Looking back on 2018, Bruce Hammock, distinguished professor at the University of California, treasures the memories of the Hammock lab reunion, when 100 scientists from 10 different countries gathered to honor his work, reunite, collaborate and reminisce.

The distinguished professor, known for his expertise in chemistry, toxicology, biochemistry and entomology, meshes all four sciences in his 50-year research on acute and neuropathic pain in humans and companion animals. It all began with his basic research on how caterpillars become butterflies, research that led to key discoveries about chronic pain.

But back to the reunion.

illed as “Biochemistry and Society: Celebrating the Career of Professor Bruce Hammock,” the three-day event drew Hammock lab alumni from throughout the United States, as well as Egypt, Spain, China, Australia, New Zealand, Germany, Sweden, Canada and the Czech Republic.

“It was really special and I will treasure that weekend always,” said Hammock, who trained scientists at UC Riverside for five years before joining the UC Davis faculty in 1980. He currently holds a joint appointment with the UC Davis Department of Entomology and Nematology and the UC Davis Comprehensive Cancer Center. He has directed the UC Davis Superfund Program, funded by the National Institutes of Health's National Institute of Environmental Health (NIH/NIEHS), for 31 years.

Hammock's colleagues, and former postdoctoral fellows, graduate and undergraduate students and visiting scholars arrived at the lab reunion with their spouses--as well as their scientific posters for display and discussion. The posters covered everything from ground-breaking research in prestigious journals to a humorous look at his annual water balloon battles in front of Briggs Hall.

The scientists dined at the UC Davis Conference Center, the Buehler Alumni Center and the Stonegate Country Club; shared months, years and decades of memories; and toasted, roasted and gifted their mentor. Hammock, in turn, toasted, roasted and gifted them.

“We had a blast,” recalled organizer Shirley Gee, a former research toxicologist and manager of the Hammock lab for 31 years. She retired in June 2016 after 40 years of service with the university.

“I have had a vision of this event to honor Bruce for many years now, and it was such a thrill to see it come together,” she said. “Reconnecting in person with all the alumni and their families was more rewarding than I could have imagined, but even more importantly was the thrill of watching alumni reconnect with each other!  There were a lot of tears in the house.  Many people I think were surprised by how the years melted away when they began reacquainting.  I think that speaks to the environment that Bruce created that led to many strong personal and professional bonds.” 

Gee credited her seven-member committee—former Hammock students Keith Wing, Jim Ottea, Tom Sparks, Babak Borhan, Qing Li; postdoctoral fellow and “academic grandson” Kin Sing Stephen Lee, a former student of Babak Borhan; and colleague Sarjeet Gill, now a distinguished professor at UC Riverside, with greatly contributing to the success of the one-of-a-kind celebration.

As graduate students, and  Hammock and Gill worked together in the John Casida lab at UC Berkeley and later in Larry Gilbert's lab where they co-discovered the enzyme, soluble epoxide hydrolase.   Hammock remembers researching juvenile hormones and what's involved in "how caterpillars became butterflies."

Hammock has studied the enzyme system and its inhibitors ever since. His  lab has generated more than 80 patents, 300 postdoctoral fellows, and more than 65 graduates, who now hold positions of distinction in academia, industry and government. He recently formed a Davis-based company, EicOsis, to develop an orally active non-addictive drug for inflammatory and neuropathic pain for human beings and companion animals. Human clinical trials are scheduled to begin in 2019. Several seed-fund grants and a NIH/NINDS (National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke) Blueprint Development Grant support EicOsis.

Hammock, described at the lab reunion as a “genius,” collaborates with scientists worldwide in what's been described as “unprecedented research with a multidisciplinary, integrated approach to research focused on insect biology, mammalian enzymology, and analytical chemistry.” He has authored more than 1000 publications on a wide range of topics in entomology, biochemistry, analytical and environmental chemistry in high quality journals, and has been cited more than 54,000 times. In the epoxide hydrolase field, the Hammock laboratory has published almost 900 peer-reviewed papers. 

Tom Sparks, who was Hammock's first graduate student at UC Riverside, chronicled Hammock's career and recalled humorous anecdotes from his early professorship at UC Riverside. A former professor at Louisiana State University, and now a research fellow in Discovery Research at Dow AgroSciences (now Corteva Agriscience, Indianapolis, Sparks praised Hammock's intellect and curiosity. “For Bruce, it was all about the journey, looking around and operative at the interface between entomology, biochemistry and chemistry.”

Gill,  along with University of Utah emeritus professor Glenn Prestwich and UC Davis research scientist Karen Wagner also delivered presentations, fondly recalling their shared time and science with Hammock.

Keith Wing, who was Hammock's second graduate student at UC Riverside/Davis, served as emcee at the lab reunion. A former senior research associate at DuPont and Rohm and Haas and current consultant, Wing said “Bruce has inspired many hundreds of developing scientists. For myself and many others, he was able to see what we could become as scientists and social contributors before we could see it ourselves."

Others commented that they learned this from Hammock: “We explore the unexpected and get to do things that don't work” and “Design things to fail; when they don't fail follow along.”

Hammock, the crowd agreed, seems to follow baseball legend Yogi Berra's sage advice: “If you come to a fork in the road, take it.”

Gill praised Hammock's “impact on human health, environmental health” as well as his love of the outdoors—from kayaking to mountain climbing.

Numerous alumni lauded Hammock's sense of humor. One scientist quoted Albert Einstein as saying “Creativity is intelligence having fun” and added “Bruce is always having fun.”

Among the other comments:

• “I never heard him speak a cross word.”
• "He treats everyone with respect.”
• "Bruce loves science and he loves people.”
• "He never heard a crazy idea.”
• "What Bruce does—he delivers the future.”
• "Bruce has a lot of determination and can approach difficult problems from multiple angles.”
• "Bruce values strong relationships with friends he has made over the years”

 A native of Little Rock, Ark., Hammock received his bachelor of science degree, magna cum laude, in 1969 from Louisiana State University, Baton Rouge, where he majored in entomology and minored in zoology and chemistry. Then it was off to UC Berkeley, for his doctorate in entomology/toxicology in 1973, and postdoctoral fellowship.

It was at UC Berkeley where he met and married his wife, Lassie, who had just entered the doctoral program in plant physiology. They married in 1972 and then “the Army called me up,” Hammock remembers.

Hammock served as a public health medical officer/first lieutenant with the U.S. Army Academy of Health Science in San Antonio, Texas; and then did more postdoctoral research at the Rockefeller Foundation, Department of Biology, Northwestern University, Evanston. Ill.

Hammock then joined the faculty of the Division of Toxicology and Physiology, UC Riverside Department of Entomology in 1975 before heading for UC Davis in 1980 to accept a joint-faculty appointment in toxicology and entomology.

Bruce and Lassie reared three children: Tom, Bruce and Frances. “Frances and her husband, Adrian, teach math at UC San Diego; Bruce is on the UC Davis School of Veterinary Medicine faculty; and Tom, a graduate of the American Film Institute Conservatory, makes movies,” Hammock said, adding that he and Lassie appeared in one of the movies  that Tom directed: "The Last Survivors."

Highly honored by his peers, Hammock is a fellow of the National Academy of Inventors, which honors academic invention and encourages translations of inventions to benefit society. He is a member of the U.S. National Academy of Sciences, a fellow of the Entomological Society of America, and the recipient of scores of awards, including the Bernard B. Brodie Award in Drug Metabolism, sponsored by the America Society for Pharmacology and Experimental Therapeutics; and the first McGiff Memorial Awardee in Lipid Biochemistry.

Hammock told the crowd at the reunion that he began his career studying insect science but switched to human research after encountering “all the suffering involved in acute and neuropathic pain.”

His insect science research centered around how a key enzyme, epoxide hydrolase, degrades a caterpillar's juvenile hormone, leading to metamorphosis from the larval stage to the adult insect. He then wondered "Does the enzyme occur in plants? Does it occur in mammals?" It does, and particularly as a soluble epoxide hydrolase in mammals.

“It is always important to realize that the most significant translational science we do in the university is fundamental science,” said Hammock. “The extreme and poorly treated pain that I observed as a medical officer in a burn clinic in the Army, is a major driver for me to translate this knowledge to help patients with severe pain.”

And it all began with him asking how caterpillars turn into butterflies.

"Science is full of surprises," the distinguished UC Davis professor said. "We need to remember that the concept, the clinical target, and even the chemical structure came from asking how caterpillars turn into butterflies." 

(See photos on the UC Davis Department of Entomology and Nematology news blog.)

 

What this scientist discovered in an insect and why it matters...

Naoki Yamanaka, an assistant professor at UC Riverside (UCR), is known for his innovative and creative research. In fact, the National Institute of Health (NIH) just awarded him a $2.4 million grant in its High-Risk, High-Reward Research Program to study the role of steroid hormone transporters in insect development and reproduction.  A UCR news release pointed out that he will "translate that knowledge into new ways to combat the spread of mosquitoes, which are among the deadliest animals on the plant."

Fast forward to today--actually next week! And this time, it's about fruit flies. Steroid hormone transporters in fruit flies.

Yamanaka will discuss "A Membrane Transporter Is Required for Steroid Hormone Intake in Drosophila" at the UC Davis Department of Entomology and Nematology seminar, set from 4:10 to 5 p.m., Wednesday, Oct. 24, in 122 Briggs Hall.  Host is seminar coordinator and medical entomologist Geoffrey Attardo, assistant professor of entomology.

"Steroid hormones are a group of lipophilic hormones that are believed to enter cells by simple diffusion to regulate diverse physiological processes through intracellular nuclear receptors," Yamanaka explains. "We recently challenged this model in the fruit fly Drosophila melanogaster by demonstrating that a membrane transporter that we named Ecdysone importer (Ecl) is involved in cellular uptake of the steroid hormone ecdysone.Eci encodes an organic anion transporting polypeptide of the evolutionary conserved solute carrier organic anion superfamily. Results of our study may have wide implications for basic and medical aspects of steroid hormone research."

Yamanaka, who received his doctorate in biological sciences in 2007 from the University of Tokyo, says that his lab is "focused on identifying and characterizing neuroendocrine signaling pathways that regulate physiological and behavioral changes during insect development. Similar to humans, where physical and mental development during juvenile stage (puberty) is controlled by the neuroendocrine system, insects also have a sophisticated hormone signaling network that regulates their developmental transitions. Mainly by using fruit fly molecular genetic tools, we would like to understand what kind of hormones and receptors are involved in this system, how they work at the molecular level, and how such knowledge can be applied to develop new approaches to control animal development."

This is exciting research.

What exactly are "steroid hormones?" As author Sarah Nightingale explained in the UCR news release:

"Steroid hormones mediate many biological processes, including growth and development in insects, and sexual maturation, immunity and cancer progression in humans. After they are produced by glands of the endocrine system, steroid hormones must enter cells to exert their biological effects. For decades, the assumption has been that these hormones enter cells by simple diffusion, but preliminary work in Yamanaka's lab suggests a defined passageway controlled by proteins called membrane transporters."

Said Yamanaka: "The overall goal of this project is to challenge the conventional paradigm in endocrinology that steroid hormones freely travel across cell membranes by simple diffusion. We will also screen chemicals that inhibit steroid hormone entry into cells, with the goal of developing new pest control reagents.”

The NIH High-Risk, High-Reward Research Program is quite competitive. This year NIH officials granted only 89 awards and they were to  “extraordinarily creative scientists proposing highly innovative research to address major challenges in biomedical research.”

Yamanaka's research may lead to important pest control strategies for mosquitoes that transmit deadly diseases. As Nightingale explained: "Using the simple but powerful fruit fly model, his team will study how the insect steroid hormone ecdysone is transported in (and potentially out) of cells with the help of membrane transporters. Since ecdysone controls metamorphosis and molting as an insect moves from one stage of its life cycle to the next, blocking its transport could offer a new way to inhibit insect growth and development. The team will then study the same transport pathway in the mosquito that causes yellow fever, hoping to identify chemicals that inhibit steroid hormone transport as a pest control strategy. Worldwide, mosquito-borne diseases cause millions of deaths each year, with malaria alone causing more than 400,000 deaths, according to the World Health Organization."

Bottom line: “By targeting the membrane transporter from outside the cells, we may be able to circumvent common pesticide resistance machinery provided by proteins within the cells, such as detoxification enzymes and drug efflux pumps,” Yamanaka pointed out in the news release.

His seminar at UC Davis is the fifth in a series of fall seminars coordinated by Attardo. (Note: The Yamanaka seminar will not be recorded.)

Upcoming seminars include:

4:10 p.m., Wednesday, Oct. 31
Fred Wolf, assistant professor, UC Merced: (tentative title) "Drunken Drosophila and the Coding of Brain Plasticity"
Host: Joanna Chiu, associate professor and vice chair, UC Davis Department of Entomology and Nematology

4:10 p.m., Wednesday, Nov. 7
Lark Coffey, assistant professor in the Department of Pathology, Microbiology and Immunology, UC Davis School of Veterinary Medicine: "Zika Virus in Macaques, Mice and Mosquitoes: Contrasting Virulence and Transmissibility in Disparate Hosts"
Host: Geoffrey Attardo

(See remaining schedule)

While you're peeling and segmenting your orange at breakfast or spooning orange honey on your toast, you're probably not thinking about the Asian citrus psyllid.

But Mark Hoddle, Extension entomologist and director of the Center for Invasive Species Research at the University of California, Riverside, is.

The Asian citrus psyllid or ACP, a mottled brown insect about the size of an aphid, has emerged as the most important exotic insect pest of citrus in California, and he, along with many others, is targeting it.

Hoddle will speak on “Protecting California Agriculture from Invasive Pests: Biocontrol of Asian Citrus Psyllid in Urban Southern California" when he presents the UC Davis Department of Entomology and Nematology's first seminar of the fall quarter on Wednesday, Sept. 26.

His lecture is from 4:10 to 5 p.m., Wednesday, Sept. 26 in 122 Briggs Hall, announced seminar coordinator Geoffrey Attardo, assistant professor and medical entomologist, UC Davis Department of Entomology and Nematology.

ACP or Diaphorina citri feeds on phloem juice in new leaf growth, deforming the leaves, but more importantly, Hoddle and fellow researchers point out, it vectors the bacterium (Candidatus Liberibacter asiaticus) that causes "the lethal and untreatable citrus disease," huanglongbing (HLB), also called citrus greening disease. 

Now researchers are applying an alternative approach, a classical biological control program using two parasitoids from Parkistan. They attack the psyllid nymphs.

As its name implies, the Asian citrus psyllid originated in Asia. It has now spread throughout much of the world, including parts of the Middle East, South and Central America, Mexico and the Caribbean. It was first detected in Florida (Palm Beach County) in 1998, and is now found in Louisiana, Georgia, Arizona, South Carolina, Texas and California.  It was first detected in California (San Diego County) in August of 2008. It is a major threat to the multibillion dollar citrus industry in the United States.  

The UC Statewide Integrated Pest Management Program has published a Pest Note about the disease and tells how to inspect your citrus trees:

"Homeowners and landscapers can help combat the psyllid by inspecting their citrus trees and reporting new infestations of the Asian citrus psyllid or suspected cases of the disease. The best way to detect the psyllid is by looking at tiny new leaves (feather flush growth) on citrus trees whenever new leaves are forming on the tree. Mature citrus trees typically produce most of their new growth in the spring and fall, but young trees and lemons tend to produce flushes of new growth periodically during warm weather."

"Slowly walk around each tree and inspect the flush growth. Look for signs of psyllid feeding and damage, including twisted leaves, waxy deposits, honeydew, sooty mold, and adult psyllids."

"If you think psyllids are present, use a hand lens to look for small yellow eggs, psyllid nymphs with their waxy tubules, and adults. Immature stages (eggs and nymphs) are limited to tender new leaves and they don't fly, so monitoring efforts are most effective when directed toward these stages on feather flush."

"If you think you have found the insect, immediately contact the CDFA Exotic Pest Hotline at 1-800-491-1899. CDFA staff will tell you if you are in an area that is new to the psyllid or if it is common in your area."

Hoddle, an Extension specialist, received his bachelor's degree (1988) and master's degree (1991) in zoology from the University of Auckland, New Zealand. He holds a doctorate in entomology (1996) from the University of Massachusetts, Amherst.

Since 1997, Hoddle has focused his research on biological control as a tool to reduce the impact of invasive pest species to agriculture, urban and natural areas, with a primary focus on issues affecting California. These programs, he says, often require long periods of overseas research in the home range of the target pest and searching for and studying natural enemies for possible use in biological control.

Hoddle received the Entomological Society of America's "Recognition Award in Entomology" in 2007, after earlier winning the the Pacific Branch of ESA award.

Attardo says that all seminars will take place on Wednesdays at 4:10 in 122 Briggs Hall, located on Kleiber Hall Drive.

Upcoming seminars:

Wednesday, Oct. 3
Daniel Karp, assistant professor in the UC Davis Department of Fish, Wildlife, and Conservation Biology: "Harmonizing Biodiversity Conservation with Agricultural Production Across Working Landscapes"
Host: Jay Rosenheim, professor, UC Davis Department of Entomology and Nematology

Wednesday, Oct. 10
Alexander Raikhel, distinguished professor of entomology, UC Riverside: "The Role of Hormone Receptors and MicroRNAs in Mosquito Reproduction and Metabolism"
Host: Geoffrey Attardo

Wednesday, Oct. 17
Arnaud Martin, assistant professor of biology, George Washington University: "Do Butterflies Dream of Genetic Tattoos? Exploring the Genotype-Phenotype Map Using CRISPR"
Host: Geoffrey Attardo

Wednesday, Oct. 24
Naoki Yamanaka, assistant professor, UC Riverside: "A Membrane Transporter Is Required for Cellular Uptake of Ecdysone"
Host: Geoffrey Attardo

Wednesday, Oct. 31
Fred Wolf, assistant professor, UC Merced: (tentative title) "Drunken Drosophila and the Coding of Brain Plasticity"
Host: Joanna Chiu, associate professor and vice chair, UC Davis Department of Entomology and Nematology

Wednesday, Nov. 7
Lark Coffey, assistant professor in the Department of Pathology, Microbiology and Immunology, UC Davis School of Veterinary Medicine: "Zika Virus in Macaques, Mice and Mosquitoes: Contrasting Virulence and Transmissibility in Disparate Hosts"
Host: Geoffrey Attardo

Wednesday, Nov. 14
(No seminar; Entomological Society of America's annual meeting takes place from Nov. 11-14 in Vancouver, B.C.)

Wednesday, Nov. 21
(No seminar; Thanksgiving week)

Wednesday, Nov. 28
Robert Page, Provost emeritus of the University of Arizona and emeritus professor and chair of the UC Davis Department of Entomology and Nematology: "Reverse Engineering Social Structure in Honey Bees: a 25-Year Journey"
Host: Steve Nadler, professor and chair, UC Davis Department of Entomology and Nematology

Wednesday, Dec. 5
Cindy Preto, recent graduate (master's degree in entomology from UC Davis, Frank Zalom lab) "Behavior and Biology of the Three-Cornered Alfalfa Hopper in Vineyards."
Host: Frank Zalom, distinguished professor, UC Davis Department of Entomology and Nematology

For more information on the seminars, contact Attardo at gmattardo@ucdavis.edu.

Graduate students and postdoctoral students that the legendary John Casida trained remember him with great fondness, respect and appreciation.

He made a difference: a huge difference.

Dr. Casida, 88, a world-renowned entomologist and toxicologist at UC Berkeley who died June 30 of a heart attack in his home, was a global authority on how pesticides work and their effect on humans.

A distinguished professor emeritus of environmental science, policy and management and of nutritional sciences and toxicology, Dr. Casida was the founding director of the campus's Environmental Chemistry and Toxicology Laboratory.

When awarded the Wolf Prize in Agriculture in 1993, the Wolf Foundation lauded his “research on the mode of action of insecticides as a basis for the evaluation of the risks and benefits of pesticides and toxicants, essential to the development of safer, more effective pesticides for agricultural use." according to a UC Berkeley News Service story. "His discoveries span much of the history of organic pesticides and account for several of the fundamental breakthroughs in the fields of entomology, neurobiology, toxicology and biochemistry.”

Former graduate student Bruce Hammock, now a distinguished professor at the University of California, Davis, who holds a joint appointment with the UC Davis Department of Entomology and Nematology and the UC Davis Comprehensive Cancer Center, remembers him as a “lifelong mentor who evolved into a colleague and a friend.”

“John probably had a greater impact on his field of pesticide toxicology than any scientist of his generation,” said Hammock,  founding director (1987-present) of the UC Davis NIEHS (National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences) Superfund Research Program and 25-year director of the UC Davis NIH/NIEHS Combined Analytical Laboratory. “His laboratory at Berkeley provided me with the most exciting years of my scientific career.  In his own work, John moved from strength to strength creating numerous entire fields along the way. His scientific insight and drive were a constant stimulation to drive for innovation and excellence. Whenever I had an opportunity, I encouraged others to join his team. John was an inspiration and role model, not only because John came in early and stayed late, but also because he did science for the fun of discovery and taught for the joy of teaching.”

“John continued his high productivity until his death with major reviews on pesticides in 2016, 2017, and 2018 in addition to numerous primary papers,” Hammock noted. “He was working on primary publications as well as revising his toxicology course for the fall semester at the time of his death. Pesticide science was the theme of his career, and we live in a world with far safer and more effective pest control agents because of his effort.”

Professor John Casida opened multiple new fields ranging from fundamental cell biology through pharmaceutical discovery. "He pioneered new technologies throughout his career, from being one of the first to use radioactive compounds for pesticide metabolism through studies with accelerator mass spectrometry, photoaffinity labeling and others," Hammock related. "Yet the greatest impact of his career probably lives on in the numerous scientists he trained, now carrying on his traditions of excellence in science. These scientists are around the world in governmental, industrial and academic careers.”

Sarjeet Gill, Distinguished Professor, UC Riverside

“It was clear to me the day I arrived at UC Berkeley that I had to work with John," quipped former graduate student Sarjeet Gill of the Casida lab, now a distinguished professor at UC Riverside. "I remember walking into his office and indicating that I would like to work with him. His response, very Johnlike: 'How are you going to support yourself?' When I indicated I had a UC Berkeley fellowship, John gave me a trial project to test my abilities. I then knew, early on, that I needed to have my act together. He then gave me the freedom to make mistakes, allowing me to work through misadventures but correcting them as needed, ultimately leading to a successful project.

"This project also allowed me to build a long lasting friendship with Bruce Hammock who also was on the same project. Since John was always very focused, I often challenged John's patience with my practical jokes. I am sure he knew who the culprit(s) were but he never revealed he knew.

“The research experiences in John's lab made an indelible impression on me that drove me to return to the United States from Malaysia for an academic career in the UC system. Personally, I have lost an incredible mentor, and the scientific community lost the most preeminent pesticide toxicologist in the last two centuries. John changed the way we investigated mechanisms of toxicity at all levels. I certainly will miss him dearly.

Bruce Hammock, Distinguished Professor, UC Davis

"My mentors from Louisiana State University told me there was only one toxicologist to work for as a PhD student," recalled Bruce Hammock. "I had money to apply to only one university, so I headed west in 1969 to study with John Casida (without informing him). I had the misfortune to arrive in John's laboratory several hours after Sarjeet Gill. In the basement of Wellman Hall, I spied a man in a lab coat from whom I inquired the location of Professor Casida. He replied: 'Let's see if we can find him,' and continued looking in cabinets filled with bottles. He soon found a bottle, pocketed it, walked into an office at the end of the hall and announced, 'We have found him.'

"After telling him I was there to be his graduate student, he replied he had no money for students. My retort was that I had a fellowship. He then told me that students were not space effective, and I promised not to take up much space. He continued that students were not time effective, and I promised not to take his time. In retrospect, Sarjeet must have really soured him on graduate students a few hours earlier."

"Months later, Sarjeet and I were sharing a desk-lab bench in the windowless closet next to the 'fly room' when Dr. Casida walked in. He had noted we both listed him as our major professor and asked if there was anything, he could do to encourage us to leave. When in unison we replied 'No!,' he politely left without accepting us, but soon we both had a desk and bench.

"So a few paces after Sarjeet, I initiated the most thrilling four years of my life. John's introduction to experimental science was marvelous with the perfect balance of inspiration, instruction and tremendous freedom. I was privileged to learn from a wonderful group of individuals and, of course, I made my most enduring of friendships with Sarjeet Gill. In addition to science, John taught a life-family-science balance by example. John was my life long mentor in science and in life but also evolved as a colleague and friend.

"Three more delightful years passed and John then took me to lunch at the faculty club. As I was about to leave the laboratory for the U.S. Army, he gave me sagely advice such as he had had it easy during the Sputnik period and I would have it hard. Then he went on to tell me than most people in the laboratory did not find my practical jokes nearly as funny as I did. I did not reveal that Sarjeet had both planned and executed most of them. Thus, Sarjeet succeeded in disrupting my Berkeley career from beginning until the end.

"John and his laboratory at Berkeley provided me with the most exciting years of my scientific career.  In his own work, John moved from strength to strength creating numerous entire fields along the way. His scientific insight and drive were a constant stimulation to drive for innovation and excellence. Whenever I had an opportunity, I encouraged others to join his team. John was an inspiration and role model, not only because John came in early and stayed late, but also because he did science for the fun of discovery and taught for the joy of teaching."

Professor Casida is survived by his wife, artist and sculptor Kati Casida, sons Mark and Eric Casida, and two grandchildren.

(See more remembrances by UC Davis-affiliated scientists trained by Professor Casida on the UC Davis Department of Entomology and Nematology website)

Related Information:

• John Casida Obituary, UC Berkeley News Service
• For the Fun of Science: A Discussion with John E. Casida (Archives of Insect Biochemistry and Physiology)
• ​Still Curious: An Overview of John Casida's Contributions to Agrochemical Research (JAFC)
• ​Curious about Pesticide Action, by John E. Casida (JAFC)

(UC Berkeley New Service contributed to this post)