I am a faculty member in the School of Zoology and

the chief curator of entomology at the Steinhardt Museum

of Natural History in Tel Aviv University. I received my PhD

in Zoology from Tel Aviv University, followed by postdoctoral

fellowships in the University of Cape Town, South Africa, and in

Bucknell University, PA, USA. I became fascinated

with gall-inducing insects as an MSc student and dedicated my

graduate studies to research on the taxonomy, life history and

evolutionary ecology of gall midges (family Cecidomyiidae).

My postdoctoral research in Cape Town focused on the use of

gall-inducing wasps (Pteromalidae) for the biological control of invasive Australian Acacias, whereas in Bucknell I studied the systematics and evolutionary ecology of gall midges on goldenrods. Between 2007-2011 I served as the curator of Diptera and later the head of the Arthropod Department in the Zoological Research Museum Alexander Koenig in Bonn, Germany. In 2011 I returned to Tel Aviv University to take my current position. In addition to research on cecidomyiids from different parts of the world, I supervise studies on a diversity of other insect groups, including fruit flies, gall wasps, bees, parasitic wasps, ants and aquatic insects. However, my main interests are the taxonomy and evolutionary ecology of phytophagous gall midges, in particular the rich cecidomyiid faunas of arid environments in Israel and Africa. In Israel, much of my research on these insects is done in the Dead Sea area, the Negev and the Arava.