Research entomologist Vince D'Amico of the USDA's Forest Service Philadelphia Field Station will speak on "Monitoring and Ecological Research in the Forests of the BosWash Megalopolis" at 4:10 p.m., Wednesday, Feb. 9 in an in-person and virtual seminar hosted by the UC Davis Department of Entomology and Nematology. 

The seminar will take place in 122 Briggs Hall. The Zoom link is https://ucdavis.zoom.us/j/99515291076. 

BosWash Megalopolis is the heavily populated area extending from Boston to Washington and including New York City, Philadelphia, and Baltimore. 

"The temperate deciduous forest biome covers about 5 percent of the Earth's surface, but is home to 25 percent of the human population," D'Amico says in his abstract. "Once a huge tract of forested land, this area now consists of many thousands of small, heterogenous forests. Research in the FRAME (FoRests Among Managed Ecosystems) program is conducted over a network of permanent forest sites in the BosWash Megalopolis of the U.S. East Coast, to answer ecological questions at many trophic levels. I will discuss the results of some of this research."

FRAME researchers target temperate deciduous forests in the Anthropocene age, a current geological age viewed as the period during which human activity has been the dominant influence on climate and the environment. 

From the website: "Our current work includes experimental and observational studies of soil and key species to understand interactions between plants, invertebrates, and vertebrates. Other research is focused on monitoring, manipulations aimed directly at site improvement, and technology transfer for better management of urban forest fragments. As of 2022, there are 60 FRAME sites in MA, PA, DE, MD and NC."

Among D'Amico's publications:

• Conceptualizing social-ecological drivers of change in urban forest patches, published in August 2021 in Urban Ecosytems
• Local landscapes and microhabitat characteristics are important determinants of urban–suburban forest bee communities, published in October 2019 in Ecosphere
• Lawn mowing frequency in suburban areas has no detectable effect on Borrelia spp. vector Ixodes scapularis (Acari: Ixodidae), published in April 2019 in PLOS-ONE 
• Urban forest fragments buffer trees from warming and pests, published in March 2019 in Science of the Total Enfironment

 A 25-year research entomologist with USDA, D'Amico joined in February, 1997. He has served on the adjunct faculty of the University of Delaware since 2001. His expertise includes ecosystems ecology, urban ecology an invasion ecology. D'Amico received his bachelor's degree in biology in 1989, and his doctorate from the University of Massachusetts, Amherst.

The Wednesday seminars are coordinated by nematologist Shahid Siddique, assistant professor, UC Davis Department of Entomology and Nematology. For technical issues, contact ssiddique@ucdavis.edu.

Watch for eight-legged encounters! 

The American Arachnological Society's 2022 meeting is scheduled June 26-30 on the University of California, Davis, campus. 

It will be hosted by two UC Davis arachnologists: Jason Bond, the Evert and Marion Schlinger Endowed Chair in Insect Systematics, UC Davis Department of Entomology and Nematology, and associate dean, College of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences, and Joel Ledford, assistant professor of teaching, Department of Plant Biology, College of Biological Sciences.

Formal meeting registration will begin Sunday afternoon, June 26, followed by an evening reception. A local daylong field trip is planned for Thursday, June 30. (Pre-register for the meeting at https://ces.ucdavis.edu/AASM)

"We typically expect somewhere around 125-150," Bond said.  

The event is sponsored by the U.S. National Science Foundation. In collaboration with the UC Davis Bohart Museum of Entomology and the University of Nebraska, “we will also host a pre-meeting, outreach event, ‘Eight-Legged Encounters' for the Davis community and campus,” Bond said. It's tentatively planned for Saturday, June 25. Those interested in attending should contact Bond at jbond@ucdavis.edu.

The purpose of the American Arachnological Society, founded in 1972, is “to further the study of arachnids, foster closer cooperation and understanding between amateur and professional arachnologists, and to publish the Journal of Arachnology," according to its website.

The 11th annual UC Davis Biodiversity Museum Day, initially scheduled for Feb. 20 during Presidents' Day weekend,  has been changed to Sunday, March 6, due to concerns about the Omicron COVID-19 surge.

It will take place from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. in the UC Davis Conference Center, 550 Alumni Lane. UC Davis undergraduates will be the focus of this year's free, science-focused event, said Biodiversity Museum Day coordinator Tabatha Yang, education and outreach coordinator for the Bohart Museum of Entomology.  "We're focusing on undergraduate attendance. The undergrads haven't been able to experience campus life much, due to COVID pandemic policies." 

COVID pandemic precautions kept the 2021 event virtual but this year it will be in person, but COVID campus safety policies will be implemented.  

In the past, participants enjoyed visiting these collections in person:

• Anthropology Museum
• Arboretum and Public Garden
• Bohart Museum of Entomology
• Botanical Conservatory
• California Raptor Center
• Center for Plant Diversity
• Häagen-Dazs Honey Bee Haven
• Nematode Collection
• Marine Invertebrate Collection 
• Museum of Wildlife and Fish Biology
• Paleontology Collection
• Phaff Yeast Culture Collection
• Viticulture and Enology Collection

The committee is working out the details at its Zoom meetings. For up-to-date information, visit the the UC Davis Biodiversity Museum Day and follow on Twitter and Facebook. 

Meanwhile, the 108th annual UC Davis Picnic Day is scheduled Saturday, April 23.

Medical entomologist Thomas W. Scott, a UC Davis distinguished professor who retired in 2015 but continues his scientific research, has been named one of the world's Highly Cited Researchers for the third consecutive year.

Professor Scott, who now resides in Luck, Wis., is internationally known for his work on the ecology and epidemiology of dengue, a mosquito-borne viral infection transmitted mainly by Aedes aegypti. 

Only 1 percent of researchers make the global list of Highly Recited Researchers, as announced by Clarivate. The Web of Science Group, the information and technology provider for the global scientific research community, annually honors the 1 percent of scientists whose publications are the most cited in scientific papers.

One in 1000. "Of the world's scientists and social scientists, Highly Cited Researchers truly are one in 1,000," according to the Web of Science website.

Scott is one of 14 researchers from UC Davis--and one of some 6660 worldwide--to achieve the 2021 honor.

Scott's 19 publications listed in the report have been cited a total of 402 times. His most cited publication: “The Current and Future Global Distribution and Population at Risk of Dengue,” published in Nature Microbiology in 2019. 

“Being a Highly Cited Researcher means a lot to me because it's an objective measure of the extent to which the scientific community finds helpful the work that my colleagues and I did,” said Scott, who joined the UC Davis Department of Entomology (now the Department of Entomology and Nematology) in 1996. “ I was privileged to work with exceptionally smart, hard-working, and insightful people. We had a lot of fun, but we also took our science seriously. We challenged each other in constructive and collegial ways. We are proud of the results of our efforts.” 

“Because I enjoy it, I am continuing to explore science and public health,” Scott said. “Presently, I am involved in a variety of activities that range from writing manuscripts to kicking off new studies to serving on scientific and public health policy projects and committees. “

Healthy Cites, Healthy People. Scott co-chairs a Lancet Commission that focuses on how prevention of viruses transmitted by Aedes mosquitoes fits into the growing Healthy Cities, Healthy People movement. Lancet Commissions are tasked with identifying the most pressing issues in science, medicine, and global health, with the aim of providing recommendations that change health policy or improve practice. “In this case, we are making the case for Cities without Aedes,” Scott said. "We aim to reduce the burden and threat from Aedes transmitted viruses through improved construction and management of modern urban environments that build Aedes mosquitoes out of cities and towns.” 

Scott is a collaborator in a clinical trial designed to demonstrate and quantify the protective efficacy of a spatial repellent to reduce human mosquito transmitted virus infection in Sri Lanka. “This new project,” he said, “builds on a randomized controlled clinical trial that my colleagues I recently completed in Iquitos, Peru, which revealed a significant protective efficacy of a spatial repellent against human infection. Publication of those results a currently under review.” 

“In addition to the clinical trial, my colleagues and I are publishing a series of papers from Iquitos that examine the role of people with in-apparent and mild infections in virus transmission. By accounting for factors underlying variation in each person's contribution to transmission we will be able to better determine the type and extent of effort needed to prevent disease.”

Scott's other activities include being a scientific advisor for a clinical trial in Brazil that is testing the public health benefit of Wolbachia for prevention of viruses transmitted by Aedes mosquitoes. “The study will assess the efficacy of releasing Wolbachia-infected Aedes aegypti into the environment in reducing human virus infection compared to standard vector control measures alone,” he said. 

Scott serves on three World Health Organization committees, “which I find particularly rewarding because of their potential to improve public health policy and thus global health.” 

Among his other activities: 

• Chair of a group that is writing a chapter on Dengue Vector Control Guidelines that will be included in the updated version of WHO guidelines for dengue diagnosis, treatment, prevention, and control. 
  
  
• Co-chair of the Wolbachia Evidence Review Group. “Mosquitoes infected with the endosymbionic bacteria Wolbachia are designed to have reduced capacity to become infected with and transmit a variety of viruses, which is expected to reduce human disease,” Scott explains. “Results from our deliberations will help the World Health Organization to develop guidelines for member States on the application of this exciting new intervention strategy.”
  
  
• Member of the World Health Organization Technical Advisory Group on the Global Integrated Arboviruses Initiative. The Arbovirus Initiative focuses on strengthening the coordination, communication, capacity building,research, preparedness, and response needed to mitigate the growing risk of epidemics due to arthropod transmitted viral diseases. Scott describes it as “a collaborative effort between the World Health Emergency Program, the Department of Control of Neglected Tropical Diseases, and the Immunization, Vaccines, and Biological Department at WHO. Members of the Technical Advisory Group have a broad range of expertise (clinical management, diagnostics, epidemiology, vector control, virology, vaccines, and travel medicine) and serve in an advisory capacity to WHO with a focus on essential and strategic guidance on management of disease. Our current focus is finalizing the Global Integrated Arboviruses Initiative, which will be presented to the World Health Assembly for review and approval.”

Challenging and Rewarding. “I am excited about and enjoy all these activities,” the medical entomologist commented. “They are challenging and rewarding extensions of the work I have done for that past 40 years.” 

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.  

Who's Who. The methodology that determines the “who's who” of influential researchers draws on the data and analysis performed by bibliometric experts and data scientists at the Institute for Scientific Information at Clarivate. It also uses the tallies to identify the countries and research institutions where these citation elite are based. 

The complete list of UC Davis-affiliated scientists listed in the 2021 Highly Cited Researchers   

• Andreas Bäumler, Medical Microbiology and Immunology, School of Medicine
• Eduardo Blumwald, Plant Sciences, College of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences
• Siobhan Brady, Plant and Animal Science, College of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences
• Mariana Byndloss, formerly with Medical Microbiology and Immunology, School of Medicine
• Magdalene Cerda, formerly with Emergency Medicine, UC Davis Health System
• Alan Crozier, Nutrition, College of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences
• Kathryn Dewey Nutrition, College of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences
• Jonathan Eisen, Evolution and Ecology, Medical Microbiology and Immunology, Genome Center, Center for Population Biology
• Oliver Fiehn, Genome Center
• Carlito Lebrilla, Chemistry, College of Letters and Science
• David A. Mills, Food Science and Technology, College of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences
• Sally Rogers, Psychiatry and Psychology, UC Davis Health System
• Thomas W. Scott,Entomology and Nematology, College of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences
• Andrew Sih, Environmental Science and Policy, College of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences