University of Georgia entomologist Marianne Shockley, known for her enthusiasm for teaching and entomophagy (bug eating), died on May 12 at age 43. The circumstances of Shockley’s death are being investigated, and Marcus Lillard, a former car salesman who, according to The Washington Post, called himself Shockley’s boyfriend, has been charged with her murder.
“On behalf of the university, I’d like to express our deepest sympathy to the family, students and colleagues of Dr. Marianne Shockley,” says University of Georgia (UGA) spokesman Greg Trevor in a statement sent to The Scientist.
Shockley received her PhD in entomology from the University of Georgia in 2009 and joined the entomology department as a faculty member. There, she was active in community outreach, speaking to schoolchildren about the importance of insects as pollinators and as food sources.
For more than a decade, according to an obituary published in the Morgan County Citizen, she ...
