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| Frank Zalom is a newly elected fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) for “distinguished scholarly, educational and administrative contributions that have significantly advanced the science and application of integrated pest management in agriculture nationally and internationally.”(Courtesy Photo) |
DAVIS--UC Davis Department of Entomology professor Frank Zalom is a newly elected fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) for “distinguished scholarly, educational and administrative contributions that have significantly advanced the science and application of integrated pest management in agriculture nationally and internationally.”
The 503 AAAS fellows, elected last year, were announced online today (11 a.m., Eastern Standard Time, Jan. 11, 2011). Their names will be published Jan. 28 in the News and Notes section of the AAAS weekly journal Science. The new Fellows will receive a certificate and a blue and gold rosette as a symbol of their distinguished accomplishments at the AAAS meeting on Feb. 19 in Washington, D.C..
Zalom, an integrated pest management (IPM) specialist and a former vice chair of the UC Davis Department of Entomology, is a fellow of the Entomological Society of America and the California Academy of Sciences. Last month he received the 2010 “Award for Excellence in IPM” from the Entomological Foundation at the Entomological Society of America’s 58th annual meeting.
In addition to his professorial duties, Zalom is an extension agronomist, and an entomologist in the Agricultural Experiment Station.
Known at the state, national and international levels for his IPM expertise, Zalom serves as experiment station co-chair of the Association of Public and Land-Grant Universities (APLU) National IPM Committee. He directed the UC Statewide IPM Program for 16 years (1988-2001).
He 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.
The IPM strategies and tactics Zalom has developed include monitoring procedures, thresholds, pest development and population models, biological controls and use of less toxic pesticides, which have become standard in practice and part of the UC IPM Guidelines for these crops.
His 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.
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| Professor Frank Zalom (far left) is working on the Central Asia IPM Project with his postdoctoral scholar Barno Tashpulatova (center), and Director Tumanov Turmanovich at the Central Biolaboratory in Kyrgyzstan. |
In 2008, Zalom was part of a team receiving an International IPM Excellence Award at the sixth International IPM Symposium, held in Portland, Ore. Also in 2008, he was part of the seven-member UC Almond Pest Management Alliance IPM Team that received the Entomological Foundation’s "Award for Excellence in IPM" at the ESA's meeting in Reno. The Pacific Branch of ESA presented him with its 2010 “Excellence in IPM Award” in April 2010.
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.
Other newly elected fellows from UC Davis:
Eduardo Blumwald, Plant Sciences, for distinguished contributions to the field of plant ion transport and the application of those discoveries to the development of salt- and drought-tolerant crops.
Sheila David, Chemistry, for scholarly contributions to the field of chemical biology, specifically with respect to elucidating functional, structural and clinical aspects of base excision repair.
Charles S. Fadley, Physics, for outstanding contributions to the development of photoelectron spectroscopy based on laboratory and synchrotron radiation sources, and its application to surfaces, interfaces, and complex materials.
Julie A. Leary, Molecular and Cellular Biology, for exemplary research in the area of carbohydrate and protein structural analysis through the use of mass spectrometry and novel methods development.
George R. Mangun, Psychology, and Center for Mind and Brain, for distinguished contributions to psychology and cognitive neuroscience in research on brain attention mechanisms, and in teaching, service, administration and the dissemination of knowledge.
David Neale, Plant Sciences, for leadership to the community through founding chief editorship of Tree Genetics and Genomes, co-authoring the textbook Forest Genetics and building the genome database Dendrome.
Johan Six, Plant Sciences, for excellent and distinguished contributions to the field of soil science by elucidating the mechanisms underlying carbon cycling and sequestration in agro-ecosystems.
Jane-Ling Wang, Statistics, for fundamental contributions to nonparametric survival, functional and longitudinal data analysis; for significant contributions to aging research and her leadership as co-editor of Statistica Sinica and chair of the Nonparametric Statistics Section of the American Statistical Association.
John C. Wingfield, Neurobiology, Physiology and Behavior, for initiating and catalyzing laboratory field ("environmental") endocrinology, with special emphasis on birds, activating a generation of environmental endocrinologists.
The UC Davis Department of Entomology now has eight AAAS fellows. Zalom joins Bruce Eldridge, elected in 1981; James Carey, 2000; Robert Page (now at Arizona State University) and Walter Leal, 2006; Thomas Scott, 2007; and Richard Karban and Jay Rosenheim, 2009.
Founded in 1848, AAAS is an international non-profit organization dedicated to advancing science around the world.
Related Links:
List of All AAAS Recipients, 2011
Photos from 2010 ESA Meeting
Researchers Seen New Answers to Old Strawberry Pests
Frank Zalom Leading IPM Team to China
Delivering IPM to Central Asia
--Kathy Keatley Garvey
Communications specialist
UC Davis Department of Entomology
(530) 754-6894
