Plant Pathology at the University of Tennessee in 2006. Today he is Full Professor in the department and his research and teaching activities are focused in the areas of Insect Physiology and Molecular Pathology. He currently directs a laboratory that bears his name at the same university. His research interests focus on the insect digestive system as a target for new bioinsecticides and as a resource for prospecting new enzymes of industrial interest. His expertise focuses on the mode of action and resistance mechanisms against insecticidal proteins of the bacterium Bacillus thuringiensis His research also addresses the development of insecticidal gene silencing resistance mechanisms using RNA interference (RNAi).