Carl Jones, professor and head of the Department of Entomology and Plant Pathology at the University of Tennessee and a former ESA Governing Board member, passed away Friday, February 1.

A memorial service will be held at 2 p.m., Saturday, February 18, at First United Methodist Church of Maryville, 804 Montvale Station Road, Maryville, Tennessee. Visitation will follow in the church fellowship hall.

UTIA Chancellor Larry Arrington said, “Dr. Jones headed a department that is critical to the research-based information the institute disseminates to our students, producers and agribusiness. He brought to that job renowned expertise and a managerial style that was highly regarded by his colleagues, faculty and staff.”

In 2008, Jones received the Lifetime Achievement Award from Bayer Animal Health and the international association of the Livestock Insect Workers. They recognized him for a career of outstanding contributions to animal health and productivity through veterinary (livestock) entomology and for his contributions to medical and veterinary entomology at the national, regional, university and local levels.

"He was a leader in the field of medical veterinary entomology and, before joining UT, had already established an outstanding reputation in teaching, research and extension in this area. He had a wide interest in research areas -- in livestock insects, Lyme disease and mosquito control, and he was consulted by the USDA and other agencies for his opinion on policy that affected the discipline,” said Dr. Reid Gerhardt, professor emeritus of Entomology and Plant Pathology, who had been co-teaching a graduate topics course with Dr. Jones this semester.

Some of Jones’ career highlights included:

- Analyzing the impact of mosquitoes on sheep in Wyoming and making the first American collections of mosquitoes specifically attracted to sheep.

- Researching the movement of stable flies on weather fronts in Florida and in the Midwest to improve methods of detecting larval development sites for better insect control.

- Associating house flies with the distribution of pathogens in livestock-rearing facilities.

- Determining the seasonality of beneficial parasitoids of muscoid flies in dairy and feed lots to improve bio-control efforts.

- Analyzing the movement of Lyme disease and the tick that serves as its vector into areas not previously known to have problems with the disease. This work has aided prediction models derived from habitat requirements of the ticks.

- Studying the impact of drought on ticks.

- Analyzing, with UT entomology professor Reid Gerhardt, factors that result in the development of LaCrosse encephalitis. 

Jones shared findings from these and other studies with the research community by authoring or co-authoring 74 refereed publications, along with 52 abstracts and conference proceedings, and more than 66 invited presentations and 43 other scientific presentations.

At the time he received the Lifetime Achievement Award, Jones was quick to give credit to his colleagues, “The publications are always Jones and somebody or somebody and Jones. The people I’ve gotten to work with have cross-pollinated my work and lead it in unexpected directions. I’ve had the opportunity to work with, and benefit from, people whose training is completely different than mine — veterinarians, animal scientists, physicians, epidemiologists, and immunologists. It’s been wonderful.”

Jones was also instrumental in developing and expanding the University of Tennessee Extension’s plant pest and insect distance diagnostics program, and he was a leader in EPP's outstanding contributions to hemlock woolly adelgid control in the Great Smoky Mountains, Cherokee National Park and eastern forests.

“He was considered by everybody in our department to be an outstanding department head and was instrumental in the success of our department when the Institute of Agriculture underwent the substantial changes 10 years ago,” Gerhardt remembered. The department made tremendous advancements under his leadership, and he will be missed terribly.”

“Carl Jones was a very special person,” colleague and friend EPP Professor John Skinner said. “I emphasize the person part! He was caring about anyone, especially the faculty in EPP. He cared about them and their careers, their families, their welfare. He always had a positive outlook in all situations. As a boss, he was what I considered ideal. He was patient, intelligent and understanding. You knew he cared, and that made a big difference.”

Jones taught parasitology, infectious diseases and a number of other courses at the University of Illinois College of Veterinary Medicine from 1989 until coming to the UT Institute of Agriculture July 15, 2000. He received a bachelor of science in ecology and systematics from Cornell University and a master of science and a doctor of philosophy in veterinary and medical entomology from the University of Wyoming. He also completed a post-doctoral fellowship at the University of Florida.

He leaves Frances, his wife of 30 years, and daughter and son-in-law Heather and Brian Carter, son Christopher, and daughter and son-in-law Wendy and Matt Bruns, both of whom are Environmental and Soil Sciences graduate students in the UT Department of Biosystems Engineering and Soil Science.

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Contact: Lorna Norwood, UT Institute of Agriculture, 865-974-7141 or lorna@tennessee.edu