Dr. Elizabeth H. (Betsy) Beers, professor and extension specialist in the Department of Entomology at Washington State University (WSU), was elected as Fellow in 2024. She is best known for her work in tree fruit IPM, focused in the area of integrated biological control.
Beers was born in Traverse City, Michigan, in 1955, a region famous for tart cherries; this was an undoubted influence on her career choice. She graduated in plant
protection at Cornell in 1979, working during the summers as an orchard scout in northwestern Michigan and an IPM trainee in western New York. After graduating from Cornell, she worked for several years at the USDA Fruit Research Laboratory in Kearneysville, West Virigina, coalescing her interest in both research and extension. While working as a technician, she was recruited by the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) to attend graduate school to increase the number of women Ph.D.s in USDA. She applied to Dr. Larry Hull of Penn State on the strength of his tree fruit IPM program, graduating in May of 1985. On July 1 of that year, she assumed her first (and only) position as a faculty member with WSU, located at the Tree Fruit Research and Extension Center in Wenatchee.
She has had a research and extension appointment throughout her career, working on a wide variety of pest systems in all tree crops. In the early years, she focused on maintaining the integrated mite management program pioneered by Stan Hoyt. She also worked on biological and chemical control of other indirect pests of tree fruits, including aphids, leafminers, and leafhoppers. In 2010, her focus shifted to invasive species, working on distribution, sampling, chemical, and cultural control. Highlights include detection of adventive populations of three Asian parasitoids in Washington state, followed by redistribution of these candidate classical biological agents. Regardless of the pest or crop, her focus has been grower-centric: solving grower pest problems, communicating the results of her own and colleagues’ research, and facilitating the adoption of IPM practices.
Her program has been funded (as a PI and co-PI) in excess of $49 million. She was part of the teams that worked on the first USDA areawide programs that focused on codling moth mating disruption, and multiple SCRI, OREI, and SCBG grants. She has mentored M.S., Ph.D., and postdoctoral researchers; co-authored more than 200 refereed/technical articles, 13 book chapters, and one edited book; and presented her work more than 670 times to peers and stakeholders.
Beers has been fortunate to receive multiple awards from her university, industry, and ESA; the latter include awards in extension and IPM as well as the C. W. Woodworth Award. She has proudly served ESA in various capacities, including PB-ESA president in 2020 and Arthropod Management Tests Section A editor since 1994.
She lives in Wenatchee with her husband of 32 years, retired soil scientist Frank Peryea. In her spare time, Beers enjoys reading, darkroom and digital photography, and woodworking, as well as family time with daughters Amy (ER doctor) and Allison (lawyer), grandchildren Charlie and Sylvie, and her Michigan family.
(Updated July 2024)