Introduction
(click photos to enlarge)
Graduate students at the FMEL earn degrees at the M.S. and/or Ph.D. level in the University of Florida's Department of Entomology and Nematology.
Typically FMEL students spend the first year in courses taken on the Gainesville campus. After the first year, most students usually relocate to the FMEL in Vero Beach to take advantage of the unique laboratory and field opportunities offered by the FMEL. Students obtain close in depth training through contact and collaborations with the faculty of the FMEL, all of whom are leading authorities in medical entomology.
Graduate work at the FMEL is planned in close collaboration with an FMEL faculty member who serves as the Chair of the student's graduate committee. A graduate committee will be constituted consisting of other FMEL faculty, other faculty in the Department of Entomology and Nematology and/or faculty in other relevant departments.
Graduate students at the FMEL are eligible to receive graduate support in the form of stipends and/or tuition remission through University of Florida fellowships, Department of Entomology and Nematology assistantships, FMEL grants from NIH, USDA, Florida Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services, and through other granting and sponsoring agencies. These awards are made on a competitive basis to deserving students. Interested students are encouraged to directly contact prospective faculty at the FMEL to learn about FMEL opportunities, research, graduate applications and financial support.
Research Areas
Research interests and expertise cover a wide variety of areas including, genetics, biochemistry, ecology and behavior, systematics, bigeography, epidemiology, mathematical modelling, and others. Some examples of research projects now underway include:
- Effects of deforestation in Amazonian Peru on cycles of arboviruses transmitted by mosquitoes.
- Biological control of mosquitoes using native copepods.
- Mosquito production from constructed wetlands.
- Modelling encephalitis cycles in nature.
- Invasion biology of Aedes albopictus.
- Strain variation in vector-borne parasites.
- Cloning and expression of mosquito hormones in bacteria, viruses
and plants.
- Vector heterogeneity and malaria in Brazil.
- Encephalitis biology and epidemiology.
- Evaluation of Anopheline traps in Tanzania.
Application
Detailed information about applying for admission to graduate work at the FMEL Department of Entomology and Nematology can be obtained from the Department at http://entnemdept.ifas.ufl.edu/.
Other Information
Graduate Student Health Care:
Contact
Graduate Studies Coordinator
Florida Medical Entomology Laboratory
200 9th Street S.E.,
Vero Beach, FL 32962, USA
