![\"parasitoid](\"https:\/\/research.uga.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/19\/2017\/10\/parasitoid-800x455.jpg\")
Driven in part by a desire to continue working on parasitoids, Strand stayed at Texas A&M to earn a Ph.D. in entomology and then accepted a post-doctoral position at Imperial College London. After a short stint at Clemson University, he joined the University of Wisconsin-Madison.<\/p>\n
Once there, he realized that he wanted to go in a new direction. His Ph.D. project had been ecologically and behaviorally oriented, so he retrofitted. After doing what he calls \u201cremedial education,\u201d he established a lab where he could explore insects at a molecular level, working to understand the genes and interactions between molecules that regulate cell function in organisms.<\/p>\n
Since then, Strand has followed his muse wherever it takes him, including moving to UGA in 2001. Now he is Regents\u2019 Professor in the College of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences, with an affiliated appointment in the genetics department of the Franklin College of Arts and Sciences.<\/p>\n
He describes himself as a generalist, a jack-of-all-trades but master of none who\u2019s always been innately and broadly curious about biology.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m not translationally driven. I\u2019m unapologetically not dedicated to a particular translational endpoint, although I fully appreciate the importance of translational applications,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cI see myself more as generally knowledgeable on a broader front, but not an expert, perhaps, in anything.\u201d<\/p>\n
Mark Brown, UGA professor of entomology, has a different take.<\/p>\n
\u201cAbout five or six years ago, Mike said to me, \u2018Nobody knows anything about gut microbes in mosquitoes and how they affect development,\u2019\u201d Brown said. \u201cIn that time, he has cut an incredible swath in developing that area of research.\u201d<\/p>\n
Strand has also developed working relationships with peers in fields like ecology, virology, biochemistry and molecular biology. Those colleagues, working in their individual fields, may not realize that Strand explores so many different areas.<\/p>\n
\u201cFolks may know he\u2019s done this work with polydnaviruses and parasitoids, but they may or may not be aware of the work that he\u2019s done with me and others on the endocrinology of mosquitoes,\u201d Brown said.<\/p>\n
\u201cMike is the only individual I know who is working the way he does across so many different areas and is so successful.\u201d<\/p>\n
This spring, Strand was elected to the National Academy of Sciences\u2014he is UGA\u2019s eighth member of the National Academies, which also include engineering and medicine.<\/p>\n
On paper, he seems like a shoo-in. He\u2019s published more than 220 research papers and garnered nearly $28 million in external funding from agencies including the National Institutes of Health, the U.S. Department of Agriculture and the National Science Foundation. His findings have been cited often enough to place him in the top 1 percent of biologists. He has delivered invited seminars and symposia in nearly every department of entomology in the U.S. and at universities and conferences in Europe, Asia, South America, Africa and Australia.<\/p>\n
But Strand, who\u2019s also a member of UGA\u2019s Center for Tropical and Emerging Global Diseases and the Faculty of Infectious Diseases, believes he\u2019s not the typical inductee.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think part of the reason that I got elected was because I\u2019m a throwback to when life scientists were less specialized than is usually the case today.\u201d<\/p>\n
But according to Brown, this kind of recognition requires a combination of time, breakthroughs and consistency in productivity.<\/p>\n
\u201cSometimes it\u2019s broadening an area of research, sometimes it\u2019s deepening an area of research,\u201d he said, \u201cand Mike manages to do both wherever he is working.\u201d<\/p>\n
Strand is also working to inspire the next generation of scientists.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat I like about teaching survey courses is sharing what you think is interesting about the subject,\u201d he said. \u201cI also really like introducing students to the process of science, showing them how it\u2019s actually done.\u201d<\/p>\n
But in the age of Twitter, a 24-hour news cycle and shortened attention spans, the scientific process can seem slow and cumbersome rather than methodical and thorough.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt isn\u2019t necessarily a world of just tweets and Facebook pages,\u201d Strand said. \u201cA lot of things are based on details that aren\u2019t easily distilled into a hashtag.\u201d<\/p>\n
The pursuit of scientific knowledge is a marathon, not a sprint, according to Strand. There are no easy answers, and even the generally accepted ones are subject to change as scientists learn more.<\/p>\n
\u201cMost subjects are always in a state of revision as we refine what we know,\u201d he said. \u201cThere\u2019s nothing wrong with something being wrong and changing. That\u2019s the whole idea.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
In 1979, moviegoers fell in love with Alien, a sci-fi horror film that spent several weeks as No. 1 at the box office. The story of a spaceship crew encountering an extraterrestrial life form featured a notable scene\u2014an alien bursting from the chest of a crew member used as its host. It was a parasitoid, … <\/p>\n