- Author: Kathy Keatley Garvey
Isman is listed as No. 2 among the world's top two percent of entomologists in a database announced by Stanford University with data from Elsevier's “science-wide author databases of standardized citation indicators.”
Isman is internationally recognized for his discoveries and development of botanical insecticides and antifeedants, and for research in insect-plant chemical interactions and insect chemical ecology.
Isman, who received his doctorate from UC Davis in 1981, is the dean emeritus of the University of British Columbia's Faculty of Land and Food Systems and emeritus professor of entomology and toxicology at UBC. He's a Fellow of the Entomological Society of America (ESA).
A native of Vancouver, B.C., Isman received his bachelor's degree (1975) and his master's degree (1977) from the University of British Columbia before heading to UC Davis for his doctorate. A postdoctoral position in insect toxicology at UC Irvine followed. In 1983 he accepted a position as assistant professor in the UBC Department of Plant Science, attaining the rank of professor in 1994. He served as dean of the Faculty of Land and Food Systems at UBC from 2005–2014.
At UC Davis, Isman was the second graduate student of the late Sean Duffey. Faculty member Bruce Hammock, now a UC Davis distinguished professor, was a member of Isman's supervisory committee. "I think the last time I saw Bruce was in 2010 (also the last time I was on the UC Davis campus) when I delivered the Thomas and Nina Leigh Distinguished Alumni Seminar to the Department of Entomology," he wrote this week in an email.
The biosketch singled out his teaching, research and public service, and his many accomplishments. Among his many honors, received the Entomological Society of Canada's Gold Medal in 2011, the C. Gordon Hewitt Award (1991) for outstanding achievement by an entomologist under the age of 40, and the PheroTech Lifetime Achievement Award in 2014. In 2010 he delivered the Thomas and Nina Leigh Distinguished Alumni Lecture at UC Davis.
Murray presided over the International Society of Chemical Ecology (2002), the Phytochemical Society of North America (1993, he remains the only entomologist to have done so), and the Entomological Society of British Columbia twice (1988 and 1999). He also organized and chaired two conferences in Vancouver: the 14th Annual Meeting of the International Society of Chemical Ecology (1997) and the Fourth World Neem Conference (1999).
He still does.
"I officially retired in mid-2018, but served as Interim Director of UBC's Wine Research Centre from mid-2017 until mid-2020," Isman shared. "I spend most of my 'professional' time now serving on editorial boards of three international journals, reviewing grant proposals and continuing to do some modest consulting to pesticide companies in the USA and Australia."
"My main recreational activity is playing ice hockey (twice a week) with different senior (60+) teams. As a goalie, I hope to keep playing as long as my knees permit!"
He and his wife Susie have a daughter and a son. The Ismans will be in San Francisco for Thanksgiving to visit their daughter (a Columbia, UBC and UC-Berkeley alumna) and son-in-law (a Harvard and Oxford alumnus).
"I really should make a return visit to Davis on a future trip, something I suggested to (UC Davis distinguished professor and friend) Walter Leal."
Leal, who chaired the UC Davis Department of Entomology in 2006-2008 before accepting a position in 2008 as professor of biochemistry in the Department of Molecular and Cellular Biology, is listed in the Stanford/Elsevier database as No. 22 among the world's top entomologists.
Other UC Davis entomologists on the list, in the order of ranking, are:
- Jay Rosenheim, No. 68
- Harry Kaya, 206
- Fumio Matsumura (1934-2012), 208
- James R. Carey, 232
- Robbin Thorp (1933-2019) 321
- Christian Nansen, 452
- Lester Ehler (1946-2016) 593
- Robert E. Page Jr., 548
- Frank Zalom, 557
Elsevier. Elsevier, a global information analytics company that helps institutions and professionals progress science, advance healthcare and improve performance, published its "science-wide author databases of standardized citation indicators" on Oct. 4, 2023. The ranking of scientists is at https://elsevier.digitalcommonsdata.com/datasets/btchxktzyw. It is a publicly available database "of top-cited scientists that provides standardized information on citations, h-index, co-authorship adjusted hm-index, citations to papers in different authorship positions and a composite indicator (c-score). Separate data are shown for career-long and, separately, for single recent year impact. Metrics with and without self-citations and ratio of citations to citing papers are given. Scientists are classified into 22 scientific fields and 174 sub-fields according to the standard Science-Metrix classification. Field- and subfield-specific percentiles are also provided for all scientists with at least 5 papers. Career-long data are updated to end-of-2022 and single recent year data pertain to citations received during calendar year 2022. The selection is based on the top 100,000 scientists by c-score (with and without self-citations) or a percentile rank of 2% or above in the sub-field. This version (6) is based on the October 1, 2023 snapshot from Scopus, updated to end of citation year 2022. This work uses Scopus data provided by Elsevier through ICSR Lab (https://www.elsevier.com/icsr/icsrlab). Calculations were performed using all Scopus author profiles as of October 1, 2023. If an author is not on the list it is simply because the composite indicator value was not high enough to appear on the list. It does not mean that the author does not do good work."
Scientists from China filtered the list to spotlight only entomologists. The list is at https://wxredian.com/art?id=9f6eea221698e282/. (See UC Davis news story)
- Author: Kathy Keatley Garvey
There will be plenty of people to bug.
Some 3200 entomologists or persons interested in insects are registered to attend.
Our own Frank Zalom, distinguished professor of entomology in the UC Davis Department of Entomology and Nematology, serves as president of the 7000-member organization, founded in 1889. He's the second UC Davis entomologist to hold the office. The first was Donald McLean (1928-2014), emeritus professor and former chair of the department.
Zalom, an integrated pest management specialist, has selected his theme as "Grand Challenges Beyond Our Horizon," a perfect theme for a meeting in the Great Northwest.
Richard Levine, communications program manager for ESA, says that more than 90 symposia are planned and will cover such topics as bed bugs, honey bees, monarch butterflies, ticks, native pollinators, pesticide regulations, biological control, integrated pest management, genetically-modified crops, invasive species, forestry, entomophagy, organic farming, insect-vectored diseases, and more. In addition, there will be 1,750 papers and posters, Levine reports.
Highlights include:
- Beyond Pesticides: The Conundrum of Bed Bugs
- Insects as Sustainable and Innovative Sources of Food and Feed Production
- Recovering Monarch Butterfly Populations in North America: A Looming Challenge for Science, the Public, Industry, and Legislators
- Classical Biological Control of the Brown Marmorated Stink Bug, Halyomorpha halys (Stål)
- Nutrition and the Health and Behavior of Wild and Managed Bees
- Contributions of Mosquito Research to Science & Society
- Entomological Comics and Their Importance in Education and Culture
- RNAi: Emerging Technology to Overcome Grand Challenges in Entomology
- IPM: An International Organic Farming Strategy on Invasive Insect Species
- New Frontiers in Honey Bee Health Economics: Incorporating Entomological Research and Knowledge into Economic Assessments
UC Davis will have quite a presence at the meeting. Among the scientists to be honored at the ESA meeting are three from UC Davis: Professor Diane Ullman and doctorate recipients Kelly Hamby (2014) and James F. Campbell (1999)
Kelly Hamby, recipient of the John Henry Comstock Graduate Student Award from the Pacific Branch of ESA, will be honored, along with the other Comstock award winners from the other branches. (See more information)
Research entomologist James F. Campbell, who earned his doctoral in entomology from UC Davis in 1999, will receive a special recognition award. The award, sponsored by Syngenta Crop Protection, recognizes entomologists who are making significant contributions to agriculture. Campbell is a research entomologist with the Center for Grain and Animal Health Research Service of the USDA's Agricultural Research Service, Manhattan, Kansas. (See more information)
Three professors who received their doctorates in entomology in the 1980s from UC Davis are among this year's 10 elected Fellows.
They are:
- Nilsa A. Bosque-Pérez, professor, Department of Plant, Soil and Entomological Sciences at the University of Idaho. She received two degrees from UC Davis: her master's degree in 1981 and Ph.D. in 1985.
- Gary Felton, professor and head of the Department of Entomology at Penn State University. He received his doctorate from UC Davis in 1988. In 2010, he delivered the Thomas and Nina Leigh Distinguished Alumni Lecture at UC Davis
- Murray B. Isman, professor of entomology and toxicology at the University of British Columbia, Vancouver. He received his doctorate from UC Davis in 1981. In 2010, he delivered the Thomas and Nina Leigh Distinguished Alumni Lecture at UC Davis
Many faculty and students will present talks or displays at the event.
Each participant will receive a copy of the 2014 ESA calendar, which features the work of insect photographers throughout the world.
A red flameskimmer dragonfly (Libellula saturata), taken by yours truly, is among the images. I bugged the bug. "Lib" perched on a bamboo stake near our fish pond and was not at all skittish when I walked up and asked "Okay if I bug you for a photo? After you polish off that sweat bee?"
In bug language, Lib said "Go ahead. Just get my best side, please."
So I did. Lib's best side. And then I wrote the requisite caption about this amazing dragonfly.
"The flameskimmer dragonfly (Libellula saturata) is native to western North America. It feeds on bees, flies, moths and other soft-bodied insects, catching them in flight and returning to a perch to eat. The males, about two to three inches long, are larger than the females. The males are firecracker red or dark orange, while the females are a medium to a darker brown. Adult dragonflies hang out at ponds, streams, ditches and at other water habitats. Females lay their eggs in warm ponds or small streams. The nymphs ambush their prey, feeding on insect larvae, including mosquitoes and aquatic flies. The nymphs also eat small fish, tadpoles and each other."
- Author: Kathy Keatley Garvey
Scores of people want to hear what Murray Isman has to say.
And on Wednesday night, Oct. 27, they can.
Murray Isman, a noted expert on botanical insecticides, will deliver the Thomas and Nina Leigh Distinguished Alumni Seminar in Entomology at 5 p.m., Wednesday, Oct. 27 in the Activities and Recreation Center (ARC) at UC Davis.
Isman, who received his doctorate in entomology from UC Davis in 1981, is now the dean of Land and Food Systems and professor of applied biology (entomology/toxicology) at the University of British Columbia.
He will speak on "Aromatherapy for Pest Management? Pesticides Based on Plant Essential Oils for Agriculture, Industry and as Consumer Products" at 5 p.m. in the ARC Ballroom. A social hour is set for 4 p.m.
His lecture, free and open to the public, will be webcast live and then archived on the UC Davis Department of entomology website. There's also a buffet dinner at 6 p.m. for faculty, alumni, students and other friends of entomology. (Carol Nickles is taking reservations for the buffet dinner at cnickles@ucdavis.edu or (530) 754-8638. Deadline for reservations: Sunday, Oct. 24.)
Isman and his research team develop insecticides, miticides, fungicides and herbicides using various plant essential oils as the active ingredients. EcoSMART Technologies (Alpharetta, GA) sells products of this type for the agricultural, industrial and consumer markets in the United States. “We are developing improved agricultural pesticides through enhanced formulations and in mixture with other botanical products,” Isman said.
Collaborating with university and industrial partners, the Isman team previously investigated the development of botanical insecticides derived from the Indian neem tree (Azadirachta indica), from medicinal plants and timber species of southeast Asia and Central America, and from tall oil, a byproduct of the temperate zone pulp and paper industry.
The Isman team also investigates the behavioral and physiological effects of plant defensive chemicals in insects. “We have investigated the effects of mixtures of plant chemicals on insect feeding and on the development of resistance to botanical insecticides,” Isman said. “Studies have characterized habituation to feeding deterrents in caterpillars, the metabolism of plant defensive chemicals by herbivorous insects, and the pharmacokinetics and fate of plant chemicals in insects.”
Their work also involves developing non-toxic crop protection chemicals that mimic naturally occurring bioactive odorants and tastants--and that are relatively easily prepared from commodity chemicals. “Because host plant detection is essential to the larval and adult stages of moth species consequently leading to crop damage,” he said, “we are targeting this chemical communication system with aromatic odorants that interfere with larval feeding or the oviposition behavior of adult moths, without causing toxic effects to the insects." This is collaboration with professor Erika Plettner of Simon Fraser University, British Columbia.
The seminar memorializes cotton entomologist Thomas Frances Leigh (1923-1993) and his wife Nina Eremin Leigh (1929-2002). Tom Leigh was an international authority on the biology, ecology and management of arthropod pests affecting cotton production.
