Amanda Stahlke has been studying tamarisk beetles for over a decade. She started genetic monitoring of tamarisk beetles as an undergraduate researcher at Colorado Mesa University. After earning a Bachelor of Science at CMU in 2014, she supported field monitoring and experiments at the Palisade Insectary and CABI in Switzerland. Amanda went on to earn a PhD in Bioinformatics and Computational Biology at the University of Idaho, where she learned genomic techniques to study hybridization and range expansion in tamarisk beetles. She’s collected beetles across the entire introduced range as well as their native range in China, Greece, and France. Most recently, Amanda worked as a Computational Biologist Postdoc for the USDA Agricultural Research Service assembling genomes of beneficial and pest arthropod genomes for the Ag100Pest Initiative, including tamarisk beetles and the black dot leafy spurge flea beetle. Amanda is thrilled to have found a position that engages governmental, academic, and private partners with the best science to improve the outcomes of restoration efforts and our understanding of biocontrol. When not geeking out over tamarisk beetles, Amanda can be found biking, rafting, and backpacking with her family and chunky dog, Teo.
