People

Faculty

Lynn S. Kimsey

  • Distinguished Professor of Entomology, Director of The Bohart Museum of Entomology
Dr. Kimsey's research interests include: Biology and evolution of insects; systematics and phylogeny of Tiphiidae, Chrysididae, Sphecidae, Pompilidae and Apidae; functional morphology; mating behavior of wasps and bees; biogeography of insects.
1124 Academic Surge Building

Robert B. Kimsey

  • Lecturer
Dr. Kimsey's research interests include: Public health entomology; arthropods of medical importance; zoonotic disease; biology and ecology of tick-borne pathogens; tick feeding behavior and biochemistry.
396B Briggs Hall

Emily Meineke

  • Assistant Professor of Urban Landscape Entomology
Insects have eaten plants for around 400 million years. These interactions have given rise to most of terrestrial biodiversity. Over the past 12,000 years, humans have disrupted plant-herbivore relationships by building cities, domesticating crops, and changing the global climate. I investigate these disruptions, focusing on species that are of cultural importance, such as street trees, crops, crop wild relatives, and plants that support rare insect species. My work combines experiments, observations, citizen science, and biological collections to address key hypotheses in ecology.

Steven A. Nadler

  • Distinguished Professor of Nematology
Research in my laboratory focuses on evolutionary questions such as phylogenetics, biodiversity, morphological change, and certain aspects of disease ecology. Most of my research questions focus on nematodes, including both parasites and freeliving species. Current projects include characterizing the biodiversity of soil nematodes using metagenetics, and using multilocus methods to investigate the species-level systematics of parasitic roundworms of mammals.

Elina L. Niño

  • Associate Professor of Cooperative Extension
Dr. Niño's research interests include: Honey Bee Biology, Health, and Breeding, Behavior, Reproductive Physiology, Genomics, Chemical Ecology, Sociology of Beekeeping.
117 Harry H. Laidlaw Jr. Honey Bee Research Facility

Shahid Siddique

  • Associate Professor of Entomology and Nematology
Research in the Siddique lab focuses on basic as well as applied aspects of interaction between parasitic nematodes and their host plants. The long-term object of our research is not only to enhance our understanding of molecular aspects of plant–nematode interaction but also to use this knowledge to provide new resources for reducing the impact of nematodes on crop plants in California.
4208 Storer Hall

Diane Ullman

  • Distinguished Professor of Entomology
As a faculty member in the Department of Entomology and Nematology, my area of research responsibility encompasses insect/virus/plant interactions and development of management strategies for insect-transmitted plant pathogens. I have worked with many insect vector species (thrips, aphids, whiteflies, leafhoppers, mealybugs) and the plant pathogens they transmit, including viruses, phytoplasma and bacteria. During the past 30 years I have delved deeply into world of thrips and the orthotospoviruses they transmit. My work ranged from the organismal to the molecular and I have had the opportunity to move across disciplinary borders, working with entomologists, virologists, plant physiologists and plant breeders. Currently, I am exploring the interaction between the western flower thrips and the plant virus, Tomato spotted wilt orthotospovirus (TSWV), including characterizing and pursuing functional analysis of their salivary gland proteins. In the past decade, I led an AFRI NIFA Coordinated Agricultural Project addressing development of innovative strategies for management of thrips vectors and orthotospoviruses, served as a co-PI on an NSF grant aimed at revealing the early events in Sw-5 mediated resistance to TSWV in tomato, and led a NIFA grant exploring the transcriptome and proteome of the western flower thrips salivary gland.
172 Hutchison Hall