[img_assist|nid=20766|title=|desc=|link=none|align=right|width=100|height=143]Dr. Thomas Wallace Scott, Distinguished Professor in the Department of Entomology and Nematology and Director of the Vector-Borne Disease Laboratory (VBDL) at the University of California, Davis (UCD), was elected as Fellow in 2010. He is best known for his work on the epidemiology and control of mosquito-borne disease, most notably, dengue.
After a B.S. in business from Bowling Green State University (1973), Scott changed to biology for his M.S. (1977). He received his Ph.D. in ecology (1981) from Pennsylvania State University and did a National Institutes of Health (NIH) post-doctoral fellowship in epidemiology at the Yale School of Medicine (1981–1983). He spent his early career at the University of Maryland (1983–1996), moving from assistant to full professor of medical and veterinary entomology, working primarily on eastern equine encephalomyelitis and dengue. He became professor of entomology and Director of the VBDL at UCD in 1996. He co-founded the UCD Center for Vector-Borne Disease Research, acting as its director from 1996–1999. From 2001–2003, he directed the UCD Arbovirus Research Unit, and was vice chair of the Department of Entomology from 2006–2008. He was named Distinguished Professor in 2014.
With over 250 publications, Scott's research focuses on the epidemiology, ecology, and prevention of mosquito-borne disease. He evaluates recommendations for disease prevention and tests assumptions of public health policy to promote innovative cost- and operationally-effective solutions for mosquito-borne disease control. He directed long-term epidemiological studies of dengue in Thailand and Peru and developed concepts for improved understanding of virus transmission dynamics and enhanced application of disease reduction programs. He taught a popular upper-level course in medical entomology at UCD, supervised 20 post-doctoral fellows, and advised or was on the committees of more than 25 Ph.D. and nearly 20 M.S. candidates. He is an editor for theAmerican Journal of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene and Transactions of the Royal Society of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene.
In 2008, Scott became a Fellow at the American Association for the Advancement of Science and at the American Society of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene (ASTMH) in 2014. He has been active on committees and boards for professional societies such as the ESA, ASTMH, Society for Vector Ecology, and American Mosquito Control Association. He was chair of the mosquito-borne disease modeling working group in Research and Policy in Infectious Disease Dynamics program, served on several World Health Organization (WHO) committees, and was appointed in 2012 for an eight-year term as a council member for the International Congress of Entomology. The ESA's Pacific Branch bestowed the prestigious C.W. Woodworth Award on him in 2015.
Scott retired from UCD in 2015 to focus his full attention on dengue prevention. He continues his long-term commitment to dengue research in Peru as leader of large collaborative projects on dengue epidemiology and assessing innovative approaches for disease prevention. He serves on WHO committees for vector control, estimating dengue disease burden, and establishing guidelines for dengue control and is on the leadership team of the NGO Partnership for Dengue Control.
(updated, December 2015)