Two minutes

A mosquito master

Mosquitoes and ticks carry some debilitating or deadly diseases -- malaria, West Nile, and Lyme disease to name a few. Lyric Bartholomay looks at the relationships between mosquitoes, ticks and infectious disease agents.

Real title: Assistant professor of medical entomology. Bartholomay runs Iowa's statewide mosquito surveillance program.

Cutting-edge research: Determining why only some mosquitoes and ticks carry pathogens. The end goal: to prevent or control disease transmission.

Seasonal job: Tracks mosquito populations in summer. When populations soar, or mosquitoes test positive for carrying a human pathogen, state agencies take action.

Worldly travels: To Egypt to scoop mosquito larvae out of the Nile and to dissect adult mosquitoes to look for the worms that cause Elephantiasis.