Contact Information
505 S. Goodwin Ave.
Urbana, IL 61801
Research Areas
Research Interests
Insect Physiology
Physiology
Bioinspiration
Bioinspired Design
Research Description
Bioinspired Design
Marianne ("M") Alleyne is interested in how biological systems can lead to innovative design in human society (biological inspiration). Insects in particular can serve as inspiration for innovation. For instance, the way insect cuticle is formed and how it is recycled can teach us a lot about the hierarchical organization of many resilient materials, about conservation of resources, and about adaptability. Life on earth has been around for more than 3.5 billion years, there is a lot to be learned from nature, but there are also limitations (scale, "just good enough" principle, etc.). I teach BioInspiration in various forms on the University of Illinois campus (including on online course) in various departments. Contact me if you want to bring BioInspiration/Biomimicry into your curriculum.
In addition to being a Research Scientist in Entomology Department I am the graduate director for the Online Masters of Science Teaching BIology Program. I have a Master Online Teaching Certificate and I welcome any questions about how best to integrate modern tech tools into your classroom (be it face-2-face or virtual).
Please visit the ABC-lab's website or visit my blog entitled "Insects did it first" where I write about how insects bioinspire us.
Education
BA Integrative Biology, 1991, University of California, Berkeley
MS Entomology, 1995, University of California, Riverside
PhD Entomology, 2000, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
Additional Campus Affiliations
Assistant Professor, Entomology
Assistant Professor, Mechanical Science and Engineering
Assistant Professor, Beckman Institute for Advanced Science and Technology
External Links
Recent Publications
Zhang, L., Mathur, T., Wissa, A., Yim, J., & Alleyne, M. (2025). CLICK AND RUN: INVESTIGATION OF CLICK BEETLES' ULTRAFAST CLICKING BEHAVIOR AS A MECHANISM FOR ESCAPE FROM CONSTRAINTS. In Proceedings of ASME 2025 Conference on Smart Materials, Adaptive Structures and Intelligent Systems, SMASIS 2025 Article V001T06A004 (Proceedings of ASME 2025 Conference on Smart Materials, Adaptive Structures and Intelligent Systems, SMASIS 2025). American Society of Mechanical Engineers (ASME). https://doi.org/10.1115/SMASIS2025-167658
Bello, E., & Alleyne, M. (2024). Brochosome size variation and its influence on leafhopper (Hemiptera: Cicadellidae) wing wettability. Journal of Insect Science, 24(1), Article ieae003. https://doi.org/10.1093/jisesa/ieae003
Bello, E., Chen, Y., & Alleyne, M. (2023). Staying Dry and Clean: An Insect’s Guide to Hydrophobicity. Insects, 14(1), Article 42. https://doi.org/10.3390/insects14010042
Burks, G. R., Yao, L., Kalutantirige, F. C., Gray, K. J., Bello, E., Rajagopalan, S., Bialik, S. B., Barrick, J. E., Alleyne, M., Chen, Q., & Schroeder, C. M. (2023). Electron Tomography and Machine Learning for Understanding the Highly Ordered Structure of Leafhopper Brochosomes. Biomacromolecules, 24(1), 190-200. https://doi.org/10.1021/acs.biomac.2c01035
Lee, K. J. P., Alleyne, M., & Wissa, A. (2023). A grasshopper-inspired glider: a study of gliding efficiency and wing morphology. In 2023 IEEE Conference on Control Technology and Applications, CCTA 2023 (pp. 657-662). (2023 IEEE Conference on Control Technology and Applications, CCTA 2023). Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers Inc.. https://doi.org/10.1109/CCTA54093.2023.10252415