Roles and Responsibilities

Boyd Mori (ESC Student Representative, SAC Co-Chair, Edmonton)
Boyd started his post-secondary education at the University of the Fraser Valley in Abbotsford, British Columbia, before transferring to the University of Alberta to finish his Bachelor's degree. During his time at the U of A, he was inspired by some fantastic faculty members to continue on in entomology. He is currently completing his PhD under the supervision of Maya Evenden exploring the use of pheromones to monitor and manage Coleophora deauratella, a significant pest of red clover in north-western Alberta. He also hopes to track the invasion of C. deauratella in Alberta, and possibly Canada, using molecular phylogenetic analyses.

Chandra Moffat (SAC Co-Chair, Fredericton)
Chandra has been involved with the ESC Student Affairs Committee since 2010.  She completed a BSc at the University of Victoria, where through the co-op program, she gained experience in agricultural entomology, invasive plant ecology and biological control.  After her BSc, she worked for both the CFIA and CABI Europe-Switzerland, and then completed an MSc investigating the host-associations of a candidate weed biological control agent in its native range. Chandra has recently started a PhD at the University of New Brunswick with Stephen Heard and is studying the ecology and evolution of host specificity of herbivorous insects on goldenrods.

Paul Abram (Montréal)
Paul recently started his PhD  at l'Université de Montréal after completing a master's degree at Carleton University in Ottawa. His research interests include behavioural ecology of insect natural enemies and its application to arthropod biological control.  His PhD project is focused on the effect of temperature on parasitoid behaviour using egg parasitoids of stink bugs as a model system.

Léna Durocher-Granger (Saint-Jean-sur-Richelieu/Honduras)
Léna completed her master degree in 2011 on reproductive strategies of parasitoids at McGill University and Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada. She is now working in Central America to support IPM projects with small producers, but still helping in the SAC.

Guillaume Dury (Montréal)
With the help of his parents, Guillaume started collecting insects before he was 5 years old. The passion has only grown; during his undergraduate degree at the University of Québec at Montréal, Guillaume studied the feeding behavior of forest tent caterpillars. He is currently studying circular group defense in the larvae of neotropical leaf beetles (Chrysomelidae: Chrysomelinae), using a molecular phylogeny he will uncover evolutionary history of this behaviour. He is currently completing this Master's project at McGill's Macdonald Campus and the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute in Panama.

Brock Harpur (Toronto)
Brock completed his undergraduate degree at the University of Northern British Columbia where he learned to love social insects (thanks, Staffan) and genetics. He decided to trudge across the country and start his Master's degree with Amro Zayed. He is currently completing this degree at York University; his thesis studies genomics and immunology in the honey bee. After completion of his Master's degree, Brock will enter a PhD program to continue his studies on arthropod genomics. 

Julia Mlynarek (Ottawa)
Julia completed her undergraduate and Master's degrees at McGill University - Macdonald campus, where her passion for insects developed. With her systematics background, she decided to tackle understanding the evolution and ecology of species interactions. Julia is now pursuing a PhD in host-parasite associations at Carleton University, trying to determine what best explains interspecific variation in parasitism using damselflies as hosts parasitized by water mites and gregarines.

Ikkei Shikano (Vancouver)
Ikkei completed his Master's degree at the University of British Columbia where he ignited a passion for insects while researching their ability to retain long-term memory. He is currently working on a PhD at Simon Fraser University studying self-medication behaviour associated with tritrophic interactions between cabbage loopers, their host plants, and entomopathogens.