All the Way to the Top

Frank Zalom is an entomologist's entomologist. He's right at home whether he's in the strawberry fields, almond orchards, vineyards, classroom, lab, or "leading the troops"--whether they be students, graduate students, researchers, fellow colleagues or the general public.

Now Zalom, integrated pest management (IPM) specialist with the UC Davis Department of Entomology, will be sharing his skills worldwide.

He's the newly elected vice president-elect of the 6000-member Entomological Society of America (ESA), the world's largest association of entomologists. This means he'll move up to vice president and then president, and finally, serve a year as past president. Overall, it's a four-year commitment.

Entomologists have long admired Zalom, a professor of entomology and former vice chair of the UC Davis Department of Entomology, for his pest and crop expertise and his leadership skills. He's known statewide, nationally and internationally on the IPM front. In fact, the name, "Zalom," is synonymous with IPM. 

Zalom, who directed the UC Statewide IPM Program for 16 years, sets many of the standards for IPM strategies and tactics; these include monitoring procedures, thresholds, pest development and population models, biological controls and use of less toxic pesticides. 

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 the international IPM program.

Within the last decade, the Zalom lab has responded to six important pest invasions, 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.

That's incredible!

Zalom is also a prolific author. In his three decades with the UC Davis Department of Entomology, he 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.

Frank Zalom will be the second UC Davis entomologist to head ESA, which was founded in 1889 and is now headquartered in Lanham, Md. The first was Donald McLean, former professor/chair of the UC Davis Department of Entomology; McLean served as ESA president in 1984.

Congratulations, Frank Zalom!