- Author: Kathy Keatley Garvey
The Society of Nematologists (SON) will present him with its Teaching Excellence Award at its 55th annual meeting, set July 17 – 21 in the city of Montreal, Quebec, Canada.
Caswell-Chen, who joined the UC Davis Department of Nematology (now the Department of Entomology and Nematology) in 1989, was praised as being an “exemplary teacher who loves to teach and interact with his students.”
“Ed is known for his enthusiasm, dedication, high-quality instruction and keen interest in helping his students understand and appreciate nematology—from the undergraduate level to the graduate level and beyond,” his nominators said.
“If I had to distill my endorsement of Ed into a single sentence, it would be that he has unbridled passion and dedication when it comes to getting undergraduates excited about science,” said nematologist Steve Nadler, professor and chair of the Department of Entomology and Nematology. “His dedication to teaching is truly altruistic, and although he has maintained a solid program of research, his major effort in recent years has involved teaching undergraduate and graduate students.”
Over the last five years, Caswell-Chen has taught 24 undergraduate courses, enrolling some 2400 students. His commitment to teaching includes five years of service as associate dean of the Graduate Program, UC Office of Graduate Studies. He is a former chair of the UC Davis Department of Nematology, and the Graduate Group in Ecology.
Caswell-Chen, who considers teaching his No. 1 priority, says the classroom is “an important forum for communication with students, and an opportunity for outreach with respect to the Agricultural Experiment Station mission, especially when lecturing to undergraduates in nematology, animal biology, and science and society courses.” His students describe his courses as informative, interesting and engaging.
Caswell-Chen said his philosophy of teaching “is that to be effective, teaching must engage students by highlighting the relevance of course material, and instructors must capture student attention through enthusiasm and supportive stimulation of student creativity. Interaction helps students learn how to think, ask questions, and form connections among the diverse facts they learn in their courses.”
“If students are participating and engrossed with the topic in the classroom, they don't immediately realize that they are learning—they are carried along by their thinking and engagement with the material,” he said. “All of these features of effective classroom instruction are relatively easy to attain when the subject matter is nematology—and biology, for that matter—because of the field's many fascinating and relevant aspects. In a nematology course, one can incorporate a wide range of intriguing topics, from nematode biodiversity and the deep, hot biosphere to soil ecology, to the fascinating interactions between nematodes and other organisms, to the importance of animal parasites and means for their management, to plant parasites, nematicides, and genetic engineering of crop plants for nematode resistance, to topics in aging and neurobiology from research on the model nematode Caenorhabditis elegans.”
Caswell-Chen is known for his research on the life history and ecology of C. elegans, a free-living or non-parasitic nematode that lives in temperate soil environments.
His interest and dedication to undergraduate education is reflected in his current service as the chair of the UC Davis Academic Senate Undergraduate Council, membership on the UC system-wide Educational Policy Committee, and his recent appointment as vice chair of that same Educational Policy Committee for the coming academic year.
UC Davis researcher Kristi Sanchez, former undergraduate student who received her doctorate from him in 2014 and served as his teaching assistant, described him as “the best professor I've ever had.”
“I have not met another professor at UC Davis who not just focuses on his research but enjoys, loves and wants to make teaching classes a priority for undergraduate students,” Sanchez said. “He is always about the students and making sure they understand the material. He always goes out of his way to provide more office hours so they can learn the material better or ask questions. And he is a professor who has the students text him instead of emailing him. The students love it.”
She credited him with inspiring her to pursue her degree and career in nematology. “Ed has given me many opportunities to pursue research questions that I would like to investigate, provides great advice and not just as a major professor but a father figure. He has pushed me to follow my goals and with my hard work, anything is possible.”
Said graduate student Chris Pagan, who has known Caswell-Chen for 12 years, beginning as an undergraduate student and then as a lab technician: “Ed makes the classroom a comfortable place. He is always approachable, and always genuinely interested in hearing what students have to say. Ed is always revising his lecture material and methods. He is constantly seeking new ways to keep students engaged.”
Nematologist Becky Westerdahl, UC Davis professor of entomology and nematology, praised Caswell-Chen for his excellence in teaching and as “one of the first professors at UC Davis to embrace the use of World Wide Web technology for teaching…He was instrumental in obtaining, establishing and maintaining the first web server for teaching in the Department of Nematology.” She said Caswell-Chen provides his students with “an excellent foundation, not just as future researchers, but as future educators as well.”
Caswell-Chen also teaches animal biology courses and Science and Society courses. He sometimes teaches freshman seminars by using the Campus Book Project selections, such as “Why Are All the Black Kids Sitting Together in the Cafeteria” and “Half the Sky.” He has also taught his own selection of topics, including “The Ancient Middle East: Cradle of Civilization, Religion and Science” and “Protest Songs.”
Caswell-Chen received his bachelor's and master's degrees in botany and plant pathology from Michigan State University in 1979 and 1982, respectively, and his doctorate in 1985 in plant pathology from UC Riverside. He began his academic career in 1985 as an assistant professor in the University of Hawaii's Department of Plant Pathology before joining the UC Davis faculty in 1989.
- Author: Kathy Keatley Garvey
"The average grocery store must dispose of more than 600 pounds of meats and produce every day when the products pass their sell-by date," Lewis says. "Where does it go? Currently, most waste food from groceries ends up in landfills. This costs grocery stores significantly, and wastes food and energy."
"A start-up company in this area, California Safe Soils LLC, is developing a novel solution to this problem by turning this wasted food into an agricultural product for soil nutrition. Nutrient management is a serious challenge to agriculture in California. Coupled with the need for providing the necessary nutrients to grow crops is the increasing concern of nitrate contamination of ground and surface water that comes from agricultural uses. A new product, called Harvest to Harvest, is in the testing phase as a soil amendment that aids in nutrient management."
"In this seminar, I'll describe the manufacturing of the material, the business plan of the company and the role of agricultural and ecological research in the research and development of this new product."
Of his research, Lewis says on his website: "My research program is wide-ranging in the scope of the questions asked and in the taxa that are studied. There is, however, a common thread to the work that takes place in my laboratory; we seek to understand why and how organisms find, recognize, assess and exploit resources. We ask questions about how insects and nematodes make decisions about resource utilization and what the fitness outcomes of the decisions are. To answer these kinds of questions, we engage in studies of behavior, population ecology, community ecology and evolutionary biology with several groups of insects, nematodes and bacteria. There are also intentional links to more practical pursuits including biological control of crop pests, predicting the impact of crop management on pest and beneficial organisms and restoration ecology. I see no difference between what is traditionally called 'basic' and 'applied' research, thus the links of nearly all of the work in the laboratory to agricultural or environmental concerns is explicit."
Lewis, who joined the UC Davis faculty in 2004, received his doctorate in entomology from Auburn University, Auburn, Ala.; his master's degree in entomology from the University of Missouri, Columbia; and his bachelor's degree in natural resources from Cornell University, Ithaca, NY.
He served as a post-doctoral research associate for the UC Davis Department of Entomology, Rutgers University, from 1991 to 1994; assistant research professor at Rutgers from 1994 to 1995. He joined the Department of Entomology, University of Maryland, in 1995 as a research associate and then served as an assistant professor in the Department of Entomology, Virginia Tech, from 1998 to 2004 before joining the UC Davis faculty.
A past president of the former UC Davis Department of Nematology, Lewis is active in the Entomological Society of America, Ecological Society of America, Society of Invertebrate Pathology and the Society of Nematologists. His professional service includes editor-in-chief of Biological Control; North American editor of Biopesticides International; and trustee of the Society of Invertebrate Pathology.
Lewis' seminar is the second in a series of spring-quarter seminars hosted by the UC Davis Department of Entomology and Nematology. All seminars are held on Wednesdays from 12:10 to 1 p.m. in 122 Briggs and are coordinated by assistant professor Brian Johnson. The seminars are video-recorded for later viewing on UCTV.
- Author: Kathy Keatley Garvey
Dr. Raski, known for his research on nematodes in the vineyards and sugarbeet fields, made great strides in establishing relationships between nematodes and the plant viruses they transmit. He and other campus researchers pioneered alternative approaches to nematode control that support sustainable agricultural practices.
He authored the book, “The Biology and Morphology of the Sugar-Beet Nematode, Heterodera schachtii (Schmidt)” and was the main author of the book, “Nematodes and Their Control in Vineyards.” He retired from UC Davis in 1987.
Dr. Raski received his doctorate in entomology in 1948 from UC Berkeley. He began his academic career on the UC Berkeley faculty that same year and then transferred to UC Davis in 1954 to establish the teaching and research program on campus. He chaired the UC Davis Department of Nematology (now the Department of Entomology and Nematology) from 1959 to 1964, and from 1969 to 1973.
In 1998, he received a UC Davis College of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences’ Award of Distinction. He was a founding member of the Society of Nematologists, bringing representation of the discipline in California to the attention of national and international nematologists. In India, he served as the catalyst that developed its first department of nematology, modeling it after UC Davis.
Dr. Raski was the lead author of “A History of Nematology in California,” with colleagues Ivan Thomason, John Chitambar and Howard Ferris. In the document, they related how they and fellow researchers sought to reduce the impact of nematodes on California's agricultural production, and to foster safer pest control that promotes sustainable agricultural practices by decreasing agricultural impact of plant and animal parasitic nematodes and reducing use of toxic pesticides; advancing knowledge of fundamental nematode biology; and promoting the beneficial uses of nematodes, including the biological control of insect pests.
Born Dec. 12, 1917 in Kenilworth, Utah, Dewey was three years old when he moved with his family to Los Angeles. He graduated from UC Berkeley in entomology in 1941. The start of World War II interrupted his graduate studies. He and two fellow students drove to Sacramento to enlist in the then Army Air Force: Dewey for pilot training, Phil Crane for gunnery training and Harold Reynolds for navigator training. All three returned to Berkeley and entomology after the war ended in 1945.
At first, there were few or no job opportunities, he recalled in “A History of Nematology in California.” Professor E. O. Essig, then chair of the UC Berkeley Department of Entomology and Parasitology, advised most of the returning students to continue their education toward a doctorate of philosophy.
Beginning in 1948, Dr. Raski taught a formal course in plant nematology at UC Berkeley. In 1954 he was transferred to UC Davis to establish “teaching and research on the campus” in the newly created Department of Plant Nematology. He taught formal courses in general plant nematology, principles and techniques of nematode taxonomy and morphology, nematode taxonomy and comparative morphology.
"The evolution of nematology at Davis was slow but sure, gaining wider acceptance every year and ultimately succeeded as a full-fledged department for research and teaching,” Raski wrote in the “A History of Nematology.”
On Jan. 9, 1954, Harrison “Harry” Wellman, then UC vice president for agricultural sciences announced plans for a statewide Department of Nematology and selected Dr. Raski of UC Davis as the chair, with the vice chairs at UC Berkeley and UC Riverside.
At UC Davis, “there was, from the beginning, a constant flow of national and international visitors of every sort and for variable periods of time,” Dr. Raski said. “The shortest period must have been one chap who arrived at the door asking for a briefing of what we knew about nematodes. He requested that this be done in less than one hour as he had a tight schedule! Some were post-doctorals or visiting scientists more likely to be three months to a year in collaborative research with a prearranged and agreed-upon subject. The collaborative research projects carried out at UC Davis covered a wide range of subjects the results of which made significant contributions to nematology.”
Dr. Raski recalled that space was tight in his first years at UC Davis. The Department of Entomology faculty “occupied a building that had previously served as the garage for University cars and trucks. Imposing three more faculty into that tightly crowded facility was an unreasonable burden on that department. The answer was found in a tiny corner room used for storing cans of old insecticide chemicals, diluents, lubricants, etc. That storage room was cleared, then together with a small adjacent area which served mostly for coffee breaks was thoroughly cleaned and painted. Finally a temporary wall and door were added and the resulting space proved barely adequate for three desks and chairs. It served as office quarters for Raski, (Bert) Lear and (B. F.) Lownsbery for several years in the early humble beginnings of Nematology at UC Davis.”
“Fortunately the special appropriations by the State Legislature provided funds for a full greenhouse and headhouse/laboratory. The site chosen to build these facilities was conveniently in the central part of campus and fully equipped to carry out various research projects. Later, campus plans designated this site as within the 10-minute zone, so-called to define the central part of campus within which students could walk between classes from one to another anywhere within that zone. Greenhouse work was to be located in a more distant area to the west and Nematology’s greenhouse itself was moved and reassigned to another department. The original headhouse/laboratory was reassigned to the Department of Botany but Nematology was privileged to redesign completely new, up-to-date facilities and equipment.”
Dewey Raski and his wife, Evelyn (Calmett), celebrated their 70th wedding anniversary on April 20, 2013. The couple raised four children: Carole Juergenson of Oakdale, Paul Raski of Dixon, Maya Bodine of Davis and the late Bill Raski. A Davis Enterprise news article of May 16, 2013 related that they had 12 grandchildren and four great-grandchildren, with “two more on the way.”
“My grandparents are loved by many; they have children, grandchildren and great-grandchildren that may not be blood, but are as dear to them as family,” granddaughter Angela Raski said in the news article. “They are some of the kindest, most compassionate, loving, faithful, and generous people you will ever meet. Seventy years of marriage is a rare and priceless jewel, and only becoming more so!”
Dr. Raski was also a humanitarian. Responding to a need for affordable housing in Davis, Raski helped organize the local affiliate of Habitat for Humanity.
Said colleague and emeritus professor of nematology Harry Kaya: "Dewey Raski led a wonderful life as a caring husband, father, grandfather, scientist and chair of the Department of Nematology. I believe he was a
wrestler in college and I do know that he trained pilots during World War II. He is known in India as the scientist who was instrumental in bringing nematology to the fore front and trained many Indian scientists. He was an excellent nematode systematist and taxonomist, but also did significant work in nematode control. He was involved in the research that showed that grapevine fanleaf virus was transmitted by a nematode."
Related Links:
Living Legends: An Interview with Dewey Raski, Nematology Newsletter
Dewey Raski's work on the grapevine fanlaf virus transmitted by a nematode
Sources: “A History of Nematology in California” (as of January 2003); UC Davis College of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences’ Outlook publications, and the Davis Enterprise. Special thanks to nematologists Steve Nadler and Harry Kaya.
- Author: Kathy Keatley Garvey
That's what moderator Michael Klein, The Ohio State University, said when he introduced Harry K. Kaya, emeritus professor of entomology and nematology, at a special seminar in his honor at the 2011 Entomological Society of America meeting.
The seminar, "Entomopathogenic Nematodes: Their Biology, Ecology, and Application. A Tribute to the Dynamic Career of Harry K. Kaya," took place Nov. 15 at the ESA's 59th annual meeting, held in the Reno/Sparks Convention Center.
Organizing the event were Lynn LeBeck, executive director, Association of Natural Bio-Control Producers (ANBP), Clovis; Ed Lewis, professor of entomology and nematology and acting chair of the UC Davis Department of Entomology; and David Shapiro-Ilan, research entomologist, USDA's Agricultural Research Service (USDA-ARS).
Michael Klein, adjunct associate professor at The Ohio State University, moderated the seminar. Kaya worked on international research projects with Klein, who recently retired from the Horticultural Insects Research Laboratory, part of the USDA/ARS Application Technology Research Unit, Ohio Agricultural Research and Development Center in Wooster, Ohio
LeBeck echoed the feelings of the attendees when she praised Kaya as a top-notch researcher and as "a warm human being." She recalled the "many years of fun times and great research experiences with him."
LeBeck was one of dozens of people paying tribute to him and/or presenting a lecture at the special seminar.
Internationally recognized for his contributions to insect pathology and insect nematology, Kaya specialized in the utilizations of nematodes for biological control of insect pests; interaction between nematodes and other biological control agents; and general insect pathology (protozoan, viral and fungal diseases of insects).
One of the founders of the journal Biological Control, Kaya is a Fellow of the Entomological Society of America (2007) and the co-editor of the first and second editions of Field Manual of Techniques in Invertebrate Pathology, Application and Evaluation of Pathogens for Control of Insects and other Invertebrate Pests.
Scientists billed on the tribute program were:
- Parwinder Grewal and Ruisheng An, The Ohio State University, "Cooperative Endurance and Pathogenesis: a Story of the Nematode and Bacteria Partnership"
- Don Strong, UC Davis"Top Down Islands in a Bottom-Up Foodweb Sea: Native EPNs and Rootfeeders of Lupine"
- Mary Barbercheck, Pennsylvania State University, "Hunter and Hunted: Entomopathogenic Nematodes in the Soil Food Web"
- Larry W. Duncan, University of Florida, "Ecology and Conservation of Entomopathogenic Nematodes in Florida Citrus Groves"
- Davis Shapiro-Ilan, USDA-ARS and Edwin Lewis, UC Davis, "Putting the Worms to Work: Application Technology for Entomopathogenic Nematodes"
- James F. Campbell, USDA-ARS, Edwin Lewis of UC Davis and David Shapiro-Ilan, USDA-ARS, "Entomopathogenic Nematode Infection Behavior: from Mechanism to Adaptive Value"
- Ho Yul Choo, Southern Forest Research Center, "Practical Use of Entomopathogenic Nematodes against Greenhouse Insect Pests"
- Ramon Georgis, Brandt, "Commercialization of Entomopathogenic Nematodes: an Industry Perspective."
Kaya later said he was overwhelmed the outpouring. He sent the following note to the organizers: "I thank the organizers, Drs. Lynn LeBeck, Michael Parrella, Michael Klein, Ed Lewis, and David Shapiro-Ilan, for putting together this special symposium for me. I know it took a lot of effort in organizing the symposium, inviting speakers, and having a reception afterwards. I appreciate their efforts very much. I must say, however, that the speakers gave me too much credit when it was my students, post-doc, visiting scientists and collaborators who did the research and often came up with the research ideas and concepts. I was most privileged in having such dedicated students, researchers, friends, and colleagues around me and always having the great support of the department."
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Harry K. Kaya
Kaya received B.S. and M.S. degrees in entomology from the University of Hawaii, and a Ph.D. in insect pathology from the University of California, Berkeley. He worked briefly as an entomologist at the Connecticut Agricultural Experiment Station (New Haven) before accepting a professorial position in the Department of Nematology and Department of Entomology at the University of California, Davis in 1976.
He served as chair of the Department of Nematology from 1994-2001, and was treasurer (1992-1996), vice president (2000-2002) and president (2002-2004) of the Society for Invertebrate Pathology (SIP). He is especially proud of his students, postdoctoral fellows, and visiting international scientists, who have excelled in entomology, insect pathology or nematology.
He is one of the founding editors of the journal Biological Control, and is currently Editor-in-Chief. Dr. Kaya has received a number of awards from ESA, SIP, and the Society of Nematologists. (From the Entomological Society of America website on his selection as an ESA Fellow, updated October 2007)
Born Feb. 15, 1933 in San Jose, Dr. Maggenti attended St. Mary's College High School and, during those years, he achieved the Eagle Scout rank, Boy Scouts of America. He obtained a bachelor of science degree in entomology and parasitology at the University of California, Berkeley in 1954 and then completed his PhD in entomology there in 1958. His Ph.D. studies, conducted under the guidance of Dr. Merlin Allen, focused on the biology, morphology and taxonomy of the genus Plectus.
Immediately after his Ph.D. dissertation was submitted and accepted, Dr. Maggenti was appointed by Dr. Dewey Raski to the position of lecturer and assistant nematologist in the newly formed Department of Nematology at the UC Davis, where he served the remainder of his professional career. He chaired the department from 1973 to 1978 and served as associate dean of Student Affairs between 1982 and 1987. He retired in 1993 and was appointed emeritus professor of dematology.
Dr. Maggenti was known as an outstanding and popular teacher who effortlessly drew on his breadth of knowledge of the organisms of the phylum to illustrate principles of biology, ecology and parasitology. He enriched his lectures with anecdotes of the activities of his mentors and colleagues and of his personal research experiences. His Nematology 110 class, Introduction to Nematology, was especially popular with undergraduate students, despite the fact that it was an elective and met at 8 a.m. Dr. Maggenti's reputation as a teacher was such that enrollment in the class regularly approached 100 students. Twenty years after he last taught the class, former students regularly visit the Department of Nematology exhibits at the annual UC Davis Picnic Day open house to inquire about Dr. Maggenti and to introduce spouses and children to the world of nematodes.
Dr. Maggenti was a respected and valued mentor of graduate students; former students and visiting scientists frequently recall protracted discussions around the mid-morning coffee pot. For varying periods throughout his career, Dr. Maggenti taught Nematode Taxonomy and Comparative Morphology and a separate class on Principles and Techniques of Taxonomy and Morphology, as well as a significant portion of a class on the Biology of Parasitism. During his career he received several awards for teaching excellence, including the James H. Meyer Distinguished Achievement Award and the Magnar Ronning Award. He was elected Fellow of the Society of Nematologists in 1990.
Significant throughout his career: the impact of the many nematological luminaries with whom he had the opportunity to collaborate and interact. Those interactions were reflected in his teaching and his writing. Besides Drs. Allen and Raski, both honorary members and founder members of the Society of Nematologists, his early career development was strongly influenced during his graduate studies by Dr. Benjamin Chitwood who was working with E.C. Dougherty at the nearby Kaiser Institute in Richmond. His interactions with Chitwood included many late night discussions on all aspects of the evolution, systematics and biology of nematodes. In addition to the mentored projects of his several graduate students, Armand Maggenti published with Drs. Dougherty, Chitwood, Timm, and Croll. He collaborated with Drs. Fortuner, Geraert, Luc and Raski in the important 1987 and 1988 revisions of the suborder Tylenchina.
Besides his contributions to our theories and understanding of nematode phylogeny and the evolution of parasitism in the phylum, Dr. Maggenti worked on the control of plant-parasitic nematodes in strawberry and ornamental plant production. His book entitled “General Nematology,” published in 1981, has been particularly useful for reference and teaching purposes; it is an excellent resource on the anatomy, morphology, life cycles and classification of the phylum. With his first wife MaryAnn Basinger Maggenti, who died in 2001, Dr. Maggenti co-authored the extensive "Dictionary of Invertebrate Zoology,” now published online.
Dr. Maggenti was an avid outdoorsman: a hunter and an accomplished fly fisherman. He is survived by his wife Joan; his sister; and sons Timothy and Peter and their respective families.