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DAVIS--Christopher Barker and Tania Morgan, two doctoral candidates in entomology at the University of California, Davis, have won the 2006 William Hazeltine Student Research Fellowships to support their mosquito research. Each received $1000.

The fellowships, memoralizing a noted California public health entomologist and longtime manager of the Butte County Mosquito Abatement District, honor “student research that is of a practical nature and is designed to help solve problems in the area of mosquito and vector control,” according to department chair Walter Leal, professor of entomology.

Barker is modeling mosquito distributions in California based on geographic factors and climate. “I am examining the effects of long-term changes in water management, agricultural practices, and land cover on mosquito abundance here,” he said. “I'm also studying the relationship between mosquito abundance and transmission of mosquito-borne viruses.”

Morgan is “identifying the chemical and physical cues that salt marsh mosquitoes use during oviposition site selection.”

“I am also working on characterizing oviposition habitats of North American Culex species,” said Morgan, who works in the UC Davis lab of entomologist and associate professor Sharon Lawler.  Culex mosquitoes transmit the West Nile virus, which last year killed 19 people in California and infected more than 900 others throughout the state.

Morgan, from Sacramento, received her bachelor of science degree in entomology from UC Davis in 2004 before enrolling in the doctorate program.

Barker, a native of Abingdon, Va., earned his master of science degree in epidemiology in 2005 from UC Davis.  He received a bachelor of science degree in biology in 1998 and a master’s degree in entomology in 2001, both from Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University, Blacksburg, Va.

Barker is advised by research entomologists William Reisen and Bruce Eldridge of the UC Davis Center for Vectorborne Diseases. Reisen is an adjunct professor with the Department of Pathology, Microbiology and Immunology at the UC Davis School of Veterinary Medicine. Eldridge, former director of the UC Davis Mosquito Research Program, is a retired professor of entomology at UC Davis.

Hazeltine (1926-1994) managed the Butte County Mosquito Abatement District, Oroville, from 1964 to 1994. He was an ardent supporter of the judicious use of public health pesticides to protect public health, according to Robert Washino, retired chair and professor of the UC Davis Department of Entomology.

Hazeltine challenged federal and state regulations that affected public health, Washino said.

Hazeltine received his master’s degree in entomology from UC Berkeley and finished his doctorate work at Purdue University in 1957. He managed the Lake County Mosquito Abatement District and then worked with the ChemAgro Corporation before joining the Butte County district.

Eldridge presented a memorial lecture on Hazeltine at the American Mosquito Control Association meeting in October 2005.