Profile

• Time Zone

  Eastern

  
  
• Organization

  Cornell University

  
  
• Role

  Scientist Mentor: I will mentor teams of students online

  
  
• Research Interests (300 words)

  I am a professor of ecology and work in an entomology department. I study insect-plan interactions, population ecology, and community ecology. My speciality is the interactions of parasitoid wasps with their host insects and the plants the host insects eat. I am particularly interested in how plant chemistry influences herbivore insects, and the parasites of those insects.

  
  
• Profile Question 1

  When and why did you decide to go into a science career?

  
  
• Answer the question you selected for profile question 1 here (300 words):

  I grew up in a non-scientific family. But I was always interested in nature and had a lot of pets. When I was a University student I had a work-study job taking care of insects for a professor. That was when I found out that one could study plants and animals, and have a career in it. It was a dream-come-true to realize that I could spend my life doing what I was naturally so curious about and had so much fun doing.

  
  
• Profile Question 2

  What is best about being a scientist?

  
  
• Answer the question you selected for profile question 2 here (300 words):

  There are a lot of great things about being a scientist. But for me, the best things are, first, that I get to figure out how things work, as a job. I love mysteries, and figuring out how to answer questions, and then answering them, and then figuring out how to effectively write about what I have found. Another great thing is working outside. Of course most scientists don't work outside, but I do, and it makes me feel content, even happy. Finally, it gives me satisfaction to do work that is meaningful for environmental conservation

  
  
• Profile Question 3

  What was the first science experiment you ever designed? How did it turn out?

  
  
• Answer the question you selected for profile question 3 here (300 words):

  One of the first science experiments that I designed was to find out if the angle that a spider web was at mattered. My friend and I found 10 big spider webs. With half of them we moved some of the attachment points so that they were flat rather than oriented up-and-down. We left the other half the way they were naturally. Then we counted how many insects got caught on the webs. It turned out, as you would expect, that the webs that were flat didn't catch very many insects.

  
  
• In addition to English, I am comfortable communicating with students in the following languages:

  (not set)

  
  

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