ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1997, Roanoke Times
DATE: Sunday, April 13, 1997 TAG: 9704140016
SECTION: CURRENT PAGE: NRV-14 EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY
DATELINE: BLACKSBURG
SOURCE: ANGIE WATTS THE ROANOKE TIMES
Today, his bug column, "bug.net" makes its debut in the Current (see below), where it will be featured every other Sunday.
Admittedly, it's an interest most children outgrow with age. But if that's the case, then Virginia Tech professor Timothy Mack is undoubtedly a kid at heart.
Mack is the head of the Department of Entomology at Tech, a position he has held since his arrival to Blacksburg in 1994. He has spent the vast majority of his life studying various forms of insects and bugs, and continues to be fascinated by the subject.
"I think most little kids are interested in insects, then when they get older, girls in particular start to be turned off," Mack said. "But my parents had 400 acres of woodland in upstate New York, and I saw the gypsy moths come through and destroy the entire area when I was about 12. It looked like winter in the middle of summer because they had destroyed all the leaves on the trees. That's when I really got interested."
Mack earned a bachelor's degree in biology at Colgate University before traveling south to Penn State, where he earned his doctorate in 1981. He continued his trek south to Auburn (Ala.) University, where he worked on crop pests, both domestically and internationally, for 13 years.
"I came to Virginia Tech in 1994, and it's a wonderful place to work," Mack said. "It's an interesting state, too, not just from a human perspective but from an insect perspective ... because you've got the mountains and cooler regions like Blacksburg, and then you've got the cities on the shorelines where it's a completely different atmosphere."
After years of studying nearly every kind of creepy-crawly imaginable, Mack has written a variety of bug columns.
"Part of the goal of the column is to let people read about how insects affect human society, to provide information that is timely and answer some questions they have and don't know whom to ask," Mack said. "Even here at the university, our job is not only to help undergraduate students understand about insects, but to also help the taxpayer solve problems around the state."
It doesn't matter whether the person calling Tech's entomology department is a gardener, meat producer, fruit grower, home owner or student. Mac and his colleagues do their best to provide answers, he said.
"When most people think of an entomology department, they think of an absent-minded professor with thick glasses running around chasing butterflies," Mack said. "But we provide a lot of important information to people across the state, and that's what I hope to share." 970413 nrv STORY bugman profi TOPIC meet the bug KEYWORDtab adDESK AUTHOR:ANGIEWATTS04/13/97 14
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