Tom Radomski

Postdoctoral Research Associate, Team Skeet

Lab mentor Tom Radomski is about to complete his 15-month postdoctoral research in Tyson’s Mosquito Ecology Lab. Joining co-mentors Kim Medley and Katie Westby on the frontier of climate-resilient-mosquito research, Radomski details his novel fascination with mosquitos below.

What about mosquitoes is exciting to you?

“First, people care about them. You can’t not interact with them in St. Louis. Most people are aware that mosquitos spread diseases and even if they are not, mosquitos would still be painful and annoying. But it hasn’t always been this way, at least to this extent.

Second, they’re such a cool study system! They’re really malleable. I think of them as little robots. If I don't want them to lay eggs, I don't feed them blood and they won't. They can just eat sugar water and they'll survive. If I do want them to lay eggs, I feed them blood. I can mess with the lights and they lay different kinds of eggs. They have this very plastic life history that we know how to manipulate. I was telling a friend about it and he thought it was really creepy and I was like, ‘It is creepy! But it's cool.’

‘What are you even doing?’ is what most people ask us when we’re in the field wearing our neon vests and Ghostbusters gear [mosquito vacuums, for live specimen collection]. It’s interesting how people light up and share anecdotes of how mosquitos are in their lives. I love the way people can get engaged over science.”