Professor James R. Carey of the UC Davis Department of Entomology and Nematology, is the 2014 recipient of the prestigious C. W. Woodworth Award from the Pacific Branch of the Entomological Society of America (PBESA) for his outstanding accomplishments in entomology spanning four decades.  

Carey, a member of the UC Davis Department of Entomology and Nematology faculty since 1980, focuses his work on  research, publications, teaching, public service, editorial service, committee work and video innovations.

He will receive the award and present a lecture during the plenary session of the 98th annual PBESA meeting, set for April 6-9 at the Marriott University Park, Tucson, Ariz. PBESA is comprised of 11 western states (Alaska, Arizona, California, Hawaii, Idaho, Montana, Nevada, Oregon, Utah, Washington, Wyoming), parts of Canada  and Mexico, and seven U.S. territories.

Carey is the ninth UC Davis recipient of the award since 1978. The last recipient was Frank Zalom in 2011.

Brian Holden of Monte Sereno, Calif., great-grandson of Woodworth and a 1981 graduate of UC Davis in electrical engineering, is scheduled to make the presentation, which includes a plaque and a monetary gift.

Carey is considered the world's preeminent authority on arthropod demography. He has published more than 200 scientific papers and three books on this or closely related topics, including the monograph Longevity (Princeton, 2003) and the “go-to” book on insect demography, Demography for Biologists with Special Emphasis on Insects (Oxford, 1993). His landmark paper on “slowing of mortality at older ages,” published in Science in 1992 and cited more than 350 times, keys in on his seminal discovery that mortality slows at advanced ages. The UC Davis College of Agriculture and Environmental Science cited this as one of “100 Ways in Which Our College Has Shaped the World.”

Carey is also considered one of the world's authorities on the demography and invasion biology of tephritid fruit flies, particularly the Mediterranean fruit fly. He published one of the first papers on the formal demography of any insect species (medfly) and discovered what has been termed by demographers as “Carey's Equality”—a unique property of the life table that connects it to a stationary population. His research on the invasion status of the medfly in California has generated much-needed discussion within the entomological community about definitions of eradication, the concept of subdetectable levels of invasive pests, and the need for a paradigm shift in invasion biology of economically and medically important arthropod pests.

Described as “an exceptionally valued member of our department, he is one of the key reasons why our department is considered the foremost department entomology in the country, if not the world,” wrote nominator Michael Parrella, professor and chair of the department.

Carey is a fellow of the Entomological Society of America, the American Association for the Advancement of Science, the Gerontological Society of America, and the California Academy of Sciences. He chaired the systemwide UC Committee on Research Policy, served on the system-wide UC Academic Council, and is a former vice chair of the UC Davis Department of Entomology. In addition, he serves as the associate editor of three journals: Genus, Aging Cell, and Demographic Research. Carey is the pioneering and driving force behind the UCTV Research Seminars. He began video-recording seminars in the Department of Entomology several years ago and then encouraged video-recording on all the other nine campuses. He also taught a course on “How to Make an Insect Collection,” winning recognition from the Entomological Society of America.  He is now engaged in scores of other video projects as well, including “One Minute Entomology,” which involves students presenting, in one minute, information on an insect or arthropod. 

In the nomination package, colleagues praised him for carving "impressive milestones in biodemography, research, teaching and outreach during his 40-year professional career, not only raising the profile of entomology nationally and internationally, but serving as an entomology ambassador to scientists in a wide range of disciplines, particularly demography and gerontology."

The title his peers have granted him as “the world's foremost authority on arthropod demography” is recognized not only by his entomology peers, but by ecologists, evolutionary biologists, gerontologists, demographers and actuaries worldwide. His book on insect demography is well-thumbed by all entomologists concerned with demographic analysis of insect survival, mortality, reproduction, development, life course, mass rearing, age structure, and population growth (Demography of Biologists with Special Emphasis on Insects, Oxford, 1993). This book's popularity stems from its clarity and organization as well as from its unique blend of technical details and conceptual substance. Along with another book published in 2003 on the biology and demography of aging titled Longevity (Princeton), the landmark paper on "slowing of mortality at older ages"' published in Science in 1992 and now with more than 350 citations and, more generally, his entomological research, innovations, writing, and leadership in arthropod demography sparked and helped to launch the formation of biodemography—a new and rapidly expanding field in aging research promoted and funded by the National Institute on Aging (NIA), National Institutes of Health. Today Dr. Carey continues to be the driving force behind this fast-moving field, his colleagues said.

Carey has published nearly 60 of his 200 publications in mainstream entomology journals; is renowned as one of the world's authorities on the biology and demography of Tephritid fruit flies (he published some 150 papers on this topic); and he took the lead on the 2009 paper “Rethinking Entomology Departments,” published in American Entomologist. It outlined a roadmap for entomology.

Carey was also singled out for his work in four other areas:

1.  He directs the multidisciplinary, 11-institution, 20-scientist program “Biodemographic Determinants of Lifespan,” which has received more than $10 million in funding from the NIH/NIA since 2003. These large programs funded by NIH are extremely prestigious and it a great credit to entomology that one of their own leads one of them with world-class demographers and gerontologists.

2. As an outcome of his chairmanship of the UC-wide University Committee on Research Policy, the University of California TV channel developed is launching a new platform UCTV Seminars based on the roadmap he and his committee outlined for UC as well as nationally and internationally.

3. In 2003  Carey created a course in Science and Society (SAS) titled "Terrorism and War"with an average enrollment of nearly 300 students—the largest of any SAS course on campus. This course was recently chosen to become part of the UC online pilot project with a $75,000 grant from systemwide administration to offer it to all UC campuses starting in 2012.

4. Carey has been deeply involved with invasive pest research and policy having published early in his career the groundbreaking paper documenting medfly establishment in California (1991 Science 253: 1369) and his more recent involvement with the apple moth eradication in northern California having testified to the California Legislature, California Assembly Agriculture Committee, California Senate Environmental Quality Committee, San Francisco Board of Supervisors, California Roundtable for Agriculture and the Environment, Senator Migden hearings, Nancy Pelosi staff meetings, and California Senate Committee on Food and Agriculture. His expertise on topics involving invasion biology and eradication are highly sought by a wide variety of news outlets.

In addition to being the author of more than 200 publications and three books, Carey serves as the associate editor of three journals: Genus, Aging Cell; Demographic Research; and Evolution. He has presented more than 250 seminars in venues all over the world, from Standard, Harvard, Moscow, Beijing to Athens, London, Adelaide and Okinawa.

Carey received his bachelor's degree in animal ecology from Iowa State University; his master's degree in entomology from Iowa State University; and his doctorate in entomology from UC Berkeley.

The list of UC Davis scientists who have received the C. W. Woodworth Award: 

2014: James R. Carey
2011: Frank Zalom
2010: Walter Leal
2009: Charles Summers
1999: Harry Kaya
1991: Thomas Leigh
1987: Robert Washino
1981: Harry H. Laidlaw Jr.
1978: William Harry Lange

Charles W. Woodworth (1865-1940) founded the entomology department at UC Berkeley and also participated in the development of the Agricultural Experiment Station at UC Davis, and as such, he is also considered the founder of the UC Davis entomology department. Woodworth made valuable contributions to entomology during his career.  Among his publications, he is especially known for A List of the Insects of California (1903), The Wing Veins of Insects (1906), Guide to California Insects (1913),and "School of Fumigation" (1915). He was the first editor and first contributor to the University of California's publications in entomology.

Advocating the responsible use of pesticides, Woodworth proposed and drafted the first California Insecticide Law in 1906.  He was an authority on the eradication of the codling moth, peach twig-borer, citrus insects, grasshoppers and citrus white fly. Woodworth received both his bachelor's degree (1885) and a master's degree (1886) from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. At UC Berkeley, he advanced to professor in 1913, and was named emeritus professor in 1930. 

March 11, 2011

Frank Zalom, shown here by an almond tree, is the 2011 recipient of the presitigious C. W.Woodworth Award. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)

DAVIS- Integrated pest management specialist Frank Zalom, professor of entomology and former vice chair of the UC Davis Department of Entomology, is the 2011 recipient of the prestigious C. W. Woodworth Award from the Pacific Branch of the Entomological Society of America (PBSA).

Zalom will receive the award on Monday, March 28 during the branch's 95th annual meeting, to be held in Waikoloa, Hawaii. Brian Holden of Monte Sereno, Calif., great-grandson of Woodworth and a 1981 graduate of UC Davis in electrical engineering, will present the plaque and a check for $1000.

As the recipient of the Woodworth Award, Zalom will present a 45-minute plenary address at the opening session of the meeting.

Pacific branch president Roger Vargas of the U.S. Pacific Basic Agricultural Research Center, Hilo, Hawaii, described the award as the “most prestigious” given by the branch. “It is presented in recognition of outstanding work in the scientific discipline of entomology,” Vargas said.

The award memorializes Woodworth (1865-1940), a trailblazing entomologist credited for (1) being the first entomology faculty member at the University of California--and thought to be the first academic in the western United States who was an entomologist and (2) founding the UC Berkeley and UC Davis departments of entomology.  

Chemical ecologist Walter Leal, professor and former chair of the UC Davis Department of Entomology and the 2010 recipient of the Woodworth prize, nominated Zalom for the award. Leal described Zalom as “one of the world's most prolific and respected IPM researchers, but  his influence in development of IPM policies and practices stretches globally.”

In addition to his professorial duties, Zalom is an extension agronomist, and an entomologist in the Agricultural Experiment Station.

Zalom  focuses his research on California specialty crops, including tree crops (almonds, olives, prunes, peaches), small fruits (grapes, strawberries, caneberries), and fruiting vegetables (tomatoes), as well as international IPM programs.

In his three decades with the UC Davis Department of Entomology, Zalom has published almost 300 refereed papers and book chapters, and 340 technical and extension articles.  The articles span a wide range of topics related to IPM, including introduction and management of newer, soft insecticides, development of economic thresholds and sampling methods, management of invasive species, biological control, insect population dynamics, pesticide runoff mitigation, and determination of host feeding and oviposition preferences of pests.

The Zalom lab has responded to six important pest invasions in the last decade, with research projects on glassy-winged sharpshooter, olive fruit fly, a new biotype of greenhouse whitefly, invasive saltcedar, light brown apple moth, and the spotted wing Drosophila.

Zalom serves as experiment station co-chair of the Association of Public and Land-Grant Universities (APLU) National IPM Committee and is a member of APLU's Science and Technology Committee.  He directed the UC Statewide IPM Program for 16 years (1988-2001).

Zalom is a fellow of the Entomological Society of America,  American Association for the Advancement of Science, and the California Academy of Sciences. The Entomological Foundation presented him with its “Award for Excellence in IPM” at the ESA's meeting last December in San Diego.

Zalom is the eighth scientist from the UC Davis Department of Entomology to receive the award. Other recipients:  William Harry Lange, 1978; Harry Laidlaw Jr. 1981; Robert Washino, 1987; Thomas Leigh, 1991; Harry Kaya, 1999; Charles Summers, 2009; and Walter Leal, 2010.

The Pacific Branch of ESA encompasses 11 U.S. states (Alaska, Arizona, California, Hawaii, Idaho, Montana, Nevada, Oregon, Utah, Washington and Wyoming); several U.S. territories, including American Samoa, Guam and the Northern Mariana Islands; and  parts of Canada and Mexico.

More information:
Charles W. Woodworth
List of previous recipients of C. W. Woodworth Award
History of UC Davis Department of Entomology

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--Kathy Keatley Garvey
Communications specialist
UC Davis Department of Entomology
(530) 754-6894

DAVIS--Chemical ecologist Walter Leal, professor and former chair of the Department of Entomology, University of California, Davis, is the 2010 recipient of the prestigious C. W. Woodworth Award from the Pacific Branch of the Entomological Society of America (PBSA).

Leal, a noted authority on insect communication and olfaction, received the award on Monday, April 12 during the branch's 94th annual meeting in Boise, Idaho. Brian Holden of Monte Sereno, Calif., great-grandson of Woodworth and a 1981 graduate of UC Davis in electrical engineering, presented the award.

The award memorializes Woodworth (1865-1940), a trailblazing entomologist who is considered the founder of the UC Berkeley and UC Davis departments of entomology.  

“Because of his deep and meaningful body of work over the last 10 years, Dr. Walter S. Leal of UC Davis is a wonderful selection as the 42nd recipient of the C.W. Woodworth Award," said Holden, who is writing a book on his great-grandfather. "His research into the detailed neuronal responses in mosquitoes to DEET and nonanal  has been particularly impressive.  His research has improved our knowledge of mosquito behavior in the presence of these two compounds, both of which are central in the efforts to understand and control mosquito-borne illness."

Holden and his wife Joann Wilfert sponsor the award along with the entire Woodworth/Holden/Detrich family.  

Following the presentation, Leal lectured on "The Subject of Mosquito Control Should Receive Our Most Careful Consideration."

James Carey, professor of entomology at UC Davis, praised Leal “for his stellar work on chemical communication and olfaction of insects of agricultural and medical importance.”

Carey, who chairs the department's awards committee, described Leal as “an innovative and creative researcher, a collaborative scientist, and an outstanding teacher.”

Leal has identified and synthesized complex pheromones from many insects, including scarab beetles, true bugs, longhorn beetles and the citrus leafminer. In one of his major contributions to California agriculture, he identified a complex sex pheromone system from the naval orangeworm, an insect pest that costs California agriculture millions of dollars annually. The sex pheromone compounds he discovered are now being deployed in the agricultural field to disrupt chemical communication and control navel orangeworm population.

“Dr. Leal has a remarkable ability to tackle and solve intricate problems,” Carey said. In groundbreaking research published August 18, 2008 in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS), Leal's lab uncovered the mode of action of the insect repellent DEET, combining state-of-the-art analytical techniques with sensory physiology and behavioral studies.

Other work has included identifying a common chemical, nonanal, that explains the easy host shift of Culex mosquitoes from birds to humans. Culex mosquitoes transmit West Nile virus and other diseases. The study was published Oct. 26 in PNAS.

Widely sought as a keynote speaker, Leal “often shares the podium with Nobel Laureates and members of the National Academy of Sciences,” Carey said. “Yet every summer you can find Walter in California's agricultural fields chasing beetles for pheromone identification, trapping moths with sex pheromones, and testing mosquito attractants in urban and agricultural settings.”

An active member of ESA, Leal was elected a Fellow in 2009, one of 10 so honored by the 6000-member organization that year. He has organized a number of symposia at the national meetings, and served as secretary, president and past president of the Integrative Physiological and Molecular Insect Systems Section. As a pay-it-forward entomologist, he encourages his graduate students and postdoctoral scholars to be professionally engaged.

Leal has authored 148 research publications in the general field of insect pheromones, insect chemical communication, and insect olfaction, many widely cited by his peers.

His honors include the 2008 ESA Recognition Award in Insect Physiology, Biochemistry, and Toxicology, and the 2007 Silverstein-Simeone Award from the International Society of Chemical Ecology (ISCE). His native Brazil awarded him its Medal of the Entomological Society of Brazil, and the Medal of Science (equivalent of ESA Fellow). The Japanese Society of Applied Entomology and Zoology granted him its highest honor, Gakkaisho.

Educated in Brazil and Japan, Leal holds a doctorate in applied biochemistry from Tsukuba University, Japan, with other degrees in chemical engineering and agricultural chemistry. He is a past president of ISCE, and former chair of the UC Davis Department of Entomology. Under his tenure, the department was ranked No. 1 in the country by the Chronicle of Higher Education.

The Woodworth Award, first presented in 1969, recognizes a PBSA member for outstanding accomplishments in entomology. Leal is the seventh scientist from the UC Davis Department of Entomology to receive the award: Other recipients: William Harry Lange, 1978; Harry Hyde Laidlaw Jr. 1981; Robert Washino, 1987; Thomas Leigh, 1991; Harry Kaya, 1999; and Charles Summers, 2009.

The Pacific Branch of ESA encompasses 11 U.S. states (Alaska, Arizona, California, Hawaii, Idaho, Montana, Nevada, Oregon, Utah, Washington and Wyoming); several U.S. territories, including American Samoa, Guam and the Northern Mariana Islands; and  parts of Canada and Mexico.

More information:
Charles W. Woodworth

 

DAVIS—A University of California entomologist whose career spans 39 years in the pest management of field and vegetable crops, is the winner of the prestigious Charles W. Woodworth Award from the Pacific Branch of the Entomological Society of America.

Charles “Charlie” Summers, stationed at the UC Kearney Agricultural Center, Parlier, since 1970, and a member of UC Davis Department of Entomology faculty since 1992, will receive the award at the branch's 93rd annual meeting, set March 29-April 1 in San Diego.

“This is the major award of the Pacific Branch to professionals and is very prestigious,” said Pacific Branch president Walt Bentley, an integrated pest management specialist at  Kearney Agricultural Center. “The award recognizes his contributions to entomology over the last 10 years but in reality it is for a career of meaningful work.”

Throughout his career, Summers has worked to solve pest problems impacting California agriculture. He has conducted field studies in the Central Valley from Chico to Bakersfield, working with 15 different field and vegetable crops, more than 20 different insect pests and their natural enemies, and at least 10 insect-vectored diseases.

Summers developed economic thresholds, determining at what point the cost of pest damage exceeds the cost of pest control.  He pioneered economic thresholds for seven pests in four crops, and developed management strategies for a combination of 28 crops, insect and disease pests.  His credits include publications in more than 200 journals and more than 800 presentations.

Summers is known for his research on the interactions among insects, diseases and weeds on alfalfa hay and how they individually and as a whole, influence yield and quality. His work has led to improved best management decisions and decreased pesticide use.

He is also known for his research on reflective mulches, used  to delay and reduce aphid and whitefly infestations on squash, pumpkins, cucumbers and tomatoes and other crops. He teams with plant pathologist Jim Stapleton and vegetable crop specialist Jeff Mitchell, both based at Kearney.

“In the mid-1990s, Dr. Stapleton and I embarked on a series of studies to determine if aphids, aphid-transmitted viruses, and silverleaf whitefly could be managed using plastic reflective mulches,” Summers said ”Dr. Jeff Mitchell later joined our team. We evaluated a wide variety of crops as well as different types of mulches. We were able to manage all three of these pests without the need to rely on the use of insecticides.”

“Our studies have clearly demonstrated that the use of these mulches are effective in delaying the onset of silverleaf whitefly colonization and the incidence of aphid-borne virus diseases,” Summers said.  “The data shows that marketable yields with summer squash, cucumber, and pumpkins grown over reflective mulch are higher than those in plants grown over bare soil, both with and without insecticide. We also determined that the use of reflective mulch, without insecticides, leads to significantly increased yields of fall planted cantaloupes.”

Another highlight of his career: his work on the biology of corn leafhopper and corn stunt spiroplasma. He proved that the corn leafhopper can overwinter in the San Joaquin Valley and that the pathogen, Spiroplasma kunkelii overwinters in it.

“Before this research, it was assumed that tropical insects such as corn leafhopper could not overwinter in our temperate climate, but were reintroduced each year from Mexico,” Summers said. The findings led to better strategies for managing the pest and the pathogen.

His research showed that corn leafhopper can live up to 172 days on triticale, wheat, and barley and as long as 150 days on oats. “This length of survival,” Summers said, “is sufficient time to bridge the corn-free period from the last volunteer corn in the fall to the first planted and emerged corn in the spring. We found that the corn stunt spiroplasma, Spiroplasma kunkelii, is seed-borne in cobs left in the field overwinter. This provides a ready source of inoculums in the spring when these seeds germinate. This is especially important where corn follows corn.”

His research also found that corn leafhopper completes its development from egg to adult on triticale, thus providing another host in the San Joaquin Valley.

A native of Ogden, Utah, Summers received two degrees from Utah State University; his bachelor of science degree in zoology in 1964 and his master's degree in entomology in 1966. He earned his doctorate in entomology in 1970 from Cornell University. That same year, he joined the Kearney Agricultural Center.

Summers is the 40th recipient of the award since 1969. Five other UC Davis entomologists received the award: William Harry Lange Jr. in 1978; Harry Laidlaw in 1981; Robert Washino in 1987; Thomas Leigh in 1991; and Harry Kaya in 1998.

The award memorializes noted American entomologist Charles W. Woodworth, (1865-1940), credited with founding the UC Berkeley Department of Entomology and helping to develop the Agricultural Experiment Station, which later became the UC Davis Department of Entomology. Born and educated in Illinois, Woodworth was a charter member (1889) of the American Association of Economic Entomologists, which later  merged with the Entomological Society of America..

The Pacific Branch of ESA encompasses 11 U.S. states (Alaska, Arizona, California, Hawaii, Idaho, Montana, Nevada, Oregon, Utah, Washington and Wyoming); several U.S. territories, including American Samoa, Guam and the Northern Mariana Islands; and  parts of Canada and Mexico.

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Award to Be Presented Monday, March 30

The Charles W. Woodworth Award will be presented to Charles Summers during the opening session of the 93rd annual meeting of the Pacific Branch, Entomological Society of America (ESA). The March 29-April 1 meeting takes place in the Bahia Resort Hotel, San Diego. The opening session is from 8:30 to 11 a.m., Monday, March 30.

This year's meeting is themed "Fifty Years of the Integrated Control Concept." President is integrated pest management specialist Walt Bentley, Kearney Agricultural Center, Parlier, who succeeded past president Larry Godfrey of the UC Davis Department of Entomology.

Michael Parrella, associate dean of the Division of Agricultural Sciences, UC Davis College of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences, and professor of entomology, serves as the Pacific Branch representative to the ESA governing board. Both he and Frank Zalom were named ESA Fellows last year.
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