Meet The Team

Philip Kaufman portrait on black background

Phillip Kaufman, Ph.D.

Professor, Head of Entomology Department
phillip.kaufman@ag.tamu.edu

Phillip Kaufman, Ph.D., is a professor and head of the Department of Entomology at Texas A&M University. His research program focuses on the development of new pest management tools for livestock and companion animal systems. Beef cattle, dairy cattle, and horses are the predominant livestock in Texas and are one focus of this program; while investigations on improvement for ectoparasite management on companion animals and wildlife are the second focus. Insecticide resistance and control failures are commonplace for many fly and tick pests; therefore, innovative systems are needed to assist in their management.

Emrah Ozel, Ph.D.

Postdoctoral Researcher
emrah.ozel@ag.tamu.edu

Emrah Ozel is a member of Kaufman Lab and he focuses on Brown Dog Tick (Rhipicephalus sanguineus) biology and management. He obtained his first Master’s degree in Zoology after his work on cave invertebrate fauna in Balıkesir region caves in Turkey. Next, he worked on Red Imported Fire Ant (Solenopsis invicta) population dynamics in Bastrop, TX region and earned his second Master’s degree from Texas State University. During his doctoral work, he focused on insect viruses, especially Heliothine nudiviruses that show promising symptoms for controlling Heliothine infestations. His current work focuses on screening permethrin resistance in Brown Dog Tick (Rhipicephalus sanguineus) populations, identifying phylogenetic lineages and discovering pathogens that are transmitted between hosts. He uses molecular and bioinformatics tools along with advanced equipment and computational resources to answer research questions.

Xinyue Huang, Ph.D.

Postdoctoral Researcher
cecilia.huang@ag.tamu.edu

My name is Xinyue Huang, PhD, and I am a postdoctoral researcher from Kaufman lab in the Department of Entomology at Texas A&M University. My Ph.D. research focus was on population genetics and resistance profile of vector mosquitoes, Culex quinquefasciatus and Aedes albopictus in Harris County, Texas. I am now working on ivermectin resistance in the cattle fever tick, Rhipicephalus microplus. R. microplus is an economically important tick that parasitizes a variety of livestock species preferentially cattle. Cross-resistance in multiple acaricides has been detected in R. microplus but our knowledge on exact molecular mechanism is limited in this species. Further investigation in biology and evolution of resistance in this species can assist in current vector management program and future pesticide development.

Lauren Beebe

Ph.D. Student
lbeebe@tamu.edu

Lauren Beebe is a Ph.D. student working with Dr. Phillip Kaufman in the Veterinary and Livestock Entomology Laboratory. Her dissertation research focuses on stable flies, their mechanisms of resistance to pesticides, blood-meal host identification, and developmental response to temperature. Lauren received her MS from Texas A&M University with a focus in Forensic Entomology. During this time, she worked with Dr. Aaron Tarone studying the responses of blow fly larvae to extreme temperatures. She received her BS in Entomology and minored in Forensic Science at Purdue University.
Lauren has had a life-long passion for animals and fosters for a local rescue. She also competes in agility with one of her dogs and cares for a plethora of other animals at home.

Taylor Chapman

Research Assistant
taylor.chapman@ag.tamu.edu

Howdy! I am a graduate of Texas A&M University class of ’21 with a B.S. in entomology. I began working in the lab as an undergraduate student worker in the fall of 2021 and continued as a full-time research assistant after graduation. I currently research the acaricide resistance, pathogen infectivity, and species lineage of Rhipicephalus sanguineus, and when not found doing research in the lab, you can find me helping with the maintenance and rearing of the lab’s tick colonies. I intend to continue a career in livestock entomology, pursuing a master’s and then a Ph.D. I am currently undecided on where I will continue my education but I hope to have the answer soon!
I intend to continue a career in livestock entomology, pursuing a master’s and then a Ph.D. I am currently undecided on where I will continue my education but I hope to have the answer soon!

Austin Goldsmith

Research Associate austin.goldsmith@ag.tamu.edu

Howdy! I am a graduate of the University of Central Arkansas class of 2017 with a BS in biology. First exposure to entomology when I worked for Dr. Sally Entrekin’s laboratory in the Spring of 2015. I received my MS in entomology from the University of Arkansas where I studied the control of the lone star tick Amblyomma americanum with fungal pathogens of the genus Metarhizium. I then worked for the USDA-ARS Thad Cochran Southern Horticultural Laboratory for three years where I worked on the control of the fruit fly Drosophila suzukii with alternative pest control measures and on the conservation of native and introduced pollinators of blueberries. In my current role as the research associate for the Kaufman lab I study tick-host interactions using the Gulf Coast Tick Amblyomma maculatum as a model, study blowflies as vectors for environmental pathogens and other related projects. I hope to continue my career in medical/veterinary entomology and possibly pursue a Ph. D. in the field. When I am not at work in the lab you will find me roasting and brewing coffee and practicing my photography skills.