ESA Vice-President Elect
Dr. Alvin M. Simmons is a Research Entomologist at USDA-ARS, U.S. Vegetable Laboratory, Charleston, SC. He received a B.S. in biology (East Carolina University, 1980), and M.S. (1983) and Ph.D. (1987) in entomology (University of Kentucky). Alvin leads two USDA-ARS appropriated projects (one on vegetable IPM and another on vegetable and ornamental research supporting the national IR-4 pesticide registration project), and Alvin is Interim Coordinator for USDA-ARS Minor Use Pesticide Program for Food and Ornamental Horticulture. Alvin’s IPM research notably concerns environmental-bionomics, biocontrol, plant resistance, insect-virus-plant relationships, and biopesticides. READ MORE
North Central Branch Representative to the ESA Governing Board
Dr. Gary J. Brewer is a 40-year member of the Entomological Society of America and has served on many ESA committees and was Secretary and Chair of section Fa, Host Plant Resistance to Insects. His service to the North Central Branch has also included committee service, often as chair, twice as local arrangements Co-Chair, and NCB President in 2004-05. Most recently, he is serving as the North Central Branch Representative to the ESA Governing Board. Other professional service includes Secretary and Chair of CEDA, the Council of Entomology Department Administrators and membership on the Board of Representatives of the Council for Agricultural Science and Technology (CAST). READ MORE
PBT Representative to the ESA Governing Board
Dr. Marianne Alleyne is a research scientist and lecturer at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign (UIUC). She received her biology and entomology degrees from UC Berkeley (BA – advisor Dr. Bob Full), UC Riverside (MS – Dr. Nancy Beckage) and UIUC (PhD – Dr. Rob Wiedenmann). Her research covers many areas related to insect physiology, including: host-parasitoid interactions, arthropod sensors, bioinspired materials and robotics. Dr. Alleyne currently leads multi-disciplinary teams of faculty, graduate students, and undergraduate students across entomology and engineering. Dr. Alleyne teaches courses in Insect Physiology, Insect Pathology and Bioinspired Design. With an extensive experience in online teaching and learning, she serves as the graduate director for the online Master of Science Teaching Biology in the School of Integrative Biology at Illinois. READ MORE
SysEB Representative to the ESA Governing Board
Dr. Jessica L. Ware received her BSc from UBC in 2001. She received her PhD in Entomology from Rutgers in New Brunswick, NJ, in 2008, where she focused on the evolution of Dictyoptera and Odonata under Dr. Michael L. May. She then had an NSF Postdoctoral fellowship on termite evolution, which she undertook at the American Museum of Natural History with Dr. David Grimaldi from 2008-2010. She began her current position in the Department of Biological Sciences at Rutgers University in Newark, NJ in September 2010; she received tenure in 2016. She served as the president of the SysEB section, and is the current secretary of the World Dragonfly Association. READ MORE