Rodrigo Diaz

Rodrigo Diaz was born in Quito, Ecuador. After eighteen years of Latino family care, he moved to Honduras to work on his B.S. in Agronomy at Zamorano University. During the last year at Zamorano, his curiosity of insects started to expand, especially in his adventure trips all over Honduras. His thesis involved the study of Trichogramma as a biological control agent against the corn earworm in Maize. Since then, Rodrigo's interest in biological control continues to grow. His arrival to Uncle Sam land was through the University of Illinois. Rodrigo did an internship under the direction of Dr. Rob Wiedemann for the Center of Economic Entomology. During this time, he had the opportunity to be involved in weed biological control programs, mass rearing of parasitoids of stem borers, outreach activities in Chicago Schools and some cruel experiences with English misspelling, mispronunciation, and misunderstandings. The cold winters in Illinois almost killed him so he decided to apply to a university in the southern portion of the US. Rodrigo arrived at Texas A&M in January 2001. Although, Texas in January was still colder than he expected there was a noticeable warmer than Illinois. At Texas A&M he started working on a MS in Entomology with Dr. Julio Bernal. His project focus is on evaluating the impact of fire ants upon natural enemies and key pests in cotton. For the future he wishes to continue his work in the area of biological control and expand its applications to developing countries.

TOP

Rodrigo Diaz

E-mail:
rdiaz@neo.tamu.edu

Rodrigo is Secretary of the Entomology Student Graduate Organization