Dr. Malkie Spodek is a collection manager of the Hemiptera (Auchenorrhyncha and Sternorrhyncha) at the Steinhardt Museum and a research entomologist at the Southern Arava R&D. She received her PhD from the Hebrew University in 2014. She is one of a handful of experts on Coccomorpha (scale insects) and Psylloidea (psyllids) in the world. She discovered and described several species from her PhD and post-doctoral research. Malkie is a member of the European Hemipteran Congress and is active in the International Symposiums of Scale Insect Studies (ISSIS). In the Arava, where she is based, she explores desert Hemiptera and focuses on finding novel ways to control a diversity of agricultural insect pests.