It's a distinct privilege and high honor to receive the Thomas and Nina Leigh Distinguished Alumni Award from the UC Davis Department of Entomology and Nematology.
Meet Hannah Burrack, professor and chair of the Department of Entomology at Michigan State University, who will receive the award and present a lecture on Monday, Oct. 6.
Her public lecture is at 4 p.m., in the multipurpose room of the UC Davis Student Community Center. It will be followed by a reservations-only dinner.
On her Instagram account, Burrack writes "I study the bugs that eat what you want to eat with a focus on invasive species."
One of her greatest achievements for fruit growers is her monitoring network for spotted-wing drosophila, an invasive pest that has devastated fruit and vegetable crops on the U.S. West Coast. The network led to the first discoveries of the pest in South Carolina in early July 2010, and in North Carolina a few weeks later. She is among the authors of 14 articles in The Journal of Economic Entomology's Special Collection: Research Advances in Spotted-Wing Drosophila suzukii Management, published in the August 2022 edition.
Burrack received her doctorate in entomology from UC Davis in 2007, studying with Professor Frank Zalom, now UC Davis Distinguished Professor Emeritus (on recall). She also holds a master's degree in entomology from UC Davis.
Zalom, who nominated her for the alumni award, will introduce her. He served as the president of the 7000-member Entomological Society of America (ESA) in 2014, and is an elected Honorary Member (2021), ESA's highest honor. Zalom directed the UC Statewide Integrated Pest Management Program (UC IPM) for 16 years (1986-2002).
Ater receiving her doctorate, Burrack joined the North Carolina State University faculty. She served on the faculty for 14 years. She led entomology research and extension efforts for blueberries, caneberries, grapes, tobacco and industrial hemp. She generated $10.8 million in funding, authored 71 peer-reviewed articles and book chapters, and delivered more than 500 extension presentations to over 28,000 stakeholders. Internationally recognized for her work on invasive agricultural pests—particularly Drosophila suzukii (spotted-wing drosophila)—she also prioritized mentorship, advising or serving on committees for postdoctoral scholars, visiting scholars, and more than 30 graduate students.
In the summer of 2021, Burrack was selected chair of Michigan State University's Department of Entomology, East Lansing, effective Jan. 1, 2022.
At the time, Zalom commented: "Hannah is going to make a great chair. She has great communication skills, vision and energy."
Burrack, known for her “boundless energy and fresh ideas,” served as the principal investigator and manager of several USDA National Institute of Food and Agriculture grants and panels related to research on spotted- wing drosophila management, crop protection, pest management and methyl bromide transitions. In 2018, she received the University Faculty Scholar Award and the Extension Service Award from NC State University
Burrack was selected the 2011 recipient of the “Future Leader” award from the Southern Region Integrated Pest Management (IPM) Center. She received the Friends of IPM award at the annual meeting of the Southeastern Branch of ESA, held in San Juan, Puerto Rico.
At UC Davis, she studied introduced pests of olives. Burrack completed her dissertation research on “The Seasonal Biology of the Olive Fruit Fly (Bactrocera oleae), an Invasive Pest in California.” Her research addressed the olive fruit fly phenology, reproductive biology, cultivar preference and adult fungal associations.
"Hannah is independent and a self-starter," Zalom said. " As a PhD student, she surrounded herself with very competent undergrad students and was an excellent mentor to them. She organized her own lab meetings, engaging students in literature reviews and meaningful research projects. She was offered her first faculty position, at North Carolina State University, before she had formally graduated from our department. I had no doubt that she was destined to achieve great things in her career. Her position included research and extension responsibilities for specialty crops and tobacco."
They Value Her Opinions and Respect Her Science
"Shortly after her arrival there, faculty colleagues mentioned to me that they were especially impressed by how well she could engage the 'grizzly old tobacco farmers' who were described as a particularly difficult community to reach," Zalom said. "That didn’t surprise me at all. She has a gift of relating to people irrespective of their status or the communities they represent. People just like Hannah. They value her opinions and respect her science."
"Hannah is recognized as a national leader among IPM entomologists," Zalom related. "She has been project director of major multi-institutional program grants involving specialty grants, and that have produced innovative solutions for important economic pest problems. She has a superior record of mentoring grad students and postdocs who have gone on to productive careers. Hannah became a full professor at North Carolina State before accepting the Department chair position at MIchigan State University. By all accounts, she is providing excellent leadership to their faculty and the institution. It’s incredible that Hannah has achieved so much in such a relatively short period of time, and she certainly deserves this our department’s recognition as an outstanding alumnus."
The Leigh seminar memorializes cotton entomologist Thomas Frances Leigh (1923-1993), an international authority on the biology, ecology and management of arthropod pests affecting cotton production. During his 37-year UC Davis career, Leigh was based at the Shafter Research and Extension Center, also known as the U.S. Cotton Research Station. When his wife, Nina, passed in 2002, the name of the alumni seminar changed to the Thomas and Nina Distinguished Alumni Award Seminar.
(See more on the UC Davis Department of Entomology and Nematology website.)