Harry Scott Smith

{{Infobox scientist | honorific_prefix = | name = Harry Scott Smith | honorific_suffix = | native_name = | native_name_lang = | image = | image_size = | alt = | caption = | birth_name =  | birth_date = {{Birth date|1883|11|29}} | baptism_date = | birth_place = Aurora, Nebraska | death_date = {{Death date and age|1957|11|28|1883|11|29}} | death_place = | death_cause = | body_discovered = | resting_place = | resting_place_coordinates =  | monuments = | residence = | nationality = | other_names = | ethnicity =  | citizenship = | education = {{plainlist| *A.B. degree, 1907 *Master's degree, 1908 }} | alma_mater = University of Nebraska | occupation = Entomologist | employer = | organization = | agent = | known_for = | home_town = | title = | boards = | denomination =  | spouse = Psyche Bruner Smith<ref>{{cite web |url=http://unllib.unl.edu/archon/?p=creators/creator&id=530 |title=Bruner, Lawrence, 1856–1937 |publisher=University of Nebraska |access-date=2014-07-21 |archive-date=2019-12-15 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20191215132327/http://unllib.unl.edu/archon/?p=creators%2Fcreator&id=530 |url-status=dead }}</ref> | children = | parents = | relatives = | awards = | doctoral_students = Paul DeBach }} '''Harry Scott Smith''' (November 29, 1883 – November 28, 1957), an entomologist and professor at University of California, Riverside (UCR), was a pioneer in the field of biological pest control.

== United States Department of Agriculture == Smith grew up on a farm in Aurora, Nebraska with all the attendant tasks of farm life. Smith left home for what was then known as the State University at Lincoln. The State Entomologist, Lawrence Bruner, offered Smith a position as assistant. It was there that Smith met and later married Bruner's daughter, Psyche. Following Smith's graduation from the University of Nebraska in 1908, he was hired by Leland Ossian Howard to work at the USDA's Bureau of Entomology. During this time Smith held several assignments including the Boll Weevil Eradication Program, the Gypsy Moth Parasite Laboratory in Melrose Highlands, Massachusetts, and a 1912 collaboration in Italy with Filippo Silvestri to identify a natural predator to the alfalfa weevil.<ref>{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=OYcLJ_UhsKwC&pg=PA127 |title=Modeling Nature |first=Sharon E. |last=Kingsland |publisher=University of Chicago Press |isbn=978-0-226-43728-6 |date=1995-10-16 |page=127}}</ref><ref name="In Memoriam">{{cite book|url=http://content.cdlib.org/view?docId=hb3r29n8f4;NAAN=13030&doc.view=frames&chunk.id=div00021&toc.depth=1&toc.id=&brand=calisphere&query=%22Harry%20Scott%20Smith%22|title=University of California: In Memoriam|year=1959|publisher=Regents of the University of California|pages=70–74}}</ref>

On the recommendation of his boss, Howard, Smith was selected by the California State Commissioner of Horticulture, A. J. Cook, to serve as Superintendent of the newly created State Insectary beginning January 1, 1913. In 1919 the State of California created the State Department of Agriculture with Smith the Chief of the Bureau of Pest Control. Eventually entomological research was stripped from the regulatory functions of the department and migrated to the University of California's College of Agriculture.<ref name="In Memoriam" />

Smith coined the term "biological control" in his 1919 article "On some phases of insect control by the biological method" for the ''Journal of Economic Entomology'', referring to the reliance on the natural enemies of pests to effect control, as opposed to the use of pesticide.<ref>{{cite journal |url=http://www.pesticide.org/get-the-facts/ncap-publications-and-reports/journal-of-pesticide-reform/jpr-vol.8-4-winter-1988.pdf |first=Steve |last=Dreistadt |title=Biological Control and a Biotechnology Trojan Horse |journal=Journal of Pesticide Reform |volume=8 |number=4 |date=Winter 1989 |access-date=2014-07-21 |page=17 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140724152934/http://www.pesticide.org/get-the-facts/ncap-publications-and-reports/journal-of-pesticide-reform/jpr-vol.8-4-winter-1988.pdf |archive-date=2014-07-24 }}</ref><ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.latimes.com/science/la-xpm-2011-sep-24-la-sci-invasive-pests-20110924-story.html |title=Hunting for good bugs to fight bad bugs |newspaper=Los Angeles Times |date=2011-09-24 |first=Amina |last=Khan |access-date=2014-07-20}}</ref><ref>{{cite magazine|url=http://www.ecosmagazine.com/?paper=EC12366 |author1-first=Anantanarayanan |author1-last=Raman |author2-first=Anamika |author2-last=Sharma |author3-first=Dennis |author3-last=Hodgkins |title=Towards A Sustainable Future |magazine=ECOS |date=2012-08-06 |access-date=2014-07-21}}</ref>

== University of California == With the transition of entomology research to the University of California Citrus Experiment Station in 1923, Smith's research division was refashioned as the Division of Beneficial Insect Investigations and Smith was appointed an associate professor at UCR where he remained until his retirement in 1951.<ref name="hawaii" /> The division would remain wholly apart from University of California's Entomology department until the department and its pair at University of California, Berkeley were closed in 1989.<ref>{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Cx_CG5KulvcC&pg=PA46 |title=Agroecology in Action: Extending Alternative Agriculture Through Social Networks |first=Keith |last=Warner |publisher=MIT Press |year=2007 |isbn=978-0-262-73180-5 |page=46}}</ref><ref>{{cite journal|title=The decline of public interest agricultural science and the dubious future of crop biological control in California |journal=Agriculture and Human Values |date=December 2011 |volume=28 |issue=4 |pages=483–496 |doi=10.1007/s10460-010-9288-4 |issn=1572-8366 |last1=Warner |first1=Keith D. |last2=Daane |first2=Kent M. |last3=Getz |first3=Christina M. |last4=Maurano |first4=Stephen P. |last5=Calderon |first5=Sandra |last6=Powers |first6=Kathleen A. |s2cid=6709107 }}</ref> Thanks to his correspondence with Dr. A. J. Nicholson, the Chief Entomologist at the Australian Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation, Smith initiated the first Federally-approved weed control program, the control of Klamath weed by importing insects from Australia.<ref>{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=K6dOAAAAIAAJ&pg=PA210 |title=Biological Control by Natural Enemies |author1-first=Paul |author1-last=DeBach |author2-first=David |author2-last=Rosen |publisher=CUP Archive |year=1991|page=210 |isbn=978-0-521-39191-7}}</ref><ref>{{cite news|url=http://www.lexisnexis.com/lnacui2api/results/docview/docview.do?docLinkInd=true&risb=21_T20262118437&format=GNBFI&sort=BOOLEAN&startDocNo=1&resultsUrlKey=29_T20262118441&cisb=22_T20262118440&treeMax=true&treeWidth=0&csi=8075&docNo=2 |newspaper=The Washington Post |date=February 26, 1978 |title=Insects Are Not Always a Pest |first=Tom |last=Stevenson |access-date=2014-07-21}}</ref> Smith also established the Laboratory of Insect Pathology, appointing Edward Arthur Steinhaus as its first head.<ref name="In Memoriam" />

In 1953, Smith's alma mater awarded him an honorary Doctor of Science degree.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://nebraska.edu/recognition-and-awards/honorary-degrees/chronological.html |title=Honorary Degrees Chronological Listing |publisher=University of Nebraska |access-date=2014-07-20 |archive-date=2015-04-28 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150428064049/http://nebraska.edu/recognition-and-awards/honorary-degrees/chronological.html |url-status=dead }}</ref> He died on 28 November 1957.<ref name="hawaii">{{cite journal|url=http://scholarspace.manoa.hawaii.edu/bitstream/handle/10125/14922/16%283%29_387-388.pdf?sequence=1|last=Bess|first=H.A.|year=1957|title=Harry Scott Smith 1883–1957|journal=Proceedings of the Hawaiian Entomological Society|volume=16|issue=3|pages=387–388|issn=0073-134X}}</ref>

Smith has been considered "a renowned researcher in the biological control of citrus pests for the University of California."<ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.latimes.com/food/la-xpm-2012-mar-08-la-fo-marketwatch-online-20120308-story.html |first=David |last=Karp |title=Mud Creek Ranch brings a cornucopia to farmers markets |newspaper=Los Angeles Times |date=2012-03-08 |access-date=2014-07-20}}</ref>

== Partial bibliography == *{{cite journal|date=1908|title=The sphegoidea of Nebraska (M.A. Thesis)|publisher=University of Nebraska|oclc=41414178}}<ref>{{cite web |url=http://firstsearch.oclc.org/WebZ/FSQUERY?format=BI:next=html/records.html:bad=html/records.html:numrecs=10:sessionid=fsapp1-46025-hxup6dp3-wlutvg:entitypagenum=10:1:searchtype=advanced |title=FirstSearch |access-date=2014-07-21 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://archive.today/20140726033856/http://firstsearch.oclc.org/WebZ/FSQUERY?format=BI:next=html/records.html:bad=html/records.html:numrecs=10:sessionid=fsapp1-46025-hxup6dp3-wlutvg:entitypagenum=10:1:searchtype=advanced |archive-date=2014-07-26 }}</ref> *{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=L0OZmQEACAAJ|title=The Efficacy and Economic Effects of Plant Quarantines in California|publisher=Literary Licensing|year=2013|isbn=978-1-258-59738-2}} *{{cite journal|title=An Attempt to Redefine the Host Relationships Exhibited by Entomorphagus Insects|journal=Journal of Economic Entomology|year=1916|pages=477–486|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=eQn0AAAAMAAJ}} *{{cite book|title=The Chalcidoid Genus Perilampus and Its Relations to the Problem of Parasite Introduction|series=Results, Technical, from the gipsy moth parasite laboratory|date=1912-04-22|publisher=Government Printing Office|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=kNUaAAAAYAAJ}} *{{cite journal|title=Contributions toward a Monograph of the Ceratinidæ of North and Middle America|journal=Transactions of the American Entomological Society|volume=33|issue=2|pages=115–124|year=1907|jstor=25076829|last1=Smith|first1=Harry Scott}}

== Memorials == In 1967, UCR's Department of Biological Control established the Harry Scott Smith Award to recognize achievements in the biological control of insects. The first award went to Canadian scientist William Robin Thompson with a $1000 honorarium.<ref>{{cite journal|last=Chant|first=Donald A.|title=Table of Contents|journal=The Canadian Entomologist|volume=99|issue=7|pages=779|date=July 1967|doi=10.4039/Ent99779-7|s2cid=87329727 |url=http://journals.cambridge.org/action/displayAbstract?fromPage=online&aid=8563616&fileId=S0008347X00058983|url-access=subscription}}</ref> A separate award for graduate students in biological control was established in 1966.<ref>{{cite journal|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=tPE2AQAAMAAJ&pg=PA66 |title=Smith Memorial Award |journal=University Bulletin: A Weekly Bulletin for the Staff of the University of California |volume=15 |issue=14 |date=1966-11-14 |access-date=2014-07-21 |page=66|last1=(System) |first1=University of California }}</ref>

The Harry S. Smith scholarship fund was established for students studying biological control, started with a $15,000 bequest from Smith for that purpose.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://biocontrol.ucr.edu/hoddle/harrysmithfund.html |title=Applied Biological Control Research: Harry Scott Smith Scholarship Fund |publisher=Biocontrol.ucr.edu |date=2014-05-14 |access-date=2014-07-21}}</ref>

The archives of Smith's papers are now stored with the Entomology Department of UCR.<ref>{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=kuvu-Xqs81wC&pg=PA214 |title=To Make a Spotless Orange: Biological Control in California |first=Richard C. |last=Sawyer |publisher=Purdue University Press |year=2002 |page=214 |isbn=978-1-55753-285-5}}</ref>

== Citations == {{reflist}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Smith, Harry Scott}} Category:1883 births Category:1957 deaths Category:People from Aurora, Nebraska Category:American entomologists Category:University of Nebraska–Lincoln alumni Category:University of California, Riverside faculty Category:20th-century American zoologists

Harry Scott Smith

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