Ryan Hanavan, Entomologist

An entomologist studies insects. I am interested in plant stress related to early insect attack.

I would say scientists need a combination of many skills. Curiosity leads you down a path, and requires creativity, careful observation, good record-keeping, critical thinking, math, and logic to synthesize your findings into something useful and understandable.

What is the health of hemlock trees in New York’s Catskill Mountain region in the past 10 years with respect to an invasive pest, the hemlock woolly adelgid? We used a combination of ground health metrics and airborne hyperspectral imagery (electromagnetic detection of things on the ground) to measure change in hemlock condition over ten years.

I use satellite-borne and airborne-imagery to characterize vegetation across large patchy landscapes and investigate sensitivity of vegetation to successful insect attack.

I’m currently working with NASA, the University of Vermont, and the USDA Forest Service Research branch on using LiDAR, hyperspectral, and thermal imagery to measure tree health across large landscapes and identify at-risk areas for invasive insect attack.

I was always the kid turning rocks over and digging in old logs. When I was in college, I toured a Christmas tree farm with an entomologist, and that’s when it became obvious that this was my dream job. That entomologist later served as my academic advisor for my Master’s degree.