- Author: Kathy Keatley Garvey
Sparks, a retired research fellow at Corteva Agriscience (a Dow AgroSciences) in Indianapolis, Ind., will receive an inscribed plaque and a cash award at ESA's annual meeting in November, to be held in Denver, Colo., announced Michelle Smith, ESA president. The presentation will take place Nov. 2 during ESA's Awards Breakfast featuring the Founders' Memorial Lecture.
“This is a huge honor and directly due to Bruce's influence,” said Sparks.
This award recognizes creative entomologists who have demonstrated the ability to find alternative solutions to problems that significantly impact entomology. Sparks is the first scientist from the crop protection industry to receive this award.
“Tom was my first graduate student, receiving his doctorate at UC Riverside and later doing a sabbatical leave at UC Davis,” said Hammock, who joined the UC Davis Department of Entomology (now the Department of Entomology and Nematology) in 1980 from UC Riverside.
Sparks received his doctorate in entomology in December 1978. His emphasis: insect endocrinology/biochemistry and insecticide toxicology.
“His free-thinking, as well as his love for and intensity about science, characterized his career," Hammock said. "I remember an evening when he brought a 'Tandy' computer over and envisioned a concept of machine learning to optimize structures of drugs and agricultural chemicals that were too complex to evaluate with classical structure activity relationships."
“Fifty years later this is mainline biological chemistry,” Hammock pointed out, adding that Sparks started in biological control and then moved to insect physiology and toxicology (Hammock's lab) while in graduate school at UC Riverside. After graduate school, Sparks served as a professor of insecticide biochemistry and toxicology with the Louisiana State University's Department of Entomology. He then headed to Indianapolis to join Eli Lilly and Co., which shortly thereafter became DowElanco, then Dow AgroSciences, and finally Corteva Agriscience.
Sparks' lifelong focus is on developing green pesticides, Hammock said. “His greatest success of many successes has been with a complex group of what are known as polyketides. Specifically, Tom pioneered the spinosids as a new class of selective pesticides for integrated pest management (IPM). Tom was a leader in this program from the concept of natural product compounds through structural optimization to integration into pest management and resistance management programs nationally and internationally.”
Sparks' research interests include
- Agrochemical (especially. Insecticides) Discovery and Lead Generation
- Insecticide biochemistry and mode of action
- Insecticide resistance and resistance management
- Cheminformatics and quantitative structure activity relationships (QSAR) and its application to lead generation and pesticide discovery.
- History and philosophy of agrochemical discovery
“Dr. Sparks is internationally recognized as a leader and innovator in the field of insect biochemistry and toxicology, especially as it relates to the discovery of new crop protection compounds,” wrote Ronda Hamm of Corteva Agriscience, Indianapolis, who headed the nomination team. “This latter point supported by his many awards relating to crop protection discovery but is highlighted in particular by two prior awards-- R&D Scientist of the Year in 2009, the first (and so far only) for any entomologist or for that matter, any scientist in the field of agriculture. More recently Dr. Sparks was the first industry scientist (and entomologist) to receive the American Chemical Society AGRO Division Innovation in Chemistry of Agriculture Award (2015).”
A member of ESA for more than 40 years, Sparks “has a history of bringing new ideas and innovative approaches to the discovery of new insect control agents, resulting in several commercial products,” Hamm pointed out. “Through his innovative application of state-of-the art technologies, Dr. Sparks has succeeded in catalyzing the discovery and development of natural product-based compounds for the control of pest insects. One particularly relevant measure of Dr. Sparks' innovation is patents--unusually for a non-chemist, he has 47 patents covering a wide range of chemistries and ideas as it applies to the control of agricultural pests.”
Hammock praised Sparks for his innovative accomplishments. “For the past several decades, Dr. Sparks' goal has been to provide new, greener, tools that will allow growers and farmers around the world to feed an expanding global population," Hammock said. "To this end, Dr. Sparks employed an array of innovative approaches to the discovery of new insect control agents. His innovations are well-illustrated by his ‘what if..' questions and his answers and results from those questions.”
“What if you could simplify large complex macrolide antibiotic-like compounds to make them synthetically accessible,” Hammock wrote in his letter of support. “This would be a radically different innovation paving a conceptual pathway for others in the agrochemical and pharmaceutical industry. Dr. Sparks accomplished this through collaboration with two colleagues using computer-aided molecular design to essentially reverse-engineer the spinosyn structure ultimately demonstrating, for the first time ever, that the large macrocyclic structure could be mimicked by simpler, smaller synthetic motifs.”
Keith Wing, an independent industrial biochemistry consultant who was Hammock's second Ph.D student from UC Riverside and UC Davis (and who subsequently worked for Rohm and Haas Ag and DuPont Ag Chemicals and Central Research), also praised Sparks' accomplishments. "I've known Tom as a friend and colleague since 1976," Wing related. "We started our research in Bruce's lab working on proteins affecting juvenile hormone metabolism, but because of Bruce's/University of California's broad entomological and chemical training, we both developed multifaceted toxicological interests and methodological approaches to problems. As Tom and I were grinding through course and benchwork on our research, we were getting a skill set and thinking mode that was very unusual in both its scope and depth. I was always struck by Tom's creativity, dedication to his work and attention to detail. Much of my own thesis work was built on the precedents Tom set."
"Through the years Tom and I remained close personal friends and would discuss what we saw happening in the agrochemical industry, often through American Chemical Society AGRO division work," Wing said, lauding "Tom's variety and volume of contributions to insecticide science. For an industrial entomologist/biochemist, Tom is an unusually prolific contributor to both patent and scientific literature, and is an editor of relevant scientific journals."
"Tom is an excellent colleague to his peers and mentor to younger scientists in our field," Wing said, "and has made huge societal contributions, such as his work in the Insecticide Resistance Action Committee (IRAC), providing discipline and structure in an important area of agricultural science."
Sparks is the second Hammock lab alumnus to receive the coveted Nan-Yao Su Award. ESA selected Bryony Bonning, a former postdoctoral researcher in the Hammock lab and now a professor at Iowa State University, for the award in 2013. Walter Leal, former chair of the entomology department and now a UC Davis distinguished professor with the UC Davis Department of Molecular and Cellular Biology, won the award in 2011.
(Editor's Note: See list of other 2021 ESA winners)
- Author: Kathy Keatley Garvey
Thomas Sparks, the first graduate student of UC Davis distinguished professor Bruce Hammock, is the 2019 recipient, following in the generational footsteps of Hammock, his major professor at UC Riverside and UC Davis; and Hammock's major professor, the late John Casida of UC Berkeley.
Sparks accepted the award at the recent ACS meeting in San Diego. Hammock received the Spencer award in 1993, and Casida in 1978.
In his talk, Sparks acknowledged that he was a “third generation winner” following Casida and Hammock. "I was surprised to get a very large response / applause for this--very gratifying and likely testimony to the high regard for John Casida and Bruce Hammock."
"I was there cheering for Tom," Hammock said. "He gave a wonderful talk. Actually, I was there with Tom and our wives and my second student Keith Wing."
Casida, Hammock, Sparks and Wing also won the ACS International Award for their research: Casida, the inaugural winner, won it in 1969; Hammock in 1992; Sparks in 2012, and Wing in 2015.
Sparks, a native of San Francisco who grew up in a farming community in the central valley, is an internationally recognized leader in the discovery of new insect control agents, the biochemistry and toxicology of insecticides, and insecticide resistance. Formerly a professor at Louisiana State University (LSU) and then a researcher in private industry for three decades, he recently retired as a research fellow from Corteva Agriscience (formerly Dow AgroSciences).
“Tom was instrumental in the discovery and development of a new class of insecticides called spinosids,” said Hammock, who holds a joint appointment with the UC Davis Department of Entomology and Nematology and the UC Davis Comprehensive Cancer Center. Spinosad, launched in 1997, is a naturally occurring mixture of spinosyns. Sparks co-invented the next-generation semi-synthetic spinosyn-based insecticide, spinetoram, that improved the efficacy, spectrum, and residual of spinosad. Both compounds received the EPA Presidential Green Chemistry Challenge Award, spinosad;in 1999 and spinetoram in 2008.
Sparks praised the broad training and inspiration he received in Hammock's lab as “outstanding preparation for my future roles in science.”
Sparks served on LSU's Department of Entomology faculty from 1978 to 1989 as an insect toxicologist, achieving full professor. His research covered endocrine regulation of insect metamorphosis, insecticide resistance, and insecticide biochemistry and toxicology.
In 1989, Sparks joined the agrochemical research group, the joint venture between Eli Lilly and The Dow Chemical Company, DowElanco (later known as Dow AgroSciences). He worked in discovery research for nearly three decades.
Sparks holds 46 patents or patent applications and continues to publish widely. He has published more than 175 refereed journal publications, book chapters, and other articles. Many involve a variety of discovery efforts in innovative insecticidal chemistries.
In recognition of this work, Thomas was named R&D Magazine's 2009 Scientist of the Year, the first in the 50-year history of the award for a scientist working in the field of agriculture. He also received the ACS International Award for Research in Agrochemicals (2012) and the AGRO Award for Innovation in Chemistry of Agriculture (2015). He is a Fellow of the Entomological Society of America and, in 2018, received the Entomological Society of America Recognition Award in Insect Physiology, Biochemistry and Toxicology.
Other UC Davis-affiliated recipients of the Spencer Award include the late Emil Mrak, for whom Mrak Hall is named.
The award memorializes Kenneth A. Spencer (1902-1960), a Kansas City geologist, engineer, coal miner, philanthropist and owner of the Spencer Chemical Company.
(ACS contributed to this article.)
- Author: Kathy Keatley Garvey
Sparks will discuss "Natural Products – Sources and Inspiration for Insect Control Agents" from 11 to 11:50 a.m. in Room 1022 of the Life Sciences Building.
At Dow AgroSciences, Sparks is a research fellow with the Insect Management Group, Discovery Research unit, a position he has held since January 2010.
"Natural products (NPs) have long been used as pesticides and have broadly served as a source of inspiration for a great many commercial synthetic organic fungicides, herbicides and insecticides that are in the market today," Sparks says in his abstract. "In light of the continuing need for new tools to address an ever changing array of fungal, weed and insect pests, NPs continue to be a source of models and templates for the development of new pest control agents. "
"Interestingly, an examination of the literature suggests that NP models exist for many of the pest control agents that were discovered by other means, suggesting that had circumstances been different, these NPs could have served as inspiration for the discovery of a great many more of today's pest control agents. With an emphasis on insecticides, an attempt will be made to answer questions regarding the existence of NP models for existing pesticides, and using the spinosyns as a reference point, what is needed for the discovery of new NPs and NP models for pest control agents."
"Tom Sparks enrolled at UC Riverside to study biological control," recalled Hammock, a distinguished professor of entomology with the UC Davis Department of Entomology and Nematology who holds a joint appointment with the UC Davis Comprehensive Cancer Center. “This interest soon took a more physiological and biochemical turn."
“Tom had broad interests even then, ranging from synthesis of juvenile hormone analogs as green pesticides to resistance management, to his thesis work on the fundamental biochemistry of how butterflies and moths undergo metamorphosis.”
Sparks went on to become a professor at Louisiana State University in an academic career spanning from 1978 to 1989. He completed a sabbatical leave at UC Davis in the summer of 1985.
Sparks won the 2012 International Award for Research in Agrochemicals at the American Chemical Society's 244th meeting, in Philadelphia for "research and exceptional accomplishments in applying new technology from a number of disciplines to the discovery of new pest control agents.
“Tom was instrumental in the discovery and development of a new class of insecticides called spinosids,” Hammock said.
In 2009, Sparks was named the 44th Scientist of the Year by the global research and development magazine, R&D. He won that honor via a vote from readers and editors of R&D. Past recipients have included the inventor of the Internet and the first to successfully sequence the entire human genome.
At the time, R&D senior editor Paul Livingstone said: “Tom Sparks is one of the leading entomologists in agroscience and a pioneer in the wave of new green chemistries that are changing the way we control the insects that are a crucial factor in global agriculture." Sparks' research on “green” insecticides led to spinetoram, a highly effective new insecticide chemistry that eliminates toxic side effects in humans and mammals.
Sparks, now a resident of Greenfield, Ind., grew up in California's Central Valley. He received his bachelor's degree in biology from California State University, Fresno, before enrolling in the graduate program at UC Riverside. While at UC Riverside, Sparks won the Outstanding Graduate Student Award from the Entomological Society of America (ESA) and also received a National Institutes of Health postdoctoral fellowship.
Both Hammock and Sparks are fellows of ESA.
Livingston said Hammock played an important role in Sparks' development: “While working in the well-known laboratory of Dr. Bruce Hammock, Tom completed key research on hormones that would guide him into the unexplored regions of entomological science.”
More information on the Oct. 16 seminar is available from events manager Jacki Balderama of the UC Davis Biotechnology Program, at jbalderama@ucdavis.edu
Related links:
- Thomas Sparks, First Graduate Student of Bruce Hammock, Wins International Award for Research in Agrochemicals
- Scientist-of-the-Year Thomas Sparks Closely Linked to UC Davis; Bruce Hammock Was His Major Professor
- Author: Kathy Keatley Garvey
Sparks will receive the 2012 International Award for Research in Agrochemicals at the American Chemical Society's 244th meeting, set Aug. 19-23 in Philadelphia. The award is co-sponsored by BASF Corporation and DuPont Crop Protection.
“Tom was instrumental in the discovery and development of a new class of insecticides called spinosids,” Hammock said.
When a professor at Louisiana State University, Sparks completed a sabbatical leave at UC Davis. He is now Insect Management Group advisor for Dow AgroSciences, Indianapolis.
In 2009, Sparks was named the 44th Scientist of the Year by the global research and development magazine, R&D. He won that honor via a vote from readers and editors of R&D. Past recipients have included the inventor of the Internet and the first to successfully sequence the entire human genome.
Sparks, now a resident of Greenfield, Ind., grew up in California's Central Valley. He received his bachelor's degree in biology from California State University, Fresno, and his doctorate in entomology, toxicology and physiology from UC Riverside under Hammock. While at UC Riverside, Sparks won the Outstanding Graduate Student Award from the Entomological Society of America and also received a National Institutes of Health postdoctoral fellowship.
Livingston said Hammock played an important role in Sparks' development: “While working in the well-known laboratory of Dr. Bruce Hammock, Tom completed key research on hormones that would guide him into the unexplored regions of entomological science.”
Hammock recalled that Sparks enrolled at UC Riverside to study biological control. “This interest soon took a more physiological and biochemical turn,” Hammock said. “Tom had broad interests even then, ranging from synthesis of juvenile hormone analogs as green pesticides to resistance management, to his thesis work on the fundamental biochemistry of how butterflies and moths undergo metamorphosis.”
- Author: Kathy Keatley Garvey
Sparks, a former Louisiana State University professor and now Insect Management Group advisor for Dow AgroSciences, Indianapolis, won the coveted honor via a vote from readers and editors of R&D. Past recipients have included the inventor of the Internet and the first to successfully sequence the entire human genome.
“Tom Sparks is one of the leading entomologists in agroscience and a pioneer in the wave of new green chemistries that are changing the way we control the insects that are a crucial factor in global agriculture,” said R&D senior editor Paul Livingstone.
Sparks' research on “green” insecticides led to spinetoram, a highly effective new insecticide chemistry that eliminates toxic side effects in humans and mammals.
“As scientists, we all expand human knowledge, but few of us really have a direct impact on the planet,” said Hammock, an entomologist who served as Sparks' major professor at UC Riverside before joining the UC Davis faculty in 1980. “Tom is one of the lucky few who not only contributed to basic science, but can point to his work on spinosads and say 'I made the world a better place.' "
“The spinosad chemistries have been integrated into a number of pest control programs around the nation which preserve and utilize natural enemies and dramatically reduce human and environmental risk from pesticides,” said Hammock, a distinguished professor who won the 2008 UC Davis Distinguished Teaching Award for Graduate and Professional Teaching for dedication to his students, his interdisciplinary thrust, and his scientific and professional career guidance.
Livingstone said the Scientist-of-the-Year award “is reserved for those who exemplify the ideals of R&D in academia, industry, or nationally sponsored research.” Recipients stand out by such factors as quantity of patents and papers, ability to capitalize on new ideas to produce useful results, and the impact their work has had on both the scientific community and the world in general.
Sparks will receive the award at the R&D 100 Awards Banquet, set for Nov. 12 in Orlando, Fla. R&D awards “Oscars of Invention” to 100 innovative persons a year.
We're really proud of Tom,” said Hammock. “When he was at UC Riverside, he was named the Entomological Society of America (ESA) Outstanding Graduate Student Award and won a National Institutes of Health postdoctoral fellowship.”
Now a resident of Greenfield, Ind., Sparks, 58, grew up in California's Central Valley. He received his bachelor's degree in biology from California State University, Fresno, and his doctorate in entomology, toxicology and physiology from UC Riverside under Hammock. Said Livingstone: “While working in the well-known laboratory of Dr. Bruce Hammock, Tom completed key research on hormones that would guide him into the unexplored regions of entomological science.”
Hammock recalled that Sparks enrolled at UC Riverside to study biological control. “This interest soon took a more physiological and biochemical turn,” Hammock said. “Tom had broad interests even then, ranging from synthesis of juvenile hormone analogs as green pesticides to resistance management, to his thesis work on the fundamental biochemistry of how butterflies and moths undergo metamorphosis.”
"Interacting with Tom Sparks was a delight,” Hammock said. “Tom trained me as much or more than I trained him."
After leaving UC, Sparks joined the faculty at Louisiana State University (LSU) in 1978, advancing to professor in 1986. At LSU, he continued his pioneering research on juvenile hormone (JH) and JH esterase, an enzyme critical to the regulation insect development and a target for agrochemicals. “Others studied this hormone before him,” Livingstone said, “but his work was among the most important, helping spawn nearly 500 scientific papers on this topic.”
Sparks' ties to UC Davis include a sabbatical in the summer of 1985. As a visiting professor and researcher, he worked on a collaborative project funded by the National Science Foundation that linked his laboratory at LSU, Lynn Riddiford at University of Washington and UC Davis. His project involved the molecular basis of metamorphosis in the tomato hornworm.
Interested in new avenues for insecticide development and eager to invent, Sparks joined Dow in July 1989 and began collaborating with chemists and biologists. “As a top student in the history of insecticide resistance in cotton production, Sparks brought his considerable knowledge of insect biology to bear in the use of quantitative structure activity relationships to develop new chemistries,” Livingstone said. “His ability to refine new products based on this technology has earned him recognition as one of the fathers of this new approach to insect control.”
Sparks formed the Macrolide Research Group that coordinated spinosad-related R&D at Eli Lilly and Dow for several years and which has produced numerous successful products.
Sparks knew the potential of advanced computing tools from his “silicon revolution” years at UC Riverside. He put one such program, Braincel, to work on an advanced spinosyn problem, asking “small questions about minute changes in molecular structure,” Livingstone noted. “By identifying advantageous patterns in the answers, he was able to build a new chemistry, spinetoram, which represents one of the most advanced insecticides to reach the market.”
Spinetoram is derived through the fermentation of a natural soil organism followed by chemical modification. According to Dow, it impacts the environment the same way as a biological product, yet operates with the efficacy of a synthetic technology, Livingstone said.
Spinetoram, registered with the EPA's Reduced Risk Pesticide Initiative, can be used in a variety of crops, at low rates, and with minimal impact on mammals or beneficial insects, the R&D senior editor said. “Some estimates claim that spinetoram will eliminate 1.8 million pounds of organophosphate pesticides used in tree nut and fruit crops in just the first five years of use. Without the efforts of Sparks and his team, this chemistry would have been far more elusive.”
Sparks, a 30-year member of the ESA and the American Chemical Society and a highly sought lecturer, has published more than 130 articles on cheminformatics, insect endocrinology, insect biogenic amines, and high throughput screening. He pioneered many of the tools and methods that chemists use today.
Keith Wing, a former Hammock graduate student who is now a senior research associate for DuPont Central Research and Development, Wilmington, Del., praised Sparks' selection as Scientist of the Year. “Tom has been a great friend and a very accomplished scientist and social contributor, especially with his work on the spinosad chemistry,” he said. “I have always admired his diligence, candor, keen insights and creativity.”
While in the Hammock lab, Wing worked on JH esterase and JH binding proteins (JHBP) and explored “some additional areas to complement the work that Tom had done in those areas.”
Wing, who received his doctorate in 1981 from UC Davis, joined DuPont in 1990 and worked on safe insecticide discoveries before switching to biofuels research. “The years I worked on agrochemical discovery kind of paralleled Tom's career as he went to LSU and then Dow. “
Wing recalled that he first met Sparks at UC Riverside. “Tom and his wife Sandy helped me adjust to graduate student life right away. Soon after I arrived, I remember going to their modest apartment for dinner. Tom liked motorcycles and I always thought to myself, why does this geeky skinny dude from Fresno like bikes so much? Sandy was a statistician and they both struck me as being rather computationally oriented.”
“Tom and I were always doing JH esterase and JHBP assays until all hours of the night and we probably filled half the university's quota for tritium waste. We would go to the university auditorium to see movies and eat burgers after that. We both developed a strong interest in chemistry and biochemistry applied to insect science under Bruce's guidance. Both Tom and I often reflected over the years afterwards what a unique advantage this multidisciplinary education in insect toxicology and biochemistry provided to us.... it let us approach problems much more broadly than some who had more specialized scientific backgrounds and this paid rich dividends in our careers, for our respective institutions and for society.”
(Editor's Note: Paul Livingstone of R&D Magazine, contributed to this news article.)