Mary L Cornelius received her BS from University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI in 1985. She received her PhD in Entomology from University of California, Berkeley, CA in 1991. She worked as a Postdoctoral Fellow for the University of Hawaii on a project studying the behavior of the Formosan subterranean termite from 1992-1996 and subsequently on a project studying the behavioral ecology of the Oriental fruit fly from 1996-1998. She has been a research entomologist in the FST unit at the SRRC since August 1998.  

Current research is focused on investigating the foraging behavior of Formosan subterranean termites in the laboratory and in the field.  Dr. Cornelius is working cooperatively with research chemists to isolate and identify behavior modifying chemicals that influence the feeding and tunneling behavior of termites in order to improve baiting systems for termite control.  She also conducts field tests to evaluate the efficacy of new products for termite control. Research on the interactions of termites and wood decay fungi identified two novel species of wood decay fungi that were very attractive to termites and demonstrated that chemicals produced by wood decay fungi could potentially be used to improve the efficacy of commercial baits.