Overview
- Our research, extension, and teaching activities are clustered into: Fundamental Insect Science, Safe & Sustainable Food production, Food Safety, Public & Animal Health; Environmental Stewardship. We have overarching collaborations within and outside the department, particularly those that address post-genomics efforts, food safety, plant resistance, stored-product entomology, and bio- and agrisecurity.
- The department is recognized for strong programs in Plant Resistance, Integrated Pest Management, Stored-Product Entomology, and Molecular Entomology.
- The residential faculty, which includes 18 full time equivalents, offers two-deep expertise in most sub-disciplines and commodity areas.
- We have an additional 22 PhD scientists with the USDA Grain Marketing and Production Research Center and KSU Departments of Biochemistry and Molecular Biophysics, Horticulture Forestry and Recreation Resources, Animal Science and Industry, Grain Science and Industry, and Diagnostic Medicine and Pathobiology, and the Division of Biology. They work on various aspects of insect science, including developmental genetics, genomics, arthropod-borne diseases, baculoviruses and other entomopathogens, plant resistance, stored product entomology, ecology, behavior, etc. We rely on our ancillary/adjunct faculty as active participants for help with research, extension, and teaching needs, and as mentors for our graduate students and postdocs.
- We have a strong clientele/stakeholder focus in teaching/research/extension.
- We receive approximately $2-3 million on an annualized basis in extramural support from agencies such as NIH, NSF, EPA, USAID, USDA-NIFA programs including AFRI and APHIS, and from industry, and commodity commissions.
- Our publications record is one of the best in the college.
- Several of our faculty serve on national and regional grants and blue ribbon panels.
- Enrollment in our courses has been on an increasing trend and our faculty have won college, university, and national teaching awards.
- Our renovated teaching laboratories allow use of multimedia equipment.
- We have an excellent seminar program addressing a wide range of entomological topics.
- Our students and faculty are winners of various awards and recognitions at the campus, regional, national, and international levels.
- The internationally renowned Insect Zoo is a one-of-a-kind entity that brings in over 8,000 people per year to campus.
Click below to access a 47-page booklet in pdf format that provides the history of our department:
