By Cole Gee | Reporter
In the laboratory of Dr. Jason Pitts, Baylor student researchers are working on breakthroughs in mosquito ecology and mating practices.
Second-year Ph.D. student Dhivya Rajamanickam has been using her experience studying mosquitoes in her home country of Sri Lanka to aid her research in Texas. After beginning her work in August, she won first place in a student competition at the annual meeting of the Texas Mosquito Control Association on Nov. 2 in Corpus Christi, along with the $1,000 James “Gus” Foyle Memorial Scholarship.
Rajamanickam, who has been focusing on the feeding habits of mosquitoes, said she credits Pitts and the Baylor research lab for their support and hopes her research can help inform the public about managing mosquito populations.
“Some people lack awareness when it comes to how mosquitoes select their breeding grounds, as well as prevention matters,” Rajamanickam said. “It is very important for them to know how mosquitoes prefer areas to lay their eggs and how we have to discard them to prevent more mosquito breeding grounds.”
According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, mosquitoes are the “world’s deadliest animal” because they cause nearly 700,000 deaths a year.
Burleson senior Claire Law has been researching the mating of mosquitoes — and, more specifically, how they use smell in the process. Since beginning her work in May, she has also received critical acclaim, as she was granted the Outstanding Presenter Award in the BioSciences EEB section at the Gulf Coast Undergraduate Research Symposium, which was held on Oct. 21 at Rice University.
“There’s a very strong need for the development of new control methods and to control mosquito populations,” Law said. “We need to understand what allows mosquito populations to grow, and we need to understand their mating behaviors.”
Law said there are still a lot of unknowns regarding mosquito behaviors, and she hopes her research can someday be a stepping stone for others in the field.
As for the future, Rajamanickam is continuing to pursue her doctorate in Pitts’ lab, while Law hopes to study molecular biology further with the hope of becoming a professor.
