Robin Gray

She/Her

I am trans and I am an entomologist doing mosquito and blackfly abatement in northern Nevada.//

 

I am a transgender woman and Entomologist doing mosquito and blackfly abatement in Northern Nevada. I have my own company and contract out to towns and counties. I have done this since 1985.
I became interested in insects at age eight when my mother had me make an insect collection. I have a B.S. and M.S. in Entomology. I found Academia uncongenial, my first income out of university was selling aluminum cans I scrounged out of the trash. I did blue collar work for ten years, then got into my present occupation. I studied Mutillid wasps in graduate school, now I am studying Mycetophilid flies in North Central Nevada on my own in my spare time. This is challenging and absorbing and has introduced me to many intersecting areas of biology. I’m a Pagan, insects have been important in leading me deep into this practice.
Entomology has many more women now than it did when I started in the sixties. Transwomen? Not sure. As an out transwoman, I feel a responsibility to educate the people around me about us, through the life I lead.