in repelling spotted-wing Drosophila females. Student Summer Research Conference, Towson University, September 25, 2025. Poster 3.
  • Marquez Vargas J (lab), Alzyoud RO (lab), Heinbockel TK (lab), Gale CC, Shields VDC (lab). Structure-activity relationships of methyl benzoate analogs as repellents against spotted-wing Drosophila. USM LSAMP Research Symposium, College Park, MD, February 15, 2025. Poster 48.

2024

  • Heinbockel TK (lab). Should I stay or should I go? Behavioral responses of crickets to essential oils. Sigma Xi IFoRE 2024, Washington, DC, November 14–17, 2024. Talk.
  • Alzyoud RO (lab), Marquez Vargas J (lab), Heinbockel TK (lab), Gale CC, Shields VDC (lab). Structure-activity relationships of methyl benzoate analogs as repellents against spotted-wing drosophila. ABRCMS 2024, Pittsburgh, PA, November 13–16, 2024. Poster B-313.
  • Heinbockel TK (lab), Alzyoud R (lab), Shields VDC (lab). Should I stay or should I go? The use of biofriendly repellents and their behavioral effects in house crickets, Acheta domesticus. Entomological Society of America, Eastern Branch, Morgantown, WV, March 10, 2024. Talk, undergraduate 10-minute paper competition.

2023

  • Raheel SI (lab), Alzyoud RO (lab), Heinbockel TK (lab), Shields VDC (lab). The use of biofriendly repellents and their behavioral effects in house crickets, Acheta domesticus. Fall 2023 USM LSAMP Research Symposium, College Park, MD, December 2, 2023.
  • Alzyoud RO (lab), Raheel SI (lab), Heinbockel TK (lab), Shields VDC (lab). Investigating repellent responses in crickets. ABRCMS 2023, Phoenix, AZ, November 15–18, 2023. Poster 5064.
  • Heinbockel TK (lab), Alzyoud R (lab), Shields VDC (lab). Essential oils as repellents in house crickets, Acheta domesticus. Neuroscience 2023, Society for Neuroscience, Washington, DC, November 14, 2023. Talk in the nanosymposium “Olfaction: Circuits and Behavior.”
  • Heinbockel TK (lab), Alzyoud R (lab), Raheel S (lab), Shields VDC (lab). Love it or leave it: behavioral effects of essential oils in house crickets, Acheta domesticus. Faculty for Undergraduate Neuroscience Research Symposium, Washington, DC, November 11, 2023. Poster P39.
  • Heinbockel TK (lab), Alzyoud R (lab), Raheel S (lab), Shields VDC (lab). Love it or leave it: behavioral effects of essential oils in house crickets, Acheta domesticus. Entomology 2023, National Harbor, MD, November 5–8, 2023. Talk.
  • Heinbockel TK (lab), Alzyoud R (lab), Raheel S (lab), Shields VDC (lab). Love it or leave it: behavioral effects of essential oils in house crickets, Acheta domesticus. SICB Northeast Regional Meeting, Tufts University, Medford, MA, October 21, 2023. Talk.
  • Heinbockel TK (lab), Shields VDC (lab). Essential oils as repellents in house crickets, Acheta domesticus. ABRCMS ePoster Spring Symposium for Emerging Scientists, April 28–29, 2023. Outstanding ePoster Presentation award.

Photos

  • Torben Heinbockel stands with his arms spread under an arched banner reading Welcome to NCUR26 @Richmond, Engaging minds. Empowering students. The left column carries the Zora Neale Hurston quote and CUR.org/NCUR. The right column lists exhibitors and thanks VCU and VisitRichmondVA.com. Attendees stand in the bright atrium behind him.
    NCUR 2026: Under the welcome arch. The column quotes Zora Neale Hurston: “Research is formalized curiosity.”
  • Torben Heinbockel speaks at the Greater Richmond Convention Center podium and gestures with an open hand toward a screen showing the title slide Sustainable Control of Drosophila suzukii Using Methyl Benzoate Analogs as Repellent Agents. The slide credits Torben Heinbockel, Department of Biological Sciences, Towson University, as presenter and Dr. Vonnie Shields as mentor.
    NCUR 2026: The title slide, with Dr. Vonnie Shields as mentor.
  • A low-angle, full-length view of Torben Heinbockel speaking beside a screen showing the slide Why Does SWD Pose Risks to Food Security?, with one hand at his chest. The slide shows a fly and photos of damaged fruit.
    NCUR 2026: Talking through the food-security slide.
  • Torben Heinbockel at the lectern, beside an IFoRE sign, in a conference room
    Sigma Xi IFoRE 2024: at the IFoRE podium (1 of 68).
  • Torben Heinbockel at the lectern, beside an IFoRE sign, in a conference room
    Sigma Xi IFoRE 2024: at the IFoRE podium (2 of 68).
  • Torben Heinbockel at the lectern, beside an IFoRE sign, in a conference room
    Sigma Xi IFoRE 2024: at the IFoRE podium (3 of 68).
  • A session room at Neuroscience 2023, with a slide on the screen and a listener in silhouette
    November 2023: the session room at Neuroscience 2023 (7 of 12).
  • Torben Heinbockel at a Society for Neuroscience podium, with the Neuroscience 2023 logo on the screen behind him
    November 2023: at the podium at Neuroscience 2023 (8 of 12).
  • Torben Heinbockel at a Society for Neuroscience podium, with the Neuroscience 2023 logo on the screen behind him
    November 2023: at the podium at Neuroscience 2023 (9 of 12).

All photos from the lab and meetings