Sheena Parsons

B.S.  2006 - Texas A&M University
       Entomology

Research Interests:  plant-insect interactions; species interactions; forensic entomology; ecological stoichiometry; disease ecology

I have been working as the lab technician in the Joern lab since the summer of 2006.  I've put my entomology degree to good use spending my summers in the field identifying and collecting different species of grasshoppers to be used in the nutritional ecology project.

As an undergraduate I worked on a research project (with Jonathan Cammack) under the direction of Dr. Jimmy K. Olson and Dr. Jeff K. Tomberlin that primarily focused on the migration habits of maggots (Diptera: Calliphoridae).  I presented a comparison of Phormia regina data sets for minimal post mortem interval (PMI) estimates at the North American Forensic Entomology Association (NAFEA) 2006 annual meeting.    

If you're unsure about what you want to do after you recieve your bachelor's degree and think you may be interested in grad school I would reccommend spending time working as a technician.  Working in the Joern lab has been an amazing experience.  As a research technician you work on a project that has already been defined by someone else so you learn valuable, basic research skills that you can apply to your own project in the future. Working in this environment will open your eyes to what it takes to conduct a research project and help you decide whether or not you want to commit to a project of your own.