Entomology: (en·to·mol·o·gy): n. : The study of insects.

Entomolgoist: (en·to·mol·o·gist): n.: Any possibly crazy person who thinks two legs good, six legs better. May be found in any environment regardless of climate, civil unrest, or presence of venomous snakes. Sometimes uses his/her own body as a host for botflies, mosquitoes, lice, or ticks. Knows how to fry a mealworm and that it's actually a caterpillar in a bottle of mescal. Still can't rid his/her own office of ants, or your home of cockroaches.

I have a B.S in this discipline from Texas A&M University. I am currently working on my PhD at the University of California - Riverside. At the moment, I am tentatively going to do my dissertation research on the Pajoello tick, Ornithodoros coriaceous. This tick is a known vector of Epizootic Bovine Abortion, which causes spontaneous abortion in first-calf heifers. The exact causative agent is as yet unknown, though Dr. Stott and others at UC-Davis have been working for some time on isolating the pathogen.

My research should be more directed at defining the biology of the tick and devising new control methods.

I am also working on determining the rate of ovarian development in Canyon fly, Fannia benjamini. This fly is a major nuisance pest along the coastal dry arroyos along the Pacific coast of southern California.