With Halloween approaching, creatures that make our skin crawl and suck our blood are on our minds. Join us for an evening featuring talks from two scientists studying bugs, what influences their behavior, and their relationship to humans. We promise we won’t bite!
Speakers:
Alexandra DeFoe, Research Assistant in the Vosshall Lab, Rockefeller University
After attending high school in New Paltz, New York, Alexandra received her undergraduate degree in Biology and Political Science from the University of Vermont in 2021. She spent three years as a research assistant in the lab of Allison Brody studying honeybee epidemiology and flower morphology. Additionally, she served on the founding board of the Vermont Bee Lab as a research and administrative coordinator. Alexandra joined the Vosshall Lab of neurogenetics at Rockefeller University in December 2021 as a research assistant studying neurobiological feeding pathways in mosquitoes. In this talk, she will explore the unique behaviors of blood-feeding mosquitoes.
Louis Sorkin, B.C.E., Entomologist, Arachnologist, Myriapodologist, Entsult Associates, INC.
Lou Sorkin graduated with an M.S. in Entomology from the University of Connecticut in 1978 and began his arachnological career in the Department of Entomology (now the Division of Invertebrate Zoology) at the American Museum of Natural History in New York City. In 2020, he retired from the museum, and now consults for medical groups, real estate, law enforcement, hospitality, and the entertainment industry as a forensic entomologist. His interests include macro-photography, systematics, entomophagy (insects as food), taxonomy and behavior of arachnids as well as natural history of arthropods in general, and for the past few years, bed bugs have become an important study animal.
