- Author: Kathy Keatley Garvey
His abstract:
Shelomi received his bachelor's degree in organismic and evolutionary biology from Harvard University in 2009, and immediately after started his Ph.D program at UC Davis under Lynn Kimsey of the Bohart Museum.
His work in Davis is funded by the National Science Foundation's Graduate Research Fellowship program. He has also twice won the National Science Foundation's East Asia and Pacific Summer Institutes fellowship: once to work in the National Institute of Agrobiological Sciences in Tsukuba, Japan, and once to work in Academia Sinica in Taipei, Taiwan.
Shelomi served as a teaching assistant for Bob Kimsey's forensic entomology class, but also co-taught his own freshman seminar with Lynn Kimsey on "Evolution, Creationism, and Intelligent Design." He has given guest lectures for Entomology 10 "Natural History of Insects"; Entomology 100 "Introduction to Entomology"; and Entomology 102 "Insect Physiology."
He has presented at numerous meetings of the Entomological Society of America (ESA) and the Pacific Branch of the Entomological Society of America (PBESA) and also organized or co-organized four symposia at those meetings. He participates in the ESA's Linnaean Games and Student Debate teams. For his work with ESA and outside it, he won a John Henry Comstock Award in 2013. In addition, he has given a workshop at the 2012 International Conference on Science in Society, and received first place for his talk this past summer at the International Congress of Orthopterology in Kunming, China.
Shelomi's research has been spotlighted in the Sacramento Bee, California Aggie, DavisPatch, plus blogs and vlogs like LiveScience, PHD TV, and Breaking Bio. He also answers entomology and biology questions on Quora.com, where he has been a top writer for two consecutive years. His Quora answers have been posted to HuffPost and Slate. He won a "Shorty" social media award for his post "If you injure a bug, should you kill it or let it live?"
His publications from graduate school include:
M. Shelomi, W.C. Jasper, J. Atallah, L.S. Kimsey, B.R. Johnson. “How Sticks Eat Leaves: Re-evaluating Invertebrate Herbivory.” Manuscript Submitted for Publication.
M. Shelomi, H. Watanabe, G. Arakawa. (2014) “Endogenous Cellulase Enzymes in the Stick Insect (Phasmatodea) Gut.” Journal of Insect Physiology. 60: 25-30. doi: 10.1016/j.jinsphys.2013.10.007
M. Shelomi, L.S. Kimsey. (2013) “Vital Staining of the Stick Insect Digestive System Identifies Appendices of the Midgut as Novel System of Excretion.” Journal of Morphology. ePub before print. doi: 10.1002/jmor.20243
M. Shelomi. (2013) “Ants and the Humans Who Love Them in Bernard Werber's Les Fourmis Trilogy.” American Entomologist. 59(4): 208-213.
M. Shelomi, W-S Lo, L.S. Kimsey, C-H Kuo. (2013) “Analysis of the Gut Microbiota of Walking Sticks (Phasmatodea).” BMC Research Notes. 6: 368. doi: 10.1186/1756-0500-6-368. PMID: 24025149
M. Shelomi. (2013) “Mad Scientist: The Unique Case of a Published Delusion” Science and Engineering Ethics. 19(2): 381-388. doi: 10.1007/s11948-011-9339-2. PMID: 22173734
M. Shelomi. (2013) “Evidence of Photo Manipulation in a Delusional Parasitosis Paper.” Journal of Parasitology. 99(3): 583-585. doi: 10.1645/12-12.1 PMID: 23198757
M. Shelomi. (2012) “Where are we now? Bergmann's Rule sensu lato in Insects.” American Naturalist. 180(4), 511-519. PMID: 22976013
M. Shelomi, Andrew Richards, Ivana Li, Yukinari Okido. (2012) “A Phylogeny and Evolutionary History of the Pokémon.” Annals of Improbable Research, 18(4): 15-17.
M. Shelomi, L. Matern, D. Harris, J. Dinsdall, R. Kimsey. (2012) “DEET (N,N-Diethyl-meta-toluamide) Induced Delay of Blowfly Landing and Oviposition Rates on Treated Pig Carrion (Sus scrofa L.).” Journal of Forensic Science. 57(6): 1507-1511. doi: 10.1111/j.1556-4029.2012.
M. Shelomi. (2011) “Phasmid Eggs Do Not Survive Digestion by Quails and Chickens” Journal of Orthoptera Research. 20(2): 159-162. PMID: 22515377
M. Shelomi. (2012) “Book Review: Beetle Queen Conquers Tokyo.” Pan-Pacific Entomologist. 87(4): 300-301.M. Shelomi. (2011) “Phasmid Eggs Do Not Survive Digestion by Quails and Chickens” Journal of Orthoptera Research. 20(2): 159-162. PMID: 22515377