MICHELLE SANFORD received her Ph.D. in May 2010. She is currently a postdoctoral associate at the University of California, Davis. Her Master’s thesis research topic involved the impact of ammonium nitrogen addition on the production of mosquitoes from a constructed treatment wetland in southern California. After completing her M.S. she worked as a research assistant with Bill Walton in the Department of Entomology at UC Riverside examining mosquito and midge production from a constructed treatment wetland designed to process primary wastewater effluent. Her doctoral research topic involves the associative learning abilities of mosquitoes with an emphasis on Culex quinquefasciatus. Associative learning in vector insects has the potential to greatly increase our understanding of vector behavior and disease transmission cycles.
She completed a 10 month Fulbright Fellowship in Thailand conducting research on the associative learning abilities of native Anopheles, malaria vectors in northern Thailand in the Department of Parasitology at Chiang Mai University. In addition to mosquito research in Thailand she is using her time there to network with forensic entomologists in Thailand for future collaboration. Her forensic entomology interests thus far have been centered on methods for rehydrating dried larval fly specimens but she is also interested in the potential for population level differences in life history among widely dispersed forensically important Diptera of the same species.