I grew up in England.

I was really interested in nature.

I spent a lot of time outside, never thought I would be an entomologist in Michigan when I was a kid.

That wasn't what I thought was going to happen.

The end of my undergrad degree had a good introduction through an insect that most people wouldn't think of as very inspiring.

Studied aphids in bean fields.

I still remember sitting in that lab and looking down the microscope thinking, Wow, these insects are pretty amazing.

It was inspiring that something that small could cause so much damage.

That's where some of my interest in it comes from.

How could we try and disrupt that insects biology so that we can minimize its impact?

Isaacs: I can grab the net if you want.

Student: Theres a caterpillar in there.

Oh!

Is that what you?

Ok.

Here at MSU, I get to go into farms from Southwest Michigan all the way up to Traverse City area and even sometimes into the U.P., And we're trying to help those farmers manage their insects so that they don't have either pests in their fruit that they're trying to harvest or try and increase pollinators and support pollination so that we get the fruits and vegetables that we are looking for in the grocery stores.

All right.

So is that your second transect?

Yep.

Yeah.

Excellent.

We're all set.

We're focused on blueberries, grapes, raspberries, strawberries, all the berry crops.

We have 22,000 acres of Michigan that's in blueberry production, sometimes up as high as 1,000,000 pounds of fruit coming off in July and August.

In the grape industry, we have over 100 wineries across the state, and those are bringing millions of dollars, not just through the wine that's sold, but also the tourism and all of the agri tainment that comes with going to the winery.

It's important from an economic point of view, but of course it also supports those rural communities.

We do research here to bring the results of that to the farmers.

These came out of the farm last Thursday, right?

Yes.

Okay.

I really like applying my science and the work that the students and postdocs do to improve Michigan agriculture.

And I like working at a university where applied work with farmers is valued and definitely part of the mission.

So we're hoping this is useful to the growers of this variety that is going in all over the U.S.

Being named a University Distinguished Professor is a great honor.

I hope it's seen as a reflection of a team effort over many years to deliver solutions to the farmers and also train a number of entomologists that have gone off to bigger and better things.

That's making our work be more relevant around the state, around the country, around the world.

I think it's a great privilege to have a job where that's a possibility.

So I feel like I'm helping in some small way to support that here.