College of Agriculture & Natural Resources Department of Entomology

My research emphasizes the importance of microbes implicated in decomposition and how detectable trends in those microbes can inform death investigation and forensic techniques. To identify the practical applications of molecular lab techniques and DNA sequencing I target forensically relevant Diptera (e.g. Calliphoridae) and examine their microbiomes as larvae and adults relative to their development and the cadaver they are found on.