This is a story about Christine Simon and John Cooley.<\/p>\n
It is not a story about cicadas \u2013 although it is tough to separate the two UConn professors from the insects, which just recently took over the headlines as a massive group of them, known as Brood X, made their way above ground in a vast area of the United States from the Mid-Atlantic region to the Midwest.<\/p>\n
This brood appears as adults only once every 17 years and are now headed back to the earth, and the country will move to other fascinations.<\/p>\n
Meanwhile, Simon and Cooley will keep studying them \u2013 and talking about them for all who are interested.<\/p>\n
A quick search of the headlines from the last few months will produce the usual news topics \u2013 and cicadas. And more often than not, Simon and Cooley were quoted as experts as they helped further UConn’s reputation around the country, and the world.<\/p>\n
Whether it was traditional media, like The Washington Post, ABC News, or Country Living magazine, or outlets that are less familiar to a general audience, like EcoWatch or Science Daily, Simon and Cooley\u2019s names were trending alongside the likes of celebrities and athletes.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think one of the big reasons that the cicada story was so popular this time around was that it had nothing to do with politics or COVID,\u201d says Simon, who is a professor in the Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology and also directs her own lab. \u201cEveryone\u2019s been listening to COVID and political stories for more than a year, and they are tired of them. Cicadas are something different that people can talk about and laugh about. It\u2019s not political and it\u2019s a story that everybody has some interest in.\u201d<\/p>\n