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About Us Leslie Mertz, Ph.D.
• Education • Experience with Insects • Teaching • Books, Etc. • Overall philosophy Unless noted otherwise, photographs on this website are the property of the photographers and may not be reused without written permission from the photographers. To obtain permission, email the photographers here. High-resolution versions of the photographs are available. Photos at the top of this website are by: Leslie Mertz, Ph.D., LMERTZ@nasw.org. Reproduction of material from any GoExploreMichigan Media webpages without written permission is strictly prohibited.
B.A. communication (journalism), minor in biological sciences, Wayne State University.
M.S. biological sciences, Wayne State University
Ph.D. biological sciences, cognate in outdoor education, Wayne State University
Insects have always been fascinating creatures to me, and that interest was nurtured by Dr. Stanley Gangwere, former president of the Michigan Entomological Society, founder of the Orthopterists' Society and former director of WSU's Fish Lake Biological Program. After taking his Entomology and Insect Biology courses, I became one of his doctoral students, and was fortunate to travel to the Canary Islands on one of his expeditions in search of grasshoppers, walkingsticks, mantids and other insects. I and another graduate student spent many hours in the field sweeping insect nets, and identifying and pinning specimens for university collections. At the same time, I was conducting my own study of the diversity of amphibians and reptiles in Michigan.
Following my education at Wayne State, I began to teach at the university’s Fish Lake program and have since taught entomology, insect biology, herpetology, and a wide variety of other field courses for Eastern Michigan University, and its Kresge Environmental Education Center and Parsons Center for the Study of Arts and Science, and at Northwestern Michigan College. I have also presented classroom and field educational programs for other organizations.
I have written several books including: Extreme Bugs and Extreme Dinosaurs for the Smithsonian through Harper Collins; four volumes of Grzimek’s Student Animal Life Resource through Thompson Gale; Driving Michigan: Mile by Mile on I-75 through Arbutus Press; and others. And I continue to write nature and science articles for a variety of magazines and other print and online media outlets.
Keep on exploring, looking for new perspectives, talking to interesting people, and learning new things.
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