Hello everyone, my name is Dr. James Brown, and as of July 6th I am the Entomology Department’s new Fruit Crop Entomologist! I am excited to be here and grateful for the opportunity to support Wisconsin fruit growers. To all the growers, Extension specialists, and other fruit crop stakeholders’ thanks for making me feel welcome and for all those I have not met I wanted to say ‘Hello’ and tell you a bit more about my professional background.
My experience as an entomologist started in Gainesville, Florida where I worked in a corn pest biocontrol lab at the USDA before getting my doctorate at University of Florida. As a PhD student, I investigated ways to improve Drosophila suzukii (SWD) management in blueberries and strawberries using chemical ecology to build better traps and biological control to lower resident pest populations. Before joining UW-Madison, I was a postdoc for the University of California-Berkeley working on grower issues in California’s Central Valley. In California, I continued to work on SWD management but in addition, I also worked on Planococcus ficus (vine mealybug) management in grape production systems, with an emphasis on testing and optimizing insecticide applications
Now that I am here in Wisconsin, I plan to keep working on crops and pests that I know well and I’m excited for the chance to help manage pests in new (to me) crop systems as well. If you are curious to know more about my past research, my plans for the future, or if you just want to say hello in-person, send me an email (james.brown@wisc.edu) and we can schedule a time to meet.
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