We are delighted to be hosting Ento26 in the city of Cardiff and would like to thank the Ento Convenors for their support with the programme planning.
Our Convenors represent four organisations across Wales: Swansea University, Bangor University, University of Bristol and BioMonde, Bridgend.
Lucy Alford, University of Bristol
Lucy Alford is an invertebrate physiologist at the University of Bristol with an interest in thermal physiology and the mechanisms conferring thermal tolerance. She is particularly interested in understanding how we may use our knowledge of invertebrate physiology to inform the development of targeted landscape management to enhance the thermal resilience of beneficial insects in a changing climate.
Micah Flores, BioMonde
Micah Flores is a Research & Development Project Manager for BioMonde in South Wales. His role supports the pharmaceutical production of Lucilia sericata (Diptera:Calliphoridae) for use in larval therapy for chronic wounds. Further to this, his research is evaluating the scalable collection and production of larval excretions/secretions as a platform technology while following current good manufacturing practices and regulatory oversight.
His background is in studying the growth and development of blow flies and their interspecific competition on ephemeral resources with the aim of aiding forensic investigations. This translational use of otherwise public perceived nuisance flies has helped shape his interest in the application of flies for societal use. Following his graduate studies at Texas A&M University, he began researching larval therapy with the U.S. Army for use with wounded soldiers which eventually led to working on a clinical trial using larval therapy for U.S. Veterans with chronic non-healing wounds. He moved from the U.S. to South Wales in 2019 to work for BioMonde.
Wendy Harris, Swansea University
Wendy is an entomologist/ecologist and Associate Professor at Swansea University, UK. She convenes the Royal Entomological Society (RES) Outreach, Education and Culture Special Interest Group, sits on the RES Outreach Committee, and has recently joined the Wood Ant Steering Group. Wendy’s research focuses on how insect communities can be enhanced by changing management practices. Her interests include integrating the public into our scientific community through citizen science schemes to collect invertebrate data. She is keen to encourage active engagement with the natural world and disseminate the ecological threats to insects and methods of mitigation.
Benjamin Jarrett, Bangor University
Benjamin Jarrett is a lecturer in Behavioural and Evolutionary Ecology at Bangor University. He uses insects to ask broad evolutionary questions with laboratory experiments like experimental evolution. His current research is investigating the role of sexual selection in adaptation to novel host plants using broad-headed bugs. He also has an interest in invasive species, and how native insect species evolve in response to them.
