(Editor's Note: See March 31 story on Texas A&M website and photo)

Integrated pest management specialist Frank Zalom, distinguished professor of entomology, UC Davis Department of Entomology and Nematology and a former director of the UC Statewide Integrated Pest Management Program (UC IPM),  will receive the 2017 "Perry Adkisson Distinguished Speaker Award" from Texas A&M University, on Thursday, March 30 in College Station, Texas.

His invited presentation is titled “Invasive Species, Integrated Pest Management, and One Perspective from the West Coast."

The annual lecture honors Perry Lee Adkisson, chancellor emeritus and distinguished professor emeritus of the Texas A&M University System. His research accomplishments are internationally known in the areas of sustainable insect control and crop protection.

A member of the National Academy of Sciences and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, Adkisson is a fellow and past president of the Entomological Society of America (ESA). Among his notable awards, Adkisson received the World Food Prize (1997), the Wolf Prize (1994), and the Alexander von Humboldt Award (1980), and is widely regarded as one of the founders of the disciplinary research area now known as Integrated Pest Management.

 “Perry Lee Adkisson is among the icons of integrated pest management, and one of the people that I have most looked up to since starting my career in entomology," Zalom said. "I can't adequately express how honored I am to receive this award, and have an opportunity to visit with him once again in College Station.”

Like Adkisson, Zalom is both a past president and fellow of the ESA. Zalom's many other honors include fellow of the California Academy of Sciences and the American Association for the Advancement of Science (2010). Zalom served as Extension IPM Coordinator in 1980 at the inception of the Statewide IPM Program, and then served as UC IPM's director for 16 years before returning to the UC Davis Department of Entomology in 2002. He served as the department's vice chair from 2005-08.