Dr. RICHARD MERRITT, Ph.D.

---

Dr. Richard W. Merritt is currently Professor and Chair of Entomology, Michigan State University, East Lansing, Michigan.  He also has a joint appointment in the Deptartment of Fisheries and Wildlife at MSU.

A native Californian, he attended California State University at San Jose where he received his BS in Biology in l968. He then went on to Washington State University where he received his MS in Entomology in l970, and then back to California where he obtained his Ph.D. in Medical Entomology and Parasitology from the University of California, Berkeley in l974.

During that time he also was a participant in the Organization for Tropical Studies Program in Costa Rica and in l973 he was a faculty participant in a course entitled "Ecology of the Amazon" which took place in Columbia and Brazil.

He was promoted to Full Professor at MSU in l984. His academic and scholastic honors include: Phi Beta Kappa, Sigma Xi, Who's who in the Midwest, Men of Achievement, American Men and Women of Science, and several others listed below.

Dr. Merritt's major research interests focus on the feeding ecology, animal microbial interactions, population dynamics and influence of environmnental factors on immature aquatic insects, especially the Diptera. 

His most recent research has concentrated on biomonitoring of streams and rivers, and the effects of pollutants on aquatic ecosystems and the macroinvertebrates that occur in these water bodies. He has worked extensively on black fly and mosquito larval ecology.

He is also interested in the field of Forensic Entomology and assists police departments with crime scene investigations involving insects. He is Chair of the American Board of Forensic Entomology (ABFE) and a member of the American Academy of Forensic Sciences.

He has co-edited three editions of a textbook entitled, "An Introduction to the Aquatic Insects of North America" and a book entitled, " Black Flies: Ecology, Population Manangement, and Annotated World List."  He has served as Associate Editor for two journals, The American Midland Naturalist, and Freshwater Invertebrate Biology.. He is currently Associate Editor for the Journal of Medical Entomology.

Dr. Merritt teaches two main courses, one in Insect Ecology and the other in Aquatic Entomology. He also teaches a course in Forensic Entomology and a short summer field course in Biomontoring of Streams and Rivers.

He received the Outstanding Teaching Award from the North Central Branch of the Entomological Society of America in 2002 and recently received the MSU University Distinguished Faculty Award for 2004.

He received a Fulbright Scholar Award in l986 and spent a sabbatical in London, England where he was made an Honorary Research Fellow at University College, London.

Recently, under a Senior Fulbright Specialist Award, he taught two short courses in Brazil, one in Curritiba, and one in the Amazon on biomonitoring of streams and rivers.

He has served as President of the 2500-member North American Benthological Society (NABS), and been an active member of the North Eastern States Regional Project (NE-ll8) on black fly biology and control.

Dr. Merritt has served on different ESA(Entomological Society of America) committees, on several USDA/SEA departmental review teams for Entomology programs throughout the country, and is a consultant for WHO in Geneva, Switzerland, on Buruli Ulcer, a disease in Africa thought to be transmitted by aquatic insects.

He has served on the Nature Conservancy Scientific Advisory Committee and the Fulbright Board of Directors for the State of Michigan.

For more information on certification as Diplomate, ABFE, click:

Please contact Dr. Richard Merritt for more information on certification as Diplomate , American Board of Forensic Entomologists: