About Us -> Welcome from the Chair

As Chair, I have the honor of welcoming you to the Entomology website, and of offering a summary overview of an academic department that I have been privileged to serve since 1981.

The Department of Entomology has a strong sense of shared mission. The Department seeks to advance the fundamental understanding of biology as it relates to insects, and to bring that knowledge to bear on education and public needs. This dual commitment to scholarship and public service reflects the origin of the Department and our discipline as early constituents, respectively, of the University of Maryland and of the Land Grant university movement generally, over a century ago. It is epitomized today by our unique dual citizenship in the College of Chemical and Life Sciences and the College of Agriculture and Natural Resources. Entomology serves as a major link between the two Colleges, and is the only campus unit whose faculty includes joint appointees with departments of both colleges. As a member of the College of Chemical and Life Sciences, Entomology is a full partner in the continuing evolution of exciting new interdisciplinary research and training programs in basic biology, and in the College-wide undergraduate Biology program. Simultaneously, through our participation in the College of Agriculture and Natural Resources, we are full partners in the programs of the Maryland Cooperative Extension Service and the Maryland Agricultural Experiment Station, working closely with campus and field faculty colleagues, industry, state and federal agencies, and the public, on critical issues of pest management and environmental protection broadly defined.

Faculty and staff of the Department of Entomology at the University of Maryland, 1929.

The research programs of the Entomology faculty members, housed in the beautiful new Plant Sciences Building, span the range of levels of organization from molecular genetics to ecosystem function. A special emphasis of the Department, evident across this spectrum, is strong linkage between basic research and application, both within and between laboratories. Our research programs, in turn, provide close support to the Department’s award-winning Extension programs in agricultural pest management, urban, structural, and green industries pest management, and pesticide education, assessment, and policy.

Entomology faculty train students through a diverse array of graduate and undergraduate programs, in which they often take leadership roles. In addition to the program in Entomology (ENTM), our faculty participate in inter-departmental and inter-college graduate programs in Behavior, Ecology, Evolution and Systematics (BEES), Marine and Estuarine Environmental Sciences, Molecular and Cell Biology, Neuroscience and Cognitive Sciences, Toxicology, and Community and Public Health. Over the past 15 years the department has placed essentially all its Ph.D. graduates into permanent positions in their fields, split about evenly between academia and government research or regulatory agencies, sometimes immediately though usually after a year or more of postdoctoral study.

The Department is also deeply committed to undergraduate education. In addition to offering an array of upper-level courses serving students in both Colleges, and a highly popular non-majors ‘Insects’ course, Entomology faculty teach lower-division introductory courses required for Biology majors. While there is no formal entomology major, students can readily get the effect of such a specialization through their elective courses. The Department is especially proud of the large and talented corps of undergraduates, from a variety of majors, who find niches in our faculty research labs. Many stay for several years, often with funding from the College of Chemical and Life Sciences Howard Hughes program and other sources of undergraduate research support, and many write senior theses as participants in the Entomology Honors program.

Entomologists also play key roles in other initiatives designed to make a big campus feel small. For example, Emeritus Professor Lee Hellman has long directed the College Park Life Science Scholars living/learning program, and Professor Barbara Thorne was recruited in 2004 to head the University Honors program. Finally, illustrating the close link between education and public outreach, the Department is currently expanding its outreach to K-12 students. We are building programs (including an Insect Summer Camp) that aim to capitalize on the unique allure of our subject matter (pet a tarantula?!) to stimulate interest in science among young people.

Entomology’s research and training programs benefit enormously from our close proximity to Washington D.C., Baltimore, and Maryland's I-270 Biotechnology Corridor, which facilitates interaction with an extraordinary range of major scientific agencies and institutions. These include, among many others, the Smithsonian’s National Museum of Natural History, the Beltsville Agricultural Research Center of the U.S. Department of Agriculture, the National Institutes of Health, and the Environmental Protection Agency. Scientists from these local partners serve as adjunct faculty and informal advisors, greatly augmenting the array of facilities, research opportunities, and funding sources available to our students. These benefits are illustrated, to use one of many examples, by the success of our systematics training partnership with the Smithsonian and USDA, known as the Maryland Center for Systematic Entomology.

Diversity of opportunity describes life at College Park as well. In addition to its vast curriculum, the campus is host to a boundless array of special seminars and workshops, clubs and other shared-interest organizations, recreational facilities, and athletic and performing arts events. The cultural riches of the nation’s capital, where most museums (including the National Museum of Natural History and its Insect Zoo) are free, can be reached from a Washington Metrorail station near our campus. An immense range of habitats for recreation and research, from the Atlantic ocean to the Eastern Continental Divide, lies within a few hours’ drive.

This is an exciting time to be an entomologist at College Park. The current top priority for our campus, one of the most rapidly advancing public research universities in the country, is growth and strengthening in the life sciences. Entomology is slated to participate fully in a major expansion of the College of Chemical and Life Sciences faculty that will emphasize functional and comparative genomics (including systematics), sensory neurobiology, host-pathogen interactions, and ecological sustainability. Our challenge will be to show that a department with our history can take full advantage of this signal advance in the basic sciences, while retaining its deep commitment to the Land Grant ideal of public service. Given especially the rapidly expanding landscape of needs and resources in applied research and outreach, this will require all the energy and creativity we can muster. I confess, however, to exuberant optimism. Our Department is blessed with abundant faculty and student talent, a staff of unsurpassed skill and dedication, and a long tradition of cooperation, collegiality, and social cohesion. Over the next few years we will undertake a strenuous but exhilarating transition, to a new definition and level of excellence for our Department. I hope that some of you will want to join us in this adventure.

Dr. Charles Mitter, Chair