I am an Academic Specialist in the Department of Entomology at Michigan State University, focused on teaching, advising, and public outreach. I teach courses in Entomology as well as Integrative Studies in Biology, serve as the academic advisor for undergraduate students majoring or minoring in Entomology at MSU, and help coordinate educational programming as co-director for the MSU Bug House.
About me: I am a graduate of Michigan State University, with a B.S. in Zoology (2009), a M.S. in Entomology (2012), and a Ph.D. in Entomology (2017). My M.S. thesis investigated the larval ecology of an invasive mosquito species in Michigan, Aedes japonicus. For my Ph.D., I branched away from mosquitos to concentrate on a question I had long pondered: Why do so many people seem to dislike or even hate insects and spiders? My dissertation focused on human attitudes toward insects, investigating new methods to measure the emotional and knowledge components of these attitudes.
Dr. Amanda R. Lorenz-Reaves 