Paola Olaya Arenas

Presentation by Paola Olaya Arenas: “Consequences of field-realistic pesticide exposure for monarch development.”

Bio: Paola Olaya Arenas has a bachelor’s degree in botany from Universidad del Valle, Colombia; a master’s degree in biology from the University of Puerto Rico, and a Ph.D. in entomology from Purdue University. Her research interests relate to plant-insect interactions in urban and agroecosystems. Early in her career, she gained experience working with plant ecology, conservation, and restoration of tropical forests while working with Fundación Ecoandina/Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS), Colombia, and Long-Term Ecological Research (LTER), Puerto Rico. She has taught biology and chemistry at university and high school levels in Puerto Rico and Colombia. Her experience as an entomologist started collecting and surveying arthropods in Mona Island, Puerto Rico, and continued during her doctorate dissertation evaluating the pesticide exposure risk and developmental consequences for monarch butterflies in agricultural landscapes and her postdoc researches in natural enemies and ecosystem services in cucurbit production systems in Indiana, and the role of beneficial insects in suppressing urban tree pests in Bogotá city parks.