Members of the Illinois Natural History Survey Medical Entomology Lab participated in the 71st Annual Meeting of the Illinois Mosquito and Vector Control Association (IMVCA), held in Champaign, Illinois, on November 20–21, 2025. Our team contributed presentations, participated in the student competition, and took on leadership roles within the association. Student Competition Recognition Graduate students […]
Featured image photo credit: The Entomological Society of America Members of the INHS Medical Entomology Lab attended the Entomological Society of America Annual Meeting in Portland, Oregon (November 9–12, 2025), where they showcased a wide range of research in vector biology, mosquito ecology, and pathogen transmission. We are proud to share the many contributions our […]
Dr. Arif Ciloglu delivered two seminars highlighting current research on avian vector-borne parasites and their ecological significance. The first seminar, titled “Tiny Hitchhikers, Big Impacts: Following Vector-Borne Parasites on the Wings of Birds,” was presented at the Illinois Natural History Survey (INHS) on September 30, 2025. A second talk, “A Bird’s-Eye View of Avian Haemosporidian […]
On Saturday, October 25, 2025, members of the INHS Medical Entomology Lab — Chris Stone, Gabriel Yan, Lance Jones, and Kylee Noel — spent the day at Pickerill-Pigott Forest Preserve in Yorkville, IL, leading hands-on learning activities for educators during the Illinois Department of Natural Resources (IDNR) ENTICE workshop on Illinois Mosquitoes & Ticks. The […]
We’re excited to share that Chris Stone has been selected for the 2025–26 Emerging Research Leaders Academy (ERLA), a program run by the Interdisciplinary Health Sciences Institute to support mid-career researchers as they grow into collaborative, campus-wide leaders. Each year, ERLA brings together a select group of researchers from across the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign […]
On July 1, 2025, Vinisha Singh Basnet successfully defended her Master’s thesis in Entomology at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign. Her thesis, titled “Evaluating Behavioral Avoidance and Horizontal Transmission of Beauveria bassiana in Bed Bugs (Cimex lectularius) Across Spatially Complex Environments”, investigates how bed bugs interact with fungal biopesticides in spatially complex arenas. Her work advances […]
Congratulations to Joseph Spina, who successfully defended his master’s thesis in Entomology titled “The Vector Competence and Vectorial Capacity of Aedes albopictus for Ross River Virus as a Function of Temperature” on June 13, 2025. In his work, Joe investigated how temperature influences the ability of Aedes albopictus mosquitoes to transmit Ross River virus—a critical […]
We have launched the BiteMap website in collaboration with colleagues at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign’s National Center for Supercomputing Applications to enhance our community-engaged passive tick surveillance program and collaborations, including with Lincoln Park Zoo and IL Extension. The website allows Illinois residents to report tick bites and encounters, and initiate submissions of tick […]
Dr. Jiayue (Gabriel) Yan and graduate student Joseph Spina are heading to San Juan, Puerto Rico, to present at the American Mosquito Control Association’s (AMCA) 91st Annual Meeting. Dr. Yan will deliver a talk titled “Effects of Seasonality and Developed Land Cover on Culex Mosquito Abundance and Microbiome Diversity” on Thursday, March 6, from 4:15 […]
Dr. Arif Ciloglu from Erciyes University, (Kayseri, Turkey), will be joining our lab as a Visiting Research Scholar for the coming year. His research interests are vectors and vector-borne parasitic diseases of domestic and wild animals. He uses molecular techniques and bioinformatics to research epidemiology, genetics, and evolution of both vectors and vector transmitted parasites. […]