Majid
Ghaninia
Bio:
After obtaining his B.Sc. and M.Sc. in Plant Protection and Agricultural Entomology Majid moved to Sweden to complete his Ph.D. His interest in vectors of medical and veterinary importance led him to focus his studies on the chemical ecology and sensory (olfactory) physiology of mosquitoes under Professor Bill Hansson’s supervision. While there, he taught insect chemical ecology and sensory physiology. Majid then joined Max Planck Institute for Chemical Ecology (Germany) as a postdoctoral researcher where he conducted and completed projects on the chemical ecology of insect-plant and mosquito-human interactions. While there, he also mentored a number of undergraduate and graduate students and on multiple occasions lectured on insect chemical ecology. After that, Majid served as an assistant professor and faculty member at the GUASNR. There, he led a research team to investigate the olfactory responses of a key pest of rice fields, the striped rice stem borer, to different varieties of rice plants. There he taught entomology and pest management, insect physiology, insect morphology, and methods of research, gave lectures on olfaction (sense of smell) in insects, for B.Sc. and M.Sc. students.
Currently, as an assistant research professor (non-tenure) at ASU, Majid is investigating sensory physiology and behavior using social insects (ants, honey bees, and bumble bees) and fruit flies as model systems. In addition, he teaches introductory, general, and advanced biology.
