Congratulations to medical entomologist Thomas W. Scott, named one of the 11 UC Davis researchers on the 2020 Highly Cited Researchers list by the Web of Science Group, the information and technology provider for the global scientific research community. 

It's an honor well-deserved.

The scientists rank in the top 1 percent by citations, which represent how often their papers have been cited in other scientific papers. 

Or, as the website says: "Recognizing the true pioneers in their fields over the last decade, demonstrated by the production of multiple highly-cited papers that rank in the top 1% by citations for field and year in the Web of Science™. Of the world's scientists and social scientists, Clarivate™ Highly Cited Researchers truly are one in 1,000."

Scott, who joined the UC Davis faculty in 1996, retiring in 2015--but not retiring from science--has published 288 papers to date. His total number of citations: more than 33,500. He is internationally known for his work on the ecology and epidemiology of dengue, a mosquito-borne viral infection transmitted mainly by Aedes aegypti.

“Although I retired from UC Davis in 2015, I have continued to carry out research just as I had previously,” Scott said. “In reality, I retired from UC Davis, but I did not retire from science.” 

Scott focuses his research on epidemiology of mosquito-borne diseases, mosquito ecology, evolution of mosquito-pathogen interactions, and evaluation of novel products and strategies for disease control.

“I aim to generate the detailed, difficult to obtain data that are necessary for assessing current recommendations for disease prevention, rigorously testing fundamental assumptions in public health policy, and developing innovative, cost, and operationally effective strategic concepts for prevention of mosquito-borne disease.”

Two Large Grants
Scott has remained active on a variety of fronts. In 2015, he was in the early stages of two large grants (National Institutes of Health Program Project grant “Quantifying Heterogeneities in Dengue Virus Transmission Dynamics” and a sub-award from a Bill and Melinda Gates grant, “Spatial Repellent Products for Control of Vector-Borne Diseases”), which he continued to run and manage through the Department of Entomology and Nematology. 

“So, I had plenty of support (more than $10 million) to continue my work,” he said. Both projects took place in Iquitos, Peru, and were jointly led with his long-term UC Davis collaborator, Amy C. Morrison, who is in the Department of Pathology, Microbiology and Immunology, School of Veterinary Medicine.

Scott served as the program leader of the Program Project grant, “which required a lot of work because it had a large cast of international collaborators,” he explained. “That project examined the role of people with mild or unapparent infections in dengue virus transmission dynamics, similar to what is currently being seen with COVID. We determined that people who don't get sick at all or don't get sick enough to go to the doctor can contribute as much as 85 percent to forward transmission; that is,  new infections.”

The Gates grant was a clinical trial to determine whether and to what extent a chemical that repelled mosquitoes would reduce a person's risk of dengue or Zika virus infection. Scott served as the project leader for the Iquitos trial. “Earlier this year we determined that it had a big protective effect,” he related. “We are currently writing that manuscript.”

“Both of those grants ended earlier this year, but we still have a lot of work to do and will be busy for the next couple of years writing papers about those projects,” Scott said. He is currently working as a consultant in a follow-up study on spatial repellents for dengue prevention that will begin in Sri Lanka during 2021

Since retirement he has been--and continues to be--a member of the Management Committee for  the NGO (non-governmental) Global Dengue and Aedes-Transmitted Diseases Consortium. He co-chairs a Lancet Commission on Aedes-transmitted viruses that is being organized by the NGO.

World Health Organization

“Prior to and after retirement, I worked closely with the World Health Organization (WHO), where I served on numerous committees,” Scott related. He chaired the Vector Control Advisory Group, co-chaired the Global Vector Control Response, chaired the Emergency Response Consultation for Zika Virus, chaired the Technical Working Group for Dengue, served on the International Health Regulators Roster of Experts, and co-authored the updated version of WHO's dengue management and control guidelines. He recently applied for membership on the WHO Expert Advisory Group on Arboviruses. 

“Working with WHO is important to me because at this stage of my career, being able to translate my science experience into improved quality of life, that is, improved public health policy, for other people, many of whom live in poverty, is the most meaningful thing I can do.” 

Scott, who holds bachelor and master's degrees from Bowling Green (Ohio) State University, received his doctorate in ecology in 1981 from Pennsylvania State University and did postdoctoral research in epidemiology at Yale University School of Medicine's Arbovirus Research Unit, part of the Department of Epidemiology and Public Health. He served on the faculty of the Department of Entomology, University of Maryland, from 1983 to 1996 before joining the UC Davis entomology faculty as a professor of entomology and director of the Vector-Borne Disease Laboratory. He was acting director of the UC Davis Center for Vector-Borne Research from 1996 to 1999, and director of the UC Davis Arbovirus Research Unit (2001-2003). He was selected vice chair of the Department of Entomology in 2006, serving until 2008.

Highly honored by his peers, Scott won the coveted Harry Hoogstraal Medal from the American Society of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene in 2018. His other honors include fellow of three organizations: American Society of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene (2014), Entomological Society of America (2010), and the American Association for the Advancement of Science (2008).  He was named a UC Davis distinguished professor in 2014. In 2015, he won the Charles W. Woodworth Award, the highest honor awarded by the Pacific Branch of the Entomological Society of America.