Texas A&M names new department head

Dr. Phil Kaufman

Announced in March and effective July 1, Dr. Phillip Kaufman has joined Texas A&M University as head of its Department of Entomology. He previously served as a professor of veterinary entomology in the Entomology and Nematology Department in the Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences at the University of Florida.

In a July news release, Dr. Kaufman said his priorities include “determining how to best serve students in-house and online amid the restrictions of the coronavirus pandemic, as well as staying on top of important research issues such as tick surveillance, mosquitoes and murder hornets.”

“When I took this position, I had envisioned walking in and everyone being here to get things started,” Dr. Kaufman said in the news release. “With COVID-19, that didn’t happen, but we are busy preparing for the fall semester and how the students will come back to campus and how they will be supported in the classroom and in the lab.”

The department has approximately 45 undergraduates majoring or minoring in entomology, and 75 graduate students. In addition, Dr. Kaufman said, 125 freshmen are coming to Texas A&M specifically for the the Forensic and Investigative Sciences Program.

Dr. Kaufman received his bachelor of science in animal science in 1991 from the University of Illinois. He received his master of science in entomology at the University of Wisconsin in 1994, and his doctorate in plant, soil and insect sciences at the University of Wyoming in 1997.  He has authored or co-authored papers with topics ranging from ticks to mosquitoes, house flies to mealworms. A full list can be found from Google Scholar Publications here.