High impact research to sustain life
Entomology is leading the way to solve local and global challenges.
From undergraduate to faculty and research scientists
- Undergraduate research is supported so students can align with opportunities that interest them.
- Graduate & Ph.D. research is enhanced by faculty and staff on a daily basis.
- Post-doctorial research brings added value to our program with tiered mentoring.
- Faculty research offers primary investigators experts with connections across industry and government.
Interdisciplinary projects and opportunities are abundant and evolving from day one through every level of your academic career.
- $35K in internal grants programs
- $9.4M external funding
- 60 students conducting research
Avenues to explore research opportunities
Our faculty
Our labs
Student research
Faculty expertise areas
The Gardiner Lab studies the ecology of urban greenspaces. Much of our work focuses on the ecological and conservation value of vacant land. This work takes place in Cleveland, Ohio – a city managing more than 27,000 vacant lots created as a result of protracted economic decline, home foreclosure, and population loss. Researchers in the lab examine how the landscape composition and legacy as well as local plant community and management of vacant lots influences their conservation value for arthropods, studies focused from the tree canopy to soil communities.
Insect pollinators are vital for the production of many fruits, nuts and vegetables, including apples, blueberries, almonds, tomatoes and pumpkins. These crops are also vulnerable to pests and diseases, which are often controlled through the use of pesticides. However, pesticides may be toxic to insect pollinators, setting up a conflict between the need for pollination and the need for pest and disease control. In our lab we are seeking to understand how to protect pollinators from the pesticides and other toxins they encounter. The managed European honey bee, Apis mellifera, serves as a model pollinator for toxicological testing. While the honey bee is the most economically important pollinator in the U.S. and serves as an excellent model species, we are also interested in understanding pesticide toxicity in other pollinating insects as well. The Bee Lab
I’m an applied entomologist specializing in the development of Specialty Crop System IPM. I am broadly interested in optimizing agricultural production systems, including understanding the biology and ecology of these systems and the tactics that can improve their efficiency. (In short, I help kill the bugs that kill your food.) I am always looking for new collaborations in agricultural research and extension.
Dr. Meuti’s lab determine how mosquitoes predict, prepare and survive Ohio winters and how seasonal differences in mosquito biting behavior and development impact West Nile virus transmission. This is important because in the winter months mosquitoes enter a hibernation-like state, known as diapause, where they no longer bite and therefore stop transmitting disease. Research in the Meuti lab has shown that mosquitoes use their circadian clock genes to distinguish a long summer day from a short winter day. Current research is uncovering how the circadian clock is connected to the hormones that regulate diapause. Other recent research suggests that light pollution and higher temperatures in cities trick mosquitoes and cause them to keep biting in the fall. Megan’s team collaborates with avian ecologists and mathematical modelers to understand the seasonal cycles of West Nile virus transmission. Another key collaboration with Dr. Mary Gardiner investigates the effects of urban greening and mosquito management on both mosquitoes and pollinators. The goal of Megan’s research is to better understand the molecular regulation and ecological consequences of seasonal responses in mosquitoes so that we can develop more targeted strategies to control mosquitoes while protecting pollinators. The Meuti Lab
My overall goal is to understand how insect pests adapt to rapidly changing selection pressures in agroecosystems such as host-shifting to important crops or resistance to management tactics. A lack of understanding of how insect pests adapt limits the effectiveness and sustainability of insect management, and threatens agricultural production. Specifically, my research focuses on characterizing the genetic basis for insect pest adaptation and how these adaptive traits spread across the landscape. Our research methods range across scales, from molecular to ecosystems, and include genome sequencing, gene expression, molecular marker analysis, and migration and gene flow estimation across a species distribution. Understanding and demonstrating how insects adapt, as well as communicating research-based insect management recommendations, delays the evolution of resistance or emergence of pests and ensures safer and more productive food supply.
Seun is an entomologist focused on developing innovative and sustainable solutions for urban insect challenges. One such is the potential use of endosymbionts for managing urban insects. His research has been highlighted by popular news outlets such as ESA’s blog, Entomology Today, and National Geographic. During his postdoctoral research at Yale University, Seun investigated the molecular mechanisms of insect-microbe interactions, particularly Wolbachia-mediated cytoplasmic incompatibility. The Oladipupo Lab will leverage advancements in insect-microbe interactions, genetic engineering, and bioinformatics to develop sustainable urban pest management solutions. To do this, our research will focus on: investigating socioeconomic drivers of urban pest prevalence; leveraging biotechnology to exploit behavior and ecology of urban pests and their microbiomes; understanding how microbiomes influence key life history traits of these intractable pests; developing sustainable strategies based on these insights; creating tools to apply lab-based strategies in real world-settings.
The Perry Lab investigates how disturbances influence the structure and function of insect communities in natural and urban forests. Natural disturbances such as native insects and windstorms are essential components of forest ecosystems, but human-induced disturbances such as exotic species, habitat degradation, and climate change impact forest health and management. To assess the impacts of disturbance, we use insects and their biodiversity as an indicator of forest health. Ongoing research projects in Ohio, Michigan, and Pennsylvania investigate the responses of forest insect communities to disturbance caused by emerald ash borer (Agrilus planipennis), windstorms, salvage logging, and urbanization. Although we study a variety of insect groups, my taxonomic expertise includes ground- and soil-dwelling arthropod communities, particularly ground beetles (Coleoptera: Carabidae).
Our research program encompass both basic and applied aspects of areas: 1) the role of soil communities in plant health and susceptibility to herbivory, disease, and plant competition in biological farming systems, and 2) identification and behavioral characterization of plant secondary compounds and arthropod semiochemicals that mediate host finding and other behaviors.
My laboratory investigates the molecular physiology of mosquito vectors with an emphasis on ion transport mechanisms involved with salt and water homeostasis. We also conduct applied research on mosquitoes with an emphasis on the discovery and development of insecticides and/or repellents from natural sources (e.g., plants).
Keywords: physiology, toxicology, biochemistry, molecular biology, mosquito
The Short Lab is broadly interested in understanding the factors that influence variation in susceptibilty to pathogen infection and transmission of infectious disease. We study how insects interact with harmful and helpful microbes and the ecological and evolutionary forces shaping insect immune defense. As vector biologists, we are also interested in finding ways to use this information to improve our ability to prevent the spread of vector-borne diseases. We primarly study Aedes aegypti, the mosquito vector of dengue and Zika virus. We are currently focusing on two major research areas:
1. The factors determining the formation and maintenance of the mosquito microbiome. The mosquito midgut microbiome is an important determinant of vector borne disease transmission, but it varies between species, location, and even between individuals in the same population. It also varies across developmental stages and as a result of changes in diet. We are interested in better understanding the environmental, physiological, and genetic factors that shape bacterial populations in the mosquito gut. We are currently studying the impact of larval nutrition on adult microbiome formation. Our approach is multifacetd, combining high throughput methods (e.g. bacterial 16S high-throughput sequencing, transcriptomics) and targeted molecular techniques (e.g. RNAi and qPCR) to quantitatively assess organism and population-level phenotypes.
2. The impact of the microbiome on mosquito capacity to transmit pathogens. The bacteria associated with mosquitoes can have important implications for their susceptibility to infection by pathogens like dengue virus. We are interested in taking this further, and investigating how the microbiome impacts life history traits critical for disease transmission. We study this at the level of individual organisms as well as populations, asking how the microbiome impacts the life history of a single mosquito and the extent to which the microbiome could influence variation in pathogen transmission.
The Tilmon Agronomic Crop Insect Pest Lab performs research and extension on the ecology and management of insects in agronomic crops including corn and soybean. Projects span the discplines of ecology, evolution, and behavior.
Sam’s research group (Landscaped Ecosystem and Forest Entomology Lab; LEAFE Lab) studies the ecology and management of insects that feed on trees. They work on a variety of topics across multiple spatial and temporal scales, ranging from biological control of ornamental pests to macroscale ecology of invading forest insects. Most projects are aimed at understanding drivers of the arrival, establishment, and spread of non-native insects (invading species and imported biological control agents), with a particular emphasis on mitigating ecological and economic impacts of invaders. Other themes in the lab include the spatial ecology of arthropods, tree and insect responses to climate change, and ecoinformatics.
My research interest is focused on integrated management of arthropod pests and diseases in turfgrass. Research areas in my lab include but are not limited to chemical control, biological control, microbial control (with entomopathogenic nematodes, fungi, bacteria, or viruses), and pesticide resistance diagnosis and management. Also, I am interested in exploring for novel and eco-friendly tactics for managing turf pests and diseases. The goal of research is to reduce the reliance on chemical pesticides and side effects from chemical applications (e.g. pesticide resistance, non-target effects, water / soil pollution), thus promoting biodiversity and environmental sustainability.