Charles W. Woodworth - AbsoluteAstronomy.com

Charles W. Woodworth was an American entomologist

Entomology

Entomology is the scientific study of insects, a branch of arthropodology...

. He founded the Entomology

Entomology

Entomology is the scientific study of insects, a branch of arthropodology...

Department at the University of California, Berkeley

University of California, Berkeley

The University of California, Berkeley , is a teaching and research university established in 1868 and located in Berkeley, California, USA...

, and made many valuable contributions to entomology during his career.

Birth and early life

He was born in Champaign, Illinois

Champaign, Illinois

Champaign is a city in Champaign County, Illinois, in the United States. The city is located south of Chicago, west of Indianapolis, Indiana, and 178 miles northeast of St. Louis, Missouri. Though surrounded by farm communities, Champaign is notable for sharing the campus of the University of...

on April 28, 1865 to Alvin Oakley Woodworth and Mary Celina (Carpenter) Woodworth. His father was a merchant but died when Charles was four. Some years later, his mother married Alvin's older brother Stephen Elias Woodworth to help raise Charles and his older brother Howard. Stephen had earlier been a resident of Seneca Falls, New York

Seneca Falls (village), New York

Seneca Falls is a village in Seneca County, New York, United States. The population was 6,861 at the 2000 census. The village is in the Town of Seneca Falls, east of Geneva, New York. On March 16, 2010, village residents voted to dissolve the village, a move that would take effect at the end of 2011...

and was a signatory of the 1848 Seneca Falls Declaration of Sentiments

Declaration of Sentiments

The Declaration of Sentiments, also known as the Declaration of Rights and Sentiments, is a document signed in 1848 by 68 women and 32 men, 100 out of some 300 attendees at the first women's rights convention, in Seneca Falls, New York, now known as the Seneca Falls Convention...

Career overview

Charles graduated with a BS

Bachelor of Science

A Bachelor of Science is an undergraduate academic degree awarded for completed courses that generally last three to five years .-Australia:In Australia, the BSc is a 3 year degree, offered from 1st year on...

in 1885 and an MS

Master's degree

A master's is an academic degree granted to individuals who have undergone study demonstrating a mastery or high-order overview of a specific field of study or area of professional practice...

in 1886 from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

The University of Illinois at Urbana–Champaign is a large public research-intensive university in the state of Illinois, United States. It is the flagship campus of the University of Illinois system...

. The funds received from the judgment in the 1884 U.S. Supreme Court Case, New England Mutual Life Ins. Co. v. Woodworth, may have helped pay for his education. During the period of 1884-1886, he was assistant to S.A. Forbes

Stephen Alfred Forbes

Stephen Alfred Forbes was the first Chief of the Illinois Natural History Survey, a founder of aquatic ecosystem science and a dominant figure in the rise of American ecology. His publications are striking for their merger of extensive field observations with conceptual insights...

. From 1886 to 1888 he studied at Harvard University

Harvard University

Harvard University is a private Ivy League university located in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States, established in 1636 by the Massachusetts legislature. Harvard is the oldest institution of higher learning in the United States and the first corporation chartered in the country...

under Hermann August Hagen

Hermann August Hagen

Hermann August Hagen was a German entomologist who specialised in Neuroptera and Odonata. In 1845 he began to collaborate with Edmond de Sélys Longchamps .-Biography:...

, who, at the time, was the leading entomologist of the U.S. He returned between 1900 and 1901 and worked under William E. Castle

William E. Castle

William Ernest Castle was an early American geneticist.-Early years:William Ernest Castle was born on a farm in Ohio and took an early interest in natural history...

. In 1888, he was appointed entomologist and botanist

Botany

Botany, plant science, or plant biology is a branch of biology that involves the scientific study of plant life. Traditionally, botany also included the study of fungi, algae and viruses...

at the University of Arkansas

University of Arkansas

The University of Arkansas is a public, co-educational, land-grant, space-grant, research university. It is classified by the Carnegie Foundation as a research university with very high research activity. It is the flagship campus of the University of Arkansas System and is located in...

's Arkansas Agricultural Experiment Station. On September 4, 1889, he married Leonora Stern in Rolla, Missouri

Rolla, Missouri

Rolla is a city in Phelps County, Missouri, United States, midway between the larger cities of St. Louis and Springfield along I-44. The population in the 2010 United States Census was 19,559.It is the county seat of Phelps County...

, the city where her parents, Edward Stern and Lizzie Hardin Evans Stern, lived. Charles suffered from successive attacks of malaria

Malaria

Malaria is a mosquito-borne infectious disease of humans and other animals caused by eukaryotic protists of the genus Plasmodium. The disease results from the multiplication of Plasmodium parasites within red blood cells, causing symptoms that typically include fever and headache, in severe cases...

while in Arkansas

Arkansas

Arkansas is a state located in the southern region of the United States. Its name is an Algonquian name of the Quapaw Indians. Arkansas shares borders with six states , and its eastern border is largely defined by the Mississippi River...

. He left there in 1891 to become assistant in entomology at the University of California (now UC Berkeley)

University of California, Berkeley

The University of California, Berkeley , is a teaching and research university established in 1868 and located in Berkeley, California, USA...

where he founded and built up the Division of Entomology. He also participated in the development of the Agricultural Experiment Station, now known as UC Davis

University of California, Davis

The University of California, Davis is a public teaching and research university established in 1905 and located in Davis, California, USA. Spanning over , the campus is the largest within the University of California system and third largest by enrollment...

, and is also considered the founder of the Entomology Department there.

At Berkeley, he rose to be Assistant Professor in 1891, Associate Professor in 1904, Professor in 1913, and was named Emeritus Professor upon his retirement in 1930.

Proposal on the use of Drosophila

He is credited with first breeding Drosophila

Drosophila melanogaster

Drosophila melanogaster is a species of Diptera, or the order of flies, in the family Drosophilidae. The species is known generally as the common fruit fly or vinegar fly. Starting from Charles W...

in quantity while he was at Harvard. Thomas Hunt Morgan

Thomas Hunt Morgan

Thomas Hunt Morgan was an American evolutionary biologist, geneticist and embryologist and science author who won the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 1933 for discoveries relating the role the chromosome plays in heredity.Morgan received his PhD from Johns Hopkins University in zoology...

's Nobel Prize

Nobel Prize

The Nobel Prizes are annual international awards bestowed by Scandinavian committees in recognition of cultural and scientific advances. The will of the Swedish chemist Alfred Nobel, the inventor of dynamite, established the prizes in 1895...

biography says that C.W. Woodworth suggested to William E. Castle

William E. Castle

William Ernest Castle was an early American geneticist.-Early years:William Ernest Castle was born on a farm in Ohio and took an early interest in natural history...

that Drosophila might be used for genetical work. Castle and his associates used it for their work on the effects of inbreeding, and through them F. E. Lutz became interested in it and the latter introduced it to Morgan, who was looking for less expensive material that could be bred in the very limited space at his command. Shortly after he commenced work with this new material (1909), a number of striking mutants turned up. Morgan's subsequent studies on this phenomenon ultimately enabled the determination of the precise behaviour and exact localization of genes.

Four years in China

While on sabbatical leave in 1918, he was a lecturer at the University of Nanking

University of Nanking

The University of Nanking was a private university in Nanjing, China. The University of Nanking was founded in 1888 and sponsored by American churches...

and honorary professor of entomology at the National Southeastern University

Nanjing University

Nanjing University , or Nanking University, is one of the oldest and most prestigious institutions of higher learning in China...

at Nanking, China. During his year there he effected a practical control of mosquitoes for the first time in that city's history. He returned for a three year period in 1921-1924. During this period he organized the Kiangsu Provincial Bureau of Entomology as well as many other things. In the words of the president of the University of Nanking, "He served China in a magnificent way."

Publications and policy efforts

His publications were very extensive and included nearly every field of entomology. A few of his most outstanding works are: "A List of the Insects of California (1903), The Wing Veins of Insects" (1906), "Guide to California Insects" (1913), and "School of Fumigation (1915). He was the first editor and first contributor to the University of California Publications in Entomology.

He had much to do with the responsible use of pesticides. He proposed and drafted the first California Insecticide Law in 1906, was largely instrumental in securing its passage in 1911, and administered the law until July 1, 1923. Entomological campaigns which he conducted in California concerned the codling moth

Codling moth

The codling moth is a member of the Lepidopteran family Tortricidae. They are known as an agricultural pest, their larva being the common apple worm or maggot. It is native to Europe and was introduced to North America, where it has become one of the regular pests of apple orchards. It is found...

, the peach twig-borer, citrus insects, grasshopper

Grasshopper

The grasshopper is an insect of the suborder Caelifera in the order Orthoptera. To distinguish it from bush crickets or katydids, it is sometimes referred to as the short-horned grasshopper...

s, and citrus white fly eradication.

Family and home

Charles and Leonora had four children: Lawrence, Harold, Charles, and Elizabeth. His son, Dr. Charles E. Woodworth

Charles E. Woodworth

Major Charles E. Woodworth, Ph.D., , served as a major in the United States Army during World War II and as an entomologist for the United States Department of Agriculture Agricultural Research Service.-Birth:...

, also became an Entomologist; he worked for the USDA

United States Department of Agriculture

The United States Department of Agriculture is the United States federal executive department responsible for developing and executing U.S. federal government policy on farming, agriculture, and food...

ARS

Agricultural Research Service

The Agricultural Research Service is the principal in-house research agency of the United States Department of Agriculture . ARS is one of four agencies in USDA's Research, Education and Economics mission area...

focusing on the wireworm and served as an entomologist with the Army

United States Army

The United States Army is the main branch of the United States Armed Forces responsible for land-based military operations. It is the largest and oldest established branch of the U.S. military, and is one of seven U.S. uniformed services...

in the Pacific during World War II

World War II

World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...

with the rank of Major, commanding a unit which cleared swamps.

Their home at 2237 Carleton Street in Berkeley

Berkeley, California

Berkeley is a city on the east shore of the San Francisco Bay in Northern California, United States. Its neighbors to the south are the cities of Oakland and Emeryville. To the north is the city of Albany and the unincorporated community of Kensington...

, that he designed, was designated a Berkeley Landmark in 1993. He had many avocations including making telescopes, analyzing chess positions, and researching his extended family's genealogy.

The C.W. Woodworth Award

C.W. was an 1889 charter member of the American Association of Economic Entomologists. This group merged with the Entomological Society of America

Entomological Society of America

The Entomological Society of America was founded in 1889 and today has more than 6,000 members, including educators, extension personnel, consultants, students, researchers, and scientists from agricultural departments, health agencies, private industries, colleges and universities, and state and...

, founded 1906, in 1953. The Pacific Branch of the Entomological Society of America

Entomological Society of America

gives an annual award for achievement in Entomology in the Pacific region of the U.S. over the previous ten years called the C. W. Woodworth Award

C. W. Woodworth Award

The C. W. Woodworth Award is an annual award presented by the Pacific Branch of the Entomological Society of America. This award, the PBESA's largest, is for achievement in Entomology in the Pacific region of the United States over the previous ten years. The award is named in honor of Charles W....

(list of winners)

C. W. Woodworth Award

. This award is principally sponsored by his great-grandson, Brian Holden, and his wife, Joann Wilfert, with additional support by Dr. Craig and Kathryn Holden, and Dr. Jim and Betty Woodworth.

External links

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