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Gregory A. Dahlem |
From the time that I was a young boy, I was fascinated by the miniature world
of insects and the natural world around me. While in Junior High, I volunteered and
then worked as a Junior Staff member at the Dayton Museum of Natural
History in Dayton, Ohio (the name was changed in 1999 to the Boonshoft
Museum of Discovery). I attended high school at Wayne High School
in Huber Heights, Ohio and worked as a Veterinary Technician at a local
veterinary clinic. When the time came to choose a university to
attend, I chose the one Ohio university with a Department of
Entomology: The Ohio State University in Columbus.
During my time as an
undergraduate student at Ohio State, I was introduced to many new facets of the
Natural Sciences. I thought for a while about being a veterinarian or a molecular
geneticist, but my studies in the field of entomology made me the
happiest, so I decided to devote myself to the study of insects. I
found that I really enjoyed identifying insects and learning about their
strange lives. Among the vast diversity of insects, flies were my
personal favorite. I continued my education by
getting my Master's Degree at Ohio State and then left to Michigan State
University to obtain my Doctorate. The research that I began at
graduate school on the identification and biology of a group of flies
known as the "flesh flies" continues to this day.
Upon graduation from Michigan State in 1989, I moved
back to the Cincinnati area, as my wife Terri was offered a nice job
opportunity. I originally worked as the Director of a small
business that I set up (The Center for Insect Identification, Inc.) but
I was unable to grow the business to the point of generating significant
income. I was lucky enough to be offered a teaching position at
Northern Kentucky University and found that I really enjoyed teaching
and sharing my love of the natural world with my students. I have
continued to enjoy teaching at NKU and hope that my students capture
some of my enthusiasm for the exciting field of biology and entomology.
I love to travel and my research on the flesh flies
has taken me across the U.S. and to foreign destinations including
Australia, Canada, Mexico, Costa Rica, England, France, Germany,
Switzerland, Austria, and Hungary. I am currently involved in
several projects involving Costa Rica and try to get back there as often
as possible.
Working with insects is my work and my play. I
maintain a fairly large collection of insects, particularly in the realm
of flies. I serve as the Adjunct Curator of Entomology for the
Cincinnati Museum Center (formerly the Cincinnati Museum of Natural
History). I give insect related presentations to civic
organizations such as Cub Scouts, 4-H, etc. and to school groups, as
time allows. Outside of entomology, I enjoy reading science
fiction and fantasy novels, working in my vegetable garden, and raising
my two children.
Content by G.A. Dahlem.
Please send any comments about these pages to Thomas Pape.
Last updated: 7 September 2006.
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