Dr Tek Tay

Dr Wee Tek Tay graduated from La Trobe University, Australia, with a PhD in evolutionary and population genetics. He has worked at various international research institutions including the University of Helsinki, Finland; the Roslin Institute, Scotland; Queen’s University Belfast, Northern Ireland; Max-Planck Institute for Chemical Ecology, Germany; and the University of Melbourne, Australia, prior to joining CSIRO Entomology as a Research Scientist in 2008.

Dr Tay has research experience in molecular, evolutionary and population genetics, and extensive experience supervising undergraduate and post graduate students, and Post Doctoral researchers. He worked with and has published on a wide range of organisms that included eusocial and non-social Hymenoptera, Heteroptera, Lepidoptera, Coeloptera, Hemiptera, Diptera, Microsporidia, Varroa, plants and mammals. Throughout these research activities, Dr Tay applied concepts in evolutionary genetics to understand gene flow and population dynamics across temporal and spatial scales, as well as developing molecular DNA markers to assist with species identification and estimating genetic diversity in diverse biological systems.

Dr Tay is applying next generation sequencing techniques to characterise the metagenomics of insect pests, and to provide in-depth understanding of genome diversity in highly invasive insect pests including the whitefly Bemisia tabaci cryptic species complex, the Old World cotton bollworm Helicoverpa armigera, the European Grape Vine Moth Lobesia botrana, the stored grain pest beetles Cryptolestes species, the soybean stalk fly Melanagromyza sojae, the fall armyworm Spodoptera frugiperda and related Spodoptera species, invasive ants, as well as major pests of palm plants such as the coconut rhinoceros beetles Oryctes rhinoceros, the red palm weevil Rhynchophorus ferrugineus, and other related Rhynchophorus species complex, with the aim of developing and applying global genetic networks to assist with identifying incursion pathways, detecting hybridisation, developing biopesticides, and understanding the evolutionary genomics of insecticide and biopesticide resistances.